Council size reduction to be on ballot in ’22 Central Frontenac election

Craig Bakay | Dec 01, 2021

While a bylaw to reduce the number of councillors was on Central Frontenac’s Nov. 27 (online) Council meeting agenda, it never got to a vote as Council decided to take the question to the electorate for the 2022 municipal election.

The exact wording of the question that will be on the ballot is still to be determined but will be something to the effect of ‘are you in favour of reducing Council size to five from the current nine?’

CAO/Clerk Cathy MacMunn told Council that if a simple majority of electors votes, the results will be binding on the new Council elected in 2026.

“I don’t think we received enough input (at the online public meeting and emails) to make this decision,” said Dep. Mayor Nicki Gowdy.

“We got about a 0.02 per cent response,” said Coun. Brent Cameron. “In no way is that representative of the community will.”

Some councillors were concerned about workloads should the number of councillors be reduced.

“We don’t know what’s going to be downloaded,” said Coun. Bill MacDonald.

“What would that do for people who have jobs outside of Council?” said Coun. Phillip Smith. “Would it limit the number of people who run?”

“I can live with either way,” said Mayor Frances Smith. “But I was surprised at the number of people who wanted the status quo.

“I believe people like to have the option of which councillor they call.”

Coun. Tom Dewey, who was the one who brought up the idea of reducing Council in the first place, was the only one to vote against a referendum question.

Re-zoning feedback

Generally speaking, public meetings on re-zoning issues are about 15-20-minute affairs. However, the public meeting Nov. 23 extended well over an hour, owing to the number of people wanting to speak and what they had to say.

At issue is a request to rezone a portion of a parcel of land at Part Lots 17 and 18, Concession 5 and Part Lot 18 Concession 6, geographic Township of Oso (the west end of Silver Lake) from an Environmental Protection Zone (EP) to a Rural (R) Zone to allow for development (construction) of a dwelling that is intended to be a staff residence building in association with a potential recreational commercial development.

The rezoning would be 1.68 acres of a parcel that’s 194.7 acres in total.

The property owners, Judith Smith and her son Ryan, want to put up five small (four-person sleeping capacity each), off-grid cabins, a communal washroom/shower setup with septic as well as a staff cabin closer to the lake, where Ryan would live while serving as on-site custodian.

Smith said that since buying the property a couple of years ago, she has observed people “using it as dumping ground and community playground (including campers and snowmobilers/ATVers).”

She said the reason for locating the staff cabin where it is was for “some degree of privacy.”

She said there is an older large barn on the property that they are renovating and that cabin renters would have access to the lake, although just where and how is yet to be determined.

In planner Jenny Kapusta’s report, she noted that concerns already raised by the community (and echoed in the public meeting) include:

• Silver Lake is designated as an at-capacity lake trout lake, further development will negatively impact water quality

• Applicants constructed a roadway and beach in a wetland area (disputed by Smith as she said that existed when she bought it, but two callers said they’ve observed trucks bringing in sand after the time of purchase).

• Environmental impact of rezoning an EP to Rural; why not just build in the rural zone?

• Species at risk may be impacted by construction of new dwelling and campground development.

• Limited details on existing and proposed septic servicing.

• Incomplete information on existing structures.

• This will make the third campground on Silver Lake.

• Will Ministry of Transportation Ontario require traffic turn lanes on Hwy 7 to accommodate increase in traffic?

• Limited details on future development plans.

• Proposal does not conform to Township or County Official Plans

• No Environmental impact assessment done, on a slope stability study

• Emergency vehicle access to campsites may be challenging

• Impact on surrounding property values.

And at least two commentors objected on philosophical grounds.

“Why are we even considering using environmentally protected land?” said Peter McMahon.

“Environmentally protected land should be a sacred cow,” said Hugh Voogt.

$2 million loan

Council approved taking out a $2,000,000 loan over 10 years with Infrastructure Ontario at 2.28 per cent for 2021 Public Works projects (Pavement Preservation program, Ardoch Road reconstruction and Road 38 shoulder restoration).

Coun. Brent Cameron asked if this could create a ripple effect. “Can we handle this on top of Westport Road?”

“Everything has a ripple effect,” said Treasurer Michael McGovern. “It’s within our (borrowing) limit but it is getting close to what the treasurer is comfortable with.”

New staffing

Council authorized the creation of two new staff positions, a building inspector and a construction and technical services technologist, as recommended by the HR committee.

“Our CBO has been so busy that we’ve had to hire someone temporarily but the building permit revenue will justify that position,” said Mayor Frances Smith.

Vaccination policy

Council passed an amended vaccination policy which now states “workers who are unvaccinated (and those who are not required to be vaccinated and those who are being accommodated under the Human Rights Code) will be required to perform rapid testing on Mondays and Thursdays before the worker attends work (and) there will be no compensation provided to the worker for acquiring the rapid test or the time required to complete the rapid test.”

Hinchinbrooke School to be sold to brewers

After the closed portion of the meeting, Mayor Frances Smith announced that the Township has agreed to sell the former Hinchinbrooke Public School property to Stephen Trussell and Jen Goodfellow of The Local Brewery. Details won’t be released until the deal is finalized.