South Frontenac Helps Fund Kingston Rural Economic Development Officer

Jeff Green | Feb 02, 2022

The borderline between the part of Kingston north of the 401 between Road 38 and Battersea Road and the township of South Frontenac has always been invisible for local residents.

Now, the line may be further blurred thanks to the hiring of a dedicated Rural Economic Development officer to focus on that fast growing region.

A few weeks ago, the City of Kingston created the new position.

As part of their 2022 budget discussion in Sydenham last week (January 27) outgoing Chief Administrative Officer Neil Carbone informed Council that the budget includes a proposal for the township to pay $20,000 a year towards the position for two years.

“The position was created specifically by the City to enable a rural economic development plan,” said Carbone. “South Frontenac has an opportunity to contribute to that position. The commonalities with South Frontenac and that part of Kingston are well understood and there are very similar demands for services in rural Kingston and the heavily populated southern portion of South Frontenac. In many ways residents feel like they are in the same community.”

The proposed that will be part of the budget when it comes up for approval, likely on February 8th, and the money is slated to come from reserve funds so it will not have an impact on 2022 or 2023 taxation.

If the position is extended beyond two years, a long term arrangement between the City and the Township will need to be worked out and the amount paid by South Frontenac would have to be included in the annual operating budget that is mainly supported directly by taxation.

One of the potential advantages of working directly with Kingston, according to Carbone, would be the possibility of setting up Community Improvement Plans (CIP) for the North Kingston/South Frontenac region.

Councillor Doug Morey asked Carbone to “explain the opportunity for CIP's with this new possible partnering with the City of Kingston.”

“CIP's re one way to address Economic Development and beautification in the hamlets” said Carbone. “There a couple of them in place, funded by Frontenac County, in Harrowsmith and Verona, but the township has never become directly involved in one.”

The CIP's in Harrowmsmith and Verona make use of a pool of money to provide matching grants for businesses and residents for facade improvements and other projects.

“Would we have some some specific deliverables established for this position, wold we have a role to play” asked Councillor Randy Ruttan.

Some of the detail will come when the position comes to council for formal approval, Carbone said.

Councillor John McDougall asked how the new position relates to both KEDCO (the Kingston Economic Development Corporation) and the Frontenac County Economic Development department, the two existing entities that are have behind most economic development activity in the region in the past.

Carbone said “that's a good question,” and explained that the position had no connection to either of them.

“There isn’t a direct relationship with Frontenac County Economic Development. While this effort is aligned with Frontenac County, it could be be separated from a lot of the priorities of Frontenac County, which are more regional in nature. The position reports to the Director of Strategy, Innovation and Partnerships, Craig Desjardin, with the City of Kingston. It is not tied to KEDCO in any way. KEDCO is a an arms length organisation that is funded by the City but is an independent not for profit. The City wanted to see more initiative in the rural area when they set this up.”

Mayor Ron Vandewal said that “with no blame to either council [South Frontenac or Frontenac County] I don't think we have used the county as much as we should. The county focusses a lot more to the north than to us. I support this initiative. We were looking at some initiative with the City regarding transportation, and this is consistent with that. I don't think it is a lot of money and I think we are more aligned with north Kingston than we are with North Frontenac, for example.

Neil Carbone said the “County Economic Development department has their own charter, they are going through a destination development plan at the moment, and, the county has to look at initiatives that have a regional impact. It would difficult for us to go to the county and talk about specific initiatives like this. We are not attempting to overlap or have the City look to take over anything.”

If the economic development opportunity funding remains in the budget when it is formally approved next week, it will then back to council, likely later in February, for formal adoption.

Although CAO Carbone did not mention it directly, the positon of Rural Economic Development Officer for the City of Kingston has already been filled.

Tracey Snow has come over from the County of Lennox and Addington to take on the role. She worked in economic development for L&A County for 11 years, the last three as a Senior Economic Development Officer.

Her name may be familiar to members of the Frontenac County agricultural community, as she was the point person from L&A who has been working with Thorpe Farms of Odessa to develop a new abattoir to serve farmers in Frontenac and L&A Counties.