New: Facebook has blocked all Canadian news. Join our mailing list to stay in the loop.

New: Facebook has blocked all Canadian news. Join our mailing list to stay in the loop.

A report by the consulting group KPMG, six months in the making, is being presented to a special meeting of Frontenac County Council this week, and all members of the four Frontenac townships have been invited to hear the presentation.

The KPMG study considered whether Frontenac County has lost out in provincial grants over the last few years, because unlike neighbouring municipalities, the county plays no role in road maintenance and construction. While the Frontenac municipalities are eligible for infrastructure grants, Frontenac County is not.

The report, which was posted on the county website last Friday (January 24) says that Frontenac County has been short-changed over the last three years as compared to its neighbouring counties (Lanark, Lennox and Addington, Leeds and Grenville, and Hastings).

“Since 2016, the Frontenac County and its townships have received significantly less grant funding when compared to their peers. In 2018, Frontenac County received an average of $3 million less in grant funding than their comparator group,” it says.

The second question the report looked at is what can be done to change this scenario.

KPMG was given two options to consider. Both call for the county to establish a kind of virtual roads department. Under the first option, the in-house option, KPMG was to look at a scenario whereby the county would hire its own engineering staff to support the roads network and prepare grant applications.

The second option, the out-sourcing option, was for the county to be only indirectly involved. It would see the county hire an “independent engineering firm on a retention basis to work in conjunction with township public works managers” when necessary.

Before the report was even commissioned, South Frontenac differed from the other townships. While the other three said that both the in-house out-sourcing options should be considered, South Frontenac supported only the out-sourcing option but they were out-voted

Under either option, the ultimate goal is to enable grant applications to be submitted to provincial and federal granting programs for large scale roadwork, under the county banner.

The KPMG report concluded that each option would result in significant costs. They both require $200,000 in start up costs, and would take some time to be fully operational. By 2024, the in-house option is projected to cost $625,000 annually, and the out-sourcing option is expected to cost $500,000.

While these costs might seem high, KPMG estimates that there are 480 kilometres of regionally significant roads in Frontenac County (including Road 38, Perth Road, roads 509/506, Road 95/96 on Wolfe Island and Road 22 on Howe Island) which will require a $32.5 million investment in maintenance over the next 5 years.

The KPMG report favoured the in-house option but said it should be explored further, a process that will cost an additional $26,000.

South Frontenac Council looked at the KPMG report at their own council meeting on Tuesday night, in order to provide direction to Mayor Ron Vandewal and Councillor Alan Revill, the townships representatives on Frontenac County Council.

CAO Neil Carbonne was quite specific in laying out South Frontenac’s own ideas about a regional roads system.

“The reason it’s on the agenda tonight is that there’s a meeting about it at County and South Frontenac is the only council that initially did not support the in-house option at all,” he said.

Carbonne said meetings with his counterparts and public works managers from the other townships suggest they’d all be on board with a system where there was a joint management board or an arrangement that would see South Frontenac taking the lead.

“We don’t want it to be in-house with the County,” he said.

“Do we need to spend $26,000 (for a KPMG study) to tell us it could be a board?” said Mayor Ron Vandewal. “I don’t want to see anything that would even remotely endorse County involvement.”

“I have some serious concerns,” said Councilor Alan Revill, “I suspect it will be an uphill fight to do in-house without the involvement of the County.”

“I’m not sure this isn’t a boondoggle we don’t want to be any part of,” said Coun. Ron Sleeth. “I can’t suggest we get in bed with the County and put the work in their hands.”

“What we’re looking at is an option that was never at the table, because the only in-house option KPMG was looking at was county based” said Carbonne.

“The way to do what we want to is to explore that different in-house option.”

South Frontenac council decided to endorse the KPMG recommended in-house option, with one change, that the new KPMG study “consider multiple governance structures and service delivery models.”

Published in FRONTENAC COUNTY

In their fall community grants announcement on Monday night (December 16) in Kingston, the Community Foundation for Kingston and Area (CFKA) focussed on regional service delivery. Frontenac and rural Lennox and Addington are the focus for one of the largest grants, $21,850 to the KFL&A (Kingston Frontenac Lennox and Addington) Children and Youth Planning Committee (CYPC)

The CYPC is made up of over 30 agencies who meet together periodically in order to attempt to provide seamless service delivery for children and youth in the region.

