Our Local ROYAL CANADIAN Legion News

For hall rentals or more information about ongoing activities, please call the individual Legion Branch. We welcome submissions to editor@thepromoter.ca. Deadline for the next issue is Wednesday, February 22, 2023

Branch 77 Lakefield (705) 652-7988

• Tuesdays – Darts – 7:30pm

• Thursdays – Shuffleboard – 1pm

• Thursdays – Darts – 7pm

• Fridays – Snooker – 1pm

• Fridays – Shuffleboard – 7pm

• Saturdays – Weekly Meat Draws – 4pm

• Call 705-652-7988 for current events

Branch 238 Fenelon Falls (705) 887-3041

• Hall rental available –Contact Branch

Branch 239 Bobcaygeon (705) 738-2710

• February 25 – Jigs Dinner & Dance –Dinner at 6pm, Dance to follow featuring Montana Sky - $30 members, $35 nonmembers. Tickets available at the Bar

• March 11 – St. Patrick’s Day Dance – 7:30pm - $15 per person – advance tickets are available at the Legion Hall

• Wednesday - Drop in darts - 7p.m.

Branch 441 Kinmount (705) 488-3462

• Fridays - Bingo - $500 Progressive jackpot; $300 must go each week

Branch 497 Omemee (705) 799-5095

• February 12 – Super Bowl Party – 1pm

• February 17 – Swans Pasta Dinner –5pm to 9pm

• February 25 – Legion Dance –7pm to 11pm – DJ

Branch 519 Coboconk (705) 454-8127

• February 24 – Lunch & Country Music

Jam – 11:30am to 1pm is Lunch - $13 per person – Country Music Open Mic Jam hosted by Ian Zinn – 1pm to 4:30pm. Food bank donations appreciated

• March 4 – John Coulton Memorial Ice Fishing Derby – 8:30am to 3pm – Gull Lake, Deep Bay Road – Tickets $25 in advance at Legion Hall

$5 per person

• Thursday - Drop in shuffleboard6:30 pm. Cost is $5pp per week

• Tuesday Night Doubles Dart League

– Competitive league – 8pm - $5pp per night – Limited to 40 players, please call the Branch to register

• Saturdays - Meat Draw - Weekly at 5pm

• Tuesdays – Darts – 7:30pm

• Thursdays – Mixed Darts – 7:30pm

• Fridays – Drop-in Coffee Time – 8am to 10:30am

• Tuesdays – 1pm – Euchre

• Tuesdays – 7pm – Open Darts

• Saturdays – Music & Meat Roll – Music starts at 2pm – Meat Roll at 3pm

• 1st Wednesday – Big Buck Bid Euchre –10am - $15pp

• For more information contact Legion 705-454-8127

Branch 184 Woodville & District (705) 439-2397

• Tuesdays - Country Line Dancing

Lessons – 7 to 9pm - $10 per person

4th Thursday – Luncheon – 11:30am to 1pm - Serving soup, sandwich and

Branch 67 Lindsay (705) 324-2613

• February 12 – Super Bowl LVII –6:30pm kickoff – Bar Opens at 5:30pm

– draws, prizes, pool, food and more

• February 18 – Gunslingers/Soda Jerks

– 8pm to 12am

• Mondays – Progressive Euchre – 7pm - dessert with tea or coffee. $10pp. Take out orders, please call 705.439.2397.

$5 per person

• For information about upcoming events and regular activities, call the Legion Branch at 705-324-2613 or follow us on Facebook

February 10, 2023 - The Kawartha Promoter traffic to more easily travel into and throughout Kawartha Lakes, the City requested that the Province advance their capital plans for the widening of various sections of Highway 35 between Highways 7 and 115, and northward from Lindsay, where appropriate, to Coboconk. This is the only major north-south transportation corridor connecting through the municipality to Highways 401, 407, and Highway 7. This request dates back to a ROMA 2019 delegation when commitments were made to expand Highway 35 to four lanes between Colborne Street and Thunder Bridge.

“The meeting was productive and Minister Cho was receptive to both of our topics. We thanked his staff for the work that is progressing well in Omemee through the Connecting Links program and on Highway 35 at Colborne St. We shared the message that it’s time for the ministry to invest in the expansion Go Transit service in Kawartha Lakes, and the expansion of Highway 35 in the south and north areas of our municipality. We’re asking for a focus on the areas that are due for four-laning in order to facilitate growth and safe traffic flow,” commented Mayor Elmslie.

