Even before the announcement of a state of emergency and the forced closure of bars and restaurants, as well as gatherings over 50 people, Frontenac County municipalities, community services organisations, restaurants and other businesses had already taken steps.

As of now, all municipal recreational facilities in Frontenac County, Addington Highlands and Tay Valley township are closed. Municipal offices are closed to the public, but are still operating and staff can be contacted vis phone or email.

(Statements from all four townships are reprinted at the end of this article)

Branches of both the L&A and Kingston Frontenac Public Libraries are also closed until further notice.

Southern Frontenac Community Services has suspended Grace Centre Social Activity’s Diners Club and SALT events, foot care, and volunteer hospice and bereavement services.

Access to the Grace Centre is restricted to the side entrance and portables, with screening. Adult Day Services are still being offered. Transportation services are restricted to essential drives only. Frozen meals on wheels remain available as well as hot meals on wheels. Extra precautions are in place at the Meals on Wheels program. The Food bank will be open only on Wednesdays – food bank clients will receive pre-packaged hampers only and will be met at the door. Home-making and in-home respite services are also reduced to essential needs only. For further information, call 613-376-6477.

Rural Frontenac Community Services (RFCS) has shut down its daycare in Sharbot Lake and EarlyOn programming throughout Frontenac County, and The Child Centre is closed.

As far as services for adults and seniors are concerned RFCS Diners have been suspended, but meals on wheels continues, and may have its days increase as more senior’s are staying home. Senior’s respite, adult day and home help services are all continuing. The Adult Services building on Elizabeth Street in Sharbot Lake remains open and reception is being staffed. Many of the affiliate agencies that offer service at the Sharbot Lake office are now offering those services remotely, with workers working at home.  

Patient visits are being restricted at Pine Meadow Nursing Home (Northbrook) and Fairmount Home (Glenburnie) Only “essential visitors” are permitted to enter the home at this time, essential being defined as those who have a resident who is dying or very ill”. These visitors are being actively screened.

A scheduled meeting of Frontenac County Council on March 18 has been postponed until further notice.

All events scheduled at Frontenac Park are canceled and the Visitors Centre is closed. Day use of the park is still permitted so the trails are available.

Medical facilities have special restrictions in place as well (see article – call first .. on page …. Or look to “Coronavirus update” on page 7, which includes information about services at the Sharbot Lake Family Health Team and important information for the general public as well)

The vast majority, if not all, public events such as concerts, breakfasts, Lenten lunches and community dinners, have been canceled. Not only have the town halls been closed, but as of Tuesday morning church halls were closed as well. Church services are also canceled.

Conservation Authorities are closing their offices to the public and events such as Maple Madness at the Little Cat Conservation area and Maple Weekend in Lanark, Frontenac and Leeds and a Thousand Islands has also been canceled.

Trails and Conservation areas, on the other hand, remain open, and where fees are normally charged (such as the Rideau Valley Conservation areas) they have been suspended.

As of Tuesday, as well, restaurant service has been curtailed by provincial edict. Local restaurants are endeavoring to stay open by offering take-out. Best to call first to confirm hours and menu options. Pharmacies and grocery stores remain open, and some grocers have stepped up to offer home delivery for senior’s and those who are self-isolating. Check with your local store to see if they are offering the service. Hardware/building supply stores also remain open, and delivery services are also being bumped up by some. Convenience stores remain open and are operating as normal.

The best source of information about how to stay safe in the face of Covid-19 is KFLA Public Health. Go to https://www.kflaph.ca/en/healthy-living/novel-coronavirus.aspx

Statement from Central Frontenac Township

On March 16, 2020 at 10:30am the Township of Central Frontenac has closed ALL municipal buildings to the public including the municipal office. This includes all council meetings and municipal hall rentals. Waste sites will still be open as normal however, safety precautions are in place at each site. These measures are being put into place to put the health and safety of everyone at the forefront. Municipal staff will still be reporting to work and available by telephone 613-279-2935. This closure will stay in effect indefinitely and reviewed on a regular basis.