“We meet together regularly and the topic of transportation comes up at almost every meeting. That’s why we decided to apply for a grant to allow us to look at what is available in different communities, so we can work together r to find better solutions,” said Louise Moody, who is the Executive Director of Rural Frontenac Community Services, a member of CYPC. She accepted the grant on behalf of the member agencies.

“Lack of transportation in Kingston & Area's communities continues to be an obstacle for rural children and youth,” said the Community Foundation in announcing the grant. “This often means youth and families have difficulties accessing needed services, attending social events, participating in sports and leisure activities. Most agencies in KFL&A have a small transportation budget or program.

“This project will take a systemic view of rural transportation by supporting planning among agencies to see how transportation services can be coordinated so that more children, youth and families can not only access the services they need, but also participate in community activities to support their overall wellbeing and feel a sense of inclusion in their community.”

Transportation services in KLF&A have had their ups and downs recently.

In early November, Frontenac County Council decided that 2020 will be the last year that they will provide $96,000 in funding for transportation services in their jurisdiction. The county has provided annual funding to various transportation programs for over 15 years. Later in November, a new community bus program was started up in Addington Highlands by Land O’Lakes Community Services with the aid of a provincial grant, and starting in January of 2020 a new ride sharing app will be unveiled by Rural Frontenac Community Services.

Other grants from the Community Foundation that will have an impact in the Frontenac News readership area include: $9000 to replace aging equipment at the Gould Lake Resource Centre in South Frontenac, $3650 for the Passport to Nature Program of the Land Conservancy for KFL&A, as well as funding for children’s mental health, an awareness program for ACE (Adverse Childhood Experiences), and a women’s intensive support program.

The CFKA provides community grants in: arts and culture, community development, education and literacy, environment, health and social services, heritage preservation, recreation, and youth and children’s mental health The next application deadline is February 15, 2020. Information about grant applications is available at CFKA.org.

In an outreach effort to groups and agencies in Frontenac County, grants coordinator Penny Scott will be holding a community grants information session in Sydenham in early January.

During this information session, participants will be provided with an overview of the community grants program, as well as a review of the eligibility guidelines, application form and budget template.

It will be an informal setting to ask questions and learn more about this opportunity.

The South Frontenac information session will be held on Thursday, January 9 from 2pm - 3:30pm in the Sydenham Library meeting room at 4412 Wheatley Street. Register by visiting www.cfka.org

Published in SOUTH FRONTENAC

Members of Kingston City Council were disappointed last week when Frontenac County Chief Administrative Officer Kelly Pender did not show up to brief them on how much the city will be charged for the delivery of land ambulance service and Fairmount Home in 2020.

Both services are operated by Frontenac County, with funding support from the Province of Ontario, City of Kingston ratepayers and Frontenac County ratepayers.

At a budget meeting on November 26, city council member Wayne Hill is quoted in the Whig Standard article as saying “I don’t understand why they are not here tonight. It seems to me they don’t want to answer these questions in front of Council. It leaves us really blind.”

When contacted this week from his office at Frontenac County headquarters in Glenburnie, Pender said the real question in the matter is not whether he attended or not, but why his name was on the agenda in the first place.

“When we met with the mayor and other city officials at RULAC [Rural Urban Liaison Committee] on October 30th, I told them that I could give them a number for each of the services in 2020, but it would almost certainly be wrong. We won’t know until we find out how much the province is paying into those budgets next year, and we don’t know when they are going to tell us.”

Pender said that, even after informing the city that the budget numbers are not available, in early November he received an invitation to the November 26 city budget meeting.

“I informed them that I would not be attending the November 26 meeting, for reasons that I made clear to them once again. Apparently my name was not removed from the agenda and Council still expected someone to be there from Frontenac County.”

When Frontenac County Council met in October to work on their own 2020 budget, the amount paid by the province in 2019 to support Frontenac Paramedic Services (land ambulance) and Fairmount Home was plugged into the budget. Pender told his council the same thing he told City of Kingston officials, that the number was certainly wrong for 2020.

Pender said this week that he does not expect to have final numbers in time for the Frontenac County Council meeting on December 18, and Frontenac County will likely go into 2020 without an approved budget.

“The provincial numbers may not be available until provincial budget time in March,” Pender said over the phone on Tuesday (December 3).

