Communal Services Facing Its Next Hurdle This Week

Joe Gallivan, Director of Development Services for Frontenac County, will know soon whether his years-long effort to create favourable conditions, for residential and commercial developments with communal water and sewage systems, will progress to the implementation stage.

A business case for the establishment of a municipal service corporation, operating at arms length from Frontenac Municipalities, to manage and operate privately built water and sewage systems, is up for consideration in South Frontenac this week. It is expected to be on the agenda in Central Frontenac and Frontenac Islands at their meetings next week. North Frontenac decided to opt out of the Municipal Service Corporation at their meeting in August.

But the proposal will likely receive a more favourable hearing at the other three council tables, because each township has a project in mind that would be greatly enhanced in scope if communal servicing is available.

In South Frontenac, that project is a senior focussed housing development in Verona.

In presenting the proposal to Council, South Frontenac staff are recommending that Council support the business case.

In a report attributed to the office of Chief Administrator Louise Fragnito, staff recommends “that Council provide support for the Communal Governance - Business Case Study”.

The staff report points out that “the only municipal contribution to the fund, be start-up funding” and that “no funding will be raised by taxation.”

The projected start-up cost of the corporation is $700,000, and costs will be allocated to the three remaining townships, should they all opt in, on the basis of their share property assessment. As the largest, South Frontenac is looking at costs in the range of $500,000.

However, a delegation from Frontenac County met with Ontario Minister of Housing Steve Clark, at the recent Association of Municipalities of Ontario conference in Ottawa, with communal servicing on the agenda.

Frontenac Islands Mayor, and Frontenac County Warden, Dennis Doyle said that “the minister was impressed with the range of proposed projects in Frontenac County” that would be made possible with communal servicing under a municipal services corporation.

At that meeting, the Frontenac County delegation, which included South Frontenac Mayor Ron Vandewal in addition to Warden Doyle, also requested provincial funding support for the project, which could diminish or eliminate the $700,000 setup cost to the Frontenac townships.

South Frontenac staff envision that, if Council supports the proposal, “the next step in the process is for a committee to be formed that would include both county and other Frontenac municipalities, who supported the business case, to work on drafting agreements and documents in relation to the creation of the Municipal Service Corporation for the governance of communal services.

“Council will be provided an opportunity to review and provide final approval on these agreements which will provide information such as required municipal financial commitment, shareholders, community benefits and asset transfer policy.”