North Frontenac approves Municipal Services Corporation for communal water services

Craig Bakay | May 12, 2021

A Municipal Services Corporation (MSC) is the recommended model for the delivery of communal water and waste water developments across Frontenac County, a representative of WSP Consulting told North Frontenac Council at its regular (online) meeting Friday.

Alec Knowles said they rejected several other models including a private utility model (incompatible with essential services); a municipal buyer-seller model (potential for inter-municipal political discontent emerging and atypical arrangements for decentralized infrastructure) and an independent municipal services model (limits building regional consensus and being an atypical model).

He said a joint municipal services board model and a county-level governance model were also rejected as financial decisions would be reflected on municipal “books,” as well as the potential to be hindered by political disagreement and in the case of county-level governance, it would require a transfer of power from lower-tier to upper tier which would be burdened with rules and processes.

He in any event “the County does not have jurisdiction over water services.”

He said the benefits of an MSC model include limiting political influences by the separation of politics from service provision and facilitates technical board.

“Also, it allows for flexible risk management, allows for profit and profit sharing if desired, allows financing outside of municipal budgets and constraints and allows for consistent implementation across townships and operates as a separate entity,” he said.

He said governance and management would likely be through a board of directors appointed by mayors and councils.

“It would take between eight and 20 months to set up,” he said.

Costs and ownership shares would have to be determined once a business case study is undertaken but could be based on equal shares, a weighted assessment basis, a weighted population basis or a hybrid allocation.

“A majority vote would be required to pass any vote but at least two municipalities must vote in favour even if one municipality owns 50 per cent of the shares,” he said. “However the County of Frontenac is not a voting member under any option because the County does not have jurisdiction over drinking water and since the County is made up of lower-tier representatives, it would thus double count votes.”

Coun. Vern Hermer questioned the viability of communal systems in North Frontenac.

“That may work in South Frontenac but with the amount of rock we have, it would be cost prohibitive to install,” Hermer said.

“It would have to be looked at on a case-by-case basis,” Knowles said. “I’m sure there are locations where it doesn’t make sense but it will be up to individual developers.”

“Who decides if a development will be communal?” said Dep. Mayor Gerry Martin.

“A municipality cannot force a communal system on a developer,” Knowles said. “But you can say ‘we would prefer . . .’ or ‘we won’t approve. . .’”

But, he said, it will likely be attractive to developers because the corporation will take on liabilities and the oversight of making sure it’s done properly.

He said that there would likely be monthly fees paid to the corporation (much like water services in Sydenham) and there could be dividends come to North Frontenac even if the majority of systems are built in South Frontenac.

“The idea is to pool liabilities to minimize risk,” he said.

Council voted 4-2 to approve the MSC option and advocate for a business case moving forward.

Coun. Vern Hermer and Wayne Good voted No.

Road network already rejected

Mayor Ron Higgins told Council that there wasn’t much point in holding a special meeting to discuss a regional roads network because South Frontenac has already rejected the idea.

CAO Cheryl Robson said that public works managers and CAOs would be meeting to discuss other options.

3 years term for EDO

Council compromised on the issue of hiring a full-time economic development officer by deciding to offer the current EDO, whose contracts expires in July, a three-year contract.

School board planning

Mayor Ron Higgins told Council that he had sit in on a school board planning session and received good news.

“School space is not an issue in Cloyne, Plevna or Sharbot Lake,” Higgins said. “I think that’s the first time they’ve ever had a mayor sit in on one of their planning sessions.”