Support Your Jack Lake Community!

Greetings, Jack Lakers,

 

Back on April 27, your JLA President, Alex Kostiw, with support from the JLA Board of Directors, contacted North Kawartha Mayor Carolyn Amyotte and Havelock-Belmont-Methuen Mayor Jim Martin to request updates regarding last year's JLA request for post-derecho clean-up assistance, as well as to obtain an update on progress made on the townships' comprehensive emergency response safety plans.

Below you will find her original letter, along with replies from both mayors, staffers and follow-up correspondence from Alex.

 

Good day, Mayors Martin and Amyotte,

 

I'm writing to you both to follow up on our previous mail exchanges and discussions concerning last year's request for post-derecho clean-up assistance, as well as to obtain an update on progress made on the townships' comprehensive emergency response safety plans.  

 

Although these are not new issues, they are receiving renewed laker attention as a result of: 

     (a) last month's provincial (MNRF) funding allocation to HBM ($115,116.00) and NK($59,480.00) townships for post-storm clean-up, and

     (b) lakers' concern over heightened forest fires threats with the arrival of warmer, drier weather.

 

The recent (March 27, 2023) Peterborough Examiner article suggests that the townships will use these one-time funds "for debris clean-up to prevent floods and fires caused by decaying and fallen trees." Given that this funding has been specifically designated to the municipalities for post-storm clean-up, can you please let us know how these funds will work to assist lakers still struggling with clean-up and rehabilitation of their properties?

 

Last week, I received mail from a long-time laker and JLA member whose devastated property I witnessed last summer. She recounted how her family was still struggling with returning their property to some semblance of order and asked if I knew of any ongoing efforts to aid people with the restoration of their properties. I'd like to be able to respond that, indeed, our townships will be reaching out with some assistance. Please let me know what is planned.

 

Secondly, last July, Mayor Martin, you and I spoke about HBM working together with the county, province and federal governments to devise a comprehensive emergency response plan for future catastrophic climate events (including forest fires and flooding). Mayor Amyotte, I believe you were engaged in similar coordinated planning. Could you please let us know what each township has done to advance such plans?

 

In particular, if your respective deliberations with associated government agencies have now resulted in a concrete plan, could you please share the respective communication outlining what resources that will be provided to lakers, along with the role and responsibility that each participating agency will have in coordinating emergency responses in the future.

 

I look forward to your response, which, please note, will be published on the JLAwebsite and Facebook page, along with this request.

 

Kind Regards,

Alex Kostiw

 

Hi Alex,

Please click this link which will take you to our Council Calendar Page and click on the March 21, 2023, Regular Meeting of Council Agenda link. If you scroll down to Administration Staff Report #4, you will find the CAO report that outlines our funding request and how it will be used. For information regarding fire/flood response plans, please contact our Fire Chief Jesse Lambe and/or CAO Alana Solman. I have copied them both on this so they are aware of your request.   

 

Sincerely,  

Carolyn 

Thank you for your response, Carolyn.    

 

Per your instruction, the below follow-up requests are for Alana Solman and Jesse Lambe, respectively. I attach my original April 27, 2023, letter requesting information from Mayors Amyotte and Martin for ease of reference.  

 

1. Funding to assist lakers with clean up and rehabilitation 

 

Alana, per your Report to Mayor and Council of March 13, 2023, could you kindly clarify the extent to which the plan to extend a debris management plan into the 2023 Spring/Summer is intended to assist those impacted on Jack Lake? In particular, in that report you state that "The Township would like to offer a debris clean-up program this Spring/Summer 2023 in order to assist our residents, businesses and non-profits in removing remaining debris and reducing the risk of fire due to fallen debris which is now drying out." Any details you could provide regarding this good plan would be appreciated. 

 

2. Emergency Response Plan 

 

Alana and Jesse, per my letter of April 27,2023, could you please provide detailed information on the advancement of a inter-governmental plan for a co-ordinated emergency response for future catastrophic events including fire and flooding? In particular, please share with us any communication outlining what resources will be provided to lakers, along with the role and responsibility that each participating agency will have in coordinating emergency responses in the future. 

 

Thanks again for your attention to these matters. 

 

Alex Kostiw

President,

Jack's Lake Association 

 

 

 

(Alana is the Chief Administrative Officer, Community Emergency Management Co-ordinator, Township of North Kawartha) 

 

Hi Alex, 

 

Thank you for your questions. I have met with Fire Chief (FC) Lambe and I will be responding to both of your questions. As well as being the CAO, I am also the CEMC (Community Emergency Management Co-ordinator) for the Township. FC Jesse Lambe and Deputy FC Ryan Lye are both Alternate CEMCs. 

