Ontario Premier Doug Ford announced changes to his Cabinet on Friday (June 18), including naming Northumberland-Peterborough South MPP David Piccini as the new Minister of the Environment, Conservation and Parks.

Piccini, first elected in 2018, was previously parliamentary assistant to the Minister of Colleges and Universities and a member of the Standing Committee on Finance and Economic Affairs.

The Port Hope resident now heads the ministry responsible for responsible for air quality, water quality including drinking water, environmental protection, climate change, species at risk, Ontario’s provincial parks, and more.

Another Cabinet change of interest to residents of the greater Kawarthas is the Ministry of Natural Resources and Forestry, which has now been combined with the Ministry of Northern Development and Mines to become the Ministry of Northern Development, Mines, Natural Resources and Forestry — a change also made from 1995 to 1997.

The former natural resources minister John Yakabuski has left Cabinet, with Greg Rickford now assuming responsibility for the amalgamated ministry.

Here’s the full list of the Cabinet changes announced today:

• Jill Dunlop, MPP for Simcoe North, becomes Minister of Colleges and Universities.
• Dr. Merrilee Fullerton, MPP for Kanata-Carleton, becomes Minister of Children, Community and Social Services.
• Parm Gill, MPP for Milton, becomes Minister of Citizenship and Multiculturalism.
• Rod Phillips, MPP for Ajax, becomes Minister of Long-Term Care.
• David Piccini, MPP for Northumberland-Peterborough South, becomes Minister of the Environment, Conservation and Parks.
• Greg Rickford, MPP for Kenora-Rainy River, assumes a merged role as Minister of Northern Development, Mines, Natural Resources and Forestry, as well as remains Minister of Indigenous Affairs. Energy will transfer to a new separate ministry.
• Todd Smith, MPP for Bay of Quinte, becomes Minister of Energy.
• Rosario Romano, MPP for Sault Ste. Marie, becomes Minister of Government and Consumer Services.
• Prabmeet Singh Sarkaria, MPP for Brampton South, becomes President of the Treasury Board.
• Kinga Surma, MPP for Etobicoke Centre, becomes Minister of Infrastructure.
• Lisa Thompson, MPP for Huron Bruce, becomes Minister of Agriculture, Food and Rural Affairs.
• Stan Cho, MPP for Willowdale, becomes Associate Minister of Transportation, reporting to Minister Mulroney.
• Jane McKenna, MPP for Burlington, becomes Associate Minister of Children and Women’s Issues, reporting to Minister Fullerton.
• Nina Tangri, MPP for Mississauga Streetsville, becomes Associate Minister of Small Business and Red Tape Reduction, reporting to Minister Fedeli.
• Kaleed Rasheed, MPP for Mississauga East-Cooksville, becomes Associate Minister of Digital Government, reporting to Minister Bethlenfalvy.

Golfers who were at the Pine Crest Golf Club at 2455 Base Line in Peterborough County from June 11 to 13 should be aware that a staff person there has tested positive for COVID-19.

Peterborough Public Health considers the situation to be a low-risk exposure for most people who were at the golf club during that time, according to a media release, and has already contacted members of the club and staff with instructions.

However, as the health unit does not have contact information for all golfers who were at the club during this time, and since there is a potential for a high-risk exposure and transmission of the virus in certain situations, the health unit is issuing a public notification.

Anyone who conducted a transaction with the mobile beverage cart operator — by talking with the operator, purchasing an item, of giving a tip — from June 11 to 13, wasn’t wearing a mask at the time, and was not fully immunized with two doses of COVID-19 vaccine (receiving the second dose May 28 or earlier), may be at risk.

The health unit stresses that only golfers who meet all of the above criteria are considered a high-risk exposure.

Peterborough Public Health recommends that anyone meeting all the above criteria should self-isolate immediately, arrange for COVID-19 testing as soon as possible, and monitor for symptoms.

If you’ve driven by the corner of Cherryhill and Brealey in Peterborough over the past year, you might have seen Carolyn Collins, otherwise known as Peterborough’s ‘Walk About Clown’, waving at you.

