Latest / North Shore News / October 31st, 2024

Transcript

October 31st, 2024 · North Shore News

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  Welcome to North Shore News and Interviews on Amherst Island Radio.
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  Each week we keep you updated on newsworthy events, happenings, and conversations that
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  we've had with people in the local community and beyond.
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  Loyalist Link, a rural transit pilot program in the township, is launching Monday, November
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  4th.
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  Through stock transportation, the RU will ultimately link the township to Kingston and
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  will include stops for the Loyalist East Business Park and Taylor Kid in Dust Real Park.
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  Residents with Kingston Transit Passes will be able to use them for Loyalist Link.
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  Kingston Transit student passes are accepted as well, and children under 14 ride for free
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  with an adult.
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  Councillor Paul Proderick describes the need for this type of route in the area, and why
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  Council supported the creation of the program.
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  One of Council's goals this term within our planning was to enhance some transportation
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  options for communities that aren't served currently in the township, bringing in Bath
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  Odessa, the Amherst View Island Ferry Link, and the industrial areas to the Transportation
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  Link is an important way to ensure growth and to get people both to and from work within
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  the township and beyond, working with stock transportation.
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  We'll be able to provide some options under the Loyalist Transit Link.
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  Proderick described the routes that will be available within Loyalist Link.
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  You can ride the Loyalist Link and seamlessly transfer to Kingston Transit at given spots.
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  Schedules can include two routes, a main and a peak one, and the main route runs six to
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  Friday, which will travel Odessa, WJ Henderson, Bath, and including the Amherst Island Ferry
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  Dock and the employment lands around Taylor Kidd.
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  It will be about an hour and a half loop.
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  The peak route is going to run from 6am to 9am and 4pm to 6pm Monday through Friday, and
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  that will travel between Gardner's Town Center and the employment lands along Taylor Kidd,
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  including a stop at the WJ, and that is a one hour loop.
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  Proderick notes how the program was funded and what they're looking for as far as input
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  from the community.
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  This pilot project is going to run for the next calendar year, and it's coming through
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  a grant from the province's community connection funding through LNA County and using some
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  of our provincial tax gas funding.
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  As in any new program, we're looking for input from the community.
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  Hopefully, people will try it, give it a chance, and then give us our pros and cons, what they
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  like, what they maybe need to see an improvement.
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  Give it a chance, we're trying to provide lots of options for the township and using
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  whatever methods we can in terms of funding.
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  For Amherst Island Radio and the Local Journalism Initiative, I'm Ted Evans.
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  This is North Shore News.
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  Lennox and Addington will see its first ever holiday pantomime event this year in Odessa.
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  Torrent Productions, a production company formerly based in Toronto that has recently
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  relocated to Lennox and Addington, are preparing to host the event.
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  Cinderella, a merry magical pantomime, will be running from December 19th to 24th at a
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  manual United Church in Odessa.
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  Tickets are now on sale.
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  Torrent Productions is run by husband and wife team Rob Torr and award-winning choreographer
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  Stephanie Graham.
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  They are hoping to make this an annual tradition for the community in Lennox and Addington.
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  Co-artistic producer Rob Torr explains what pantomime is.
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  Pantomime is a wonderful medium because we have music, we hope, that satisfies all the
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  different generations.
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  Like there's, and there's vaudeville comedy, there's silly comedy, there's classic music,
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  there's up-to-date music.
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  Wordplay.
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  Wordplay, it's all the things.
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  There really is something for everybody.
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  Torr describes the company's history and his own personal connection to pantomime.
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  We're from Toronto.
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  We moved out here about three and a half years ago.
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  And we've done four successful Pantos downtown Toronto in a very sort of small-town feel.
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  We were doing it at the local Legion.
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  And Panto is my passion and it was before we started them, but after producing them and
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  seeing the magic that they created is why I want to continue doing it.
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  We saw memories being formed and that's what I want to do.
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  I want families to be able to come to this and have memories and remember having a good
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  time together.
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  And silliness, like I always say Panto is not going to, it's not going to change the
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  world but it might make it a better place.
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  Co-artistic producer Stephanie Graham explains what they do at Torrent Productions.
