Frontenac County Council

Jeff Green | Jun 24, 2015

Taxes to remain stable, on an upward curve

Frontenac County ratepayers will not see large increases in the county portion of their tax bill in coming years. However, as long as the Consumer Price Index goes up, so will taxes, but at a little higher rate.

Frontenac County Council approved a budget policy that sets as a target the annualized Consumer Price Index (CPI) in Ontario from August of each year, and adds an extra 0.65% per year for the next 10 years to pay towards a capital sustainability reserve. That reserve fund is in place to cover for ageing infrastructure, such as the county office complex in Glenburnie.

While the budget process will require that each department demonstrate that it requires the extra money to maintain the level of service they offered in the previous year, the over-riding assumption of the process is that the increase will be necessary. If the budget deviates from the target in one department, the needs of other departments will be looked at, followed by the replenishing of various reserve funds that may have been depleted over time. Only once all of those factors are considered would the possibility of setting a lower tax rate be put forward.

Similarly, if the needs of the departments exceed the target, reserve funds will be used as much as possible to keep the county from levying an increase above the target.

“In general it is preferable to plan for stable increases in county taxation, rather than a roller coaster ride where the levy can swing up and down,” said Chief Administrative Officer Kelly Pender. “That way the lower-tier councils and, ultimately, the ratepayers, can make their own financial plans without fear of surprises coming from the county.”

The 0.65% added levy was adopted by County Council last year after completing an asset management plan, as called for by the provincial government, in an effort to avoid large costs over the long term. The county has less infrastructure than most, if not all other counties in Ontario, because with municipal amalgamation the county roads system was divested to the local municipalities. The only water treatment plant in Frontenac County is in Sydenham and it is owned and managed by South Frontenac Township.

Frontenac County ratepayers pay the county rate in addition to the rates set by their own municipality and the rate set by the Ministry of Education for school taxes. The county rate is applied equally to each property owner based on the assessed value of their property as determined by the Municipal Property Assessment Corporation (MPAC).

County supports maintaining Land Information Ontario:

People who visit Frontenac County maps at frontenacmaps.ca will notice that, when zooming in to near ground level, some of features from the past tend to linger on the mapping. That is because, until recently, the digital imagery that is the base layer of Frontenacmaps.ca was from 2008. That all changed earlier this year when new imagery, produced in 2014, replaced the 2008 imagery.

That six-year cycle of new imagery is a produced by Land Information Ontario, a division of the Ministry of Natural Resources, and sold to municipalities. Because of the economy of scale offered by a service that is province-wide in scope, smaller, rural municipalities such as Frontenac County pay less for imagery than they would otherwise, according to a report to Frontenac County Council by David Millard, the county’s manager of Information Systems.

“In 2014, the County acquired 5,727 sq. km. of imagery through DRAPE (Digital Raster Acquisition Project - East), at a cost of $17,473,” Millard wrote in his report.

The report recommended that the County send a letter to the province to urge them to renew the mandate for Land Information Ontario beyond 2017.

The imagery is of use to planning and building departments on a township level, and helps with bylaw enforcement as well.

The County is going to send the letter urging the province to keep Land Information Ontario in place.