 

CEMCs are responsible for guiding the municipality and the internal Emergency Management Program Committee in emergency planning matters. This Committee is legislated by the province and CEMC are required to be certified by the Office of the Fire Marshal and Emergency Management (OFMEM). The Township is also required to meet compliance standards, which I am pleased to say we have attained every year.  

 

Your questions come at a good time since last week, May 7 – 13, was Emergency Preparedness Week. Please see this link for helpful information on how residents can be prepared for emergencies, including 72 hour preparedness, putting together an emergency kit, creating an escape plan etc. https://www.getprepared.gc.ca/cnt/rsrcs/ep-wk/index-en.aspx. The provincial government, Emergency Management Ontario, also provides great information, https://www.ontario.ca/page/emergency-management including information on all types of emergencies, including storms https://www.ontario.ca/page/emergency-preparedness . 

 

Q. 2. Alana and Jesse, per my letter of April 27, 2023, could you please provide detailed information on the advancement of a inter-governmental plan for a coordinated emergency response for future catastrophic events including fire and flooding?  In particular, please share with us any communication outlining what resources will be provided to lakers, along with the role and responsibility that each participating agency will have in coordinating emergency responses in the future. 

 

To answer your specific questions, I would like to start with the comprehensive emergency response plan. The Township already has an Emergency Response Plan, approved by the Ministry in place. This plan isavailable on our website, https://www.northkawartha.ca/en/our-services/public-education.aspx including further information on Emergency Preparedness and Public Education. There is also a large Confidential Appendix which contains background information and contact information to protect the security of the municipality, for many different agencies including fire, police, provincial ministries, non-profits, multiple agencies and utilities etc. The Township’s Emergency Response Plan is ahead of the curve in that when it was created, it was based on the newest strategy developed and adopted by the province, the IMS (Incident Management System) https://www.ontario.ca/document/incident-management-system-ims-guidance-version-2. The same plan is utilized for all types of emergencies or disasters, with different players being invited to the table as appropriate. 

 

The Declaration of Emergency was enacted on May 22 at 4:20 p.m. I contacted EMO/Ministry of Municipal Affairs and Housing and MMAH had a disaster assessment team (EMO and MMAH representatives, along with the Mayor, CAO, Fire Chief and Road Supervisor and Foreman) deployed much quicker than normal, on May 31. Generally, these teams do not attend until the majority of the response is complete and the area is moving into disaster recovery.  

 

Below is some further information on how the plan is deployed. As you mention, the Township did apply for two types of funding.  

 

There are two programs available from the province in regards to disaster assistance, one for the public and one for the municipality. North Kawartha asked for both plans to be activated for our area. The Minister of Municipal Affairs and Housing is responsible for deciding whether or not to activate the plan. For more information,  https://www.ontario.ca/document/guidelines-apply-disaster-recovery-assistance-ontarians-drao and https://www.ontario.ca/page/guidelines-apply-municipal-disaster-recovery-assistance-mdra. It would be worthwhile for all residents to read through these programs to understand the implications it may have to them in an emergency if it is granted by the Ministry.

The plan does not cover the items many people assume will be covered and these programs are not a substitute for appropriate insurance. For instance, if someone has a primary dwelling, their seasonal dwelling is not eligible for funding or if funding is approved and a person has two fridges, only one fridge may be covered. The idea of these programs is to put a person back to a safe and secure state. It is not the same as insurance coverage, which may cover multiple items. As per the MMAH MDRA team, if activated, "The program does not assist residential properties owners with damage to wooded areas located away from the primary residence.” 

 

From my July 15 report - As the Township has been in communication with the Ministry of Municipal Affairs and Housing (MMAH) since May 24, MMAH staff and Minister Clark are well aware of the Township’s concerns and desire to have the minister invoke both the Municipal and Public Disaster relief programs (Municipal Disaster Recovery Assistance Program (MDRA) and Disaster Recovery Assistance for Ontarians Program (DRAO)).  

 

Only the Minister can activate the program and this is usually done quite some time after the event (120 day window), once evidence has been gathered and the Provincial Disaster Assessment Team (PDAT) has attended the areas with the most damage. A PDAT, along with EMO staff, attended North Kawartha on May 31, sooner than expected. Staff have been in constant communication ever since and have been working through the steps of the process. The Township will have submitted, on July 15th, the Preliminary Assessment Questions About Municipal Response and Recovery Costs to MMAH citing municipal expenses to date and future projections. The Ministry has certain protocols and guidelines to be followed as well as recommended motions to be made at appropriate times, including the timing of these steps.  