“At some point we will need to approve our budget in order to set a tax rate for our member municipalities to plug in to their tax bills. But it won’t be on December 18.”

He added that once the province tells Frontenac County how much they will be contributing for 2020, he will bring that information to Frontenac County Council. Once Frontenac County Council finalises the budgets for Frontenac Paramedic Services and Fairmount Home, that information will be provided to the City of Kingston.

The City of Kingston has requested that all third-party agencies that they fund, keep any increases to 2.5%, the same request that they made in 2019.

In 2019, the bill to Kingston for Frontenac Paramedic Services was up by 7.7% over 2018 and the bill for Fairmount Home was up by 5.2%.

City staff managed to find money in reserves to cover most of the increase, which was not accounted for in the 2019 Kingston budget, but at a Kingston City Council meeting in September, the decision was taken to withhold the last $200,000 from amount levied to the city by Frontenac County for the services.

Frontenac County has not backed down, and the matter of the $200,000 payment is now the subject of mediation.

Under a separate agreement, the City of Kingston provides children’s services, Ontario Works and social housing services for Frontenac County, and levies funds to Frontenac County ratepayers to cover a portion of those costs. For 2020, the levy for children’s services and Ontario Works is up, by 6.6%, while the social housing levy is down, by 4.4%.

Published in FRONTENAC COUNTY

The long and contentious approval process to create 15 new building lots at Johnston’s Point on Loughborough Lake (off North Shore Road) took another bizarre twist this month with the release of a new document.

Because of the presence of two endangered species on the site - Blandings Turtles and Gray (aka Black) rat snakes – the project developer was required to obtain a “Overall Benefit Permit” from the Ministry of Natural Resources as a condition of approval for the project.

The permit sets out the steps that must be taken to ensure that the net effect of the development will not cause any more stress on the populations of the two endangered species than existed when the property was in its natural state.

Frontenac County, as the approval authority that will ultimately give the go-ahead for the project, wanted to see the permit. The Ministry would not release the document and the county submitted a freedom of information request last winter to get access.

While the request was being considered, ministerial changes took place and responsibility to enforce the permit is now held by the Ministry of Environment, Conservation and Parks. The document was finally released to Frontenac County on October 29, but as members of Frontenac County Council saw this week when the document was released to the public, it is a redacted version that was released.

The redactions were done by the ministry and a third party with an interest in the project. The ministries’ redactions, county planning staff have determined, were done so that the specific locations where the species are located within the site are not identified.

The redactions make parts of the permit very hard to understand.

The permit does say that paving should be avoided within the building project, and that a 30-metre vegetative buffer around the lake must be adhered to. It also places restrictions on the time of years when certain construction activities can take place.

For example, no vegetative clearing, driveway clearing or construction, building or septic field construction can take place between April 1 and October 31 unless a qualified professional is on site to monitoring all clearing and construction to make sure the species are not negatively impacted by the activity.

While construction will be restricted during the main building season of April 1 to October 30, any blasting that will take place will be restricted to April 1 – October 31 so it does not impact the snakes during hibernation.

Even once construction is complete, there are provisions for educating property owners on the site, and for annual reports concerning the wellbeing of the two species.

The stringent requirements about the project, the materials to be used in road construction, and the timing and limitations during the construction phase will all be enforced by the Ministry, the township of South Frontenac and the County of Frontenac have no jurisdiction concerning the stipulations contained in the benefit permit.

Published in FRONTENAC COUNTY

Magenta Corporation is the proponent for a vacant land plan of Condominium that is slated to create 18 waterfront and back-lots on a 91-acre parcel of land called Johnston’s Point on Loughborough Lake south of Perth Road Village. Thanks to a decision of Frontenac County Council last Wednesday (June 19) they will have at least one more year to clear all the conditions and obtain final approval for the development.

The project has been the subject of much opposition from neighouring property owners on the lake and others who are concerned that the project will impact wildlife within an adjacent Area of Natural and Scientific Interest (ANSI) and on some identified Species at Risk within the proposed development itself.

In 2016, it was approved by the Ontario Municipal Board, the final authority in Ontario for land use planning matters. That approval is good for three years, which runs out this month, hence the application for an extension.

Two delegations before Council on the morning of the decision urged them to reject the one-year extension, but Frontenac County Manager of Planning and Development Joe Gallivan said that the extension was warranted.

