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