| Nov 12, 2014


It has occurred to me over the years that there is an office in Sharbot Lake occupied by about 18 people who do the administrative work for Central Frontenac, a jurisdiction that has 4,000 houses and somewhere around 4,500 full-time residents, and probably about as many seasonal residents.

There is another office located between Ardoch and Plevna. Eighteen or so people work in that office and do the administrative work for North Frontenac, a township that has about 3,500 households and 1,900 permanent residents and about three times as many seasonal residents.

By contrast there are about 24 people working at the South Frontenac Township office in Sydenham. South Frontenac has about 10,000 houses, 18,000 permanent residents and about 7,000 seasonal residents.

My first question is, why are there two offices in Central and North Frontenac, doing approximately the same thing, for 6,400 people? I am aware that in 1997, when the current system was being created, it was hard enough at the time to put three townships together to make North Frontenac and put four townships together to make Central Frontenac.

This is not 1997, however, and looking forward it is harder and harder to see how North and Central Frontenac will be able to continue offering minimal levels of service without increasing taxes to outrageous levels. Increased policing costs will bring that situation into focus for the new councils in both townships as soon as they take office next month.

The second question is, even if the townships amalgamated, would savings in administrative costs follow?

That question is not so easy to answer.

Here are some numbers, based on the financial statements for 2013 in Central, North, and South Frontenac, all compiled by the same auditor, KPMG.

North Frontenac collected $5.15 million in taxation, and Central Frontenac collected $6.2 million, for a total of $11.35 million.

The combined number of permanent residents in the two townships is about 6,400, and including seasonal residents the total is about 15,000.

South Frontenac Township collected $14.4 million in taxation, from approximately 18,000 permanent and 7,000 seasonal residents, a total of about 25,000 people.

By that measure, property taxes costs $756 per person in Central and North Frontenac and $516 per person in South Frontenac.

There are other ways to measure this, however. Measured by houses, either seasonal or year round, there are 10,000 in South Frontenac and 8,000 in North and Central combined. By measuring taxes per building, South Frontenac charges a bit more than Central and North Frontenac.

Then again, in terms of service levels, South Frontenac has an aggressive program of paving roads and has curb-side garbage pickup, while North and Central Frontenac are struggling to maintain their existing roads systems and curb-side pickup is not on the radar.

In recent months and throughout the election, there has been more and more talk of shared services between Frontenac municipalities. That might involve a greater role for Frontenac County or simply sharing resources among the township offices.

The idea of amalgamating Central and North Frontenac is not part of this talk, but why not put it on the table?

There are people who say amalgamation has already stripped communities of their identities, and more amalgamation will only make that worse.

That could be true, but the point is that lower-tier municipalities deliver only a small basket of services directly, and it is expensive and hard to deliver those services to a scattered population.

If there are potential savings by cutting administrative costs, they should be considered by the new councils.   

Support local
independant journalism by becoming a patron of the Frontenac News.