They’ve slowed down a provincial plan to set up a competitive bidding process that they are convinced will put them out of business, although small school bus operators have not put a stop to it.

But they feel they now have three years to win that battle.

At the second Annual General Meeting of the Independent School Bus Operators Association (ISBOA) in Kingston on Monday night November 9, the association’s President Shawn Payne (photo right) said, “We are facing challenging times ahead, but we also have some exciting things happening as well”.

The ISBOA was formed one year ago with one goal in mind, to combat a plan that will change the way school bus routes are contracted out in Ontario.

The way the system has operated for 60 years has allowed for the growth of small-scale operators, who have been able to purchase one or two buses or more, with the assurance they would have a route to use those buses on. The fees paid for the service has been provincially regulated.

In line with new provincial procurement policies, a new tendering process has been brought to 25% of the routes in select school boards around the province on a pilot project basis.

In reviewing the results of those pilots, the Ministry of Education came to the following conclusions in a report called “Student Transportation Reforms – Progress and Next Steps: School boards were able to achieve value for money through

Updated terms and clauses in contracts to reflect current costs and requirements.

Some achieved modest cost savings in contract rate.

Standardized service and safety levels for their jurisdiction”

Shawn Payne, who operates Martin's Company based in Napanee, has a different analysis of the pilot projects. He says that what happened in most cases was that small operators were shut out, allowing three large international bus companies to take over more and more territory.

The ISBOA has been urging the Ontario government to look to the United States, where they cite numerous examples of the elimination of small companies in favour of the Big Three International student bus companies (Stock Transportation, First Student, and Student Transportation (US) – which operates Student Transportation Canada) after a similar process was undertaken.

“Once the local competition was gone, the price went up, so local businesses lost out while school boards ended up paying more,” said Shawn Payne.

As part of its lobbying efforts, the ISBOA has had two meetings with Education Minister Kathleen Wynne, with little success.

“We met with Minister Wynne in February and came out of that meeting quite discouraged,” said Shawn Payne.” It was clear she had made up her mind to proceed. When we met with her again in September, she said she was looking for suggestions, but again it was within the competitive procurement environment.”

A second wave of pilot projects, with some alterations to the process, has been announced by the ministry, with the projected date for all school boards now being set for 2013.

In addition to lobbying the government directly, much of the efforts of the ISBOA have been directed to the opposition benches at Queen's Park and at municipal governments. To that end, Chris Stockwell (photo right), Executive Director of ISBOA, who was himself a former Conservative cabinet minister under Mike Harris, told the AGM of his activities on their behalf with the official opposition at Queen's Park.

“When we had no luck with the minister, we decided we had to get more aggressive,” he said, “and we have clearly gotten their attention. We had to go to the opposition, and to the media, and we have done that. I know that the government is paying attention to us because whenever we do something, they know about it the next day.”

In September, the Conservative Party appointed Elizabeth Witmer as Critic for Education. Witmer, who was at one time Education Minister under Mike Harris, has made a commitment to ask tough questions of the government about the school bus procurement issue.

But Stockwell said the real battleground for this would be fought by the association membership. “The more active you can be locally will go along way towards helping us, because this will not be finalised before the election in 2011, and local candidates will want to win the election. Every signature on our petition, every motion by municipal governments, will have an effect,” he said.

The recent setbacks for the Liberal government are also good news for ISBOA, according to Stockwell. “They have lots of problems right now, with e-health, cabinet resignations and the harmonized sales tax coming up next July. Do they want to take on another unpopular initiative?” he asked.

Sue Leslie, Jane Drew, Deborah Andrews, and Dean Walsh slipped quietly into the back of the room at a Frontenac Council meeting a week or so ago (October 27).

They were a bit nervous, and they had every reason to be. Sue Leslie, Executive Director of Northern Frontenac Community Services (NFCS), and Deborah Andrews, Executive Director of Southern Frontenac Community Services (SFCS), represent social service agencies that have stretched their finances to the limit in 2009 by funding transportation costs for clients. Jane Drew is the director of Rural Routes Transportation Services, and Dean Walsh works for Community Living – North Frontenac.

The 2009 Frontenac County budget included $80,000 for transportation, but the money had been held back until the two agencies, along with partners such as Community Living - North Frontenac could come up with a business plan to provide integrated transportation services throughout the county.

