Councillors hear municipality has $3.69-million annual infrastructure funding gap
Adam Bramburger
Beaver Staff
Lennox and Addington County council received $50,000 from the Federation of Canadian Municipalities toward an enhanced asset management plan and directed staff to develop a request for proposals for a consultant to help with the development of that plan.
The decision comes as a response to a 2017 provincial regulation, which requires municipalities to consider asset management in budgeting and strategic planning. By this July 1, municipalities must have a published strategic asset management policy. By July 1, 2021 they must have an enhanced plan covering core infrastructure assets like water, wastewater, stormwater and roads and bridges.
Director of physical and financial services Stephen Fox said Lennox and Addington has had a formal asset management plan since 2013 and an even longer history of council being proactive to keep up with its capital assets. For close to 20 years, he noted, council has had a direct two-per-cent tax levy for roads and bridges, for example. It’s also made it a priority to seek sustainable revenue from upper levels of government.
Stone Mills councillor John Wise wondered why the County would need a consultant to update a plan that has been in place since 2013. Fox replied the initial plan was done entirely in house but the update is going to need some detailed engineering assessment on roads and bridges.
“That’s very specialized work and time consuming, representing probably half the cost,” he said. “With all the new regulations and there’s a component dealing with risk assessment and service delivery standards, we felt at this point in time to would probably make sense to have a consultant do that.”
Otherwise, Fox said he agreed it’s probably a better process to do more internally because you can have a better idea of the asset situations, which can lead to better management.
“So this is not simply for the province, there’s a knowledge gained for staff and for council,” agreed Wise.
Fox reported that currently, the County has a replacement value of $739,600,000 for all its capital assets, including roads, bridges, social housing and buildings like the John M. Parrott Centre, County Court House, museum, social services buildings and ambulance bases. The number also includes furnishings and equipment.
The County estimates an $18,460,000 investment annually is required to maintain the assets. Through reserves, grants, and transfers from Prince Edward County for social services, Fox said most of that money is in place. He estimates council has to bridge an annual funding gap of about $3.69 million.
“Council has done quite a good job of managing its infrastructure needs,” Fox said.
Loyalist councillor Ric Bresee asked Fox if he could offer a timeline, in a dream world, of when it may reach zero.
“We’ve done a good job with our assets and they’re in relatively good shape. I don’t know if we’ll get to zero, but this is a perfect world scenario,” Fox said. “We can always defer, we can always live with a few deficiencies. The County is making strides to reduce that gap.”
He cautioned those figures were based on maintaining existing assets. Should the County wish to increase its social housing stock or build another long-term care home, for example, the costs would be greater.
In other new from County council…
– Councillors are set to vote on increasing their remuneration Wednesday.
Last week, councillors were presented updated numbers that factor in a decision by the previous council to provide a one-time increase, plus the regular Consumer Price Index (CPI) adjustment.
In July, the previous council decided to increase the warden’s salary by $3,300 this year and each councillor’s salary by $1,900. The decision was taken to replace changes in the 2017 federal budget that eliminated a one-third tax exemption on councillors’ remuneration as an allowance for expenses. The CPI increase, based on November 2018 was for 1.7 per cent.
If approved, Warden Eric Smith would make $32,959, compared to the $29,108 Bill Lowry made last year. Councillors would receive $18,614 instead of $16,403. The full-day per diem of $213.12 and half-day per diem of $106.56 were increased 1.7 per cent from 2018 amounts. Fox also noted mileage rates would increase three cents per kilometre based on Canada Revenue Agency allowances to 58 cents for the first 5,000 km and 52 cents per travel in excess of that amount.
The overall impact of the increase would be about $20,000.
During the discussion, Greater Napanee councillor Max Kaiser asked Fox if he would bring forward remuneration figures from similar sized municipalities for comparison.
Councillors also accepted a staff recommendation to include increased non-union staff compensation by 1.75 per cent effective April 1 in the 2019 budget. The percentage is consistent with grid adjustments approved in the past three years. If approved at budget time, the increase would have a financial impact of $150,000.
– The County received new information from the Municipal Property Assessment Corporation about assessment for 2019 taxation. New properties and improvements have led to a 1.71-per-cent increase in assessment, which Fox said amounts to an additional $453,00 of property tax revenue. The third year of a four-year phase in of market value assessment offered a 2.38 per cent increase in the overall value of assessment. Fox cautioned increased valuation does not necessarily mean property taxes will rise as that will depend on levy requirements established in budget proceedings.
Kaiser noted that while that 2.38 per cent valuation increase accounts for all tax classes, farm taxes will be up another 15 per cent this year and next.
“There’s a big hit to farmland values,” he said.
– Council awarded its portion of the third phase of the Dundas Street reconstruction project to Len Corcoran Excavation LTd. for just over $2.3 million excluding HST, selecting the same contractor as Greater Napanee. Five companies bid for the job and Corcoran’s bid was the lowest, coming in $300,000 below an engineer’s estimate.
The scope of the work includes storm sewer and drainage upgrades, sidewalks, curbs, gutters and asphalt surface between Hessford Street and Robinson Street.
Greater Napanee will fund upgraded sewer and water mains. The work is expected to begin in April.
– Emergency services chief Mark Schjerning was authorized to order three Crestline FleetMax ambulances for June delivery at a cost of $417,000 before taxes.
Schjerning said the purchases are usually authorized in the fall to take advantage of better pricing, but due to the election Crestline agreed to honour its October pricing, resulting in about a three-per-cent savings from current value. The County will also incur an additional cost to remove PowerLoad systems from existing vehicles and install them in the replacement ambulances.