It’s time for the annual North Frontenac Back Roads Studio tour! This is the tour’s 4th year, and takes place on the last weekend of September. This is Sept 30th /Oct 1st in 2017. More Artists than ever are participating. The tour’s great success has brought almost all of last year’s artists and artisans back, and 5 or 6 more have joined. 24 artists will be displaying their work in 15 different studios locations. Several of the new artists are located on the 506 end of the tour, near Cloyne, which will give some new territory for visitors to explore.

Many visitors make the tour an annual event. As well as seeing the new work of your favourite artists, there will be new ones to check out and enjoy. A tremendous variety of work is displayed. At last count there were 10 painters with a variety of styles and subject matter, 5 fabric artists create everything from quilts to bags to clothing. Artists in three dimensions work in wood, concrete and scrap metal – one paints on gourds. There is a photographer and a jeweler working in gold and silver. Favorite stops are at an alpaca farm and at an artisanal cheesemakers.

Although the tour covers a wide area reaching almost every corner of North Frontenac Township, the drive between studios is worth spending a day or two on by itself. The autumn colours should be at their peak, and the hills and lakes of North Frontenac are legendary in their beauty. A more detailed description of the artists and their work would be too lengthy to cover here, but can be found on the tour’s website northfrontenacbackroadsstudiotour.com.

A map is also available there, if you have not been able to pick up a brochure already. Whether you are driving in from Sharbot Lake, or from Perth or Ottawa or Highway 41, the first studios will be easy to find and will have maps to direct you further on the tour. The North Frontenac Artists are looking forward to the tour, and all of them will make you most welcome when you visit their studios.

In this Canada 150 year, you’re probably thinking ‘where can I get some insight into the works of some of Canada’s greatest poets?’
Well, in the Central/North Frontenac area, there happens to be one fellow who’s prepared to help you out with that conundrum — Dave Dawson.
Dawson’s latest artistic offering is called Dave Dawson Recites, a CD where he does just that, recites selected works of Robert Service and Dr. Henry Drummond.

Service, arguably Canada’s greatest poet, especially when it comes to visions of the North, probably doesn’t need much of an introduction. It’s hard to conceive that any Canadian hasn’t been exposed to him somewhere in school and various other outlets. Is there a more ironically Canadian poem than The Cremation of Sam McGee? (Yes, it’s on the CD, along with The Shooting of Dan McGrew and other Service classics.)
Drummond, perhaps lesser known in popular culture, is nonetheless well thought-of in literary circles, being named a fellow of both the Royal Society of Canada and the Royal Society of Literature in the UK. Born in Ireland, he practised medicine in Quebec’s Eastern Townships (which coincidentally Dawson is also from). Perhaps his best known piece is The Last Portage (which is on the CD) as well as a number of pieces featuring Little Batiste (two of which are on the CD, Little Batiste and How Batiste Came Home).

At age 84, Dawson shows no signs of slowing down. He retired from installing telephone lines to pursue his artistic interests and now has produced 13 CDs (of his own songs as well as others, most notably Jimmie Rodgers), nine books (six poetry, two of short stories and one novel) as well as numerous painting on canvas, panel, paddles and milk pails. He said his next project is a CD (or two) of his own poems.
The Dave Dawson Recites CD features cover art of his own paintings as well as sketches of Dawson, Service and Drummond by Rose Wilson.
The CD is available for $15 by calling Dawson at 613-268-2797.

“We’re not here looking for money, we’re looking for ways we can help municipalities,” Susan Moore, president of the Friends of the Salmon River told North Frontenac and Central Frontenac Councils recently. Moore and FSR founder/environmental scientist Gray Merriam have been on a mini-tour of watershed municipalities spreading their gospel and offering their assistance in whatever capacity deemed necessary.

“We got a $200,000 grant from Environment Canada for studies that looked at 11 variables,” Moore said. “We didn’t find any problems.”

