Frontenac County Council - Dec. 4/13

Jeff Green | Dec 11, 2013

Gallivan says province likely to overhaul County OP

Lindsay Mills, the lead planner in South Frontenac Township, brought his concerns about the second draft of the Frontenac County Official Plan to a Committee of the Whole meeting of Frontenac County Council last week (December 4).

Mills repeated many of the points he had made the previous evening to South Frontenac Council. He acknowledged that a number of issues he had raised with the first draft of the plan had been addressed and said “the lead in to the plan is extremely good, really well done.”

However, Mills then said that the plan still oversteps its stated intention to be a “high level document” by getting too heavily involved in manners that are already covered in the townships' own Official Plans.

“If this is really a high level plan it should just say that there should be certain policies in place and perhaps outline the process that should be followed by the townships, but this plan sets out the policy in too many cases,” Mills said.

He also said that the plan “tends to involve the county in just about everything,” noting renewable energy, forestry, and roads as examples where the townships have always worked independently but now may need to co-ordinate their efforts with County staff.

“In my view this plan dances around the point, and in too many cases I can't see what the point really is. It is ok to have motherhood statements, but they always seem to want to talk about working collaboratively and adding another layer of bureaucracy. The County plan should leave a lot more up to the local councils; there is too much overlap as it stands” Mills said.

He noted, for example, that the county plan refers to a 30-metre setback for any new construction on waterfront properties. “These kinds of specifics should not be in any Official Plan, they rightly only belong in zoning bylaws. By including it here it will mean that many of the minor variances we currently approve internally will require an Official Plan amendment,” said Lindsay Mills.

South Frontenac Mayor Gary Davison and Frontenac Islands Mayor Dennis Doyle both spoke out in support of Lindsay Mill's position.

However, County Warden Janet Gutowski pointed out that while she appreciates Lindsay Mills' concerns, “Our real challenge is going to be to satisfy the province. The province speaks with the provincial policy statement and they are going to say 'this is what you can do and this is what you cannot do'. Joe has been working to satisfy their requirements.”

Joe Gallivan said he has made a number of changes to the first draft of the plan based on Mills' remarks and the input of others as well, and would be willing to consider wording changes to the second draft as well, but said he expects the Ministry of Municipal Affairs will want more, not less, in the way of detailed, prescriptive language in the document.

“Cross-jurisdictional issues are a priority in the plan that I’ve put before you today. The County Official Plan has to have a vision, and it has to have some backbone, or else the province will not approve it,” he said. “I can tell you that Renfrew is working on the update to their plan, and when the ministry responded to their draft plan it was in the form of a 34-page letter with very prescriptive policies, so I would say I expect it is going to be tough for us.”

Members of County Council spent two hours going over the second draft of the OP in detail, and made a number of suggestions regarding revisions.

Council then agreed to send the draft document to the ministry for informal comment.

Once the County Official Plan is approved, the County will replace the Ministry of Municipal Affairs and Housing as the approving body for all changes to township Official Plans, the hope being that this will give local representatives an ability to control the direction of development within the County.

Frontenac Transportation Service wants $10,000 for 2014

The good news for Frontenac County is that the business plan that was put in place when the Frontenac Transportation Service was founded three years ago has held true. The agency has been able to operate well within the parameters of a $86,000 annual grant it received from Frontenac County each year.

David Townsend, the executive director of Southern Frontenac Community Services (SFCS), which is a partner with Northern Frontenac Community Services (NFCS) in FTS, brought that news to a meeting of Frontenac County Council last week.

However, looking forward to the 2014 County budget, Townsend said that FTS will be looking for an increase in its grant in 2014.

Of the $86,000 FTS received from the County in 2013, $46,000 was slated for administrative costs, and each of the two agencies were allocated $20,000 to help their own clients access FTS services.

FTS makes use of volunteer drivers to deliver clients to appointments. The drivers are paid 42 cents per kilometre when there is a client in their vehicle, and 22 cents when they are driving an empty vehicle from their home to the client's home. Clients are charged 50 cents per kilometre, and the extra 8 cents per kilometre is used to help cover administrative costs. In most cases, it is government agencies, such as Ontario Works, or the Ontario Disability Supports Program who pay for FTS rides for their clients. Dispatch for the service for the entire county is done out of an office in Sharbot Lake, under the direction of NFCS.

Both Northern and Southern Frontenac Community Services have seen an increased demand from their own clients for rides to programs that they run for the vulnerable members of the population.

“We have seen a steady growth in demand for FTS rides since the integrated service was created in 2011,” said Don Amos, the executive director of Northern Frontenac Community Services, in a telephone interview. “Our own agency subsidizes rides for children to access daycare and other Child Centre programs; for disadvantaged youth to access youth programming; and for low-income seniors to access our seniors' programs and other seniors' services. This is a population that needs support in order to remain in their rural homes in Frontenac County,” Amos said.

The growth in ridership has been particularly dramatic in South Frontenac, where many of the users of the service are seniors who use the service to get to SFCS's popular Adult Day Program. There has been a 48% increase in the last two years, from 3697 rides in 2011 to 5470 rides in 2013.

The increase has been less dramatic in North and Central Frontenac at 24%, from 2559 rides in 2011 to 3184 in 2013.

In his presentation to Frontenac County Council, David Townsend pointed out that because of the growth in ridership, only $37,000 of the $46,000 that the county paid in to FTS in 2013 was needed for administrative costs. He asked that the $9,000 surplus be allocated on a 50/50 basis to SFCS and NFCS because each agency used more than the $20,000 they received from the county in 2013 to subsidize rides for their own clients and have had to do extra fundraising for transportation.

Townsend also said FTS will be asking for $96,000 in 2014, about $36,000 for admin costs, and $30,000 for each agency to cover for rides for the vulnerable populations that they serve.

In response a number of County Council members, including Warden Gutowski and South Frontenac Mayor Gary Davison, expressed support for FTS and the way it has followed the business plan that was put in place with the assistance of County Council and the Queen’s business school in 2011.

Frontenac Islands Mayor Dennis Doyle, noted that residents on the Wolfe and Howe Islands are not eligible for FTS service, and asked David Townsend if there was any way to address that.

“We will be meeting with the VON [Victorian Order of Nurses] which is responsible for the Islands, to see if we can work something out,” said Townsend.