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This is a brief report to HIRA members and others on the Township of Frontenac Islands Council Meeting held on February 11, 2019 at the Township offices on Howe Island.

Two of the HIRA directors attended the meeting. Only matters of particular reference to Howe Island or of general interest are highlighted here.

• Severance Application Part Of lot 12 North Shore Road (Goodfriend) Approved this was a reconfirmation of an application that was considered and approved by Council a year Due to some external administration matters the application lapsed so the matter was re-­‐tabled and approved. The application allows for the severance of an existing dwelling unit on a 3, 6 acre lot.
• Minor Variance 312 baseline Rd (MacDonald) ApprovedThe applicant has applied for a minor variance to permit an expansion to an existing cottage. Council approved the application subject to a number of conditions centering on mitigation of any environmental impact and to ensure construction of all living space was above the high watermark.
• Tree Canopy By-­‐law
  The previous provincial government had amended the Municipal Act requiring all municipalities to adopt a “Tree Canopy By-­‐law” by March 2019. The present Provincial Government has now indicated that it intends to rescind this requirement and as a result Council chose to take no action at this time and will simply rely on the existing policies contained with our Official Plan.
• County Ferry ConcernsDeputy Mayor Higgs tabled the following action item respecting a number of issues respecting the County Ferry operations:The number one concern for Howe islanders is to have a timely and reliable ferry service, especially in the mornings going to work or appointments and getting home in the afternoons. The number of cars and trucks using the ferry is increasing every year to a point where vehicles are waiting for two or three ferry loads to get off and back on in the evening.
• Howe Islanders believe that the ferry is being operated at a slower speed than it is capable We believe that the ferry should be able to make four trips per hour, thus moving sixty cars in each direction per hour during the 6:00 am. To 9:00 am. Rush hours in the morning and again from 4:00 pm. to 6:30 pm. in the evenings. When the ferry is operated slowly, it makes only three trips per hour, thus moving forty-five cars in each direction. We are asking the Frontenac County Ferry Management to monitor and record the number of trips and vehicles that cross the ferry on an hourly basis, with the objective of four trips per hour especially during the busy times. The ferry currently takes approximately six minutes to cross.  If this requested rate of four round trips per hour is not possible with the current drive system, we would further ask that MTO be approached for their suggestions to increase the speed which may necessitate a new faster Drive System.
• We would then request a meeting with MTO, Frontenac County Ferry Management team and Frontenac Township representatives to discuss solutions to thisFor your information, the Howe Township Ferry at the Foot of our Island makes six to eight trips per hour. Secondly, on a number of occasions (three or four times) the ferry could not be operated due to lack of an operator. Howe Islanders, in this situation, had to travel to the Howe Island three car ferry and were up to two hours late for work or appointments. This is an issue that needs to be addressed with procedures and protocols to insure this essential Service. Howe Island residents would like to know the Frontenac County Ferry Management’s plan to resolve the ferry speed problem and the problem of the occasional operator’s failure to come to workFollowing Bruce Higgs’ tabling his suggested action item, Mayor Doyle said that he had discussed the action item with Campbell Daley (the onsite ferry supervisor) and that Daley had told Mayor Doyle that he thinks he can make the 4 trips per hour target.
• Councilor Zborovsky requested that Council take a pro-­‐active position in trying to improve transparency and communication with MTO regarding various ferry issues and while his focus was with Wolfe Island he also noted that Howe Island issues and concerns could also be advanced, Council agreed to initiate a monthly letter to MTO in this
• Other Business-Eric Wainwright, in response to Mayor Doyle’s invitation for comments at the end of the meeting, said he thought Council should have video conferencing between the two Islands for Council meetings. Council said they would look into that.

This is a brief report to HIRA members and others on the Township of Frontenac Islands Budget and Priority Setting Council Meeting held on January 30, 2019 at the Township offices on Wolfe Island. The first of such budget setting meetings was held on January 9, 2109 and a HIRA Briefing Note on that meeting is on the HIRA web site at howeisland.org.

Two of the HIRA directors attended the January 30 meeting. Only matters of particular reference to Howe Island or of general interest are highlighted here.

