There may be decent jobs out there, but good salaries and solid benefits aren’t of any use if you can’t get to work. All too often, that is the case for local residents frustrated by a lack of transportation options currently offered in the geographically large but sparsely populated Kawartha Lakes. 

Reliable transportation – whether it be an effective city-wide public transit system or the capability for people to afford vehicles – is one of the key factors preventing many people in Kawartha Lakes from achieving solid jobs. (Scarcity of decent employment opportunities are also high on the list.) The Kawartha Community Foundation’s recent overview of the community identifies transit and high costs of living as barriers to employment to many residents. 

Earlier this year, the foundation and Kawartha Works Community Co-operative published the first local Vital Signs. Comprised of 11 major indicators of community wellbeing, the report collectively presents information and data that can be used as a tool for future strategic planning and decision-making by city council, local service providers, businesses and organizations large and small. 

The indicators are intrinsically linked, and influential factors that play important roles in the lives of Kawartha Lakes citizens cut across most, if not all sections of Vital Signs. The Work & the Economy portion of the report examines the many economic roadblocks for a large portion of the population seeking employment locally.

“Transportation is at the top of my list of employment barriers here,” says Christine Bone, employer liaison with VCCS Employment Services. VCCS helps connect people seeking employment, and employers looking for reliable workers. 

“We have jobs come up in our system, and we advocate for people to get the jobs, but if they can’t get to work, it limits their ability to be employed,” Bone continues. 

City decision makers acknowledge the need for enhanced transit service in Kawartha Lakes. In August, council received a draft plan for expanded public transit that would enhance bus service in Lindsay as well as introduce routes between other Kawartha Lakes communities including Fenelon Falls and Bobcaygeon. Connections to neighbouring municipalities such as Peterborough and Oshawa are also part of the plan, and the regional transit master plan for the next decade includes strategic development for links to rail services provided by VIA Rail and GO Transit. 

Presentation of the transit master plan received positive reaction from many, including Bethany-area resident Randy Neals, who has long been promoting connections from Lindsay to Omemee and onward to Peterborough. His proposal, “The Kawartha Connector” is to establish a useful regional trunk line, then design a rural microtransit system as a feeder into a much larger destination network. 

“It’s been something that I’ve been advocating for the past several years,” Neals says. “Regional transit has been in decline in the past 20 or more years, as we know. Remember when VIA Rail ran from Toronto to Peterborough, with a stop in Pontypool? I knew people who lived in Bethany and Pontypool and commuted to jobs in Toronto on the daily train. But not now.” 

Vital Signs states that with fewer working-age residents and a dispersed population, Kawartha Lakes has challenges to attract businesses that could drive economic development. We have a low participation rate of workers (less than 55 per cent of residents are employed, the provincial average is 63 per cent). This work imbalance is due to the significant number of retirees who live here. The top-heavy older population means that the municipality must continually strive to be competitive and attractive to workers in order to generate tax revenue. 

The five largest employment categories in Kawartha Lakes reflects local demographics. Jobs in the fields of healthcare and social assistance lead the list, followed by retail trade, public administration, accommodation and food service, and educational services. Though a smaller sector, the highest percentage of growth from 2022 to 2025 was seen in arts, entertainment and recreation. The report says that such growth in those sectors, along with financial and insurance, is critical to make Kawartha Lakes attractive to tourists, visitors and an expanded workforce. 

Vital Signs states that with fewer working-age residents and a dispersed population, Kawartha Lakes has challenges to attract businesses that could drive economic development.

“We have a community that is well-served, but economically narrow with implications for youth retention, wage growth and long-term financial sustainability,” the report states. 

What could attract working-age people to consider locating in our municipality? Good paying jobs and opportunities for advancement, say VCCS officials. 

“I’ve seen people leave Lindsay because they can’t find better quality of jobs here,” Bone says. “You can’t get much full-time work in the retail sector here. Employers don’t want to pay the wages that people are hoping to get, so what results is often part-time jobs, without benefits.” That has led to cases of clients working multiple part-time jobs, which can severely affect their family situations and work-life balance. 