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  We have three core mandate things about Torrent production.
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  Like we want to bring affordable professional theatre to Southern Ontario.
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  We are interesting developing new shows and then encouraging and nurturing bridges between
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  generations and the diverse demographics in our community.
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  So those are our three pillars.
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  For right now we're focusing on the Panto and building that but who's to say what might
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  happen more in the future.
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  The couple notes how the show could expand and what they may be working on in the future.
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  I've got three more shows written and ready to go.
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  And our hope, like this year we're only, at the moment we're scheduled to do eight shows.
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  But we are able to extend.
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  If possible.
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  If we have enough, again that's all based on ticket sales.
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  I mean I'd like to make this in the future.
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  I'd like a six week run.
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  I'd like people coming from all up and down the sea way to come to Odessa, come to Lenox
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  and Addington, come to our little part of the world and enjoy all the things we have
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  to offer here.
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  The couple note how the show is currently run and how they'd like to foster more local
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  talent in the future.
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  We're asking Toronto based actors to come out here for four weeks at the holidays.
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  And we have to pay them and we have to house them.
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  But what I really would love to do is to be able to attract Kingston actors who've gone
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  abroad and bring them back home so that they can be with their families during the holidays.
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  But also so that we as a community can celebrate the talent that this community has helped
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  create.
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  We live in the area too.
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  Like we get it.
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  And we would like to foster something.
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  So that and not just truly not just the talent that's on the stage, but also stage managers
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  and technical and also teaching audiences how to enjoy life theater because that's something
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  that we don't do in this country.
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  And pantomime is it's like an entry level form of life theater.
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  And because it's not children's theater.
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  It's family entertainment.
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  And a couple spoke about the long standing tradition of pantomime in the UK.
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  My ultimate goal is to have a child that comes to see our show when they're seven or eight.
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  And then we probably don't see them when they're 15 or 16.
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  But then they go away to university and they come back and they go, you know, let's go
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  to the Pantow.
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  And then they come back with their kids.
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  Like that's that's the tradition in the UK.
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  Like it's we didn't invent this format.
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  It's it's it's it comes from well, a long, long tradition in the UK.
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  And it's it's that thing that you do during the holidays.
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  You go to a Panto and you have you have some silliness.
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  Tor describes why he's so passionate about pantomime and is excited to bring it to Lenox
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  in Addington.
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  There's a magic that happens between the actors and the audience.
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  And that's something that, you know, as the director, writer, producer, that relationship
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  is something that, you know, I nurture.
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  But what we find with this style of theater is a magic that I don't have control over.
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  And that's the moment when a parent and a child laughed at something together and then
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  look at each other and notice that they're sharing that moment together.
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  And that's the magic I'm interested in creating.
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  I think those are the special moments.
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  Those are the special moments that we hope and we saw them every show.
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  And it was it really was.
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  It sort of become my raison d'etre to nurture an opportunity for that to happen.
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  For Amherst Island Radio and the Local Journalism Initiative, I'm Ted Evans.
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  This is North Shore News.
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  Staff at Loyalist Township have noted the success of their family physician recruitment
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  incentive program.
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  The program has brought three new doctors to the area in just over a year.
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  All three new physicians have joined the Loyalist family health team in Amherst View to replace
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  three physicians who have retired.
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  The success of the program means its reserve fund is now spent and staff are now looking
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  at other funding options, incentives, and the potential of adding funds to the township's
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  2025 budget.
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  CAO Rebecca Murphy describes the success of the program and where the township currently
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  stands.
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  We're in the position where we have early uptake of our physician recruitment program.
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  Originally the program was we thought it would take some time before that that would
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  happen and that we were going to have one physician a year and we actually got three
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  this year.
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  Finally we have financial obligations to those three physicians into 2028 and that we do
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  have interest from two others including a new physician who would potentially take on
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  all new unroster patients.
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  To do that would be a significant increase in the operating budget or alternate funding
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  and staff are pointing out there's still the community grant available if Council wishes
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  to do that to fund this program.
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  He notes the potential of another physician who might come to the area under the program.
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  I have spoken with one gentleman who wants to set up an independent clinic in Amherst
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  View at the Amherst View Pharmacy and it would be a new physician.
