County tries again to bring in new Ed staffer, starting in 2026

Jeff Green | Oct 16, 2024

The Frontenac County Planning and Economic Development Advisory presented a friendly backdrop for a new pitch by the Manager of Economic Development, to bring back a proposal to add a second community development officer to his department.

Last year, in line with the recommendations from a Destination Development Plan that was adopted by Frontenac County Council a year earlier, the committee had recommended the position to Council, only to see it pulled from the budget, in order to keep the county tax levy to ratepayers from surpassing the 4% mark.

Before Allen, Manager for Economic Development, made his pitch to the committee, his proposal was given a boost by Anne Prichard, the Executive Director of the Frontenac Business Services, a federally funded business development bank and service agency serving Frontenac County residents.

Prichard attended the meeting as a delegate,and brought the committee up to speed on the activities of Frontenac Business Services in general, and in the past year.

Prichard talked about how much of her work is done in collaboration with the Frontenac County Economic Development department, and then added “In my opinion, investing in resources at the county level, would strengthen the workflow and create efficiency across the region.”

Among the six counties whose spending on Economic Development was noted, in a chart that Allen presented to the committee, two spend less per capita than Frontenac County, which spends $16.80 per resident each year on Economic Development; Lennox and Addington ($12.80) and Leeds and Grenville ($11.74). Hastings County spends marginally more than Frontenac ($18.09) and both Stormont, Dundas and Glengarry ($26.04) and Haliburton County ($30.84) spend more heavily. If Frontenac County adds a new position, the spending would go up to $21.17 per resident.

In order to provide a more palatable proposal to County Council when they sit down to look at the 2025 budget later in the month, Allen proposed that funding for only 1/3 of the position be included in the 2025 budget, and that the entire cost of the position be phased in over 3 years. The result would be a $43,000 (0.34%) budget increase in 2025, with the money going into a reserve fund for one year. In 2026, a new $43,000 would be added to the county budget, and with the reserve money available from 2025, the position will be filled. A third increase in 2027, also $43,000, will ensure that the new position will be financed into the future.

Frontenac Islands Mayor Judith Greenwood Speers, who supported the proposal for the full position last year, said it was a lost opportunity not to fund the entire position and get someone in place in 2025, rather than waiting another year.

“I am still of the opinion that we are being light, and this delays it basically for a second year. I question that we are spreading it over two years, there are opportunities that we are missing now.”

Deputy Warden Ron Vandewal, the Mayor of South Frontenac, was less certain.

Vandewal did not support the expenditure in the 2024 budget, and said that the 2025 budget could be even more of a struggle.

“I'm not trying to be negative. It sounds great here and we all love it. But when it goes to budget, it could be something else. This budget is going to be crazy. When you start looking at double digit budgets, it is not easy,” he said.

Frontenac County Council will begin budget deliberations on October 29. In addition to considering the $43,000 project proposal, they will be considering an increase of over $150,000 to address asset management concerns that were brought to Council by the county finance department, and potentially the start of a major upgrade to paramedic services in Kingston, among other budgetary pressures.