Hope, then pessimism at Frontenac County pre-budget session

Jeff Green | Sep 27, 2017

Frontenac County asked community groups and individuals to come forward with funding requests in advance of the adoption of the 2018 budget in December. Four groups took up the offer and made presentations to a meeting of Frontenac County Council last Wednesday (September 21)
They were Frontenac Transportation Services (FTS), The Kingston University Hospitals Foundation, Frontenac Addington Children’s and Family Services (FACSLA), and Jonas Bonnetta.

In each case, the requests were for new or increased funding, and the amounts requested varied from a high of $200,000 per year for 10 years from the hospital foundation to a $6,000 annual investment over 4 years to create a bursary for children in foster care from FACSLFA.
The County is already committed to providing $96,000 each year to Frontenac Transportation Services to support administration costs and subsidies for seniors who use the service. Last week, program Manager Gail Young made requests for several extra pots of funding, including an annual increase of $20,000 to help cover increased costs that come from changes in the mix of riders in recent years. She said there has been an increase in the number of rides for seniors and a decrease in the number of rides paid for by third parties such as Ontario Works and the Ontario Disability Support Program. Seniors rides pay the agency less than the third party rides.

Young also asked for a one time payment of $10,000 to replenish the FTS reserve fund, which has been depleted due to an operating loss in 2016/17. As well, FTS is asking for $5,000 annually to subsidise seniors rides, and $10,000 for a one year pilot project to enhance accessibility for people with mobility deficits. The last request was in response to an initiative sponsored by the Frontenac County accessibility committee.
The total request from FTS is for a $45,000 increase in 2017, but of that $20,000 would be one time funding. The agency would like to see its annual funding rise to $121,000.
Jonas Bonnetta is a musician, music producer and music studio owner who lives and runs a music production studio near Mountain Grove. His proposal is for the county to establish a $10,000 arts fund to help local and visiting musicians to make use of studio space in Frontenac County. This is one of a number of measures to augment the arts he would like to see. His funding proposal is tied in with the idea of establishing a broad based Arts Council in Frontenac County.
“I really believe that by making strategic investments in the local creative sector, and seeking matching funds from senior governments and the private sector, the County of Frontenac could become known as a destination for the arts,” he said.

Budget pressures

The hopeful presenters had all left the building by the time Frontenac County CAO Kelly Pender made a presentation entitled “budget policy review”.
The review outlined how, under Council’s direction, staff will again present a budget this year with an increase pegged to the consumer price index (1.2% if the current numbers hold) in addition to a 0.65% increase to be devoted to long term infrastructure replacement. Pender did not include assessment increases due to growth in his presentation but if past years are any indication another 1% increase in taxation will be folded into the budget.

Pender then pointed to a series of fixed costs that will weigh on council this year. 48.8% of the the tax money raised from ratepayers goes to outside agencies, and cost increases for those agencies are outside of county control. These include payments to: the Public Library, the Public Health Unit, the Municipal Property Assessment Corporation, social housing and social services. A further 31% of that money goes to Frontenac Paramedic Services and the Fairmount Home long term care facility, operations managed by Frontenac County with funding from ratepayers in Frontenac, the City of Kingston and the Province.
As Pender pointed out, there are significant pressures on each of these budgets, and the even with efforts to make the operations more efficient, labour costs and ever increasing regulations and guidelines will make it very difficult to keep from increasing taxes above the targeted threshold this year.
He pointed out that the needs of patients in Fairmount and provincial regulations as well as the expectations of family members make it very difficult to keep the Fairmount Home budget in check, and increasing calls for service and the expectation to meet response time targets are stresses on the Frontenac Paremadic Services budget.

Staff intend to present council with a base budget, within the target range, and optional enhancements, which council can choose to implement or reject. This is how the budget was presented last year.
Warden Ron Vandewal spoke up at this point.

“It is almost impossible to reduce service levels, I am aware of that, but I would rather staff tell me what we can do within a 2% increase, and if staff think something is important enough to do they will fit it in that target. Instead what happens is we get a budget and then a list of additions and every one of them puts the budget over the target. It takes an enormous amount of courage to say no in those cases, that’s what other councillors told me last year.”

“My eyes go to the service level reductions. We tried that in a previous council and looking at it in hindsight it was a mistake,” said Councillor John McDougall.

“It is indeed hard for an individual councillor to object to an individual project, I take Ron’s point, but still I appreciate the transparency of the current process,” said Councillor John Inglis.

“I understand what Ron is saying,” said Central Frontenac Mayor Frances Smith. “I’m not sure we can simply say 2% is all we can do. I think we need to be open minded to do the best job we can. We need to give thought and consideration to all the projects that come before us.”