Frontenac County to consider regional road network

Jan 29, 2020

A report by the consulting group KPMG, six months in the making, is being presented to a special meeting of Frontenac County Council this week, and all members of the four Frontenac townships have been invited to hear the presentation.

The KPMG study considered whether Frontenac County has lost out in provincial grants over the last few years, because unlike neighbouring municipalities, the county plays no role in road maintenance and construction. While the Frontenac municipalities are eligible for infrastructure grants, Frontenac County is not.

The report, which was posted on the county website last Friday (January 24) says that Frontenac County has been short-changed over the last three years as compared to its neighbouring counties (Lanark, Lennox and Addington, Leeds and Grenville, and Hastings).

“Since 2016, the Frontenac County and its townships have received significantly less grant funding when compared to their peers. In 2018, Frontenac County received an average of $3 million less in grant funding than their comparator group,” it says.

The second question the report looked at is what can be done to change this scenario.

KPMG was given two options to consider. Both call for the county to establish a kind of virtual roads department. Under the first option, the in-house option, KPMG was to look at a scenario whereby the county would hire its own engineering staff to support the roads network and prepare grant applications.

The second option, the out-sourcing option, was for the county to be only indirectly involved. It would see the county hire an “independent engineering firm on a retention basis to work in conjunction with township public works managers” when necessary.

Before the report was even commissioned, South Frontenac differed from the other townships. While the other three said that both the in-house out-sourcing options should be considered, South Frontenac supported only the out-sourcing option but they were out-voted

Under either option, the ultimate goal is to enable grant applications to be submitted to provincial and federal granting programs for large scale roadwork, under the county banner.

The KPMG report concluded that each option would result in significant costs. They both require $200,000 in start up costs, and would take some time to be fully operational. By 2024, the in-house option is projected to cost $625,000 annually, and the out-sourcing option is expected to cost $500,000.

While these costs might seem high, KPMG estimates that there are 480 kilometres of regionally significant roads in Frontenac County (including Road 38, Perth Road, roads 509/506, Road 95/96 on Wolfe Island and Road 22 on Howe Island) which will require a $32.5 million investment in maintenance over the next 5 years.

The KPMG report favoured the in-house option but said it should be explored further, a process that will cost an additional $26,000.

South Frontenac Council looked at the KPMG report at their own council meeting on Tuesday night, in order to provide direction to Mayor Ron Vandewal and Councillor Alan Revill, the townships representatives on Frontenac County Council.

CAO Neil Carbonne was quite specific in laying out South Frontenac’s own ideas about a regional roads system.

“The reason it’s on the agenda tonight is that there’s a meeting about it at County and South Frontenac is the only council that initially did not support the in-house option at all,” he said.

Carbonne said meetings with his counterparts and public works managers from the other townships suggest they’d all be on board with a system where there was a joint management board or an arrangement that would see South Frontenac taking the lead.

“We don’t want it to be in-house with the County,” he said.

“Do we need to spend $26,000 (for a KPMG study) to tell us it could be a board?” said Mayor Ron Vandewal. “I don’t want to see anything that would even remotely endorse County involvement.”

“I have some serious concerns,” said Councilor Alan Revill, “I suspect it will be an uphill fight to do in-house without the involvement of the County.”

“I’m not sure this isn’t a boondoggle we don’t want to be any part of,” said Coun. Ron Sleeth. “I can’t suggest we get in bed with the County and put the work in their hands.”

“What we’re looking at is an option that was never at the table, because the only in-house option KPMG was looking at was county based” said Carbonne.

“The way to do what we want to is to explore that different in-house option.”

South Frontenac council decided to endorse the KPMG recommended in-house option, with one change, that the new KPMG study “consider multiple governance structures and service delivery models.”