Draft Frontenac County budget includes a 5.5% increase for 2021

Oct 21, 2020

“I haven’t even looked at the county budget,” said South Frontenac Mayor Ron Vandewal, on Monday of this week (October 19). “We are going to have two days of presentations from each department so I will have a good chance to see it.”

Vandewal had perhaps taken a peek however, because he knew that the tax increase in the 2021 budget was well above the 2% increase that is targeted every year in his own township, and he said that he expects he will end up voting against the 2021 county budget, as he has in previous years.

The annual target for the Frontenac County budget is an increase at the rate of inflation as determined by the August Cost of Living report that is released by the federal government, plus an extra 0.65% increase to build up a reserve fund to cover infrastructure replacement, under the county’s asset management plan.

In recent years, the Cost of Living Report has consistently reported a rate of inflation of about 2% each year. 2020, being a singular year, does not fit that pattern and the August report shows an inflation rate of almost nil, 0.1%.

In the preamble to the 2021 Frontenac County budget, County Treasurer Alex Lemieux pointed out that a 0.1% increase would not cover annual cost increases in program delivery for 2021. The largest cost factor for most county programs are salary costs, and those costs are set to increase by 2.2%, as the result of collective bargaining agreements. Similarly, contracted services, which include payments to the City of Kingston for services such as Ontario Works and Not for Profit Housing, are also set to increase by about 2.8%.

Instead of a 0.1% target, county staff used a 1.8% target. With the asset management levy, the overall budget target became a 2.45% increase. The budget came in at that target level, but in addition, there are new staff positions, which all have been discussed at the county table but are now being brought into the budget for funding support.

These include a Personal Support Worker shift for Fairmount Home, and the crew for a new 12-hour shift for Frontenac Paramedic Services. The cost of these new positions is shared with the City of Kingston, and the county share for them brings the budget up by 1.6%. A new community planner position, to augment the county planning department, will increase the budget by a further 0.6%.

Finally, the draft budget includes equal payments to Southern Frontenac and Rural Frontenac Community Services for transportation programs, an increase of 0.9% to the budget.

This all adds up to a 5.5% increase in the requisition county staff proposes to make to the local Frontenac Townships. Once the townships complete their own budgets, the county requisition, as well as a bill from the Province of Ontario for Education costs, will determine the total that will be levied to Frontenac County ratepayers. That levy is divided up according to the assessed value of individual properties to determine property taxes. MPAC (Municipal Property Assessment Corporation) is responsible for determining property values for every property in Ontario. Due to COVID-19, property assessments for 2021 are the same they were for 2020.

The Frontenac County share of the total tax bill that comes from local townships is about 22%, so the proposed increase in the Frontenac County draft budget, on the typical property tax bill, will be about a 1.2% increase.

Frontenac County Council set aside three days this week, Tuesday – Thursday October 20-22, to meet as a Committee of the Whole, in a combination of live and virtual sessions. The meetings will include presentations by the various county departments, followed by budget deliberations on the afternoon of October 21 or on the morning of October 22. Council typically approves the annual budget at the regular December meeting.

The Committee of the Whole meetings have been posted on the Frontenac County Youtube channel, compelling viewing for Frontenac County residents whose Netflix Account has lapsed.