To commemorate the County’s 150th Anniversary in 2015, the County is holding a Quilt Design Contest to solicit designs for, and commission the creation of a commemorative wall hanging quilt. Entries must be submitted by Friday, Sept. 26, after which judging will take place and the winner(s) will be announced at the October 15th County Council meeting. The artist who submits the winning design will be commissioned to create the quilt for unveiling at the Frontenac County 150th Showcase next year: August 28, 29, 30, 2015. The contract with the winning artist will include compensation of $2,000.

Submissions will be evaluated based on originality and creativity, ability of the artist, and the quilt’s visual appeal reflecting themes of “past, present, future” in the context of the County of Frontenac’s unique pristine natural environment, lifestyle choices and strong, resilient, diverse, rural communities. The contest is open to all full- and part-time residents of Frontenac County.

See attachment for complete contest rules, which are also posted on www.frontenaccounty.ca.

The County of Frontenac’s 150th Anniversary

Save the date for The Frontenac 150th Showcase: August 28-30, 2015. You will want to visit Centennial Park in Harrowsmith for this three day celebration, with a preliminary schedule of events including: an opening ceremony, parade, fundraiser barbeque, heritage exhibitions, vendor kiosks, food & refreshments, family activities, live music, plowing match, heritage ball, Sunday brunch, headlining concert and closing ceremony.

Hundreds of community events happen every year throughout the Frontenacs. If you’re planning an event for next year in the County of Frontenac, turn it into the “150th Edition” and become part of history! If you want to make your 2015 community event part of Frontenac history or you’d like to volunteer for The Frontenac 150th Showcase, please contact Alison Vandervelde, Communications Officer at 613-548-9400 ext 305 or This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it..

Frontenac County celebrated the completion of its rural infrastructure last week with the opening of the third ambulance base in the County.

The new base is located at Hwy. 509 and Robertsville Road, and although it is odd to see an ambulance base at such an isolated location, it is located strategically to serve residents of North and Central Frontenac, Lanark Highlands and Tay Valley, while being within a short drive of Hwy. 7. It also eliminates a situation that was one of the first things that Charboneau wanted to address when he first arrived at Frontenac County eight years ago.

At the time, the ambulance serving the north end of the county was parked outside in the parking lot at the works garage for North Frontenac at Lavant Road and Road 509. Because of the equipment and medicine in the vehicle the ambulance had to be left running in order to prevent freezing throughout each shift through the winter season, costing money for fuel and causing unnecessary pollution.

“That was the first thing I wanted to address when I came here,” Charbonneau said a couple of years ago, “it was the impetus for us to commission the IBI [consulting group] report into rural service delivery in 2009.”

That report recommended that an ambulance post be built in the vicinity of Ardoch Road and Road 509 in Central Frontenac to serve the northern portion of the county for 12 hours a day; that a 24-hour a day service be established in Sydenham; and that the 24-hour service that was already running out of the Parham base be maintained.

Although the stated priority of the department was the so-called 'northern' base, and funding was already in place to build it, the Sydenham base was built first. This happened for two reasons. For one thing, South Frontenac Council applied for and received an infrastructure grant to build the base, and the money had to be spent within a limited time frame. As well, North Frontenac Township Council did not want to see the northern base located so far south, at a location that is not even in North Frontenac. The Mayor of North Frontenac at that time was Ron Maguire, and with the support of his own council he urged Frontenac County to consider an alternate plan, which had also been referred to in the report but not recommended as a first option by the IBI group. That plan was to build a base in Ompah, almost 20 km to the northwest of the preferred location. The caveat to this plan was that the Parham base would eventually need to be closed and replaced by a base in Sharbot Lake in order to cover calls from Hwy. 7.

North Frontenac Council purchased a piece of land in Ompah to house not only the ambulance base but a township fire hall as well in the same building, Frontenac County Council agreed to enter into a joint project with North Frontenac. However, that project never came about, as costs rose to a level that North Frontenac Council could not accept. Eventually, North Frontenac pulled out, leaving Frontenac County to go back to the drawing board. They settled on the Robertsville site, which is just north of the site identified by the IBI group, and is in North Frontenac rather than Central Frontenac. Travel time to Hwy. 7 is almost the same, and the Robertsville Road, although it is a hilly gravel road, is the fastest route to Lanark County from that part of North Frontenac.

