Frontenac County Council - Apr 20/16

Jonas Bonnetta | Apr 27, 2016

2015 audit results

Howard Allan, from Allan Chartered Accountant, made a presentation to Council on April 20 to discuss his firm's audit of the County for 2015.

“I think we can say that the 2015 audit went well for the County of Frontenac,” Allan told Council. “The management team of the County was very co-operative and I think the County is well served by their staff... Our firm looks after Leeds-Grenville and the County of Lanark, which are both in Eastern Ontario and kind of similar. I would say that the financial position of this County is as strong, or stronger, than those two counties.”

Allen spoke out in favor of the county's long-term financial plan and its reserves policy. “Reviewing your reserves is a very positive step,” he said.

The audit report shows the County sitting with just under $5 million in net financial assets at the end of 2015.

“Our rates of taxation are continuing to fall as assessment increases and re-assessments happen every four years. Even in dollar amounts, the overall (tax) increases have been fairly modest, particularly when you consider our growth,” he said.

He added that the rates of taxation in Frontenac County are much lower than in other counties because of the fact that the lower-tier municipalities look after the road works in Frontenac.

“Often, in other places, there's a big county road system that is looked after by the upper-tier and that has budgetary implications,” he said.

“We had some extra revenue from the OPP that we hadn't planned for,” Councilor Dennis Doyle said. “What happens with that money now that the townships incur the costs for policing? Does that eventually find its way down to the townships?”

“Any amounts that are surplus at the end of the year follow our reserve fund policy,” County Treasurer Marian VanBruinessen said. “Council can consider where those surplus funds go. The reserve fund policy suggests the first order of business is to get the stabilization reserve up to where it should be. The next one is the capital asset plan.”

Allan's report also recommended that the County review its processes regarding the security of electronic records.

County approves new stretchers

Council approved the purchase of new stretchers for their ambulances. After testing out two different brands they chose the Stryker Power Pro XT. The net cost of the stretchers is $735,000, after the County transfers $62,441 out of their equipment reserve. The balance of this is split with the City of Kingston, which will end up paying just over 78% of the cost, or $578,592, leaving $156,408 for the County to cover. The city portion will come to the County over the next eight years, as the County will be paying for the stretchers up front from their reserves.

Planning advisory committee to be formed

Council discussed new changes made to the Planning Act and how best to form a planning advisory committee. In a report prepared by Joe Gallivan, the Director of Planning and Economic Development, it says the intention of the amendments made to the Planning Act is to “improve community consultation” and to promote more “meaningful involvement for the public in the developmental approval process.”

This committee would act as a “connection between the operations of the Planning & Economic Development Department and the strategic direction of Council.”

One suggestion from staff is that the committee be formed by the four mayors as well as three citizens, with one citizen acting as the chair of the committee.

“The composition of such a committee should include some influential members of the community, such as someone from the Frontenac Stewardship Foundation,” North Frontenac Councillor John Inglis said. “I'm generally concerned that we're missing out on larger scale environmental issues in big planning ideas. We all want economic development ... but I think there has to be influential input on planning issues on the environmental side.”

“I want to discuss all proposals on this,” North Frontenac Mayor Ron Higgins said. “I'm not in favour of all four mayors (automatically) being part of it. We need people with expertise in planning.”

“I believe the four mayors are the ones that need to be on this committee,” Warden Frances Smith said. “The sooner we get this in place the better, as there's already stuff coming to us that we don't have a lot of detail about.”

“You really have to be cautious of the makeup of committees because it can really skew what happens in a township if they're going to make the recommendations for planning,” Deputy Warden Ron Vandewal said.