In his report to Council, Gallivan wrote: County planning staff along with the owner, project manager, [South Frontenac] township staff and commenting agencies completed a site visit of the subject property on Wednesday, May 29, 2019. At this site visit the commenting agencies and Township confirmed that the outstanding work required the extension to ensure that the required conditions are appropriately fulfilled and were supportive of the one-year extension. County Councillors also had the opportunity to attend the site.”

South Frontenac and Frontenac County Council member Alan Revill indicated he would not be supporting the extension, pointing to his concerns over species at risk within the proposed development lands.

The Planning department of South Frontenac also supported granting the extension, however South Frontenac Council rejected their own planning department decision, and voted down a staff motion at their June 4th meeting recommending the county grant the extension. Frontenac County is the approval authority for land use planning within its jurisdiction.

Joe Gallivan told County Council that he is not aware that an extension such as the one being requested in this case “has ever been rejected by a municipality in Ontario”.

In a recorded vote, the extension was approved, with Councillor Revill casting the only dissenting vote. Couth Frontenac Mayor Ron Vandewal, who had been one of only two South Frontenac Council member to support the extension at the June 4th South Frontenac Council meeting, supported it again at Frontenac County Council on June 19.

One-year extensions for two other projects in the same district of South Frontenac, Storrington, as Johnston’s Point, were approved without comment. They are the Cranberry Cove and Sands Road projects.

Also at the meeting Council adopted a strategic plan for the rest of this term of council. The plan includes 3 relatively broad priorities: 1. Get behind plans that build community vitality and resilience in times of growth and change 2. Explore new funding sources and invest wisely in critical long-term infrastructure, and 3. Champion and coordinate collaborative efforts with partners to resolve complex problems otherwise beyond the reach of individual mandates and jurisdictions.

Published in FRONTENAC COUNTY

Nothing has really changed, so far, for Kingston Frontenac Lennox and Addington Public Health.

“From the food you eat to the water you drink, 24 hours a day, 7 days a week, we make sure it is safe. That hasn’t changed,” said Dr. Kieran Moore, the medical officer of health for the region and Chief Executive Officer of the public health agency.

The agency does not yet know how much money the Province of Ontario will contribute for the current fiscal year, which started on April 1st, but that is not unusual. What is different this year, is that in the provincial budget, the government indicated that it wants to cut the overall budget for public health by $200 million, a substantial cut, but it is unclear if there will be a substantial cut this year.

“Our municipal partners have committed to covering any shortfall in funding this year so our programs will continue even if there is a cut from the province,” Moore said. “and we have heard from the ministry, who tell us that our final budget allocation will be known in a month or so.”

The province of Ontario currently contributes $18 million towards the $24 million Public Health budget in KFL&A, 75%.

Fiscal 2020/21 is not at all certain, however.

A few weeks after announcing that they plan to restructure public health and consolidate 35 health units across the province into 10 larger regional entities, the ministry revealed their intentions for Eastern Ontario.

The proposal is to create a regional health unit, based in Ottawa, to cover Renfrew, Stormont, Dundas and Glengarry, Prescott Russel, Leeds and Grenville, Kingston, Frontenac and Lennox and Addington. The large region encompasses 29,000 square kilometres and 1.6 million residents.

Two main objections to the plan have been raised. The first is that public health organisations are most effective when they respond to the specific needs of the population that they serve, and this will be difficult to accomplish with the massive geography in the proposal.

Dr.Moore pointed out that KFL&A Public Health has developed cutting edge programs in response to Lyme Disease, which is more prevalent in its jurisdiction than elsewhere in the province, and has also been pro-active in studying and responding to high radon levels in homes, another locally significant circumstance.

“We know that smoking rates are higher in Hastings and Belleville than elsewhere, and Hastings Prince Edward Public Health has developed their own response for that reason. They also don’t have the same level of primary care than is the case elsewhere so they provide more home nursing,” said Moore.

The second objection is based on a concern about how public health is structured in Ottawa. Whereas in KFL&A, public health operates as an independent entity governed by a board of municipal politicians and appointees, in Ottawa, the service is integrated into the administration of the City of Ottawa.

“If the province is looking for cost savings, they will first have to absorb the cost of creating a new Public Health Organisation with its own building, financial office, human resources department, etc.” said Moore.

Christine Elliott, the Minister of Health, has said there will be consultations before any final decisions are made, and Moore, along with his colleagues elsewhere in Eastern Ontario, are developing alternative proposals.