Also during the conference, Mayor Elmslie joined Eastern Ontario colleagues (EOWC) through a multi-minister delegation to advocate for provincial support and funding to accelerate the construction of affordable housing. The EOWC solution would bring the private, non-profit and public sectors together to build affordable community housing to address the municipal housing wait lists. The investment could also incent up to three times the number of attainable market rate units across the region.

Organizations Make Budget Requests

At the City of Kawartha Lakes Council meeting on January 26, 2023, Council received budget submissions and heard presentations from the various boards and agencies that support the community. These budgets are inserted into the Operating Budget and contribute to the change in the tax levy for each year. External Agencies are those agencies that are not directly governed by the City. These budget requests will be deliberated with the Operating Budget on February 28, 2023.

KLH Housing Corporation

Kawartha Lakes Housing Corporation owns and manages 783 units across Kawartha Lakes and Haliburton. Of these units, 72 percent are rent-gearedto-income. Kirstin Maxwell, CEO, shared highlights of the upcoming year subsidy request of $3.5 million, up from $2.8 million in 2022, which was a status quo budget. The subsidy equates to $4,500 per housing unit.

Kawartha Lakes Public Library

Jamie Anderson, Library Director/CEO, presented the 2023 budget of $2.3 million, noting a minimal increase due to increased staff hours requested. The library served 14,000 patrons across its 14 branches in 2022 and aims to grow the use of the library to 30 percent of the population in the year ahead.

Kawartha Lakes Police Service (KLPS)

Mark Mitchell, Chief, presented the budget noting key projects such as adding two full time uniformed officers, a return to in-person officer training and court security and rising fuel costs. Capital expenses include automated license plate scanners now that the provincial government has dissolved the license plate sticker program. The Service’s tasers are at end of life and require replacing. The budget represents a 4.5 percent overall increase of $400,000. The KLPS is readying for an enhanced 911 system to roll out in future years, and the investment is included in the City’s Information Technology budget.

HKPR District Health Unit

Dr. Natalie Boking, Medical Officer of Health, brought forward a levy request that was $2.3 million, slightly lower than the 2022 request. Pandemic funding from the province has assisted the Health Unit to meet budget requirements. Expenses are funded 70 percent provincial, 30 percent municipal.

Kawartha Conservation

Mark Majchrowski, Chief Administrative Officer, shared with Council that the agency’s budget will be circulated in April and approved in May. The Board has recommended an approximate 3 percent increase, resulting in $62,000 additional levy funding from Kawartha Lakes. Major projects include implementing the existing Lake Management Plans, finalizing the plan for Lake Dalrymple and a rural tree planting program.

Lake Simcoe Region Conservation Authority

Rob Baldwin, Chief Administrative Officer, presented the budget which is held to 2022 requests from the municipality, a total of $39,000. The agency will take this year to digest the implications of Bill 23 and incorporate requirements into the 2024 budget.

Otonabee Conservation

Janette Loveys Smith, Chief Administrative Officer/ Secretary-Treasurer, presented the budget which included a $9,200 levy request, in line with 2022 budgets.

Kawartha Lakes Healthcare Initiative

Barb VanderVeen, Acting President and Cindy Snider, Recruitment and Retention Coordinator attended. There are currently 6,000 residents who are without a family doctor and 20,000 have a doctor outside of the municipality. Kawartha Lakes needs 19.5 full time family physicians to meet today’s needs. Data shows it takes 2.5 new graduates to replace a current practicing doctor. Three new doctors were recruited in 2022: Dr. Luke Johnson, Dr. Elizabeth Morrison and Dr. Nivi Navaratnam. A $10,000 increase in funding was requested due to increased cost of in-person events and other general cost increases.

Lindsay Downtown Business Improvement Association (BIA)

Steve Podolsky, Lindsay Downtown Business Improvement Association and Wes Found presented the budget, requesting $192,000 up from $148,000, to accommodate additional marketing and beautification activities. Podolsky thanked staff for their support year round to keep the downtown safe and healthy throughout the year, including through the recent reconstruction project that has left downtown Lindsay looking, in his words, “fantastic”.

Victorian Order of Nurses (VON)

Jennifer Burton, Nurse Practitioner, reviewed the local VON clinics:

The Kirkfield clinic has an on-site blood lab and access to a Nurse Practitioner (NP). It has over 600 registered clients, and Burton noted that a second NP in 2023 could take on an additional 800 clients to meet demand. The Lindsay clinic has 450 registered clients, with 200 more projected in 2023. An additional NP in the existing space would provide an opportunity to partner with the Community Paramedicine program. One additional NP would require approximately $120,000 in funding from the municipality with the balance being contributed by the province. The VON budget is included in the Human Services department budget.

