Countryside Not Moving To The Country After All

Jeff Green | Nov 27, 2013

Kingston City Councilor Jeff Scott, who represents the Countryside ward in rural Kingston between Highway 401 and the South Frontenac border, has become a controversial figure of late at Kingston City Council.

He did so by presenting a notice of motion last week aimed at setting up a referendum for residents in his ward and the Pittsburgh ward in East Kingston that is represented by Brian Reitzel to consider whether the residents of either or both wards are inclined to seek a political affiliation with an alternate municipality than the City of Kingston

“I seem to have taken everyone by surprise,” said Scott when contacted by phone on Tuesday morning (November 26). “We had a budget meeting last night and it was very difficult at times because of what happened last week.”

Scott said that his notice of motion came about because of a recent ruling by the Ontario Municipal Board. The ruling set aside a proposal for ward distribution within the City, and by counting Queen’s students as residents, assigned more weight on Council to the downtown core of the City.

“By accepting the Queen’s students, the OMB gave 20,000 proxy votes to downtown Kingston,” Scott said.

According to Scott, the ruling, which cannot be appealed by Kingston City Council, further erodes the political clout of the 8,000 residents in his ward. However, the OMB ruling would not have led him to call for a referendum on its own.

“The resentment was already there. Countryside, which is made up of the old Kingston township and rural Pittsburgh township, used to have its own independence, and it became an annex of the City in 1998,” he said.

He pointed out that since amalgamation the City of Kingston has spent $150 million on recreation facilities, “but none of that money was spent in Countryside. The spending and the focus has always been with downtown, and that has created this incredible resentment from the periphery.”

Although Jeff Scott has not approached any neighbouring townships about finding a place for Countryside residents, he said that Frontenac County is the most natural fit.

“With 8,000 residents we would be the second largest township in Frontenac County, roughly the size of North, Central and Frontenac Islands combined, but to me what makes the most sense would be a single tier government for Frontenac County, but that is getting ahead of ourselves,” he said.

He said that roadwork and recycling services in Countryside are done by contractors and not City employees, and firefighting is done by volunteer departments.

“Administratively it would not be that complicated for us to leave the City,” he said, “but I don’t think Mayor Gerretson will even let our motion come to the floor. He has indicated he will rule it out of order.”

Indeed, at Tuesday night's City Council meeting (November 26), Kingston Mayor Mark Gerretson said that after consulting staff and looking at the Ontario Municipal Act, he had decided to rule the secession motion out of order. Instead he has called for three town hall meetings in the new year to allow rural Kingston residents an opportunity to voice their concerns.