She then turned the mike over to Merriam.

“From its headwaters in North Frontenac and area, the Salmon River dumps into the Bay of Quinte (at Shannonville),” Merriam said. “We did studies (and) there are places that need work (but) it turns out not many and those are all in the south in areas of intense agriculture.”

And there’s the rub.

“You can’t stir the public to fix something that doesn’t need fixing,” he said. “So we’re trying to encourage people to look after what’s there.

“If you allow it, this could become another Muskoka, a string of time-shares. Lay claim to the riches you have here.”

Merriam urged councils to engage in regional planning and to share information through public meetings, watershed tours, maps, reports, signage.

To that end, the FSR has already published the Salmon River Habitat Strategy and a book, The Salmon River — Jewel of Eastern Ontario.

“Talk to your taxpayers and offer us (FSR) as slaves to do some of the work,” he said. “This land is not ordinary, it’s special.

“I can eat breakfast and watch mink or otter out my window.

“Offer that to people from Western Europe and see what they’d pay for it.”

Merriam also extended his advice to lake stewardship.

“Lake capacity is a ’70s model that’s based on phosphorus,” he said. “That’s rapidly becoming outdated by improved septic systems that deal with phosphorus.

“(But) human activity on a lake can’t be dealt with by shoreline management.

“A lot of lakes have reached their capacity through the music of boom boxes, not phosphorus.”

For their part, the councils were quite receptive to the FSR’s message.

“We’ll never become another Muskoka,” vowed North Frontenac Mayor Ron Higgins.

“We should do this (meet with FSR representatives) every year,” said Central Frontenac Mayor Frances Smith.

Merriam even had an answer to Coun. Tom Dewey’s question about how to handle “beaver problems.”

“From the beavers’ point of view, they’re doing just fine,” Merriam said.

Addington Highlands Council is interested in a joint Councils meeting with North Frontenac, just not on the timetable North proposed.

Responding to a request from North at its regular meeting Monday in Flinton, several councillors reported that they were unavailable for the suggested dates of the weeks of March 20 or March 27. Add to that Addington Highlands Clerk-Treasurer Christine Reed has already booked vacation time during that period and would also be unavailable.

On the agenda for said meeting would be a discussion of the Kaladar-Barrie Fire Department 2017 budget with Chief Casey Cuddy.

Council instructed staff to suggest April 5 or 7 as alternate dates for the meeting.

Reeve Henry Hogg even suggested a location for the meeting — Barrie Hall in Cloyne

“I can walk to there,” Hogg said.

Billa flint remembered
Flinton resident Dale Smart was at Council requesting a plaque be put on her house commemorating one of its earlier residents — Billa Flint, for whom the village was named (originally Flint’s Mills).

“He was also our first senator,” Smart said. “The town was laid out in 1860 and I believe the house was built in 1885.

“It’s the most historic place in town at the moment.”

Coun. Tony Fritsch said: “we don’t have anything in place (for things like erecting plaques.)”

“It hasn’t come up,” said Reeve Henry Hogg.

Fritsch suggested contacting the historical society to see if they had any policies or information on heritage properties.

“We’ll look into the for you,” said Hogg.

Tipping fee delay
Following the recommendation of Clerk-Treasurer Christine Reed, changes to tipping fees at Addington Highlands waste sites will go into effect April 15 as opposed to April 1.

“This will give attendants two more weeks to hand out notices,” she said.

One of the initial insights that analysts looking at the 2016 census data that was released this week was that urban areas are seeing population growth and rural areas are seeing a decline. But the fastest growing areas are not the downtown cores or suburban areas in major cities, but the communities that are located further out in the countryside,

While Kingston is very small by urban standards (too small to be properly considered an urban area), and it saw paltry growth between 2011 and 2016 (0.4%), the pattern of greater growth in the surrounding region did hold true. Not only did South Frontenac do better in percentage terms, (2.9% as compared to the 0.4% for Kingston) in people terms it even out-flanked the City. There are 533 more South Frontenac residents than there were in 2011, and only 435 more residents in the City of Kingston.

