Doug Ford has never been accused of being subtle, and during the first 9 months of his mandate as premier, signals about the government’s intention to change provincially delivered and/or funded services in Ontario have been crystal clear, as is their commitment to exercising the Province’s authority to force change onto Ontario municipalities.

One of his first acts was to cut the number of politicians in the City of Toronto, and he did it in the middle of a municipal election campaign, demonstrating not only his disdain for Toronto City Hall, but also that the Province of Ontario does indeed have the authority to make whatever changes it wants to make, to both the size and the mandate of municipal councils.

Questions about whether that zeal for change will extend to rural Ontario governance, are now being answered. Education and healthcare are being revamped, as well as the makeup of larger municipalities, as is the funding for services that are partially funded by the Province but delivered by municipalities. The only reasonable conclusion would seem to be that municipalities, as they exist today, will no longer exist by the time the next provincial election rolls around.

As we have been seeing recently in regards to Paramedic Services and Public Health, and now Conservation Authorities and Libraries, the balance of funding for these operations between the Province and municipalities is going to change.

The unexpected one-time funding to rural Ontario municipalities that was announced a few weeks ago, and the language around seeking efficiency that came with that funding, is no coincidence. The decision to create much larger entities to deliver emergency services and Public Health, both municipally based services, are a further indication that sooner than later larger municipalities will be forced upon us.

For Frontenac County does that mean a single municipality to replace North, Central and South Frontenac is inevitable? Perhaps so, but at least two other possibilities are in play. One would be to break up the county system and create municipalities along east-west corridors. That makes some sense in terms of established travel patterns, but it would be complicated and difficult to pull off and possibly even more costly to run. It will likely be easier to stick with the way services already flow.

I can see a single municipality of Kingston-Frontenac, with services being centred in Kingston as a distinct possibility, or even Kingston Frontenac, Lennox and Addington becoming a single municipality. A basket of services for Frontenac County residents are already delivered by the City of Kingston, and it would be easier to extend that pattern than to start from scratch.

There is every chance that when the announcement about impending change comes from the Ministry of Municipal Affairs, it will be similar to what is being done with healthcare. There will be a process set out for different municipalities to work out new arrangements, based on a recommended average population size to be served by these new municipalities. It could be 50,000 people, it could be 100,000 people, or it could be more.

Under that scenario, proposing a single tier for Frontenac County with 25,000 people, would not be acceptable. A single Frontenac township will not satisfy the Ford government’s desires.

One way or another, rural Ontario will either be parceled up and tacked on to larger towns and cities, or else the new rural municipalities will be so vast that there will be little or no cohesion between disparate communities within a single municipality.

Our current Municipal Councils can’t really address this possible future because it is still speculative. They will know what their real options are only when word comes down from on high. Meanwhile it is becoming increasingly difficult for them to continue on as they have been, discussing how to make their operations more efficient as if the future will resemble the past.

Recent conversations at the Frontenac County level about a new county office, and a proposal to set up a virtual roads system in order to attract more provincial grants, seem odd in the context of the coming changes, very much a ‘rearranging the deck chairs on the Titanic’ scenario.

Sometime soon, the municipal ship will hit the provincial iceberg, and there will be no advance notice.

Jim Gilmour tried to retire after closing up his meat shop in Belleville in 2010. But a couple of years later his son Nick approached him to help him when he wanted to open Gilmour’s Meats on Highway 38 in Harrowsmith.

Jim’s been working with his son ever since. They were optimistic that Harrowsmith would be a good location for Gilmour’s, which carries groceries, pre-made meals, local baked goods, and has a popular lunch counter in addition to a full meat shop.

“The rapid growth of the business from the day we opened up, was a surprise to us,” said Nick, when interviewed at the shop last week.

Early last year, the Gilmour’s began working on a new project, a store to be located in a new plaza that will be located on a property they purchased just metres to the north of where Gilmour’s is currently located.

Plans for the new location have developed over time, and Nick says that he is confident that it will be something that “fits well with the local area” as it brings in brand something that will be a step up for food retailing in Frontenac County.

