Peterborough Currents
by Peterborough Currents
We are Peterborough Currents — an independent journalism outlet serving the citizens of Peterborough, Ontario, with in-depth and community-centred news. We're paywall-free through the support of our audience. Want to chip in? Head to www.peterboroughcurrents.ca/support-us. Thanks for listening!
Episodes
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An Update From Currents
Peterborough Currents is going through some big changes. A key piece of our funding has dried up, which has necessitated some tough conversations about what lies ahead for our community-powered local news outlet. At the same time, we're transitioning to become a non-profit organization governed…
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An Interview With Andrew Roudny
Ontario is heading to the polls on February 27, 2025, and Peterborough Currents has interviewed four of the candidates running to be Peterborough-Kawartha's next MPP. In this episode, we chat with Andrew Roudny, who is running for the New Blue Party of Ontario.
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An Interview With Jen Deck
Ontario is heading to the polls on February 27, 2025, and Peterborough Currents interviewed three of the candidates running to be Peterborough-Kawartha's next MPP. In this episode, we chat with Jen Deck, who is running for the Ontario New Democratic Party.
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An Interview With Lucas Graham
Ontario is heading to the polls on February 27, 2025, and Peterborough Currents interviewed three of the candidates running to be Peterborough-Kawartha's next MPP. In this episode, we chat with Lucas Graham, who is running for the Green Party of Ontario.
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An Interview With Adam Hopkins
Ontario is heading to the polls on February 27, 2025, and Peterborough Currents interviewed three of the candidates running to be Peterborough-Kawartha's next MPP. In this episode, we chat with Adam Hopkins, who is running for the Liberal Party of Ontario.
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A Guide to Peterborough's 2025 Budget
Welcome to Peterborough Currents' podcast coverage of the city's 2025 budget process! In this episode, Brett Throop and Will Pearson discuss what's behind next year's proposed tax increase and how the city might solve its budget troubles without resorting to tax hikes. We also discuss a couple of...
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Lessons Learned from City's Latest Homelessness Initiatives
In 2023, the City of Peterborough implemented two new initiatives to respond to homelessness in the city and to offer low-barrier services for people whose needs were not being met by the existing shelter system at the time. Those two initiatives were the modular housing community on Wolfe…
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2024 Budget Podcast Episode Five
Peterborough has a budget! Councillors gave it their final approval at the city council meeting on December 11, 2023. During the council meeting, councillors made a couple of last-minute changes to lower the tax increase to 7%, including dipping ever further into the city's reserves and voting to...
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No sidewalks? Blame the city budget.
Episode four of our series on the 2024 municipal budget, which we're producing in partnership with Arthur Newspaper. In this episode, we dive into the capital budget. We start this episode on Sherbrooke Street near the city's western limit, where there's stretch of road that is nasty to navigate…
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Five Stories From The 2024 Budget Talks
City councillors went through the 2024 draft budget page by page and line by line last week. By the end of the process, they'd whittled the proposed property tax increase down from 9.59 percent to 7.38 percent. But they accomplished that by shifting some of the tax burden away from residential...
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2024 Budget Podcast: Episode Two
In this episode of our podcast series covering Peterborough's 2024 municipal budget deliberations, we discuss the November 14 and November 15 finance committee meetings, where citizens and community groups addressed city council about the draft budget. What happened? A variety of community groups...
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It's City Budget Season!
Peterborough city staff presented councillors with a draft of the 2024 municipal budget on November 6. The budget proposes hiking property taxes by 9.6 percent next year to continue delivering municipal services. What's behind the increase? Inflation is one cause. Another is a big budget ask from...
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The War on Drugs Escalates in Peterborough
On October 5, 2023, Peterborough Police Chief Stuart Betts announced a new "no tolerance" approach to policing illicit drug use in public. Effective immediately, police officers will direct people who are using drugs in public to move along to a different location. If they don't, officers will...
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The Legacy of PCVS
A conversation about growing up and fighting for what you believe in featuring two generations of young people from Peterborough. Ella Cunningham and Eloise Harvey are two local teenagers who are members of the cast of Give 'Em Hell, a new play about the efforts waged by students to save PCVS...
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Ten Years of TTOK and a Roller Derby Doubleheader
In this episode, two stories from Trent Radio's Local Journalism Initiative reporter Eddy Sweeney. First up: Peterborough's roller derby team is prepping for a doubleheader this weekend. Learn about the team and the sport in advance of the bouts. And second: The Theatre on King celebrated its…
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Why six young rowers from Spain are in Peterborough for the summer
On this episode, two stories brought to you through Peterborough Currents's partnership with Trent Radio and their Local Journalism Initiative reporter Eddy Sweeney. Plus, an update on the City's big affordable housing initiative, and why some families are worried the plan will lead to their...
