Central Frontenac Council – Oct 11/16

Jeff Green | Oct 13, 2016

Central Frontenac to hire full-time fire chief

After receiving a consultant's report on the operations of the township fire department last month, Central Frontenac decided to move on two of the key recommendations at their meeting on Tuesday afternoon, October 11.

The first was to manage all IT functions of the fire department, including software, at the township office instead of within the fire station

The second proposal they acted on was to hire a full-time chief. This was also accepted by Council with little debate. The only question raised was over a third recommendation, to turn the two-day a week admin support position at the township office into a full-time position.

“Could we just hire the fire chief and let them tell us what we should do about admin support? The thinking is that it is easier to add a position than to take it away,” said Councilor Victor Heese.

Donna Longmire, who provides admin support to the fire department as part of her job in the admin team, and who also happens to take minutes at council meetings, was asked to comment.

“I do work that Bill [current fire chief Bill Young] asks me to do when he comes into the office, but if the fire chief was in working 35 hours instead of 16, I expect they might do a lot of that work. But really I don't know what is going to happen with a full-time chief,” she said.

Council approved the new hire and passed the matter over to the hiring committee to oversee the process.

Building report: another million dollar month

Building permits for $1.14 million in construction were taken out in Central Frontenac in September, almost double the amount in 2015 and five times the amount in 2014. That brings the yearly total to $6.4 million so far this year, up from $5.6 million at the same time last year.

Chief Building Official Jeremy Neven said that judging from the pile on his desk, October will be another good month. Permits for three new residential units were taken out last month, for a total of 13 this year.

Property Standards bylaw coming to Frontenac

CBO Neven reported that the Ministry of Municipal Affairs will no longer be providing inspection services for rental properties under the Residential Tenancies Act, as of July 1, 2018.

Neven said this will not be a financial hit to the township because it pays the ministry for this service and can contract the service to Frontenac Bylaw Enforcement, the company that enforces all township bylaws including the township's Safe Properties Bylaw, which covers the exterior of township homes and the surrounding properties.

However, the change will have legislative implications for the township. While more than half the municipalities in Ontario have property standards bylaws in place, Central Frontenac, along with both North and South Frontenac, does not.

The Central Frontenac Safe Properties Bylaw contains many elements that are commonly found in property standards bylaws.

In announcing it is getting out of the enforcement business, the ministry recommended two options for townships in the position that Central Frontenac finds itself.

They could simply enforce the standards that the ministry enforces now, or they can enact a property standards bylaw and bring external and internal standards into one bylaw. The advantage of this option is that it allows for a locally run appeals process.

Neven recommends that Central Frontenac rescind its Safe Properties Bylaw and enact a single property standards bylaw. He also said that since he is also the CBO for North Frontenac and the acting CBO for South Frontenac, he will be recommending that all three townships work together to see if a single bylaw can be enacted.

“I know what people say about property standards bylaws. For the record let me say this: I hate government, and I don't like the idea of government or anyone enforcing aesthetic standards on property owners. But we do have the opportunity of designing our own standards and making them reasonable for our residents while making sure our buildings are safe,” he said.

Members of Council were split on the matter. While Deputy Mayor Bill MacDonald said, “I don't see a choice”, Councilor Brent Cameron said he preferred to keep things as they are as much as possible, a position that was shared by Councilor Jamie Riddell.

For her part, Mayor Frances Smith was not ready for the municipality to take on more of a role dealing with issues that are often centered on disputes between neighbors, as enforcement of bylaws of this sort are only triggered by complaints.

“I don't think we should give up on the province providing this service, because if it becomes local the number of complaints will only go up. We need to keep lobbying.”

Six Feed-in-Tariff solar projects receive municipal support

With the intake period for FIT (Feed-In-Tariff) coming up at the end of October, six projects from two different companies – Abundant Solar and the Wintergreen Co-op in association with Soventix Corporation - were presented to council hoping for a motion of municipal support.

Four of the projects are 250 kw projects, and the other two are 500 kw projects. If built, the 250 watt projects will take up three acres, and the 500 watt ones about five acres. The ground-mounted solar fields would all be located within relatively large two to three hundred acre properties and would be set back from neighbors. Provincial guidelines also require that they are hidden from view by berms of plantings.

Councilor Victor Heese asked if the proponents have informed or consulted with neighbors, and Rob Hitchcock of Abundant Solar said that the small FIT programs, unlike the larger LRP (Large Renewal Procurement) projects, do not require consultation.

“But really, there is no impact on neighbours from these,” he said.

“But you could consult even though you don't have to,” said Heese, and Hitchcock agreed.

Brent Cameron said the township should establish a policy insisting on consultation before it grants municipal support.

“I will support these because there isn't much time, but we should do something in the future so companies know they must consult to get our support,” Cameron said.

The motion of support was approved, although Councilor Heese voted against it. The proponents will find out if their projects have been approved in the coming months.

Deputy Mayor Bill MacDonald said he recently was part of a phone call with Premier Kathleen Wynne as part of his role with the Provincial Liberal Party (he was twice a candidate in Lanark-Frontenac-Lennox and Addington) and he asked if the FIT program is on the chopping block in the wake of the cancellation of the LRP program last month.

“She said it was not, and I expect we will see hundreds and hundreds of these small projects now that the large ones are not happening,” he said.

Heat to be pulled from Hinchinbrooke School

Council followed the recommendation of Jeremy Neven to disconnect the water in the former Hinchinbrooke school in order to avoid having to put new heating tanks in. The cost will be $500 to $2,000 but will be more than offset by the savings in fuel oil. He described the risk of the building heaving and damaging its foundation as the result of frost as minimal.