Harrowsmith Community Improvement Plan

Frontenac County Manager for Economic Development, Anne-Marie Young, accompanied by the new community planner, Reid Shepherd, brought some of the new members of council up to speed on how Community Improvement Plans (CIPs) can be used to rejuvenate and create opportunity for hamlets within the municipality.

With a CIP in place, the township is in a position to provide matching grants and loans to businesses in order to improve storefronts, do landscaping, and make various other improvements.

Frontenac County embarked on CIPs several years ago, the first one being done in Verona, followed by Marysville, Sharbot Lake, and the entire Township of North Frontenac. In Verona $45,000 was invested in grants and loans under the CIP and over $600,000 was invested by the private sector.

“It looks impressive,” said Anne Marie Young, “but part of it was luck, as Revell Ford happened to be doing their major face lift when the CIP came along.”

In October, county council decided to extend the program, and in December they chose Harrowsmith as the next CIP community.

Meetings will be held in Harrowsmith in the coming weeks to determine first where the boundaries of the CIP will be, and what kinds of initiatives fit the community best. One of the potential focus points could be a cleanup and preparation for redevelopment at the Saputo site, the former Harrowsmith Cheese Factory on Harrowsmith Sydenham Road near Road 38.

“The process will be simplified this time around,” said Reid Shepherd, “because an Official Plan amendment will not be necessary since one was done for the Verona plan already.”

Anne Marie Young said the goal is to have the plan up and running by the fall of this year.

“$70,000 is available for the CIP from Frontenac County, and the township might consider investing some money into it as well. For Verona, the county and the township each invested $40,000,” said Young.

“We can look at that for our 2017 budget,” said Mayor Vandewal.

Sydenham Water reports

Kevin Riley, from Utilities Kingston, brought what he described as a short report to Council on the performance of the Sydenham water treatment plant for 2015.

“Essentially the plant operated without incident in 2015,” he said.

There was only one adverse result from water testing all year, and that “turned out to be due to lab error,” he added.

A longer report into plant capacity was delivered by Kate Morrow and Jim Miller, who are also with Utilities Kingston. They presented a number of calculations based on current use and projected use, the upshot being that water demand might outstrip the plant's capacity at some point in the future. However, that day is not pending.

Easy consensus on planning matter

Planner Lindsay Mills brought a matter to Council's attention in anticipation of a request by a resident to tear down and rebuild a cottage that is located right on the water; in fact it is leaning over the water, on Loughborough Lake.

“The resident wants to build in the same location, but according to our bylaw he needs a minor variance in order to waive the 30 metre setback. There is plenty of room for him to build well back from the water so a variance is not necessary in this case,” Mills said.

“I would like an indication of Council's opinion, as they will be asking me what the township's position is,” he added.

One by one the councilors indicated they agree with Mill's position that the resident needs to build his new cottage 30 metres back from the lake.

“That's clear then,” he said.

Appeal period passes without incident

The Ministry of Municipal Affairs and Housing has clarified the wording in a clause they inserted into the Frontenac County Official Plan, and South Frontenac Planner Lindsay Mills has informed his Council that an appeal is no longer necessary.

The issue that concerned Council was over a clause prohibiting development within settlement areas or hamlets where public water and sewer services are not available. As Mills pointed out to members of South Frontenac Council at a meeting on January 26, this clause would affect development in all South Frontenac hamlets (and all hamlets in the entire county)

Even Sydenham, the only hamlet in South Frontenac that provides water for residents, does not have a sewer system in place.

The clause included an exception, however, permitting new development in cases of “infilling and minor rounding out of existing development”.

Mills wrote to the ministry on the morning of January 27 asking for clarification, and on the same day Damien Shaeffer of the ministry’s Kingston office replied, saying in part, “The terms 'infill' and 'minor rounding out' are not defined and allow flexibility for implementation based on local circumstances.”

Shaeffer added that proponents of development within hamlets would “need to demonstrate that there will be no negative impacts associated with the provision of individual on-site services before the development can proceed.”

