The Ontario Municipal Partnership Fund was originally set up as a way to compensate small, rural townships for costs that were downloaded to them from the Province of Ontario in 1998.

Since then it has morphed into a means of helping those municipalities deal with the fact that they lack the property assessment that larger municipalities enjoy, but still have significant obligations to live up to.

The overall amount transferred through OMPF has been decreasing in recent years, but some municipalities have still seen increases.

In Frontenac County it has been a mixed bag. Central Frontenac Township will receive $1.66 million, an increase of $42,000 over 2014.

South Frontenac will receive $1.47 million, a marginal increase of $8,300.

The most disappointed township will likely be North Frontenac, which will receive $1.1 million, an increase of $29,000. However, since North Frontenac is facing an increase in policing costs of almost $140,000, the small increase in their OMPF funding is cold comfort indeed.

Frontenac County does not receive OMPF funding directly, but the province has taken back a number of the costs that were downloaded on the County in 1998, including some of the downloaded charges for the Ontario Disability Supports Program and some from Ontario Works.

The province calculates that this upload is valued at $3,300,000.

The townships of Addington Highlands, North Frontenac, and Central Frontenac have received their 2015 invoices for policing, and the news is not good.

Each of the townships will see an increase of $40 per household in 2015, the maximum increase that is allowed per year under the new formula.

In Addington Highlands, where there are 2,763 dwellings, that amounts to an increase of $110,000. The township paid $515,409 to the OPP this year, and will pay $625,000 next year. But that is not the end of it; the costs will increase by another $110,000 in 2016, and a further $27,000 in 2017 when the township will reach its target cost of $766,317, a 50% increase over the 2014 cost.

The News is worse in North Frontenac, partly because the old model was very kind to North Frontenac. In 2014 the township paid only $230,000 to the OPP, less than half of the amount paid by Addington Highlands even though there are substantially more households in North Frontenac. Controversially, households include seasonal residences, leaving North Frontenac with 3,464 households.

Based on the $40 per year increase cap, the cost to North Frontenac will go up by $139,000 to $370,000. But it does not end there. The cost will increase by $139,000 each year for three more years, and in the fifth year, 2019, it will go up a further $58,000. By the end of the entire phase in, North Frontenac ratepayers will be paying $845,000 for policing, an increase of $615,000 over 2014, or more than 300 per cent.

In Central Frontenac, which has 4008 dwellings, the $40 capped increase means the cost will go up by $160,000. The township paid $787,000 in 2014, and will pay $948,000 next year. The price will go up by $40 per year for another 2 years and by 2017 it will cost $1,270,000, a $483,000 annual increase for 3 years, or 60%.

The average ratepayer in Addington Highlands will see a $40 increase in both 2015 and 2016 and a $10 increase in 2017.

The average ratepayer in North Frontenac will see a $40 increase in 2015, 2016, 2017 and 2018, and a further $17 increase in 2019.

What do all these numbers mean? Taxes are going up.

The published photo of Kathleen Wynne greeting Dalton McGuinty at the Ontario legislature with open arms on the day of the swearing in of her new government, coupled with McGuinty being quoted as saying the recent election was a vindication of his time in office, was a bit hard to take.

After saying “I am not McGuinty; we are a new party, we will rule differently” from the day of her ascendance to party leadership until the day of the election 14 months later, Kathleen Wynne's smile in that photo had a Cheshire cat quality to it. Politicians are a cynical lot. They play a hard game of front page image control and backroom deals and counter deals, and Kathleen Wynne has turned out to be a master at that game.

All of us, the electorate, participated in the ruse, to be sure. We knew what had gone on under McGuinty and we knew Wynne was a loyal member of the cabinet that moved two gas plants, setting off a chain of events that resulted in a $1 billion loss to taxpayers. She sat at the cabinet table as the ORNGE air ambulance debacle unfolded. She was there all along and we know she was there all along. As his replacement, she profited from McGuinty's most cynical act, a prorogation of the legislature for a full six months after his resignation, for no other reason than to create distance for his party as they selected a new leader.

By all rights we should have chucked the Liberals out of power, but since the other parties, for different reasons, did not provide a safe haven for many voters, enough of us decided to swallow Kathleen Wynne's claim that the new Liberals would give us good government, keep up our social programs and somehow balance the books over the next four years.

Even so the decision to rehabilitate McGuinty right after the election came off as a slap in the face.