 

Based on my September 1, 2022, CAO report, the following motion was passed by Council:  

 

 

 

 

The Township received an email on March 10, 2023, to advise that our MDRA claim was unsuccessful. The cost of $249,312.00, for the repair of Hydro One track equipment damage on roads was ineligible as the damage was caused by a third party and not by the storm. The remaining eligible costs did not exceed the three per cent of our own purpose taxation levy which is an amount of $ 175,843.20. The total amount of the Township’s MDRA claim was$ 280,616.45. 

 

Following clarification, the following response was provided by the Ministry (MMAH): 

 

 

Basically, concerning tree damage, the Ministry takes care of clean up, as necessary, on Crown properties, the Township takes care of municipal infrastructure, roads and properties and homeowners address damage on their own properties and private roads. Private property claims can be made to MMAH if they approve the DRAO program. Private Road Associations should consider having an emergency contingency fund that can be used for emergencies such as washouts, tree damage or culvert issues.  

 

FC Lambe has had many discussions with the MNRF Fire Co-Ordinator and the Township has a memorandum of understanding with the MNRF, by-law 44/13. The MNRF did offer salvage permits to applicants to remove debris from the Crown land near Jack Lake. As with every incident or emergency experienced, there are always after incident reviews and recommendations for improved processes. The fire department has critiqued the storm protocols under our the SOG’s (Standard Operating Guidelines) and has gained experience and learned a lot from the storm.  

 

The Fire Chief has had discussions with the MNRF about changing our response protocols to the affected areas in regards to wildland fires. Some of the changes that have been made include, quicker response for aerial firefighting requests as we know that areas are harder to get to if there is debris and the MNRF is notified of an incident as soon as the Fire Department is and constant communication is kept during an incidentregardless of whether the wildland fire is in the Municipal Protected Area or in the Crown Protected Area.  

 

The Fire Department has also requested through the MNRF, Fire Smart educational material and has daily reports sent to the Fire Chief monitoring daily wildfire hazards. Information on Fire Smart can be found here, https://www.ontario.ca/page/firesmart. The Fire Chief monitors the weather daily for the purposes of implementing a fire ban if required. If residents are considering replanting damaged trees, as a best practice, residents should not replant any trees in close proximity to their structures.  

 

 

We heard from residents that it was difficult to hire contractors and/or arborists after the storm, due to the demand for their services. In many cases, only the damaged trees or branches posing an imminent danger were removed, and as a result, many property owners still have fallen or damaged trees/branches that still need to be removed and/or cleaned-up from last year’s storm. The MNRF offered one-time funding to impacted municipalities and North Kawartha applied for this funding to recover the staff overtime and costs associated with debris management in 2022. The Township also included a request to purchase two 40-yard open-top roll-off bins including delivery at an approximate cost of $26,000, the estimated cost of processing the material collected in those bins at $8,000, and an estimated cost of $3,800 for further tree removal (Arborist) on municipal properly & municipal roads, due to the storm damage.   

 

We are fortunate that we own our own 40-yard garbage roll-off bins, because directly after the storm, it was very difficult to obtain extra bins of any type. Therefore, with the Township also owning our own 40-yard open-top bins, we will not be dependent on outside providers, and we will not only have these bins to use in this year’s May 2022 Derecho storm debris management, but we will also have these bins for any future emergencies. 

 

Based on our application, North Kawartha received one-time funding of $ 59,480.61. This funding will cover the additional costs incurred for debris management in 2022, and the 2023 Spring/Summer debris management plan anticipated costs.   

 

Therefore, the Township will continue aide to affected residents by providing an extended debris management option at no cost. This will be very similar to the previous program, whereby the Anstruther Transfer Station will accept May 2022 Derecho storm debris (trees, branches, etc.), at ‘no charge’ from North Kawartha residents. Once the new bins are received, further information will be provided to the public.   

 

I know there is a lot of information in this email. Please refer to my staff reports to Council for further details and if you have any questions on this response, the Emergency Response Plan or emergencymanagement and public education, please contact me.  

 

Thank you and have a great day!

 

Alana  

 

 

Hello Alex,   

 

I hope you are well and enjoying the spring weather, although it's cool this morning. I am sorry for not getting back to you, but with such a new council we were late getting our budget passed this year. The money we received from the Province was put into a reserve fund for future storm cleanup work. This will include all the work ahead of us from last year's May storm.  

 

I have talked to staff to get a detailed report around what is planned this year. We did pass a Private Road grant but haven't worked out how it will role out. It isn't a lot of money but might be one option to help. We have also brought back the Environmental grant for up to 1k for Lake Associations to help with education around shoreline preservation and water quality. We will also be opening up an area to collect brush at Shady Lane for this summer. I will get more detailed information to you soon. 

 

Thanks

Jim Martin