One possibility is to pair Ottawa with Renfrew County to form one organisation, and create another one for Prescott-Russell, Stormont, Dundas and Glengarry, Lanark, Leeds and Grenville, Lennox and Addington, Frontenac, Kingston and Cornwall, along with Hastings County.

“I think it is more workable,” Moore told the Ottawa Citizen.

On the political level, Dennis Doyle, Mayor of Frontenac Islands and Chair of the Board for KFL&A Public Health, proposed a motion to Frontenac County Council last week.

The motion extolled the virtues of Public Health, and said that “the proposed changes by the province to create 10 Provincial Health Hubs would cause unnecessary and negative unintended consequences,”.

It then asked that the province “stop the planned reduction of Ontario public health units from 35 to 10 and planned reduction of $200 million from public health, and instead initiate consultations with municipalities and public health agencies on the public health system in Ontario,” and requested the province commit to funding 75% of public health costs going forward.

The motion was approved by Council.

Published in General Interest

After flirting with the idea of constructing a new Frontenac County Administrative building, Frontenac County Council is being asked to look once again at renovating its current building.

A little over a year ago, after considering its long-term office space needs for over two years, Frontenac County was approached by the Cataraqui Region Conservation Authority about a shared accommodation solution. The idea of a brand new building was raised, and late last spring the idea gained more traction when South Frontenac Township expressed interest in a three-way partnership.

This led the county’s Administrative Building Design Task Force to look at the feasibility and cost estimates surrounding a new building for the three partners, located somewhere in South Frontenac, perhaps in Sydenham in order to save on water costs.

This process carried on through the fall of 2018, into the beginning of the new term of municipal council.

At a meeting in April, South Frontenac Mayor Ron Vandewal informed both the county and the conservation authority that South Frontenac Council had rejected the idea of a new building at their own meeting in early April.

In response, the task force decided to look again at using either the current Cataraqui Conservation Authority near Hwy. 401 or the current Frontenac County/Fairmount home site in Glenburnie for a joint office space.

“The lowest cost option would be to use the existing county site as all infrastructure and servicing is already in place,” said a report to Council prepared by Clerk Janette Amini and Chief Administrative Officer Kelly Pender.

Accordingly, the report recommends spending $10,000, to be taken from a provincial grant earmarked for modernisation, to look at renovating the existing county offices for use by the two entities.

If approved this week, the money will go towards, architectural analysis of the current county building, preliminary plans to meet partner needs, options for potential configuration of common areas, implications for parking, water & similar services; and initial budget-level estimates for comparison with a stand-alone option.

Strategic Plan to be presented

At that same meeting, Council will consider a draft strategic plan that was developed in association with 80/20 Consulting.

The previous plan, prepared in 2014, has become known for identifying four “wildly important goals” for Frontenac County. This new plan, by contrast, talks about three strategic priorities for this term of council.

Although the plan was prepared before the provincial government’s recent budget, which is already having an impact on municipal budgets, it is written with a sense of caution and a focus on maintaining programs and services that are already in place.

Here are the strategic priorities: 1 - Get behind plans that build community resilience and vitality in times of growth and change, 2 - Explore new funding sources and invest in critical long-term infrastructure using sound judgement, and 3 - Champion and coordinate collaborative efforts with partners to resolve complex problems otherwise beyond the reach of individual mandates and jurisdictions.

Within these priorities is everything from enhancing broadband coverage, securing the future of Fairmount Home, promoting economic development and improving planning processes across the county.

Published in FRONTENAC COUNTY

Budget article update - Wednesday 6:00 pm

(At their meeting today, Frontenac County Council considered proposals which would have brought their 2018 budget levy down by up to $150,000, but in the end only managed to make the most superficial of cuts to the document.

But pity the poor foster kids!

A 6,000 expenditure to support a scholarship program for foster children in Kingston, Frontenac, Lennox and Addington, was cut from the budget. The impact of the cut was to lower the budget levy by 0.06%. The only other change to the budget that was made by council was to remove another $6,400 from taxation by cutting almost half of the budget for a parking lot restoration project at the county offiuce/Fairmount Home complex.

All in the levy to ratepayers has been reduced from $9.775 million to $9.763 million, a decrease of a little over a tenth of one per cent. The net increase in the levy to ratepayers has been set a 4.4%.