1. Most of the discussion at the meeting between the Councilors related to road and infrastructure on both Howe and Wolfe Islands. No specific decisions were taken except to instruct the Public Works Manager to reopen discussions with the Spithead Association on a turnaround road.
2. Projects mentioned on which no decisions were taken included guardrails on North Shore Road from the entry to Byrne Point to the Johnson Bay Road, weed spraying, ditching on North Shore Road, Township ferry dock work, a new backhoe, new furnace for the maintenance shop and access to an asphalt hot mix trailer for Howe to assist with road repairs.
3. The next Budget setting Meeting of Council has been set for Tuesday February 19, 2019 at the Howe Island Township Office.
4. The next regularly scheduled meeting of the Council is set for Monday February 11, 2019 at the Howe Island Township Office at 6:30 pm.

This is a brief report to HIRA members and others on the Township of Frontenac Islands Council Meeting held Monday, January 14, 2019 at the Township offices on Wolfe Island. One of our directors attended the meeting. Only matters of particular reference to Howe Island or of general interest are highlighted here.

1. A report on severances in the Township was tabled by the Township Planner. With respect to severance applications, it is generally the case that the Township will require the applicant to dedicate a certain portion of the land to parkland or require cash-in- lieu. The cash-in-lieu is generally 5% of the land value for residential land and 2% for other land. For Frontenac Islands, the levy is 5% of two thirds the land value for residential water-front and $1000 for residential non-waterfront. For details on severances, the Township Planning Department should be contacted.
2. Public Works Manager Rob Dillabough tabled a report on actions pending on both Wolfe and Howe Islands. For Howe, under Marine Services Division, the pending work to be on-going in 2019 is foot ferry dock rehabilitation and ferry operator training courses on marine VHF radio and marine emergency duties. Under the Roads Division, Rob is preparing budgets (a) for Spithead Road re-construction,(b) for the North Shore Road maintenance ditching program (understood to be only for the portion of the Road from Howe Island Drive to the Lower Side Road), (c) for Howe Island Drive south of Baseline Road, and (d) for Baseline Road south side.
3. Darlene Plumley, Chief Administrative Officer and Clerk table a report of actions pending on both Wolfe and Howe. For Howe, the only action pending is research into cameras for the ferry docks with the status being described as ‘research into the costs and connectivity ongoing’. Deputy Mayor Higgs suggested to Council that the MTO be approached to determine if they will fund the cameras and associated costs for cameras at the four ferry terminals. (Cameras would be internet connected to give ferry users a remote real-time view of both ferries and line-ups). Council agreed that the MTO will be approached by or on behalf of Council but that staff will continue with its own research on costs.  With further budget meetings scheduled, a question was raised from the floor whether the Council’s research on costs will be available to Council at its next budget meeting on January 30, 2019 so that it can include cameras in the budget this year. The CAO said that she hoped it would be completed. Councilor Zborovsky from Wolfe Island indicated his support for cameras.
4. Council indicated that there will be four Council appointed Committees for Howe Island each with at least one Councilor on each Committee: a) Fire Services and b) Parks and Recreation supported by Councilor MacDougall; and c) Ferry Transportation Services and d) Waste Management supported by Deputy Higgs. It was mentioned at the meeting that the make-up of each Committee should be limited to between 5 and 7 members. The Council will be seeking volunteers to serve on the Committees by a public notice in early February. Terms of reference for each Committee will be set by Council. It was made clear that the terms of reference for the Ferry Committee are to include both ferries. Each Committee’s role will be to advise and make recommendations to Council.
5. The next Council Priority and Budget Setting Meeting will be held on Wolfe Island on Wednesday, January 30, 2019 at 2:30 pm at the Township Offices. The next regular meeting of Council is scheduled for Monday, February 11, 2019 at 6:30 pm at the Howe Island Township offices.

This is a brief report to HIRA members and others on the Budget and Priority Setting Meeting of the Township of Frontenac Islands held at the Municipal offices on Wednesday, January 9, 2019. Three of our directors attended the meeting. Only matters of particular reference to Howe Island or of general interest are highlighted here.