For local history buffs, the location is directly across the road from the former Robertsville mine site, where protests against uranium exploration took place in the summer of 2008.

As the building project was getting underway, a decision was made by County Council to upgrade the status of the Robertsville location from an ambulance post to an ambulance base. As a post attached to the Parham base, the paramedics would report each day to Parham at 6 am to pick up their ambulance and drive it to Robertsville. They would also return to Parham by 6 pm. By making Robertsville a base, the ambulance stays there and the paramedics report directly there, making it a true 12-hour a day service.

“Whether they live in one of our small hamlets, on one of our lake fronts, in agricultural lands or deep in the forest, residents of Frontenac County value their independence,” said Bud Clayton, Warden of Frontenac County and Mayor of North Frontenac, at the ceremonial opening of the base last Wednesday, July 16. “Ensuring that adequate services, like strategically placed ambulance stations, are in place allows our residents to continue enjoying the rural lifestyle that defines Frontenac County.”

The ribbon cutting ceremony came after Frontenac County Council held their monthly meeting in the base. Lunch was provided by the Snow Road FLAGS (Fire Ladies Auxiliary Group) – ham, turkey, salads, homemade biscuits and squares.

David Jones, a member of Frontenac County Council representing the Township of Frontenac Islands, expressed his continuing unhappiness at the rate of absenteeism among Frontenac County employees at a meeting of council last week.

His comments were occasioned by two reports by Colleen Hickey, the county manager of human resources - a quarterly attendance management report card for April to June of this year, and a monthly attendance report for June. The reports were ordered by county council last year in an attempt to get a grip on rising rates of absenteeism at Frontenac Paramedic Services and Fairmount Home, the county's two major operations.

Although the reports show that the rate is trending down at Frontenac Paramedic Services, Jones was not satisfied.

“We are near the end of our term, people,” he said, “and we saw that the numbers were going up and up each year. Just because they are down a little does not mean we have accomplished anything. We are spending hundreds of thousands of dollars each year here. Folks, if this was your business you wouldn't stand for it.”

Then, looking at the report on his computer screen, he said, “We will see what happens to the numbers now that summer time is here. I wonder if they will go up again.”

Jones' comments were not unusual, or unexpected. He reportedly made similar comments earlier in the week when new County CAO Kelly Pender was making a courtesy call to a meeting of Addington Highlands Council.

However, this time Chief of Paramedics, Paul Charbonneau, took offence and spoke up in an unprecedented manner.

Noting that there have been ten suicides among emergency services personnel recently in Canada, he said, “It is cumulative stress dealing with the shit that we deal with every day that is responsible for this. You can't compare what paramedics face each day with what happens in the private sector where people sit on their asses all day at a desk.”

When Jones was questioned after the meeting as to whether he believes that Frontenac County paramedics have been faking illness to get time off, he replied, “I did not say that.”

When further pressed about his comments regarding whether workers are more likely to call in sick during the summer, he paused, then said, “I was just musing, that's all.”

Shauna Dunn, the newly minted president of OPSEU Local 462, which represents the paramedics, commented on news reports about Jones' comments by elaborating on some of the points made by Paul Charbonneau: “ Paramedics are frontline health care workers, in close contact with sick people, multiple times per shift. We routinely face situations where we are exposed to saliva, mucous, blood, vomit, urine, and feces. We work outside in extreme weather. We work inside homes that can be described, at best, as unsanitary. We lift heavy patients in environments where proper body mechanics are not always possible. We work shift work. We see, hear, and smell things in the course of our duties that the average person would be horrified by if they were subjected to once, let alone multiple times. All of these factors affect us. Both physically and mentally.”

Both Charbonneau and Dunn were also surprised by the context of Jones' remarks, given that the reports he was commenting on both showed a marked decreased in absenteeism among Frontenac County paramedics in 2014.

Compared to 2014, absenteeism has been lower than the corresponding month in 2013 for each of the last four months. The county has set a target of a maximum of 12 sick days per unionized Frontenac Paramedic Services employee per year. In 2012, 45% of employees exceeded that target; in 2013, 42% exceeded the target; and in the first four months of 2014 (with a target of four sick days since it is only 1/3 of a year) only 16% of the paramedics exceeded the target.