With the business plan having been submitted earlier in the month, it was a mere formality for the 2009 funds to be released, and when that happened a collective sigh of relief could be heard from the back of the hall.

But the future of transportation in Frontenac County is by no means secure.

The Frontenac Transportation Collaborative Business plan, which includes an $80,000 annual contribution from Frontenac County, has been received but not accepted by county council, and on November 18, Leslie, Andrews et al will be front and centre as council considers formally accepting the plan.

Essentially, the business plan involves spinning off Rural Routes Transportation Services, which is currently the part of NFCS that provides rides for agency clients and others for a fee, into an independent entity that will serve North, South, and Central Frontenac.

SFCS, which is based in Sydenham, will drive clients over 100,000 kilometres this year and Rural Routes about 400,000. Most of those ½ million kilometres constitute rides for children or adults to medical services or services provided by the two agencies. The rides are funded in most cases by social service agencies such as Ontario Works and Ontario Disability Support Services, and are delivered by volunteer drivers who receive payment for mileage.

But the task of putting drivers together with clients is as onerous and expensive as it is necessary.

“In order to provide a range of services in a rural context we need to help people get to them,” said Sue Leslie, “so whether we like it or not we are in the transportation business.”

This led NFCS to set up Rural Routes three years ago, and while a Trillium grant helped get the agency up and running, ongoing operations required municipal support, leading to an appeal to Frontenac County.

While the county has supported Rural Routes for the past three years, it has always been as a project, and county councilors have been careful not to commit any funds for future years.

South Frontenac Mayor Gary Davison has been particularly wary of the potential costs of a transportation program, and he has been pushing for a program that covers the entire county. Rural Routes has been primarily covering the region from Verona to the north, the catchment area for NFCS, while SFCS provides their own, more limited service, for clients in the south. Putting the two services together has been a condition for ongoing county support.

The Frontenac Transportation Services Collaborative Business Plan is an attempt to do just that. It calls for Rural Routes to be spun off from NFCS and for the SFCS transportation to be dispatched through Rural Routes. Driver training, safety procedures, and the cost of transportation will be the same throughout the county, and in time a seamless service is to be developed.

For 2010, the plan calls for an $80,000 grant from the county, to cover about 27% of the costs of the service. $17,500 is slated for NFCS and SFCS - $15,000 to cover fees for rides that each agency funds, and $2,500 for their administrative costs - and $55,000 is slated to go directly to Rural Routes for operating costs, training and dispatch.

The business plan outlines several steps that will need to be completed in order for Rural Routes (or a re-named entity) to become an independent transportation service.

The county will likely have a presence on the Rural Routes Board, as will SFCS and NFCS, along with client representatives and other county agencies.

The reception the business plan receives at Frontenac county council on November 18 will likely determine the future prospects for Rural Routes. 

 

Back to HomeFeature Article - October 1, 2009 Independent bus companies get organizedBy Jeff Green

Small bus companies serving Eastern Ontario school boards think they can see the future by looking at other jurisdictions, and they don't see themselves in that future.

The Ontario Ministry of Education has been promoting a request for proposal (RFP) system for allocating bus routes, and small and regional carriers think this will put them out of business in favour of one of three multi-national bus companies.

The plan, which replaces a system whereby each year, school boards establish a fixed price and fixed safety regulations for all their contractors, large and small, would lead to an auctioning off of all routes to the lowest bidder, according to the Independent School Bus Operators’ Association which sprung up in the early spring of this year.

Shawn Payne, a co-owner of Martin's bus lines, is the president of the new association. He recently made a presentation to Education Minister Kathleen Wynne that included numerous examples from jurisdictions in Ontario, the United States and beyond, in which the RFP system has led to the concentration of busing services in the hands of Stock Transportation, which is owned by National Express Group of the United Kingdom; First Student, a subsidiary of Stage Coach – a Scottish company; or Student Transportation Canada, a subsidiary of Student Transportation of the United States.

Martin's, which is one of the larger operators in Eastern Ontario with 69 buses, compared to companies with one to 10 buses, is tiny when compared to the three large carriers. First Student, for example, operates 60,000 buses in the US and Canada.

