Central Frontenac Yet To Finalize 2024 Budget

Craig Bakay | Jan 31, 2024

After a second day of what Coun. Nicki Gowdy called nickel and diming, Central Frontenac Council decided it still needed another meeting before setting its 2024 budget.

Council met all day Jan. 29 to hear from the rest of the departmental budgets after having tackled Public Works and Fire at its first budget meeting. The third (and probably final) budget meeting is scheduled for Feb. 26 at 9 a.m. in Sharbot Lake’s Soldiers Memorial Hall to have a second go at Public Works and Fire.

They did manage to whittle away a few things, mostly cutting some contingency funds by a couple of hundreds or thousands of dollars.

But Monday’s session isn’t likely to result in a major cut to the levy that comes out of residents’ pockets.

Treasurer Michael McGovern started things off by telling Council that after the results of the first meeting were tallied, and department heads were asked to sharpen their pencils a bit more, an initial ask of $18,081,440 had been whittled down to $14,279,228 and then to $10,187,650 which result in a 6.1 per cent or $585,145 over the 2023 approved budget.

McGovern then showed some figures and graphics that indicate the cost per household per day for Township services is about $6.28 based on 4,254 households. In 2023, the cost was $6.28 based on 4,190 households. Of that, Public Works accounts for $3.66 (56 per cent of the total), Fire Services $0.64 (10 per cent of the total), Corporate Services $.67 (10 per cent of the total) and Police $0.67 (10 per cent of the total). Making up the rest of the services are Building Services, Cemetery Services, Facilities Services, IT, Planning and Waste Services

McGovern also floated an idea to borrow from reserves (with or without interest) instead of taking out bank loans.

Coun. Nicki Gowdy told Council she could easily find $1.5 million in cuts.

McGovern told Council that most municipalities in the area are looking at 5.2 per cent increases, to which Mayor Frances Smith replied: “Tweed’s going 17 per cent.”

They did decide to cut a proposed online dog licensing system but Coun. Duncan McGregor noted: “so far, we’ve spent $15,000 on replacing computers that have nothing wrong with them.”

Coun. Phillip Smith replied that that is part of the Township’s agreement with the County and the time frame corresponds to when warranties run out.

Council did decide to keep $60,000 for a new roof and accessible bathroom at the medical centre as well as $20,000 for a new door at Piccadilly Hall in the budget.

During her presentation, CAO/Clerk Cathy MacMunn told Council that the Township has 31 full-time employees, two part-time employees, three casual employees and three contract workers.

McGovern noted that over the 12 years or so he’s been here, the Township has amassed a budgetary surplus of about $2.5 million.

Council will meet again in late February to finalise the 2024 budget.

Council passed a resolution at its regular meeting Jan. 23 in Sharbot Lake to accept the planner’s report Proposal to Streamline the Planning Approval Process for Undisputed Consents, authorizing the COA/Clerk to prepare a bylaw delegating approval to the CAO/Clerk for undisputed consents (as opposed to everything going to the Committee of Adjustment).

In his report, community planner Dmitry Kurylovich said the proposal is an attempt to streamline land division applications such as limited lot creation, lot enlargements, lot line adjustments and creation of easements that meet all applicable planning policies and regulations and that have not received any objections from technical agencies and/or members of the public.

“Whenever a decision is required on an application, the Committee of Adjustment holds a public meeting that considers each application once per month, regardless of complexity,” Kurylovich said. “Planning staff have observed that a majority (more than 90 per cent) of all consent applications over the last three years have met all applicable land use policies and provisions and have received no objections of concerns from neighbours.

“Because of this, planning staff are of the opinion that delegating the approval authority of routine and undisputed consent applications to the Township CAO/Clerk will speed up the approval process.”

He said that delegation of approval authority will not change the way that neighbours are notified or reduce their ability to submit comments on each application.

“Should issues come up that cannot be resolved by staff, the matter will still be brought forward to the Committee of Adjustment for a decision,” he said. “If an application conflicts with policies and planning staff are not able to recommend approval of the application, the application will be brought forward to the Committee of Adjustment for a final decision.”

“We’ll get the difficult ones,” said Mayor Frances Smith. “That’s what we get the big bucks for.”

News Briefs from Regular Council meeting – January 23

Coun. Nicki Gowdy moved that Council not take the proposed 3.3 per cent Cost of Living increase. Staff salaries and any bylaw or policy which references an annual increase by the October Consumer Price Index will not be affected by Gowdy’s motion. The motion passed.

Speed bylaw deferred

A bylaw to rescind/update the Traffic Bylaw to create updated speed zones within the Township was deferred to the Feb. 13 regular meeting because CAO/Clerk Cathy MacMunn said since they started delving into it, there are a lot updated speed zones that have not been added into the governing bylaw and staff would like to make it as current as possible.

“It was quite surprising,” she said. “There were a number of them.”

One meeting in June

Due to staff attendance at the AMCTO conference, there will only be one Council meeting in June, scheduled for June 25.

Coun. Nicki Gowdy argued that perhaps the Council meeting should be rescheduled as there is only one regular meeting in July and she said June meetings tend to be somewhat busier.”

However, Mayor Frances Smith wasn’t concerned.

“If items come up, I’ll call a special meeting,” Smith said.

Reconsider vehicle policy

Coun. Phillip Smith gave notice of motion requesting a staff report and discussion at the Feb. 27 regular Council meeting on the existing Township Vehicle Policy.