I recall another Liberal politician, one who in his heyday demonstrated toughness and a common touch in a bit of the way the Kathleen Wynne does, Jean Chretien. At one point he was asked about the Liberal party's past and all the miscues it made when governing in the 1970s and 80s, while he was a cabinet minister “I will not apologize for the past; I was part of it and I am proud of it,” he said.

Kathleen Wynne made a point of apologizing for the past during the recent election campaign. Now, if we ever had a doubt before, we know that it was the thinnest of apologies. In fact she was simply saying whatever she had to in order to give her party the best chance at re-election.

No wonder then, that voices as disparate as Susan Delacourt from the left-leaning Toronto Star and libertarian MPP Randy Hillier are now questioning the political party system. Hillier wants parties to respect the electorate by granting MPs and MPPs a greater role in all aspects of political decision-making, while Delacourt wrote about the idea of eliminating political parties altogether and running provincial and federal governments the way municipalities run, with independent representatives voting their conscience on every proposal that comes forward.

In the short run at least, neither of those things are likely to happen.

We live in an era of power politics. To the victor goes the spoils and Kathleen Wynne now holds all the power in Ontario in her own hands.  

Anyone who thought Randy Hillier would remain quiet about the fate of his party, and the province, after the recent election saw him returned as an opposition Conservative MPP, would have been mistaken.

He stayed loyal to the party message during the campaign, but now that is over, he has become more vocal in his critique of the leader and the party.

It all seems to have been kicked off by an Op-Ed piece in the Toronto Star by Geoff Owen of H&K Strategies, a volunteer who rode the bus and planes with Tory leader Tim Hudak during the election campaign. The article, titled “Why I’m proud of Tim Hudak” includes the claim that after losing the election  “fingers are pointed and accusations are made largely by people who were solidly behind Tim and his plan until the votes were counted”.

Describing this comment as “pathetic attempt at spin” on his Facebook page, Hillier went on to say that “not one PC candidate was informed of the 100,000 job cuts until it was announced. How could we be behind something that was purposely kept from us?”

He has since given newspaper and radio interviews in which he said that most of the Tory caucus wanted Hudak to leave immediately after a caucus meeting that was held four days after the election, but Hudak did not do so, although he has subsequently succumbed to the pressure and will be leaving when house comes back into session in July.

In a telephone interview this week, Randy Hillier told the Frontenac News, “I spent most of the campaign convincing people that Tim Hudak's name was not on the ballot here; that they were electing a local representative who is going to advocate for their concerns.”

This, even though as he said during the campaign and he repeated this week, Hillier is supportive of most of the thrust of the Conservative campaign, which fits with his own positions on many issues. The promise of 100,000 job cuts was hard for him to explain, however.

“The general thrust I absolutely agree with. Do we need to reduce our overhead? Yes, but we should not do it in a vindictive manner but rather in a thoughtful and reasonable way that is not detrimental to families and people in the province,” he said.

Now that Mr. Hudak will be resigning, rather than focussing on leadership, Hillier says the party needs to look at the way it operates rather than simply selecting a new leader. He has written a letter to the president of the party, Richard Ciano and all the riding presidents, asking that they consider making changes in the name of democratizing the way policy decisions are made and allowing for a greater role for local MPPs.

In the letter he says that since 2003 when they lost power to the Liberals the party has moved to the left and to the right without success, suggesting that something more fundamental must be attempted.

“There are other challenges we face as we rebuild, and one of those will include defining who we are as a party. I believe our brand should be simple and clear, that we as a party are willing to put public interests above all else. The discussion of centre, right or left is becoming moot to the majority of the public. There is an unsated appetite for responsible and accountable elected officials who will act upon the public’s best interests on the matters that affect them most, and care little about where a policy may sit on the political spectrum, or which party it originated from.”

Among the proposals he made are: to have powerful positions in the legislature, such as house leader, caucus chair, whip, deputy whip, deputy speaker and committee chairs chosen through a caucus election instead of being appointed by the leader; fiscal transparency concerning finances and the use of fundraising dollars; a one-member one-vote system for selecting the party leader; and creating an open forum for party members to express ideas without fear of reprisal from the party establishment. In all, he made ten proposals in his letter.

He concludes the letter with the following: “By establishing these and similar tools to recover the correct and rightful position of the individuals and elected members in our representative democracy, when we begin to welcome all individuals into our political home - we will be rewarded with more people naturally finding the PC Party a comfortable place to call home."

