On September 6, an open meeting was held at the Griffith Community Hall. Community response was very good, with 62 people in attendance. The purpose of the meeting was to assess whether there was community support in creating a citizen-based and led organization to lobby appropriate levels of government to ensure that the present level of ambulance service provided to Griffith, Matawatchan and area continues.

The impetus for this movement came from a meeting that was held last week in Griffith by the Denbigh Ambulance Network. From that meeting there was a strong sense that this area needed to show its concern for the proposed changes being considered by the County of Lennox and Addington who are once again, seriously discussing the closure of the Denbigh Ambulance Base and moving it to the Northbrook/ Cloyne area.

The Denbigh Ambulance Base provides emergency service to rural areas of the bordering Counties of Renfrew, Hastings, Frontenac as well as Lennox and Addington. The closure of the Denbigh base would greatly increase the response travel time to the Griffith and Matawatchan Area to possibly more than an hour. This is unacceptable given the essential nature of access to medical treatment in a timely and professional manner - lives are at stake!

Lennox and Addington retained the services of IBI Group to carry out an “Ambulance Service Review Update”. This, in our opinion, was a very biased report, which concluded that the Denbigh Ambulance closure would definitely help the bottom line of Lennox and Addinton’s budget, while shifting the level of service to favour a more highly populated area of the county.

The Griffith, Matawatchan and Area Ambulance Network will be working closely with the Denbigh Community Ambulance Network and the Township of Greater Madawaska in presenting a more accurate assessment of the need and usage of the Denbigh Ambulance Base to the various levels of Government and insuring they are aware of the potentially dangerous impact of this possible decision to the residents of our area.

The Griffith, Matawatchan and Area Ambulance Network will represent the concern and interests of our area and will be led by a group of six local residents. Heading the Griffith, Matawatchan and Area Ambulance Network is David Parkes; members are Richard Copeland, Bill Shipley, Sandy Downs, Inez J. Allard, Kit Pullen. 

Decision on Ompah ambulance base delayed again

A motion that would have kick-started the long-delayed Ompah ambulance base/fire hall project was deferred by Frontenac County Council last Wednesday, August 17.

The motion, which was proposed by North Frontenac township county representative John Inglis, included a significant amount of detail about how the cost sharing for the project between Frontenac County and North Frontenac Council would roll out. Central to the proposal is a 50/50 cost sharing split between the township and the county, which differs from the 60/40 split that had been on the table previously.

“The 50/50 split is justified by the fact that even though the fire hall is to be 2,500 square feet and the ambulance base 1,500, the fire hall is basically a shell and the ambulance base will be fully finished,” said John Inglis.

The detailed division of costs in the proposal for items such as water, hydro and repairs caused at least one county council member a lot of concern.

“I'm an elected representative,” said Central Frontenac Mayor Janet Gutowski, “and this reads like a contract. I’m uncomfortable even calling for a vote on this motion without directing staff to review the terms and conditions in this. I move we defer this.”

Warden Gary Davison said he is still concerned about what he called a “build it as you go” attitude he attributes to North Frontenac.

“If Paul [Chief of the Frontenac Paramedic Services, Paul Charbonneau] said he was ordering an ambulance, I would expect he had done his research and was ordering a vehicle that lived up to all the specs that we require. I'm nervous about this, I don't know where it is going to go. Honestly, what kind of product are we talking about?” Davison said.

“We are talking about a design-build project that will have to meet post-disaster standards, not some tin shack attached to an ambulance base,” said North Frontenac Mayor Bud Clayton. “We are here today to ask for an ambulance base in the North. Not only to ask but to plead and beg you. The population demands we do something about this, so we need to put a service in place. The key word is ‘service’.”

Frontenac Islands Mayor Dennis Doyle said, “This certainly isn't a straightforward initiative. I've driven that area and the Ompah location is only 6-7 minutes from where the ambulance is located right now, sitting in a parking lot. I want to talk to the fact that the previous county council made the decision to proceed with this location, and it's a slippery slope if a new council starts to second guess every decision that a previous council has made. I think the people up there expect and deserve an ambulance service. If it costs $300,000 each for the County and the township, it looks pretty reasonable to me. I don't think we need to defer this. Let's put it to a vote now. Are we going to build this facility or not?”

Janet Gutowski weighed in one more time.

“Earlier I restricted my comments to why the motion should be deferred but if everyone is talking about the project itself, I must point out that I'm not in favour of an Ompah base, if that is what we are talking about. The numbers don't support it,” she said.

John Purdon, councilor from Central Frontenac, said he was in favour of an Ompah base and said he thinks it makes sense to combine the base with a fire hall because it will save money.

“But I have a problem with going forward without joint agreement on costs, and we need more information from staff before we can come to an agreement,” he said.

“The sticking point for me is the perception that the Parham base would move to Sharbot Lake. I believe this is a life or death matter for people in the Portland, Hinchinbrooke and Bedford Districts,” said Councilor John McDougall from South Frontenac. “I cannot support moving this ambulance base to the North.”

The original motion about the location of a northern ambulance base, which was passed by county council in February of 2010, called for a base in Ompah to be built as soon as possible, and for the closing of the Parham base and relocation of that service to a location in the Sharbot Lake area within 5 years.

The present motion to defer the proposal from John Inglis until the September 2011 council meeting was passed in a 5-4 recorded vote.

Warden Garry Davison, who carries two votes as mayor of South Frontenac, said that before casting his votes in favour of deferral, he “would like to see what the building will look like”.

“I'm a bit optimistic,” said North Frontenac Mayor Bud Clayton after the meeting, “I think the concept of a 50/50 cost split, with the county spending no more than $300,000, did not get rejected. That to me was the key sticking point. We are already looking at next spring now, but I think it can happen.”

