October 1st and 15th Sessions

Newsletter Date:

October 20, 2008

Volume 6 Issue 8 Council News

SUBSIZISED CHILD CARE SPACES-WAITING LIST For the first time in its history, Northumberland County has had to create a waiting list for subsidized child care spaces. In a detailed report on the funding situation and actual demand, Children’s Services Manager Clare Briggs advised County Council on October 1st that any new requests that are received for subsidized child care spaces will be placed on a waiting list. County Councillors were dismayed with the news and directed staff to relay the information to the Association of Municipalities of Ontario and the Ontario Municipal Social Services Association, and detail the funding deficit and concerns. Councillors Peter Delanty (Mayor of Cobourg) and William Finley (Mayor of Alnwick-Haldimand) serve as the Commu-nity and Social Services coordinators. At the October 1st Council meeting, they put forward a motion re-questing that the Federal candidates in the upcoming election make child care funding a priority in their platforms. The motion directed that the four Federal candidates running in Northumberland Quinte West be asked two questions regarding child care funding, and that their responses be printed in an advertise-ment that ran in local daily newspapers prior to the October 14th Federal Elections. “The current eco-nomic crises that we hear about daily are only exacerbated if parents cannot access affordable child care while they go out to work, or further their education,” stated William Finley.

“It’s a tragedy that the County now has a waiting list and parents who require child care spaces will be turned away,” said Peter Delanty, adding that “the Federal government must step up to the plate on this critical issue.” Any Northumberland resident seeking subsidized child care is encouraged to contact the County and ensure that they are put on the waiting list.

LAND AMBULANCE—CROSS BORDER BILLING SETTLEMENT As part of the 1998 Provincial Downloading exercise, municipalities in Ontario became responsible for the delivery and funding (subject to grants) of land ambulance services as stated in section 6 of the Land Am-bulance Act, RSO 1190 Chapter A.19 (the Act). Each municipal service must cooperate fully with the sur-rounding municipalities so that the service delivery is seamless. It would be prohibitively expensive for a municipality to have the ambulance resources and the hospital services such that it never had to look be-yond its municipal boundaries for mutual aid. On a regular basis ambulances from one municipality will be deployed by the Province to another municipality or will have to travel to another jurisdiction, for an inter-hospital transfer or to transport a patient to a critical care hospital. When this happens it is neces-sary for one municipality to compensate another for their costs. This is called cross border billing. Be-cause of the lack of a Provincial policy for calculating cross border costs, Ontario municipalities have been in a holding pattern in resolving cross border claims. By 2007 it became evident that the Province was not going to be successful in developing a cross border policy and therefore municipalities started to develop their grounds for settlement. The County has a large outstanding claim against the County of Peterborough for cross border calls. Negotiations have taken place with Peterborough and County staff and Peterborough County Council has approved the proposed settlement for 2001-2005 and the go for-ward agreement from 2006 into the future. At the October 15th County Council Session, approved the proposed settlement with Peterborough County in the amount of $850,000 for 2001-2005 and the “go forward Agreement” from 2006, which will be based on $170 per call plus CPI for subsequent years, which is 2.5% for 2007.

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COUNTY COUNCIL APPROVES 2008-2011 STRATEGIC PLAN

Strategic Focus Areas – Priorities & Goals

Responsibility Area

Date

Enhancing Service Delivery & Performance

1. Create CAO’s Working Group as primary focal point for collaboration. - To facilitate coordination and cooperation among the member municipalities and the County.

C.A.O. 2008

2. Examine the staffing structure of the Finance Department, vis a vis the department’s Organizational Review, and en-sure that the appropriate business case development is car-ried out for new initiatives. - To ensure that staff are adequately prepared for the implemen-tation of PSAB requirements which come into effective in 2009, and determine the appropriate organizational and staffing re-quirements to meet existing and new financial management needs in both the short and long terms.

C.A.O. & Fi-nance

2008

3. All reports to Council must include Financial Implications and a Best Practices scan as part of the content, and a Best Practices search component must be carried out for all County studies and projects. - To ensure that a consistent approach is taken regarding all Council decisions, with the focus being on financial accountability and quality of services.

all ongoing

4. Explore cost savings opportunities through shared pro-curement. - To save money, the County and the seven member municipali-ties will coordinate purchases whenever possible.

Finance ongoing

5. Improve overall management skills and enhance succes-sion planning through corporate-wide rollout of the Loyalist College Management Development Program. - To ensure that managers are given all of the necessary tools to carry out their responsibilities to the best of their ability.

Human Re-sources

ongoing, 2009-2010

6. Optimize management/staff/union relations through the implementation of the cooperative action model. - To ensure that County Council and staff foster a positive and productive work environment, that allows for retention of talent and employees to feel motivated and valued.