For more information please go to our website www.centralfrontenac.com.

In addition, a council meeting scheduled for April 24 has been canceled

Statement from Addington Highlands Township

Effective Monday March 16, 2020 As the Coronavirus/COVID-19 situation evolves, protecting the health and well-being of our residents and our workforce is our top priority. As a precautionary measure, the Township of Addington Highlands has closed both branches of the Addington Highlands Public Library. In addition, all Recreation Facilities are closed. All programming, rentals and events have been cancelled. Residents are still able to access the Lakelands Family Health Team at the Addington Highlands Community Centre – Denbigh during regular operating hours. Please check the Lakelands Family Health Team Facebook page and/or Web-page for updates on hours of operation. The Township Office is now closed to the public. We encourage residents to contact the Township by calling 613-336-2286 or emailing This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.. At this time, these closures are in effect until April 6, 2020. A council meeting scheduled for March 17 went ahead as scheduled. A budget meeting, scheduled for March 19, has been deferred the morning of the next scheduled council meeting, April 7.

Statement from North Frontenac Township

As a result of the COVID-19 virus and per the Township’s Emergency Plan, the Emergency Operations Centres was activated today and in concert with Kingston, Frontenac, Lennox & Addington (KFL&A) Public Health and other municipalities, Mayor Ron Higgins advises the Township of North Frontenac will be closing facilities to the public until further notice. This includes the following facilities: ( Municipal Office ( Community Halls ( Public Libraries All Waste Disposal Sites remain open, regularly scheduled hours at this time. Emergency Services remain in effect and in the event of an emergency, dial 9-1-1. Staff will be working regular scheduled hours and are here to serve you via the telephone or email. Also, the Municipal Office has a mail slot available. A council meeting, scheduled for Friday March 20, is going ahead as scheduled. The Municipal Office entrance door will open at 8:30 a.m. for the purpose of attending

the Council Meeting only. Access will only be permitted into the Council Chambers, after each individual has been screened by the North Frontenac Fire Department.

Statement from South Frontenac Township

The Township of South Frontenac has decided to enact the following heightened procedures and closures, effective immediately. The Administrative offices at the town hall on George St., our public services facility on Keeley Rd, and all municipally owned facilities that are used for recreational purposes will be closed to the public effective immediately.

These facilities include, but are not limited to;Glendower Hall, Sydenham Library Community Room, Princess Anne Community Centre, Harris Park Hall, Storrington Centre, South Frontenac Museum, All Parks & Fields for the purpose of scheduled events and gatherings.

All fire stations in the township will be closed to the public, only essential staff and fire department personnel are permitted to access these buildings.

Township staff can be contacted via phone or email. Planning and building services remain operational.

The deadline for payment of the Interim Tax bill (originally March 31, 2020) has been extended to April 30, 2020. We are encouraging payments to be made through online banking, by mail or via credit card.

A Council meeting, scheduled for March 17, went ahead as scheduled.

(Editors note – updates from the townships regarding the ‘new normal’ for municipal operations kept coming in to our office until late in the day on Tuesday, March 17. We have endeavored to capture everything but readers can confirm for themselves by checking township websites.)

On Tuesday, Dr. Kieran Moore, Medical Officer of Health at KFL&A Public Health confirmed that there are three positive cases of COVID-19 in the KFL&A area.

Two females, 44 and 62 years of age, and one male 48 years of age, all with recent travel history to Spain, Barbados, and the United Kingdom have tested positive for COVID-19. Two of the individuals were seen and assessed at the COVID-19 Assessment Centre at Hotel Dieu Hospital, while the third affected individual was assessed at a local hospital. 

All individuals are recovering at home and have been put on self-isolation and are being monitored by KFL&A Public Health.

To protect the health of the public and prevent community spread, KFL&A Public Health is investigating and following up with close contacts.