Indeed when looking at the voting patterns in the various votes on the ambulance base issue that have taken place this year, it is clear there is a meeting of the minds on the ambulance base between North Frontenac and Frontenac Islands. While there are two council members, Janet Gutowski and John McDougall who oppose the plan, Warden Davison and Councilor John Purdon have both expressed support, although they are waiting for assurances that have not yet been forthcoming.

If either one of them can achieve a comfort level with the project, a Request For Proposal for a design-build ambulance base/fire hall in Ompah for $600,000 could be forthcoming as early as next month.

It still remains to be seen, however, if such a building, constructed to ambulance base and post disaster, fire hall standards, can really be built for $600,000.

Frontenac County Official Plan

At the August 17 Frontenac County Council meeting, Michael Elms from the Ministry of Municipal Affairs and Housing (MMAH) gave a presentation that outlined some of the advantages to the county that would come from adopting a county-wide Official Plan in addition to the Official Plans that each of the townships already has in place.

The county plan would have to be broad enough so that the variations in the township plans could be accommodated, and would have to be consistent with the Provincial Policy Statement, which underpins all municipal rules and regulations. However, once a county plan is in place, planning decisions on a local level would only need to be confirmed by County Council, and would not need to be considered by the Ministry of Municipal Affairs. Only changes and updates to the county plan would require approval by the ministry. This would eliminate some delays and could also give the townships greater freedom to make decisions based on their own goals.

Elms showed a map of Eastern Ontario, which showed that most counties in the region either have a plan in place or are working on one. In one case, Peterborough County, an Official Plan has been in place for 15 years and the Ministry of Municipal Affairs is on the point of pulling right out of the planning process,

Even changes to the Peterborough County Official Plan will now be done without requiring approval by MMAH.

Central Frontenac Mayor Janet Gutowski said she would like the county to move forward with a plan in the near future.

“I think the way it is now is certainly challenging for economic opportunities because of the time frames that come from waiting for ministry approval. If we have an Official Plan it will be county council driving the bus - that’s us, all politicians elected in our own townships. I think it would be county council in control, not ‘the county’ as some kind of bureaucratic entity.”

L-r: County of Frontenac CAO – Elizabeth Savill, CASC - Al Rankin, Frontenac Paramedic Services Deputy Chief  - Gale Chevalier, CASC - Ignacio Melgar, Warden Gary Davison, and CASC - Sherry Purcell.A retired Frontenac Paramedic ambulance has received a new assignment; to serve the public again in El Salvador. The recycling of surplus ambulances is part of the county’s continuing efforts under its “Green Initiatives” and its commitment to humanitarian requests.

The keys to the ambulance were presented to representatives of the Central America Solidarity Committee by Warden Gary Davison and Deputy Chief Gale Chevalier at a ceremony on August 4 at the county offices in Glenburnie.

“The ongoing investment in humanitarian needs is important to the County of Frontenac. The County Council has committed to donating one retired ambulance in each term of Council to Non-government Organizations (NGOs) to aid and assist in these organizations’ mission to assist the less fortunate in our world.” said Warden Davison.

Ms. Sherry Purcell and Mr. Alan Rankin, of the Central America Solidarity Committee, had attended a County Council meeting in November 2010 to request a donation of a retired ambulance, which their organization will fill with medical supplies and send to El Salvador. “Our organization, which has been in existence for 25 years, does public awareness and education as to the situation in Central America and also fundraising for medical supplies. We are very pleased to have received this donation from the County of Frontenac and its commitment to reaching outside our boundaries to people who need our help.” said Alan Rankin.

After hearing two presentations concerning the need to keep the Denbigh ambulance service, Lennox and Addington County deferred a proposal to begin the process of finding a location for a new base in the Northbrook/Cloyne vicinity.

The Northbrook base, which is located in a rental property, must be vacated within two years, and in a report to Council, County Emergency Services staff recommended “engaging the services of an architect to assist staff and council in determining the land requirements”, and at the same time make landowners with suitable properties located between Northbrook and Cloyne aware that the County is looking to buy property.

“Isn’t this is a little premature, given that the Denbigh base is not yet decided?” asked Bill Cox, a member of L&A County Council from Addington Highlands. A motion to defer consideration of the staff report was accepted and the matter will return at the September 14 county meeting in Napanee.

Janice Powell, Executive Director of the Lakelands Family Health Team, which is based in Northbrook and operates a satellite clinic in Denbigh, made the first presentation.

She started by saying: “The Denbigh ambulance was started in 1982 by the province because it was necessary. The need has not gone away.”

She then took exception to a claim that was made in a consultant’s report, which was received by the County in June. The report, by the IBI group, recommended shutting the Denbigh base and opening a new base in Loyalist Township.

The report is an update of a report from 2008, and claims that the addition of the Family Health Team to Addington Highlands is an improvement in service that will alleviate the impact of the closing the ambulance base.

“The Lakelands Family Health Team is a family practice which focuses on chronic care. Neither the main site nor the satellite in Denbigh offer emergency clinics,” she said. “It is somewhat deceiving that the IBI group cites Lakelands in the context of an emergency services report … we request that all references to Lakelands be removed from the report.”

She added that if the Denbigh base is removed, “Ambulance response times will be greater than 30 minutes, 80 per cent of the time. The survival of patients rostered to the Family Health Team hangs in the balance.”

In her presentation, Vennachar resident Rosemary O’Connor said, “I find it strangely curious that a consultant who failed to consult the stakeholders has recommended that an ambulance base be closed. The very thought of closure leaves me filled with dread.”

She went on to describe how her husband Barney developed post-stroke seizure syndrome in 1998, and ended up requiring ambulance calls on several occasions for transport to Victoria Hospital in Renfrew.

“The first time I called he was in very bad shape. The response time from Denbigh was very good, but it was touch and go when we got to the hospital. The second time was good also, but on the third call the ambulance came from Northbrook and it took a long time. If that first ambulance had come 30 minutes later than it did, he might well have died in the ambulance. Fifteen years later Barney is still here with us, able to live at home and enjoy a reasonably good quality of life.”