Early in 2013 the Local 462 and Frontenac Paramedic Services were at loggerheads over absenteeism. A plan put forward by Paul Chabronneau to leave some shifts uncovered if paramedics were not available in order to save costs led to a grievance being filed to the Ontario Labour Board by the union. The County responded by abandoning the plan, and instead cut a 12-hour a day ambulance in the City of Kingston, which in turn cut the Local 462 work force by four full-time equivalent positions.

Relations were tense following that decision, but according to Shauna Dunn there has been a marked improvement in 2014, brought on partly by new leadership at the local and a new attitude at Frontenac County.

“We held a workshop session in the winter with our new executive, and management people and I think both sides found it very helpful,” she said.

For his part, Paul Charbonneau said that “We are working on a culture change between ourselves and the union, and I think it has been good for everyone.”

That change was reflected in a request by County Warden Bud Clayton that Shauna Dunn be part of the ribbon cutting ceremony for the new Robertsville Station.

That being said, the labour contract between Local 462 and the County ran out on January 1 of this year, and negotiations have not begun for a new contract. Before bargaining can begin, both sides need to agree on a level of service that will be maintained in the event of a strike or a lock-out, and they have not been able to come to terms. A meeting was held with a labour board official last month to try to work one out, unsuccessfully.

A full hearing is set for October, and bargaining will presumably begin once the Labour Board rules.

Sick pay is likely to be one of the key items in those negotiations.

After concerns were raised last year about increased absenteeism at both Fairmount Home and Frontenac Paramedic Services, monthly updates were ordered by county council. Five months into 2014, indications are that the rate and costs of absenteeism are down from their historic 2013 highs.

If the rest of 2014 follows the pattern of the first five months, absenteeism at Frontenac Paramedic Services will drop below 19,000 hours for the first time in two years. The total in 2013 was almost 22,000 hours and in 2012 it was over 19,500 hours.

The absenteeism rate at Fairmount Home is down marginally from 2013, but it did drop in 2013 from its historic high of almost 15,000 hours in 2012.

In the County administrative office, the rate doubled in 2013 from 2012, up to almost 1,000 hours. In 2014, only 175 hours have been lost as of the end of May, on pace to drop below the level of 2012.

In terms of cost, because not all hours lost to absenteeism are replaced by replacement workers, indications are that savings of well over $100,000 will be realized in 2014 as compared to 2013 if the pattern of the first five months continues until the end of the year.  

A detailed population, housing and employment projections study, completed by Watson and Associates for the Frontenac County planning department, indicates there will be limited growth in the County over the next 20 years, and that growth will be centered in South Frontenac with most of the new residents living within commuting distance from the City of Kingston.

Although none of the information in the study is new, and there are some projections going forward that reflect some regional and provincial trends, the study does question some of the data that came from the 2011 census, and provides alternative information.

It also provides a 20-year picture of births and deaths in the County, and during the most recent five-year period for which data was available, 2006-2011, more people are dying than are being born in Frontenac County. The numbers, 1,338 births as compared to 1,402 deaths, reflect a gradual change in demograpics. Between 1991 and 1996 there were 1348 births and 884 deaths; between 1996 and 2001, 1044 births and 651 deaths; and between 2001 and 2006 886 babies were born and 823 people died.

Over that 20-year period, the population increase in Frontenac County was mostly due to increased migration to the county from elsewhere, which was responsible for a net increase in population of almost 5,300 residents over that time.

Not surprisingly given these figures, the number of young people in Frontenac County has been on the wane as the older adult and senior population has jumped. In 1981, 33% of the Frontenac County population was under 19, and that percentage has dropped to 22%. Also, in 1981, 22% of the population was between the age of 20 and 34 and that percentage is down to 12%. The percentages are correspondingly higher for those aged 45 to 54 and 55 to 74, which is now the largest group at 29%.

All of this puts talk of the ageing of the baby boom bump and the ageing Tsunami into context.

Based on demographic and economic trends and population, the Watson report projected slow economic and population growth in Frontenac County over the next 22 years.

Growth is projected to increase at a marginal rate of 0.7% per year over that time, with the bulk of the increase (67%) being generated by growth in the Kingston economy and a resulting increase in the commuter population in South Frontenac.

The total population is projected to reach 33,200 by 20136, up from 27,900 currently. When seasonal residents are added to the mix, the projection is a population of 64,200 by 2036, up from 57,500 currently.

