Comparing Apples to Subsidized Apples

Jeff Green | Dec 15, 2011

Editorial by Jeff Green

It seems to me that it is inevitable that planning services in Central and North Frontenac will be done by the Frontenac County Planning Department as of sometime early in 2012.

In recent presentations to both townships, the County Planner, Joe Gallivan, said that costs will be about half of what they are now for developers and private citizens in need of zoning bylaw amendments, plans of subdivisions, and the like. For the townships’ own needs, the county is offering free service.

It looks like a huge win - win situation for everyone.

Joe Gallivan said that he expects it will take about 500 to 650 hours per year of work to handle all of the planning that would be required in North and Central Frontenac Townships and Frontenac Islands as well, and that the work can be done by himself and the junior planner that are already on the county staff.

Maybe this is a quibble, but there are questions that arise from this - in my head anyway.

Currently in North and Central Frontenac Tunnock consulting is paid a $1,500 retainer each year up front. That money comes from taxpayers.

Currently in Frontenac County Joe Gallivan and the Junior Planner Peter Young are each paid a full salary. The total of the two salaries, including benefits and vacation pay, payroll remittances, etc. is probably somewhere in the range of $150,000 or perhaps more, which is paid by Frontenac County taxpayers.

The two systems are polar opposites. In one case the planner is paid when there is work for him to do, and for planning costs related to commercial or private sector development of any kind. the developers pay all of the charges.

In the other, the county planners are paid in advance through taxation and when developers come forward the money they pay only offsets some of that money.

The savings to developers that are being touted by the County are essentially going to be covered by Frontenac County ratepayers.

The situation is even less desirable for the 60 or so per cent of Frontenac County ratepayers who live in South Frontenac. South Frontenac has their own professional planner on staff, so they will not be using the county service in any meaningful way. Any savings that the County planning department is offering to the other townships and to the development communities working in those townships will be heavily subsidised by South Frontenac ratepayers.

One final point.

Joe Gallivan and Peter Young were hired by Frontenac County Council, upon the recommendation of senior staff and the CAO, to do work other than municipal planning.

It was curious that Joe Gallivan, an experienced planner with the Ministry of Municipal Affairs, was hired to work on sustainability projects. County Council was not told that Mr. Gallivan was being hired in order to get a County Planning department established.

They should have been, because clearly that was the intention all along.

As taxpayers in this county we may indeed be far better off when an integrated county planning department oversees all planning services. It might make this a more attractive place to do business and cut down on the tax burden in the long term.

My problem is that our elected officials were tricked into putting this planning department in place. They were simply not told that it was happening, and they should have been.

And the politicians representing South Frontenac on County Council, who will be paying most of the costs and reaping the least amount of benefit from the County planning department, might not like them apples one little bit.