CAO Orr’s last council meeting

Wilma Kenny | Jul 03, 2019

By the time the next South Frontenac Council meeting rolls around (August 6), Wayne Orr will be retired and packing for a leisurely road trip west. In recognition of this, Mayor Vandewal presented Orr with his nameplate at the end of the meeting, just before Clerk Angela Maddocks brought out a cake.

Draft Development Charges By-law

Consultant Gary Scanlon of Watson Associates attended the mandatory public meeting to review the proposed Development Charges by-law and receive public input prior to Council’s final consideration of the new by-law on August 6. Development Charges are charges levied at the time of new construction to recover capital costs associated with both residential and non-residential growth within the municipality. The Province is currently in the process of separating “hard” services (roads, fire protection, police and engineering services) from “soft” services which include parks, recreation, and library services and community-based studies.

Mayor Vandewal noted that there have been no enquiries from either developers or the general public and only one person had attended the mid-June information open house. Likewise, no one from the public (other than the press) was in attendance at this meeting.

The report estimates that, over the next 15 years, 1311 new residential units will be built in the township and the population will increase by 2,767 people. The draft bylaw pegs the total development and community benefit fees per new single-family dwelling at $9,383, a 39% increase over the current fee of $6,758. This fee is paid in addition to building permit fees and any zoning amendment charges that may be necessary.

Scanlon briefly reviewed some of the highlights of his report, and there being no questions or comments from the public, Council agreed to move on to the next step, in August, of passing the by-law.

Community Safety and Well Being Plan (CSWB Plan)

In January 2019, The province legislated municipalities have two years to prepare and adopt a CSWB Plan which will identify risk factors in the municipality and “determine which risk factors the municipality will treat as a priority to reduce; strategies to reduce the risk factors, including providing new services, changing existing services, improving the integration of existing services or coordinating existing services in a different way; set out measurable outcomes that the strategies are intended to produce; plus any other issues/information that may be prescribed through Regulation.” A joint Frontenac Townships CSWB Advisory Committee will be created, and will include representatives from a large, specified group of social, health and education services. CAO Orr said that while the basic concept of such a group had the potential to lead to positive outcomes, “we’re the wrong group of people to set it up”.

Councillor Roberts suggested the proposed advisory committee was too large, but Orr said there was no choice: the group’s composition had been determined by the Province. Councillor Sutherland said he would prefer that as many as possible of the committee members be Frontenac residents.

The proposed committee will include Deputy Clerk Cindy Deachman, Central Frontenac Mayor Frances Smith (who is the incoming county warden and has a social services background) Sgt Sharron Brown, detachment commander Frontenac OPP, David Herrington from the South Frontenac Police Services Board, Chief Doreen Davis from the Shabot Obaadjiwan First Nation, and one representative each from social services, addictions and mental health, health care, education, and children and youth.

Council adjourned to share the aforementioned cake in CAO Orr’s honour.