North Frontenac Council - Apr 29/14

Jeff Green | May 01, 2014

North Frontenac passes budget amid looming OPP cost crisis

After several months of budget-crunching sessions between staff and council, North Frontenac managed to square the circle - almost, coming up with a 2014 budget that established a reserve for long-term infrastructure while keeping the tax increase to $150,000. This will translate to an average increase of 3% in local taxes, and an overall increase of 2.75% in the total tax bill once county and education taxes are included.

But even as council members were passing this year's budget, the spectre of 2015 was already in the room. A change in the municipal funding formula will almost certainly lead to a large increase in policing costs for North Frontenac, an increase that could dwarf all the cost-savings efforts of the township.

“From where it stands now, the cost, which was $202,000 in 2013, could go up to as much as $1.1 million,” said Treasurer Angela Millar.

The township receives money from the province to help cover a number of costs associated with being small, rural, and remote, a total of $1.07 million in 2014. But that funding program will not be increasing in coming years to compensate for the OPP cost increases that some municipalities will be facing.

“The funding model is going to change and it is going to cost us more,” said Mayor Clayton, “but not all municipalities will see increased costs. Some will see savings, and those that are going to save money aren't interested in working for a change to the formula.”

The main driver of the increase in North Frontenac is the fact that, as it stands now, 73% of the policing costs will be allocated as a flat fee charged for every household in a municipality. Because of its seasonal nature, North Frontenac will be billed for 3,471 households even though it has a permanent resident population of only 1,900 people.

The other 27% will be based on service that is provided, which will be relatively low in North Frontenac where patrols are few and far between and police calls are rare.

Through the Eastern Ontario Warden's Caucus and the Association of Municipalities of Ontario the township is working to suggest alternative ideas that will mitigate the costs, but time is running out, as a new plan is slated to be finalized in time to be implemented in 2015.

“We are fighting this and will continue to fight it but we don't seem to be getting anywhere,” said Clayton.

Representatives from North Frontenac were scheduled to join with those from a number of Lanark County townships at a meeting on Tuesday evening to discuss options for OPP funding.

Policing costs were one of many costs that were downloaded onto municipalities in 1998 as an offshoot of municipal amalgamation. Until then, policing in rural areas was fully funded out of provincial tax dollars.

The change in formula is not tied to a change in service. North Frontenac is covered as a part of the Sharbot Lake sub-detachment, which includes Central Frontenac. One 24 hour a day car is assigned to the detachment. Service for Barrie ward is partially provided by the Kaladar detachment.

The township has dubbed today, Thursday May 1st as OPP Day of Action and is encouraging residents to contact government officials about the impact of the OPP funding changes. For contact information, go to NorthFrontenac.com 

Ompah Fire Hall Repair

“The saga of the Ompah fire hall continues,” said Steve Sunderland, a local resident who was appointed by North Frontenac Council to spearhead a committee that has been developing proposals for improvements to the hall and the attached community centre.

Given the task of designing a project that would satisfy the concerns of the firefighters, satisfy health and safety and accessibility requirements, and maintain the community hall for public use within a $180,000 funding envelope, Sunderland and his committee brought forward a proposal last year. However when the projects went to tender, local contractors did not submit bids, and the bids that were received were at least double the funding limit.

“The bids were much higher than we anticipated and a good chunk of the money was taken up with project management and insurance costs,” said Sunderland. “What we are suggesting now is more like a barn raising, we are going to have volunteers manage a number of smaller projects, to eliminate the high cost of project management. We hope to take advantage of local expertise to get these done, and if we end up running short of money at least we will have made some important improvements.”

Before outlining 12 different projects that are set to be undertaken this year and next, Sunderland pointed out that although there will be significant savings by having the township act as the contractor for these small projects rather than hiring a general contractor, “The township is assuming more risk. With a contract to a general contractor, when something goes wrong the general contractor is out of pocket; in this case it will the township,” he said.

The first project in the sequence is the supply and installation of two new, electronically powered doors, to be overseen by Fire Chief Steve Riddell.

“Provided Chief Riddell can find three quotes for this, it can be completed by the end of May,” Sunderland said.

Among changes from the original plan, moving the bathroom to a new location as well as putting in a new floor are being put on hold.

“When the time comes to do work on the floor we will look at where we are with the budget. We will either put a whole new floor in or we will repair the crack and low spot in the old one and try to create some positive drainage,” he said.

Council approved the 12 project plans, and will be receiving updates on costing as the projects roll out.

In addition to the $180,000 that the township has committed to the project, the Ompah volunteers are willing to put another $50,000 in and the township also has a small pool of money, about $10,000, which can go towards accessibility initiatives.

The staff point-person on the project will be Fire Chief Steve Riddell. Chief Building Official George Gorrie has been consulted during the design phase, but since he will be enforcing the Ontario Building Code during the construction phase he will not be supervising any of the construction.

Trout Fishing

On request from Council, Erin MacDonald, a biologist from the Bancroft District office of the Ministry of Natural Resources, gave a presentation on the fish stocking program that the ministry undertakes each year, with a focus on the stocking it does in North Frontenac.

The ministry stocks four species of trout in North Frontenac (Rainbow, Brown, Lake and Brook) as well as splake.

“We use a calculation based on the size and character of each lake as it pertains to the species we are stocking to determine how many fish to stock in a given lake, and we stock every second year,” she said.

Although the ministry does some stocking with a view to helping fish populations become more established, most of its stocking is directed at anglers, using what MacDonald called a “put, grow and take” logic. The lakes are stocked with young fish, which grow into a size that is desirable for anglers and then they are taken.

“At public meetings like this I am always interested in hearing about the fishing on lakes to help us decide if we should change what we are doing on certain lakes. For instance, we stock Grindstone with splake, but are thinking rainbow trout might be more appropriate."

“Fishing splake in Grindstone is impossible,” said Councilor Gerry Martin, “rainbow would be better.”

However, Council had other thoughts about fish stocking and fishing tourism.

“If we have 100 tourists coming to North Frontenac, 98 of them are coming to fish walleye or bass, and you are stocking trout,” said Gerry Martin.

“The MNR is going in one direction, and our tourist operators are going in another direction. It doesn't fit. COFA (Conservationists of Frontenac Addington) have asked the ministry if they can harvest walleye eggs from one lake, raise them and re-stock that same lake. The MNR should facilitate that,” said Councilor Wayne Good.

“We would stock more walleye if stocking walleye was more effective, but it hasn't proved to be effective. We have been looking at the science and it is hard to demonstrate a benefit for the effort. The best thing we have found is to work towards helping the existing population to increase naturally” said MacDonald.

To that end, Wayne Good said the fishing regulations that allow anglers to keep only fish that fall between a specific “slot” size, has been effective.

Erin Macdonald said that people with information or an interest in the fish populations on North Frontenac lakes should feel free to contact her at the ministry office in Bancroft. Her detailed presentation is available on the North Frontenac website by typing "fish stocking" in the search bar

Ministry of Labour investigates fire department over ice rescue:

A year ago the township decided to get out of the ice rescue business, but in late March the Ompah fire crew was called to assist a severely injured snowmobiler on the ice at Sand Lake. The crews went on the ice, which was determined to be 30 cm thick and assisted the man, eventually extricating him from the ice using the rescue basket in the department's ATV. Police attended the scene as well and the man was transported to hospital in an ORNGE helicopter.

A Ministry of Labour official visited the township two weeks later to investigate an anonymous complaint about the way the department's ATV had been driven. As the result of the incident the township is reconsidering its safety protocols and is considering adding limited ice rescue to its definition of services offered