If planning the new location was not enough, a new venture has cropped up for the Gilmour family. In Belleville, where Jim still lives, an opportunity to purchase an existing plaza and open a new location for Gilmour’s presented itself. They jumped on it.

With the new location and the building project on the go, and a busy store getting ready for another summer season, Nick and Jim needed some more help.

That’s where Jordan Gilmour came in. Jordan is Jim’s son and Nick’s older brother. He has been living in Cambridge and working as an engineer for years. He has been involved in project management, among other things, working for a large engineering firm in the golden horseshoe.

“I was ready to move back here and take on a new opportunity,” said Jordan last week, just a few days after moving to Harrowsmith with his wife, Jackie, and their sons Eric and Brock.

Before going to University, Jordan trained in the butcher shop with his dad, and the chance to bring his business and management skills back to the family business, and bring his own family to live in a rural Frontenac setting, was something he could not pass up.

“With the three of us, we can run the two butcher shops and work on the construction project. It gives us the opportunity to build the business as a family, which is the way we have always done things,” said Nick.

“We’ve only been living here for a few days, and we’ve already seen that this is a great community,” said Jordan of the move to Harrowsmith. “The boys started school on Monday and were made very welcome, and through all of the contacts with people that Nick has made through the store, we have been able to connect with all of the services we needed to move in and set up our house.”

“We are going to bring something to Harrowsmith that has never been here before,” said Nick, about the new store project. I don’t want to get into details until everything is finalised, but I can say that it will be a big change for Harrowsmith.”

With all of this happening, it looks like Jim, who just turned 68 last week, won’t be retiring in earnest for a while yet.

I have often wondered why the tax rates in the Frontenac townships vary so much, and why it is that residents living in my own township, Central Frontenac, pay a much higher tax rate than anyone else.

It should be easy to compare tax rates in neighbouring townships in the same county, because they all have the same mix of responsibilities. Frontenac County has no roads department, the local townships pay for all road maintenance costs (except for Hwy 7) themselves. In Lanark and Lennox and Addington Counties for example, there have county roads, making county taxes higher and municipal taxes lower than in Frontenac.

But when we look at the tax rates in Frontenac, it is rather alarming, certainly for a resident of Central Frontenac. The rates are not similar at all. The rate in South Frontenac (using 2017 figures) is $597 per $100,000 in property assessment, in North Frontenac it is $675, and in Central Frontenac it is $841.

What that means, in the most extreme cases, is much higher tax for less service in Central Frontenac as opposed to South Frontenac.

Identical houses located on either side of Boundary Road (where the Frontenac Arena is located), which divides South and Central Frontenac would pay radically different amounts of tax, and the lower taxed house on the south side of the road would have curbside garbage pickup while the higher taxed house in Central Frontenac would not. If the houses were both assessed at $200,000, the difference in taxes would be $488 per year. A pretty raw deal for the poor sod who lives on the north side of the road.

But it it not reasonable to condemn Central Frontenac Council or laud South Frontenac Council based on this one case. There are other factors involved.

The assessed value of a house and property are based on the size and features of a house, and also its location. If you took a house on from Mountain Grove and plopped it down on an identical lot on Rutlege Road it would gain value because of its location within a short drive from Kingston. And of course waterfront, anywhere in Frontenac, is assessed at a much higher value.

This raises a fundamental issue when looking at municipal finances. The number of households in a township is the major factor in determining the cost of services. It is literally the case when it comes to OPP costs, which are charged to the townships on the basis of the number of households, and it is also the case for road, fire, waste disposal and virtually all municipal costs. But numbers of households is not the basis for taxation, property assessment is. Houses are taxed based on their resale value, not on the cost to provide services to the people living in them.

There are over 10,000 homes in South Frontenac, about 4,000 in Central and about 3,500 in North Frontenac.

When you look at the total amount of taxes collected in the three townships as a factor of the number of households, they are pretty comparable. The “amount to be raised by taxation” for 2017 in South Frontenac was $18.5 million, in Central Frontenac it was $7.3 million and in North Frontenac it was $5.6 million.

In percentage terms, Central Frontenac has about 39% of the population that South Frontenac has and collects about 39% of the number of tax dollars as well. North Frontenac, with 35% of the population of South Frontenac, but collects only about 30% of the amount of tax dollars.