“I would like to thank our front-line teams for their timely and effective response in taking immediate precautions to ensure these patients are being safely and appropriately cared for and that patients, staff and the community are well protected,” said Dr. Kieran Moore. “Given the spread of this virus globally, over the last few weeks, a case in KFL&A was anticipated and pre-emptive measures were in place for exactly this type of situation. In this case, the health care system worked as intended and through coordinated efforts with our partners, the risk to KFL&A residents remains low.” 

KFL&A Public Health is working with the Public Health Agency of Canada, Ministry of Health, Public Health Ontario and other local health care providers to monitor the situation and protect the community.

KFL&A Public Health did not disclose where the three patients reside. They could live in Kingston, Frontenac or Lennox and Addington Counties’.

COVID-19 and how it pertains to municipal business dominated proceedings at Addington Highlands regular Council meeting Tuesday afternoon in Denbigh.

“That would be fair to say, yes,” said Dep. Reeve Tony Fritsch, who chaired the meeting in the absence of Reeve Henry Hogg, who was self-isolating because he’s just returned from a trip to South America that included stops in Chile, Argentina and Brazil.

“It was a great trip,” Hogg said in a separate phone call while he was waiting for a conference call on government plans and guidelines for conducting municipal business during the current crisis. “But I’ve still got a week of self-quarantine to go.”

But, as dominated by COVID-19 as the meeting was, Council did manage to get some business done.

“We distanced ourselves from each other,” Fritsch said. “But we did manage.

“We decided that our Township will compensate employees who were at home such as librarians and others whether we sent them home or they had to go home on their own.

“And the main thing is that we’re closing the municipal offices to the public until further notice but staff will be at work.”

He said they are in the process of developing a protocol as to how the Chief Building Official and Planning Secretary will interact with the public on a one-to-one basis when they need to.

“And there was discussion as to the hiring of a handy person position,” he said. “We discussed duties such as minor repair and things like painting.

“It will have no budget impact as those costs are already built-in to operating budgets for thing like halls.”

Finally, Fritsch said the budget meeting scheduled for March 19 has been deferred to the morning of April 7 (before the regularly scheduled Council meeting).

“That’s assuming the Council meeting goes ahead,” Fritsch said. “A lot can happen in that much time but we do need to conduct business.We’ll see how it all unfolds."

Special protocols are in place at local doctor’s offices

Dr. Sabra Gibbons and her team at the Verona Clinic are continuing to serve their patients needs this week, but some of the protocols at the clinic have been changed in order to protect both the patients and clinic staff from any risk of exposure to COVID-19.

“We are open for business during our usual hours,” said Gibbons, in a phone interview on Tuesday morning.

But patients, whether or not they have an appointment, are being asked to call first. The clinic has been contacting patients who have appointments, offering virtual visits over the phone in some cases, and determing which patients do require in person visits.

“We are trying to be sensible,” said Dr. Gibbons. “Our waiting room is tiny, so it affords little or no social distancing, so we are have in people wait in cars and we go get them when it is their turn.

Patients displaying symptoms of a respiratory illness are encouraged to call the clinic before travelling to it in person, and they will be evaluated to determine if they should stay home, or travel to hospital for treatment or testing. If they need to be seen in the clinic, a separate entrance will be used and staff will use protective gear when assessing them and the cleaning protocals in the clinic, which are already in place, will be employed

“If I, or a member of my staff, develop any symptoms, we will self isolate immediately and will carry on our work through virtual means,” she said.

She said that the clinic is in contact with other clinics in the area and is also in contact with KFL&A Public Health.

“The situation is evolving constantly, as you know” she said, “and we are working to make sure that not only are our patients and the community taking steps to avoid transmission of COVID-19 but that the ongoing health needs of our patents are still being addressed.

As of Tuesday morning, there were 186 confirmed cases of COVID-19 in Ontario, and 1 death. There were still no cases in Kingston or Frontenac County.

“That is certain to change,” said Dr. Gibbons.

(for further information on medical services in other locations, call your local clinic, or see the public service ad on page 7 from the Sharbot Lake Family Health Team)

It certainly looks like the Frontenac Flyers Peewee rep team season is over, without much chance of their final series against the Ilderton Jets being played. The championship series had been scheduled to get underway this past weekend with two games in Ilderton before moving to the Frontenac Community Arena for the second two games this coming weekend.

