The power of the extra South Frontenac vote raises an eyebrow, but nothing more

Jeff Green | Jan 05, 2022

Frontenac County quietly passes its 2022 budget with an increase of 4% in levy, offset by growth

When it came time to express his dissent over the 2022 Frontenac County budget, South Frontenac Mayor Ron Vandewal first had to identify the budget bylaw among a laundry list of 9 year-end measures being approved by council.

“I would like to separate out bylaw D from the rest, and request a recorded vote,” he said when the motion to approve the bylaws was proposed at the December 15, 2021 meeting. “That's the budget bylaw, isn't it?”

“The budget bylaw is E. D is the tax rate bylaw, but E is the spending estimates bylaw,” said County Clerk Janette Amini.

“I'd like to separate out E then, and request a recorded vote,” he said.

At the budget deliberations in October and again at a meeting on November 24, as in previous years, Vandewal made it clear that he “will not support a budget with an increase of over 2%”.

At that November meeting, the budget had been reduced by a few thousand dollars after Council indicated, at an earlier meeting, that they wanted the increase (which originally stood at 4.13%) be shaved to under 4%.

Treasurer Alex Lemieux made the necessary changes by adjusting the way some items were funded.

The final amount to be collected from Frontenac County ratepayers is 3.98%.

With the budget bylaw isolated from the rest of the bylaws, at the December 15 meeting, a vote was taken.

One by one, the 8 council members (meeting over Zoom, as the meeting was being held when the Omicron wave was already sweeping through Kingston and Frontenac County) had to un-mute and speak into their computer screens. It took a minute or two, but they all said yes, except Vandewal.

“The motion is passed by a vote of 7-2,” said Janette Amini.

“How could it be 7-2,” said North Frontenac Mayor Ron Higgins, “there was only one vote against the motion.”

“As mayor of South Frontenac, Councillor Vandewal has two votes,” said Amini.

Higgins smiled and nodded.

“Don't you remember?” said Warden Dennis Doyle as Higgins nodded again.

In 2009, when Frontenac County added a second member of council from each township to what had been a four member council, made up by the Frontenac mayors, the mayor of South Frontenac was given a second vote. South Frontenac is the township with most of the population and assessment in Frontenac County, and the extra vote gives it 3 votes out of 9, while the others only have 2.

The second vote is a rarity because recorded votes on county bylaws are not common, and the bulk of the deliberations on council are done as a Committee of the Whole, where the second vote does not even apply.

The 3.98% increase in the Frontenac County budget is offset by growth.

Assessment growth in Frontenac County due to new construction between 2020 and 2021 was just under 1% (0.92%) so the impact of the budget on pre-existing properties will be a shade over 3.06% in the coming year.

In South Frontenac, the budget that is presented to Council incorporates growth into the final calculation, making the Frontenac County budget just 1% over Vandewal's target.

“I recognise that the county budget is heavily salary based and is not like a township budget. I know you can't just defer a road project in order to cut the budget like we can do in South Frontenac, but I still believe in setting a target of 2% when staff start working on the budget, and meeting that target” Vandewal said, in comments after the November 17 meeting.

For the record, even though all Frontenac County ratepayers pay the same rate for county taxes, the percentage paid by each township is adjusted each year when the total of all property values in each township is taken into account.

In 2022. Frontenac Islands residents will pay 9.28%, North Frontenac residents 15.85%, Central Frontenac residents will pay 16.41%, and South Frontenac residents will pay 56.58%. The amount for the three smaller townships is up marginally from 2021 and the amount for South Frontenac is down slightly.