The City of Peterborough aims to hone in on its response to the ongoing physician shortage by making its ongoing physician recruitment pilot program a permanent program, turning its Physician Recruitment Coordinator position into a full-time permanent job.

The recommendation, made at August 5th’s general committee meeting, accompanied measures to implement new pedestrian crossings, increase the hours of the city landfill, and loan $1 million to nonprofit community housing provider Thrive Housing to repair damages made to their property.

Monaghan Ward Councillor Don Vassiliadis was adamant in his support for the transition of the physician recruitment pilot project into a permanent program, recalling his own participation in conversations between the city and the Peterborough Family Doctors Think Tank.

“The think tank hosted that particular day with medical students from Queen’s [University]…We had a chance to talk about their experiences with local physicians. It was all very, very positive. So that's one thing that the think tank is helping us do, is one-on-one interaction with the medical students. Really, it will help us recruit family physicians,” Vasiliadas told council.

Ashburnham Ward Councillor Keith Riel was more critical of the prospect of creating another full-time permanent staff position within the city, asking city staff about the compensations package which current Physician Recruitment Coordinator, Chantal Van Parys, would receive were the motion to pass.

Economic Development Director Darryl Julott estimated the compensations for this role would approach $134,000 a year.

“How many doctors have ever actually been recruited by our doctor recruiter?” Riel asked Julott.

“I’m pleased to announce,” Julott answered “that as of Saturday, we have two letters of intent signed from physicians from the United Kingdom [where] Chantal went to an event in the end of May.”

“This is a budget plan for 2026,” Riel said, introducing a motion to defer any change to the recruitment pilot program until budget deliberations in the Fall.

“I'm going to make a motion to defer this to budget talks for 2026. This said, I’m casting no aspersions on anything on the person that’s doing the job. But this is a budget item, and so that's when it should be brought: at budget time, not here,” he added.

Mayor Jeff Leal voiced his opposition to Riel’s proposed deferral, saying “when it comes to doctor recruitment, we can't afford to lose one minute, one day, one hour, one month.”.

“There was a media report, I believe in the Peterborough Examiner, 10,000+ residents of the city and county without access to primary care. We do know September is coming up, new medical students will be going to prospective universities, not only across Ontario and Canada but internationally. We need to have somebody there doing that groundwork,” Leal went on.

While all councillors agreed on the importance of Van Parys’ work, Riel and Town Ward Councillor Joy Lachica continued to oppose the motion on the basis that the creation of a new full-time permanent position should only be approved during 2026 City Budget deliberations.

“We are committed to physician recruitment. We are appreciative of the work, and want it to continue, but what that will look like on a budget level is for budget time,” said Lachica.

Otonabee Ward Councillor Kevin Duguay voiced his opposition to Riel’s deferral.

“Our meeting is being observed by the marketplace as we speak,” he told council.

“If we as a community, we as a council, were to say we will defer this, what confidence are we providing to the marketplace, the very doctors, the very medical professions we’re trying to recruit?”

Town Ward Councillor Alex Bierk sought clarification from staff about the nature of the motion.

“Are we approving this position to go into the budget for final approval, or are we approving this position to be full time today or tomorrow or after our council meeting?” He asked staff.

“It would be approved as a full time equivalent position at the council meeting date next week,” clarified Finance and Corporate Support Services Commissioner Richard Freymond.

Commissioner for Infrastructure, Planning and Growth Management Blair Nelson raised his hand to speak next, telling councillors that “we did want to bring this report to the end of June, but unfortunately due to the large agenda for that night, it got deferred until today. It’s the end date on the pilot program that is of concern here, and we’re trying to get things in place so that the continuation is carried.”

Councillor Riel immediately called a point of order. “I just witnessed something here, just to bring it to the Chair’s attention,” he said. “The only people that speak at council are councillors. Unless we want comments from our staff, outside of the CEO, they do not speak.

“This is our council,” Riel added. “I don't remember a question being asked, but I see a staff putting their hand up, do I need to be recognized? The only staff member that’s recognized is the CEO of the city, and if he wishes to direct the question to staff, that’s his point.”

“Fair point,” said Chair Beamer.

Council subsequently voted down Riel’s deferral motion 5-5.

Councillor Lachica attempted to salvage the delaying of the motion with her own amendment to only render Van Parys’ position permanent after budget deliberations.

As it turns out, this was already in the text of the original motion.

“The pilot ends December 31 the permanent position begins January 1, 2026 so it take cares of itself,” explained Commissioner Nelson.

“Why are we doing this?” asked Lachica. 

“If the pilot is extending until the end of December and there’s no loss of anything here. There’s no job in jeopardy, correct? I’m not understanding what your point was,” she told Nelson.

Nelson noted the importance of this motion in ensuring that Van Parys stay with the city beyond 2025.

“If we decide not to make that position permanent until the second week of December, and the program ends at the end of December, the challenge is that we may very well not have a physician recruiter in that position,” he said to Lachica.

“I don’t know why we're compelled to make this decision when this particular job is still in play right up until budget time,” she stressed again. “The logic of that defies me.”

Chair Andrew Beamer told Lachica that her amendment was contrary to the text of motion, and would therefore need to be brought forth as its own motion. Following more protests from Lachica, Councillor Vassiliadis called the question, taking the main motion to a final vote, without her amendment.

They then moved onto the main motion to make the recruitment program and Van Parys’ position permanent, which carried with only Riel and Lachica’s dissent.

The next motion passed unanimously with far less fanfare.

Under this motion, council recommended for city staff to implement new pedestrian crossings at “McKeller Street at the Crawford Rail Trail, Erskine Avenue at the Crawford Rail Trail, Glenforest Boulevard at Ravenwood Drive, Park Street North at Hunter Street West, and Walker Avenue at Walker Park,” according to a staff report.

