Frontenac Islands unhappy over extra gas going to trail development in North Frontenac

Jeff Green | Sep 22, 2021

Frontenac Islands Mayor Denis Doyle has a good memory.

He was a member of Frontenac County Council in 2013 when the decision was taken to transfer the “gas tax” grants, that the county receives from the federal government, to the lower tier municipalities (South, Central and North Frontenac and Frontenac Islands) who are responsible for all of the physical infrastructure, the roads and bridges, in the county.

Until then, the federal gas tax was split between the townships and the county. Before 2014, much of the county share of the money was spent on the development of the K&P Trail, over $2 million in total.

Since then, the funds received by the county have been passed on to the townships, effectively doubling gas tax revenues for each of the townships. Frontenac County has a different municipal structure than most in Ontario in that there is no county roads system, all of the roads are township owned and maintained.

In 2019, the federal government provided a one time doubling of the gas tax funding, and instead of passing these additional funds to the member municipalities, Frontenac County decided to use the money towards phase 5 of K&P Trail development, and the money was used to complete the trail between Sharbot Lake and Clarendon Station, almost to the North Frontenac border.

The federal gas tax program has been wound down, and in June of this year it was replaced by a new transfer program called the Canada Community Building Fund (CCBF) to help municipalities cover infrastructure construction costs on an ongoing basis. In the 2021 federal budget, the CCBF was doubled once again, and once again a proposal was brought to Frontenac County Council to use the money, $813,000, on phase 6 of the K&P Trail, the section from Clarendon Station through the eastern edge of North Frontenac to Lanark County where it continues on to Renfrew.

While Doyle did not object to the extra gas tax money staying at the county level in 2019, he objected to the proposal for spending when it came up at the monthly meeting of Frontenac County Council last week (September 15).

“I don’t agree with this,” said Doyle, “we agreed in 2013 to divvy up gas tax money among member municipalities.”

“This is an added portion, we are still getting a chunk of money. This is the portion that we gained as extra funding,” said Ron Vandewal, Mayor of South Frontenac, and Frontenac County Warden for 2021, “If we have to tax for building the trail, it will raise 2022 taxes for everyone in the county by ½ percent, before we even start looking at the budget.”

“On the Islands, we get no benefit from this. We’ve already offered you a lot of money for the trail over the years. I’ve always supported the trail but this is getting very sensitive on the Islands. We have already spent 8 or 9 million on the trail, not including staff time, and 10% of that money comes from Frontenac Islands. That’s $800,000 for which we get no benefit,” said Doyle.

“We have already committed to completing the trail,” said Frances Smith, Mayor of Central Frontenac.

“It’s not completed to Wolfe Island,” said Doyle.

“I don’t think it is healthy to debate it like this. Every resident in the county can make the argument that they are paying for something they are not getting. It’s the way it is with taxation,” said Vandewal.

“If there was a commitment to spending money on trails on Wolfe Island in 2022, it would be different,” Doyle added.

In a recorded vote, both Dennis Doyle and Bruce Higgs, the two Frontenac Island reps on the council, opposed the allocation of funds, which passed by a 6-2 vote.

This was not the first time, in the same meeting, where the Frontenac Islands expressed displeasure over trail development. A proposal for trail maintenance made reference to the possibility of a cycle trail on Frontenac Islands in the future, to provide a continuous trail option from the ferry terminal on the south end of Wolfe Island, which connects to the US border, all the way to the north end of Frontenac County.

Doyle said Wolfe Island residents don’t want it.

“We have upwards of 1,000 cyclists a day coming over on the ferry from Kingston,” said Doyle, “it’s already more than we can handle. Spending millions on a cycle trail on Wolfe Island is not popular on the Islands. We have said more than once that we favour the development of the Wolfe Island canal for canoes and kayaks for our trail link. It would not be that expensive to do, but the plan keeps talking about a cycle trail.”

Other items from Frontenac County Council

Budget input from the public

A public meeting was held to gather input from the public on 2022 budget priorities for Frontenac County.

All three of the submissions, 2 of which included oral and written remarks, were from Frontenac Islands residents.

The first to speak was Gord Johnson from the Howe Island ratepayers association. He talked about crowding and service interruptions on the Howe Island ferry, asking Frontenac County to make the ferry a priority.

Frontenac County operates the ferry with funding from the Province of Ontario and Howe Islands residents. Denis Doyle told Johnson that a report on the ferry service will be coming forward at a meeting of Frontenac Islands Council in October.

The other two submissions, one of which included remarks by Margaret Dochoda, concerned ambulance service on Wolfe Island.

“There is an ambulance station on Wolfe Island,” Dochoda said, “but no staffing. The island is large, when there is a call, the ambulance comes from Kingston. It’s a 20 minute ferry ride and then they have to drive to the call somewhere on the island. If there was an ambulance on the island, it would be able to be dispatched immediately,” she said, “we think Frontenac County should look at this.”

No vaccine mandate for Frontenac County staff

Frontenac County will not be joining with Hastings County, and the Cities of Toronto and Ottawa, in ordering all staff to be vaccinated.

Chief Administrative Officer Kelly Pender said that 90% of staff in the administrative offices, and among Fairmount Home and Frontenac Paramedics have been vaccinated, and of those who have not been, some cannot be vaccinated for medical reasons, and the others are subject to testing every two days and need to undertake an education program.

“We feel we have it under control, and can keep everyone safe. And If we did anything ourselves it would lead to a grievance that we would have to deal with,” said Pender. “For us, and many Ontario municipalities, it would be much better if there were a provincial mandate. That would prevent us from the cost of defending our policy in a grievance process.

Concern over the future of Internet projects

In his remark to Council, Pender referred to the cell gap project that the Eastern Ontario Regional Network (EORN), of which Frontenac County is a member, had underway, and to the change in the role of EORN, in regards to upgrading the Internet infrastructure in the region.

“EORN will continue to monitor what is going on and to advocate for the residents of Eastern Ontario,” said Pender. “In our opinion, smaller projects will not get the job done and we will advocate for a bolder vision.

“Most of the federal leaders are saying this is their number one priority. By the way they are talking about it, however, it doesn’t sound like they will be looking for one entity like EORN running this bidding process. They think it's going to be healthier to do an open bidding process. We will have to wait and see.”

Central Frontenac Official Plan approved.

It was an anti-climactic finish to a long process for Central Frontenac Council, staff and residents. Frontenac County Council passed a bylaw, without comment, which provided final approval for the new Central Frontenac Official Plan, which will come into effect.