Job growth within the county over that time is also projected to be modest, a net increase of only 800 jobs, from 3,900 currently to 4,700 in 2036, but more and more of those jobs will be home-based jobs in the knowledge economy as opposed to jobs in the retail and tourism sectors.

While the projections in the Watson report are clearly subject to revision as time goes on, Joe Gallivan, manager of sustainability planning for Frontenac, said that the study is a valuable tool in the development of a strategy for population and economic growth in the county, and for the development of services geared towards an ageing population,

One aspect of the study that Gallivan will use in the coming months is chapter 7, which deals with future housing possibilities in the county.

“It is anticipated that a significant share of future housing development will occur within the rural area, similar to historic trends” the study says in section 7-4.

“That is why it is important for us to impress upon the Ministry if Municipal Affairs that contrary to what the provincial policy statement says, orienting all housing development into the built-up areas is not a viable option in Frontenac County,” said Gallivan.

South Frontenac Mayor Gary Davison concurred. “Pushing development into hamlets that don’t have water and sewer systems in place is only going to cause more, not less, of an environmental risk,” he said.

Of more than a dozen hamlets in Frontenac, Sydenham is the only one with a water system in place, and even Sydenham does not have a communal sewage system.

Frontenac County Council has developed an obsession with finding a home for $3.5 million in reserve funds that had been accumulating in their working fund reserve, which in the municipal world is the equivalent of a checking account.

Early this year, based on advice from a consultant, the council determined that this money could be put to other uses, and some members of council argued that the money should be simply transferred to the local townships to help cover the cost of road and bridge repairs.

However, at a Committee of the Whole meeting in May, the council decided instead to divvy up almost all of the money into several different pots, for use on future projects.

When those allocations were brought forward to the formal council meeting for ratification a couple of weeks later, some council members objected, arguing that not enough discussion had taken place.

The matter was deferred a month, and during last week's monthly council meeting (June 18) a further Committee of the Whole session was scheduled to tackle the matter.

This time, each of the allocations was discussed and voted on. The result was the same as in May and the decisions will again be sent to the formal council for ratification, this time in July.

CAO Kelly Pender, using the example of the largest pot of money, $1.5 million for seniors’ housing, outlined the kind of financial model that would be required before any of that money would actually be spent.

The proposed reserve allocations are as follows: $1.5 million to seniors’ projects; $100,000 for waste management planning; $500,000 to economic development; $200,000 to capital asset management requirements; $340,000 for capital commitments under cost sharing agreements; $380,000 for Frontenac Renovates (a program to help residents in older homes); $30,000 for land acquisition – trails; $154,000 for future Community Improvement Plans; $100,000 for an energy retrofit project.

While it would seem that the decision of the Committee of the Whole would be replicated at Council since they have the same makeup, a quirk of voting may come into play.

At Council, South Frontenac Mayor Gary Davison has two votes since he represents the most populous township, but he only has one vote at the Committee of the Whole.

Votes at the Committee of the Whole on a couple of the proposals, including the $500,000 for Economic Development, were close and might have been different if Davison had two votes, so the votes might go differently at Council in July.

After five weeks on the job, fresh from his daughter’s wedding in Calgary, Kelly Pender seems to be relaxed and happy about taking on the CAO position in Frontenac County.

He is certainly aware - and this was likely made clear during the hiring process, which was wholly controlled by members of county council - that there has been an unprecedented level of mistrust of the county’s senior staff among at least some council members.

But if that phases him he is not letting on. He said, “I have seen a lot in 30 years in municipal government and each council has its own specific character. Thus far, everybody's been very welcoming, council and staff, and I have appreciated their attitude. It's been a busy five weeks, and I think now the learning curve is starting to flatten out.”

He said the unique geography of the county, which runs from moose country in Vennachar to the border with New York State on Wolfe Island, as well as the limited number of county services in relation to township services, “is certainly different from what I dealt with in my previous roles in Belleville, Perth or Huntsville, but each county has its own arrangements, which are all unique. The Ontario Municipal Act allows for different service delivery models and the Frontenac one was developed by the politicians in Frontenac County to suit its own reality.”