1. Each Councilor gave a summary of why they had run for public office and what they saw as priority items. In their summaries, the Councilors from Wolfe Island emphasized matters relating principally to Wolfe Island.
2. Noreen Macdougall, Councilor from Howe Island, said her priorities were establishing an off-leash dog park, getting a recreation hall for Howe Island (by possibly purchasing the St Philomena Church Hall), looking into the alarming costs of the OPP service to Howe Island and improving the service of the small ferry. She said she was very interested in occupational health and safety and therefore the fire hall and fire service was an interest of hers.
3. Deputy Mayor Higgs listed his priorities as (a) improving the drive systems on the big ferry; (b) finishing the ditching on the North Shore Road; (c) completing the hard surfacing on Spithead Road; (d) installing a bubble system at the foot ferry;(e) reducing the number of buses using the ferry;(f) on a monthly basis posting tonnage of waste removed from Howe Island; (g) identifying the two Howe Island Ferry Road signs on highway 2 as Howe Island Ferry Road East and Howe Island Ferry Road West; (h) exploring ways to remove derelict buildings on Howe Island; (i) initiating a program for brush and large items pick-up once or twice per year at householder’s cost; (j) further investigating high-speed internet for the whole of Howe Island; (k) starting a recreation committee for Howe Island; (l) installing internet connected cameras at the Howe Island ferry terminals; and (m) having a Council appointed ferry committee to advise Council on operation improvements for both Howe Island ferries and on improving communications of issues to the County as well as Council.
4. Mayor Doyle summarized his priorities as (a) completing work in progress generally including reviewing the Spithead Road surface treating, replacing the Deputy Clerk Dwyre, (who is retiring in March), updating the Township procedural by-law, and improving by-law enforcement; (b) getting a service level agreement with the County to get the big ferry up to a minimum trips per hour to 4; (c) seeing if action can be taken to get the capacity of the foot ferry back to pre-refurbishment capacity; (d) considering solutions to improve the big ferry speed and service;(e) establishing plans to ensure roads are repaired as required rather than when complained about; (f) considering whether to invest in road repair equipment such as heater for paving material and a small roller; (g) being very aware of the possibility of provincial funding cutbacks (considering that the Province funds the big ferry to about 90% when taking into account MTO pays for 80% plus all maintenance) or the possibility of the Province further downloading costs to the townships such as they did with costs of the OPP; (h) dealing with and planning for the expected high rate of retirements and generally succession planning for our Township employees; (i) giving consideration to plans to protect the environments of both Howe and Wolfe Islands; and, (j) being concerned with increased development on Howe Island without a corresponding increase in ferry capacity.
5. Fire Chief Quinn spoke to Council and said 2019 would be a quiet year in terms of priority issues and that ongoing operations would be covered in the general budget.
6. The Roads Manager spoke to Council and said he would need direction from Council on which roads to deal with first in terms of needed repairs. He favored leasing versus buying when it comes to large equipment pieces as service is generally at the expense of the equipment leasor.
7. The CAO spoke to Council and the need funds to upgrade the Township’s software.
8. Following the summaries by each Council member, Council then set down a list of priority items. By way of summary the items were: (a) Transportation to include a ferry committee with a clear mission statement, a service level agreement with the County, an improved drive system, improved communication with the County and the MTO, getting data on the ferry operations, installation of cameras, and a foot ferry bubbler system; (b) Roads to include consideration of purchasing road repair equipment, completing Spithead Road, ditching and repairing North Shore Road from Howe Island Drive to Lower Side Road, and updating the signage for Howe Island Ferry Roads on Highway 2; (c) Waste Management to include appointing a waste and recycling committee, posting tonnage removed on a monthly basis, consideration of user fees and annual brush and large item pickups;(d) Succession Planning to include consideration of a succession plan for clerks, council members, volunteers and fire service and other personal; and (e)Planning to include taking an inventory of Township owned land, Official Plan review, community sustainability, off lease dog park, and  fiber optics development for access to the internet.
9. Council set a date of January 30, 2019 for the next meeting on Budget Planning and Priority Setting.