Before moving forward with any planning for a new base in Northbrook, Emergency Services have been requested to prepare a response to the presentations by Janice Powell and Rosemary O’Connor.

It will be mid-August at the earliest before Frontenac County Council makes any kind of decision about the location of an ambulance base to serve the residents of North and parts of Central Frontenac.

At their July 6 meeting, Frontenac County Council received for information a report from their Chief of Land Ambulance Services, Paul Charbonneau, which recommended putting the decision off until Lennox and Addington County decides what to do with their own base in Denbigh, because this will have an impact on responses in Frontenac County.

While Lennox and Addington County Council received a report last month by the IBI consulting group, which recommends that the Denbigh base close, there is no indication that the future of the Denbigh base will be decided any time soon, although a delegation from Denbigh is scheduled to appear at L&A County meeting on July 27.

For now, according to Mike Schjerning, Chief of Emergency services for Lennox and Addington, his staff is only considering options related to finding a location for a new base in Northbrook. The county lease on the property where the Northbrook base is located ran out on June 30, 2011 and the county has exercised an option to renew that lease for two years, at which time they will have to find a new home because the landlord has indicated that the building will no longer be available to them.

“The availability of land in the Northbrook area will obviously be a factor in determining where we locate that base. We are starting to look for a location now,” said Schjerning when interviewed over the phone.

All of this puts the future of a proposed ambulance base/fire station in Ompah into further doubt.

North Frontenac Mayor Bud Clayton proposed a motion of his own to Frontenac County Council, which would have seen the Ompah project go ahead this year. While Frontenac County Council and North Frontenac Township still have not come to an agreement over cost sharing for the project, Clayton's motion proposes a 50/50 split in operating and construction costs, with North Frontenac covering all of the land and septic costs, as well as the cost of a well and pump.

While this motion was presented to Frontenac County Council on July 6, it was only in the form of a notice of motion, and was not slated to be considered until the next meeting of county council on August 17.

Clayton did not want to wait until then to have his motion considered by the council, and wondered why Paul Charbonneau's recommendations, on the other hand, could be considered right away.

“I find it unacceptable that a member of council must wait two months to have a motion considered, but an employee of the county can bring a motion forward and it gets voted on right away,” he said.

“The council can bring a notice of motion forward for consideration at any time with a 2/3 vote,” said County Chief Administrative Officer Liz Savill.

Mayor Clayton asked that his motion be brought to a vote right away.

“We are losing the building window for this year by delaying this,” he said.

In a recorded vote, Council members John Inglis (North Frontenac), David Jones and Dennis Doyle (Frontenac Islands), and John Purdon (Central Frontenac), as well as Clayton himself supported the motion. It was opposed by council members Janet Gutowski (Central Frontenac), John McDougall (South Frontenac) and Gary Davison, who as mayor of South Frontenac, has two votes. The final tally was 5 votes in favour to 4 against.

Although Clayton's request to bring his motion forward was supported by the majority of council, it did not receive a 2/3 majority and was declared defeated.

All of this leaves the fate of the Ompah base in a continuing state of limbo.

County council will be able to consider Bud Clayton's proposal when they meet in August, but it will come forward in the context of both Paul Charbonneau's reluctance to move forward until the Denbigh situation is clarified, and a continuing disagreement over a fair way of sharing the costs of the building.

Warden Gary Davison said, “I don't see how with a 1,500 square foot ambulance base and what looks like a 2,500 square foot fire station, the costs should be shared 50/50. That doesn't add up to me. And since it is the City of Kingston that pays 80% of the capital costs for all ambulance bases we build, I don't know how we can justify this to them.”

North Frontenac Township has taken the position that because anticipated construction costs for a fire hall are lower than they are for an ambulance base ($128 per square foot as compared to $195 for an ambulance base according to figures quoted by Paul Charbonneau in March), the 50/50 cost split is more viable.

Using those construction cost figures, the cost would be $292,500 for the ambulance base portion, and $320,000 for the fire hall.

Over 60 citizens present at a public meeting in Denbigh were united in their determination to keep their ambulance services in the Denbigh community.

On June 16, Denbigh resident Paul Isaacs led a public meeting at the Denbigh hall to inform the community at large about the IBI Group’s 2010 Ambulance Service Review Update, which was presented to county council at their June 8 meeting. The public meeting was brought about by Addington Highlands Reeve Henry Hogg, who, though he could not attend, felt strongly that the public should be informed of the issue.

Councilor Tony Fritsch expressed his strong belief in preserving the current service. “Denbigh is the logical location for an ambulance base to best serve in this region and it must be retained”.

AH Councilor Adam Snider then reviewed the IBI report, which recommends that “the northern services be consolidated to a single base along the 41 corridor in the Northbrook/Cloyne vicinity and one ambulance be relocated to Loyalist Township, where it can be put to more cost effective use.”

One reason given in the report for the proposed change is the presence of the Lakelands Family Health Team (LFHT), which now operates clinics in both Northbrook and Denbigh. At the meeting, a number of staff from LFHT made mention of the fact that at no time were they contacted by the IBI group prior to the completion of the 2010 report. Janice Powell, executive director of the LFHT, who also served on the 2008 Community Ambulance Committee, said she was surprised to find her team mentioned at all in the report. “We provide primary care service, not emergency services. We do not have the equipment, or the resources to be providing emergency care, and are open only during regular business hours. As far as I'm concerned the ambulance service has to stay, and I am prepared to come back on the committee to fight for it.”

Susan Peters, nurse practitioner at the LFHT, strongly reiterated that point. “Rural communities are under-serviced to begin with and a decrease in ambulance response times will mean that people will die. I do not have access to first line emergency drugs, nor IVs. The bottom line here is that the ambulance must stay.”