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  He has somebody in the wings, a physician, and asked all the questions about what's
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  the incentive program like, could they join the health team?
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  You know, I've put him in touch with the health team and he was looking to do that this fall,
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  early New Year, and then I was also approached by another doctor, the Loyalist Family Health
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  team, who is retiring in 2025 and wishes to be able to offer this incentive program to
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  be able to get filled his retiring position.
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  Murphy notes other options that staff are looking at.
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  There are alternate models, however, to incentive programs to individual physicians that are
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  developing in our region.
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  Kingston has had such an individual incentive program for a number of years and has spent
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  over $3 million and did get 17 new physicians, but they also are providing incentive money
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  to clinics to expand.
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  And they're also being part of the new Midtown Health Home.
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  This is a new model.
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  Greater NapaNee is also developing that program.
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  It's really an extension of community health centers.
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  Murphy went on to describe the program in NapaNee.
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  They hope that through hiring physicians through a different model whereby the administration
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  is performed by a separate organization like the Community Health Center, then the physicians
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  are paid that way that they'll be able to roster all of the unrostered residents in
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  NapaNee through doing that.
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  Councillor Lorna Willis notes the need for physicians in the area and the ongoing situation.
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  It is a big problem in our township and in the area in general, and it's been unfortunate
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  that the gains in Kingston and NapaNee haven't helped loyalist township people who are trying
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  to find doctors.
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  This is a provincial problem and they should be funding it, and this is a downloading to
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  municipal taxpayers.
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  So that causes me concern.
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  Mayor Jim Hagedorn spoke about taxes as well.
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  It does really bother me that this, there's other levels of government that have already
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  taxed for this, and we're being taxed for it again.
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  Hagedorn went on to explain the potential of exploring and expanding a health phone option
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  in the area.
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  There is a doctor or some doctors that provide those services, and the pharmacist in Bath
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  actually has it.
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  And it doesn't matter if you're rostered or not, you can go there and it costs, there
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  are fees.
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  I was looking, I was thinking that might be possibly an option too instead of rostering,
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  bringing in doctors.
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  It may be, we may be able to service more of our residents out of the pharmacist with
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  something like that.
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  That's another option that I've recently become more aware of.
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  And so there may be options other than doctors, which may be a little more financially viable
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  for the township.
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  Hagedorn notes how a health phone option may operate.
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  It's not a family doctor, but they can do all the requisitions for blood work and everything
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  and give prescriptions and do a fair bit of work.
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  Obviously, if they were bad enough, it would still be an emergency room trip.
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  Councillor Jake Ennis notes his support for a health phone model.
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  I think that's probably the way of the future and it's also an interdisciplinary clinic.
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  I think it's also a venue to access provincial funding if you can get a proposal together
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  for your area.
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  So just to say that I would be supportive of loyalists continuing to look at that model
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  as an option in the future.
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  Councillor Paul Proderick describes the importance of bringing physicians to the area and funding
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  initiatives such as their incentive program.
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  We had two doctors here and I don't know what it cost to get them through the process, but
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  I said to Councillor Willis, there's 45 years of doctors in Loyalist.
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  So I think it's worth the investment and I know it's the tax thing, it's that.
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  But eventually we're at a crisis in this and I think anytime we can get a doctor to
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  serve our populace, especially these young doctors, you hope their young families, Loyalist
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  is a good place for them to be.
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  And I think it's worth the investment and I guess the big question is where do we get
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  the money to invest and I think we have to do it.
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  Councillor Carroll Park notes her personal experience and why it's so important to bring
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  physicians to Loyalist Township.
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  I've been without a family doctor almost two years.
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  I do use the pharmacy program.
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  It works well.
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  It's mostly covered by OHIP, so there doesn't seem to be any additional costs that I've
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  experienced with that.
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  However, my family doctor was originally from Napa-Nee.
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  And with the new doctors that are coming into Napa-Nee, I just kind of assume that because
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  my family doctor retired from Napa-Nee that I would go on the waitlist for Napa-Nee,
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  that's not the case.
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  It's specific to where you live.
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  So I think as Loyalist Township, we need to start to encourage those doctors to come
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  into our community because we're sandwiched between Napa-Nee and Kingston.