Collins has taken on the task of spreading smiles during the pandemic, spending 4 p.m. to 6 p.m. each weekday as the Walk About Clown.

It started last year when Ontario went into its first provincial lockdown. According to Collins, she was walking to a friend’s house dressed in her clown costume when she noticed cars honking their horns and people waving at her.

“Seeing the happiness I was bringing them, I decided to keep it going,” Collins says. “Not being able to go out and do anything brings us all down. We get bored and frustrated. I wanted to see people smile.”

So Collins made spreading smiles part of her daily pandemic routine. Weather permitting and as long as no family emergencies come up, she stands on the corner of Cherryhill and Brealey in her costume for four hours every day of the week, waving at cars and twirling hula hoops.

Collins also takes the Walk About Clown to senior homes in the west end every Tuesday morning. She has recently started leaving uplifting sidewalk chalk messages along her path as she goes.

The chalk messages — which say things like “to be amazing, be yourself” — started a few months ago when Collins wanted to use up all of her daughter’s old sidewalk chalk.

She wrote the messages on her laneway and got such a positive response that she decided to make it a part of her walk about clown routine.

Collin’s began using the name Walk About Clown after she heard some passersby calling her that.

“I used to try to walk as far as I could in various areas,” Collins explains. “Please would yell ‘There’s the walk about!’ When I realized they meant me, it just became my name.”

But the Walk About Clown isn’t the first clown Collins has ever played. According to Collins, she first learned to be a clown as a teenager.

“When I worked at Burger King as a teenager, they brought someone in to teach me how to do balloon animals,” recalls Collins. “Because I couldn’t blow them up without using a pump, because of my health condition, he refused to teach me. I said ‘To heck with you!’ and I taught myself how to be a clown.”

Collins went on to play a clown called Azzip (pizza spelled backwards) at Pizza Hut for kids’ night. Collins says 25 years later, the now-adult child who named this clown Azzip still comes up to her to chat when they see each other in public.

He’s not the only one to recognize Collins in public for her clownery. Since doing the Walk About Clown, Collins says she gets recognized everywhere she goes.

“I can’t even go out into public anymore without people recognizing me and saying hi,” Collins remarks. “They start telling me about how they love seeing me on the corner and online. It brightens my day.”

Since launching social media pages at the request of the public, her recognition as the Walk About Clown has only grown. You can now follow the Walk About Clown on Facebook, Instagram, and Twitter.

“People were asking ‘Hey, what’s your site so I can follow you?’,” Collins explains. “At the beginning, I only had Facebook, and then people told me Instagram is the thing now. I started that, and then it was only a few weeks ago that someone said, ‘Why don’t you have a Twitter account?'”

As for what keeps Collins going as the Walk About Clown, she says it is all about the smiles she brings.

“I honestly think joy is the best gift,” says Collins. “Gifts don’t have to be something that you buy. It can be bringing smiles to everybody else. Seeing all the smiles, it brings me a smile and that’s what keeps me going. I always tell people: one smile becomes two, two becomes four, and next thing you know, we have a million.”

It would seem Collins’ intentions to spread joy are thriving. She even got a Facebook message from a mother who asked if her daughter had permission to copy Collins. When out for a walk, the young child has started leaving positive sidewalk chalk messages similar to Collins’.

“It’s simple stuff like ‘Hi friends’ or ‘Have a good day’,” Collins explains. “Her mom says that she knows how to spell, so those messages are from her. When I go on my walk, I see them, and that brightens me right up.”

Collins has an 11-year-old daughter of her own who has yet to follow in her mother’s footsteps of clownery, although who knows what the future might hold.

“She loves that I’m doing it, but she won’t go out with me because it’s too embarrassing,” Collins laughs.

According to Collins, many generous people have given her money for the walk about clown. Collins donates the money to charity, choosing a different organization to support every month.

“This month, I’m doing Community Living Peterborough,” says Collins. “Next month, I’m doing Five Counties because they helped me a lot with my health.”