Since this is already how development is done in South Frontenac, Mills did not feel it necessary file an appeal of the Frontenac County Official Plan by the Monday deadline.

Instead he sent an email to members of Council late last week, along with a copy of Shaeffer's response. In his email, he said, “This letter addresses the Committee of the Whole’s requirement for written confirmation of the meaning of the wording. Accordingly, no appeal to the passing of the County Official Plan is necessary.”

The Frontenac County Official Plan came into effect on Tuesday, February 2, having cleared this final hurdle.  

Council supports Basic Income Guarantee

In response to a presentation at a Committee of the Whole meeting last week by Debra McAuslan, Council considered supporting a motion that was forwarded by the City of Kingston in support of the concept of a Basic Income Guarantee (BIG) in the Province of Ontario. Speaking to the motion, Deputy Mayor Ross Sutherland said that the BIG would be an improvement because a lot of people who have little or no income, “own some property, and “are ineligible for support under current programs that insist applicants need to have no assets before they can obtain benefits.”

The BIG motion was approved, in a split vote.

Insurance extension

The township's insurance policy is due for renewal in June, and Treasurer Fragnito told Council that the chief administrative officers and treasurers from across Frontenac County have been discussing joint tendering for insurance services.

“I suggest we renew our policy for only six months to allow that process to take place. Then we can decide which way to go,” she said. Council agreed.

Surface treatment

The contract for surface treatment of a number of roads in the township this year, as part of the already approved capital projects for the year, has been granted to the lowest bidder, Smith Paving, at a price of $2.53 per metre for a single surface and $4.74 for a double surface. The prices are up marginally from last year.

“I'm a bit surprised that the price has gone up when oil, which is the major cost in paving, is now at $30 a barrel,” said Mayor Vandewal.

“I wonder about that myself,” said Public Works Manager Segsworth. “The pavers asked us to commit to paying more when oil was going up, but now that it is going down they are still bumping up the price.

Interim Chief Building Official appointed

The township has appointed Jeremy Neven as interim chief building official (CBO). The duties are an addition to Neven's CBO role in Central and North Frontenac. CAO Wayne Orr said that before hiring a full time CBO, he would like to see the first draft of an administrative review that is currently underway.

“We can't wait too long, though,” said Orr. “We can get along like this in the winter, but things change when the weather warms up.”

No Canada 150 grant

The township has received a letter from the Federal Economic Development Agency for Southern Ontario informing them that their application for funding under the Community Infrastructure Program for Canada 150 has been rejected. The township was seeking support for a $200,000 upgrade to the Storrington Centre in Sunbury. More about Johnson's Point

In response to a report for information from Frontenac County CAO, Kelly Pender, which will be considered by Frontenac County Council later this month, Deputy Mayor Ross Sutherland asked South Frontenac to make one more attempt to influence how the County deals with a plan of condominium that has been languishing at South Frontenac Council for over 18 months.

The developer has taken Frontenac County, which is the approving body for plans of condominium, to the Ontario Municipal Board because no decision on their application has been rendered within the prescribed time frame.

Although the County is the approving body for plans of condominium, it is South Frontenac that has been working on the file until now. Pender's report outlines two options for County Council: do nothing and let the developer win at the hearing, in which case the county may have to pay all the applicant's legal costs; or engage a lawyer and make a presentation to the municipal board. A decision on those options will be made at a meeting on February 17.

Sutherland proposed a motion that South Frontenac Council inform the county that “South Frontenac Council has significant concerns with approving waterfront lots in the vicinity of provincially significant wetlands.”

“When County Council looks at this, they need to be aware that this is a major concern we have with this plan of condominium,” said Sutherland.

“I have pointed them towards all of the material that we have received on the matter,” said CAO Wayne Orr, “and it is also available to the public.”

The motion was approved. The municipal board hearing is set for April.

Levy increase sits at $400,000 or 6.2%, but reserves remain at 2015 levels

Central Frontenac Council spent a day going through a line-by-line consideration of the township's 2016 budget last Friday, with department heads trooping up one after another to explain their spending requests.