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  Murphy touched on why funding such programs is so important.
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  I think it would be a bit of a shame if there were new physicians that may come, but we
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  don't have incentives unless they go elsewhere.
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  The original reserve fund for the program was established in May 2023 and included $100,000
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  to be paid over five years in return for five years of practice in Loyalist with a roster
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  of at least 1200 patients.
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  For Amherst Island Radio and the Local Journalism Initiative, I'm Ted Evans.
• 16:23
  This is North Shore News.
• 16:34
  Recommendations from Loyalist Township's Community Grant Committee were accepted by
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  Council.
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  The Partners in Mission Food Bank will be receiving the largest of the grants at $50,000.
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  The Amherst Island Recreation Association will be receiving just over $2,500.
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  Lennox and Addington Resources for Children was approved in the amount of $2,000.
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  The first Amherst View Bath Scouts Group and the Loyalist Skating Club of Amherst View
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  also will be receiving grants.
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  The denied applications included the Cataraqui Region Conservation Authority looking for
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  $60,000.
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  Councillor Lorna Willis explains why the application was denied.
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  Basically the discussion with the committee was they didn't think that it fell within
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  the realm of what the grants are intended for.
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  This was also the case for a $3,000 request from the Ernestown Barracuda's Swim Club.
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  This describes why their request didn't fit the requirements.
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  Primarily because the speakers that they're bringing in, it's not a public event, it's
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  only a private event and the policy doesn't allow for private events.
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  Willis notes why the committee chose not to back Kingston Gets Active for a $9,700 request.
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  A bulk of the money was being paid to a person who was being contracted to do work for them.
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  It's always a fine line because one of the considerations in the grant policy is it's
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  not to provide wages or salaries and so it was determined by the committee that we didn't
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  believe it really fit within the guidelines of the policy.
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  Councillor Paul Broderick put forth the recommendation with Councillor Willis seconding and a unanimous
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  vote from Council.
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  I would just make a motion at the minutes of October 15, 2024, Community Grant Committee
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  be received and that the recommendations as given by the committee be accepted.
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  Seconded by Councillor Willis.
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  Any further comments from the mover?
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  No, sir.
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  Seconder?
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  Other members?
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  Call the question all in favour.
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  Motion is passed.
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  For Amherst Island Radio and the Local Journalism Initiative, I'm Ted Evans.
• 18:37
  This is North Shore News.
• 18:46
  I'm Sarah Bridget Kingston.
• 18:47
  This news and here are the top headlines that you need to know.
• 18:51
  Dr. Elaine Maw of Kingston was instrumental in helping to launch the largest vaccination
• 18:55
  rollout in many generations, organizing multiple drive-through mass vaccination clinics.
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  However, OHIP now seems to be punishing Maw for the same action she was once applauded
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  for.
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  She is now asked her to pay back $600,000 for the clinics that she ran at the height
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  of the pandemic.
• 19:12
  Charges have officially been laid in connection with the fatal boat and collision that took
• 19:15
  place on Victoria Day weekend.
• 19:17
  Kingston is reported yesterday that an arrest had been made and now 44-year-old Matthew
• 19:21
  Splinter of South Frontenac Township is facing charges.
• 19:24
  Students and staff at two schools in Napa Nii yesterday started the school day with
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  a small disruption as those schools were placed under shelter in place.
• 19:31
  The measures were put in place due to a suspected gas leak in the area of the schools and the
• 19:36
  smell of gas prompted the response.
• 19:38
  Loyalist Township has announced the launch of Loyalist Link, a new transit service pilot
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  that aims to enhance transportation options for residents and additional communities in
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  the township, including Bath, Odessa, and Amherst Island.
• 19:50
  The service will begin on Monday, November 4.
• 19:53
  Utilities Kingston is urging the public to be patient before passing judgment on a proposed
• 19:57
  $71 million gas plant near the Little Catarocway Creek Conservation Area.
• 20:02
  Cities Kingston recently completed an environmental study, but they must review the study before
• 20:06
  making a recommendation to council.
• 20:08
  For more on these stories and other local news, visit kincsonist.com and subscribe.
• 20:14
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• 20:19
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