Frontenac County Council - June 18

Jeff Green | Jun 26, 2025

Not much more than routine reporting, and some housekeeping, took place at the June  meeting of Frontenac County Council, last week (June 18).

For the mayors of South, Central, and North Frontenac, a lack of fireworks was welcome as each has faced some contentious moments at their own council table, in recent months.

Still, some of the tensions within the council and with other bodies slipped into the proceedings.

Council formally endorsed a proposal by the City of Kingston to co-locate a new ambulance base in the west end of Kingston, with a fire station that Kingston Fire Services are planning to build on Taylor-Kidd Blvd.

The City will handle construction costs, and Frontenac Paramedics will lease a portion of the building once construction is complete, which is the best way to maximise provincial funding. Frontenac County provides paramedic service for residents of the City of Kingston, funded by provincial and municipal dollars from Kingston residents.

Kingston City Council has complained in the past about costs for paramedic services charged by Frontenac County, and after withholding payment in 2018, leading Frontenac County to seek a court remedy, the City eventually relented, but decided to list paramedic costs as a separate levy on the annual tax bills sent out to ratepayers.

The new base will pave the way for Frontenac Paramedics to augment service to the burgeoning population in west Kingston over the next five years.

“I know the City of Kingston likes to put paramedic services as a separate item on their tax bill, because we run the service,” said South Frontenac Mayor Ron Vandewal, “but I wonder if they put their percentage of usage of the service on the bill as well, I doubt it.

Shareholder agreement Frontenac Municipal Services Corporation

Frontenac Islands Mayor Judy Greenwood-Speers raised questions about a motion to adopt a shareholder agreement among Frontenac townships over the Frontenac Municipal Services Corporation.

“This agreement gives South Frontenac more shares than the combined total of all the rest of the townships,” she said. I'd like my council to decide whether to accept that before we vote on it here,” she said.

“This is something we have been working on for five years,” said Central Frontenac Mayor Frances Smith, “and the shares reflect the investments made by the partners. It has been vetted by the CAOs group more than once.”

A motion to defer the agreement, made by Mayor Greenwood-Speers, failed to find a seconder, and in a recorded vote, the agreement was accepted by council, 7-1, with Greenwood-Speers casting the dissenting vote.

The shareholder agreement must now be ratified by the local councils to come into effect.

Municipal Accommodation Tax

Council approved a proposal forwarded from the planning and economic development committee, to spend $6,000 evaluating a municipal accommodation tax, that each township could choose to adopt or not. Mayor Vandewal said he would vote for the study, but does not see his township choosing to adopt the tax because of the amount of staff time it would take to establish and administer.

Mayor Greenwood Speers said that Gananoque, Brockville, and all other townships in the region have the tax in place, and said it would be crazy not to use it. 

“Half of the revenue goes to tourism marketing, and the other half to local infrastructure,” she said.

The County will meet in Mid-July before their August break. Mayor Vandewal informed Council he will not be attending the July meeting.