Of all the numbers facing them, the largest impact comes from a $235,377 increase in the cost of policing, which the township has no option but to pay. That cost alone is responsible for a 3.5% increase in the amount the township will be requisitioning from ratepayers.

Among other fixed costs that are up this year are salaries – 0.9%; heat and hydro – 6%; and insurance – 4.4%. These increases are mitigated somewhat by an increase in provincial transfers under the Ontario Municipal Partnership Fund of $80,000.

In order to keep the budget from slipping into double-digit increase territory, Public Works Manager John Badgley has deferred the purchase of a vehicle for one year, and has restricted major road work to the south end of Arden Road, and Henderson Road from Hwy. 7 north.

A request to make a donation to Pine Meadow Nursing Home for new windows has been deferred to later budget deliberations.

The budget that staff presented to Council last week was more bare bones than the one that came out of the meeting. However, that budget also saw a decrease in reserves to 16% of the annual budget from the current 17%. The recommended level, according to the township's auditor, is 20%. Council has restored the reserves to just under the 17% level.

Council will look once again at the budget in early March at their regularly scheduled meeting. No further special budget meetings have been scheduled and no date has been set for adoption.

“All I can say at this point is that these are draft budget numbers. Council will have chances to make alterations before the budget is finalized,” said Treasurer Michael McGovern.

Ambulance service committee to be established

Councilor Tony Fritsch proposed the establishment of a council committee, which will include members of the public, to deal with persistent threats to the continued existence of a 12-hour a day ambulance service based in Denbigh and a 24-hour service in Northbrook. A recent report by the Emergency Services department of Lennox and Addington County calls for the closing of the Denbigh base and the transfer of hours to the base in Loyalist Township.

“The impact of that change would be felt throughout Addington Highlands,” said Fritsch, “because there would be no back up should the Northbrook ambulance be out on a call.”

As a member of L&A Council, Reeve Henry Hogg has seen repeated attempts to cut the Denbigh service, which was a 24-hour service until it was cut back in 2011. He said that one of the committee's main roles would be to contact neighbouring municipalities, particularly Frontenac County, for support in maintaining services in both Denbigh and Northbrook.

“Most of the calls from Denbigh go into Frontenac County, as do many from Northbrook, and pressure needs to be brought to bear on them. So far they have not responded to us when we tried to contact them about the pending loss of service,” he said.

L&A County Council has deferred debate on the future of the Denbigh base to budget deliberations, which get underway this week. The Emergency Services budget is not on the agenda at that meeting, but will be at a subsequent meeting, on February 10 or February 17.

More concerns about Flinton Library and its neighbour

Librarian June Phillips appeared before Council on Monday to express more concerns about how the Library property is being affected by the new tenants of the former United Church, which is located next door.

Last year the township agreed to transfer a small piece of land to the new owner of the church to enable a septic system to be installed.

Phillips is now concerned about materials that are located on a right of way between the two buildings and about the location of the survey lines that have been drawn to mark off the new boundaries of the former church property.

Reeve Hogg said that she could contact the bylaw office to deal with materials cluttering the right of way, and said if there are issues with the survey they can be looked at as well.

Requests

Peter Rasenberg will be able to use the Finton rink free of charge on February 6, assuming there is ice, for a fundraising tournament. All monies raised will go to the Hockey Skills program.

Land O'Lakes Community Services has made their annual request for funding support at a level of $1.25 per household in the township. The request has been deferred to budget deliberations, which will get underway in two weeks, before the regular meeting in Denbigh on February 16.

Water issues at new fire station

It seems that the cost of improving the quality of the water at the new Northbrook fire station will be absorbed by the township.

Chris Bent of Jewell Engineering, Belleville, sent a letter to Council in mid-January, in which he pointed out that the contract documents with the design-builder of the hall, TaskForce Engineering, stipulate only that a well be drilled on the property and a water supply provided to the building from the well. There is nothing about water potability in the contract.