Dr. Tobia of the LFHT also spoke from the audience. “It's really quite simple. One life up here in the north is worth as much as one in the south. The biggest issue here is ambulance response time.” Dr. Tobia cited the projected response times resulting from consolidated service stats taken from the 2010 report, which state that with the new proposal, only 13% of Denbigh calls will be responded to within 15 minutes, a decrease from previous years, whereas in Odessa there will be an increase, to 97% of calls that will be responded to within 15 minutes. Dr. Tobia continued, “The notion of reducing response times is ridiculous, especially when all of the guidelines are proving that survival rates depend on people getting to the hospital sooner.”

Gary Foster, Hall 3 chief with the Kaladar/Barrie Fire Department, addressed the issue of the fire department’s need for ambulance services in the area to deal with serious injuries and medical calls. “We dread the fact that right now this area is less serviced by ambulances than any areas in Renfrew County. I can tell you right now that if service is reduced, the result will no doubt be more deaths.”

Paul Isaacs agreed. “This report does not take into account the types of calls that we get here. Out of the total calls, this service has a higher percentage of serious calls than those in Napanee, which means that while we may have fewer calls, they are of a more urgent nature.” Isaacs also brought up the issue of the shape of the service area as well as the widely spread population. “L&A County is extremely long and narrow, and the majority of the population lies within 30 miles of the lakeshore, which means that the service cannot operate the same way it does in other areas. This is a problem in bureaucracy, which seems to deem that all areas require the same kind of service, which is simply not the case.”

Councilor Fritsch addressed the 2010 report’s account of increased cost in the current service since 2008, which many present at the meeting believed was the result of the province’s discontinuation of volunteer service. “One thing that irks me was the 2008 report’s argument to omit volunteers due to the high cost of managing them. The idea to go to full-time paramedics rather than volunteers was supposed to reduce the administrative costs, but instead the costs have increased, not decreased,” he said.

Deputy Reeve Bill Cox weighed in on the overall costs. “This is not a cost saving proposal in any way. If you look at the report you'll see that cross border service is cheaper than supplying your own.”

Denbigh resident Yvonne Rosien, a former first response volunteer with the now defunct volunteer ambulance service, recalled getting paid $2 an hour as a volunteer and questioned why that service was discontinued. “I have watched a 50-year old woman die when an ambulance was standing by in Northbrook. I want to get other politicians involved and see them out here seeing how this issue is going to affect people in this community. It will affect every single one of us at one time or another.” Audience member Frances Rosenblath said she is alive as result of the ambulance services here. “Fifteen years ago I suffered an allergy attack and went into anaphylactic shock and if it wasn't for the ambulance service I wouldn't be here today.”

Members of the community planned to meet at a second meeting on June 21 in Denbigh, where a plan would be discussed on how to present their recommendations in a unified way to county council.

Affordable Housing post 2011

A presentation was made by Chris Laundry, a social housing consultant working for Lennox and Addington, about the future of the affordable housing sector in the county.

He provided an overview of the way provincial and federal governments have developed the current stock of rent geared to income and low-rent housing since the 1950s, and focussed on the most recent initiatives.

The main reason for his visit, however, was to talk about some of the implications of Bill 140, which was passed at Queen's Park in May. The major impacts of Bill 140 will come clear once some of the major provisions are enacted later this year.

“One of the major outcomes of the legislation will be to clarify the role of the consolidate service managers (CSM) and to streamline applications for affordable housing,” Laundry said.

Lennox and Addington County is a CSM and it operates about 350 housing units in Napanee and throughout the countryside, including some in Flinton.

Laundry said there will be changes that Lennox and Addington will have to deal with, and there may also be opportunities to add new kinds of housing as the result of the new legislation.

Denbigh Community Centre – Councilor Tony Fritsch presented a number of requests from the group working on bringing the Denbigh Community Centre project to completion. He divided the requests into items that need addressing now; items that need addressing in the near future; and “a list of additional projects for investigation.” Of immediate concern are the purchase and installation of a chimney liner ($2,800) and a minor roof repair ($1,500 or less). These were approved.

Northbrook fire hall and township office – Council established a committee that includes Reeve Henry Hogg, Deputy Reeve Bill Cox, Fire Chief Casey Cuddy, Public Works Manager Royce Rosenblath, and Clerk/Treasurer Jack Pauhl to consider a design/build project for a new combined fire hall and township office on a piece of land the township has purchased on Highway 41 south of Northbrook. A house located on the property is being demolished and the project is now ready to be looked at in more detail.

Roads – Royce Rosenblath reported that dust suppression is now being applied to gravel roads within the township. A tender was also awarded for gravel crushing to Genware for $86,000.

Fire – There were six bids received for a new tanker for the Denbigh station. The lowest was $179,739, below the $185,000 budgeted for the tanker. Council gave Fire Chief Cuddy the authority to award the tender, provided he is satisfied that the bidder has met all the requirements in the request for proposal that the township had set out. Cuddy also said he wanted to check with some other fire services to see if they have had a good experience with the company that provided the lowest bid, because they have not been a supplier to Addington Highlands in the past.

Denbigh Ambulance Network – Alice Madigan, the chair of the ambulance network, made a short presentation to Council, imploring council to “do everything in their power to help the community of Denbigh and surrounding neighbours retain the Denbigh ambulance base.”

“I want to point out that both the Denbigh and Northbrook ambulances were out on call the other night and a call came in from Skootamatta. It took over an hour for a response from Marmora. That's the kind of thing we are looking at if the Denbigh base closes. We are on your side,” said Reeve Hogg, who will preside of the debate at Lennox and Addington County Council on ambulance services in his role of County Warden.

For a couple of years now, Frontenac County and North Frontenac Township have been torturing each other over the location of an ambulance base to serve the north end of Frontenac County.