The other potential changes that would have had a greater impact did not have enough support from Council to come to fruition.

A motion to cut the $55,061 contribution to the University Hospital Foundation of Kingston, which was made by North Frontenac Mayor Ron Higgins, did not receive a seconder.

The only major dispute of the morning came when Warden Ron Vandewal proposed that the ambulance that is stationed on Wolfe Island could be replaced with a cheaper option using a single paramedic and a first response vehicle. The transport ambulance would come from Kingston off the soon to be upgraded ferry service. This would save about $100,000 per year, and a portion of those savings would go to Frontenac County ratepayers.

Chief of Paramedic Services Paiul Charbonneau said that the alternative service would be a good fit for Wolfe Islands and would serve the residents as well as the traditional ambulance that has been phased in.

That did not sit well with Frontenac Islands Mayor Dennis Doyle however.

“Just like we voted to support the K&P Trail and Economic Development, I would ask that the county support the residents of Wolfe Island by completing the phase-in of ambulance service that this council started in 2015.”

Council stood with Doyle.

The draft 2018 budget thus remained intact, with the only losers from today’s process being part of a parking lot and a foster child who will not get a scholarship.

Overall spending for Frontenac County, which stood at $41.3 milliom in the draft budget, remains at $41.3 million. The $26,000 decrease in total expenditures (0.06%) falls within the rounding error.

The following was published before the meeting on Wednesday morning, and is based on the content of the draft budget, which as explained above, has remained fundamentally intact in its final incarnation

 

Perhaps Kelly Pender sky dives on the weekends, but in his working life the Frontenac County Chief Administrative Officer is averse to risk and drama. As far as the annual Frontenac County budget is concerned, he has been preaching from the gospel of predictable, controlled budget increases over time.

This has taken a lot of the drama out of the annual Frontenac County budget process, which was never a riveting spectacle to witness even before Pender took the helm.

This year Frontenac County Council has moved away from the very general; approving the parameters of the budget in conceptual terms in September, to the very specific; looking at individual projects as add-ons to the budget in late October.

This week they received, for the first and likely the last time, a draft budget document. It contains few surprises.

The number that matters in 2018 will be $9,775,000, that’s how much will be levied to the four Frontenac Townships if Council accepts the budget as presented Wednesday morning (This article will be updated on Frontenacnews.ca at that time) The townships will then collect that money from Frontenac County properties.

This projected levy is over $400,000 higher than it was in 2017, an increase of 4.5%.

Most of that increase came about as the result of previous decisions by this Council.

They indicated at their meeting in September that they would like to see an operating budget, including service enhancements, come in at under 1.5%, the figure for the increase in the consumer price index (CPI) for the year as calculated in late August.

Treasurer Susan Brandt, working her first budget as the lead official (she was the Deputy Treasurer until replacing the retired Marion Vanbruinessen earlier this year) followed last year’s practice and added 0.6% to that target, based on figures for the projected increase in property assessment that was provided by the Municipal Property Assessment Corporation.

By keeping the operating budget increase to 1.1% ($104,117), adding 0.89% ($83,550) for new projects, and using $88,000 from reserve funds, the result was a 2% increase. This increase includes a new overnight Personal Support Worker shift at Fairmount Home and a new Human Resources position, as well as $35,000 for the Economic Development Department.

Added to the 2% increase from this year’s process are increases resulting from commitments made earlier in the mandate of this council. The largest of those is 1.78% ($166,7782) for two service enhancements of the Frontenac Paramedic Services, which are being phased in. One is on Wolfe Island, which is now fully funded, and the other is the second of three increases for a new overnight ambulance in Kingston. Another 0.65% ($60,787) is devoted to increase the reserve fund for capital projects, which has been in place for three years now and will continue to effect future budgets.

All together, the increase rounds off to just about 4.5%

Because of the incremental process and the weight of prior commitments, there is little to be decided when the entire package is presented this week. All of the spending increases have been approved in principle at previous meetings, but Council is not bound by those prior decisions.

Based on the discussions that took place earlier, the only item that is at all likely to re-surface is the commitment to provide $55,000 each year for ten year to the University Hospital Foundation of Kingston. That was approved in a vote of 6-3 and may come up for a final vote before the budget is signed, sealed and delivered.

Whether approved with or without amendments, the enacting bylaw for the budget will not be before Council until their meeting on December 20th.