These new crossings were recommended as part of the implementation of Phase 4 of the City’s Transportation Master Plan, alongside the ongoing Automatic Speed Enforcement pilot project.

Council also recommended the rezoning of a 1341 Water Street property, previously the subject of controversy among citizens and councillors alike because of the unclear aims of the site’s reconstruction for the latter, and its size and scale for the former.

“When general committee first considered this application,” said Duguay, “I advanced a motion that we would defer the application to seek clarification.”

“The revised concept plan works. It meets our initial planning and policy directives, and it’s consistent with critical provincial planning and development criteria. That in mind, I would be prepared to recommend the approval of the by law and application,” he added.

Council approved a report on the activities of the Peterborough Architectural Conservation Advisory Committee, which added 52 properties for prioritized designation as heritage sites. The original report listed 53 properties, but Mayor Leal amended the approval motion to remove a 297 Hunter Street West property from the list.

The property, known as the old stone schoolhouse, is owned by the Catholic Diocese of Peterborough and was heavily damaged in a 2015 fire.

“They have no intention of rebuilding the old stone schoolhouse. They want to remove it so that property potentially could be used for housing,” explained Leal.

Councillor Lachica opposed Leal’s amendment, asserting that it wasn’t in due process to remove a property from the city’s heritage list “willy-nilly” without a formal rezoning application for the property. Riel and Otonabee Ward Councillor Lesley Parnell voiced their support of the amendment and both confirmed that they had been approached in their positions as directors of Peterborough Housing Corporation by the Dioceses about demolishing the schoolhouse.

Council’s next recommendation was to loan $1 million to Thrive Housing, the second largest social housing provider in the city, for repairs to their properties’ infrastructure.

“Engineering reports have identified urgent and worsening infrastructure risks at the site, including aging sewer lines and failing retaining walls. Total estimated costs are now $1.82 million,” reads a staff report on the matter.

“They are very limited in how they can be funded, so their capital reserves remain very low for complicated housing projects,” said Community Services Commissioner Sheldon Laidman, answering a question from Councillor Riel.

“They’ve come across a large infrastructure problem on their property that needs to be fixed. Otherwise we will lose 65 housing units that are needed in the community,” he told Riel.

“We have a housing reserve specifically made for these types of emergencies to draw from. They are committing $300,000 of their own capital reserves, which is the majority of their reserves that they’ve been able to build up over time. They still need their own capital reserve for day-to-day repairs that come up, so they can’t deplete it entirely. Once their agreement with the province expires, they will be able to mortgage the property and be in a better position of paying the city back,” Laidman added.

“We really have no choice but to do this,” said Councillor Parnell. “We must preserve [necessary] critical housing within our community.”

Lastly, city staff’s recommendation for the implementation of a Community Wellbeing Fund in order to streamline existing grant programs, such as the Community Project Grants, Community Investment Grants and Arts Investment Fund grants into a single funding source was deferred by council, until a set of conditions set by Councillor Bierk are met.

Bierk’s conditions were that the city’s Municipal Culture Plan be finished and adopted by council, that a clear transition strategy for arts organizations being funded by Community Investment Grants be prepared by city staff, and that his Professional Arts Organization Grant program be implemented.

“The Arts and Culture Advisory Committee, in two unanimous positions, once on May 28 and the second on July 11, 2025, expressed strong concerns about the Community Wellbeing Fund framework, specifically its unsuitability for arts organizations and its de-emphasis on operating funding,” Bierk said.

“What I am asking is for us to stick with the current program until some of these loose ends are in place,” he told his fellow councillors.

Councillor Parnell raised concerns about “misinformation out in the community” regarding the fund, turning to city staff for clarification.

“One thing I do want to clear up is there’s no changes to the arts funding. That seems to be a misunderstanding,” said Laidman, the author of the report council received on the fund.

Laidman asked Community Development Program Manager Chris Kawalec for further guidance on the topic.

“A 2023 report recommended that there be some modifications to the community grants program. A number of the changes that were recommended in that report were actually walked back in the report that’s in front of me today had less of an impacton the concerns that have been raised, both by ACAC and other others from the arts community in particular, around administrative dollars and core funding being ineligible, which is not the case,” said Kawalec.

“These investment grants have never been an operating fund for organizations, even though it has been used like that, because we reiterate that it’s a competitive process and that people may not be successful,” he added. “Relying on this funding as your way of paying rent and staff and utilities is very precarious.”

Bierk asked Kawalec about the potential consequences of his deferral, if the Wellbeing Fund would change so little.

Kawalec admitted that the deferral would be “inconsequential,” after which it went to a vote, and carried.

At the end of the night, council approved a notice of motion from Councillor Vassiliadis to direct staff to prepare a report on the implementation of longer open hours for the Peterborough landfill—8:00AM to 6:00PM from Monday to Saturday, as opposed to the current schedule of 8:00AM to 4:45PM from Monday to Friday, and 8:00AM to 3:45PM Saturday.

Vassiliadis explained his motives behind putting forth the notice of motion, telling his fellow councillors: “I’ve had constituents reach out to me and talk to me about the landfill—mainly people that work nine to five. It’s virtually impossible to actually use it during the work days, and then there's decreased hours during the Saturday when it’s open.”

The carried motion featured a small amendment from Vassiliadis, made at Ashburnham Councillor Gary Baldwin’s request: that staff also seek the city’s waste management committee’s input in their report.

“After the ice storms,” said Vassiliadis, “after COVID, or during COVID, people were using landfills, and even the wind storm, too. There’s definitely a renewed interest in the landfill and using it.”

“We are within our ECA, which is our Environmental Compliance Approval with the hours I presented here. These hours are consistent with some municipalities throughout Ontario.”