NEWS

Local news in and around Aylmer and Elgin County

Steve Peter steps back after 37 years in politics

October 15, 2025 | 0 Comments

Steve Peters resigned his seat as a member of St. Thomas council on Oct. 15, with hopes of creating more time for family, and his passion for local history, while also focusing on his year-old role as chair of the Leamington-based Ontario Greenhouse Vegetable Growers (OGVG) board of directors. “I’m 62 years old, I was…

Complex board votes 8-5 to seek library renovation cost

October 15, 2025 | 0 Comments

East Elgin Community Complex board, at a meeting Wednesday, Oct. 8, voted 8-5 to get a detailed cost estimate, costing up to $10,000, on renovating Imperial Hall into a new space for the Aylmer library. Malahide Mayor Dominique Giguère, Deputy Mayor Mark Widner and councillors Sarah Leitch, Johnny Wilson, Rick Cerna, Scott Lewis joined town…

Aylmer library options: costs $6-million and up

October 15, 2025 | 0 Comments

Aylmer council, meeting at Old Town Hall on Wednesday, Oct. 15, will discuss the cost of three options for potentially enlarging the downtown branch of the Elgin County library or building a new one, with costs ranging from $6.2-million to $8.9-million. The costliest option, according to JPM Architecture, would be $8.9-million to put an addition…

New doctors, nurses welcomed to area

October 9, 2025 | 0 Comments

Nine new family doctors and two nurse practitioners were welcomed to the community on Oct. 2 as the St. Thomas-Elgin Health Recruitment Partnership, in conjunction with St. Thomas and District Chamber of Commerce and Doug Tarry Homes (DTH), hosted a “meet-and-greet” in Central Elgin. The health care workers were treated to soft drinks, finger foods…

Aylmer Pool might not open in 2026

October 9, 2025 | 0 Comments

Aylmer council’s finance committee members decided on Wednesday, Oct. 1, that they’d rather wait to see if the municipality received a provincial grant to help pay the estimated $805,000 in needed repairs to the town pool in 2026, even if that meant the facility might not open next summer. Doing so was proposed by Councillor…

Protests over proposed heritage home demolition

October 9, 2025 | 0 Comments

Cherry Street, a nonprofit group that provides affordable housing in Aylmer, is planning to demolish 50 Centre St., as well as 32 Centre St., to make room for a new development. At a town council meeting Wednesday, Oct. 1, two neighbours, Cynthia Grant and Stephen Blankenship (the latter’s father was a founding member of the…

“Liberation Day” tariff worries in area

April 2, 2025 | 0 Comments

The pomp and glory expected on U.S. President Donald Trump’s “Liberation Day” on April 2 is lost on Elgin County businesses. Instead of the celebratory mood promoted by the White House, the proprietor at Phil Mauer and Associates, in Eden, for example, is “not thrilled” with the dreaded tariffs regime that President Trump is expected…

Measles disinformation called out by health unit

February 26, 2025 | 0 Comments

The number of known measles cases in the region is rapidly rising. Southwestern Public Health (SWPH) medical officer of health Dr. Ninh Tran reported Feb. 20 that there have been 35 confirmed cases of measles in this region since Jan. 1, 2025, including 17 new cases in the last week. For the same period, Grand…

“Sovereignty nothing to be taken lightly”

February 19, 2025 | 1 Comment

St. Thomas and District Chamber of Commerce held an all-candidates meeting for the Feb. 27 provincial election in Elgin-Middlesex-London riding on Tuesday, Feb. 11, and Chief Executive Officer Paul Jenkins asked the four nominees who attended about Canadian sovereignty at a time of a potential trade war with USA and continuing barriers to interprovincial trade…

Town wants review of all possible library sites

February 13, 2025 | 0 Comments

East Elgin Community Complex Board and Elgin County might have approved in principle moving the Aylmer Old Town Hall library branch to EECC, but Aylmer council wants a county committee established to review all possible sites. And that’s what the town will tell county council in response to its request for Aylmer to also endorse…

County endorses library move to Complex

February 7, 2025 | 0 Comments

Elgin County council members on Tuesday, Jan. 28, unanimously endorsed in principle moving the Aylmer branch of the county library system from its current Old Town Hall site downtown to East Elgin Community Complex, on the west edge of town. They also asked Aylmer council to give a similar endorsement, and instructed Community and Cultural…

Flack: farm risk management funding to increase $100-million a year

January 29, 2025 | 0 Comments

Ontario Agriculture Minister Rob Flack and Finance Minister Paul Bethlenfalvy came to VanQuaethem Farms in Eden on Tuesday morning, Jan. 28, on the cusp of a provincial election to announce a $100-million increase in provincial funding for “risk management programs” (RMP) for farmers. The funding would increase from $150-million currently to $250-million over the next…