By Emily Stonehouse

While the County of Haliburton undergoes the process for a governance structure study, CAO Gary Dyke has ventured to each lower tier table to discuss the roll-out of the project.

Earlier this year, County councillors agreed to move ahead with the study. Dyke has urged along the way that we at least need to have the wheels in motion to show the province that we’re not just sitting in that cushy place of status quo.

But at this week’s Dysart meeting, when Dyke brought the project to councillors, as talk around numbers and responsibilities and logistics simmered down, Ward 5 councillor Barry Boice voiced one worry we’ve all been thinking about: identity.

“I worry that we’re going to get forgotten about at the lower end,” he said.

This is one of those softer points that isn’t always taken into consideration during the process of reporting and consultancy. The people who make a community tick, the little idiosyncrasies and stories and mannerisms that serve as the personality of a population, a heartbeat of a home.

It’s something we have been navigating at our own papers. While we see the value in having one county-wide newspaper, the history and heart of the early days is the foundation of who we are today. Both the Haliburton County Echo and the Minden Times offer over 100 years of community representation; a delicate balance of the past and the present.

And while the numbers and responsibility and logistics all point towards amalgamating our offerings, there’s a tiny twinge of cutting ties with the past that none of us are quite ready to snip.

There is risk and value in both options for county amalgamation. If we do not become one, ongoing inefficiencies in planning, in taxation, in roadwork, in programming will continue to stack up. In Doug Ford’s practice of slashing and burning anything that does not directly serve his government, it’s highly likely that the province will force some sort of bundling down the road anyway.

If we get ahead of the wrecking ball, then it’s in our court. There’s power in venturing ahead of the game.

But if we do begin to fall under one name, one government, one place, what happens to the cracks and corners of our community? The personality of a population, the heartbeat of a home.

When we pigeonhole groups, we dilute the culture that trickles back through time. While we all bleed red, we are also the product of the place that raised us. And we should carry that title with pride.

County staff will have to work diligently to ensure that the pride of place is not swept out the door when numbers and responsibility and logistics are placed on the forefront. Does it make sense to work towards a governance structure that prioritizes moving towards the future? Absolutely. But it needs to be done in a way where our past and our present are taken into consideration.

Because the black and white framework of numbers and responsibility and logistics can only account for so much. The real colour of a community comes from the personality of a population, the heartbeat of a home.

And that’s something money can’t buy.