“Dave’s going to do a great job.”
That’s how Tom Piper reacted to Dave Yemm replacing him as mayor of Nipissing Township, after stepping down as mayor due to his wife's health.
“This is going to be a long-term illness,” Piper said.
Piper says he was aware of his wife’s illness before the last municipal election in 2022, but thought he could look after his wife and also run the political affairs of the township as mayor.
“I told the council I was ignorant and arrogant,” he recalled telling his council colleagues of his decision to step down.
“Ignorant in that I didn’t realize how bad things would get and arrogant in that I thought I could do both. I realized two years into this term, I couldn’t do both. I needed to be home so I could become the caregiver.”
Piper’s resignation became official on Nov. 30. The following week, at the Dec. 3 regular council meeting, Yemm, who had been deputy mayor, was appointed mayor while councillor Shelly Foote assumed Yemm's former role.
What’s left is to bring the council back to its five-member status by naming a new councillor.
Piper said it was best he left at this point so Yemm has enough time to get used to performing the duties of the mayor before the next municipal election in October 2026.
“And if I’d waited another year, we’d be getting closer to the lame duck period for council,” Piper said.
Piper was a high school teacher for 32 years at the former Almaguin Highlands Secondary School (AHSS) in Strong Township. For him, teaching at the school was coming full circle.
Piper is a lifelong Nipissing Township resident and attended elementary school in nearby Powassan and one year at Powassan District High School before it was closed and all the students were bused to AHSS.
When he graduated, he attended Nipissing University in North Bay and then went to Thunder Bay to earn his teacher’s degree. “This was the late 1970s and it was at a time when there was a glut of teachers,” Piper said. “One in 10 teachers got a job.”
Piper got the teaching job at AHSS and a major reason for that was because he also coached boys’ and girls’ soccer and volleyball. He also coached the track team and badminton and ran the athletic association.
“So, I was a known quantity in the area,” he said.
Despite this, the first eight years were less than steady. Each year around Easter, teachers, including him, would be declared redundant and would have to wait until the Labour Day weekend to learn if they were called back for another year.
Piper taught every grade at AHSS, overseeing geography, history, law, and English — or as his students called it, “anguish.”
Over the course of his 32-year career, Piper also taught special education for 12 years and a further 15 years as a co-op teacher. Piper, now 70, retired at age 56 in 2010, just ahead of the opening of the new AHSS, not far from the old high school.
Before retiring, he had been approached by two councillors to run for town council. “They said it was only two hours at a time,” Piper said.
He declined at the time because with all the coaching he did after school, he didn't have the extra hours to devote to municipal affairs. But with teaching behind him, he ran to be a councillor in 2010 and won.
“I didn’t see the big picture at the time with all the behind-the-scenes work, but my interest was piqued,” he said reflecting back on his first term.
In the 2014 campaign, the entire council was acclaimed. However, two years into his second term, Piper found himself staring at the mayor’s seat when incumbent Mayor Pat Haufe stepped down as the top elected official.
“Even before he became ill, Pat said this would be his last term on council and told me it was my turn to step up,” Piper said. “I was ready to go. Pat was an excellent teacher and the staff was great. But it’s still a big change.”
At this point, Peter McIsaac was serving his second term as mayor of Powassan and he was also a former high school student of Piper's.
“So, Peter was already on council before me and told me things I should know,” Piper said. “And he would always point out my shortcomings as far as school went when I was teaching. I count Peter as a good friend and colleague.”
Piper said in a way, being mayor is like being a teacher where you try to help everybody.
“But unfortunately, you have to use the word ‘no’ sometimes and people don’t like that,” he said.
This is especially true, Piper said if someone from a large centre relocates to a rural setting like Nipissing — suddenly, what the individual was used to in a big city isn’t readily available in small communities like his or it takes longer for something to happen.
Piper said this is certainly the case with infrastructure projects like roads and bridges and it’s where he and council have to become jugglers, trying their best to strike the right balance. For example, Nipissing has a large cottage group who only live in the area during summer.
“So, they don’t care if we don’t plow the roads in the winter because they’re not here,” he said.
“But the roads still need to be plowed. Or what if there’s a bridge that needs to be replaced but it’s one they’ve never been on? The cottagers still pay lots in taxes, so this is the balancing act.”
As he looks back on his political career, there are three projects and issues Piper won’t see to their conclusion.
One is the Alsace Boundary Road connecting Powassan and Nipissing — a roadway that, for a long time, residents have asked to be hard-surfaced. However, neither municipality has the money in their respective budgets to surface the road to the satisfaction of its users.
“We can do it, but then taxes would have to go up a tremendous amount for everybody,” he said. “And is that what everyone wants?”
Piper said it’s the same story with the Hummel Bridge which has been closed for several months due to cracks, separation, and deterioration. Nipissing and Powassan don’t have the millions of dollars it will take to replace the 130-foot-long structure and are awaiting word from the Ontario Government if it will shoulder the majority of the cost to have a new bridge installed.
In the meantime, motorists have to use detours to bypass the area, increasing their driving times.
“You look at things like this and you feel like you failed,” Piper said. “These are the sad things.”
The third matter is one out of the hands of Nipissing Township, but one Piper would have liked to stick around for — the lawsuit against the township over what local residents call “The Rock,” a spot where young people would party and situated on land owned by an absentee landlord.
During the COVID-19 pandemic, the land was sold and one of the first things the owners did was erect a fence with the goal of building a home at the site. The owners asked the municipality to sell them a road allowance that runs by the property.
Piper said the municipality has sold hundreds of road allowances over the years, but the sale of this particular allowance was blocked by the group opposed to the sale since it meant losing access to The Rock. The matter is now in the hands of a judge to determine if the municipality can sell the road allowance, he added.
Looking back at his years in municipal politics, Piper said he’s met many great people — including many people he can call friends.
He’s particularly grateful to Nipissing-Timiskaming MP Anthony Rota who has helped his community with major projects like a new government dock and an accessible playground.
In addition to Powassan Mayor Peter McIsaac, Piper also counts among his good friends former North Bay Mayor Al McDonald, Nipissing MPP Vic Fedeli, Chisholm Mayor Gail Degagne, and Callander Mayor Robb Noon, who is also a cousin.
Although he’s no longer a member of council, Piper will still be involved with one municipal responsibility, remaining on the board of directors for the Eastholme Home for the Aged at his request for the remainder of this council term.
The town councils in Nipissing, Powassan, and Callander agreed he could continue as one of two representatives to serve the area.
In his post-mayoral years, Piper said he will have no shortage of things to do.
As caretaker of his wife, he intends to build lasting memories and he will spend much more time with his grandchildren and doing work at their property on Fraser Island in the township.
Rocco Frangione is a Local Journalism Initiative reporter with Almaguin News. The Local Journalism Initiative is funded by the Government of Canada.
