Addington Highlands Council – Feb. 18/25

Jeff Green | Feb 26, 2025

Tree Program - Council has purchased 500 trees for the Community Trees Program that is offered by Quinte Conservation. The township will spend $1,000, and will receive 500 trees: 100 Eastern White Cedar, 100 White Spruce, 125 Red Oak, and 175 Red Maple. The trees will be made available to township residents for free.

The program ran last year, and the trees were snapped up within minutes of being made available. The limit last year was 10. “We are thinking about putting a limit of 2 trees,” said Deputy Clerk/Planning Secretary Patricia Gray. “Do you think we will get enough people with that limit,” said Councilor Ken Hook. 'OH, yes, they went very fast last year,” said Gray.

In the end, council decided to up the limit to three trees per household.

Fees Waved - Council voted to wave the rental fees for the use of the Flinton Ballfield by Land O’Lakes Community Services on June 7th and 8th for their 2nd annual fundraising ball tournament. They are also waving the fees for the Denbigh Wellness Group’s use of the Denbigh Hall on April 5th for an Alzheimer Society event. Finally, they waved the fees for the Denbigh Hall on March 4th for their second annual Shrove Tuesday Pancake Supper.

Budget Meeting - A budget meeting date has been set for March 20th at the township office in Flinton, at 9am. The budget will be passed at the first meeting in May.

Tariff Motion - Council supported a motion from the Eastern Ontario Warden’s Caucus (EOWC) about actions that the governments of Canada and Ontario in the actions being taken in the face of the threat of tariffs from the United States. The EOWC motion also promotes accelerating efforts to remove trade barriers between provinces.

Dynacare Lab Services - The township was contacted by Jan Powell, Chief Executive Officer of Lakelands Family Health, about the pending arrival of a medical lab service in the community. Because distances to lab services in the region are greater that the provincial mandate, the province is funding a service by Dynacare Health Services, to be offered 4 days a week in Northbrook and one day a week in Denbigh. There is room to accommodate Dynacare in the rental Lakelands rental space, but there is no room in Northbrook. There is a vacant space, formerly taken up by a dental clinic, and CAO Clerk/Treasurer Christine Reed asked council for leave to negotiate a rental deal with Dynacare for use of the space, which is owned by the township. She said that Lakelands currently pays about $2 per square foot/month to the township for the space they use, and was planning to seek a similar amount from Dynacare. Deputy Reeve Tony Fritsch said “I am as supportive of the new service as any one else, but Dynacare is a for-profit company, and I don’t think we should necessarily go by the rates that we charge the Family Health Team for rent.” Councilor Ken Hook said. “I agree with councilor Fritsch. We could look at what the Pharmacy is paying in Northbrook, as opposed to what Lakelands is paying.” Council agreed to empower Chrstine Reed to negotiate a rental agreement with Dynacare on the basis of council direction to seek a market rate for the space.

Backyard Chickens - The proposed Backyard Chickens policy that has drawn a lot of public comment came back to council, along with a number of public comments. Councilor Hook and Deputy mayor Fritsch each pointed to a number of clauses that appear to be unnecessarily restrictive. These include provisions regarding coup size, roosters in certain locations, and restrictions on raising meat birds in hamlets. Staff will be making changes to the draft policy based on the feedback and will bring the policy back to a future meeting for a final vote by council.