(Frontenac County’s overall spending budget for 2018 will be $41.3 million, up 3% ($1.2 million) from 2017. Most of the money required to deliver Frontenac County Services is provided by the Province of Ontario and the City of Kingston, which provide the lion’s share of funding for the two largest County operations (Fairmount Home and Frontenac Paramedic Services)

Published in FRONTENAC COUNTY
Wednesday, 01 November 2017 16:20

Council adds 1% to budget for new projects

4% increase likely in Frontenac County budget – offset by 1% in growth

Frontenac County Council said yes to most of the requests for funding it received as part of its 2018 budget deliberations. Fortunately for Frontenac County ratepayers, a lot of the requests came from service areas that are shared with the City of Kingston. For example, the cost of a new 11pm -7am Personal Support Worker Shift at Fairmount Home, a 1.4 FSE (Full time staff equivalent) is $91,147 with benefits, but Frontenac County ratepayers will only pay $29,167 and City of Kingston ratepayers will cover the rest because of a cost sharing agreement for the home. Similarly, a Human Resources generalist position that is being created will cost $87,815 for salary and benefits, but only $27,339 is being charged to county residents. A $45,000 parking lot improvement project at the Fairmount Home/County office complex will similarly cost county ratepayers $14,400 with Kingston covering the rest.

The major exception, in terms of cost, is the proposal for a $35,000 levy contribution to the Economic Development Reserve Fund, and a commitment to increase that reserve by $35,000 each year for the next five years, in order to bring the department into a stronger long term position with an annual budget that is $170,000 higher than 2016 levels by 2023.

Although this proposal will lead to a greater increase in taxation than any of the other proposals in front of Council, it was well received and enthusiastically approved. Much of that enthusiasm can be attributed to the successful implementation of the new Frontenac brand and the brand ambassador program.
“I’ve been involved in municipal politics for 30 years and for the first time people are coming up to me at church and asking about how they can get involved in a Frontenac County program. They are now relating to the county as something that can do something for us,” said Central Frontenac Mayor Frances Smith.
“I don’t think that my township is going to set up an economic development department on its own,” said Ron Vandewal of South Frontenac. “We rely on the county for this. Even if it costs us more in the future, it is still cheaper than doing it on our own.”
All told the projects listed above will increase the county levy by 0.91%.

External requests
Council also considered a number of external requests. The largest of these was a request from the University Hospitals Kingston Foundation for a $200,000 annual donation. Council opted instead for a $55,061 annual donation. Because the County has been making a donation of $54,000 each year for ten years, and even though the ten year commitment was over with, the expenditure is already included in the budget, so only the increase was included for the purpose of budget deliberations last week, even though all decisions will be subject to a further consideration of the entire budget on November 15.
Still, council members took divergent views towards the request.

John Inglis from North Frontenac said that he took the presentation by the hospital foundation, which took place in September, “at face value, and I support making a $200,000 donation.”
On the other side of the coin, South Frontenac Mayor (and current County Warden) Ron Vandewal said “I really struggle when you start spending money outside of your mandate”.
North Frontenac Mayor (and current Deputy Warden) Ron Higgins said “This is basically a donation. Is it in our job to do donations? I can’t justify it.”
Central Frontenac Mayor Frances Smith took the middle ground.

“I do believe we have to give them something,” she said, “but we struggle to pay our own staff. I can’t see a jump like they are looking for.”
Gradually the status quo expenditure of $55,061 seemed to gain favour.
“I’ve got no problem doing what we are already doing, because it is in our budget,” said Frontenac Islands Mayor Dennis Doyle.
By a show of hands $55,061 donation was remained in the budget (see editorial)

A smaller donation, $6,000 towards a scholarship program for children in foster care, was also approved, but a $10,000 request for an incentive program for recording artists was referred to the Community Development Advisory Committee.
The final discussion centered around a set of requests from Frontenac Transportation Services (FTS) for an increase to the $96,000 that the county already contributes. The not for profit service is led by Rural Frontenac Community Services, in partnership with Southern Frontenac Community Services.
Because of change in ridership over the last 18 months or so, a decrease in third party funded rides by agencies such as Ontario Works and the Ontario Disability Supports Program, and an increase in rides for seniors, FTS has moved from a modest surplus standing, to a deficit. To deal with their financial issues, they asked the county for a $20,000 increase in the annual support payment, a $10,000 one time payment to cover the 2017 deficit, $5,000 for a fund to subsidise rides for low income seniors, and $10,000 to undertake a pilot project to develop an accessible service in response to a request from the Frontenac County Accessiblity Committee.

