City beginning to plan for 25th anniversary of Kawartha Lakes
Among the many responsibilities Deputy Mayor Charlie McDonald will be taking on in 2025 is the city-wide celebration of 25 years of Kawartha Lakes that will occur in 2026.
In McDonald’s acceptance speech given at the December regular council meeting, he said that he would “like to facilitate the planning of our 25th anniversary of Kawartha Lakes amalgamation effective January 1, 2026.”
“As a resident of Kawartha Lakes my whole life,” McDonald said, “I have seen a lot of changes city-wide, and we need to celebrate the positive changes that we have gone through in the last 25 years.”
When asked how he envisions the process unfolding, Mayor Doug Elmslie told Kawartha Lakes Weekly that 2025 will be the planning year with celebrations beginning in 2026.
Elmslie said he expects McDonald will put a small team together to help with the organization, but it is early days and nothing has yet occurred except for some vague ideas about what could be explored.
When asked what kind of celebration the mayor expects, Elmslie is hopeful it will be a city-wide celebration.
“We expect it will be celebrated in all corners and wards of the municipality,” Elmslie said. “Some will be in conjunction with local festivals and events, and will occur throughout the year.”
Elmslie added there is a line item in the budget setting aside $50,000 that will fund the events.
When asked about those in the city who still harbour resentment towards the provincially imposed forced amalgamation of Kawartha Lakes in 2001, Elmslie recognized that those people are still out there.
“As with all things, there will be people who don’t approve,” Elmslie said, “and they are certainly welcome to their opinion. I believe it (amalgamation) was more positive than negative, and we can’t put the toothpaste back in the tube.”
The next municipal election is 2026. Perhaps we could put de-amalgamation on the ballot.
KL citizens should remember that they voted, overwhelmingly, for the conservative government in Ontario that was promoting the amalgamation of local and county councils as a cost saving measure. They watched as Toronto was amalgamated even as its citizens opposed the measure. Victoria County’s mistake was they didn’t believe the government would do the same to them; amalgamation only happened elsewhere. Voting consistently for the fiscal balance being promoted by the government made Victoria County a perfect candidate for the “provincially imposed forced amalgamation “. 25 years later the City of Kawartha Lakes is still dealing with the consequences, good and bad, of that “imposition “. As my Fenelon Falls grandmother always said, “what you sow, you reap.”
Could we get a little clarity from the mayor on what those positives are?
We can’t put the “toothpaste back in the tube,” I agree. But I don’t think we should celebrate 💩 going sideways for 25 years either—certainly not with taxes that could fix the negatives seen by those who’ve lived here for more than 25 years.
Maybe it would help the naysayers feel more celebratory if we heard Mayor Elmslie’s point of view (specifically) on why amalgamation should get a party.
Perhaps niche that list down and take the former Verulam township, as the example:
How has amalgamation been wonderful for Bobcaygeon?
[*blows a damp party blower, throws confetti in the toilet*]
Celebrate?
Mayor Barb Kelly ran on a de-amalgamation platform in 2003 and won.
The province told her she would have to run a referendum that showed we didn’t want amalgamation. We had the referendum and the result was a resounding NO to amalgamation.
The article about that referendum is here: theglobeandmail.com/news/national/kawartha-chooses-to-split-up/article1048147/
Despite the referendum, the province said it didn’t care what we wanted and refused to let the COKL de-amalgamate.
Fast forward 22 years and we’re celebrating the province telling us our voice doesn’t matter?
That’ll be some party.
When I read that $50,000.00 of taxpayers’ money would go toward an amalgamation celebration, this old man had to sit down. For 25 years I’ve heard in my ear (from a very good friend who has passed away), “Nothing good will come from this.”
Before amalgamation took away the heartbeat of caring community-led townships and replaced it with a corporate machine that threw money top-down from a manager’s seat, things were in the green for Verulam.
I’d like to ask those who’ve lived here longer than 25 years (so they know how things used to be), to name one thing that’s better since amalgamation.
I find we are losing quality of life every year.
Larry Jones
Municipal Amalgamation took many forms in Ontario. Looking at Peterborough County, the Municipalities worked it out between themselves and ultimately chose their own amalgamation structure without a Provincial Commissioner being requested.
Pairs or triples of townships and towns amalgamated and a 2 tier municipal government was reatined in Peterborough County.
For example, Smith Township, Ennismore Township and the Village of Lakefield were 3, but are now one as Selwyn. It appears to have been successful, and moving from 3 to 1 municipality unlocked efficiencies.