The reason it costs more per $100,000 in assessment for ratepayers in Central and North Frontenac, is entirely due to lower average property values.

Again, looking at Frontenac County, in 2017 the average home in South Frontenac was assessed at $307,000, the average home in North Frontenac was assessed at $250,000 and the average assessment in Central Frontenac was $217,500.

In fact, when put through a simple formula based on relative property values, the $814 that Central Frontenac ratepayers pay per $100,000 in assessment, equates to $588 in South Frontenac, $9 less than what South Frontenac ratepayers pay. The $675 per $100,000 that North Frontenac ratepayers pay equates to about $550, $47 less than South Frontenac.

Does this mean the smaller townships are actually more efficient than the larger one?

Not necessarily, as there are many other factors at play. For example, North Frontenac has more seasonal residents than the other townships, who only need service 6 or 3 months out of the year. As well, the amount of paved and/or unpaved roads in each township are a function of geography and not the number of households.

North and Central Frontenac both maintain multiple community halls, and most halls in South Frontenac are owned and maintained by community groups, but South Frontenac has a museum, and garbage pickup.

An analysis of the number of households, taxes collected, and average tax assessment, based only on rudimentary mathematics, leads me to conclude that the three townships are pretty similar in the way they finance their operations.

If there are significant differences, they relate to levels of service, not the amount of taxes collected.

Pam Morey knows dementia is random, relentless and frighteningly common.

Speaking from her administrative office at Frontenac Arena in mid-January, Morey is passionate about building a strong and healthy community, one issue at a time.

“I think we should all share more information. It makes us more united,” said the 49-year-old.

Known for her work as President of the Harrowsmith and District Social & Athletic Club, and the Chair of South Frontenac Recreation 2017 & 2018, Morey is working to increase the community’s awareness of dementia.

“I want to let people know there is support out there,” she explains. “To give people better tools to communicate and understand people with dementia.”

Considered a serious health problem in Frontenac County and across Canada, dementia is a general term for a decline in mental ability severe enough to interfere with daily life. Memory loss is an example. Alzheimer's is the most common type of dementia, making up 50 to 70 per cent of cases. Common symptoms include emotional problems, problems with language, and a decrease in motivation

“We’re inviting people to learn about dementia, behaviours, how you can help to reduce stigma, support those living with dementia and their families,” says Morey about the free dementia friendly training at the club’s hall in Harrowsmith on Jan. 24.

“This training is for everyone who works or volunteers in the community,” she explains. “If you deal with the community, you should be at this meeting. It is also open to anyone interested in being more educated about this disease.”

Grateful to call Harrowsmith home, Morey hopes to make Frontenac County closer and stronger with education and communication.

“I love being a part of this community,” she confirms. “I’m proud to be a part of the Social and Athletic club which offers local entertainment and recreation. These activities bring us together and give us opportunities to meet our neighbours.”

Married with children, she adds, “I feel we should all be involved in our community so we can support and help each other. This training is a good education piece because the rate of aging people is going up. Young people need to be better educated about this issue and how to relate to people with dementia.”

The workshop is being held in January to coincide with Alzheimer Awareness Month. The community is encouraged to show its support of the Kingston, Frontenac, Lennox and Addington Alzheimer Society by joining a coffee break at the Frontenac Arena this Saturday and Sunday (Jan. 20 and 21). Coffee proceeds from 7 am to 10 pm will be donated to the society.

The dementia friendly training will be held from 7 to 8:30 pm on Jan. 24 at the club hall, located at 4041 Colebrook Road in Harrowsmith. To register, please contact Pam Morey at 613-929-7003 or write This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.

The Frontenac County Economic Development wants to know how residents feel about allowing motorized off-road vehicles to access the K & P Trail at the planned Bellrock Road Trailhead among other things and as such held an Open House information gathering session Monday night at the Lions Hall in Verona.

“We’re here to listen,” said Richard Allen, the County’s manager of economic development. “Not to create a debate ground.

“There is a proposal for allowing (off-road vehicle) user access (but) we don’t have a proposal design.

“We’re getting people’s ideas.”