Human Re-sources

ongoing, 2009-2010

7. Organizational Review

- To ensure that the County remains competitive with other com-C.A.O. 2008

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Strategic Focus Areas – Priorities & Goals

Responsibility Area

Date

Community Development

1. Establish a Poverty Reduction Advisory Committee and pro-vide the necessary resources to support its activities. - To ensure that the County has input from residents and busi-nesses regarding its priorities and delivery of social services.

Community Services

2008 / complete

2. Broaden communications and increase understanding with key partners, including the seven member municipal Councils, business groups, the agricultural community, not-for-profit or-ganizations, etc. - To ensure that residents and businesses fully understand the valu-able services provided by the County and its member municipali-ties, recognizing their unique roles and responsibilities while work-ing as cooperative partners.

all ongoing

3. Establish a task force to approach the appropriate Provincial officials regarding the establishment of a significantly en-hanced post-secondary presence within the County. - To ensure that Northumberland County is competitive in terms of post-secondary education opportunities.

Economic De-velopment

2008-2009

Economic Development

1. Continued involvement with the Eastern Ontario Wardens Caucus (EOWC) to ensure adequate Federal and Provincial funding. - To ensure the continued success of the “strength in numbers” ap-proach this has been successful in securing funding. Advocacy role will continue. Strategic alliance with Queen’s University to supple-ment rural research activities to substantiate intuitive data with vali-dated research. Begins in earnest with discovery Workshop to be scheduled in November, 2008.

C.A.O. ongoing

2. Increase the mandate and the membership of the Economic Development Advisory Committee. - To ensure broader representation and include members of the manufacturing sectors and the Chambers of Commerce. To be completed by end of 2008 with revised terms of reference, review of mandate and enhanced relationship with strategic partners.

Economic De-velopment

Decem-ber2008

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Strategic Focus Areas – Priorities & Goals

Responsibility Area

Date

Economic Development (cont’d.)

4. Set goals for a more balanced and improved assessment base and develop initiatives to increase the industrial and commercial assessment ratios. - To ensure that Eastern Ontario does not carry an undue burden with such things as the Business Tax, and strives to increase its commercial and industrial assessment base, so as to build the economy and ease the financial burden of residents. Collective work accomplished through EOWC and potential funding through EODF.

Economic De-velopment, Fi-

nance and CAO (through

EOWC)

ongoing

5. Develop a joint task force to acquire Federal and Provin-cial funding to extend high speed internet services throughout the County. - To ensure that we remain a competitive and attractive place to live and do business, and not fall behind compared to better served areas. Through the establishment of the Broadband Working Group (BWG) continuing efforts to determine the poten-tial use of federal funds to support the provincial application and resultant connectivity initiative. RFP and Provincial application decision due December 2008.

Economic De-velopment

2008 – 2010

6. Develop opportunities that will enable our agricultural sec-tors and rural communities to prosper. - To ensure that our key farming and industrial sectors are ac-tively supported and that their livelihoods remains viable. Re-lease of Agricultural action Plan October 2008 supported by in-vestment in industrial hemp opportunities with the agricultural /manufacturing/construction industries.

Economic De-velopment

January – June, 2009

3. Increase the profile and awareness of Northumberland County as a tourist and business destination, by means of regional branding. - To ensure that our area is front and centre in the minds of the millions of people who live in the Greater Toronto Horseshoe. To be accomplished with Premier Rank activity which begins No-vember 2008.

Economic De-velopment -

Tourism

Novem-ber2008 – Novem-ber 2009

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Representatives from the recently formed Ministry of Energy and Infrastructure made a presentation to County Council providing the background to the Growth Plan for the Greater Golden Horseshoe and its implementation.

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MRF EQUIPMENT UPGRADES Councillors were invited to take a tour of the recently installed major upgrades at the County’ Material Re-covery Facility. In January 2008 Council authorized a $2.4 million retrofit of equipment at the Grafton fa-cility. The equipment installation required the complete closure of the plant and the diversion of all the recyclables to facilities in Pembroke and Guelph. A four week plant closure was planned for, however, the installation as completed in two weeks and the plant commissioning started the following work day. The plant has been processing all County recyclables over the past two weeks. As of October 10th, the plant was running at a capacity of 5 tonnes per hour and through the continued commissioning process the target is 11 tonnes per hour. The costing breakdown is as follows:-

The annual projected savings as a result of the retrofit is $1,000,000. In addition, the changes will im-prove the capture rate of recyclables and reduce the amounts of good recyclables going to landfill and will extend the life of our landfills.