“It was noted that residential dwellings in the vicinity of the fire hall draw potable water from wells on their properties. As a result, there was no concern regarding poor well water quality in the area of the fire hall site, and therefore, no consideration for the inclusion of an allowance for water treatment in the contract schedule of prices,” Bent concluded.

Fire Chief Casey Cuddy said that when the project was first being considered, water potability was to be included by Jewell, “but somehow it got pulled out as the process went along.”

“We need to get this dealt with,” said Councilor Bill Cox, “we have a nice new fire hall and we need to have potable water there.”

Possible remediation includes a water treatment system or a new well. The existing well is 300 feet deep, according to Cuddy.

Stylish privy in place

Volunteer carpenters in Denbigh have built and installed a new privy at the Denbigh ball-field. All that is left to do is install tin for the roofing, but the privy is ready for use now.

For the past 4 years Northbrook ambulance service received back up assistance during its day shift from the Denbigh ambulance service. Denbigh ambulance was moved to Northbrook base when Northbrook was on a call. That is, Northbrook was receiving ambulance service from 2 ambulances.

This will no longer happen if recommendations presented to L & A County Council on January 11, 2016 by L & A Chief of Emergency Services, Mark Schjerning, are put into operation (L&A County staff call for closure of Denbigh ambulance service, Jan 14/16). The 12/7 daytime service at Denbigh will no longer exist. The Denbigh ambulance will be transferred to Loyalist service to make Loyalist a 24/7 full time service.

This means that Northbrook service will have one ambulance 24/7 with no back up. It also means that Northbrook ambulance service will need to do an additional 190 daytime calls that the previous Denbigh service did each year. That involves 1/2 hour to get to Denbigh, plus 1/2 hour to return to Northbrook, plus the time required to complete each call by going to a hospital in Renfrew, Bancroft or sometimes Napanee. A call where the patient is taken to Renfrew would likely involve the Northbrook ambulance being away from Northbrook for 3 - 4 hours.

Under this proposed arrangement the closest ambulance service in L & A County to Northbrook service will be Napanee ambulance service. A second call for ambulance service in Northbrook's service area would need to be done by Napanee ambulance service. For the patient involved that means 35 - 45 minutes wait for the ambulance to come from Napanee to Northbrook and another 35 - 45 minutes to return to Napanee hospital. A call from areas beyond Northbrook would increase the response time and combined return time to Napanee hospital by 2 minutes for every mile beyond Northbrook.

Calls from or beyond Vennachar Junction on #41 highway would in all probability require that the patient be taken to Renfrew hospital or Bancroft hospital if the patient's condition or injuries were life threatening. Ambulance dispatchers are required by regulations to have the patient delivered to the closest hospital in life-threatening situations. For an ambulance from Napanee to deliver a patient to Renfrew and return to Napanee would require 4 - 5 hours.

This information is presented to show some of the ramifications of Chief Schjerning's recommendations. Our L&A County Council needs your input by whatever form best suits your situation. Addington Highlands' Reeve Henry Hogg and Deputy Reeve Helen Yanch need your support to help them resolve this issue.

“The last time that a woman was a member of the Central Frontenac Volunteer Fire Department was back in 1997,” recalled Central Frontenac Fire Chief Bill Young earlier this week.

That changed in December 2014 when Heather Rioux and Jamie Malone, residents of Sharbot Lake, who are both married, mothers of two and also full time employees at W.A. Robinson Asset Management Ltd. and Pillar Financial Services, decided to join the Sharbot Lake detachment.

They are the most recent members to join the 25-member force, 23 of whom are men, and the two ladies were honored as special guests at the recent Robbie Burns Dinner Oso Hall on January 23.

“It shows that the department is no longer a gentlemen's club," Young said, “and it's nice to see women stepping up to the plate and getting involved. It's great for the department to have women on our team, especially for medical calls, since sometimes female patients may feel more relaxed when being attended to by a female responder."