Dennis Doyle was un-moved by the requests.

“I think we give them enough already,” he said, but his view did not prevail.
“I can’t see putting another $20,000 on the levy without seeing a business case from them that tells us how they are going to deal with the reality they are facing on the ground,” said Ron Vandewal.
In the end Vandewal’s position held sway. Council agreed to provide an extra $20,000 in 2018 as a one time payment, taken from a $100,000 senior’s transportation reserve fund, and to fund the $10,000 pilot from the same fund, which will be cut to $70,000 by the end of the year.
“They can come to Council next year with a business plan and the new council can decide if they want to do a permanent increase in funding,” said Vandewal.
Because reserve funds were used, the FTS increase will not impact the levy, and the impact from all the requests from outside sources was only $7,061, the net impact of all the project proposals debated by the Committee of the Whole on Wednesday and Thursday of last week is an increase of a shade under 1% on the overall levy.

County Treasurer Susan Brant told the news last week that the operating budget she has prepared will include an increase inline with the annualised Consumer Price Index for August (1.5%) and a commitment to a 0.65% increase for an infrastructure reserve, which are both mandated by Council.
With the increases from last week, that 3.15% budget increase is likely. Brant also indicated that, as was done last year, another increase of up to 1% will likely be included in the budget. This will be offset by property assessment growth in the county that will be identified by the Municipal Property Assessment Corporation when they deliver their annual assessment report for Frontenac County.

In all, the budget that Council will see on November 20 will include an increase in the range of 4% in the overall levy to county ratepayers.


i

Published in FRONTENAC COUNTY
Thursday, 26 October 2017 14:06

Frontenac County budget project proposals

Before members of Frontenac County Council see a complete budget document, they are meeting this week to consider requests for new spending. Some of these requests are coming from internal sources, such as the county run Fairmount Home, Frontenac Paramedic Services, and the Human Resources and Economic Development departments.

Among the list of requests is a new 7 day a week overnight Personal Support Worker (PSW) shift at Fairmount Home, and a new Human Resources position. The salaries for these jobs would be funded mostly by the City of Kingston, but county ratepayers would be on tap for $29,167 for the PSW shift, and $27,339 for the Human Resources position.

Among the other project proposals that would impact taxation is $14,400 for the county share of the costs of improvements to the parking lot at the Fairmount Home/County office complex, and a $35,000 in 2017 to boost the budget for the Economic Development Department in order to keep it at its current capacity when a three year provincial grant runs out.

County ratepayers would only be saddled with $111,000, a 1/2% increase, if all the internally driven project are approved.

That is only one part of the tax picture, however. This week council will also consider requests from external groups. Among these is a request from the University Hospital Foundations of Kingston for $200,000 toward ongoing improvements at three Kingston hospitals. This would be an increase of $146,000 over the contribution made by the county in 2017, which was the tenth and final year in a $54,000 annual contribution to a previous fund raising drive. The other large ticket item is a basket of requests from Frontenac Transportation Services for a total increase of $44,000 to their annual grant of $96,000.
All told the external requests come to over $205,000 and if granted would increase taxation by a further 2.2%.

Once the project proposals are dealt with, council will consider the budget as a whole. Based on a motion passed in September, that budget will include an increase of 1.5% for inflation, based on the Stats Canada Consumer Price Index for the year ending August 31st. Council has also agreed to 0.65% increase each year to go towards long term infrastructure replacement costs. In 2017, another 1% spending increase was covered by an increase in property assessment from new construction, and although the property assessment data is not in yet, a similar increase will be in the budget that council will be in front of council next month.

Essentially Council is looking at 3% increase before looking at any new projects, and about a 6.4% increase if they decide to say yes to all of the proposals that will be before them this week.
The likelihood is that at least some of the requests will be pegged back or eliminated, as council struggles to bring in their final budget before municipal elections in the fall of 2018.

Council meets this week to debate the project proposals, on the expectation that they will consider the budget as a whole on November 15 with a view towards adopting it in December.

Published in FRONTENAC COUNTY
Page 1 of 2
With the participation of the Government of Canada