Randy Hillier is not expected to seek the leadership of the party when a leadership contest takes place.

Earlier this week we conducted phone interviews with the four candidates who will be on the ballot on June 12.

The profiles in our election primer, which is on page 10, are based on those interviews and statements made by the candidates at two all-candidates’ meetings we organized, in Arden on May 26 and in Verona on June 2. The candidates were all gracious enough to attend both meetings and answered all the questions that were put them by the public.

While there were contentious issues raised at the meetings and the candidates sometimes responded angrily to what was being said, particularly when it reflected on their own character, the debate remained civil. As observers of this election will know, the parties are far apart on a number of issues and this was reflected in the debates and in the profiles.

Green Party – Cam Mather

Liberal Party - Bill MacDonald

New Democratic Party - Dave Parkhill

Progressive Conservative – Randy Hillier

Our next issue will come out on election day and thus will have no election-related content. We will post the riding results on Fronternacnews.ca as soon as they come in.

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Green Party – Cam Mather

Cam Mather is the only first time candidate in Frontenac Lennox and Addington in this election.

Although new to electoral politics, he has been active politically as an advocate for energy conservation and local food production for a number of years.

He also comes by his Green Party affiliation honestly. He moved, with his wife Michelle, to an off-grid farm property near the border between Central Frontenac and Stone Mills. He has been active in the Tamworth-Erinsville area in developing a market for local food and has also published a number of books on small-scale farming, sustainable living and renewable energy through Aztext Press. He also lectures, conducts workshops and keeps up a blog about a variety of issues.

Among his books are “Little House off the Grid”, “Thriving During Challenging Times” and “The All You Can Eat Gardening Handbook”.

He is combining his campaign with some intensive garden work as he tends a patch that provides vegetables for 40 customers in Tamworth and Napanee who subscribe to his Community Supported Agriculture business.

So what would draw someone who has already found other political outlets into the rough and tumble world of provincial electoral politics in a riding where the Green Party only received 3.9% of the vote in 2011, down from a high of 7.2% four years earlier?

“It's true I have always been politically active and Michelle and I decided 15 years ago that we wanted to learn how to live a more or less typical North American lifestyle without hydro. But when I see that climate change is not something in the future, it is happening now, it was kind of a call to action,” he said.

Mather's main point, which he has been emphasizing at all opportunities, is that Ontario needs to institute a carbon pricing system.

“It works like this. A surcharge is put on all carbon-based energy that comes into the province, whether it be natural gas or oil, but not electricity any more because the province has now closed all its coal-fired electricity plants. That money will not stay with the government. It will go into a fund, and each quarter we will cut a cheque to each resident.

“We hope and expect people will use that money to improve the efficiency of their homes with new windows, insulation, and wood stoves. There are all sorts of things that can be done to cut energy use and energy costs. All of those activities can't be done from overseas, they will have to create local jobs to do the work that is needed and that is good for the local economy.”

He said that unlike all the other parties, the Greens are willing to talk about climate change, which he said is not an issue that anyone wants to deal with but will overshadow all the other issues that are being discussed during this election.

“None of those issues can compare with the implications of climate change,” he said. “We had a drought in the summer of 2012 that was more intense than any we have ever had. We had a polar vortex this winter; we never had a polar vortex. The change is here and if we don’t start addressing it right now all the talk about jobs and tax cuts and services and health care will come to nothing.”

He said that he would rather be home right now than out on the campaign trail, particularly in planting season, but, “None of us have that luxury right now. It is imperative that we speak the truth and put a price on carbon before it is too late.”

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Liberal Party - Bill MacDonald

After the last provincial election in 2011, Bill MacDonald was spent. He had campaigned hard and expected a better result than a distant second place finish. At the time he said he would not be running again.

Well, things changed. Bill MacDonald was nominated once again by the Liberal Association in Lanark Frontenac Lennox and Addington and he has been campaigning in high gear since the writ was dropped for the election on June 12.

“The reason that I am running again is simple. It is because of the actions of our current representative over the last year and a half. This riding cannot afford another term like this.”

MacDonald points to the drought of the summer of 2012 when a program to transport hay to the region was set up.

“The Liberal riding association was contacted by the Lanark Federation of Agriculture to help secure some government support, and we managed to get $500,000 invested to help with the whole program. Through the entire process our local representative did not do anything, did not say anything about the program,” he said.

