Singing for the salmon … plus more local news

You’re reading the September 10, 2024 edition of the Peterborough Currents email newsletter. To receive our email newsletters straight to your inbox, sign up here.

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

This week:

• A Peterborough police officer has been arrested and charged
• The city’s social housing waitlist grew longer last year
• Gathering to sing for the salmon

But first: The Peterborough branch of Alterna Savings, which has a long history at 167 Brock Street, is moving to Lansdowne Street West.

Let’s get to it.

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“Devastated”: Credit union members frustrated to learn their branch is moving out of the downtown

At the end of the month, the Peterborough branch of Alterna Savings in downtown Peterborough will close for good. The branch is moving to Mapleridge Plaza on Lansdowne Street.

The move is about keeping up “with the pace of what’s happening in the banking industry,” according to a spokesperson for the credit union. “This is an opportunity to really provide a sleek new branch and update with a lot more of the modern facilities.”

But for many credit union members who were banking at the downtown branch on Friday, the move means their financial institution will be a lot harder to get to.

“It’s quite devastating,” said Margaret Slavin. “I don’t have a car. I’m a senior, so I’m not going to start commuting to banks that are way out on Lansdowne. This is the bank that I could get to.”

Jerome Ackhurst, owner of The Only Café on Hunter Street, said he has been banking at the Brock Street branch for more than 25 years. “I don’t like that it’s closing. I’m not going to the new branch,” he said. “That’s a fifteen minute drive from here. I think they’re going to lose a lot of customers.”

Currents reporter Alex Karn wrote about the upcoming move on the Currents website. You can read their story here.

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Other stories to watch

PETERBOROUGH POLICE OFFICER ARRESTED AND CHARGED

The Ontario Provincial Police (OPP) arrested a seven-year member of the Peterborough Police Service over the weekend, according to a media release from the Peterborough Police. The officer is facing charges of breach of trust and the possession of stolen property obtained by crime (over $5,000).

While the Peterborough Police did not name the officer, the Peterborough Examiner, citing an OPP press release, identified him as Mackenzie Rogers, a member of the new unit dedicated to investigating property crimes.

What is “breach of trust”? According to a 2006 Supreme Court of Canada ruling, breach of trust is when a public official, among other things, uses “his or her public office for a purpose other than the public good, for example, a dishonest, partial, corrupt, or oppressive purpose.”

In a statement, Peterborough Police Chief Stuart Betts said it was “difficult and disappointing news to have to share with the community.”

“I want the public to know that these types of situations are taken seriously and that at this time the officer has been suspended with pay in accordance with the provisions of the Community Safety and Policing Act,” Betts’ statement continued. “As this moves through the court process, that status may be re-evaluated.”

Rogers has been “released on an undertaking,” the Peterborough Police media release stated. The allegations against him have not been proven in court.

HOUSING WAITLIST GREW BY 4.2 PERCENT LAST YEAR

Peterborough’s waitlist for rent-geared-to-income housing grew last year. There were 1,926 households on the list in 2023, compared to 1,848 in 2022. That’s an increase of 4.2 percent. 

For most people on the list, the average wait time for social housing was 7.3 years in 2023. Victims of domestic violence and human trafficking — who are given priority on the list — waited an average of 1.5 years.

Those numbers come from the city’s latest housing and homelessness progress report, which was posted online recently. The report lays out several statistics to track Peterborough’s progress toward ending homelessness and providing more affordable housing in the community.

SINGING FOR THE SALMON

A group from Peterborough travelled to Port Hope on Sunday afternoon to witness the annual salmon run and offer songs to the fish as they made their way upstream through the Ganaraska River.

It was a “celebration of the salmon homecoming,” said Peterborough resident Paul Baines, who helped organize the singing event. It was also “a time to remember what and who has been lost,” said Baines, who went on to explain that local Atlantic salmon populations were destroyed by settler-colonial development in the 19th century.

As hundreds of salmon fought their way upstream through downtown Port Hope, the group sang songs of encouragement and gratitude to welcome the fish back to the Ganaraska watershed. The decision to offer songs was partly inspired by the Michi Saagiig poet, musician, and scholar Leanne Betasamosake Simpson, whose poem she sang them home imagines the return of salmon to Michi Saagiig territory.

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