But, the Frontenac Minor Hockey Association had this posted on its website March 12: “Message from the FCA — FCA is closed for the season — All sanctioned OMHA/Hockey Canada practices/games/exhibition games/tournaments/championships have been cancelled.

“Tryouts for the 2020-21 season will not be conducted this spring — Frontenac Rep tryouts will be in September — dates TBA later.”

“I would strongly bet we are done (ie the Peewees’ championship series),” said coach Al Pixley on March 15. “Only if cases of Corona get neutralized (don’t increase) could I possibly see them letting us finish the season in early-mid-April.”

Pixley is also the president of Frontenac Minor Hockey.

The council meeting began with an acknowledgment of Dr Duncan Sinclair’s appointment to the Order of Canada: Mayor Vandewal presented him with a plaque, and everyone in the room rose, clapping. Dr Sinclair is being honoured for his contributions to the Canadian Health Care system as a teacher, university administrator and advisor, and for his leadership in Ontario Health Care reform.

Dr Sinclair, a long-time resident of Buck Lake, is a familiar figure at community events and served for several years as a member of the Southern Frontenac Community Services’ Board. And yes, his son is Gord Sinclair Jr, the Tragically Hip’s bassist.

In his brief acceptance speech, Sinclair said the appointment had come as “a great surprise: I have a lingering suspicion that some bureaucrat has made an egregious error, and mixed up his files.”

‘Meals Community Champions’ Week Coming Up in March

Joanne Silver, Coordinator of the SFCSC Meals program, said that over 8,000 hot or frozen meals had been served this past year to residents of South Frontenac. The hot meals, now delivered twice a week, are affordable, well-balanced and tasty, and come with the option to also purchase frozen meals. Silver pointed out that there are a lot of intangible benefits too: the meals help lower food costs, are convenient for people who find getting out for food shopping or cooking for one is difficult, and the volunteer drivers are friendly, providing emotional as well as nutritional support.

She invited Council members to come ride with the volunteers March 17 or 19 when they do their rounds. Both Mayor Vandewal and Deputy Mayor Sutherland said they had participated last year, and had enjoyed the experience; ‘The drivers are much more than delivery people.”

Main Street Revitalization Funding

Mark Segsworth, Director of Public Services, showed illustrations of new village entrance signs, street name signs (‘blades’) and benches and planters proposed for the Township. These will be funded by a ‘Main Street Revitalization” grant of over $51,000 from the Ministry of Agriculture, Food and Rural Affairs.

The Public Services Committee identified the need for updated village entrance signage for certain hamlets and the need for business section directional signage for the village of Sydenham specifically, given that its business core is the only one not located along a major roadway.

Councillor Revill said that North Frontenac had designed its signs to match the County’s signs in shape and colour, and asked whether South Frontenac should do the same. Councillor Ruttan said he was not too keen to align with the County, and CAO Carbone advised caution about aligning with the County before the Township had completed its rebranding exercise. Roberts and Sutherland liked the signs, and there was no objection to approving this use of the funding. Later, when the use of metal benches was questioned on the grounds that they could become uncomfortably hot in the summer, Segsworth said they had been chosen because “they are durable and can withstand skateboards.”

Bylaw Enforcement Contract Extended until April 30

The clerk’s office has said that due to the transitioning of by-law enforcement to the clerks department there is a need to review and identify by-law enforcement needs and implement improved reporting mechanisms prior to simply extending the contract for a longer term or going back out to the marketplace through the Request for Proposal process.

During the 2020 Budget deliberation process, Council heard several references to the need to possibly require more enforcement of by-laws in several areas throughout township departments. Staff are hoping to compile better data in all aspects of Bylaw Enforcement in the coming year so that they can better assess what areas need more resources.