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Downtown cafe Dreams of Beans becomes a social enterprise
Eddy Sweeney speaks with Andrew MacGregor and Aurynn Jacobs Parkin, the new owners of Dreams of Beans cafe in downtown Peterborough. MacGregor and Parkin discuss: How the two decided to open a business together while working side by side at the One Roof Community Centre Why they're operating as a...
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Rent control, vacancy control and the strategies MPP candidates would use to address the housing crisis
Peterborough is one of the toughest places in Ontario to find an affordable home to rent. A report from earlier this year put Peterborough at the very bottom of Ontario cities for rental vacancies, with only a one percent vacancy rate. The same report also showed that the average rent for vacant...
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Peterborough MPP candidates on drug decriminalization and safe supply
Earlier this month, Peterborough’s board of health sent a letter calling for the provincial government to take more action to curb the harms of the opioid crisis. The letter includes a call for the province to support and advocate for the decriminalization of drugs at the federal level, to expand...
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How local MPP candidates would approach policing in Peterborough
In Ontario, each municipal police force is overseen by a police services board. These boards play a key role in setting the tone of policing in their community. Among other responsibilities, police services boards set priorities for their local police service, appoint members to the force…
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Who’s running for MPP in Peterborough—Kawartha?
The 2022 Ontario election is on June 2. In Peterborough—Kawartha, six candidates are trying to unseat the Progressive Conservative incumbent Dave Smith, who is running for reelection. Those candidates are: Jen Deck (New Democratic Party), Greg Dempsey (Liberal Party), Robert Gibson (Green Party),...
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The Greatest Show: an oral history
The Greatest Show was a performance art production that took over Peterborough’s collective imagination in the summer of 1988. Local musicians, performing artists, theatre technicians and more were brought together by renowned Canadian composer R. Murray Schafer. They put their creative efforts...
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Interview: Dr. Thomas Piggott on his role in public health
Peterborough Public Health (PPH) is facing two compounding health crises: the third wave of the COVID pandemic fueled by the Omicron variant and the epidemic of opioid-related deaths. In the midst of these concerns, the organization has taken on a new medical officer of health, Dr. Thomas…
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How would local federal candidates respond to the housing crisis?
With less than a week to go until the 2021 federal election, housing continues to be one of the most important issues facing Canada. And it’s a key issue in Peterborough, too. According to United Way Peterborough, average rents have risen so much recently that there are no longer any types of...
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Meet the candidates running for Peterborough-Kawartha in 2021
Election Day is a matter of days away, and to help you make an informed decision about who to vote for, Peterborough Currents has interviewed all six candidates running for Peterborough–Kawartha in the 2021 federal election. We asked each candidate to introduce themselves, why they're running for...
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Neighbours podcast: Peter Williams on how “connection, community and belonging” are at the core of harm reduction
Peter Williams has a long history doing harm reduction work, though he didn’t necessarily realize it as such at the time, but he notices now looking back on it. “What I know now looking back is that I was doing harm reduction work but that wasn’t necessarily the framework for it,” he says during...
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Neighbours podcast: How Peterborough Drug Strategy brings together a dozen organizations in a coordinated response
The Peterborough Drug Strategy was started in 2009 as a way to bring different organizations together to coordinate a joint response to the drug crisis. Today, they’re the name behind the projects making headlines responding to the overdose crisis: from the Consumption and Treatment Services site...
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Neighbours podcast: musician Pat Walsh on managing chronic pain with opiates
Patrick Walsh is a local musician and radio show host, making music under the moniker Dirty Pat Walsh. Walsh also experiences chronic pain due to workplace injuries and repetitive stress. It’s a condition he manages with his doctor through prescribed opiates. To kick off season one of the...
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City council votes to approve the 2021 municipal budget
On Monday, Peterborough’s city council sat for the last meeting of 2020 and voted to approve the budget documents drafted by city staff with amendments. Peterborough Currents has been covering these deliberations for the past month and in this episode, co-publishers Ayesha Barmania and Will…
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Peterborough residents said housing was their top priority for the 2021 budget – here’s how it’s being addressed
In our sixth episode of the Budget Week podcast, co-publishers Ayesha Barmania and Will Pearson go over how the draft 2021 municipal budget addresses the issue of affordable housing and homelessness. In particular, we look at funding for the city’s shelters, rent supplements, incentives for...