This is a brief report to HIRA members and others on the Township of Frontenac Islands Council meeting which took place on Howe Island at the Municipal Offices on Monday December 10^th, 2018. Three of our directors attended the meeting. Only matters of particular reference to Howe Island or of general reference are highlighted here.

1- Inaugural Meeting-This meeting of the Council was the first meeting of the new Council. Each Councilor was sworen in and was then invited by Mayor Doyle to make some remarks. Newly elected Councilor Noreen MacDougall thanked the Howe Islanders who had voted for her and said she looked forward to learning on the job and serving her fellow Islanders and other members of the community. Bruce Higgs, a returning and elected Councilor, said his main priorities were to get the County ferry running properly with a new drive system and to ensure the bubbler system on the foot ferry is enhanced. Mayor Doyle’s full remarks are on the HIRA web site at howeisland.org.

2-New Deputy Mayor-Bruce Higgs was appointed as Deputy Mayor of Frontenac Islands. He replaces Natalie Nossal who did not stand for reelection in the recent election. Bruce will sit with Mayor Doyle on the Frontenac County Council as well as on the Frontenac Islands Council.

3-Public Works Manager’s Actions Pending Report-This report includes items dealing with repairs to the foot ferry dock, Spithead Road reconstruction, ditching on North Shore Road and work on Howe Island Drive and Baseline Road. The report says, with respect to these items that the Public Works Manager will prepare a budget for each of these items.  The Report says nothing about repairs to the surface of North Shore Road.

4-Chief Administrative Officer’s Actions Pending Report-The only item referred to regarding Howe Island is research into cameras for the ferry docks. The status is that research is being done into costs and connectivity and it is being deferred to budget time for 2019.

5-Budget and Priority Setting Meeting-Council will be meeting at the Municipal Offices on Friday December 21, 2019 at 9:30 am to set priorities and budgets for the coming year 2019. This meeting is open to the public.

6-Ferry Operations-At the end of the Council meeting members of the public were given an opportunity to speak. The main topic of discussion and criticism was around issues relating to the County ferry:

1. it’s recent slowdown in speed resulting in only three trips per hour (versus six per hour for the foot ferry);
2. the often slow and abrupt notifications from the County of when the ferry is down or back in service, and the lack of detail as to why it’s down;
3. the lack of a specific transportation committee for the County ferry; and
4. a reminder of what was recommended (i.e. two cables) when the County ferry was being planned back in 2003, and what was delivered (i.e. one cable) and a reminder of the respective obligations of the MTO, which owns the ferry, and the County in relation to the maintenance and operation of the ferry.

It was also suggested that if the County is either not interested in operating the ferry, or only operating it as if it is an ancillary service, the management of the ferry be transferred to the Township which already operates the foot ferry. Deputy Mayor Higgs mentioned his campaign promise to work at getting a better cable system. It appears Council’s response to these matters will be part of Council’s deliberations at the December 21Council meeting referred to in item 5 above.

Denis Doyle’s Remarks to Council December 10, 2018

Season’s greetings to everyone and thank you for coming out to this evening’s Inaugural meeting to witness the swearing in of our new Council. First of all I would like to thank the outgoing Council and their families for all that they have done over the past 4 years and wish the incoming Council all the best during the next four years.  With the ever changing rules and new policies introduced by the Province it is not easy to run a Township and I want to thank and acknowledge all the hard work that staff do day in and day out to keep the Township operating and to cope with changes pushed down to us by the Provincial and Federal Governments.

The Province, through the Minister of Municipal Affairs and Housing, our neighbour to the east Steve Clarke, announced that one of his top priorities is to reduce the 380,000 regulations that residents of Ontario have to deal with.  Steve’s suggestion is to reduce them by 25%, but even if that is accomplished there will still be 285,000 regulations.  While we do a good job of keeping on top of all the rules and bureaucracy, we often have to get expensive outside help by hiring consultants, or Lawyers to advise us.  Planning is very complicated these days and is the biggest ongoing area that we need help with. Since I have been on Council we have used two different outside consultant to assist us in Planning, but going back 6 or 7 years ago we contracted with our Frontenac County Planners to help us with this work.  This approach has worked much better as our County Planners know the area and give us much better service than previous Consultants who were located hundreds of Kilometers away in a different part of Ontario.   I want to acknowledge and thank them for all the hard work they do to support our residents.