The Kawartha Lakes OPP and the Ganaraska Region Conservation Authority provided budget requests by correspondence; both are available on the City’s website.

Retention Of Family Docs Is Critical

Submitted by Cindy Snider

Retention of our local family physicians has always been a goal for the Kawartha Lakes Health Care Initiative’s (KLHCI) Retention Committee. This goal faced increased pressures with the COVID pandemic. With the approval of the KLHCI Board, our local family physicians were virtually interviewed in September 2022 regarding views of their own practice pressures.

In 2003, the City of Kawartha Lakes (CKL) recognized the need for family doctors in our community, at which time a volunteer committee was established to address this need. That committee evolved into KLHCI. Since its inception, KLHCI has been successful in recruiting 41 family physicians. However, recruitment has not been our only task – we have also focused on the retention of those physicians.

Family physicians are at the very core of our health care system, both locally and Canada-wide. Having a healthy, stable group of physicians is integral to ensuring that the CKL citizens receive the best care possible. However, it has become increasingly apparent, for many reasons, that recruitment/retention of our family physicians has become a much larger challenge. We are very aware that this is not just a local issue but we can only speak to the situation in CKL.

Here are some key findings from their research with the family physicians:

• The average number of years in practice was 15. The average practice size was 1,369.

• The CKL family physicians interviewed advised that along with their clinic work they are, or have, provided care in the following areas: long-term care; after hours’ clinics; obstetrics; in-patients/ hospitalist; surgical assist; emergency; palliative care; house calls.

• The family physicians provided a variety of reasons why they chose to practice in CKL along with why they have stayed. The main reasons for choosing to practice here are: friends, family near by; good central point in Ontario; spouse’s career/ employment; area not city centre or suburbia however close to airport; hospital was functioning well between RMH administration and family physicians, minimal hospital politics; right size of community; medical training in the community.

• The indicators of why the family physicians remain in CKL are: family and friends near by; established practice; schooling and extra curriculums for family; rural living; satisfied with community personally and professionally; spouse’s employment; friends and connections here; connections with patients; practice and colleagues; nice place to practise.

• While all of the family physicians accepted paperwork as part of the practice requirements, they all stated that there is an increased demand from specialists, patients, insurance companies, employers, etc., for forms and documentation. Completing these forms and documents are not included in any compensation models and can average 1.5-2 hours/day.

“KLHCI is but one voice in a chorus of others who have identified numerous challenges in family doctor retention, specifically, within the Province of Ontario. We continue to advocate and ‘think outside the box’ on behalf of the CKL family doctors,” said Barb van der Veen, Acting President and Retention Committee Chair.

KLHCI will present and review this report with the MP and MPP for Kawartha Lakes. The Minister of Health, Ontario Health, Ontario Medical Association, Society of Rural Physicians, CKL physicians (family and specialists), Municipal leaders, the K-L Ontario Health Team, and the Ross Memorial Hospital will receive a copy of the report.

Enbridge Helps Firefighters

Enbridge Gas Inc. (Enbridge Gas) is helping Kawartha Lakes Fire Rescue purchase firefighting training materials, through Safe Community Project Assist–a program with the Fire Marshal’s Public Fire Safety Council (FMPFSC) that supplements existing training for Ontario volunteer and composite fire departments in the communities where Enbridge Gas operates.

“At Enbridge Gas, safety is our priority. We’re proud to support Ontario firefighters who share our commitment to keeping our communities safe, healthy and vibrant,” says Steve McGivery, Director, GTA East Operations, Enbridge Gas.

This year’s $250,000 donation from Enbridge Gas will be shared by 50 Ontario fire departments, including Kawartha Lakes Fire Rescue. Funds are used to purchase educational materials to assist in training firefighters in life-saving techniques.

Since the launch of Safe Community Project Assist in 2012, 294 grants have been provided to Ontario fire departments for additional firefighter training.

“Safe Community Project Assist improves access to training materials for fire departments,” says Jon Pegg, Ontario Fire Marshal and Chair of the FMPFSC. “Firefighting can be dangerous and unpredictable, and these training materials positively contribute to the health and safety of firefighters and the broader community.”

“We are extremely grateful to Enbridge Gas