“His record on voting for things in our riding is terrible. He did not support a seniors’ tax credit, risk management for farms; he is against supply management programs. I'm not doing this for any gain for myself. I just feel so strongly, especially in this election, which I feel is the most important election we've had in 25 years, that because I am knowledgeable about how things work in government, I would be as good as any other representative from here.”

MacDonald does not think that the much talked about gas plant is of concern to voters in this riding.

“People are more concerned about the Conservative pledge to cut 100,000 jobs and all the spin off job losses that will come from that. All the parties would have cancelled that gas plant, and jobs are coming to this riding because the gas plant was moved,” he said.

He also thinks that while the Liberal party has made investments in the riding, such as new schools, and road and bridge work, having an MPP spending time promoting local projects would yield dividends.

“Frontenac County is the only county I know of that does not have a long term care facility in its borders. We own Fairmount Home but it is located in the City of Kingston and most of the beds are used by Kingston residents. There are homes in Lanark and Lennox and Addington to be sure, but none in Frontenac. And the last time Frontenac County had an MPP at Queen's Park was Jack Simmonet in the 1960s. I would work for the entire riding to be sure, but my question is about who has been working for Frontenac County in recent years.”

MacDonald has been involved in municipal politics for over 20 years, while running a forestry business in Frontenac County. He said that his experience in municipal politics under the Mike Harris government in the 1990s makes him fear that a Conservative government under Tim Hudak would result in lower levels of municipal service and higher costs.

“We lived with the downloading once. I spent my municipal career living with it while property taxes jumped and jumped. We don't want to go back to that again. I believe in building things up, in jobs and in the future, not in tearing things down,” he said.

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New Democratic Party - Dave Parkhill

Dave Parkhill likes to say he knows the Lanark Frontenac Lennox and Addington (LFL&A) riding, particularly the Frontenac County end of it, from the inside out.

“I've started hearts in this riding, and I've delivered babies in this riding; I'm a paramedic,” he has been saying in his stump speeches during the campaign.

Although Parkhill lives in Kingston, as was pointed out by a questioner in one of the candidates' debates, he worked for a number of years out of the Parham ambulance base.

He said he has "travelled the roads to Vennachar, Holleford Road, 5th Depot Lake, everywhere in Frontenac and L&A. I've talked to people across the riding and I can see what they are dealing with, and there is a lot of poverty and a lot of needs that aren't being addressed by the Liberal government.”

In this campaign, his second in this riding, Dave Parkhill has been pointed in his critique of both the Liberal and Conservative parties. “The Liberals stole your money and the Conservatives are planning to gut all the services you rely on,” he said at this week's candidates' meeting in Verona.

He dismisses calls for strategic voting, particularly in LFL&A.

“In this riding, a vote against Randy Hillier is a strategic vote. It's the only way to send a message to the Conservatives that theirs is not the style of government that people want,” he said.

(Hillier received over 50% of the vote in the 2011 election)

At an all-candidates' meeting in Carleton Place, there was a smattering of boos for his message late in the meeting. He said afterwards the boos came from a number of formers members of the Lanark Landowners, the group that Randy Hillier headed before running for office. “'Boo, what are you talking about boo?' I told them, 'you drove tractors to Parliament Hill. What did that get you? Nothing. You sent Hillier to Toronto. What did that get you? Nothing.'”

He has been supportive of his party in response to questions about party leader Andrea Horwath's decision to trigger the current election by rejecting the left leaning budget of the ruling Liberal Party, saying that only the NDP understood the will of the voters who chose a minority government.

"The Conservatives said no to everything from the start and the Liberals want to rule as if they have a majority; only the NDP has shown any spirit of co-operation,” he said.

At the same time, not having a party platform in place at the beginning of the campaign was a frustration for him. “I feel it is easier now that the campaign has been released and I can say clearly what we will do if elected,” he said.

Although the platform is a bit more centrist than his own politics, that does not make Dave Parkhill any less of an NDP loyalist.

“The platform is a little softer on the corporate agenda than I would be, and I would also emphasize more about wanting to bring Hydro back into one house.”

He added that the long-standing party policies are the “bread and butter of the party, the air that we breathe,” while the platform is more of an immediate document with a time-specific message.

“The platform takes the policies and modifies them in a way that can best appeal to the public. I don't think I would have done it quite the way the party did it, but I'll own it. It is our platform,” he said.