To that end, the County provided aerial maps where community members were invited to draw on their ideas, and a display where people were invited to write their thoughts about the potential off-road vehicle use.

Currently, off-road vehicles are not allowed on the trail south of Craig Road. However, there is precious little parking there and while off-roaders could access the businesses in Verona by taking to Road 38, there is little incentive for them to do so. Also, there has been damage to gates and the surrounding forest as some motorized users circumvent the measures used to prevent their access south of Craig Road. Thus the idea of extending the off-road permission to the larger Bellrock Road area at the south end of Verona was proposed.

For the record (and granted the comments hadn’t all been read) the tally of sticky notes at the end of the evening was 36 agreeing with the proposal to extend off-road use to Bellrock Road, 3 neutral and 13 disagreeing with the idea.

“Again, we’re not making any decisions tonight, this is a workshop,” Allen said.

Although ATVs seemed to be the dominating discussion topic for the evening amongst the sizable crowd, it wasn’t the only thing the organizers wanted to hear about.

There were also discussions about parking, benches, garbage receptacles, washrooms, signage and fencing.

For those who were unable to attend Monday’s Open House, there is an online survey at the www.infrontenac.ca website where residents can voice their opinions on all the above topics.

The survey is open until Dec. 1 and Allen said they’ve received 100 responses so far.

“I think it’s great that the community has been given this opportunity to voice their opinions,” said Warden and South Frontenac Mayor Ron Vandewal.

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)

Readers who get their news from sources other than this one and who have a keen eye for numbers, may notice that we are reporting an increase of 4.5% in the Frontenac County budget, while official releases from the County itself and reports in other papers will peg the increase at 3.9%.

Are we looking at the same documents?

Yes, we are. The numbers we use in the Frontenac News are provided to us by the Frontenac County treasury department and they are the same numbers members of Council see and anyone from the public can see as well by going to the frontenaccounty.ca website and navigating to the council agenda directory.

The difference is one of interpretation. It is our policy to base our budget reporting on the amount of money that will be collected from ratepayers through taxation. This is reported in budgets under the heading Tax Levy. In 2018 that levy (subject to approval this week) is $9,775 million dollars, up from $9.35 million in 2017, a 4.5% increase

There is no disagreement between the News and Frontenac County on that point.

But the Frontenac County treasury department deducted $56,000 from their total, which was enough to bring the increase below 4%.

They did not invent that $56,000. $56,000 is the estimated increase in revenue resulting from property assessment growth in Frontenac County this year

While it is true that assessment growth means there is more collective wealth to tax, that has nothing to do with the budget itself.

In the case of Frontenac County, the money they requisition is charged to the townships, not the ratepayers directly. When the townships complete their own budgets, they add in the county levy and the education levy and come up with a total increase, which is then divided out among taxpayers on the basis of the assessed value of each property.

The whole matter can be very complicated, and for this reason we stay away from it and base our reporting on the bottom line in the budget documents.

As we have said in the past, for local politicians who approve county and township budgets we ask only that they do their best to ensure that the services we pay for are delivered effectively, and that increases in spending are justified based on maintaining service levels or providing new services that are of general benefit to us all.

The question we ask of Frontenac County Council members is the following; are we getting value for the $9,775,000 that we are going to pay in 2018?

There will, after all, be an election before the next county budget is approved.

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

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.

The local Greens have set Thursday, October 26 for their candidate nomination meeting for next year’s provincial election, for the riding of Lanark-Frontenac- Kingston. The meeting, which takes the theme: “You can send a message to the Liberals without voting Conservative”, will be held at McMartin House in Perth, starts at 7 pm. (McMartin House is on the north-east corner of Gore and Harvey streets, Perth.) The local riding has been changed by Elections Ontario since the 2014 provincial election, losing Napanee and area and adding the Mississippi Mills area.

The riding of Lanark-Frontenac- Kingston, now comprises the towns of Carleton Place, Mississippi Mills, Perth, and Smiths Falls, and the townships of Beckwith, Central Frontenac, Drummond- North Elmsley, Lanark Highlands, Montague, North Frontenac, South Frontenac and Tay Valley, as well as the northern part of the City Of Kingston. The next Ontario election is scheduled for June 7, 2018.