“For those companies, the competitive bidding process works. If they lose a contract, they can move their buses somewhere else, but the small independents are mostly based in their own communities. If they lose a contract, they are out of business,” Shawn Payne said.

There was talk that the RFP process would come to our region this year, but in the end the Tri-Board transportation system was left out of a pilot project that went to bus services nearer to Toronto. Tri-Board Transportation serves the Limestone Board, the Algonquin and Lakeshore Catholic School Board, and the Hastings Prince Edward District School Board.

“In the pilot areas, which were limited to 25% of the routes, only two of nine small companies kept their routes,” said Shawn Payne.

In his presentation, Payne told the minister that the school boards already have a pretty good deal in regards to transportation. “The boards have developed contract language about safety standards that we all have to abide by, which is a good thing, and they have developed a benchmark financial formula which determines what the costs will be. We say, there you go - how much better can you get?”

For some of the smallest operators, the RFP could not only lead to a loss of income and employment, it could cause serious financial hardship. “For small operators who are planning to retire and sell their buses, they might find no buyers available; and for younger operators who have or are planning to buy another operator out, a lot of money is spent on the bus, on the understanding that the bus line will be available with the bus. Without that, they will have no way of paying off the bus or buses they are buying. I don't think the government wants to put rural businesses under, but that is what this will do.”

There is a moratorium on the new RFP process until January of 2010 while the province studies the results of the pilot projects, but Payne said there would still be plenty of time for boards to set out RFPs for the fall 2010 school opening.

At the meeting with Kathleen Wynne, the operators received a good hearing, but, said Payne, “She seemed unchanged in her position that the RFP system would be a good thing.”

Any cost savings that might occur under the new system would be short-lived, according to Payne, because in the end there would be fewer operators in the business and they would be able to dictate the price.

“ As the operator pool shrinks through the competitive bid process, competition decreases and eventually a monopoly of the industry ensues – creating significantly higher costs,” Payne told Minister Wynne.

But more than a cost issue, Payne said that the intangibles, such as knowledge of local roads and families, will be lost if independent operators are replaced by large corporate bus companies.

The Independent School Bus Operators Association is mounting a public relations campaign this fall, including a mass petition, aimed at maintaining the current school bus system in Ontario. The petition is currently being circulated at local businesses.

Back to HomeFeature Article - August 13, 2009 Sharbot Lake PARC completes its workBy Jeff Green

After almost eight months of meetings, the 28 representatives from five schools in North and Central Frontenac townships have finally completed their assignment.

The Limestone District School Board's Program and Accommodation Review Committee for the Sharbot Lake Family of Schools held their final meeting at Sharbot Lake High School on August 11.

In the end, they approved the same recommendations that they brought to public meetings back in June, and were set to approve in early July.

At that meeting, an impassioned plea by Lesley Pickard in favour of locating a new school in Parham led supporters of the new school being located in Sharbot Lake to ask for information about the bussing implications of a Parham school, and for time to prepare a response.

Steve Wowk, the CEO of Tri-Board Student Transportation Services, presented a report on the impact of the Parham vs. the Sharbot Lake option, and he concluded that the total cost of transportation would increase by $113,800 under that scenario.

He concluded his report by saying the Parham location for a K-12 school “would be the least favourable from a transportation aspect. It would cause the largest increase in ride times and create disruption to the majority of families in the area.”

Cheryl Armstrong, the chair of the parent council at Sharbot Lake Intermediate School, then made a presentation. She said that when Central and North Frontenac are considered, “Sharbot Lake is the most central location for a school. It was like that 60 years ago when the high school was built and it is like that today.”

She also talked of the advantages of Sharbot Lake in terms of co-opportunities because of the businesses and services located there, the fact that the school board owns 13 acres at the site, and the advantages in terms of bussing. “I did not consider the disadvantages of locating a school in Sharbot Lake because there are none,” she concluded.

With the pro-Sharbot Lake intervention now on the record, along with Lesley Pickard's presentation in favour of Parham from the July meeting, the group was content to submit the following recommendation to the board of trustees:

Close Sharbot Lake PS, Hinchinbrooke PS, Sharbot Lake IS/HS and relocate the students, as appropriate for bussing purposes, to Prince Charles PS and to a new K-12 school on the Sharbot Lake IS/HS site or another appropriate site. Maintain Land O’Lakes P.S. and Clarendon P.S. The K-12 building should be designed to separate the elementary students from the secondary students.

