North Frontenac Council - Ward 1

Cyndy Bonello

Cyndy Bonello moved to North Frontenac in 2020, when she and her husband bought a resort on Big Gull Lake near Harlowe.

“We lived in Clarington before, and ran a business there,” she said, “and our experience with the local township when we moved here has been the opposite of what we experienced there”. In Clarington, they had the impression, which was later confirmed, that the township was not willing to work with local businesses who were trying to grow their business. “In North Frontenac, it has been the opposite. We are welcome here, and supported,” she said.

As soon as they arrived, they became friends with Dan Vaillancourt at Sherwood Park Campground.

“He encouraged me to join the Economic Development Task Force (EDTF). I joined in 2021 and haven't looked back,” she said.

As a member of the EDTF, she has been involved in Summerfest, which she now chairs, and participated in a new initiative joining with the Central Frontenac Economic Development to participate in trade shows in Belleville and Ottawa.

“I feel like I am ready to take a step further in the community by joining council, so I decided to run in this election,” she said.

She thinks that in terms of the focus of council, Ward 1 is not at the centre, and would like to address that. One example is trail development, “There has been a focus on the K&P trail, which goes north-south, and now that is being completed, we can start looking at an east-west trail headed in this direction. I have spoken with the Frontenac ATV Club and they have expressed interest in bringing a trail this way.”

She comes to council with an interest in economic development and recreation, but is also very much aware that the appeal of the local area, for herself and for everyone who lives and visits, comes from it being a bit wilder, less developed than places like the Muskokas and the Kawarthas.

“This area is as popular as it is because of how it is. You don’t want to bring something in to undermine that.”

Her seeking a council position is not necessarily to bring her agenda to the township in many of all policy areas, but to immerse herself in those areas as she has immersed herself in the community and the EDTF, learn what the community wants and focus on addressing those wants.

She does see communication as a key element to council's relationship with the public.

“When people come forward to ask the township for something, it is council's job investigate and to provide an explanation of what they found. For example, explain the effect of taking something on that is being requested, and what it would cost to take it on, what it would mean for the tax rate. People may not be happy, but at least they would understand the reasons behind decisions that we make.”

Mike Hage

Mike Hage ran for council in ward 1 in 2022, and finished third behind long time imcumbent Wayne Good and first time council candidate Stephanie Regent.

When Stephanie Regent was removed from council early this year for missing three meetings in succession, Hage was installed in her place.

He is therefore running as one of two incumbents in the ward even though he is seeking his first election victory in North Frontenac.

As a new member of council, he has asked a lot of questions for clarification at council meetings, familiarising himself with township operations and budgeting.

“I believe this experience will set me up well to contribute in the coming four years,” he said,

In March of this year, at his second meeting after joining council, he brought forward a plan to initiate an effort to keep and maintain youth in our area by encourage entrepreneurship for local youth and those that can be attractes to the township.

“That was shut down by the economic development committee at the time, and they had their reasons. But that is still something that is very important to me and would like to see our township become a hub for attracting young families to move here, so I would like to revive and refine it to present to the new council that is elected this time, whether I am part of that council.

“Canada is built on medium and small business, small business are the way foward. They start with an idea, maybe someone wants to open small workshop, or work online, and work virtually. There are lots of avenues, new opportunitieis young people can pursue.”

Hage moved to North Frontenac in the fall of 2020 with his wife Nawar after purchasing Myers Cave Resort on Road 506 at Marble Lake. They have been running the resort ever since and are both active with the Lions Club of Land O'Lakes.

As a business owner, he was a member of the Frontenac County Economic Development Advisory Committee until he joined North Frontenac Council in February, and is a board member with the Ontario Highlands Tourist Organisation, a regional destination marketing organisation funded by the Province of Ontario.

He said that he has monitered council and the township over the years, and “with a small staff they do amazing things. I see that even more now from the inside.”

He thinks that while tthe current council decided to not renew the contract for the economic development officer that was in place for three years, he thinks that hiring a new person could be to the township's benefit.

“I believe that if there is a contract position for a dedicated Destination management officer would attract more businesss and tourism. But, learning from the previous experience, this time we would need to have a well defined set of requirmentes measured against certain key performance indicators and deliverables.”

Gwen Glover

Gwen Glover's family has had a cottage on Skootamatta Lake since 1961, and after an eventful working life in Manitoba, London, Ontario, and South Frontenac, she decided to retire to Skootamatta Lake.