The complications that have stalled the project have arisen partly because it is a new attempt for the county and the township to work together to build an ambulance base and fire hall together in Ompah. Frontenac County and North Frontenac Township have deep-seated communications problems on both the staff and political levels. One side often does not understand the other and when they do understand each other, neither likes what the other party is saying.

All of this is further complicated by the fact that the county never wanted to build a base in Ompah in the first place; they wanted to build one closer to Sharbot Lake and Highway 7.

Ultimately the county thinks that North Frontenac is stalling because they do not want to pay their share of the costs, and the township thinks the county is stalling because they do not want the project to go forward.

The latest report to county council on the matter, which is being considered this week, says the whole thing should now be put off. Why? Because the location of the base was predicated on the fact that Lennox and Addington made a commitment two years ago to keep both their Denbigh and Northbrook bases up and running, providing service for the western half of North Frontenac.

As News readers will know, that is now in doubt thanks to a new consultant’s report to Lennox and Addington County. Paul Charbonneau, Chief of Paramedic Services for Frontenac County, now says that any final recommendation regarding the location of a northern land ambulance station should be deferred until Lennox and Addington decides what to do.

We have seen these debates about service to the north end of Frontenac, and Lennox and Addington counties before, and now we are seeing them again.

At the root of the debate is cost, and how this impacts on county budgets. Secondarily there are issues around the relationship between counties and townships, and ultimately between the ratepayers in the more populated areas to the south and those in less populated areas to the north.

Yet the ambulance service in the Province of Ontario is supposed to be seamless. When a call comes in to the central dispatch, the ambulance that can get to that call the fastest is sent, regardless of political boundaries. When that call is paid for, however, the question of who will pay for it must be considered.

The most expensive aspect to the system to fund for both Frontenac and Lennox is not the cost of sending out an ambulance; it is the cost of having two paramedics sitting in a relatively remote location, waiting, sometimes for days, for a call to come in. Whoever is paying that cost is seeing the largest impact on their annual emergency services budget.

This entire situation came about because of the downloading of land ambulance service from the Province of Ontario, which took place under the Mike Harris Conservatives. Before the service was downloaded, the province had a direct relationship with privately and publicly owned service providers, and while the downloading has achieved some streamlining of the system, it also shifted much of the costs from the provincial budgets to municipal budgets.

It also politicised the decision-making about where ambulance bases should be located, and on the levels of service offered at those bases.

The problem with all of this is that local politicians, who are charged with serving the interests of their own constituents, are being left with decisions about locations of ambulances, which are part of a seamless province-wide system that is crucial for people in life-threatening situations.

The managers who run the service for the local counties, are expected to understand the big picture, but they are ultimately employees of the ratepayers and are responsible to their own county budgets.

The difficulties faced in Frontenac and Lennox and Addington Counties right now, which are coming to a head this summer, are the net result of a failed system. If not the provision of ambulance service, at least its costing needs to be done on a province-wide basis.

No matter where in Ontario someone lives, no matter where they are visiting, when they have occasion to call an ambulance it is an emergency. They need service, and they need it right away.

Right now, the future of service in both Addington Highlands and North Frontenac is tied in with political infighting and financial questions in both counties and even the City of Kingston as well.

As we head towards a provincial election in the fall, we will have the opportunity to ask politicians representing the two political parties who are responsible for the current ambulance funding system, the Liberals and the Conservatives, what they plan to do about this.

The province is not about to take up the entire cost of delivering ambulance service. They could, however, take some responsibility for funding rural service as a provincial priority. Education funding contains a component for rural and northern service, and ambulance service needs the same kind of category.

One other thing has slipped under the radar in the discussion over base locations. Paramedics who serve in the northern reaches of Frontenac and L&A still receive less training than those in the south. So, if you are planning to have a heart attack, have one while visiting Loughborough Lake instead of Big Gull Lake. Not only will an ambulance arrive sooner at Loughborough Lake, but the paramedic who arrives will be able to put an IV line in.

At Big Gull Lake, there will be no advanced care paramedic, and no IV line.

This is the case despite the fact that the paramedic who attends at Big Gull Lake would like to be able to put an IV line in, but the training is too expensive, and too much money was already being spent paying for that paramedic to wait for the call to Big Gull Lake to come in.

by Jeff Green and Julie Druker

Smooth sailing for Frontenac Transportation Service at county – budget debate set for next week

Executive directors Don Amos of Northern Frontenac Community Services (NFCS) and David Townsend of Southern Frontenac Community Services (SFCS), along with Linda Rush, the co-ordinator of Frontenac Transportation Service, presented an outline of the amalgamated service.

The Frontenac Transportation Service combines the services of Rural Routes Transportation Service, which is run by NFCS and serves residents in North and Central Frontenac, and the transportation services by SFCS for South Frontenac residents, forming a single service for the entire mainland portion of Frontenac County. The county has been supporting both services for a number of years, all the while encouraging them to combine forces.

County Councilor, Central Frontenac Mayor Janet Gutowski, congratulated both agencies on their collaborative approach to what is a very valuable service.“This service is allowing people to stay in their homes and to get to appointments and is keeping them healthier. I am very pleased that the Local Health Integration Network (LHIN) is aware of what is happening and that they are seeing the value in this service as well.”

She said she would be supporting this year’s request for a $86,000 subsidy from the county.

County Councilor, North Frontenac Mayor Bud Clayton, wondered about collaboration with the Land O'Lakes Community Service. “Funding from the LHINs says you must be seamless with your transportation and there are folks from the north west part of North Frontenac that depend on the LOLCS for their transportation. Since you are asking this county for money, is there any way of getting some of it to LOLCS to help their rural transportation program?” he asked.

“We are not opposed to collaboration with LOLCS,” Linda Rush added. “There have been discussions with LOLCS and it is something that we have explored in the past.”

