Doug Elmslie Archives — Lindsay Advocate

Unpaid property taxes in city lower than provincial average, audit shows

Published on September 17, 2020 in Municipal by Kirk Winter

In 2019 the city collected a little over $139 million in taxation from the citizens of Kawartha Lakes, with $5.57 remaining in unpaid taxes from 2019 currently sitting on the city’s books.

“The ratio of taxes not paid is 4.01 per cent,” Carolyn Daynes, the treasurer for Kawartha Lakes, told council at their September meeting.

“And any delinquency under 10 per cent is deemed okay by the province. The average of uncollected taxes across the province sits at 5.6 per cent so the city is generally doing a good job.”

Keep Reading

CAO on hot seat; Councillors demand answers on slow city response times

Published on September 16, 2020 in Municipal by Kirk Winter

Kawartha Lakes Chief Administrative Officer Ron Taylor said the city’s priority was “cost containment,” not maintaining pre-pandemic level city services, at a recent council meeting.

The CAO was responding to councillors who were not happy with city response times or city services after fielding many calls from their constituents.

Keep Reading

City fine tunes fireworks legislation; Ashmore opposes limits in bylaw

Published on September 15, 2020 in Municipal by Kirk Winter

By a vote of 8-1, Kawartha Lakes council passed a sweeping by-law that will limit the use of fireworks to just six different sets of days in the annual calendar. Special permits will be required for all other days.

Councillor Ron Ashmore wanted to debate the issue because he felt that the whole idea of a ban “was taking away a lot of enjoyment in people’s lives.”

Keep Reading

Turner proposes city use federal guidelines for conservation of local historic places

Published on September 4, 2020 in Municipal by Kirk Winter

Economic development officer for heritage, arts and culture for Kawartha Lakes Emily Turner, in a detailed and meticulous presentation to council at the recent committee of the whole meeting, proposed that the city look at adopting the “Guidelines for Conservation of Historic Places in Canada” as the city’s guiding document for conservation moving forward.

The document, originally developed by the federal government in 2003 and updated in 2010, is used by Parks Canada to help “preserve the historic value and conserve the qualities that make the site/building valuable to all Canadians.”

Keep Reading

Elmslie believes province, feds will start downloading services onto municipalities

Published on June 12, 2020 in Municipal by Kirk Winter

At a recent council meeting Councillor Doug Elmslie expressed worry that the province and federal government will soon start downloading more responsibilities on the backs of municipalities.

He recommended that “all surpluses be put in reserve for a rainy day because I fully expect that the feds and the province are going to start downloading services because of the debt loads they are carrying.”

Keep Reading

Local state of emergency to continue; CAO in charge until end of summer

Published on June 11, 2020 in Municipal by Kirk Winter

Council has voted to keep the local state of emergency going, given the province has extended their own to July 1. They have also voted 8-1 to keep CAO Ron Taylor in charge of the city until the end of summer.

Mayor Andy Letham told council that the local Emergency Operations Centre group made up of the hospital, paramedic service, fire department and police and public health unit all recommended that the local state of emergency be consistent with the province’s to avoid confusion.

Keep Reading

Eleven roads earmarked for a ‘life cycle extension’ by city

Published on May 29, 2020 in Municipal by Kirk Winter

Eleven different stretches of road across the city have been earmarked for this year’s life cycle extension.

These roads have been chosen by the public works department for either/or local asphalt paving, local surface treatment, micro-resurfacing, slurry sealing or crack sealing.

Keep Reading

Roads 101 roundtables report provides recommendations to council

Published on January 14, 2020 in Municipal by Lindsay Advocate

At today’s committee of the whole meeting, former Deputy Mayor Elmslie thanked the public for participating in the Roads 101 Roundtable sessions by attending community meetings and providing feedback online through Jump In, Kawartha Lakes.

The feedback received from the community resulted in three key recommendations:

Keep Reading

Seniors test out cutting edge Seniors Play Park in Fenelon Falls

Published on September 2, 2019 in Around Town/Community/Health/Seniors by Jamie Morris

Seniors test out the cutting edge Seniors Play Park in Fenelon Falls

A politician, a physiotherapist, and an artist walk to a barre. That’s not the set-up for a joke. The ballet barre is one of 13 components in the recently-opened Seniors Play Park in Fenelon Falls, one of the first such parks in Canada, and I’ve asked the three — all seniors themselves — to spend some time exploring the very compact apparatus and then to share their thoughts.

The politician is Doug Elmslie, currently Deputy Mayor and for the past 13 years councillor for the ward that includes Fenelon Falls. He’s also Chair of the Board of Management for Victoria Manor, and so knows something of aging seniors’ needs. Doug is mid-70s, rates his fitness level as 5 on a 1 to 10 scale. He’s on the go most days and he golfs, but not as often as he’d like.

Keep Reading

Council approves working group to research cultural centre for Kawartha Lakes

Published on March 28, 2019 in The Arts by Lindsay Advocate

Deputy Mayor Doug Elmslie and roundtable discussions.

At the March 19 Committee of the Whole (COW) meeting, Council heard from Dianne Lister and Susan Taylor, representatives from the Kawartha Lakes Arts Council (KLAC) and the Cultural Centre Committee, who recommended that Council strike a working group to examine the possibility of a cultural centre for the municipality.

Keep Reading