Loyalist Township, which encroaches on the western edge of urban Kingston, saw more growth yet. 4.6% in percentage terms, 756 more people.

The permanent resident population in South Frontenac is 18,646, up from 18,113.

As a whole, Frontenac County saw an increase of only 1.1%, 287 people, because of population declines in Central Frontenac and Frontenac Islands and very modest growth in North Frontenac

In Central Frontenac the population has dropped by 183 to 4,373 in 2016 from 4,556 in 2011 (-4%).

North Frontenac is up by 41 , (+2.2%) from 1,857 in 2011 to 1,898 in 2016.

In Frontenac Islands the population has dropped by 104 to 1,760 from 1,864 in 2011 (-5.6%)

Kingston and Frontenac County are pared together as census division, and in that division the population is up by 0.5%, an increase of 722 souls.

Addington Highlands saw a decline in population as well. There were 2,373 permanent residents on census day in 2016, down from 2,516 in 2011 (-7.7%).

Over in Lanark County Tay Valley has seen a small increase, at 5,665 as compared to 5,571 in 2011 (+1.7%) and Lanark Highlands is up by more, to 5,338 from 5,128 (+4.1%). Lanark County as a whole saw a healthy increase of 4.6%, mostly from increases in population for areas within the Ottawa nexus. The town of Perth saw an increase of only 90 people (1.5%) and Smiths Falls saw a decline (-2.2%), but Carleton Place is up by 9%, well above the national average.

The information in the census report will be used by municipalities as they plan for the future. The results, except perhaps in North Frontenac, are not surprising. Even in North Frontenac the numbers are so small that they would be highly influenced by any error either in the 2011 or 2016 count and might not indicate a trend of any kind.

South Frontenac has been concerned in recent years with managing growth and the other Frontenac Townships and Addington Highlands have been trying to retain the existing population and encourage growth where possible. On the whole, the census numbers indicate those concerns will still be with us over the next 5-10 years.

As a whole, the region is not growing at anywhere near the national average of 5%.

Hastings County is up by same percentage as Frontenac County, 1.1%, and Lennox and Addington is up by 2.6%.

South Frontenac and Frontenac County have both completed their budgets for 2017.  While it may not have been a picnic for either of them, they were both at a significant advantage when compared to what politicians in smaller, more remote townships will be facing over the next few weeks. Take the example of North Frontenac, which will certainly be hit with a monumental budget squeeze when they meet later this week to consider their 2017 budget.

One of the factors at play is assessment. Any growth in North Frontenac due to new construction last year was offset by a drop in value for existing properties. In the most recent assessment cycle that was completed by the Municipal Property Assessment Corporation last year, property values in the township were flat. The total value of properties in North Frontenac this year is up by 0.06% over last year, almost nothing. This means that all increases in required payments to outside bodies will lead to increases in local taxation. North Frontenac is facing a big increase in policing costs, and the impact of the Frontenac County budget on North Frontenac Township will also be severe.

When Frontenac County approved their budget in December, they announced an increase of 3.15%. But that number was based in part on a 1% increase in assessment in the county as a whole due to growth. Since North Frontenac did not share in that growth, the net impact of the county levy to North Frontenac is actually a 5% increase.

On top of all that North Frontenac is committed to a building project at the township office that will cost between $1.5 and $2 million. It will be financed over several years, but some money has to be put aside to cover annual loan payments in this budget.

The upshot is that Council may indeed be looking at a significant increase this year, and tax rates in smaller townships such as North and Central Frontenac and Addington Highlands are already substantially higher than those in urban centres and larger rural municipalities like South Frontenac.

North Frontenac share services where possible with Central Frontenac and Addington Highlands, and have offloaded some costs over the years for planning and IT services by contracting out to Frontenac County, but the tax burden for ratepayers goes up and up.

