Council hears cyber attack averted, and department updates

By Sharon Harrison
Council business at Tuesday’s regular council meeting, the penultimate meeting for this term of council, included a cheque presentation to Wellington Rotary, along with several departmental updates received for information, where it was noted how the municipality averted a recent data breach.

Council’s final meeting for this term of council will take place Nov. 10.

Proceeds presentation to Wellington Rotary
Mayor Steve Ferguson presented $1,405 to the Wellington Rotary Club in recognition of the work they have done to support e-waste collection in the community.

“Wellington Rotary has a long history of turning community services into meaningful results,” said Ferguson. “The club has operated a community e-waste collection event for years providing residents with a convenient way to responsibly dispose of electronics, while generating funds which are re-invested right here in Prince Edward County.”

Albert Paschkowiak, environmental services and sustainability supervisor, explained how the County provides the collection opportunity in this arrangement.

“Residents provide the bring-your-own electronics and Wellington Rotary returns the proceeds into community benefits,” shared Paschkowiak. “So, today we are pleased to return those proceeds to Wellington Rotary Club, and say thank you for your continued commitment to the environment, and, more importantly, to the people of Prince Edward County.”

“Your donation of these electronic recycling proceeds to our club is a wonderful example of the County helping its community,” added Rotary member Howard. “First, by providing safe and convenient sites to the people to bring their electronic waste for recycling, and the second, by donating the monies raised by the e-waste back into the community for our many local projects.”

Finance/IT department update
Arryn McNichol, finance and IT director, provided some highlights of the major items from his report, where he noted the big-ticket items were the 2025 audit and financial statements which were successfully completed.

McNichol said they have also been working on the 2027 budget with the operating budget three-quarters completed. They are now working on some of the capital items and payroll.

“The intent is to have the mayor propose a budget on Jan. 26, and then staff present a budget sometime in February,” said McNichol, who stressed those dates were tentative.

He also noted how there has also been a lot of work done on the water/wastewater financial strategy plan, as well as information technology.

“Just one item of note, is that we did see a cyber attack (Aug. 30-Sept.1), and it was prevented and there was no breach,” outlined McNichol. “But at one point in time, we had 2.8 million events, and there were 2,000 events per minute.”

He said the IT department has a system set-up to prevent events like this from happening, noting the emergency control group had two mock exercises related to cyber events, and there will be further mock exercises undertaken next year with other departments.

“During the quarter, the County saw a significant increase in artificial intelligence-based cyber security attacks, including the largest attack to date in August 2026, which was successfully prevented,” McNichol confirmed. “These attacks targeted VPN access, public-facing web services, internet services, and email.”

He said, to better protect County data, systems, and services, IT will increase device and user management and continue to support safe technology use by staff.

Operational services department update
Director of operations, Troy Gilmour, provided an update across operational services’ three key divisions, namely roads/infrastructure, construction and technical services, and environmental services and sustainability.

He highlighted a couple of things, stating that all capital projects were almost all complete and are all within budget, but he said operating was a little bit different.

“We do have a couple of accounts that are over, due to unexpected equipment repair, we have had to ship out equipment and it caught us off guard, but unfortunately it has to be fixed.”

Referring to the “tremendously detailed report”, councillor John Hirsch said, he liked the way the statistics are produced.

“I’m picturing now one of our tractor mowers driving from here to Winnipeg, and that’s how much road-side grass we cut every year; that’s quite a visual, that’s a lot,” quipped Hirsch. “So, when we get those complaints that, how come the grass is now 18-inches high at the side of my road, we’re not back from Winnipeg yet…”

Housing services update
Elis Ziegler, affordable housing supervisor, said the report provides an update from housing department.

“The housing department with re-direct housing staff has been able to provide the depth and breadth of services the County needs, including people experiencing homelessness, and tenants and property owners alike,” Ziegler said.

They indicated the department’s single biggest accomplishment was bringing together with the housing corporation, senior-level government representatives, and five local builders of affordable rental housing, in the housing summit.

“It brought our issues to the fore in leveraging our strengths to make gains in affordable housing for our communities,” said Ziegler. “This report provides a detailed narrative on the relatively new housing programs. It also highlights the income side of affordable housing and the re-launch of the housing inventory, first attempted in 2018.”

The detailed departmental reports discussed at the Sept. 22 council meeting can be found on the corresponding agenda items on the County’s website, along with the meeting recording.