North Frontenac Council - March 20/26

Plevna Rink Roof Project

Staff have made two attempts to tender the contract for a roof and change room at the newly built Plevna rink. The first one, last September, did not attract any bidders, and the second one, early this year, did result in bids, but none that fit the amount allocated for the project from grants and other funds. After some extra work, and a few changes to the specs for the contract, a couple of options were presented to Council. Both were over budget, requiring the use of reserve funds from the annual federal community building fund reserve, which currently sits at over $1 million. Thanks to two new community donations, one of which was $9,500 from the Clar-Mil Volunteers, almost $70,000 has been raised from the public for the project, in addition to $310,000 in federal funding and $370,000 in township funding. The shortfall for the completion of the project is $135,000. Council approved a proposal to take that money from the community building fund reserve, and proceed with the build this spring by J.Martin Carpentry/Construction of Flinton.

Landfill Capacity Continues To Increase

Cambium engineering, the company that monitors and manages the operational plans for the four active sites in the township (506, Kashwakamak, Mississippi and Plevna) as well as the closed landfills/transfer stations, provided their annual report to Council last week.

Michael Pion, who presented the report via a Zoom call, summed up the long term scenario for the township, saying, “generally the township is quite rich in landfill capacity”.

In fact, when it comes to capacity, the township is rich and getting richer.

As of 2020, North Frontenac was set to run out of landfill capacity for residents in 2069, a long enough time frame that created no urgency to find an alternative means for disposing of waste, for at least a decade or two.

But with improved diversion rates, better compaction, and a plan to re-open the Ardoch site to accept waste from other sites, as of the beginning of 2026, landfill capacity is now set to run out in 2090, 64 years from now.

The 64 year window is based on the township being able to bring the Ardoch sites remaining fill capacity back into play, and Cambium is preparing a proposal to that end for the township to approve.

At that point, Cambium will provide details of the plan to the Ministry of the Environment (MoE) for comment. It will only be after the Ministry has weighed in and indicated what they are looking for, that a formal application for a license can be submitted by the township.

Judging from other waste site licensing applications to the MoE, it could take years for the Ardoch landfill capacity to be available to North Frontenac. Without accounting for Ardoch, the township still has 52 years of estimated landfill capacity.

Recycling Program

There are many different ways to measure the effectiveness of a recycling program, and one of the ways North Frontenac calculates is a simple ratio of bags of recycling to bags of waste, and in 2025 more bags of recycling were received than bags of waste – 54% to 46%.

In terms of tonnage, the township diverted 73 tonnes (metric ton) of paper, 95 tonnes of cans, plastic and glass, 49 tonnes of bulky waste, and 15 tonnes of hazardous waste.

The overall total was down from the year before because of a large decrease in scrap metal, 51 tonnes as compared to 101 tonnes the year before. In 2024, scrap metal that had been piling up over time was gathered and recycled, throwing off the numbers.

With the exception of scrap metal, the tonnage was almost the same as it was in 2024.

The re-use centre diverted about 5 tonnes of usable items from landfill.

The recycling program cost $340,000 to operate in 2025.

The blue box portion of the program (containers and paper) is no longer a township responsibility as of January 1, 2026.

Youth Entrepreneurship Initiative

Councillor Mike Hage presented a report to Council, outlining a series of proposed measures designed to keep and attract youth to the township. to start up businesses. The measures include $500 grants, with funds to be taken from the townships community improvement plan or some other source, as well as loans and tax relief, earmarked for entrepreneurs between the ages of 18 and 25.

The initiative was well received by Council and referred to the economic development task force for further study.

Mayor Lichty recommended getting Frontenac Business Services and the Frontenac County Economic Development department involved.

“You never know, maybe they will have some money available as well as support,” he said.

Short term rentals

Council also received a comprehensive report from Councillor John Inglis about short term rentals (STRs). Inglis' report included a proposal to begin working towards a licensing bylaw for commercial short term rentals, which the report defines as properties with residential zoning that are rented out for more than 28 days per year. The report does not say that short term rentals should be banned from the township, as some other townships have done.

“It should be emphasised that increased numbers of STRs in North Frontenac is not necessarily an undesirable development - for years it has been understood that North Frontenac lacks accommodation for visitors, and various solutions have been proposed in the past. The influx of STRs is a private business response to a need. It simply needs to be regulated in order to avoid bad outcomes,” the report said.

Inglis researched a number of different bylaws in similar townships to North Frontenac in preparing his framework document.

Fees will be charged in order to cover all the staffing costs to administer and enforce the bylaw.

According to an appendix to Inglis' report, there are currently 218 unlicensed short term rental properties in the township.

“This is probably a good idea, but it is a logistical nightmare to enforce,”said Councillor Micky Hermer.

“This is out there,” said Deputy Mayor Roy Huetl, “I think people aren't paying attention to it.

Council received Inglis' report and referred it to staff to review and report back.

Mandatory Septic Inspection for properties

Council voted to move forward with a plan to extend the terms of the voluntary septic inspection program that is carried out by the Mississippi-Rideau Septic Inspection office. A mandatory inspection will be carried out on all properties with septic systems over 10 years old when the property is sold, with the cost being borne by the property owner. This was a staff proposal in concert with the Environmental Task Force Subcommittee. ■