He said that initiatives by the public works departments of the four townships in waste management, roads and bridge maintenance, represent a high level of co-operation between the townships. “We have our sustainability planner, Joe Gallivan, attending meetings of the public works managers, but there is no need for the county to take any role in service delivery. The townships provide excellent service as it is.”

Looking forward, he said the county strategic planning process, which is wrapping up, will identify around three strategic goals, “but it will be up to the next council to decide if they want to follow through with those goals. The plan identifies goals, but goals require finances to become reality, and that will be up to the new council. A goal without money is merely a wish.”

He also said that the new County Official Plan, which has been completed in draft form and sent on to the Ministry of Municipal Affairs for comment, will be a factor in the future role of the County.

In terms of economic development, Pender said, “What is required is a made in Frontenac County solution. What was done in Muskoka [where he worked for the past six years] or in Prince Edward County, will not work in Frontenac County.”

It will require input from the local communities, he said, but the county can play a co-ordinating and management role. “We have assets in Frontenac County, the beauty of the land, the trail and road network, a strong local food movement - all the elements are there and there needs to be a made in Frontenac plan for economic development for it to work.”

As for his own future, the first order of business will be to sell the house in Huntsville that he owns with his wife Rosemary. With their children recently gone, they are not sure whether they will be looking for a house in Kingston or in a rural location, perhaps in Frontenac County.

“We have lived in urban and rural locations and have enjoyed both. We'll have to see once our house sells,” he said.

One of the appeals of the job in Frontenac County was the location. The Penders have lived in Belleville and Perth as well as Marmora and Huntsville as Kelly moved from a job as a planning co-ordinator in Belleville to CAO of the Crowe Valley Conservation Authority in Marmora before stints as CAO in both Perth and Huntsville.

Although this is his first job as a county administrator he says, “I have worked most of my careers under the Ontario Municipal Act, which applies to counties and towns in equal measure.”

... if something has a lot of resiliency it is more likely to be sustainable, but even things that are very resilient are not always sustainable over time. Then again, how sustainable can something be if it is not resilient?

When push comes to shove, is it better to push than it is to shove, or not ...?

All of these questions, as fascinating as they are, point to a debate that is raging in sustainability circles and even at the Frontenac County Advisory Committee on Sustainability. You would think that the one thing that the committee would agree about is sustainability, but you would be wrong.

Members of the committee have been taken aback, as have others, with the ubiquity of the word sustainability. In fact, many of the job titles at Frontenac County have had the name Sustainability stuck on to them in the recent past. Instead of a planning department, there is a sustainability planning department, and instead of economic development it is sustainable economic development, for example.

The suggestion at the committee was that "sustainability" should be phased out or at least limited, and a new word would be used to describe all those activities that the county would like to be involved in but which are not, strictly speaking, in their mandate. Anything to do with social well being, environmental concerns, culture, community improvement, tourism - they are all covered under the umbrella heading Sustainability. The logic is that these diverse enterprises that are carried out by individuals and groups in their own communities and across the county are what build a sustainable place to live and work.

There are those, and I can sympathize, who are sick of the word, and there is now, finally, an alternative on the horizon. For a couple of years, slowly but surely, the concept of resilient communities has been

gaining momentum. It has more grit than sustainable communities, suggesting the strength to withstand the inevitable pressures of modern life. These include attacks on personal and community well-being that will come with rising oil and gas prices, climate change, continual migration of jobs to the city, the ageing tsunami (people are ageing in a huge tsunami-like wave that could swallow us all up if we aren't careful) and much, much, more.

Sustainability is just too nice a word, too much of a soft concept. Resiliency on the other hand, is tough; it is strong; it is what we need.

When I think of resiliency I think of my mother. My mother says she no longer hopes for things to go well, instead she hopes for the strength to handle the situations that will inevitably arise in her life. Sure enough, those challenges are coming fast and furious as she and her family and friends age.

So, if Frontenac County wants to be more like my mother it had better stop talking and start getting its act together. The woman hardly sleeps. Until she broke her wrist she played tennis every day. Six weeks and two metal pins later she was back on the court; that is, when she's not taking care of everyone in her world.

If the sustainability committee want to talk resiliency they had best get off their duff, establish a plan of action and make things happen.

Resiliency never sleeps.

