Frontenac County budget sneaks in at just under 4%.

Jeff Green | Nov 24, 2021

After a two day budget session in late October, Frontenac County Council did not make any substantial changes to the proposed 2022 County budget, which included an increase of 4.2% in the amount that Frontenac County residents will be funding.

The increase is higher than what it has been in recent years, but it complies with the direction from Council to County staff to keep the budget levy to ratepayers to within the rate of inflation plus a 0.65% enhancement to reserves to provide for replacement cost of infrastructure down the road.

The figure for the rate of inflation that Frontenac County uses is the Cost of Living Index as determined by Statistics Canada for October each year.

This year that number is 4%, well over the 2% average of recent years.

Frontenac County Council members, in particular South Frontenac Mayor Ron Vandewal, were still hoping for a lower increase, because while the Cost of Living Index is based on commodity and service prices, the price of eggs, meat, vegetables, fuel and hydro, municipal costs are based mostly on labour costs that are not nearly as volatile.

“We took direction from Council that the increase should be under 4%,” Frontenac County Treasurer Alex Lemieux told Council at their November meeting (November 17) as he presented some minor revisions to the budget.

By moving the one time cost of oxygen holders for Frontenac County paramedics from the levied portion of the budget to reserves, along with some savings that we identified as actual numbers for this year came in, Lemieux able to trim just over $20,000 from the levy of just over $10 million, bringing the increase to 3.98%.

He did caution council that one of the county's major reserve funds, the “stabilization reserve”, will be dropping to 14.1% of the budget levy for the year.

“The target range for the stabilization reserve is a range between 14 and 15 per cent.” said Lemieux, “so this puts it at the low end of the range and it might require some enhancement soon.”

The budget will return to Council in December for a final vote.

Long Term Care changes

The most significant topic discussed in the short open session at the November 17 Council meeting centred around the “Fixing Long Term Care Act” which was tabled in the Ontario legislature on October 28.

One aspect of the bill that caught the attention of Council was a new level of responsibility for owners of long term care facilities. Since Frontenac County owns and operates the Fairmount Home, this piqued the interest of members of Council.

“Will this mean that as members of this council, we could go to jail, or is it Kelly who would go?” one of the councillors asked.

“Or both,” said Frontenac Islands Mayor Dennis Doyle.

Chief Administrative Officer Kelly Pender said the details of the bill are being examined by the Association of Municipalities of Ontario to understand the implications for municipal councils that operate long term care facilities.

The new Act provides some significant new operating funds, which will go up incrementally over the next few years, rising to over $2 million per year extra by 2025, in order to provide enough support to reach the staffing level required to provide 4 hours of care per resident per day.

“This is a level of care that we, along with others, have identified as a target for years, so it is encouraging to see the province take this on,” said Kelly Pender.

But, Pender added, there is a well documented shortage of staff at long term care homes across the province, Fairmount included.

“How are we going to get to the 4 hour level if we can't hire enough staff and won't be able to use the funding. What's your confidence that we can up our recruitment to make this possible?' asked North Frontenac Mayor Ron Higgins.

“We have been doing well with recruitment compared to other places,” said Pender, “and with the success HR [Human Resources] has had with singing bonuses we are working to make Fairmount stand out as an employer of choice.”

“And there is more provincial money for training PSW's (Personal Support Workers) and nurses as part of this initiative so hopefully it all comes together in a few years,” said Dennis Doyle.

Fairmount Home Administrator Susan Brant said that the funding enhancement that is attached to the “Fixing Long Term Care Act” will be returned if the staffing levels that the money is intending to support are not realised.

Later in the meeting, council passed a motion instructing Fairmount Home management to immediately begin hiring more staff in order to maximise provincial funding, and also “provide County Council with an update as early as possible in 2022, including plans for the hiring required in subsequent years in order to achieve the Provincial target of four hours of care.”