Combined with increases in transportation and hydro costs, it is becoming more and more expensive to live in small, rural townships. And since employment is hard to come by as well, it might well be the case in the not too distant future that the permanent resident population in small municipalities, which has been dipping slightly year after year, will start to drop substantially.

All things being equal, Ron Higgins is planning to run for re-election as Mayor of North Frontenac in 2018.

In an email early this week, Higgins said “When I took office as Mayor I said I would give myself 2 years to decide if I will run again or not." He added that he believes he has made a difference and with the support of his wfe Wendy is planning to seek a second and final term before retiring in earnest. He informed council of his intentions last Friday.

Most of the property owners receiving notices of assessment this week from the Municipal Property Assessment Corporation (MPAC) will be getting good news, at least as far as the impact of their assessment on the property taxes they will be paying over the next four years is concerned.

In South, Central, and North Frontenac, and Tay Valley, the average property will see less than a 1% increase in assessment each year between 2017 and 2020. As well, unlike in previous four-year assessment cycles, waterfront ratepayers are seeing about the same increase as the rest of the homeowners.

In some jurisdictions, waterfront values have even dropped between December of 2011 when the previous assessment was done and the end of 2015 when the new assessment was done.

In Central Frontenac, for example, the overall change that will be applied in 2017 is an increase of less than 1%. Waterfront assessments are flat, whereas the non-waterfront values have risen by 4%, meaning assessments for the average non-waterfront properties will rise by 1% each year for the next four years.

The net effect will be a flattening out or even a slight reversal of the trend of the last decade or more, which saw waterfront ratepayers assuming an ever-increasing share of the tax burden. Waterfront property values in Central Frontenac are, on average, about twice those of non-waterfront properties.

The average value of a waterfront residence in Central Frontenac is now $239,500, and the other residences have an average value of $141,000.

In South Frontenac, where the overall average increase is also less than 1% per year for four years, the assessment is about the same for waterfront and non-waterfront residences. The average value of a waterfront residence in South Frontenac is now $298,000 and the average value of off-water residences is about 10% less, $262,000.

In North Frontenac, where the overall average increase in assessment is also under 1% per year for four years, waterfront assessments seem to be up a little bit whereas non-waterfront residences have been dropping in value.

Decreases in assessment are treated differently by MPAC than increases are treated. While increases are phased in to flatten out their impact in the first year or two, decreases are applied in their entirety to bring all the tax savings to the ratepayer in the first year.

The average waterfront residence in North Frontenac is valued at $261,000 and the non-waterfront average is $118,000.

In Tay Valley, particularly in the Maberly/Brooke Valley region where the Frontenac News is distributed, the increase of 1% per year is shared more or less equally by waterfront and non-waterfront values. The average waterfront home in Tay Valley is assessed at $388,500 and the average non-waterfront home is assessed at $216,000, less than half.

In Lanark Highlands, while the overall average increase is 1.3% per year for four years, in the Elphin/McDonalds Corners region, where the News is distributed, values have dropped by about 5%, which will have a moderated effect on taxation in that region. The average waterfront residence in Lanark Highlands is valued at $325,000 and the average non-waterfront residence is assessed at $187,000.

Finally, in Addington Highlands, assessments are going up on average by 2.2% per year for four years. The increase, which seems to apply equally to water and non-waterfront properties, is driven by increases in values for properties located in the vicinity of Lake Mazinaw and points north. The average waterfront property in Addington Highlands is assessed at $226,000 and non-waterfront properties are worth just over half as much, $121,000, on average.

When townships come to budget time next year, these values will be supplemented by increases in assessment that come from new construction, and the tax rate that is applied at the end of the municipal budget process.

The assessments also demonstrate that the sale prices of properties in the region have been flat, even for waterfront properties, which came as a surprise to at least one realtor.