This recommendation, along with all supporting documentation (a package that will be several hundred pages in size) will be completed and presented to the board later this month.

A report by senior board staff will also be presented to the board sometime in the early fall, and both reports will be presented to the public sometime in October.

It is anticipated the Board of Trustees will make a final decision in January of 2010.

Construction of a new school, for which funding has been secured from the Ministry of Education, is likely to commence in the spring of 2011, with the new school opening in September of that year. 

Back to HomeFeature Article - April 16, 2009 Limestone start date proving unpopularBy Jeff Green

The board of the Limestone District School Board took a second look at the calendar for the 2009-2010 school year at their meeting on April 8. They decided to begin classes on Tuesday September 1, and designate a holiday on Friday, September 4, making for a four-day Labour Day Weekend.

Traditionally schools have started classes on the day after Labour Day, which this year is September 8. In line with provincial requirements, there must be 194 days of school instruction in a school year, and with statutory holidays, Christmas, Spring Break, and professional activity days, school boards across the province have been struggling with the 2010 school calendar.

In the case of the Limestone Board, there is also a transportation factor. The board participates in the Tri-Board student transportation services with the Hastings and Prince Edward District School Board and the Algonquin and Lakeshore Catholic board, and both of those boards settled on the early start for the 2010 school year some time ago.

When the matter was first brought up at a meeting of the Limestone Board in February, a staff proposal to start the school year on September 1 was defeated. That proposal had been worked out after meetings with the Tri-board services, and the other boards.

After two months’ delay, the same schedule was finally approved last week.

In anticipation of the decision, tourist operators have raised the concern that the decision will harm their Labour Day weekend business, which ends the make or break summer season for many of them.

Steve Smart, of Smart’s Marina north of Cloyne, brought the matter up several weeks ago at a meeting in North Frontenac.

“We have summer students who work for us every year, and we depend on them working at least part way through Labour Day weekend. That won't happen if school starts the week before. It will also change people’s vacation plans. As a community, we stand to lose one of the top weekends of the year,” Smart said at the time. “It is something that as a business community we need to address”.

Now that the decision has been made, it is parents and members of parent councils who are expressing their own concerns.

Nicki Gowdy, who is Parent Council Chair at Prince Charles Public School in Verona, said, “My own opinion is that they should move some PA (professional activity) days to the beginning of September and let the kids stay home until after Labour Day. This is also the opinion that I have been hearing from parents”.

There are PA days scheduled for early October, on the Friday before March break, and in April, which would be good candidates, according to Gowdy.

This scenario has been adopted in other locations. Recently the Toronto School Board as well as the Catholic District School Board of Eastern Ontario and the Upper Canada District School Board have decided to begin classes on September 8 this coming fall.

Ann Goodfellow, Chair of the Limestone Board of Trustees, said the fact that Limestone is involved with the Tri-Board transportation means there would have been financial implications if Limestone established a different calendar year.

“Depending on what we decided, we were facing up to $300,000 in extra costs if we had a different calendar. Under all of the scenarios we considered, we were facing at least $100,000 in extra transportation costs if we started school on a different day than the others”.

Goodfellow also pointed out that the early school start would not make the summer of 2009 any shorter for students than summers in the recent past. “For the past five years the summer break has ranged from 64 - 67 days,” she said, “and if we had started the school year on the 8th, that would have made for a 73-day break. That would have increased daycare costs for some parents. As it is the summer holiday will be 66 days long.”

Another factor that led to the decision was the value of having professional activity days scattered throughout the year, which is preferable to stacking them up at the beginning of the year, she said.

The school calendar issue was the subject of two lengthy debates at the Board of Trustee table, in February and in April, according to Goodfellow, and when all factors were considered the board made a decision, which will not be revisited. 

Back to HomeFeature Article - February 26, 2009 Land O’Lakes Healthy Communities InitiativeBy Jeff Green

Back, l to r: John Grand, Tom Arniel and Larry Pealow with students from the Healthy Initiatives program receiving a cheque for $11,000 from the United Way

For the past three years volunteers have been running a different kind of after-school program at North Addington Education Centre (NAEC) in Cloyne.