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City council went through each page of the 2021 municipal budget – here are the highlights
Last week, Peterborough city councillors sat as the finance committee to review each page of the 2021 draft municipal budget highlights book. This year, it was three evenings of deliberations and discussion, which gave councillors an opportunity to ask questions about city operations and propose...
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The climate change action plan and the municipal budget: interview with Michael Papadacos
For our fourth episode of the Budget Week podcast, Peterborough Currents called up Michael Papadacos, head of the City’s infrastructure management division to talk about how the City approaches climate change action. The interview in this episode is an edited version of our conversation; to…
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Diving into the proposed changes to social services in the 2021 municipal budget
For our third episode of the Budget Week podcast, Peterborough Currents co-publishers Ayesha Barmania and Will Pearson dive into the proposed changes to the budget for the City’s Social Services Division. Read an article write-up of the changes to the division by clicking here. Episode transcript...
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Arts and the city budget: interview with Su Ditta
For our second episode of the Budget Week podcast, Peterborough Currents spoke with Su Ditta, executive director of the Electric City Culture Council to learn more about the role of advocates in the budget process and what she’s advocating for the 2021 municipal budget. The audio in this episode…
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Dean Pappas on the 2021 budget deliberations and the impacts of COVID-19
To kick off our Budget Week podcast, Peterborough Currents spoke with Dean Pappas, city councillor for town ward and chair of the finance committee about the impact of COVID-19 on the city budget and how the process is unfolding this year. The audio in this episode is an edited version of the...
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Introducing the Budget Week podcast
Introducing a new podcast from Peterborough Currents all about the 2021 municipal budget deliberations. On Monday November 16, 2020, citizens will have one of their last opportunities to publicly address city council regarding the 2021 draft budget. The following week, city council will sit as…
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Memory
Two stories: (01:10) a look at memory loss due to brain injury by LA Alfonso; and (10:30) an interview with filmmaker Natasha Luckhardt on her documentary Town of Widows. This episode produced by Ayesha Barmania. …
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Fun & Creativity
Three stories today: (00:25) Chris Lawson on the purpose of fun in our lives and society; (14:30) media artist Lester Alfonso on finding his creativity; (17:00) a preview of the next episode of Peterborough Currents …
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Digital Rights #2 – Securing your personal data online
A role reversal on today’s show! Ayesha shares their story about internet anxieties and guest host Jeffrey Moore, an internet security and digital forensics student at Fleming College, walks us through how to start thinking …
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How a Lindsay not-for-profit is bringing computer education to under-resourced communities
This month, we’re exploring the concept of ‘digital rights’ on the podcast in a series of episodes, each with one story of a local understanding of our rights and freedoms as they intersect with computers …
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Maryam Monsef: an interview about gender-based violence
In December 2018, following the National Day of Remembrance and Action on Violence against Women, Maryam Monsef joined Peterborough Currents host Ayesha Barmania for an interview about gender-based violence. Monsef is the Member of Parliament for Peterborough-Kawartha and cabinet minister for the...
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Diane Therrien reflects on 2018 election win
During the 2018 municipal election, Peterborough voters cast their ballots and elected in Diane Therrien, who previously served as a city councillor for Town Ward. Peterborough Currents invited Mayor-elect Diane Therrien to join us on our live radio show, broadcast through the facilities of Trent...
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Special coverage of the 2018 KPRDSB Board of Trustees election
During the 2018 municipal election, Peterborough Currents set out to interview each of the candidates for the KPRDSB Board of Trustees. This special program includes nine interviews with the City of Peterborough candidates, the County of Peterborough candidates and those who were acclaimed, and...
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Growing, cooking, and eating good food in Peterborough
In 2018, the Peterborough Currents team created themed episodes as a way to explore stories in the community. This episode about food delved into six stories about growing food, selling food, making food, working with food, and the politics of food. Find time codes below for when each story…
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Finding housing in Peterborough
In 2018, the Peterborough Currents team created themed episodes as a way to explore stories in the community. This episode about housing delved into seven stories about homes and housing. Find time codes below for when each story begins: (00:40) an afternoon on the farm of Peter and Ada Leahy;...
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About this show
We are Peterborough Currents — an independent journalism outlet serving the citizens of Peterborough, Ontario, with in-depth and community-centred news. We're paywall-free through the support of our audience. Want to chip in? Head to www.peterboroughcurrents.ca/support-us. Thanks for listening!
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Peterborough Currents