The following is the second in a four-part series taking a look back at the amalgamation of Victoria County into the City of Kawartha Lakes 25 years ago.

When special commissioner Harry Kitchen began hosting public consultations, many of those attending came to believe the result was a foregone conclusion; that the desired outcome was amalgamation and Kitchen structured his findings to go along with what the province wanted.

There were some, however, that didn’t totally reject the idea.

“It would benefit a small municipality like us. Villages had a smaller tax base but were providing more services,” explained former Woodville Reeve Len Thornbury. “Many of the townships had a lot of money in reserves that they had carefully saved up over the years and were afraid of losing them. Some councillors would also have a hard time imagining that the municipalities that they loved and had served for years would no longer exist.”

Many left meetings with the understanding the argument creating one single-tier municipality would save money.

The last meeting of Fenelon Falls council was held in December 2000 with Tony Vincent, Barb Stokes, Wayne Hutchinson, Roger Bellwood and Ben Jowitt in attendance.

But how could replacing volunteers, who were performing so many functions for the small municipalities, with paid staff save money? There was also an expectation the new municipality would not lay off any employees.

“The true reason, I thought, was the province was tired of dealing with so many municipalities,” suggested former Fenelon Falls councillor Wayne Hutchinson.

Before Kitchen was appointed commissioner few people — other than municipal councillors — had given much thought to what structure was best. Once he was given such dictatorial powers, it seemed like EVERYONE had an opinion; debatable even today.

In some communities the meetings were not particularly memorable.

“I thought that the community centre would be packed. But there were just 30 or 40 people there. They said very little,” recalls former Emily Reeve Joe McGuire. “We presented them with the options for change, or stay as we are? These are the problems we are having, what are the solutions? Should we amalgamate into four or five municipalities? We encouraged people to make their comments, but there was very little feedback.”

The public was encouraged to vote on which option was best for them. The result was mixed — only two votes for a single-tier municipality — and relayed to Kitchen.

In Fenelon Falls, it was far from subdued, Hutchinson calling the meeting with Kitchen the craziest political meeting he ever saw; the room bubbled with emotion.

“Two or three people got up and said, ‘You son of a bitch, I’m gonna shoot you!’,” said Hutchinson. “We left the council chamber for the municipal office in the next room and called the police. They sent two cruisers down and cleared the room. After that the police escorted Harry Kitchen to the meetings … He would arrive in a cruiser and they would stay with him. There was no need to threaten him. Harry was just giving his report that he was well paid for. I felt sorry for him the way he was treated.”

But it’s not like Kitchen wasn’t warned. When he had shared the idea of holding four meetings instead of the obligatory one, Kitchen was cautioned by an OPP officer “to be careful about holding a meeting in the north. There are some pretty dedicated people up there, and they might cause trouble for you,” said Kitchen who dismissed this concern believing it was only fair to consult the public as widely as possible and the meeting was held.

Be careful what you wish for

John Panter took Kitchen on every chance he had, often accompanied by one or more of his friends. There were implications of riots and the need to call in the United Nations to restore peace, said Kitchen.

The fervour was ramping up and it was evident when roughly 250 people showed up for a meeting in Bobcaygeon.

“It was obvious that something was up, but I couldn’t figure out what was going on,” said Kitchen.

Some came with placards, all of them emblazoned with messages against Kitchen. Many presentations were anti-Kitchen and some were inflammatory.

“One woman associated with John Panter’s group stood up and said in her presentation … The only choice you should be making is how you want to die. Firing squad? Lethal injection? Hanging?’ About half the crowd stood up and applauded. I was stunned but maintained my cool and thought to myself, if I play this right, I can get this crowd or a portion of it on my side. After all, reasonable and responsible people will not tolerate this behaviour — surely there are some in the room,” recalled Kitchen, although a walk through by OPP officers ultimately calmed the crowd. “I distinctly remember the next presenter. He was a retired English professor from the University of Toronto, who started by saying he was not here to denigrate or belittle me, but he had a number of specific questions about the three options. This was welcome relief. As I recall, there were a few more solid presentations.”