Warden Davison said, “This collaboration is something we asked for years ago and I commend both of you for your work.”

A funding request for Frontenac Transportation Services is included in the 2011 Frontenac County budget.Ompah joint firehall/ ambulance base plan grinds to a halt 

North Frontenac Mayor, County Councilor Bud Clayton expressed more than a little bit of frustration at Frontenac County Council last week as a debate over the proposed Ompah ambulance base/fire hall project dragged on.

“It is time to get the whole issue resolved and continue with the process to finally get the project built,” Clayton said.

But at the end of the day there was even less clarity over the issue. In response to a county staff report seeking direction from county council in order to proceed with a request for proposal for a project manager, the council ended up passing a motion asking staff for yet more information, thereby putting the entire project on hold once again.

Further complicating matters were the statements from a number of members of county council, which place in doubt the council's commitment to see the project come to fruition at the Ompah location.

The question that is confounding all involved at this point has to do with the size of the fire hall portion of the building and the corresponding amounts that the township and the county will pay for its construction

“At some point someone told someone that the fire hall itself would be 4000 square feet, but that is nowhere in any of our communications,” said Bud Clayton.

The revised total combined square footage of the two buildings that has been under consideration in recent weeks is for a 4,500 square foot building with a 3000 sq. foot section for the fire hall and 1500 sq. foot ambulance base.

Based on a protocol that has been agreed to on a senior staff level, the project is to be funded at a ratio of two thirds from North Frontenac Township and one third from Frontenac County.

It is this ratio that North Frontenac would like to see revisited, for two reasons. Firstly, they want some flexibility over the size of the fire hall in order to give themselves some flexibility over costs. Secondly, while estimates for ambulance base construction come in at $195 per square foot based on the cost of the recently constructed ambulance base in Sydenham, fire hall construction is less expensive, about $128 per square foot according to figures supplied by Paul Charbonneau, the Director of Emergency Services for Frontenac County.

North Frontenac would like the county to affirm their commitment for an upset limit of $300,000 towards the project, and has agreed to a county staff requirement that the project be completed using a project manager and a design-build construction contract following LEED environmental construction guidelines. The township would pay the rest of the cost.

“We might have to think of being flexible in our design to get the costs in line. We might have to reduce the size of the fire hall without affecting the ambulance base,” said North Frontenac County Councilor John Inglis.

But once the debate at county council was joined, it did not stick to the narrow issue of cost ratios. It quickly expanded to revisit the decision to build an ambulance base in Ompah in the first place, particularly because that decision also committed the county to replacing the existing Parham base with a new one in Sharbot Lake

Councilor Gutowski again aired her concerns about that move.

“I wonder, is there is a chance to revisit that issue?” she asked. “Not only was there no GIS mapping in 2008 when the analysis was done but in my mind I cannot separate the spending of $300,000 now and the extra $800,000 that is going to come as a result of this.”

When the decision was made in 2008, Paul Charbonneau said that the two options that he proposed would ultimately costing about the same amount of money because the cost of purchasing the Parham base, which the county now rents, and the county’s share of the Ompah project costs are about the same.

“All we want to do at this time is to get on with the project and build what county council has agreed to build in North Frontenac,” Bud Clayton reiterated in response to Janet Gutowski's comments. “The fire hall will likely go up at the cost of approximately $125-$130/square foot and the ambulance base at $200/per square foot and both buildings will be somewhat around the same size.”

Warden Gary Davidson said, “I'm a bit concerned with those numbers. If you think you can build for 60% of the cost of what we are building at, I wonder about the quality of that proposed building. Just what are we building here? A pig in a poke? I would like to see some drawings.”

Janet Gutowski wondered if these two buildings are not really better off being addressed as two separate projects.

“The sizes of the buildings have not yet been clarified so I am uncomfortable supporting a recommendation about the funding ratio because it seems premature. This whole process has been entirely too politicized. The highest criteria that we should be looking at, and one that this current proposal has never met regarding the location of the station, is response times. This is a matter of life and limb; putting a station in Ompah is going to leave a gap and require more financial wrestling to try to build a new station in Sharbot Lake. I am not prepared to support that at this time. We need more up to date statistics on mapping, location and response times,” Gutowski said.

Councilor John McDougall (South Frontenac) concurred. “My concern is that the community originally was not involved in these discussions. Moving the Parham ambulance base is a real concern. I feel right now there is a lack of clarity on the issues and I would agree that there needs to be more discussion.”

Councilor Clayton made once last effort to keep the proposed plan alive.

“What we're looking at here is a 2500 square foot fire hall and a 1500 square foot ambulance base, with the cost of building the base being higher that of the hall. All we are asking for right now is a different funding model. If doing so is going to cause all sorts of grief and force us to go back to the table then we are willing go ahead with the 2/3, 1/3 ratio that has been put forth.”

Paul Charbonneau said that changing the size of the building would definitely change the funding ratio as well as a number of other issues.

At the end of the day the staff report on the matter was received for information.

At this point no date has been set for setting out a request for proposal for the project.

The matter will undoubtedly be discussed at North Frontenac Council on Monday (March 28). 

Detailed roads study presents options, but council blocks them all

The world of municipal politics is sometimes akin to driving on a poorly maintained gravel road. Progress is slowed by bumps and potholes, and sometimes the road washes out altogether.

The drive for a regional road system to cover all of the major arterial roads in Frontenac County under one financial umbrella, which was initiated by county staff a couple of years ago, seems to be akin to a washed out road after a meeting of county council last week.

A detailed 150-page study of the road rehabilitation needs throughout the county, which was undertaken by Andrew Grunda, associate director of Watson & Associates, was presented to council at their meeting on Wednesday, March 16.

The Watson report included a preliminary analysis of the regional roads life-cycle capital needs and the fiscal implications associated with moving towards a sustainable funding for those assets and proposed numerous options to the county to address their road issues.