Public Health Offices Withdrawing from Sewage System Inspection

As part of a Ministry of Health decision to modernize and improve Public Health Services, the KFL&A Public health has decided that beginning in 2021, they will withdraw from providing sewage system inspections to municipal governments. In any case, legislative oversight for sewage systems is found in the Ontario Building Code, not the OPHS. They have offered transitional support to local municipalities during the coming year.

Sewage inspection services will be integrated into the township’s building department.

Health Unit to pull out of septic inspection business

Kingston Frontenac Lennox and Addington Public Health (KFL&A PH) sent a letter to Central Frontenac Council on January 30th, informing the township that as of January 1st, 2021, they will need to find a new provider for sewage inspection services for new construction.

KFL&A PH provides sewage system inspection services, as outlined in part 8 of the Ontario Building Code Act, for the city of Kingston and the 8 municipalities in Frontenac and Lennox and Addington Counties. The program, which cost $566,000 to operate in 2019, is entirely funded out of permit fees. Public health inspectors work with developers and building departments to make sure that septic systems that are put in during new construction and renovations conform to the building code. This involves site visits before, and after, excavation work is done.

However, it is not a program that most public health agencies in the province offer for their member municipalities.

In the letter to Central Frontenac Township, Linda Murray, director of corporate services for KFL&A Public Health, said that in preparation for the public health modernisation program which is being undertaken by the Ontario Ministry of Health and Long Term Care, her agency is seeking to align itself to the services that are offered by other public health units.

“We have determined that KFL&A Public Health is one of only four of the 34 health units in Ontario that are voluntarily involved in handling sewage system inspections, “Murray said in her letter to Central Frontenac.

“Given the Ministry of Health’s direction, we realise that we are in a difficult position and need to be proactive going forward.”

As Murray pointed out in her letter, the direction the Ministry of Health and Long-Term Care is taking, in regards to public health, is to align all of the services offered by public health with the “Ontario Public Health Programs (OPHP)” that they run.

“Sewage inspections do not fit that profile, as their legislative oversight comes from the “Ontario Building Core, not the OPHP” she wrote.

The letter leaves no room for doubt.

“We are providing you with notification of our intent to terminate our agreement to carry out the municipality’s responsibilities for sewage system … effective January 1, 2021.”

Murray wrote that Sarah Ryding, from KFL&A PH, will be available to talk with township staff “to discuss the details of a transition plan”.

When contacted on Tuesday (February 11), a spokesperson for KFL&A Public Health said that some municipalities in the province contract out the service to their local Conservation Authorities, while others run the service themselves, either by employing outside contractors or township employees.

The spokesperson also confirmed that every jurisdiction in the KFL&A catchment area, including the separated City of Kingston, has been sent a similar letter to the one that was sent to Central Frontenac on January 30th. Public Health will attempt to avoid any staff layoffs as the result of the change, if at all possible.

KFL&A PH has contemplated getting out of the septic inspection business before. In 2009, they informed the municipalities that they serve, of their intention to close the septic inspection office, noting that it was not a core business and that the person who had been over-seeing the program for them was retiring. Pressure from the municipalities who use the service led to a change of heart.

Not only was the program maintained but KFL&A PH offered to provide re-inspection services to townships, such as those in Frontenac County, who had become concerned about the impact that older systems may be having on water quality, particularly older systems on lakeside properties.

But it was the Mississippi-Rideau septic office, which is jointly operated by the Mississippi and Rideau Valley Conservation Authorities, who ended up being contracted to provide re-inspection services for older systems for both Central and North Frontenac.

Central Frontenac recently brought about a mandatory re-inspection system, which is being run by the.

The Mississippi-Rideau septic office also provides the part 8 building code inspections, for new systems, to Tay Valley Township and may be in a position to do the same for the other townships within the Mississippi and Rideau watersheds, which includes North, Central, and even South Frontenac.

However, Conservation Authorities are facing a similar restructuring initiative from the province of Ontario as the public health system is, so their ability to provide this kind of service is not guaranteed.