“I was doing retirement really well,” she said, “but with all that is happening in the United States, I was drawn back into politics. I had a group of people asking me to run for council and before I entered the race, it looked like there would have been acclamations in ward 1, which is not good for democracy, so here I am.

Although new to municipal politics, she has significant political experience, although it is dated and in a different province.

In the early 1990s, when she was living in Selkirk, Manitoba, she was elected to City Council, and later she ran provincially and served one term as a Member of the Legislative Assembly (MLA) representing the Manitoba Liberal Party. During her term, she was chair of the Standing Committee for Natural Resources, critic for Municipal Affairs and Multiculturalism and served as Acting Deputy Speaker of the House. She won the Citizen of the Year award in Selkirk for community engagement.

When she lived in London, she established a social enterprise for people without work experience to find employment. It was called Pivotal Services of London and eventually was absorbed by Goodwill Industries as a program they ran, in London. She won the Peter Druker award for innovation for her work with Pivotal Services.

She said, “I feel our community is lacking cohesion. There is not a lot of communication; it is very difficult in a rural area. Perhaps an electrical sign at Barrie Hall with community and township information would help. There is some simple stuff that can be done so people feel they are part of the community.”

She said there was an ad in the Frontenac News last week informing people that the City of Kingston has a home renovation grant available for Frontenac County residents of limited means.

“Why do we not all know about that grant already? It is not new,” she said.

She would like to see more communication among lake associations about invasive species and other issues, and would work to get the North Frontenac Association of Lake Associations to be more effective as a communication resource.

She also said that there has been a lot of development on some of the private lanes on the water in ward 1, resulting in substantial assessment and tax dollars to the township, but Council refuses to consider “taking on those roads or at least providing funding support to improve them.

She sees the potential for a small house village in North Frontenac, and thinks it would be attractive to seniors, if there were some supports available.

“A lot of us would welcome that opportunity, and that would free up some larger houses for families to move in,” she said.

She said that she would like to see Council adopt a more informal tone.

“Instead of sitting around the horseshoe acting like a superior, when facing the public, I would like to see more Council sitting around the table talking instead, and including the audience in some way.”

Wayne Good

Wayne Good was appointed to council early in 2006 to replace Will Cybulski when he moved away. He joined Fred Perry who had been appointed to replace Dick Hook, who was suffering from a debilitating illness.

The two of them both ran for council later that year and were elected. They served together until Fred died, while still in office. Good has been elected or acclaimed 5 times to represent Ward 1.

He said that this time around, “my wife gave me her blessing to run, which is an improvement over 2022, when she heard about it by reading the Frontenac News.”

Over his career on council, Good has been consistently concerned with finances, always reminding Council when a new program or piece of infrastructure is being contemplated, that there are not only up front costs to be considered, but also long-term maintenance and operational costs.

“I have a real good history of looking after our dollars,” he said, “and keeping our road maintenance to the highest level that we can afford.

In my view, we've got to look after our money, no matter what. Some people say we have too much money in reserves, but I don't think it is even what it should be. In the past year we dealt with a culvert that was unexpected. These things can cost a half a million dollars and that money has to come from reserves, if it is not already in the budget.”

Wayne Good worked for Hydro One for decades, staying on as an on-call technician after he retired from full time employment. He is now working for Aecon, a global engineering firm with assets in Eastern Ontario.

“With Aecon, I can work as much or as little as I want to, and it makes it easy to serve on council because I can control my time,” he said.

He would like to return to and start his third decade on North Frontenac Council because “I think I do a good, thorough job, and I bring value and experience to Council.”

He said there are often decisions taken by Council that he disagrees with, and there are cases when he is proven right.

“I think we should take on opportunities, like the battery storage project that may have been located in the wrong place, but would have brought in money to us, with no cost. Everyone jumps on grants, but they usually come with a percentage we have to invest, and then we are stuck with maintenance. That's what will happen with the roof over the Plevna rink.”

He has seen the township have to handle increasing costs from the province, and points to things like OPP costs as something that Council cannot control.

“We were handed Road 509/506 by the province with money to fix it, but that money ran out and was never replaced. We now tar and chip that road instead of maintaining the asphalt that it was paved with when it was downloaded, which is something we had to do, to keep taxes from jumping even more