In a nutshell the final goal was to look at the long term sustainable funding levels for the various road networks as well as at different fiscal models available to the county to ensure service delivery over a 30-year period (2010-2040).

The report proposed three options for what are to be considered regional roads. The options range from a network including only the 382 kilometres, to a second option that includes arterial roads as well, which would include 454 kilometres of road, and a third that includes other major roads, for a total length of 519 kilometres of road.

Andrew Grunda summed up the report’s findings this way:

“At this stage in using a life-cycle based needs assessment, the county’s financial data is telling us that there is a significant amount of capital for a regional roads network that requires immediate attention - somewhere in the neighborhood of $37-$42 million. Overall, when we look at the fiscal impacts we see that having a county funding option does provide a more standardized source of funding and a broader funding pool for those regional roads assets. In most cases, with the exception of South Frontenac, the county funding scenario provides for a mitigated funding implication for those municipalities, which will tend to do better under a county approach as opposed to a status quo. That approach also provides a pool for the immediate needs required in South Frontenac.”

Essentially, as South Frontenac faces up to the cost of rehabilitating Road 38 in the near to immediate future, a regional system would enable those costs to be shared across the county, but in the longer term as roads elsewhere in the county need major work, the relative bulk of South Frontenac's population will become a source of revenue for smaller municipalities, and ratepayers in South Frontenac will end up subsidizing road costs throughout the county.

The Watson report concluded that further work on the plan needs to be done, including an engineered assessment of current road conditions and asset management practices, as well as the possibility of extra funding that the system might access, which is not flowing to the townships for road construction currently.

This could include provincial grants and/or allocations of county gas tax revenues and some of the savings the county has received through the provincial upload of social service costs.

“The benefit of having a regional system is to tackle the affordability concerns of some of the smaller municipalities in the county and maintaining a consistent, stable funding source at the county level,” Gunda concluded.

Warden Gary Davison, who is also the Mayor of South Frontenac Township, spoke out against the entire plan.

“All of this information you have gathered comes from our own various departments from information that we already have in our data bases,” he said, “We in South Frontenac have a five-year roads plan and have also looked 10 years down the road. I'm not in favour of where this study is taking us and I think we need to take charge of our own information. I believe we know what the local needs are and I think that our public works managers want to do this on a local level. Yes, we need to leverage the county for gas tax but we have spent a lot of money on ICSP programs that don't necessarily address what the crux of the gas tax money that was sent down from Toronto was to do, which was to maintain roads and bridges.”

Later in the meeting, a resolution was put forth to reconstitute a working group to consider how the Watson report can be implemented.

Deputy Warden Janet Gutowski supported the motion.

“Roads and infrastructure is a huge problem and for us to stick our heads in the sand is not appropriate. We need to come up with a plan and tackle this issue in a collaborative manner.”

A number of the new county councilors expressed the need to take more time to first review the report before acting further on the report.

In a recorded vote of 5-3, Warden Davison, councilors Doyle, McDougall, Jones and Purdon voted no, and Councilors Gutwoski, Clayton, and Inglis voted yes.

North Frontenac Council has had two meetings within the past week. The first was their regular meeting on Thursday, February 10, and they held a special budget meeting on Monday, the 14th.

The first item on the agenda on Feb. 10 was the presentation of an award to Marg Axford, marking her years as a major force behind the Cloyne and District Historical Society and the Pioneer Museum.

Axford received the Ontario Heritage Trust Community Recognition Certificate and Achievement Pin from the Province of Ontario. The township had submitted Axford's name for the award, and Mayor Bud Clayton presented it to her.

Ragged Chutes again – Ragged Chutes Road residents Murray and Beverly Elliott brought a summary of the history of maintenance on a 0.8 kilometre stretch of the Ragged Chutes Road, which is classed by the township as an “unmaintained township road.” The Mitchells were unsuccessful when they asked the previous council to resume minimal maintenance on their stretch of road. The maintenance had ceased in 2003, before they moved into their house.

“We would like to see gravelling on the road when necessary, and grading at least once a year,” said Beverly Mitchell.

“There are a number of these issues facing council,” said Mayor Bud Clayton, “and I'd like to speak to each of them at a special meeting, and it will be before spring.”

Mayor wants councilors to have more input – Mayor Clayton has proposed that individual councilors be able to submit reports to council in much the same way that staff does, thus adding a further opportunity for members of council to influence the political direction of the township. Currently, members of council can bring a notice of motion to a meeting of council, and that motion will be considered at the following meeting. Now if a member of council sends a written or oral report to the clerk one week before a meeting, that report and any attending recommendations for action can be included in the agenda of that meeting.

“The intention is to give members of council a more active role in setting the agenda for the township,” said Bud Clayton.

The proposal will be brought to the next meeting for formal ratification.

Algonquin Land Claim – Councilor John Inglis, who is the Frontenac County representative to the Algonquin Land Claim Process, reported that a meeting of the municipal advisory committee to the land claim took place last week and that the goal of completing a memorandum of understanding in 2011 remains in place. Inglis said he cannot reveal details from the meeting, but the public record about the land claim shows that it will include transfers of parcels of land currently under Crown jurisdiction to identified Algonquin communities, in addition to a sum of money for economic development. Among these communities are the Shabot Obaadjiwan First Nation, which is based in Sharbot Lake, and the Snimikobe First Nation, which includes a number of families from Frontenac County. After a memorandum of understanding is ratified, it generally takes five years for a land claim to be completed. One of the stated goals of the federal and provincial negotiators to the land claim is to secure Algonquin Park under provincial jurisdiction.

Official Plan finalized – After a two-year long process, North Frontenac has submitted their updated Official Plan to the Ontario Ministry of Municipal Affairs and Housing for ratification. The plan has been sent to the ministry a couple of times already, and each time the ministry came back with requests for altered wording.

