Council backs out of support for energy project

Craig Bakay | Nov 29, 2017

Council voted to amend resolution 518-17 passed at the previous special Council meeting. The resolution extended Council’s support for the One Small Town project as presented by Mayor Ron Higgins.

Councillor Wayne Good and Dep. Mayor Fred Perry moved the resolution to exclude support for the electrical generation aspect until details of that particular project are made public.

Good said he and Perry had received an email from a constituent expressing concerns about the project that gave him pause.

Several other councilors appeared to be having second thoughts as well.

“I’d like to modify 518-17,” said Councillor John Inglis. “We weren’t given any technical details or information about financing.

“My concern is when a business comes with a plan, we don’t normally support it by resolution - our support should be identical to the support we’d give to any business venture.”

“How will this corporation be structured?” said Councillor Denis Bedard. “I’m scared to death a project of this nature can mushroom. We spent considerable time on researching wind turbines. We’ve spent no time at all on this.”

Councillor Vernon Hermer was even more concerned, especially when it comes to the involvement of Ubuntu Canada and its international leader/founder Michael Tellinger.

“I think we’ve been misinformed and misled,” Hermer said. “Contributionism is based on a political party in South Africa. I’ve watched hours of videos on this man’s (Tellinger’s) ‘visions’ (and) I find his opinions and themes disturbing and almost offensive.

Higgins said that Tellinger’s thoughts on some matters shouldn’t be used to discredit the One Small Town plan.

In one of his Youtube videos, Tellinger discusses his support for the argument that the earth is flat, which was addressed briefly by Higgins

“He (Tellinger) does have some off-the-wall theories and plans,” Higgins said. “(But) we do have a meeting scheduled to discuss the parameters of C & T (Contribute & Thrive) North Frontenac.

“And it (the electrical generation plan) was not the only way to generate electricity . . . it was the information I had at the time.”

Council voted to continue to contribute $5,400 to Rural Frontenac Community Services to provide youth programs and services to North Frontenac. RFCS director Louise Moody said it actually costs more than $7,000 to provide the services but was only asking for $5,400 and “we’ll get the rest.”

Funding in place for Ompah Hall kitchen reno

In his own words, Rick Morey “asked for $10,000 and came out with $11,500.”

The Ompah Community Association may not need all of it to complete their kitchen renovation plans for the Ompah Hall.

Morey was at North Frontenac Council’s regular meeting last Friday in Ompah to update council on the “1970s-something” kitchen and to ask for funding.

Morey was asking Council for $5,000 to match the Community Association’s contribution to the project. He said the $10,000 budget contains a $1,500 contingency fund.

“We’re probably going to run into safety concerns,” he said.

Corey Klatt, manager of community development, suggested that figure might be low and recommended Council double it.

“Our plan is to not spend $10,000 but to fix up the kitchen,” Morey said.

“And if we have to replace something, it could get expensive,” said Coun. Denis Bedard.

Morey said that one of the reasons he was at Council now was because there was a limited time to take advantage of a discount offer from Ikea. He said he’d taken their plan to local suppliers who couldn’t match Ikea’s deal.

He said that if they bought the cabinets from Ikea, they would get as much as $300 in gift cards.

“We can use the $300 gift cards to pay for knobs and hinges,” said Coun. Wayne Good.