When asked what motivated them to join the force, Rioux replied, “I personally have had to call the fire department a number of times in the past for medical calls, and I just felt that if I was in a position to be able to help out in the community in a similar way, that I wanted to do what I needed to in order to be that person.”

Rioux and her family have been long-time supporters of the local fire department through their annual Al-Apalooza music event, which for the past three summers has included a breakfast for guests put on the CF firefighters with proceeds supporting the organisation.

Jamie Malone's reasons for joining the department were similar. “I wanted to help people in the community and I also wanted to challenge myself and learn something new. Part of my motivation was also to be a good role model to my two sons and encourage them so that one day they might serve the community in some capacity.”

All applicants must undergo a medical exam to ensure that they are physically fit for the job. Also mandatory is an interview with the fire chief, who accesses the applicant’s motivations, availability, and how they might handle and react to a number of possible case scenarios.

Volunteers are also required to undergo regular training sessions on Tuesday nights in Sharbot Lake and must also participate in a 40-hour Emergency First Responders (EFR) course and pass a final exam. The EFR course covers First Aid/CPR training and other medical and primary assessment training to ensure that applicants are capable of identifying and treating victims of stroke, heart attack, seizures and other serious wounds and injuries. The weekly training sessions also cover various fire safety routines as well as the mechanical operation of pumper trucks and other related emergency equipment.

Both women agree that it is the mechanical training that is the most challenging. “There is definitely a lot to learn and it is a long process but the other volunteers are patient and more than willing to show us the ropes and to teach us exactly what we need to know,” Rioux said.

Being on call is also something that can pose a bit of challenge, though in most circumstances neither of them are expected to answer calls during their normal work hours. That being said, both must be available on weekends and evenings and both understand that that is part and parcel of the job. Both agree that being female, and entering a department that has, for close to two decades, been all male has not posed any problems whatsoever. “We are treated as equals and with the utmost respect," Malone said, and Rioux agreed. “We have always felt like part of the group and have always felt that we fit right in.”

Since December 2014, they have both responded to over 60% of the 100 emergency calls that have come in. As new members, both also participate in a number of the regular events that take place in and around the community, including the department’s annual boot drive, pancake breakfast/open house and visits to local schools.

Their advice to those women who may have considered volunteering, but for whatever reason have hesitated: “There is definitely a place for women in the Central Frontenac Volunteer Fire Department.”

(note - after this article was posted, the township received a response from the ministry and did not proceed with an appeal) see the following update)

http://www.frontenacnews.ca/frontenac-county-news/item/10168-ministry-response-satisfies-sf-council-frontenac-county-op-to-come-into-effect-tomorrow

After a four-year lead-in, South Frontenac Council seems to have thrown a spanner into the works.

A last-minute decision to appeal one of the provisions of the Frontenac County Official Plan may stop it from coming into effect next week, on February 1.

Joe Gallivan, Manager of Planning for Frontenac County, wrote several drafts of the plan, pressured at all times from above (the Ministry of Municipal Affairs), and below (the townships' planning departments)

The pressure from below was expressed most emphatically by Lindsay Mills, the head of planning for South Frontenac. His intention was to keep the County Plan from being a prescriptive document that ties the hands of the planning departments in the township, and to make sure the wording was clear.

“I think the plan has come a long way in that regard,” said Mills when contacted this week.

On the other hand, the ministry was pressuring Gallivan to include provisions and language that would have made it difficult for residents and developers to build in the county.

On many occasions Gallivan talked about an urban bias in the Ministry of Municipal Affairs.

“They do not understand what is happening on the ground in rural Ontario, in places like Frontenac County,” Gallivan said in an interview with the News in 2014.

The final document that was presented to Frontenac County Council at their January meeting in Glenburnie last week, on January 20, included language that reflected a successful resolution of at least one major issue.

Based on a still to be completed private roads study, and under specific conditions, the ministry has agreed to permit further development on private roads within Frontenac County.

“It is now in our hands to determine what development can take place on private roads,” said Gallivan.

