South Frontenac Council

Wilma Kenny | Feb 03, 2021

An Act of Genuine Caring or An Empty Theatrical Gesture?

On Thursday Jan 14, the Township’s Committee of the Whole held an all-day budget marathon. This budget covers the Township portion of taxes: roads, waste management, recreation, fire and emergency services, etc. The overall annual taxes will also include the Education and the County tax draws as well.

In the third and final part of that COW meeting, Councillor Roberts suggested that perhaps the township should consider lowering this year’s tax rate increase from 2% to 1.5%, in order to “do something overall for all the people to show we care about our constituents’ struggles during Covid.”

Mayor Vandewal, who has throughout his tenure insisted that the budget increase be held at 2%, agreed that this might be a good plan. A .5% reduction could be accomplished by withdrawing $91,980 from the Township’s working fund reserves. There seemed to be general, but not total agreement with this.

Councillor Ruttan reminded Council that $250,000 had already been set aside in the budget, targeted to assist those hurt most by the pandemic. (This fund will be portioned out to be administered by existing agencies within the community, the details to be worked out early in 2021.) Someone else pointed out that a .5% tax rate reduction was different, because its benefits would go to everyone.

Prior to Council’s passing the 2021 budget on the 26th, Councillor Sutherland brought an amendment motion, seconded by Ruttan, to return to the 2% tax rate increase, and instead allocate $91,980 from reserves to an enhanced drainage program for the Township’s gravel roads.

“It would be of tangible and substantial benefit to everyone,” Sutherland said,

Sutherland said that the Township’s approach of maintaining regular small tax increases (ie, 2%) had worked well over recent years, helping to maintain solid finances, with healthy reserves. He said that a tax-related ‘rebate’ of .5% would be of greatest benefit to those with most financial resources, for the 2% figure is calculated as the percentage increase of township taxes for an ‘average’ property assessment of just over $270,000. That property-owner would save about $6. Someone with a more expensive property would save a bit more. For those with smaller properties, the savings will be less. Property value assessments are provided to the Township by the Municipal Property Assessment Corporation MPAC - a provincially mandated corporation funded by the Ontario Municipalities.

Sutherland suggested that if $91,980 was to be drawn from reserves, it would be better spent on gravel road improvement, where it would be of equal benefit to all.

“I felt blindsided by the suggestion to lower the taxation rate to 1.5%” said Councillor Ruttan; "It came up very late in the day, and there wasn’t much discussion. It may look good, but it does nothing. It amounts to lowering individual taxes by an average of $6” He added that his constituents wanted to talk about roads, speeding, internet access; no one complained about the tax rate.

Sleeth, Revill, and Leonard said that they were not against improving gravel roads; all three suggested that perhaps $100,000 could be drawn from the $250,000 set aside for Covid relief programs. Roberts said he was opposed to Sutherland’s amendment; “I want to show we are concerned — we need to do something to help all the people, something overall.”

“I feel blindsided by this amendment,” said Mayor Vandewal; “I don’t appreciate the comment that this was not thought through. We will develop a plan for moving forward with asset (ie, roads) management.”

In recorded votes, the motion to amend was defeated and the budget package was passed, along with the reserve-subsidized 1.5% increase, with only Sutherland and Ruttan voting against.

2021 Committee of Adjustment

Council appointees to the Committee of Adjustment will be: Bedford; Alan Revill until March 31& Pat Barr April 1-Dec 31; Portland; Doug Morey, Loughborough; Randy Ruttan and Storrington: Norm Roberts.

New Building Inspector

Matthew Doyle recently joined the Township as a new Building Inspector in the role of Part 8 On-Site Sewage Specialist. Mr. Doyle comes from the KFL&A Public Health where he worked for over 10 years as a Public Health Inspector. He will primarily be responsible for delivering these services in North Frontenac, Central Frontenac and Frontenac Islands as per South Frontenac’s agreement with those Townships.

Cemetery Contract Renewed

Council approved the extension of the contracts for sales/administration services, grave excavation and cemetery maintenance to D.G. Younge Concrete Burial Vaults for the three-year period of May 1, 2021 to April 30, 2024, with pricing to remain at the 2019 contract amount for the 3 year period. “They have served us well,” commented Mayor Vandewal; “we’re not getting any more complaints.”

And a Story…

Council was vesting some scraps of property (declaring them surplus). If a buyer can’t be found for some of these, the Township might have to assume ownership, to avoid continuing to bill taxes on a property of little to no value. Councillor Sutherland asked about one chunk of apparent swampland back from the eastern side of Millburn creek, just outside Battersea. Councillor Sleeth said that shortly after WW2 a returning veteran wanted to buy a property on Main Street in the village, but it was too small a property to qualify for a DVA loan, so a piece of land along the nearby creek was added to enlarge the sale. Years passed, ownership of the dams controlling Loughborough lake level changed and with them, the water level. The land in question was flooded . “We should be happy to keep this place,” said Sutherland, “ Swamps are good.”