South Frontenac Council - Nov07/23

Wilma Kenny | Nov 15, 2023

SF Council Rejects Climate Change Action Plan

CAO Louise Fragnito recommended hiring a consultant to develop a formal Climate Change Action Plan (CCAP) for South Frontenac. Her proposal noted that the Township has undertaken various projects over the years to invest in climate change strategies such as the conversion of street lights to LED, lighting retrofits and the solar panel installation at the newest firehall. The purpose of creating a formal plan would be to develop a consistent plan and direction for future climate change initiatives. It is supported by priority 2 of the 2019-22 Strategic Plan: “Promote and support growth than meets the community's needs while maintaining the integrity of our natural environment.”

Staff recommendation was to hire Strategy Corp, a consultant group the Township has worked with in the past, for $97,394. They would be collaborating with Clean Air Partnership on this project to further expand the expertise in the Climate Change sector. The 2023 budget includes $25,000 for this project; Fragnito proposed funding the additional amount of $72,394.50 from the Climate Change Reserve.

Change Reserve

Mayor Vandewal repeated his frustration that Council has not been credited with the fact that they are already addressing climate change; “The problem is that we don’t show the public that we have been looking at Township projects through a climate lens for years; we just haven’t publicized it.”

Fragnito responded that a formal plan would provide an inventory and actual measurements of the returns of the Township’s climate-related actions. Sleeth asked how the returns would be measured, suggesting that perhaps this formal CCAP could be delayed, in the face of the many increased costs that will have to be addressed in this coming budget. Pregrum asked what, specifically, would the plan accomplish: “Does it create something the staff can’t do right now?” Fragnito said staff did not have the resources to dedicate to developing a formal climate action plan, and warned that lack of one could slow down tendering processes. She added that with full public and staff consultation, the consultants would have a plan in place by late May. “In 2022, Council dedicated $100,000 for climate action initiatives to be placed in reserves, so this proposal would not impact the 2024 budget deliberations.”

“This (proposal) would pretty well empty the reserve,” said Vandewal; “so we’d have to add more in this budget: what would (a CCAP) show us that we’re not doing now?”

“It would provide a clear plan with goals for the staff and public, not a piecemeal approach to individual projects, and will be built on feedback from Council, staff and our public.” replied Fragnito.

The motion was defeated by Council in an unrecorded vote.

(Note: disadvantages of following a meeting on Facebook: we have no information on individual Councillors’ votes, nor could we identify a non-recognized speaker after the vote who asked for a further report.)

2024 Long Range Financial Plan

Treasurer Shelley Stedall presented a 24-page long range financial plan: “As municipalities continue to face mounting financial challenges such as infrastructure costs, impacts from economic uncertainty, climate change, legislative changes, capacity pressures and increased expectations from residents related to the delivery of service, there is a need for long-term financial planning that goes beyond the annual budget process.” She emphasized that this is strictly a forecast, anticipating future needs.

Currently, South Frontenac’s taxes and debts are low, and reserves are high, but as Councillor Pegrum pointed out, Stedall’s forecast indicates that the next ten years will probably require South Frontenac to draw heavily on these reserves; “What’s needed to ensure our reserves are sustainable?” Stedall replied: “They will need to be beefed up.” She noted that the current vehicle reserves are barely covering the rapidly rising costs of replacements. (The remainder of her reply was inaudible.)

In response to Mayor Vandewal’s suggestion that the addition of two new firehalls should lower the pressure on assets, Stedall reminded Council that population growth will increase the demand for new facilities in the coming years. As well, global impacts which will put pressure on the 2024 budget include: Ongoing impact of COVID-19 including supply chain shortages and increased costs for fuel and food resulting in cost of living increases in 2023 of 6% over 2022; Housing shortage crisis; Increased interest rates affecting debt as well as increasing revenues on investments; Labour Supply and wage pressures; Changes in technology; Continued increased demands for recreation programming and events; Need for transit services; Continued high level of Building and Planning Development applications; Natural environment changes due to Climate Change and increased population.

Staff is again recommending that during the budget process, Council focus on its priorities and staff will highlight any departures from the historical tax rate target, so Council can make fully informed decisions.

Council accepted the report.

CAO Performance Appraisal

Jan Minaker, Manager of Human Resources, outlined the procedure for completing the annual performance appraisal of the CAO: a three person committee consisting of the Mayor and two Councillors will be selected to oversee the process: Council chose Norm Roberts and Steve Pegrum. Details of the competencies to be assessed are daunting: they can be viewed on the Township’s website under the notes for this meeting.

Trousdales’ Inverary Building Supply Expansion

As a next step in this project, Council approved a zone change on property on the west side of Perth Road, within the Inverary settlement area, just north of Latimer Road. When Mayor Vandewal asked whether the property would be shovel-ready by spring, the answer was “It is within the realm of possibility.”

New Chief Building Official Appointed

Rebecca Roy was appointed as the new CBO, and Tom Berriault, who will retire in mid-December, stepped down into the position of Deputy Building Officer, to cover that position while the hiring of a new Deputy is in progress.

Delegation of Authority to Staff

Council passed a by-law to delegate authority to staff to approve zoning by-law amendments for the removal of holding symbols and the removal of lots from holding overlays. In response to Councillor Trueman’s query of what will happen if Council is unhappy with something, CAO Fragnito replied that this is a technicality that should speed up development but if there is feedback that the process isn’t useful, it can be changed back to its original format.

Council resolved into a Committee of the Whole for a closed meeting.