One contentious issue has been a ministry demand that new building lots are no longer to be permitted on extensions of private lanes or on new private lanes.

The only options for land developers will be plans of subdivision or plans of condominium, both of which are costly planning processes for developers. They also require that roads be constructed to a township standard and be taken over by the township roads department.

Council had argued with ministry officials that this will severely limit the potential for development on both waterfront and other lots within the township and make it harder for the township’s tax assessment base to grow, “but in the end they made it clear they were not going to bend on this and we had no choice but to accept it,” said township clerk/planning co-ordinator Brenda DeFosse.

Notebooks in councilors’ future – Council received a report from Information Technology technician Evan Sepa that outlined options for the township to move away from paper in the way it communicates with members of council. These included the possibility of purchasing Blackberry Playbooks, Apple I-pads or Notebook computers. At a price of $400, the Notebook option was recommended by Sepa; however, he also advised that only if every member of council were willing to use the machines and receive their council packages and other communications electronically, either through the Internet or a thumb drive, would it be a worthwhile expenditure.

Everyone at the meeting agreed they would use the machines if they were purchased, and that the matter should be considered at budget time. Two councilors were not in attendance at the time. Councilor Gerry Martin did not attend the meeting, and Lonnie Watkins had left early for a doctor's appointment.

Cost Sharing Elusive over Ompah fire station/ambulance base

Paul Charbonneau, chief of the Frontenac Land Ambulance Service, and Marion Vanbruinessen, Frontenac County treasurer, came to a meeting of North Frontenac Council on Monday (February 14) to bring the new council up to speed on where the planning process stands for the construction of an ambulance base/fire hall in Ompah.

The county put out a request for proposal (RFP) for a project manager for the construction last fall, which was answered by two applicants. The RFP estimated the project’s cost at $800,000, to be funded 2/3 by the township and 1/3 by the county.

But since those cost estimates entail North Frontenac paying over $500,000 for their share of construction costs, and the township only has $300,000 put aside for the project, the project has stalled.

“We did not actually go through with the interview process with the two applicants,” said Marion Vanbruinessen.

Although the township and the county pledged to work together on the project last February, they have differed on construction costs ever since.

Paul Charbonneau told North Frontenac Council that the recently completed Sydenham ambulance base cost $195 per square foot to build. The ambulance portion of the Ompah base is slated at 1,500 square feet and the county has the necessary $300,000 in place for their portion of the costs.

Members of North Frontenac Council do not think that the fire hall portion of the building has to be that expensive per square foot.

“As far as I’m concerned, the county portion can have all the bells and whistles the county wants, but the fire hall is just a basic building, a shell with bays for equipment, a training room, and some showers. There is no reason for it to cost anywhere near $200 per square foot,” said Councilor Lonnie Watkins.

North Frontenac Mayor Bud Clayton said that the most recent fire hall that North Frontenac built, which is located between Ardoch and Ompah, “came in at $77 a square foot; others have come in at $120, so we are questioning the $200 a square foot costing.”

Councilor John Inglis asked Charbonneau whether a new RFP could be issued that “divides the project into part A, the ambulance base at one price and part B, the fire hall, at a lower price to reflect the different cost estimates.”

Charbonneau agreed that the fire hall construction costs could be lower than ambulance base construction costs. “We do have some numbers on fire hall construction that are in the neighbourhood of $128 a square foot,” he said. “But my answer to the part A, part B idea is that it is not in the direction I have received thus far. I would have to receive new direction before proceeding in that way.”

When contacted by the News on Tuesday, Charbonneau explained that while the County Council decision to proceed with the project from February of last year did not set out specifics about how the cost sharing would be calculated, he is following a protocol that was worked out afterwards between County Chief Administrator Liz Savill and senior staff from North Frontenac. That protocol stipulated that North Frontenac would pay for 2/3 of construction costs and Frontenac County the other 1/3 regardless of the total cost of the project.

“Is there anything else you would like to tell us?” Bud Clayton asked as Paul Charbonneau and Marion Vanbruinessen were leaving the meeting, “other than to get off our butts and get on with it?”

“I was just saying to Marion as we were driving here this morning that when I started with the county in 2004, my first priority was to get a northern ambulance base in place and get our ambulance off the parking lot at the township yard in Lavant. And as we sit here today seven years later the ambulance is idling in that parking lot, burning fuel. So, yes, we would like to get this done,” replied Charbonneau.

After Charbonneau left, council considered some of their options.

“The firefighters currently have a building that is 1550 square feet. We are proposing 3,800, but we have room to move down to 3,000 if we want,” said Councilor John Inglis.

“The issue is price,” said Mayor Bud Clayton, “we know what the firefighters want but we are responsible to the entire township not just one group of firefighters.”

Inglis then said that he thought the township could find another $100,000 in the 2011 budget so they can invest $400,000 into the project.

“I’m with John,” said Clayton, “our upset price is $400,000.”

“I think you and I, Bud, should argue for a change in the cost sharing agreement at county council,” said Inglis.

Clayton and Inglis are the North Frontenac Township representatives to Frontenac County Council.

The investment of another $100,000 in the Ompah Fire Hall is not a done deal for North Frontenac Council, however.

Deputy Mayor Fred Perry said that the hall could be downsized even more, to well below 3,000 square feet, “if we consider realigning our equipment throughout all of our fire halls. We need to look at the skill base we have, and realize that the firefighters from all the halls are called to each fire, and we don’t actually save that many buildings. We mostly contain fires from spreading.”

Councilor Wayne Good said, “in my opinion, and I have expressed this before to the firefighters themselves, we don’t really need a fire station in Ompah. We have Plevna and Snow Road. So I can’t see putting any more than another $50,000 into it. At the most.”

In the end council did not decide how much money they are willing to commit to the project.

They did pass a motion saying that their county representatives “shall have a discussion with county council with respect to the cost sharing of this project.”