The program runs on Monday afternoons and works like many other homework club programs. Leanne Shepherd, a teacher from NAEC, tutors the kindergarten to grade 6 children, with the help of a couple of educational assistants, helping them to keep up with their school work and improve their skills. The children work on anti-bullying and positive conflict resolution by watching DVDs, role-playing and through workbooks.

But the initiative has a few other wrinkles.

Since NAEC is a comprehensive school, “Grade 7 and 8 students are involved in the program as leaders in training and high school students act as leaders in helping to run the program. Some of them do it for their community service hours, and some have already completed their hours and do it anyway,” said Donna Smith, who is a key volunteer and one of the resource people for the program.

Another major innovation of the program is a sustainability component. The students are involved in a community gardening program, making use of equipment that was partly funded by a grant from Lennox and Addington County’s National Child Benefit funds (which ran out halfway through 2008) and partly through in-kind donations from local businesses.

The children plant seeds indoors in early winter and transplant the seedlings into pots, which are placed in a greenhouse before they are put out in a raised bed garden that the children built themselves, with help from the local volunteers.

“Half of the produce is given to Grand’s Store to sell because they donated many of the raw materials, the seeds, and a lot more,” said Tom Arniel, who works out of Northbrook for the children’s mental health agency Pathways. “The rest goes to the community. The kids get to see how food grows, and it helps them to see how it is possible to grow food locally, instead of always bringing it in.”

The Healthy Communities Initiative has just received a new grant, for over $11,000, for future projects. One of the projects that Tom Arneil, in particular, is excited about, is an aquaponics project that has just been initiated at the back of John Grand’s bait store, which is located next to the school.

Aquaponics is a system that integrates hydroponics production with aquaculture. In the Healthy Initiatives aquaponics system, 200 Tilapia fingerlings were placed in a water tank. The water in the tank is pumped out and bacterially filtered, turning fish wastes (nitrites) into plant food (nitrates). The plants absorb the nitrate-rich water and the purified water is then allowed to flow back into the fish tank.

The process produces both adult Tilapia and lettuces and tomatoes for fresh eating. Children from the program planted the seedlings, and they will be able to visit every couple of weeks to see the plants, and the fish, growing larger and larger.

With the aid of the new United Way money, the program will be able to keep these gardening initiatives going and will also be starting up some new projects.

Because it is run entirely by volunteers under the umbrella of Lennox and Addington Resources for Children (LARC), and its own volunteer board, Healthy Communities does not require operating funding.

They would like to be able to offer transportation, however. “If we could provide transportation we would easily have 20 more children attend the program,” said Donna Smith. the program currently has 27 participants. Anyone interested in providing transportation to the program is asked to call Bev James or Donna Smith at NAEC – 613-336-8991 or Larry Pealow at Pine Grove Motel at 613-336-2522. Volunteer mileage may be available.

Back to HomeFeature Article - February 26, 2009 Land O’Lakes Healthy Communities InitiativeBy Jeff Green

Back, l to r: John Grand, Tom Arniel and Larry Pealow with students from the Healthy Initiatives program receiving a cheque for $11,000 from the United Way

For the past three years volunteers have been running a different kind of after-school program at North Addington Education Centre (NAEC) in Cloyne.

The program runs on Monday afternoons and works like many other homework club programs. Leanne Shepherd, a teacher from NAEC, tutors the kindergarten to grade 6 children, with the help of a couple of educational assistants, helping them to keep up with their school work and improve their skills. The children work on anti-bullying and positive conflict resolution by watching DVDs, role-playing and through workbooks.

But the initiative has a few other wrinkles.

Since NAEC is a comprehensive school, “Grade 7 and 8 students are involved in the program as leaders in training and high school students act as leaders in helping to run the program. Some of them do it for their community service hours, and some have already completed their hours and do it anyway,” said Donna Smith, who is a key volunteer and one of the resource people for the program.

Another major innovation of the program is a sustainability component. The students are involved in a community gardening program, making use of equipment that was partly funded by a grant from Lennox and Addington County’s National Child Benefit funds (which ran out halfway through 2008) and partly through in-kind donations from local businesses.

