Once More, Shame On You, Frontenac County Council

Jeff Green | Oct 17, 2013

Residents of Addington Highlands and North and Central Frontenac will finally have the benefit of a Class “A” Nursing Home, no thanks to Frontenac County.

A class “A” home is something that residents of Kingston and the southern portion of Frontenac County have enjoyed for a number of years. That’s because Fairmount Home, which is owned by Frontenac County residents, was the subject of a $17 million upgrade in 2004, an upgrade that we are still paying for through a debenture that remains part of the annual Frontenac County budget to this day. Fairmount Home’s operating costs are also subsidized by municipal tax dollars, in addition to provincial funding and resident fees. And this year Frontenac County Council has decided to go ahead with a $2 million upgrade to the Fairmount Home auditorium, an ancillary building attached to the home.

Municipal taxes are spent on many different priorities, from roads to waste to social services and education, and the fact that a relatively small amount goes towards maintaining a comfortable, caring long-term care facility located in rural Kingston just outside the county’s borders is fine by me. The residents of Fairmount Home deserve the best we can offer as a community, and that costs money. If that means some of my tax dollars help someone who lives south of the 401 get better long-term care, that’s ok too.

Over a number of years, municipal politicians from North Frontenac Township have asked Frontenac County to contribute to another home that is located just outside of Frontenac County. Pine Meadow Nursing Home is in the hamlet of Northbrook in L&A County. It is a not-for-profit long-term care facility that is community owned. As such, it does not receive operating funds from municipal tax dollars. It must get by solely on provincial funding and resident fees.

Land O’Lakes Community Services, the owner of Pine Meadow, does not have the kind of resources that Frontenac or L&A County have. Its reserve funds are measured in the thousands, not the tens of millions. It took a long time for them to get financing in place to upgrade Pine Meadow to the “A” class.

L&A County Council recognised this situation several years ago and in addition to handsomely supporting the John Parrot Home, a class “A” home they own in Napanee, they committed a small amount of money, $25,000 per year for ten years, to be put towards the Pine Meadow upgrade.

For a half dozen years, politicians from North Frontenac made an annual plea for a 10-year, $25,000 annual commitment to the Pine Meadow redevelopment project from Frontenac County Council, but the request was always refused.

The reasons that were offered were never convincing. On one occasion North Frontenac councilors were told that Pine Meadow is not located in Frontenac County - not a really good answer, when you consider that Fairmount Home is not located in Frontenac County either. They were also told Frontenac County was not inclined to support a private sector home, which Pine Meadow is not.

Frontenac County Council was also asked to help with the fund-raising for Kingston General Hospital’s capital project several years ago. Noting that KGH is the regional hospital, Frontenac County said yes, and have made an annual payment of $40,000 ever since.

Even when it was demonstrated that almost half of the 60 residents of Pine Meadow come from Frontenac County, that same Council turned a deaf ear to a similar argument that Pine Meadow is the regional long-term care facility that serves the northern part of Frontenac County.

The bottom line is that Pine Meadow has received no support from Frontenac County for its redevelopment. With a $40 million annual budget, and over $5 million in its working fund reserves, $25,000 per year was too much for the majority of Frontenac County councilors to commit to the comfort of the frail elderly who happen to live closer to Highway 7 than to Highway 401.

Nonetheless, Pine Meadow will continue to welcome Frontenac County residents with open arms.