Doug Elmslie Archives — Lindsay Advocate

Juniper Street housing project gets a step closer: Council to sell land to non-profit

Published on November 18, 2020 in Municipal by Kirk Winter

Kawartha Lakes council prioritized the need for housing in Fenelon Falls over the range of objections of a handful of people who were determined to block a new development from being built.

Council approved a bylaw to sell a surplus Fenelon Falls property adjacent to Juniper Street for potential future development, despite five deputations presented by local residents opposing the sale.

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City in need of more rental housing

Published on November 10, 2020 in Editorials by Lindsay Advocate

Terms like “desperate” have been used to describe the need for more rental housing of all kinds in Kawartha Lakes which currently has a minuscule 1.3 per cent vacancy rate, according to the last figures available from the Canada Mortgage and Housing Corporation.

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What to do with $3 million? Letham says give it to taxpayers

Published on October 15, 2020 in Municipal/Opinion by Kirk Winter

One of the most difficult things for even the most informed citizen to do is to keep track of municipal budgets that seem to blend together from one year to the next.

Advocate readers have been asking what the city plans to do with a $3 million dollar surplus created by the 2019 budget. Lower than expected spending, particularly on winter maintenance, created this windfall and since the announcement of this surplus there has been a lot of talk about how it should be allocated.

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More jobs needed before new Fenelon Falls housing complex, reader says

Published on October 13, 2020 in Letters to the Editor by Lindsay Advocate

Your headline “Neighbours oppose handful of geared-to-income apartments in Fenelon Falls” sold the sizzle — a deep dive into the full issue might have given your readership a full view of all the opposition.

I do not abut the land in question but do reside in the surrounding area. All residents of Fenelon Falls should be concerned with the lack of transparency that has occurred with this pending project.

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Pandemic impacting 2020 and 2021 Kawartha Lakes’ budgets

Published on October 12, 2020 in Municipal by Kirk Winter

At their meeting of the whole, senior staff shared with council the largely negative impact of the COVID pandemic on both the 2020 and 2021 budget.

While some of the numbers presented rely on Kawartha Lakes remaining at Stage 3 in the province’s re-opening plan, it is clear that projects from 2020 that have been rolled over into 2021 will impact the city’s ability to take on many new capital projects in the upcoming budget year.

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Neighbours oppose handful of geared-to-income apartments in Fenelon Falls

Published on October 10, 2020 in Community/Municipal by Kirk Winter

A group of concerned citizens is opposed to the building of two 45-unit apartment buildings that will contain five units each of geared-to-income housing each, just off Juniper Street in Fenelon Falls.

At the last regular meeting in September, Kawartha Lakes council decided to sell a surplus city owned property to the Fenelon Community Housing Initiative, which wants to build the 90 units.

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Retired civil servant offers to assist city improve its performance

Published on October 7, 2020 in Municipal by Kirk Winter

While many Canadians might find their municipal, provincial of federal government services lacking and complain about it, one local man is taking another approach.

David Webb, a retired Ontario civil servant living in the Dunsford area, sees things differently. In a deputation to council made on Oct. 6, Webb offered to work pro-bono to assist the city to measure and improve the performance of city departments beginning first with a small pilot project.

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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.”

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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.

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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.”

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