“Sometimes I’m so frustrated, it’s like we’re going nowhere, just spinning our wheels trying to help people find good jobs,” Bone says. 

She chooses to take a guardedly optimistic approach to the recent announcement that a Walmart store has been confirmed for Lindsay. 

“I hope that Walmart will come to VCCS to get people employed, and to ingratiate the company into the community,” Bone says. “We (VCCS) could hold a job fair, put our clients forward, and start a working relationship with the company. We will wait and see and hope that Walmart will provide jobs and work so that it’s local people who get employed.” 

Eunice Tubman, VSSC employment counsellor, also cautions against thinking that “big box” stores will necessarily be the answer to the community’s economic challenges. 

“There has to be flexibility from both sides,” Tubman explains. “Clients must be willing to try to fit the employer’s needs, but the employer must be patient, allow an employee to grow into a role. There are sometimes unrealistic expectations on both sides.”

In addition to lack of transportation for people unable to access the Lindsay Transit system, considerable housing costs make finding a job prohibitive. Tubman says that many VCCS clients are “unhoused,” and employers are often reluctant to take on such individuals. 

Just as suitable and affordable transportation is a constant need for many, economic challenges are ongoing for many residents, including Lindsay resident Susan, who lives with her elderly mother in subsidized housing. Susan (name changed in respect of privacy) is 67 years old and deals with chronic health problems preventing her from working, and which require her regular use of transportation services from Community Care City of Kawartha Lakes and other providers. She receives about $1,900 a month in Canada Pension and Old Age Supplement support and her mother also receives government benefits. 

“My savings were gone a long time ago,” Susan says. 

“When I moved in with my mom I was hoping to work part-time and (that I) would be able to claim caregiver benefits. But when I became disabled, I wasn’t able to claim taxable benefits, because I don’t have an income to offset any such claims.”

She spends more than $500 each month on transportation services. 

What would have made a significant difference in many local residents’ financial challenges? The Basic Income Guarantee (BIG) program piloted in Kawartha Lakes in 2017 but scrapped by the incoming Progressive Conservative government of Doug Ford, soon after they took power. 

Lindsay resident Dana Bowman is adamant that the basic income program was worth implementing. She was one of almost 2,000 Kawartha Lakes residents who were registered for the BIG trial. Initiated by the provincial Liberal government in 2017 in three areas including Kawartha Lakes, the trial was supposed to run for three years. Basic income participants would receive up to $16,899 annually for a single person, less than 50 per cent of any earned income. Bowman, who has been on a long-term disability pension for many years, was starting to see how the basic income payments were making a difference for her after only a few months. 

What would have made a significant difference in many local residents’ financial challenges? The Basic Income Guarantee (BIG) program piloted in Kawartha Lakes in 2017 but scrapped by the incoming Progressive Conservative government of Doug Ford, soon after they took power. 

She pays approximately $600 per month for rent and receives $1,900 per month in disability support. Though her rent charge would have increased with BIG payments, the monthly $2,000 BIG payments would have left her with more than enough to be further ahead. “I would have been able to afford healthy food, plus what I need for chronic health challenges.” 

Bowman has always taken initiative to source out services that are available. “I was determined and strong to find out what was out there.” Before moving to Kawartha Lakes many years ago, she accessed skills training programs and achieved her high school equivalency diploma. She volunteers with various local non-profit organizations to help others and keep active, informed and to reap the benefits that such involvement can provide. The financial challenges, though, are ongoing. 

“I actually forget what roast beef tastes like. I would just like to be able to enjoy a simple Sunday dinner, with leftovers for the next few days.” Instead, she can only afford cheaper groceries and has to be careful and prudent when shopping. 

Basic income payments ended for people like Bowman by March 2019. 

Vital Signs concludes the Work & the Economy indicator by looking at local wages. 

Minimum wage in Ontario increased to $17.95 per hour this month. The Ontario Living Wage Network calls for $22.40 as a living wage for Kawartha Lakes. 

“Some of Kawartha Lakes largest industry employers fall short of living wages. Roughly 3,500 occupations, or roughly 14 per cent of the labour force, work in occupations where the median hourly wage is below a living wage,” the report states.