If you see Collins as you drive by Cherryhill and Brealey, she will have a container in which you can put a donation.

“I carry a container with me when I’m out on my walks so I can keep my distance,” she explains. “One is on a pool noodle, and one is a metal tin can that has a handle on it that I can hold out.”

Collins says you can also support the Walk About Clown by donating, in her name, to a charity of your choice.

To see Carolyn Collins as the Walk About Clown, you can visit her on the corner of Cherryhill and Brealey, Monday to Friday between 4 p.m. and 6 p.m. You can now follow her on Facebook, Instagram, and Twitter.

A tragedy has been averted after a good Samaritan pulled two teens from the Scugog River in Lindsay on Thursday afternoon (June 17).

According to Kawartha Lakes police, at around 12:30 p.m. on Thursday the two 17-year-old boys were fishing at Rivera Park when one of them dropped a fishing pole into the river.

One of the teens entered the water to retrieve the fishing pole. The teen, who was not a strong swimmer, soon began to struggle in the water.

The second teen then went into the water to help his friend but also began to struggle.

A witness in the park saw the teens struggling in the water, jumped in, and pulled them to shore. Another witness, who is a nurse, assisted the teens until emergency services arrived.

One of the teens was taken to Ross Memorial Hospital by Kawartha Lakes Paramedics, while the second teen went to the hospital on his own at a later time for assessment.

Police, who report both teens are in good condition, have not released the names of the teens or the witnesses who helped them.

According to the application guide for the Ontario Small Business Support Grant, it is intended “to help small businesses in Ontario that are required to close or significantly restrict services under Ontario’s province-wide shutdown.”

Yet one small business owner in Peterborough, who says her business fits this description perfectly, has spent the past six months unsuccessfully fighting for the grant.

Sarah Susnar, owner of Lavender and Play, says the reason for her grant denial is the same thing that has kept her business afloat this past year — rebranding her business. Susnar and her new business partner Sonja Martin had to take on a different Canada Revenue Agency (CRA) number after they partnered to remodel the previously named Play Café into a family boutique and studio.

“Parents came in, they would drink coffee, and their kids would play,” Susnar recalls, explaining the business model of Play Café. “We did birthday parties, classes, and had a little pre-school. When the shutdown happened, and I had to close the doors for four months, I realized that we will have to look different when we reopen things. Kids aren’t going to be able to be together, and parents aren’t going to want to take little kids out.”

“I had been working with Sonja for years at the Play Café,” Susnar adds. “She had a business called Rooted Lavender, and she did a lot of my classes at Play Café. So we partnered, bought a bunch of inventory, and reopened as a boutique and studio.”

To be eligible for the Ontario Small Business Support Grant, a business must demonstrate it has experienced a revenue decline of at least 20 per cent between April 2019 and April 2020. Since Lavender and Play appears as an entirely new business on paper — despite operating for the past five years under another name and CRA number — the provincial government is calculating their revenue loss by comparing revenue from December 2020 with their highest sales month — which also happens to be December.

“December 2020 was our highest sales month because we’re a toy store at Christmas, so there’s no revenue decline,” says Susnar. “I filled out the application on the very first day it opened in January and waited. It was February when I got the email saying we were denied.”

Susnar says she had no expectations of being denied the grant because, other than the name change and new CRA number, they “had all the criteria” required to receive it.

“We got shut down for four months,” she says. “COVID really affected this business.”

Originally expecting to receive the grant, Susnar and Martin ordered more inventory for Lavender and Play. When they were denied the grant, “we had to go to Community Futures and get a top-up on our loan.”

With applications accepted from late January to early April this year, the Ontario Small Business Support Grant provided $10,000 to $20,000 to help pandemic-affected businesses with their ongoing costs. In March, the Ontario government announced small businesses that already been approved for the grant would automatically receive a second payment equal to the amount of their first payment, for a total grant of $20,000 to $40,000.

If Lavender and Play had been approved for the grant, Susnar estimates they would have received the minimum amount of $10,000 for each payment.

