Highway robbery in Glenburnie

Jeff Green | Feb 25, 2015

For about a year, and certainly since the most recent municipal election, Frontenac County has been a relaxed, even docile place. That might change.

In a decision last week, six council members, who represent 42% of the population, out-voted two members who represent 58% of the population.

The decision, about planning services offered under contract to the three smaller Frontenac townships amounts to a cash benefit for residents of those three townships at the expense of residents from the fourth, which is South Frontenac.

The amount of money involved is not really significant. What is more important is the fact that South Frontenac Council, which is already wary of the way the county operates, will have no choice but to take what happened as a kind of highway robbery.

Essentially, councilors from the other three townships used their majority to extract money from the ratepayers in South Frontenac.

In the past, when the county spent federal gas rebate dollars on the K&P Trail, which runs through South and Central Frontenac, council members from Frontenac Islands and North Frontenac cried foul, and insisted that for every dollar spent on the trail, a proportionate amount, based on population, be set aside for projects in their townships.

A lot of work has been done to foster an all-for-one, one-for-all attitude at Frontenac County in the past year or so.

But it seems that this planning matter is a case of the smaller townships taking an advantage just because they could do so.

It might turn out to have been a foolish money grab. South Frontenac has been the sleeping giant of Frontenac County for a number of years, while muttering softly to itself about how the county spends money.

That muttering will likely get louder in the future.