Frontenac County Council

Jeff Green | Oct 26, 2022

A previous disagreement over how to allocate $337,500 that is sitting in a reserve fund for use as seed money for a seniors’ housing project, in North Frontenac, was deferred to the attention of the next Frontenac County Council, at the final regular meeting of council for this term.

North Frontenac Mayor Ron Higgins proposed that $100,000, of the total, be made available to cover costs as North Frontenac sets up a program to provide support for seniors to help them remain at home.

“There are services for seniors available, but they do not cover all of the needs. Our township is setting up a program, and we want to use that $100,000 to help us build up a reserve to make that program sustainable for the long term,” Higgins said.

Higgins proposed that the rest of the fund, $237,500, could remain where it is, to be used to add to monies available for seniors housing projects elsewhere in Frontenac County.

Each township had access to the same amount when the reserve was set up in 2014. Of the four townships, only one, Frontenac Islands, has claimed the money. A five-unit geared to income building was built in Marysville, on Wolfe Island. The housing project was built by a private developer.

North Frontenac has been unable to attract a developer to build a similar project in North Frontenac, and a survey of North Frontenac seniors indicated they were more interested in services that would enable them to remain in their own homes, than a housing project.

Warden Dennis Doyle (Mayor of Frontenac Islands) said that he was on council when the reserve was set up.

“My good friend Bud Clayton, and Gary Davison from South Frontenac worked on this back then. They wanted to make sure that the county was involved in bringing new housing projects forward, bricks and mortar projects. I can't support the money going to services. There are other programs available for the aging at home strategy,” he said.

South Frontenac Mayor Ron Vandewal said that he would not support the proposal as it is, without any detail about where the money is going, but would support a deferral of the proposal for the new council to consider, once more detail is available.

Councillor Gerry Martin (North Frontenac) said “We don't have a service hub in North Frontenac and that's where people want to move when they can no longer live at home. I think we are onto something with this program because the needs are not covered by existing programs. But if the money is to stay with the county for now, I don't want those funds to disappear into some slush fund somewhere, for municipal services or whatever.”

Martin was referring to a proposal, put forward by Central Frontenac Mayor Frances Smith at the previous meeting, that the $337,5000 from North Frontenac be used to cover some of the start up costs for a Frontenac County Municipal Services Corporation, on the grounds that the corporation will make it possible to build larger seniors housing projects in Central and South Frontenac.

That proposal did not resurface at the meeting, as all parties agreed to leave the money in place as it is, pending a new proposal by North Frontenac sometime after the next council's inaugural meeting on November 30.

Referring to some protracted debates about this money at previous meetings, Mayor Higgins said, “Thanks Council for reconsidering this. I know I've been a pain in the butt over this. Thanks to all of you.”

“That's something we can all agree on,” said Ron Vandewal.

Dennis Doyle's leave-taking speech

In his final meeting as a member of council after 12 years, Dennis Doyle, the longest serving member of council, made some closing remarks.

He recalled getting involved in local politics in 2006, shortly after retiring on Wolfe Island. When he was elected mayor in 2010, he said that Frontenac County was still in transition after being re-established a few years earlier as a county government.

“It all started with a service delivery review. We hadn't made the transition to county governance and that got it all started. Now we are one of the leaders in Eastern Ontario. Gary Davison and I went out and looked for a CAO and we were lucky enough to find Kelly Pender, who has been a great asset. We have developed a Strategic Plan, got heavily involved in continuous improvement, and established a planning department that provides excellent service to our municipality and two others that use it,” he said.

He also said that the two largest county run services, the Fairmount Home long term care facility and Frontenac Paramedic Services, have distinguished themselves.

“Fairmount was pushing for 4 hours of care almost ten years ago, when others were content with 2/12 hours, and now the Province has adopted the 4 hour target. And, with Renfrew County, Frontenac Paramedics were a leader in establishing a community paramedicine program.”

Finally, he talked about Kingston Frontenac Lennox and Addington Public Health (KFLAPH) , and its COVID response. Doyle has been the board chair for the KFLAPH for a number of years. “We were the only public health unit that held weekly meetings, with all of the mayors, during the whole pandemic. And we had full attendance from every mayor at every meeting because there was a lot to discuss as we worked through those issues day in and day out,” he said.

He said that now he is ready to get back to his retirement.