The first thing that stands out about Lucas Wales is his youth. At 24 he might be the youngest general manager in the 70-year history of the Land O'Lakes Tourist Association (LOLTA), which works on behalf of tourist operators in Frontenac and L&A counties and the Municipality of Tweed.

On his second day on the job last week he was being briefed by long-time administrator, Joanne Cuddy, who has provided continuity in recent months and over the years. The association has now seen five managers in the last dozen or so years.

Wales will have to learn quickly because the LOLTA Annual General Meeting is slated for May 7 this week. The LOLTA membership includes a wide variety of businesses from a large geographic area, and they are anxious to find out the direction Lucas Wales plans to take the association in.

He brings a background in municipal government and economic development and tourism. He has worked for the Municipality of Tweed on their asset management plan; in the economic development department of the Town of Marmora, and most recently, for the Eastern Ontario Trails Association on their strategic plan. Before that he attended Loyalist College in Belleville, where he studied Public Relations.

All of this background, as compact as it has been in his relatively short working life, will come in handy as Wales will have to deal with the LOLTA membership, the municipal governments who have provided financial support to the association over the years, and provincial bureaucracy and granting programs.

“One of the major focuses this summer will be to complete our contract with Fish TV, which is a two-year contract that we are in the middle of. Afterwards we will take some time to assess the contract to see how we are going to continue to serve the fishing industry locally. There are lots of other opportunities in the Land O'Lakes as well. We have trails, canoeing and kayaking, golfing, cycling, dark skies and many other opportunities to focus on,” he said.

Another focus he noted was to foster partnerships with other players such as the FAB region (Food and Beverage) Eastern Ontario Trails Alliance, the K&P Trail development and others to make sure that LOLTA members are linked in to other efforts to promote the region.

“One of the things I will be doing is meeting with some of the community development managers in the various townships and counties. I will also be looking to meet with members and other business owners to make as many connections as possible for the association,” he said.

As someone who is born and raised in the Tweed area, where he still lives, Lucas Wales is pretty familiar with the Tweed and Lennox and Addington parts of the LOLTA region. He said he is very much looking forward to getting familiar with the eastern end, to seeing the lakes, and to meeting the people who make the region a unique opportunity for visitors.

The draft Frontenac County Strategic Plan, which is being promoted to local councils this month, focuses on three unfortunately named Wildly Important Goals (WIG). As someone who has attended too many municipal meetings in Frontenac County, “wild” is not a word that should be associated with anything to do with the County.

But if you remove the wild, and call them Important Goals (IG) they are reasonable enough.

The first IG is to focus on services delivery for the ageing population in the county, which is large and growing and will need more and more public services in the coming years.

The second IG is to prepare for a post-landfill reality by looking towards a regional solution for dealing with waste once all the landfills in the county are full. This goal is an odd one, not because it is not important, but because the Frontenac County role in seeking a solution will be minimal. This whole matter will be dealt with on a regional basis through negotiations between large players such as the City of Ottawa, the Eastern Ontario Wardens Caucus (made up of 19 municipalities in eastern Ontario, of which Frontenac County is the least populated) and the Province of Ontario. At most, Frontenac County needs to assign the task of keeping informed about developments in this file to whoever the warden and chief administrative officer are at any given time. It is important but is not really a county goal.

The third IG is to tweak small-scale sustainability initiatives towards economic development and away from purely social or environmental-oriented projects. This one, it seems to me, is a real goal, but although it is relevant it represents less than 1.5% of county spending each year.

Taken together, the draft strategic plan is limited in scope, and it represents those issues that the current members of council can all agree upon. To that end it is at best a useful document, and at worst a harmless one.

What is does not address, and what should be the preoccupation in the next term of Frontenac County Council, is a way of delivering services efficiently to all residents of the county. To do that, the relationships between the county and the townships and the City of Kingston need to be addressed. Currently there are areas where the townships have sway; those the county handles; and those that are handled by the social services department of the City of Kingston. Further complicating matters is an initiative spearheaded by the local township public works and waste departments who are setting up a fourth level of service delivery - jointly delivered services that do not involve the county.

Political vision is required from Frontenac County Council working with the township councils to make sense of all this and to find efficiencies, and savings.

A new CAO will be in place soon at Frontenac County and a new council will follow. They will have the task of sorting out the future role of the county and the townships.

The opportunity exists for some new thinking to take hold and break an eight-year log jam between the townships and the county.