On Thursday Feb. 18, the Peterborough and Kawarthas Chamber of Commerce, in partnership with the County of Peterborough hosted an information meeting with ALTO to discuss the new high-speed rail project slated for the area over the next several years.
Chamber businesses were invited to the meeting to hear updates on the project and have some questions answered by ALTO’s Chief Executive Officer Martin Imbleau.
ALTO is a federal Crown corporation that was established in November 2022 under the name VIA HFR - VIA TGF Inc. Its main role is to lead and manage the High-Speed Rail Network project. ALTO represents the public sector and works closely with its private partner, Cadence, to make sure the project is delivered properly.
Representatives from ALTO, the Chamber of Commerce, Peterborough County and City, as well as all eight lower tier municipalities were in attendance last week for the business community to ask questions and learn more.
Imbleau, who was present via zoom due to a grounded plane, told the audience that while Peterborough is a key part of this project, it is too early to know where the stations will be placed.
Walker and Elmer stand on dog sleds preparing for their run at the Snow Dance Dog Sled Classic that was hosted in Douro Dummer on January 21 and 22.
Douro-Dummer is moving forward with the replacement of the arena floor at the Douro Community Centre.
It was determined that the floor had reached the end of it’s useful life and repairs would be required to keep the facility operational.
It was decided that the floor would be replaced and that they would also include heated floors to bring the project up to industry standards.
The initial budget including the heated floors was pegged at $2.4 million.
Once the research was complete the township sought a grant to help with the financing.
An application was completed and approved through the Community Sport and Recreation Infrastructure Fund and was approved for 50 per cent funding up to $1,000,000
The collection of leaf and yard brush at the four Trent Lakes transfer stations increased by almost 800 per cent in 2025 as a result of the March ice storm.
This was one of the statistics that Matt Winjes, Supervisor of Waste /Public Works Coordinator, presented at his annual Waste and Recycling Summary to Council this week.
In 2024 2,680 square yards of leaf and yard brush were brought to the stations and that increased to 21,200 square yards in 2025.
Winjes said these numbers are difficult to calculate so the numbers are imprecise, but added that the ice storm was an anomaly.
“I don’t think this is anywhere near what we took in,” Mayor Terry Lambshead added. “I think it was a lot more than that and there is still more out there.”
This short documentary is a portrait of a tiny town, Lakefield, Ontario, and its independent weekly, the Herald. Across North America, newspapers are dying, but in Lakefield, Terry McQuitty, the town paper’s publisher, carries on a rich, 150-year-old tradition. Set to the pace of small-town life, Unheralded is a testament to the vital role newspapers can still play, and the close bond between reporter and reader.
