Peterborough Currents

In this episode of our podcast series covering Peterborough's 2024 municipal budget deliberations, we discuss the November 14 and November 15 finance committee meetings, where citizens and community groups addressed city council about the draft budget.

What happened? A variety of community groups pleaded with councillors to reverse a proposed cut to their municipal grants. The proposed 3.6% cut to community service grants would save the median household $0.67 on their tax bill next year. Meanwhile, Chief of Police Stuart Betts made the case for a 15.3% police budget increase that would cost the same household about $106 in additional taxes next year.

EPISODE HOSTS: Sebastian Johnston-Lindsay, Will Pearson and Evan Robins.

APPEARING ON THIS EPISODE: Will Pearson, Evan Robins, Leslie Menagh, Patricia Wilson, Tegan Moss, Andy Cragg, Tricia Clarkson, Su Ditta, Rob Hailman, Sebastian Johnston-Lindsay, Drew Merrett, Stuart Betts, Nicola Koyanagi, Camila Duarte, Keith Riel, Alex Bierk, Joy Lachica, Randy Mellow.

MUSIC: Will Ward

PLEASE SUPPORT PETERBOROUGH CURRENTS: We rely on audience funding to produce our journalism. If you value what we do, please contribute financially so we can continue serving the community this way. Here's where you can sign up: https://peterboroughcurrents.ca/support-us/ 

Peterborough city staff presented councillors with a draft of the 2024 municipal budget on November 6. The budget proposes hiking property taxes by 9.6 percent next year to continue delivering municipal services.

What's behind the increase? Inflation is one cause. Another is a big budget ask from the Peterborough Police — they're asking for $4.6 million more in 2024 than they received in 2023.

But the budget isn't set in stone. Councillors will debate it over the next month before  giving it final approval. Peterborough Currents has teamed up with Arthur Newspaper to bring you a podcast series covering the municipal budget deliberations. 

In this first episode of the series, we discuss our initial reactions to the draft budget and we also check in with Harry Kitchen, a retired Trent University economics professor with an interest in municipal finance.

Kitchen argues that of all the taxes we pay in Canada, municipal property taxes offer the most bang for your buck. He says it’s the “lowest of all the taxes you pay, and you’re getting the most services for that tax.” 

We hope this podcast helps you understand this year's municipal budget process better. Got any questions? Send them our way and we'll try to answer them on future episodes.

CREDITS: Written and produced by Sebastian Johnston-Lindsay and Brett Throop. Hosted by Sebastian, Brett, and Will Pearson. Music by Jordan Cook.

PLEASE SUPPORT PETERBOROUGH CURRENTS: Peterborough Currents relies on local community members to fund our work. To continue producing journalism in 2024, we need more support. Can you pitch in $15 per month? Here's where you can sign up: https://peterboroughcurrents.ca/support-us/

On October 5, 2023, Peterborough Police Chief Stuart Betts announced a new "no tolerance" approach to policing illicit drug use in public. Effective immediately,  police officers will direct people who are using drugs in public to move along to a different location. If they don't, officers will arrest them, Betts said. "Police officers will not tolerate people injecting and smoking up in front of public places, places where our community members should feel safe," Betts said.

The announcement was quickly criticized by Peterborough Public Health, which said the new approach "differs significantly from an evidence-based, public health approach to substance use."

On this episode of the Peterborough Currents podcast, we have coverage of this story made possible through our partnership with Trent Radio, whose Local Journalism Initiative reporter Eddy Sweeney attended Chief Betts’s media conference on Thursday. Eddy also spoke with Star Fiorotto, a local harm reduction outreach worker, about the announcement.

TIMESTAMPS

0:00 — Introduction
1:25 — A report on Chief Betts's media conference
4:14 — The response from Peterborough Public Health
 5:36 — Reaction from local harm reduction outreach worker Star Fiorotto
13:07 — Conclusion

MUSIC: Thanks to Jordan Cook for the music in this episode.

A conversation about growing up and fighting for what you believe in featuring two generations of young people from Peterborough.

Ella Cunningham and Eloise Harvey are two local teenagers who are members of the cast of Give 'Em Hell, a new play about the efforts waged by students to save PCVS during the school's final year. Collin Chepeka and Sara Farley are both PCVS alumni — they were students at the highschool during its last year and they participated in the protests.

Together, Ella, Eloise, Collin and Sara discuss growing up, finding a place to belong, and the role that activism can play in those processes.

Give 'Em Hell was written by Madeleine Brown. It runs from September 15 to 17 and September 21 to 23 at the former PCVS auditorium.

MUSIC: Thanks to Jordan Cook for providing the music used in this episode.

CREDITS: This episode was produced by Will Pearson, the publisher and editor of Peterborough Currents.