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Progressive Conservative – Randy Hillier

Randy Hillier says that when he started his career in electoral politics, seeking the Progressive Conservative nomination for the then newly constituted Lanark-Frontenac-Lennox and Addington riding in 2007, people warned him that electoral politics would change him.

At the time Hillier had recently resigned as president of the Ontario Landowners Association, which was known for tractor rallies in capital cities, deer culls, and political confrontations at farm and sawmill gates with federal and provincial bureaucrats.

“I said, ‘let's see who changes first, Queen's Park or me’. I think my record shows that I'm the same guy now that I was when I was first elected in 2007,” Hillier said.

He said that he sees the role of MPP as “fundamentally being the best advocate for my constituents, having an accessible ear and a compassion for the burdens and the unfairness that people face. Secondly, the role is to advance legislation and work on the administration of government, and lessen the need for an ombudsman. I have been very successful doing that for the last two terms and people are looking for me to continue.”

He said that one thing that he does not do is send out form letters to constituents.

“When someone needs assistance and all they receive from a ministry or a government department is a form letter, it doesn't help them. I do things much, much differently. When people have problems I make phone calls and I get them fixed.”

Two of the issues that he has worked on over the last year or so are advocating for recognition and proper treatment for Lyme disease and acting on constituent complaints about hydro billing, which led to a full scale report by the Ontario Ombudsman and the firing of some top level officials at Hydro One.

When asked at one of the all-candidates’ meetings if he supports the Conservative Party platform for this election, including the cutting of 100,000 public sector jobs, he said that he thinks the platform is a good one.

“Those jobs are not front-line service provider jobs; they are administrative and they will be done, for the most part, by a hiring freeze and attrition. The public service has grown by leaps and bounds in recent years, to 1.2 million”

He is also a supporter of the party position on corporate tax cuts, although he emphasizes another aspect of that policy. “The Liberal government engaged in $2.5 billion each year in corporate give-aways, subsidies to profitable corporations that are friendly with the Liberal party. The first thing we will do is end that practice.”

Although he did recognize, when pressed, that his party’s claim that they will create 1 million jobs if elected is more of a prediction than anything else, he said, “What we are trying to convey is that we have the capacity to create jobs if policies were in place that are conducive to job creation. We could have over a million more people working in eight years than are working now. The important thing is to reverse the trend of people leaving Ontario, as 150,000 have done, because of a lack of opportunity in a province that used to attract people.”

One of Randy Hillier's main political issues is the web of provincial regulations that he says are a major barrier to all sorts of small rural businesses, from farmers to loggers to tradespeople and beyond.

“There are thousands and thousands of regulations. They cost money to navigate through; they cost money to enforce; and many of them serve little or no purpose,” he said. “It is time someone went through them and decides which ones are important and useful, and which ones are not.”

 

 

 

 

 

 

The candidates were not surprised that the most popular line of questioning at the first all-candidates’ meeting in Lanark-Frontenac-Lennox and Addington in the current election campaign had to do with power generation and electricity rates. The meeting was held on May 26 at the Kennebec Community Centre in Arden.

“I've seen that at the door throughout the campaign. People want to talk about hydro rates, and where we are going with hydro generation in this province,” said NDP candidate Dave Parkhill after the meeting, an observation that was shared by Liberal Party candidate Bill MacDonald.

The four candidates, MPP Randy Hillier from the Progressive Conservatives and Green Party candidate Cam Mather along with Parkhill and MacDonald, were all happy to advocate for their party’s position on the issues that were brought forward. And the parties certainly have disparate views.

Dave Parkhill said that what is needed is to bring back the past. “The Conservatives made a mess of Hydro by splitting it into three entities; the Liberals made it worse, and here we are. What the NDP will do, and it won't be easy, is bring it back into one company. That way we can all decide what we all need to do in the future, we can build out our own capacity, and we can get the electricity that we need at a price that we can afford,” he said.

Randy Hillier said there were two main causes of problems at Hydro: decisions that the Liberal party made to move two generating plants “at a cost of over $1 billion, and a Green Energy Act that pays way over market value for solar and wind power, making good money for some people by pushing rates up for everyone else.”

Cam Mather said the other parties are all avoiding the most “pressing issue facing all of us, climate change ... the only way to deal with this is to put a tax on carbon. I know no one wants to talk about it but that's what needs to happen; we cannot afford to pretend there is no economic cost to producing carbon.”

Bill MacDonald supported the Green Energy Act, and moving one of the proposed gas plants into the LFL&A riding from Mississauga.

