Moms decorate Christmas trees to honour loved ones lost to drug poisonings

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Members of the Peterborough chapter of Moms Stop the Harm gathered at Peterborough Square on Monday for an annual tradition: decorating Christmas trees to honour the memory of their loved ones who were lost to substance use.

Gail Parry, who leads Moms Stop the Harm locally, started the tradition in 2019 after getting the idea from a mom in British Columbia who organizes a similar Christmas memorial. Parry lost her daughter to health complications related to substance use in 2018.

“It’s great at this time of year to be able to honour their lives,” Parry said on Monday. “We want to put it out there. We want to talk about it.”

“It raises awareness,” said Julie Walton, whose son Jeffrey passed away late last year. Walton said Jeffrey loved people, so she placed his ornament facing the front door of Peterborough Square, “so he can see his friends coming in.”

A second tree was needed this year to accommodate the increasing number of people who have died amid Peterborough’s toxic drug crisis. So far in 2023, 58 people have died from suspected drug poisonings in the Peterborough region, according to Peterborough Public Health. That puts 2023 on track to be the deadliest year yet for drug users in Peterborough.

The new tree was donated by Chemong Home Hardware Building Centre.

Mayor Leal still mum on upcoming land use decisions

Jeff Leal’s deadline for telling the Ford government whether Peterborough will keep or discard provincial changes made to the city’s official plan is one week away. The mayor has yet to indicate which direction he is leaning.

Ontario’s housing minister Paul Calandra announced last month that he was rolling back controversial changes to municipal official plans. But cities can opt to keep the changes if they want, and it’s up to mayors to decide.

Leal has until December 7 to inform the province one way or the other, something he has the power to do without the approval of the rest of city council, according to a leaked letter from the housing minister. Mayors can seek council endorsements for their decisions but it isn’t a requirement, the letter said.

In a statement to Currents made on Wednesday, Leal didn’t say which provincial modifications he supports and which he opposes. He said he would submit a response to the province “based on City staff’s review” of the changes. “Because our Council reporting timeframes did not allow sufficient review time to meet the [December 7] deadline, I will provide comments on behalf of Council,” Leal stated.

A copy of Leal’s response “will be posted on the City’s website once it has been sent,” he stated.

Among its changes to Peterborough’s official plan, the province sought to allow housing development where the city had previously restricted it. The province rolled back the changes in the wake of the Greenbelt scandal in order to maintain public trust. Earlier this month, Peterborough Currents reported that at least two local properties that benefited from the province’s official plan changes are controlled by someone who appears to have donated $2,830 to the PC Party two months before the changes were announced.

“I am encouraged by the action of the Province in consulting with municipalities to review the modifications,” Leal stated.

Budget Podcast: Five stories coming out of last week’s finance committee meetings

City councillors wrapped up their budget deliberations last week, settling on a property tax increase of 7.38 percent — a decrease from the 9.59 percent tax hike that was originally proposed in the draft budget. Councillors still need to approve the budget again on December 11.

Very little of the tax decrease came from reining in spending. Instead, councillors voted to shift some of the tax burden off of residential property owners and on to business property owners. That way, councillors were able to lower next year’s tax increase for residential property owners without cutting spending.

Peterborough Currents is continuing its podcast series on the 2024 municipal budget, which we’re producing in partnership with Arthur Newspaper.

Episode three of the podcast dives into five stories that emerged during the budget talks:

• Why is the city’s airport losing millions of dollars every year?
• Why are city staff taking a “calculated risk” with funding for social assistance medical benefits?
• Will bus riders see any transit improvements next year?
• Is the city’s bureaucracy too “top-heavy”?
• And why are the City of Peterborough and Trent University still at loggerheads over the development of campus employment lands?

In this podcast episode, we answer these five questions and share what your city councillors had to say about them as well.

You can listen to the episode (or read a short summary of it) here.

Other stories to watch

• Peterborough’s newest homeless shelter opened on Tuesday night, the City of Peterborough announced. The shelter is operated by One City Peterborough at the former Trinity United Church, which has been renamed the Trinity Community Centre. The shelter will be open nightly until the end of March. One City will also operate a year-round afternoon drop-in program at Trinity starting tomorrow. The City of Peterborough is providing One City with $900,000 per year for three years to fund the new initiatives.
  
  
• The public school board expects Kaawaate East City and Crestwood schools to become overcrowded next year and is recommending shifting students around to accommodate enrolment pressures, KawarthaNOW reports. The school board is recommending Grade 7 and 8 French immersion students at Kaawaate attend Adam Scott next year to free up space at Kaawaate. To ease the crowding at Crestwood, the board is recommending Grade 7 students from Kawartha Heights and Westmount schools attend James Strath for Grade 7 and 8 starting next year.
  
  
• People experiencing homelessness began moving into Peterborough’s new sleeping cabin community on Monday. The Elizabeth Fry Society of Peterborough, which is managing the site, expects everyone to be moved in by the end of the week, according to the Peterborough Examiner.

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