Joelle Kovach
Joelle Kovach is a city hall and politics reporter at the Peterborough Examiner whose coverage follows how municipal decisions, health-related policies and public services affect daily life. Her reporting leans on concrete examples of local governance in action, from waste collection and child care to addiction treatment and transportation. She returns to the same institutions and decision-makers over time, building a continuous record of how policy choices play out on the ground.
Municipal decisions and city hall accountability
Kovach’s core focus is municipal decision-making, with an emphasis on city council, local representatives and the machinery of city hall. She has reported on contentious recreational infrastructure projects, such as planned pickleball courts at Bonnerworth Park that prompted organized opposition from neighbours, capturing both the political process and the citizen response.
Her coverage of the debate around closing municipal daycares traces the issue back to councillors, framing it as a difficult decision that rests squarely with city council and documenting how that responsibility is exercised. On the federal side, she follows how local elected officials engage with national politics, exemplified by her story on Peterborough–Kawartha MP Michelle Ferreri’s round-the-clock voting effort to “axe the carbon tax,” which details the MP’s tactics, messaging and alignment with party strategy.
Across these pieces, she treats politics as a set of decisions with tangible consequences, rather than an abstract contest of personalities.
Health, addiction and public services
Although anchored in city hall and politics, Kovach devotes sustained attention to health-related services and the public systems that support them. She has written about a publicly funded addiction treatment facility at Paddock Wood, explaining its 12-bed capacity, new withdrawal management services and the absence of a wait list since the service launched.
In that story, she situates the facility within the broader local care landscape, noting how self-referral works and what the expansion means for people seeking help. Her coverage of a Trent University professor’s warning about poorly understood vaping health impacts among Canadian teens brings an academic perspective into her beat, tying research concerns to local youth and policy discussions. In her reporting on a rental townhouse complex left with overflowing garbage after private pickup stopped, she treats the dumpsters as a health hazard as much as a housing issue, linking financial trouble at the property’s owner with conditions tenants are forced to live in.
These pieces show her tendency to approach health through its intersection with governance, funding and service delivery rather than through lifestyle or clinical angles.
Housing, infrastructure and the practical impacts of policy
Kovach frequently traces how policy decisions shape housing conditions and local infrastructure, emphasizing practical outcomes for residents. In the story about the Parkhill Place townhouse complex, she details how halted garbage collection at a 128-unit property creates immediate health concerns, and connects those conditions to the owner’s reported “liquidity challenges” and regulatory proceedings. Her reporting on Via Rail’s delayed return to Peterborough explains how federal plans have shifted from the early 2030s to the mid-2030s for passenger service along the Toronto–Quebec City corridor, with a stop in the city.
She notes that the project would restore passenger rail service lost since the early 1990s, highlighting the long-term nature of infrastructure gaps and the stakes for local transit connectivity. By tying national infrastructure timelines to specific local consequences, she positions transportation policy as part of everyday access to work, travel and economic opportunity.
When combined with her housing and waste coverage, a consistent theme is the translation of policies and corporate decisions into lived conditions in buildings, streets and services.
Real-time local updates and service information
Beyond structured articles, Kovach uses social channels to provide real-time updates on municipal services, especially during local emergencies. Her posts during an ice storm include threaded updates from municipal press releases, cancellations of committee meetings and practical information such as Public Works phone numbers for reporting downed trees and branches.
She reports the opening of arenas and community facilities for residents affected by power outages, noting locations and hours in clear, service-oriented language.
This live coverage complements her beat reporting by giving residents immediate guidance while also tracking how the city responds to crises. It underscores a style rooted in practical detail, institutional sourcing and an awareness of how information needs shift when local systems are under strain.
Across her work, Kovach distinguishes herself by treating politics, health and infrastructure as interconnected systems, and by consistently showing how decisions made in council chambers, corporate offices and Ottawa translate into concrete changes in services, safety and access for local people.
4 more health journalists.
Alanna Smith
Alanna Smith is a national health reporter whose work links health policy and politics to real access to care, with a constant focus on health equity, infectious disease and the toxic drug crisis. She reports for The Globe and Mail on infectious diseases, hospitals and long-term care, mental health, drug policy and the pressures on health systems in Western Canada. Her stories connect big-picture decisions to patients, families, front-line workers and volunteers, showing how funding, privatization and federal standards shape public care. She has covered trauma care inequities, proposed public‑private models in Alberta, drug toxicity and overdose policy, respiratory virus surges, measles elimination, gene‑editing advances and gender‑affirming health care laws. Her work combines narrative reporting, data, legal and policy analysis, and has been recognized by national journalism and press freedom organizations.
Allan Levine
Allan Levine is a historian and author whose journalism uses the past to explain present-day issues. He writes for the Winnipeg Free Press, including the Now & Then column, which examines current events through history. His subjects include public health, disease, medical treatment, health systems, politics, social conflict, strikes, wars, antisemitism and Canadian public life. His polio reporting traces Manitoba epidemics, hospital pressures, treatment, mortality and the arrival of vaccines through archival data and medical history. He also writes about the Winnipeg General Strike and Jewish communities, including discrimination, rights and security. His work draws on books about Canadian political leaders, Jewish history and the wartime economy, including The Dollar A Year Men. He writes long-form, analytical pieces that combine dates, statistics, policy decisions and narrative storytelling to connect people and institutions with broader historical change.
Angela Amato
Angela Amato is a digital news producer with CTV News, and her coverage is distinct for linking health research and public safety concerns to legal and policy decisions that shape daily life. She reports on health, justice, politics, business, arts and culture, crime and public-interest stories. Her health work covers academic and clinical research, including studies on vaping and lung blood flow, exercise tolerance and early heart dysfunction in young adults. She also reports on motorcycle gang arrests, homicide and death investigations, Indigenous justice stories, wildfire evacuations, ambulance contracts, property taxes, labour negotiations and political advocacy rules. She explains complex findings in plain language and stays close to documents, data and expert sources. Her background includes investigative and daily newsrooms, and she has earned nominations for national journalism awards.
Apoorva Mandavilli
Apoorva Mandavilli covers the collision of infectious disease science, vaccine policy and public health agencies for The New York Times, following how research, regulation and politics shape outbreaks and access to vaccines. She reports on science and global health with a steady focus on infectious diseases and pandemics, including Covid-19, mpox, H.I.V., malaria and tuberculosis, treating them as ongoing global threats. Her work explains complex epidemiology and virology in clear narratives about risk, evidence and the consequences of scientific decisions. She repeatedly returns to vaccine policy, law and misinformation, tracing how court fights and agency disputes affect immunization schedules and public trust. She also reports on global health programs, funding cuts and inequity in care and technology. A longtime science journalist and former founding editor in chief of Spectrum, she has written widely on science and health and received major honors for medical science reporting and pandemic coverage.