The children plant seeds indoors in early winter and transplant the seedlings into pots, which are placed in a greenhouse before they are put out in a raised bed garden that the children built themselves, with help from the local volunteers.

“Half of the produce is given to Grand’s Store to sell because they donated many of the raw materials, the seeds, and a lot more,” said Tom Arniel, who works out of Northbrook for the children’s mental health agency Pathways. “The rest goes to the community. The kids get to see how food grows, and it helps them to see how it is possible to grow food locally, instead of always bringing it in.”

The Healthy Communities Initiative has just received a new grant, for over $11,000, for future projects. One of the projects that Tom Arneil, in particular, is excited about, is an aquaponics project that has just been initiated at the back of John Grand’s bait store, which is located next to the school.

Aquaponics is a system that integrates hydroponics production with aquaculture. In the Healthy Initiatives aquaponics system, 200 Tilapia fingerlings were placed in a water tank. The water in the tank is pumped out and bacterially filtered, turning fish wastes (nitrites) into plant food (nitrates). The plants absorb the nitrate-rich water and the purified water is then allowed to flow back into the fish tank.

The process produces both adult Tilapia and lettuces and tomatoes for fresh eating. Children from the program planted the seedlings, and they will be able to visit every couple of weeks to see the plants, and the fish, growing larger and larger.

With the aid of the new United Way money, the program will be able to keep these gardening initiatives going and will also be starting up some new projects.

Because it is run entirely by volunteers under the umbrella of Lennox and Addington Resources for Children (LARC), and its own volunteer board, Healthy Communities does not require operating funding.

They would like to be able to offer transportation, however. “If we could provide transportation we would easily have 20 more children attend the program,” said Donna Smith. the program currently has 27 participants. Anyone interested in providing transportation to the program is asked to call Bev James or Donna Smith at NAEC – 613-336-8991 or Larry Pealow at Pine Grove Motel at 613-336-2522. Volunteer mileage may be available.

The popular Travel for Tots fundraiser that is put on each year by Northern Frontenac Community Services (NFCS) has changed its focus this year.

The fundraiser has always raised money for the transportation program that helps children from around the region access services that NCFS provides at the Child Centre in Sharbot Lake.

But last fall the Licensed Day Care program began to run into financial problems of its own after 20 years of success delivering licensed childcare to local youngsters.

“This year, proceeds from the fundraiser will go directly to the NFCS Licensed Day Care program, which, over the past year, has undergone significant operational changes in response to declining enrolment. The lower numbers have several contributors: reduced subsidizes, the introduction of full-day kindergarten into Ontario schools, the recent economic downturn, and the normal challenges associated with operating in a rural environment,” said NFCS Executive Director Don Amos.

“The Day Care is integral to the ongoing viability of the surrounding communities, and our board of directors is exploring all options to ensure its continued success. Although unsteady enrolment in the fee-for-service program greatly impacts their bottom line, we do not want to increase fees, as it could cause even more children to leave licensed care,” he added, “and the funds we raise will help us keep those fees down.

On Saturday May 7, NFCS will be hosting “S.O.S. Save our Sharbot Lake Day Care,” a silent auction and dance, 7 pm at the Royal Kingston Curling Club, 130 Days Road.

“Once again we have some fantastic items available for the silent auction,” said event organiser Jan MacPherson. “It’s going to be a fun night.”

A limited number of tickets are available at $20 per person. To purchase tickets or make a donation, members of the public can call the Child Centre at 613-279-2244.

NFCS delivers a wide array of programs and services for children, youth, adults and seniors. It operates an Ontario Early Years Centre for children and families and it has a licensed childcare centre for infants, toddlers, pre-schoolers and school aged children. At the Adult Services building there are programs and services for seniors, family and individual counselling, and support for at risk adults. The organization also operates Rural Routes Transportation services to assist families and individuals who require support with transportation needs.

 

Council rebuffs expanded transportation study – 

Steve Carol and Ken Becking, engineers with Jewell Engineering, made a presentation to Frontenac County Council concerning a proposed comprehensive transportation study for the county. The study would look not only at all of the roads and bridges, but trails, transportation services, ferries, and more.

