Central Frontenac Passes 2023 Budget With 2.9% Increase

Craig Bakay | Mar 08, 2023

Central Frontenac Council passed its 2023 budget at its regular meeting Feb. 28 in Sharbot Lake.

The budget is raising 2.9 per cent $274,280 more dollars than in 2022.

Part of the way council managed to keep the increase under 3% in an inflationary environment, was to offset increases in the operational budget was to keep a lid on capital expenditures.

The operating budget increase is up by $795,133 (11 per cent) vs 2022, but the capital budget is down by $520,853 (-27 per cent) vs 2022.

“This has been the toughest year for a budget,” said Mayor Frances Smith, who has seen a lot of them.

“It has been stressful,” said Treasurer Michael McGovern.

Coun. Craig Middleton voted against the budget and when asked by the Mayor, why he voted no, he said: “I don’t like taking all that money from reserves,” he said, in reference to decreases in reserve funds in the budget, another means that the township used to keep the tax levy increase from rising too much.

Fire Master Plan

Council received, but did not yet approve, the Fire Master Plan, saying it wanted to discuss the 24 recommendations before agreeing to them.

“If all of the recommendations are included, I will be voting against it,” said Dep. Mayor Phillip Smith.

“It doesn’t mean we have to do them all right away,” said Mayor Frances Smith.

Of the 24 recommendations included in the Loomex Group report, six are listed as “mandatory,” meaning that there is a legislative compliance requirement.

The good news is that the mandatory recommendations generally involve things that the fire chief has to do and involve no budgetary impact.

Arden Fire Hall

Before either the budget discussion (which was minimal) or the Fire Master Plan discussion, Coun. Nicki Gowdy wanted to discuss the $45,000 slated for repairs to the Arden Fire Hall.

Fire Chief Chris McDonough said the repairs were necessary (“there is no functioning washroom”) and were instead of asking for more than $500,000 for a new fire hall.

New conference discussion system

Council approved $37,489 for a new wireless “conference discussion system” (ie new microphones and PA) for Soldiers Memorial Hall in Sharbot Lake. Applied Electronics was the successful bidder.

Frontenac County Business Analyst Ryan Dixon said that the current system is antiquated and some of the microphones have started to fail.

He said the new system will be much easier to set up and take down saving about $2,400 per year in staff time.

He said the lack of cabling to each mike also made for increased safety by removing tripping hazards and allowing for more configuration options.

There was $39,000 allocated in the 2023 budget for the system of which $28,000 was raised in 2022.

Mileage rate maintained

After much discussion, Council decided to leave it mileage rate at $0.55 per kilometre and update it Feb. 1 each year if necessary.

There were councillors who were prepared to argue for a 6-per-cent increase to match inflation but the most compelling argument seemed to come from Coun. Bill Everett.

“Leave it as it is,” Everett said. “My cost to run my vehicle is $0.15 per kilometre; $0.55 is quite a profit.”

But you have things like wear and tear, insurance and such,” said Mayor Frances Smith.

“I have those things anyways,” said Everett.

Changes in committee structure

Council asked that a report on committee organization be brought back for further discussion.

“I think it needs a lot of discussion on how it would look on the ground,” said Mayor Frances Smith.

Heritage Festival success

Mayor Frances Smith noted that Soldiers Memorial Hall was packed for the Frontenac’s Got Talent event that opened the Frontenac Heritage Festival.

Coun. Lynn Klages said she was at the events in Arden both Saturday and Sunday and both were well attended.