SUPPORT US: Peterborough Currents relies on  contributions from our audience to keep producing local journalism. If you value our work and want to see us grow, please support us: www.peterboroughcurrents.ca/support-us

In this episode, two stories from Trent Radio's Local Journalism Initiative reporter Eddy Sweeney. First up: Peterborough's roller derby team is prepping for a doubleheader this weekend. Learn about the team and the sport in advance of the bouts. 

And second: The Theatre on King celebrated its tenth anniversary last weekend. Eddy interviewed founder Ryan Kerr about the theatre and asked other members of the local arts community why they love the venue.

TIMESTAMPS

1:59
Peterborough Area Roller Derby preps for its double header this weekend. 

8:22
The tenth anniversary of the Theatre on King

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On this episode, two stories brought to you through Peterborough Currents's partnership with Trent Radio and their Local Journalism Initiative reporter Eddy Sweeney. Plus, an update on the City's big affordable housing initiative, and why some families are worried the plan will lead to their displacement.

Timestamps:

PHC Update (0:45)

Six Young Rowers From Spain Visit Peterborough (2:05)

John Climenhage Paints The Only's New Sign (7:55)

Connect with us:

www.peterboroughcurrents.ca

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https://twitter.com/PTBO_Currents

Eddy Sweeney speaks with Andrew MacGregor and Aurynn Jacobs Parkin, the new owners of Dreams of Beans cafe in downtown Peterborough. MacGregor and Parkin discuss: 

• How the two decided to open a business together while working side by side at the One Roof Community Centre
• Why they're operating as a social enterprise, and what that means
• Why they've decided to pay employees $25 per hour, but not allow tips
• What plans they've got for their new business (including getting a liquor license.)

Eddy's Sweeney's reporting is funded by the federal government's Local Journalism Initiative and produced for Trent Radio in partnership with Peterborough Currents.

Peterborough is one of the toughest places in Ontario to find an affordable home to rent. A report from earlier this year put Peterborough at the very bottom of Ontario cities for rental vacancies, with only a one percent vacancy rate. The same report also showed that the average rent for vacant units was increasing at a much steeper rate than the average rent for occupied units. 

Because of these pressures in the local housing market, Peterborough Currents invited all of the major party candidates in the Peterborough area running this 2022 provincial election to speak to their positions on a handful of specific housing policies. Three candidates accepted our invitation: Greg Dempsey of the Liberal Party, Jen Deck of the NDP and Robert Gibson of the Green Party. 

Listen to these candidates speak to policies like rent control, vacancy control and working with housing not-for-profits in this episode of our podcast.

Earlier this month, Peterborough’s board of health sent a letter calling for the provincial government to take more action to curb the harms of the opioid crisis. The letter includes a call for the province to support and advocate for the decriminalization of drugs at the federal level, to expand safe supply programs, and revise the requirements for safe drug consumption sites. 

As the provincial election approaches, Peterborough Currents asked the four major party candidates running in Peterborough—Kawartha to share their positions on these policies. Three candidates agreed, and in this episode of our podcast series on the provincial election you’ll hear Liberal Party candidate Greg Dempsey, NDP candidate Jen Deck, and Green Party candidate Robert Gibson speak to these policies.

In Ontario, each municipal police force is overseen by a police services board. 

These boards play a key role in setting the tone of policing in their community. Among other responsibilities, police services boards set priorities for their local police service, appoint members to the force, recruit and appoint the chief of police and monitor the performance of the chief.

In Peterborough, the local police board has five members. Two are city council members who are appointed by the mayor. One is a citizen who is selected by city council. And two are appointed by the provincial government. 

That means candidates running for MPP in Peterborough—Kawartha could be involved in this selection process if they’re elected on June 2.

Who they’d choose is an especially pertinent question in Peterborough, where there is a history of instability on the police board.

In recent months, the board has been making headlines for a couple of reasons.

First, there was the abrupt “retirement” of former Police Chief Scott Gilbert, and the subsequent reports that local police unions had submitted formal complaints about Gilbert’s behaviour before the retirement. At the time, then-chair of the police board, Les Kariunas, said there was no need to investigate any complaints.

Second, there was the sudden resignation of Kariunas himself after video surfaced depicting him campaigning on behalf of MPP Dave Smith. Kariunas said he resigned due to personal health reasons.

But the stability of police governance in Peterborough has been an issue for longer than that. In 2016, the Ontario Civilian Police Commission (OCPC) called Peterborough’s police board “dysfunctional” and appointed an external lawyer to oversee meetings to keep them on track. And a few years before that, the OCPC suspended Mayor Daryl Bennett from the board after finding him guilty of misconduct on the board.

This history suggests that the Peterborough community needs to engage in more frank discussions about who should and shouldn’t serve on our police board.

To get that discussion started, we asked candidates running for MPP in the current provincial election what qualities they’d look for in an appointee to the board, and what priorities they’d want their appointees to bring to the table.

We reached out to candidates Greg Dempsey, Jen Deck, Robert Gibson and Dave Smith to invite them to participate in our election podcast coverage. Smith did not respond to our requests, and so in this episode, you’ll only hear from the other three.