“The transportation management plan focus should be a review of roads to consider a regional roads system, but integration and linkages to other modes of transportation (roads, trails, transit, and ferries) must be considered as part of this project,” said a staff report supporting an allocation of $110,000 towards a transportation management plan.

Members of County Council didn't mince words in response.

“I cannot support this. It is not what we discussed when we first talked about working together on roads,” said County Warden Gary Davison. “We already turned down that $110,000 when we did our budget.”

“I have difficulty with this. I have difficulty expanding this beyond roads,” said Frontenac Islands Mayor Jim Vanden Hoek.

The impetus for a transportation plan came about as the result of proposals by public works managers from North, Central and South Frontenac who wanted to look at maintenance on arterial roads in Frontenac County. These roads are owned and maintained by the individual townships as there are no county roads in Frontenac County. Roads that are being considered for a possible 'regional' roads system are Road 38, Perth Road and Road 506/509. Other roads that may be added include Ardoch Road, Harlowe Road, Westport Road, Rutledge Road, and others,

“Having listened to some of the issues being raised, I would like to ask the consulting group whether the terms of reference for this study could be re-addressed to look specifically at arterial roads” said County Chef Administrative Officer Elizabeth Savill.

Consideration of the transportation management plan was deferred to allow Jewel Engineering to prepare and cost out a more limited study.

There is $40,000, taken from a federal gas tax rebate, in the Frontenac County 2010 budget for a transportation management plan.

BRIDGEN'S ISLAND SOLUTION PROPOSED:

Frontenac County's Sustainabilty Planner, Joe Gallivan, was given the task of bringing options to County Council to resolve a zoning quagmire on Bridgen’s Island, which is located on Eagle Lake.

The island was developed under a single ownership in 1975, with individual landowners forming the Bridgen’s Island Association to deal with legal and financial matters. This didn’t fit with the new realities of the post-amalgamation municipal world, and since 2003 the Bridgen’s Island property owners have been working with Central Frontenac on a plan to establish standard building lots on the island under a plan of subdivision.

Eagle Lake was designated as a highly sensitive trout lake in 2008, and the increased setback requirements, 300 metres, makes it impossible to create a new building lot on Bridgen’s Island because the island is less than 600 metres wide.

There are 10 lots on the island that already have cottages on them, and since they are already in existence, the Province of Ontario will accept designating those lots as building lots. However, there are four proposed lots in the Bridgen’s Island Association plan of subdivision proposal that have never been built on.

It is the status of these four lots that Joe Gallivan was asked to clarify. As the four lot owners looked on, Gallivan laid out his recommendation, whereby those lots could be accommodated in a plan of subdivision.

But even if the recommendation is accepted, the lots may not have any real value to the four owners.

Gallivan proposed that four “private open space lots” be established, upon which development would not be permitted. They would have a legal status, but would be no more than privately owned camp sites.

At some point in the future the lot owners could seek a zoning change for their lots, but this could only happen if the Ministry of the Environment approves a zero phosphorous septic system, or if the highly sensitive trout lake designation on Eagle Lake is lifted at some point.

Joe Gallivan said that zero phosphorous septic technology exists but the Ministry of the Environment has not accepted the technology thus far.

“They might do so in the future,” he said.

Central Frontenac Mayor Janet Gutowski supported Joe Gallivan’s private open space lot proposal, and proposed a motion authorizing him to put together a plan for County Council approval. Her proposal covers a series of requirements that are meant to ensure that the plan will meet with the approval of the Ontario Ministry of Municipal Affairs and Housing.

Mayors Davison and Vanden Hoek both said they were not familiar enough with what was being proposed to be comfortable voting on it.

Vanden Hoek then raised a question about the possibility of an Ontario Municipal Board Hearing if the Ministry of Municipal Affairs decides to oppose the plan.

“If this goes to the OMB, would we be the ones who would have to pay the legal fees?” Vanden Hoek asked.

“We are planning for this to not go to the OMB,” Gallivan replied, “but if it does the costs would come to us.”

“Would we have to contest this, or could we walk away?” asked Vanden Hoek.

“That would be a decision of Council,” Gallivan said.

Council decided to ask Joe Gallivan for a further report, clarifying the option that he is recommending.

The Bridgen’s Island lot owners huddled together after the meeting. Theyw said they had no comment to make at this time.