The municipalities of Victoria County started to discuss amalgamation.There was a lengthy period of dialog among municipalities. I suppose we could call it the prenuptual dating scene for amalgamation. Councils understood what financial state they had, but it was not easy for councils and staff of the era to calculate the multi-dimensional economics problem which was necessary to understand whether amalgamation would leave them better off after pairing or tripling up. Plunging into the unknown was worse than the status quo.
Emily Township council was seemingly unhappy in the amalgamation dating scene. They asked for a Provincial Commisisoner, which I suppose was a matchmaker of sorts. Lindsay initially asked to hold off on amalgamation, and said that if the town could expand into Ops by annexing land, they wouldn’t support the commissioner coming. But when this request for annexing land in Ops was not granted, Lindsay supported Emily in asking for provincial intervention and Harry Kitchen was appointed as commish.
In retrospect, asking for a Provincial Commisioner was fudamentally where we went wrong. We lost control of the amalgamation process, and the Province jammed a one-tier municipal structure onto Victoria County based on a lightweight and academic economic model, and very little consideration for the soft factors of how it would be received – what people would accept and be comfortable with. How can you be comfortable with something that you dont have the tools and experience to comprehend and understand and you wont see the full result and impact for years or decades?
Kawartha Lakes was born with just one parent, a birth by artificial injection of a provincial commisioner, who was nowhere to be found on the day his dream child was born. It was followed by an imaculate rejection by voters in a referendum that had no teeth.
The city seemed to struggle with turnover and change in department heads and staff, although that appears less now than earlier.
City administration now appears to now be attempting to simplify and reduce the city to one standard set of bylays, offical plans, policies and consistantly delivered services under the mantra of “We are now one city”. Yet Im not sure we were ever a City, and it’s questionable just how much unification to one has really occured.
There certainly hasnt been much unification around public works yard and shops – Public Works still operates out of the many yards and depots of the former municipalities, seemingly flying in the face of Harry Kitchens original recoomendation to consoldiate and sell off unecessary facilities. And still far from the Public Works master plan which lays out a plan for 3 consolidated main depots and a few remote satelite depots.
We still have two police services, with duplicate oveheads, despite an obvious cost savings that could have been achieved years ago by consolidating to the lower cost per household OPP service. Its lower cost because the province has to run a police service to police provincial highways, the province pays for capital expenditures like police stations, cruisers and modern radio and computer systems and replacing tazers every 5 years. Any notion that we have better control over local policing through a local police board is not visible to me. CKL Council cannot give direction to the KLPS board.
We are now operating with the “Peanut Butter Theory” of management which is the analogy of spreading peanut butter thinly across multiple slices of bread. While you might cover more bread, the result is a thin, unappetizing layer of peanut butter on each slice, rather than a satisfying, well-spread sandwich. The annual budget cycle controls the total available penaut butter by limiting increases to a percentage in a single digit.
In a business or municipal setting, this translates to allocating resources (money, time, effort) across too many projects or areas without sufficient focus or depth. This can lead to: Mediocre performance: When resources are spread too thinly, projects or initiatives may not receive the necessary attention or resources to achieve success. Underperformance: The inability to dedicate sufficient resources to key areas can result in underperformance and missed opportunities. Lack of focus: The peanut butter approach can lead to a lack of focus and a failure to concentrate on core priorities.
One quick look at the state of our urban streets in Lindsay, Bobcaygeon and Fenelon Falls and we can see a City in decline.
The snow this year, which was admittedly more than usual, also serves to demonstrate just how close to chaos we are at any given time.
A bit more snow that normal and sidewalks were undone, and we discovered that there really isnt a snow removal plan for urban intersections, despite having a snow contingency budget available that could have paid for it.
Wages and benefits are among the largest costs a municipality has, and with something close to 750 FTE staff in 2025, that is certainly where all the peanut butter is going relative to the circa 500 FTE staff in the former Victoria County and local municipalities.
It’s not those few that are on the sunshine list that are the problem, it’s the sheer number of municipal staff and burgeoning number of programs, services and initiatives.
If you limit the total peanut butter by constraining the budget to an annual increase approximating CPI, but then expand programs and services sideways like endless peiece of bread, everyone gets a really thin layer and nobody is satisifed.
For the 25th celebration of the City of Kawartha Lakes, I think we shouls buy a skid/pallet of Costco sized jars of peanut butter and give everyone just a little bit more than they’ve been getting to help perk up the mood.