Last but not least I want to thank the many Volunteers that allow us to run our Fire service and many of the programs delivered through committees that we enjoy in Frontenac Islands. If we had to pay full price for all the services that we have, taxes would be significantly higher!

We do not look after all municipal services locally in our Township, the County handles some, the City of Kingston others and other services are managed on a Regional bases.  This was a system set up as part of the major re-structuring done in the 1998 Amalgamation project where the then approximate 2,000 municipalities in Ontario were reduced to just over 400.  Frontenac County handles the Paramedic Service for Kingston and our County, while the City of Kingston handles things like Social Services and Housing for their area as well as for Frontenac County.  Other Municipal government service are handled on a Regional Bases, through Boards with representatives from the partnering Municipalities.  The two big ones are the Library Board and the K F L&A Public Health Board.  These boards have Council representatives from the City of Kingston, and one from each of the participating Counties.  The Public Health Board has 3 Kingston Councillors appointed and one each from Frontenac and Lennox & Addington Counties.  On the Public Health Board there are also 4 members of the public appointed, but since this is a Municipal function the majority of the board members are always from the municipal sector.  Funding is provided from the property tax base of the participating municipalities as well as through grants from the province. For the Public Health nearly a Million Dollars is collected from the 4 Frontenac Townships through the annual levy and forwarded to them.  Similarly significant money is collected through local property taxes and given to the Library Board to operate that organization.  Natalie was the County Representative on the Library Board while I am the representative on the Public Health Board.

One of the Islands Council’s top priorities has always been to keep local property taxes at a minimum while providing good municipal services.  Pat Norris who was on Council for over 30 years always ensured that Howe Island had the lowest property taxes in the region.  A recent comparison using Kingston as the baseline to measure against shows that equally evaluated houses in Frontenac Islands pay about 45% of the taxes as Kingston residents pay.  When you break this down to the two Wards, Howe actually is at 41% and Wolfe Ward at 47%.  Other townships tax payers pay significantly higher than we do, for example Central Frontenac pay 69%, while Loyalist Township which includes Amherst Island pay 79% of the Kingston property Tax rate.  Our low rate is partially because Frontenac levy amount is the lowest in the region, at $178 per $100K of assessment, while the County of Leeds and Grenville is $371 and Lennox and Addington is $504.  While we will attempt to keep this envious position there are often things outside our control that force us to raise taxes.  You may recall that 3 years ago we had to take major tax increases as a result of the Province increasing our OPP charges from under $100K to nearly $400K per year.  While we lobbied hard, in partnership with others, and did reduce the OPP fees due to questionable charges for structures like cell and wind towers, our township annual bill is still over $350K a year.  With the Province facing a major deficit with their budget we should expect more of this kind of downloading.  I will assure you however that your Council will always advocate for our residents and ensure that we speak up against unfair provincial downloading.  We will also do a detail analysis of any new programs and make decisions based on facts, considering best municipal practices and ensure that whatever we implement is affordable by the tax payers in our Township and at the County level.

We still have a fairly long agenda to go through this evening so I won’t go on to long but would like to say that we are in very good shape financially, with good reserves, great staff, and good programs to manage roads, ferries, waste management and various other Township functions.  While we all have our personal priorities for the next 4 years I will hold mine for a meeting at a date we will agree upon at the end of this meeting to discuss as a Council, and decide where we will spend our resources, and give Staff direction on areas that we need more information on for our budget meetings.  These typically take place during January and February.

In closing I want to wish everyone all the best during the up-coming Holiday season and thank each of the Councillors for putting their names forward to run for Public Office.  There is much to learn and many Provincial policy changes that take place for Councils during the next few months, thus I encourage all Councillors to attend the upcoming training put on by AMO in Kingston during the winter months.