Day 1 - First impressions of Harriston

Harriston is the bustling centre of Minto Township. The main thoroughfare is Elora Street with Tim Hortons and the Community Access Daycentre at one end and the town centre, where we are located, towards the south.

We hope to use this blog to investigate what it would be like to live as a low-income resident in Wellington County and obviously with a focus on the four communities at which we will be based this summer: Harriston, Palmerston, Mount Forest and Arthur. We hope to explore the hurdles that they may face in accessing services that they may require, from meeting with an Ontario Works worker, to obtaining internet access, to finding childcare options. Today, we investigated some of the services on offer in the town centre.

The first place to explore in Harriston was the Library. This is open every day except Wednesdays and Sundays and it is the only place in town which provides free internet access. Patrons are asked to call ahead to book a slot as, not surprisingly, the two computers are much in demand! First-time users need to complete a form but the service is completely free. Printing is available at a cost of $0.20/page as well as faxing at $2/page sent or received. A more affordable option may be to go to the Community Resource Centre/Ontario Early Years Centre where we are located in Harriston where faxing is just $1/page. The library did, however, confirm that the Community Access Daycentre offers free computer classes to adults and the librarians will also provide help to those using the internet in the library if they are not too busy.

Next stop was the law office in Harriston called Deverell and Lemaich. An extremely busy secretary resplendent with bluetooth appeared from nowhere to inform us that they do not accept legal aid certificates and confirmed that they were the only law office in town.

We also stopped at a few other places in town. The Foodland was at the heart of the town centre and the Post Office/Home Depot was also very accessible. We popped into Harriston Bakery to grab two triple chocolate brownies and Devin will provide feedback on that soon…….