“$20,000 would pay our rent for months and pay off some of the debt we incurred at Christmas because we had to maintain inventory because stuff was flying off shelves,” Susnar explains.

After the initial shock at being denied the grant, Susnar called the government’s support number. She recalls being told to change some of the application information and expect an email response.

“I waited a few weeks and called again, and they said the same thing,” says Susnar. “Then a few weeks go by and I hear nothing, so I call again. The last person I spoke to said every time you call, and we escalate it, you’re getting bumped to the back of the line.”

“I was really upset about that,” she adds. “I had been talking to a similar business — a play café that switched over to retail — and they said they had emailed all of these MPs and I should try that.”

Susnar wrote her story in an email that she sent along to anyone she could think of who might help: Peterborough-Kawartha MPP Dave Smith, Peterborough-Kawartha MP Maryam Monsef, Premier Doug Ford, and more. She was then “so excited” when she finally received a call from someone in the Ontario ministry of finance with some guidance on her application.

According to Susnar, she was instructed to redo the application to include her 2019 and 2020 sales. She was given an email address where she was to send her revised application and told to include as much information about her case as possible.

Susnar has also been in contact with the office of the Ombudsman Ontario, who told her they would look into her case. However, they said they would not be able to do anything if she is, in the end, denied the grant.

Susnar says she also corresponded with MPP Smith’s office about the issue at some point between April and June. His office collected information about the case and told Susnar they would look into it.

But now, in June, none of these correspondences have been followed up with answers.

Then, just the other day, Susnar says she received a call from a woman at the finance ministry.

“She proceeded to tell me why my application was denied,” Susnar recalls. “I told her I knew why and the reasons why it should be approved. I told her I sent in more information like I was asked. She told me there was nothing she could do for me.”

“I feel devastated because I’m now fifty grand or more in debt because of COVID,” says Susnar. “I feel like the government is failing small businesses. They’re falling through the cracks of the criteria they’re asking for.”

Susnar is not the only small business owner experiencing difficulties and delays receiving the grant. The Canadian Federation of Independent Business (CFIB) launched an online petition urging the province to fix the program’s shortcomings.

“Giant gaps in eligibility requirements, unacceptable delays, poor customer service, and the lack of a third round of support have meant my business isn’t getting the help it needs,” the petition reads.

Susnar says she herself knows a handful of other business owners who have experienced a similar difficulty receiving the grant, including a Peterborough restaurant owner who also had to change their CRA number recently.

“They had a different CRA number because they bought the business from somebody else, but it was the same restaurant,” Susnar says. “She said she called and explained it, and they ended up giving the grant to her. I don’t know why that hasn’t happened for me.”

“Please help us,” Susnar pleads to anyone who might be able to help. “It’s not fair that we should have to go into more and more debt for wanting to support our city and be open.”

For Susnar, being denied the grant adds insult to injury given the nature of Lavender and Play.

“Our business supports postpartum mental health and family wellness. We feel like we’re a vital part of the community. Moms and dads come in here and tell us what’s going on and how they’re feeling.”

Now that Ontario is gradually reopening, Susnar is hoping she can get more customers in the door to help generate more revenue to offset the debt.

“If the community wants to help, it would be wonderful if they could share our business name to family and friends, that we are a family boutique, that we are open again, that they can come and shop, and that they can sign up for classes.”

“It would be really helpful to have more traffic coming in because, with the pivot, people knew us as a play cafe and not necessarily as a store. So we’re still trying to spread the word about that.”

kawarthaNOW contacted the office of Peterborough-Kawartha MPP Dave Smith for comment on this story.

His office replied, stating in an email they are aware of Susnar’s application and “have worked closely with the applicant” on the application but “due to confidentiality policies, we cannot comment further on any file a constituent or business has with the government.”

Lavender and Play is located at 1-1434 Chemong Road in Peterborough and is open for in-person shopping Monday to Saturday from 10 a.m. to 4 p.m. You can find the boutique and studio online at their website at lavenderandplay.ca, as well as on Instagram, Facebook, and Twitter.