“By the end of this year, there will be no more coal-fired plants in Ontario. That's a promise we made when we were elected in 2003 and we are delivering, and the Green Energy Act has created good jobs in rural Ontario. Why would we apologize for that? As far as the gas plants are concerned, they will be creating construction jobs in this riding over the next two years and 30 to 40 permanent jobs after that.”

The candidates took time during their opening remarks to point to some of their own, and their parties’ key issues.

Dave Parkhill addressed the question of the NDP being targeted for causing the election to come about.

“When the people of Ontario sent a minority government to Queen's Park, they were telling all the parties to work together. The Conservatives said no from the start, and the Liberals responded by saying they could govern as if they had a majority. It is only the NDP who listened. We said we would only support the first budget with changes, and the second as well. But this last time Kathleen Wynne said, this is it, take it or leave it,” he said.

Randy Hillier said, “I have represented this riding for seven years, and in my first campaign I made a few promises. One was that I would represent this riding to Queen's Park and that my allegiance was to the constituents, not the party. I have held to that, and it has caused some problems, but I can say that everyone at Queen's Park respects me for it.”

Bill MacDonald addressed the local audience. “When you wonder why it is there is no long-term care facility in Frontenac County, and why there are other infrastructure deficits here, you might consider that the last time there was an MPP at Queen's Park from Frontenac County was Jack Simonett in 1963. I'm not saying MPs only serve their home county, because I would work for all three, but it might be time to send someone from Frontenac County to Queen's Park.”

Cam Mather stressed climate change from the start.

“All of the issues the other candidates are discussing will come to nothing in the face of climate change. Putting a price on carbon means that energy is going to be more expensive under the Green Party, but we have lots ways to deal with it, especially for those who can't afford it.”

Feature Article January 27, 2005

Feature article January 27, 2005

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Protected Areas -- What Protection?

by Gray Merriam

In Ontario, the Provincial Parks Act dates back to 1954 and is ineffective in terms of our current social values. This ancient act does not reflect any knowledge of what is now recognized as natural capital or natural wealth. It also does not incorporate any of our current knowledge of ecological processes operating at the large, landscape scale. Dalton McGuinty made an election promise to rewrite and update this old act. But so did Mike Harris and nothing happened.

There is strong pressure from resource extraction companies to leave the act as it is because under it they are able to explore for minerals, start new mines and extract timber from our provincial parks and other areas protected by the act. Thus timber harvesting continues in Algonquin Park and the logging roads supporting that harvest penetrate much of the park area and the traffic of trucks along them impact the 'protected' area in many ways.

Under pressure from the aggregate industry, the Ministry of Natural Resources makes every effort to make gravel and other aggregates available for building and road expansion. They seldom say 'no' to an application, and even when they do, the applicant can reapply forever. The Mellon Lake quarry site was originally inside a 'Conservation Reserve' until the boundary of that reserve was moved to allow the 'mineral sampling' and potential quarry to proceed. It has not yet been approved because of strong local opposition but additional reapplications are still possible.

The lack of protection in 'protected areas' is not confined to Ontario. In Nova Scotia a series of 'protected' coastal areas has been threatened by removal of their protected status and actual proposals for housing developments in the formerly 'protected' areas.

In the Northwest Territories, the Canadian Zinc Corporation would like to profit by extracting zinc from within the watershed of the Nahanni Park Reserve. In Alberta, the Cheviot Coal Mine open pit right on the border of Jasper National Park would degrade the protection within the park because there is no buffer zone to keep such impacts far enough away to protect the parks.

The current social values that should be safeguarded in 'protected areas' are reflected in a recent Supreme Court of Canada decision concerning a large wildfire related to logging operations by Canfor, a large forestry company. The Court held Canfor responsible to the Province of B.C. for the full ecological, environmental and social value of the forest's natural resources, not just the market value of the lost timber. Sierra Legal Defence, a non-profit group, supplied the legal talent that won that decision.

There are valid questions about what we should protect and how much but those questions can't be approached sensibly in Ontario until the Provincial Parks Act is updated to reflect current social values and scientific knowledge. Now is the time. Let the Premier and your MPP know your thoughts.

Feature Article January 27, 2005

Feature article January 27, 2005

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Community Reinvestment Funding: municipal officials want province to live up to its commitments.