CONSTRUCTION COSTS $2,136,109

ONE-TIME LABOUR COSTS $212,293

ALTERNATIVE PROCESSING $80,000

STEWARDSHIP ONTARIO GRANT -$400,000

TOTAL COST $2,027,402

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Broadband Expansion and Procurement in Northumberland County Northumberland County is a significant step closer to expanding high-speed internet service to its rural areas having made a concerted effort to acquire provincial funding through the “Rural Connec-tions“program. As part of the program application process the County coordinated the efforts of the Broadband Work-ing Group which included representation from all seven municipalities as well as the Alderville First Na-tion to work with a third party consultant to complete the application process. In doing so public consul-tations were held throughout the county, service area maps were validated and constituent surveys were issued to determine demand and extent of coverage.

Furthermore a RFI (Request for Information) was issued to 20 potential service providers with the intent of obtaining information to support the development of a business model which would be representa-tive of the existing business environment in Northumberland and in turn provide a validation of pro-posed project costs. Six submissions were received. These submissions were reviewed by the Broad-band Working Group.

Each submission was assessed on the merits of the respondents ability to contribute to the overall cost of the project, the technology to be provided, the amount of provincial and county contribution, as well as infrastructure requirements i.e. towers, licensing, customer support, public access, dissemination of coverage and time frame for the provision of service. Respondent qualifiers also included their ability to insure provision for a surety deposit – 50% of the provincial request to a maximum of $500,000 – and the internal capacity of the organization to provide consumer confidence in the service being provided, as well as serve as a sound attractor for potential business investment and economic growth, access to education and training opportunities.

To this end the Broadband Working Group recommended that in review of the respondent submissions only two of the respondents were the most likely to fulfill the assessment criteria to successfully support connectivity in Northumberland.

Of the remaining four respondents their submissions reflected particular strengths in certain areas, however their ability to fulfill the requirements in all areas that would result in a fully operational initia-tive was found to be lacking.

Practical and prudent requirements for this expansion project favour large internet service providers (ISPs), however local providers will continue to serve their customers and compete for new business. That is the nature of the market. The expansion of service cost is estimated to be $3 million with the provincial request being approximately $1 million. The financial impact for the county is $200,000, which is included in the 2008 budget.

It is in everyone’s interest to provide high speed service to those who want and need it in this day and age. At the same time we want to protect the charm of our rural areas and as such have selected two respondents that can provide dependable service on a mass scale with the least impact on our land-scape.

The County and the Broadband Working Group supports using local suppliers whenever possible. How-ever the decision to direct an RFP (Request for Proposal) to only two of the respondents was based on the respondents capacity to handle consumer demand, now and in the future, a proven ability to man-age large scale expansions and the ability to build the network at low cost to the tax-payers.

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The Northumberland Forest Ad-visory Committee met on Satur-day, October 18th, 2008, at the County Headquarters in Cobourg for their Workshop in which the Facilitators Atlas for the North-umberland County Forest was presented.

Make sure someone knows when you are leaving for a hike or outing and when you should be expected to return. Black bears are just as scared of us as we are of them but you should take precau-tions around your home and on your outdoor ex-cursions.

On September 17, 2008 the Warkworth Institution Task Force met and welcomed its full complement of members, including Northumberland Quinte West MP Rick Norlock and representatives from the Brighton and Trent Hills Chambers of Commerce.

The task force was created in July in response to a Correction Services Canada report that recommends possible closure of the Warkworth Penitentiary.

Northumberland County Warden Christine Herrington chairs the task force, and notes that a great deal of work is under-way. “We will undertake a socio-economic impact study that will highlight the many issues that must be looked at when considering the future of Warkworth Penitentiary. We expect that the Federal government will assist with the funding of this study.”

Task force members, including Trent Hills Mayor Hector Mac-millan, fully understand the vital role that the institution plays in the community, which employs over three hundred and fifty people.

MP Rick Norlock stated, “I am very happy to be able to sup-port the efforts of local elected officials and business repre-sentatives to preserve Warkworth Institution.”

Within the next month the task force will put out a Request for Proposals for consultant services to get the impact study underway.

WARKWORTH TASK FORCE TAKES ACTION

In February of 2008 County Council passed a By-law to regu-late the placement of election signs on County road allow-ances and any other County owned property. During the re-cent Federal election, County staff circulated copies of the Bylaw to all headquarters of the election candidates and con-tacted the offices directly to make them aware of the new Election Sign Bylaw. Many member municipalities passed similar bylaws for their municipally owned properties. County Council remarked that the County looked much better with the enforcement of the new election sign bylaws in comparison to other municipalities.

ELECTION SIGNS UPDATE