“Prices have not gone up as quickly as in the past,” said the realtor, on the condition of anonymity, “but they have gone up.”

Opponents are breathing sigh of relief, and the township of Addington Highlands is no longer in line for $10 million infusion of money over 20 years. All  three wind proposals in Addington Highlands and North Frontenac failed to secure contracts under the Large Renewable Procurement (LRP) for Renewable Energy Projects, the Independent Electricity Systems Operator announced this morning. As well, all of the solar proposals in South Frontenac failed as well. Two wind projects in Eastern Ontario did succeed, however, including a 32 MW project in the Muinicipality of The NAtion near Ottawa, and a 100 mw project in North Stormont. Al arge Solar farm in Stone Mills, 54 mw, also made the cut. We are seeking commetn from the proponents in the region to see if they are planning to bid in round 2 of the LRP

Here is a link to the list of projects that received contracts.

http://www.ieso.ca/Documents/generation-procurement/lrp/lrp-1-final/LRP-I-RFP-Selected-Proponents-List.pdf

It started as a conversation about how to deliver services to Norcan Lake, a waterfront sub-division located in North Frontenac that is accessible only from the Township of Greater Madawaska. It has morphed into a new organisation called the Rural Mayors' Forum of Eastern Ontario.

North Frontenac mayor, Ron Higgins, and Municipality of Greater Madawaska mayor, Glenda McKay, talked in the spring about the Norcan Lake issues, which they were not able to resolve, but while they were talking they quickly saw that the two municipalities had other issues in common. They then talked in general about shared services. The two met at the Eastern Ontario Municipal Conference, and their conversations led to an informal meeting of politicians from a number of small municipalities located north of Highway 7 one evening at the conference.

“We realised that we had issues that were different from the larger, less isolated municipalities and decided it was an idea to hold a meeting,” said Higgins.

A meeting in October in Madawaska Highlands was followed by one in North Frontenac in November and a third meeting this past Sunday in Maynooth, Hastings County.

At this time, the group has decided there are enough common issues to be dealt with that it makes sense for them to establish the Rural Mayors' Forum of Eastern Ontario (RMFEO), which they have done this week.

A press release was released by Ron Higgins on behalf of RMFEO. It says that the 13 member municipalities “have crafted a mission, vision and objectives. Its specific mission is to identify opportunities for collaboration to improve operational effectiveness and long-term sustainability, with a vision to work closely with stakeholders to coordinate common goals. Over the coming months a strategy will be put in place to communicate and work with other organizations and government bodies.”

The first issue that will be addressed by the group is the billing model for policing services that are provided by the Ontario Provincial Police.

“We have found some flaws in the model and will be doing some more research into the model for our next meeting,” said Higgins.

Three of the mayors, all from municipalities in Renfrew County, will be working over the Christmas holidays to complete that research. Once a report is considered at the next RMFEO meeting, a decision will be made as to how to use the report to try and effect a change in the model so that it is less of a burden on municipalities that do not contain a larger population centre.

Other issues that are being looked at include broadband service in isolated locations and the approval process under the Ontario Community Infrastructure Fund.

“One of our members was refused funding under that program on the grounds that they had a very robust asset management plan in place and could finance the project using loans. We all were told to put good asset management plans in order to be eligible for grants. We are going to look into the possibility that smaller municipalities are losing out in the way these grants are handed out,” said Higgins.

Over the coming months, RMFEO will be publicizing its strategy and seeking out other partners throughout Ontario to initiate collaborative discussions aimed at ensuring that small rural communities in Eastern Ontario and elsewhere have favourable and equitable representation.

The member municipalities of RMFEO include: Addington Highlands, Bruedenell, Lyndoch and Raglan, Central Frontenac, Greater Madawaska, Hastings Highlands, Horton, Lanark Highlands, Madawaska Valley, McNab/Braeside, Mississippi Mills, and North Frontenac.