“A reminder that no one is alone”: Sixty years of Meals on Wheels

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Good afternoon and welcome to the Peterborough Currents newsletter, where we share our latest stories and catch you up on local news.

The Ford government and the Kawartha Haliburton Children’s Aid Society (KHCAS) are offering competing narratives to explain the challenges at the local child protection agency, which serves Peterborough city and county, the City of Kawartha Lakes and Haliburton County.

Last week, the province announced it no longer has confidence in KHCAS to address its “growing deficit and operational issues” and installed a supervisor to take control of the agency. But KHCAS representatives have previously told Currents the agency’s troubles are caused by provincial underfunding amid rising costs.

We have more on that in today’s newsletter, including what Premier Doug Ford had to say about this situation this morning.

Also this week:

• Meals on Wheels celebrates 60th anniversary
• New community health centre hires executive director
• Councillors hear update on doctor recruitment efforts
• And more!

Let’s get to it.

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Why did the province appoint a supervisor to run the local children’s aid society?

The Ford government has installed a supervisor to run the Kawartha Haliburton Children’s Aid Society (KHCAS), citing the society’s “growing deficit” and “operational issues.”

Multiple reviews of KHCAS in recent years have “identified a number of significant risks related to the overall operations and financial management of the society,” according to a statement from Ontario Minister of Children, Community and Social Services Michael Parsa.

But Parsa’s statement did not provide specifics about what risks were identified and why they prompted the minister to take away control of KHCAS from its executive director and board of directors. Nor would the ministry provide more details when asked by Peterborough Currents.

All seven members of KHCAS’s board of directors tendered their resignations “with profound sadness” after learning of the minister’s decision, according to a statement the board issued.

Like many children’s aid societies across the province, KHCAS is currently facing a deficit. Agency representatives have said the deficit is the result of “years of funding reductions” by the provincial government and rising costs to place children in care.

Speaking to reporters in Scarborough this morning, Premier Doug Ford was questioned about the situation at KHCAS. “We poured money into the children’s aid society,” he said. “We never cut it. We’ve increased it.”

The Currents team spent the last few days digging through KHCAS’s audited financial statements. According to the statements, the province’s base funding for the agency has decreased every year under the Ford government. The province has provided one-time funding boosts on three occasions to help the agency to cover its deficit.

Provincial funding for KHCAS, by year

KHCAS presented a multi-year deficit management plan to the province earlier this year that aimed to eventually reduce spending by $7.6 million. One plank of that plan was the elimination of 25 staff by next year.

But the province rejected KHCAS’s deficit management plan and decided to appoint a supervisor to run the agency instead, according to Lynne Buehler, the vice chair of KHCAS’s board of directors.

“We are so very sad and we worked so hard to avoid this,” Buehler wrote in an email. “I believe the deficit management plan we submitted was aggressive, but responsible and achievable.”

KHCAS child protection worker Ruby Taylor said she suspects the board had not been willing to make the level of spending cuts the province expected.

“I would have to guess that it was … the board saying we cannot provide quality service in this community by cutting any more than we've done,” said Taylor, who is also president of OPSEU Local 334, which represents KHCAS staff.

Want to learn more? Currents reporter Brett Throop covered this story, and you can read his work on our website. The story includes a deep dive into KHCAS's financial statements to help you make sense of the budget challenges facing the agency.

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"A reminder that no one is alone": Sixty years of Meals on Wheels

Community Care Peterborough is celebrating the 60th anniversary of its Meals on Wheels program, which delivers hot and frozen meals to seniors and adults with physical challenges in the city and county of Peterborough.

“Meals on Wheels has always been more than just a meal — it’s a connection, a check-in, and a reminder that no one is alone," stated Community Care CEO Danielle Belair in a news release.

The Meals on Wheels program has been serving the Peterborough community since 1964, the news release stated. "What began with just seven meals provided by Civic Hospital and delivered by volunteers from the Rotary Club of Peterborough has grown into a vital service that now provides over 50,000 meals annually," the press release stated.

Responsibility for the program was transferred to Community Care Peterborough in 2004 and that agency has run it ever since. To celebrate the 60th anniversary, Community Care will be sharing 60 stories of Meals on Wheels on its social media pages starting in November.

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Community health centre hires executive director

Peterborough's new community health centre (CHC) has hired Ashley Safar as its first executive director. She'll start the job in January 2025, according to a news release from the CHC.

Safar will be leaving her role as executive director of the Nogojiwanong Friendship Centre, where she contributed "three years of dedicated service and leadership" to the urban Indigenous community, according to a release from the friendship centre.

The community health centre is a new initiative funded by the provincial government. It will offer primary health care, social services, and cultural programming to marginalized communities such as those experiencing homelessness and poverty and Indigenous people.

The CHC stated in the summer that it planned to start seeing patients at a temporary location in Peterborough Square this fall. In last week's news release, board chair Jonathan Bennett stated that renovations at Peterborough Square and staff recruitment are "well underway." The release did not offer a revised opening date. Read some of our previous coverage of the community health centre here.

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Councillors receive update on doctor recruitment

The city's government relations advisor, Sarah McDougall Perrin, gave councillors an update on Peterborough's new doctor recruitment strategy at a committee meeting last night. The update comes after council voted late last year to bring doctor recruitment in-house instead of relying on an outside agency to do it.

Perrin explained that there's been a shift in how the city is trying to attract doctors to the region. "The city's new approach focuses less on tourism and lifestyle aspects," she explained. While Peterborough's proximity to nature and recreation opportunities are strengths, other communities offer those things too, Perrin said. And there's research that shows doctors care more about career prospects when they choose a community to practice in, she added.

"We offer a diverse set of medical opportunities for potential family physicians," Perrin said. "That's one of our biggest strengths."

"Peterborough family physicians can have an evolving and lasting career based on their interests and the life stage that they're at," she said. "Highlighting that flexibility is what you're going to hear in all the communications and the promotion going forward."

A $15,000 incentive for physicians who start a practice in Peterborough and stay for three years is continuing, even though a recent report from the Peterborough Family Doctors' Think Tank noted that other communities also offer financial incentives and there isn't evidence to show they are effective at retaining physicians. (You can read more about the think tank's work in KawarthaNOW.)

Perrin shared that the new physician recruitment strategy is already bearing fruit. A new doctor agreed to establish a practice in Peterborough this summer, she said.

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Councillors give preliminary approval to mayor's committee reforms

City councillors voted 8-3 last night to approve recommendations from Mayor Jeff Leal regarding the composition of the city's citizen advisory committees and local boards.

Leal's proposed reforms include the removal of city councillors from advisory committees and many local boards. If approved, no city councillors will sit on the Peterborough Environmental Advisory Committee or the Museum and Archives Advisory Committee, for example. Leal said the changes are needed to "streamline the workload" of city councillors and improve governance. He also said some local organizations, such as the Canadian Canoe Museum and Peterborough GreenUP, have "matured" and no longer need city councillors on their boards.

But Coun. Joy Lachica opposed the reforms. "Removing councillors from advisory committees removes the connection between council and the public," she said. 

Last night's vote isn't final — it will come back to city council on November 4. You can read more about Mayor Leal's proposed changes here in the Peterborough Examiner.

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