When the matter was discussed at Central Frontenac Council, the township Chief Building Official, Andy Dillon, briefly outlined four options: provide the service in-house (which would require more staffing), enter into an agreement with another municipality or municipalities, or enter into an agreement with a conservation authority.

Mayor Frances Smith was concerned about the net effect on ratepayers.

“We don’t know how much this is going to cost, and what sort of revenue will pay for it,” she said.

Andy Dillon pointed out that the costs are all currently taken from building permit fees and he envisions that will remain the case under a new service model.

It was a fairly light agenda for Addington Highlands Council at its regular meeting Tuesday afternoon in Flinton, said Reeve Henry Hogg.

“We spent most of our time in closed session because we have a union contract with roads employees coming up but I can’t talk about that,” Hogg said.

“We did have a request to change our meeting times to the evening but we decided not to change,” he said. “The idea is to make it more attractive for people who work during the day to attend but we don’t have a lot of interest in coming to our meetings.

“If there’s something that affects somebody, they’ll come.”

And speaking of meetings, Hogg said they did set their schedule for 2020 with the first meeting set for Jan. 14 at 1 p.m. in Flinton.

“We still have one more meeting this year, in Denbigh at 1 p.m.,” he said “We’ll be looking at current budget adjustments.”

Hogg said there was discussion and some concern over correspondence from the Ministry of Health regarding Public Health Modernization and in particular, Emergency Health Services Modernization.

“We have concerns if they create a mega-health team out of Kingston that there won’t be much consideration for rural areas,” he said. “I did note there was talk about ambulance services but some of those changes were proposed years ago by the Niagara Region and disregarded.

“Of course that was a different government.”

As far as health services go, Hogg doesn’t see much changing for the rural areas.

“For us, we’ve always had an issue with doctor attraction and retention,” he said. “We do have an arrangement with North Frontenac to create incentives to attract doctors but we haven’t had much success.

“Of course if they create something based in Kingston, there’ll probably be less incentive for doctors to come here.”

Finally, Hogg said he was pleased to see work begin on the office addition in Flinton.

“It’s just getting started,” he said. “Fences are up, propane tanks are in place and they’re looking at where to relocate the hydro poles.

“We’ll have to use the disabled entrance while construction is going on and that will be awhile.

“These things take time.”

All has been quiet on the Queen’s Park front in recent weeks, at least as far as creating a new template for municipal governance in the province is concerned. A review of how regional governance is working in municipalities across southern Ontario is ongoing and that may lead to some changes. As to what the provincial government is planning for Eastern and Northern Ontario, particularly for small, rural municipalities, is not the least bit clear.

There have been hints, however. Changes in administration are still being planned for services such as Public Health, Paramedic Services, Libraries, and Child Care, which are all overseen by municipalities and partially funded with municipal dollars. And there is a clear direction from the government, they want to see larger and larger entities covering larger swathes of territory.

In March, there was one-time funding allotment for small, rural municipalities in the spring. It came with no strings attached but was earmarked to be used to find efficiencies in the delivery of municipal services, with no indication about what those inefficiencies might be. There is every reason to believe that rural municipalities will be the next sector that will be addressed, and the push for larger entities is the likely outcome.

The time frame during which such changes are likely to be initiated is now pretty narrow. If it is going happen before the next provincial election, we will likely know something about it before the end of the year, if not earlier.

In the context of change, there is another question that should be asked, at least in Frontenac County, and that is whether we are well served by the municipal arrangements that are currently in place.

When the current system was established in 1998, responsibility for the delivery of municipal services was split between the Frontenac Townships (roads and bridges, building and development, recreation, finance, waste, etc) and the City of Kingston (social services: child care, Ontario Works, Housing, etc) with ancillary institutions such as KFL&A Public Health, the Kingston Frontenac Public Library and others operating at arms length by boards appointed by the municipalities. The Frontenac Management Board (FMB), overseen by the four Frontenac Mayors, was set up in order to facilitate all of the relationships between the townships, the City of Kingston, and those boards. It also operated a long-term care facility, Fairmount Home, and later won the contract to provide Paramedic Services in Kingston and Frontenac.