GIS EMPLOYEE PROPOSED: A proposal to hire a full-time technician to help complete and manage the County Global Information System (GIS) mapping system was put off until the next meeting on August 11.

UPDATE OF SUSTAINABILITY WEBSITE – Council approved a $30,000 upgrade of the www.directionsforourfuture.ca website that was set up as part of the county’s Integrated Community Sustainability Plan.

By Susan Irwin, Executive Director / Lawyer, Rural Legal Services

Drinking and driving is an issue that is squarely on the agenda of the government of Ontario. Although the Province cannot infringe upon the Federal government’s criminal law powers to define the offence of impaired driving and to set the range of punishments, it can deal with the issue through an area of exclusive provincial jurisdiction – the licensing of drivers.

Driving is a privilege, not a right. To exercise that privilege, each province has the power to set out certain conditions. If those conditions are breached, or not met, then the provinces have the right to either deny or withdraw a person’s driver’s licence. And it is by using this power that Ontario has developed a series of “administrative” rules that have resulted in a lot of drinking drivers walking home even though they may not have had enough alcohol in their blood to support charges under the Criminal Code.

The drivers caught in the net face stiff fines, a licence suspension, even the loss of their vehicles for a period of time, but on the positive side, they don’t end up with a damaging criminal record. Of course, even after they get their vehicles and licences back, there is the question of insurance – most people can expect a hefty increase in premiums. No criminal record, but licence suspensions for drinking and driving are red flags on a driver’s record for insurance companies.

As of August 1st, 2010, the scope of the Province’s attack on drinking and driving has been expanded to focus on one particular group defined solely by age, namely, those drivers under the age of 22. Drivers in this age group found with ANY alcohol in their blood will immediately have their licence suspended for 24 hours. On top of the initial road-side suspension, these drivers will face fines of up to $500.00 and additional licence suspensions of 30 days upon conviction of this provincial offence. Those young drivers who have not yet obtained their “G” licence, face a little tougher scheme in that conviction for a second offence will attract a 90-day suspension, and on the third strike, well, they’re not only off the road but will have to go back and start all over again with the “G-1” licence when they are permitted to once again get behind the wheel.

Is it age discrimination? Well, it might seem like it at first glance, but according to the Ontario Ministry of Transportation the peak ages for drinking and driving collisions are 19, 20 and 21. And in those collisions, people are injured and far too often killed, including 235 young drivers over a 10-year period. Under these circumstances it is likely that the courts would find the special targeting of this age group to be more than reasonable – so it’s likely not a good idea to complain about discrimination to the police officer when he or she demands a breath sample!

But don’t be too hasty in raising a glass because you happen to be 22 or older. Provincial rules have already been changed to punish drivers of any age who are found to have a Blood Alcohol Concentration (BAC) of between .005 and .008. This is a lower BAC than required for a criminal charge (over .008), but it will also result in an immediate licence suspension, along with subsequent fines and longer suspensions upon conviction for the provincial offence by the Court.

And it’s not just cars and trucks. If it’s motorized and you are on public lands or waters, you can assume that the rules apply.

The message in Ontario is clear: don’t drink and drive! You don’t have to be criminally impaired to find yourself in trouble. Provincial restrictions are increasingly getting tighter to the point where we may just find ourselves in a “zero tolerance” environment for all drivers in the not too distant future.

The Ontario Ministry of Transportation has produced the following sobering estimate of the costs of an impaired driving conviction at: http://www.mto.gov.on.ca/english/safety/impaired/part2.shtml

 

Costs For A Convicted Drinking Driver Category Amount Legal and Court Costs (estimated range) $2,000 - $10,000 Criminal Code fine $1000 Alcohol Education and Treatment Program $578 Administrative Monetary Penalty $150 Increased Insurance (estimate: $4,500 extra per year for 3 years) $13,500 Ignition Interlock $1,300 TOTAL MINIMUM COST ¹ (plus applicable taxes on some items, actual costs may be higher) $18,128

 

 

Legalese is a column of general information and opinion on legal topics by the lawyers of Rural Legal Services, Box 359, Sharbot Lake, ON, K0H2P0, 613-279-3252, or 1-888-777-8916. This column is not intended to provide legal advice. You should contact a lawyer to determine your legal rights and obligations.