By Jeff Green

As the four mayors who make up the County of Frontenac Council contemplate levying a 10% tax increase, they are expressing increasing frustration over the unwillingness of the provincial government to live up to their commitments under the Community Reinvestment Funding (CRF) program.

Community Reinvestment Funding is a program that was set up in 1998 to compensate municipal governments for the cost of delivering a range of services that were formerly delivered by the province itself. These services include policing, non-profit housing, Ontario Works, Childcare, and others. The CRF program was designed to pay an amount to the municipalities each year that was based on the previous years costs for delivering the services, then to be reconciled against the actual costs as they are determined. However, CRF funding was frozen at 2002 levels by the Conservative government. Since the election for the Liberals, municipalities have been arguing that CRF funds need to be reconciled for the 2003 and 2004 taxation years, and through the Association of Municipalities of Ontario (AMO), they have been participating with the Ministry of Finance in a process to modernize the CRF program.

As budget time for 2005 approaches, the Ministry of Finance sent a letter to municipalities. The letter says that the province is still considering a range of options and recommendations arising from the work of the CRF committee.

It also says we are announcing a stable funding guarantee for 2005 that will ensure that, as a minimum, each municipality will receive at least as much funding in 2005 as they have received to date through the CRF for 2004. In the letter, the Ministry also invites AMO to participate in a focussed consultation with provincial officials that will lead to the announcement of a new funding model in March of 2005.

What worries municipal politicians about this is the lack of a commitment to turn over the reconciliation dollars for 2003 and 2004.

Describing the problem, Frontenac County Warden Bill MacDonald said, In the case of Frontenac County, there is a shortfall of over $1.33 million for costs incurred in 2003 and 2004. This equates to approximately $56 per $100,000 of assessment this year for the CRF underfunding alone.

Elizabeth Fulton, the Chief Administrative Officer for Frontenac County, said that in response to the Ministry letter, municipalities may direct AMO not to conduct further discussions with the government before reconciliation for 2003 and 2004 takes place.

The fear is that the province will try to embark on a new funding scheme that will come into effect for the 2005 or even the 2006 taxation year without compensating municipal taxpayers for the overburdening they have faced over the past two years.

The province is acting like an individual who goes out to get a second mortgage and pretends that their first mortgage doesnt exist, MacDonald told his own Central Frontenac Council this week.

MacDonald had hoped to meet with senior members of the provincial Cabinet and Premier McGuinty on Friday of last week at a session organized between the Eastern Ontario Wardens Caucus and the provincial government in Kingston last Friday, but an emergency Cabinet meeting was called for that day. The Wardens Caucus met instead with four back bench MPPs from Eastern Ontario.

At that time the Wardens Caucus told the MPPs, We expect a firm commitment from the government to pay municipalities the amounts owed by February 21, 2005. We are all trying to do our budgets and we must be assured that we will not be short-changed by the province again, said Eastern Ontario Wardens Caucus Vice Chair and Warden of Lennox and Addington County Clayton McEwen.

All told, the Eastern Ontario Wardens estimate it will cost the province $12 million to pay the money they owe to the 12 Eastern Ontario counties. According to Bill MacDonald, it will cost the province $250 million province-wide.

In an interview this week, MacDonald said he thinks it is the provincial governments fixation with eliminating the provincial deficit in short order that lies at the root of their reluctance to come up with the money for CRF reconciliation.

They are trying to bring the deficit down from $5.6 to $2 billion in one year, MacDonald said. It took eight years to build up the deficit. Why dont they eliminate it over time? At the same time, they are focussing on Healthcare and Education. I may be a simple country mayor, but I say you can have the best hospitals and the best schools in the world, but if you dont have decent roads to drive on youll never get to either of them.

Feature Article January 27, 2005

Feature article January 27, 2005

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Community Needs study presented to North Frontenac Council

by Jeff Green

North Frontenac Mayor Ron Maguire is so enthused about the content of a Community Needs Study that was completed by Northern Frontenac Community Services (NFCS) that he would like to see it used as a starting point for the Strategic Plan of Frontenac County.

Linda Rush, who initiated the Community Needs Study for NFCS through a Trillium grant application in 2003 (the study was completed by Tara Hamilton in 2004) presented highlights from the study to a North Frontenac Council meeting last week.

The Council meeting was the last official function for Rush, who has just retired as Director of Adult Services for the agency in order to devote her efforts to making art.