The FMB then renamed itself Frontenac County and has taken on some of the land use planning and IT functions for the Frontenac Townships, and has established a small economic development department.

The fact that our municipalities do not deal in any direct way with services aimed at alleviating poverty, at keeping people housed and healthy, and supporting our aging population, makes us something less than a full-blown municipality.

We have been lucky enough in Frontenac County to have two community-based agencies, Rural Frontenac Community Services and Southern Frontenac Community Services, providing the kinds of supports that people rely upon, but each of these agencies is facing constraints from an increasingly fickle provincial government. In place of the moral support and minimal funding they receive from the municipalities they serve, a true partnership needs to emerge to ensure they can provide the kinds of services that we decide are necessary, instead of the services that the provincial government decides to fund.

In order to comply with the Policing Act, Frontenac County requires a Community Safety and Well-Being Plan. The Frontenac Townships are working together on this, and are setting up an advisory committee to develop the plan. This exercise could result in an empty shell of a plan, or one that starts to expand the scope of our municipal services.

Perhaps the Province of Ontario will decide how our municipal future will unfold, perhaps not.

But it is high time that we begin a conversation about developing a comprehensive political structure devoted to the needs of all Frontenac County residents. In my view, a single Frontenac Township is necessary to take on the needs of the 28,000 permanent residents and almost as many seasonal residents. By pooling all of our physical, administrative, and human resources, we can begin to serve the particular needs of our residents. If the opportunity arises, we would be in a position to make a case to the provincial government for the establishment of such a political body.

The status quo is not a solution any more, and if we do not make an effort to build our own future, based on our shared history and the land that we occupy, or someone from the outside is certain to do it for us.

About 50 people showed up for the North Frontenac Septic Savvy Seminar Saturday at Clar-Mill Hall in Plevna and while organizers maintained the meeting wasn’t about mandatory septic inspections, much of the panel discussion and subsequent Q & A session featured a lot of discussion about it.

“This was not about inspection per se, it’s about starting to have an informed conversation,” said Bruce Moore, chair of the North Frontenac Lake Association Alliance and one of the organizers.

Following presentations on results of the Township’s septic survey, understanding septic systems, septic systems and lake health and understanding septic system reinspections, a panel discussion featuring North Frontenac Mayor Ron Higgins, Gord Mitchell of KFL&A Public Health, Eric Kohlsmith, an inspector with the Mississippi Rideau Septic System Office and Terry Kennedy of the Kennebec Lake Association ensued.

“I’m as concerned as much as anybody else about the health of our water,” said Higgins. “(But) I address is by saying ‘Is there a problem?’

“There’s not one lake I know of in North Frontenac that’s polluted.

“By establishing set-backs in our zoning bylaw, we are taking action pro-actively.”

“There are many sources of e. coli,” said Mitchell. “It doesn’t necessarily have to come from a failed septic system.

“You could have great bathing water but put a flock of geese on there and after a week, it’s not so good.”

Mitchell said his office couldn’t possibly handle mandatory inspections given that they represent nine municipalities.

“There’s a tremendous need for resources that don’t seem to be there,” he said. “I’m not of huge fan (of mandatory inspections) as there are better ways to spend money.

“But they can expose problems.”

Mitchell also said that the older the system (in the 25-30 year old range), the more likely it is to have problems.

“But just because a system is older, doesn’t mean it’s failing,” he said.

The panel also addressed other septic issues such as the perception that some current brands of toilet paper contain plastics and what shouldn’t be flushed into a septic system (such as tampons).

“I haven’t heard of plastics in toilet paper but some people collect it and burn it,” Kohlsmith said. “Moderation is the key.”

“If you didn’t eat it or drink it,” don’t flush it,” said Mitchell.

Higgins said any new regulations will likely have to come from municipalities and that there aren’t a lot of funds available for such things.

“The Province is making cuts without any plans,” he said. “When I put that question to the minister, he said ‘the plans have to come from you — you’re the ones who know your area.’”