By the end of the meeting, Kitchen simply asked: “Do you want to know what I heard tonight?”

The room surprisingly quieted.

Kitchen told the crowd he was impressed by their passion, interest, concern and participation in the restructuring initiative. He had never seen anything like it in any other place or any other study.

“However, I would not be writing a report based on threats or intimidation, so I’m simply going to ignore them. I had hoped we were beyond this type of behaviour. And then the other half of the room stood up and applauded. I thanked everyone, and the meeting adjourned,” said Kitchen.

Focused on developing a structure that would be the most beneficial for the future of the county, Kitchen decided to create a single tier municipality, believing it would be the most cost-effective option.

While their fire halls all remain, the divisions individually represented by these patches now operate under the single banner of the Kawartha Lakes Fire Rescue Service.

But that did not mean that taxes would go down as the province was downloading services onto the municipalities at the same time. The new municipality was tasked with bringing services up to a certain standard; some starting virtually from scratch.

Kitchen retained municipal lawyer Bob Packenham to draft the order.

“One of the first things he said to me was ‘You have to name the municipality, but the newly elected council can change the name if they wish.’ Apparently, I could have called it Harrietville or Kitchen’s Corners or whatever,” said Kitchen noting he also had few days to decide. “If I didn’t have to make the choice, I would not have named it.”

He chose the name City of Kawartha Lakes, which immediately became controversial.

A rose by any other name

“Everyone was scared that they would lose their community identity. I really didn’t like the ‘city’ name. … John Panter used to say there were more cows than people. The name ‘city’ didn’t fit with the tourism, agriculture and retirement living that were so important to the area, it was not an economically smart thing to do,” said former Verulam councillor and current Ward 2 Coun. Pat Warren. “Now it seems the word ‘city’ is in the background, and it is often not featured as prominently officially. A lot of people are here because they don’t want to be in the city.”

Actually, Kitchen thought council would choose a different name but before they could, the City of Peterborough spoke up, wanting “Kawartha Lakes” reserved for them.

Kitchen gave the area a wide berth. For about three years, he wouldn’t even stop to fill up his car when driving through.

The “new council” was left to deal with the fallout. “There were a lot of decisions that needed to be made. Should the smaller libraries remain open? Where should the municipal service centres be? They had to hire directors to oversee all the new departments. In four or five months, they had to figure out how all the services, offered by all the municipalities, could be managed by the new City of Kawartha Lakes. The big picture of the structure of the City of Kawartha Lakes has not changed much since then,” said Thornbury.

Transition challenging for employees

Amalgamation meant benefits and pensions for some but in Lindsay it meant pay cuts.

Customer service systems, in place for decades, were challenged. Individuals were offered a one-year package and relegated to a call centre while a new system was developed.

A disconnection between staff and communities began brewing. Word came out that the city’s solicitor moved to Nicaragua and wasn’t in her office in more than two years. Before amalgamation, the people working in villages and making the decisions were part of the community. They went to church together, met at the coffee shop or were members of the local curling club. They took pride in their village, they were personally accountable and tried to do the best for their community that they could. For many residents, connections were dissolving.

At the same time, the residents queried how something that was to “save money” was becoming so expensive. Total tax revenues of all municipalities of Victoria County in 2000 were $37.6 million. To meet obligations, the City of Kawartha Lakes began phasing in tax increases. By 2004, total tax revenues had increased to $59.9 million, then $147 million in 2024.

From the last year of Victoria County to 2024, per capita taxes increased from $544 to $1,755, adjusted for inflation, this represents a 92 per cent increase.

As taxes, on the whole, were going up, they were also being evened out over all the former municipalities. Lindsay offered more services and had higher tax rates. The biggest increases were in rural areas — the ones that were seeing municipal jobs and services transfer to larger settlements. People were talking about how their taxes doubled or even tripled after a change that was supposed to save money. To top it off, now the new city was talking about closing local facilities. In one memorable incident, volunteers had finally fundraised enough money to buy an expensive lawn mower to be used in their village, only to see it get reallocated to Lindsay.

For some, the disappointment would stick with them for the rest of their lives.

© Peterborough Examiner