She described the methodology of the Needs Study to Council. The study was based primarily upon 16 in-depth interviews conducted with individuals of different ages and socio-economic status who live in Central and North Frontenac or in the northern part of South Frontenac, the service area of NFCS.

The study was conducted partly in order to help NFCS itself determine how to effectively serve the needs of the community. NFCS provides services for adults, ranging from family counselling to services for the elderly, and through its affiliate agencies also delivers mental health counselling for women suffering from abuse. Through its Child Centre, the agency also provides daycare services and other childrens related programming. The Child Centre is also the home of the Ontario Early Years Centre which is responsible for delivering children and family-related programming service throughout the provincial riding.

In terms of strengths, the study makes reference to Northern Frontenacs ruralness, community cohesiveness, and acceptance, local resourcefulness, opportunities to share talents, community members connection to the land and the environment, family, the local economy, social and recreational opportunities and community based services and solutions (page 11).

It is in dealing with community needs that North Frontenac Township will be called upon to act. The study identifies gaps, including: local economic development, youth issues and demographic unsustainability, poverty and lack of opportunity, employment, transportation, medical services, affordable housing, and others.

The study documents certain factors that are familiar to councillors; the population is older, poorer and less educated than the provincial and national average, and population numbers are stable or decreasing while the provincial and national numbers are on a steady rise.

In terms of issues with government, the studys conclusions are things the Township Council is painfully aware of.

Another common theme identified by the participants dealt with the impact of changes and regulations at the municipal (and County) government level. People spoke about the northern part of Frontenac County being off the political radar screen, about increasing taxes, various permits, finding a balance between the needs of seasonal and permanent residents and challenges relating to the rural/urban divide within the County. (excerpt from page 22 of the study)

One of the functions that Northern Frontenac Community Services served in the past, before losing most of its funding in the massive provincial government restructuring that took place in 1995, was that of community development. Community development work, the ability to identify community needs and develop solutions, is something that the Community Needs Study identifies, and in responding to the presentation by Linda Rush, Township Councillors spoke of a desire to foster a closer relationship with NFCS to try to accomplish community renewal.

Councillor Betty Hunter said she would like to see more communication between Council and the NFCS Board, so we can be informed about anything we could be looking at doing to improve situations that NFCS is able to identify for us.

Mayor Ron Maguire reiterated his opinion that the Needs Study be used by the County of Frontenac as a starting point of its strategic planning exercise this year and requested that Northern Frontenac Community Services keep in contact with Council on matters where the agency and the township can work together in a fruitful manner.

Feature Article January 6, 2005

Feature article January 6, 2005

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Sydenham Water: Where is requested report on villagers financing options? by Wilma Kenny

South Frontenac Chief Administrative Officer (CAO) Gord Burns confirmed that its time to revive the Sydenham Water Steering Committee, now that the Federal and Provincial governments have officially agreed to commit a maximum of $4,789,986 to the project.

It has been a year since tenders were last called: Burns said he hopes an updated tender call could be issued by the end of the month. Following this time line, he said Council should be in a position to award tenders by March, with the intent of starting the project in early spring. Because the old tenders are no longer valid, the final cost of the project is not known..

Concerning individual household costs, CAO Burns said that once the new tenders are in, the Township would be able to recalculate the household schedule. He added that such a schedule would not include individual hook-up or well closing costs. It will be up to Council to decide whether to hold an information open house at some point in this process.

When asked for comment, Richard Munroe of the Sydenham Safe Water Association made reference to a resolution passed by Council on October 5/04 requesting the Clerk and Treasurer prepare a report for Council exploring financing options for the village share of the Water Project costs. It was to: "list and evaluate the options to allocate portions of the local costs to other payers than just the village residents,...eg costs of future growth capacity may be allocated to future residents and financed by the Township until the growth occurs." It was also to list possible alternative sources for long term financing of the local share, such as financing from township reserves, or accessing new provincial capital funds, or attaching the costs to the property rather than the current homeowner. The resolution passed, with Councillors Barr, Robinson and Mayor Lake opposed. To date, this report has not been tabled at a Council meeting.

Munroe said there are a number of other unanswered questions. He pointed out the need to review the $600,000 project savings that have been identified by Guy Laporte of TSH Engineering. Munroe questioned whether, in the long run, there was any money to be saved in drastically cutting or removing contingency costs, using lighter weight materials, or cutting back on the numbers of fire hydrants. He also wondered how the Township proposed to pay for expansion costs, as no portion of these will be covered by Federal/Provincial funding.