While the final version still contains provisions and some language that Gallivan said he would like to see changed, the benefits of having the plan in place right away outweighed his concerns.

“My recommendation is to live with this plan as it is. In my opinion there are no provisions that are in the way of the county doing what it needs to do. Compared to the opportunities that come from bringing the authority to approve township Official Plans to this table, our concerns are minimal,” he said.

In order to adopt the plan, the council only had to receive Gallivan's report.

“We only need to take action if we want to appeal it,” said County Chief Administrative Officer Kelly Pender. “If we want to we could but Joe and I don't see a benefit to appeal some things that are maybe not perfect but are close.”

With the plan in place, the county would be in a position to approve the Official Plan updates from North Frontenac, South Frontenac, and Frontenac Islands, which have been in limbo for up to four years.

“Once our plan is adopted, we become the approval authority for the township plans, and for Official Plan amendments as well. What took months, even years to approve, will now take weeks,” said Gallivan.

But before the appeal period ended, the plan was considered by South Frontenac Council on Tuesday night (January 26).

South Frontenac Planner Mills pointed to two concerns he has with the document. One of them, a typo in the document, had been sorted out before Tuesday's meeting took place.

But the other issue is a deal breaker for South Frontenac Council.

The proposed Official Plan stipulates that development within hamlets in Frontenac County will require that public water and sewer services are built except “for infilling and minor rounding out of existing development..”

“This is a real concern,” said Mills, “because the hamlets in Frontenac do not have water and sewer services. Does that mean that development is prohibited in hamlets, or can the definition of 'infilling and minor rounding out' be taken broadly? I don't know.”

Councilors Alan Revill and Mark Schjerning both said the township needs to get clarification of this latter wording before the document comes into effect.

After more discussion, the consensus seemed to be that the matter is too significant to ignore.

In view of the February 1 deadline to appeal, the direction to staff was to draw up an appeal to the OMB, in respect to this clause (section 4.2.1.6) regarding development within settlements.

After the meeting, Chief Administrative Officer Wayne Orr said that he will attempt to get clarification of the matter before Monday's deadline, but otherwise he is bound to proceed with the appeal.

The debate at South Frontenac Council took place in a bit of a vacuum because the two members who sit on Frontenac County Council and did not oppose the Official Plan at the county meeting on January 20, Mayor Vandewal and Councilor McDougall, were both absent from the meeting on Tuesday night in Sydenham.

As a mother, a registered nurse, and more recently the wife of a United Church minister, Debra McAuslan has witnessed the effects of poverty on people. She also remembers a time when she had financial struggles of her own.

She was living in London, Ontario, working part-time as an RN because she had a young family, when her first marriage broke apart. “I returned to my parents’ home in the country, and even with the help of my parents and my siblings, and a nurse’s wages, it was a real struggle for me to get back on my feet. For those without all the advantages I had, the struggle is massive,” she said, in a telephone interview from her home near Railton (South of Sydenham) early this week.

McAuslan has been involved in the campaign to replace the existing social support programs such as Ontario Works and Ontario Disability Support Programs with a Basic Income Guarantee (BIG).

“The idea is to take away the stigma and the penalties associated with maintaining eligibility for benefits, and save the cost of administering federal, provincial and municipal programs. Instead the concept is that anyone who earns less than the poverty line would receive an automatic payment to bring them just above the poverty line,” she said.

The idea of a basic income guarantee, sometimes under other names, has been around for decades, but has never been enacted in Canada, although there was a pilot project in Dauphin, Manitoba, in the 1970s.

The project was brought in by the Trudeau Liberals in 1974, and was abandoned in 1978 when a recession hit. Under the project, which was called “Mincome”, families registered their income and received extra money each month to reach the poverty line.

Studies of various kinds were done as part of the pilot but when the program was cut, the data that had been collected was set aside. Two thousand boxes of documents were released to Evelyn Forget, a researcher from the University of Manitoba, in 2009 after she undertook a five-year struggle to obtain them.

