County Committee Plans to Hire New Economic Development Staff Amid Budget Pressures

Jeff Green | Oct 11, 2023

The Frontenac County Planning and Economic Development Committee (PEDC) met on October 4.. At that meeting they discussed the ongoing process of developing a communal services corporation for the county, now coming to fruition. They heard the project proposal presentation that the planning and economic development department will be presenting to Frontenac County Council during 2024 budget meetings, on October 24 and 25.

The element of the business plan that will be of most interest to Council, at those budget meetings, will be the “project requests” which is the way that Frontenac County describes proposals for new spending from the various departments, when the budget is being finalised.

Earlier this year the PEDC, which includes 3 members of council (4 if the warden is in attendance) as well as citizen appointees, recommended that a new person be hired to augment the work of the Economic Development department, and that up to $75,000 be included in the 2024 budget to build a new tourism website.

In recommending the business plan to Council for budget purposes, however, the new spending is one of two options being recommended.

In the comment section accompanying the motion being forwarded to the budget, the department is described as being “a crossroads in terms of delivering services. The success of the tourism initiatives, and continued work with Frontenac businesses, has pushed the demand for providing more initiatives.”

Option 1 to be considered during budget talks is for Frontenac County to continue to do economic development work with existing staff resources.

Option 2, however, involves a budget request to County Council to create an additional Community Development Officer position that can be involved in tourism, business promotion, marketing, and regional projects.

At the October 4 meeting, Frontenac Islands Mayor Judy Greenwood-Speers asked whether the committee might consider a formal endorsement of option 2, “to indicate our support for the work the economic development department is engaged in.”

Central Frontenac Mayor Frances Smith, who is the deputy warden of Frontenac County, and is slated to be the warden in 2024, chairs the committee.

She did not think it was the committee's role, in the run-up to the budget, to favour one option over the other.

“The motion is just to recommend that the overview report goes to County Council, which would include both options, and then County Council will make that decision.”

“Okay, I just wanted to make sure that you are supported,” said Greenwood-Speers to Manager of Economic Development Richard Allen, indicating that the proposal will have at least one vote in support when it comes up at the budget.

The Frontenac County Economic Development department has been cobbled together over a decade and a half. The first position, the hiring of a single economic development officer, was a term appointment in 2004. That appointment became a permanent position soon after. A second position, devoted to community development, was created with the aid of a provincial RED (Rural Economic Development) grant in 2016, which covered the first three years of salary dollars, enabling the county to phase in the cost of the position over several budgets.

The new position, a community development officer with a focus on tourism, would be fully funded by local taxation, but the cost will likely be phased in over two or three years, by partially funding the position through reserve funds, in order to mitigate its impact on the 2024 budget.

Budget proposals from other departments, including Paramedic Services, are expected to be included in the draft budget as well.

The draft Frontenac County Budget will be available to the public later this month, likely by Monday, October 23.

The current Frontenac County Council passed their first budget earlier this year. Pressed by inflationary pressures, that budget saw an increase of 5% in the cost to Frontenac County ratepayers, the highest increase in over a decade.