Frontenac County Council Approves Minor Budget Revisions

Jeff Green | Feb 22, 2023

Frontenac County Council met for over 8 hours, over two days, between February 8th and 9th, on the 2023 budget. Those sessions were made up of presentations by each of the department heads outlining their service models and spending proposals for the coming year.

The draft budget, that was presented to council at the start of the meetings, called for an increase of 8.95% in the amount that Frontenac County ratepayers will be levied this year for county services.

The presentations were followed by a budget debate after lunch on February 9, which resulted in only a tiny cut, $2,358 cut (0.2%), in the levy to ratepayers, which will be almost $12.5 million this year, up by over $1million from 2022.

However, county staff also pointed to an increase in property assessment throughout the county of 1.28% due to new construction, from recent years, coming onto the tax rolls, mitigating the impact of the increase to 7.6% for most property owners in the county.

When the budget came to the regular monthly Frontenac County Council meeting on February 15, it was approved without comment from members of council.

In 2023, Frontenac County ratepayers will pay $208 for every $100,000 in assessed property that they own, to Frontenac County. This amount will be included in the property tax bill, along with township and education taxes.

Short meeting

Before considering the budget, and some other housekeeping motions, Council spent a little over a half hour listening to Chief Administrative Officer Kelly Pender’s monthly presentation.

Pender outlined, not only his own activities over the past month, but also how a number of regional and provincial issues have been playing out this winter, and how they may progress throughout the rest of 2023.

One of those issues is housing, a local, regional and provincial priority.

The Eastern Ontario Wardens Caucus, of which Frontenac County is a member, made a presentation to provincial officials late in January about regional initiatives. Two projects in Frontenac County, one in South Frontenac (a proposed seniors housing project in Verona) and one in Central Frontenac (a project being developed at the former Sharbot Lake Public School site) may be in line for provincial funding support as pilot projects in Eastern Ontario.

CAO Pender also provided Council with an update on the upgrade to the Frontenac County offices on Battersea Road in Glenburnie.

“The electrical work is complete, and 1/2 of the drywall is up. We are anticipating either an in-person or virtual tour will take place, for members of the joint administrative committee, in a couple of weeks. All of the abatement measures for asbestos have been completed as well,” he said.

Because of earlier construction delays, the anticipated move-in date for county staff is December of this year.

The Glenburnie site will also see the construction of a new ambulance base in 2023, and a long term plan to tear down or renovate Fairmount Home, the county-owned long term care facility on the site, is in the very early planning stages.

Two items of note, at the meeting, both related to responses to cardiac arrests;

Fairmount Home staff members Solleen Noble, Crystal Hawley, Laurie Bresee, Tammy Bush, Kaie Milligan, Chloe Aird-Tousignant, and Olivia Carey were commended in recognition of their quick work to provide assistance to an individual suffering cardiac arrest, in the vicinity of the home.

Council also passed a motion commending Emergency Room Doctor, and Queen's associate professor, Dr. Steven Brooks, for the neighbours saving neighbours program, a pilot project whereby community volunteers across Frontenac are trained in CPR and the safe use of automatic external defibrillators (AEDs).

Through a mobile app, volunteers are then available to be notified by the Central Ambulance Communications Centre in Kingston when they are in a position to arrive on the scene of a cardiac arrest, in advance of paramedics, in order to begin resuscitation efforts quickly.

Further information on the program is available at www.engagefrontenac.ca/neighbours-saving neighbours.Further information on the program is available at www.engagefrontenac.ca/neighbours-saving-neighbours.