According to Ron Hickel, the man who administered the Mincome program, those who opposed the program did not want studies to show it was a success; and those who supported it did not want studies to show it had been too expensive.

Forget has found that the program was more expensive than predicted, but her studies on health benefits, measured by declines in hospital visits and other uses of the health care system, indicate that savings to that system were also greater than anticipated.

James Mulvale, a social work professor from Saskatchewan, has written extensively on guaranteed income programs. He said that there are a number of programs in the same vein in Canada, but they are targeted at specific groups such as seniors and children.

He favours using the tax system as a mechanism for delivering the benefit. Those who earn under the minimum would see a tax payment each year, and as income goes up, so would taxes, as is the case now.

One of the aspects of the current support system that most bothers Debra McAuslan, is the fact that in her view there is a disincentive for recipients to work.

“I know a woman who had taken a seasonal summer job and paid up all her bills. In August her cheque was docked. When I heard this I had a fit. It just broke my heart,” she said.

The City of Kingston passed a motion on December 15, 2015 expressing its support for the Basic Income Guarantee. A request to support the concept was sent to other municipalities, including those in Frontenac County.

McAuslan addressed the issue at South Frontenac Council on Tuesday night, January 26.

As part of his efforts on behalf of the Rural Mayor's Forum of Eastern Ontario (RMFEO), North Frontenac mayor, Ron Higgins, has been looking at some of the details in the OPP billing model.

North Frontenac is one the biggest losers under the new billing model, as their policing costs are to go from less than $250,000 in 2015 to over $1 million by 2020, and several details are among the issues of concern to the township. The largest cost factor for the township is the fact that seasonal residents are billed the same as permanent residents, but there are some other details that affect all municipalities.

For example, a shopping mall is billed the same amount as a private home - $250 to $300 (or more) depending on the crime rate within the municipality.

However, if a private home also functions as a retail outlet, it is billed for twice.

As well, cell towers are billed at the rate of a private home, and it turns out that wind turbines are as well.

Frontenac Islands is the only township in Frontenac County that has wind turbines within its boundaries. The 86 turbines on the island can generate up to 197 megawatts of power, making them the second largest wind installation in Canada, measured in wattage.

At a meeting of Frontenac County Council last week, Frontenac Islands Mayor Dennis Doyle said that he had been surprised when he saw the OPP billing for 2016, which arrived in December.

“We were dumbfounded by how high the bill was. When our staff looked at it we saw that we were billed for the turbines as well as the residential and commercial properties,” said Doyle.

Not only was Higgins interested in what Doyle had to say because he has been working on the OPP costing issue in his role with the RMFEO, he also may be looking at an added cost in North Frontenac.

The township was approached last year, as part of the latest Large Renewable Procurement for the Independent Energy Service Operator of Ontario, by a company, NextEra, that is hoping to put up 40 to 50 turbines in North Frontenac and create 100 MW of power.

The township has taken a stand against the proposal, which resulted in NextEra pulling an offer of an annual cash payment to the township. However, the township might still see a cost of $10,000 to $15,000 each year in added policing costs if the project ends up proceeding without municipal support.

Lanark Frontenac Kingston MPP Randy Hillier has been critical of the OPP funding model. He said it is unfair to rural municipalities.

"What is new to everybody is when you actually dig into the minutiae of these policing contracts," Hillier said. "This foolishness exposes the unjustifiable and often contradictory elements of this funding model."

In responding to media reports about the charges for wind turbines, OPP superintendent Marc Bedard of the Municipal Policing Bureau, took a step back from the issue, saying it is not a matter that comes from them but from the way properties are assessed by the Municipal Property Assessment Corporation (MPAC)

He said, in a letter to the Whig Standard, “Municipal policing invoices are comprised of household, commercial and industrial properties. The OPP will update the property counts annually based on MPAC data.”

Bedard also presented an alternate calculation of the amount Frontenac Islands is being billed for turbines.

“Frontenac Islands' base cost for turbines actually decreased from 2015 ($12,231) to 2016 ($11,970).”