Adam Prudhomme
Editor
Greater Napanee council held one of its shortest meetings of the term on Oct. 11, gathering at town hall for the final time before the municipal election.
Though the meeting lasted less than an hour due to the fact the term is quickly winding down, there were still some motions that were successfully passed.
Noting there were candidates for the upcoming election gathered in the audience, deputy mayor Max Kaiser drew attention to the Algonquin and Lakeshore District Catholic School Board’s by-law that would see a $300 education development charge be applied to each dwelling unit for the time period of October 2022 to October 2023 and then raised to $600 per unit for October 2023 to October 2024 and then $696 from October 2024 to June 2026.
“I’m just drawing attention to it, I don’t need to discuss it, we’ve discussed it plenty,” said Kaiser. “(Lennox and Addington) County continues to discuss it but I want to make sure that that one doesn’t drop off anyone’s radar going forward.”
Kaiser added members of council were able to speak with Ontario’s minister of education Stephen Lecce on the matter in August.
“There has been some response from Algonquin to the County on that education development charge where they said ‘well you were invited to meetings, you could have come to talk to us.’ But I wouldn’t say we were invited so much as we were told there were meetings,” said Kaiser. “We also made them better understand why we met with the minister. We sent the correspondence back. That’s number two of three known that are adding charges and we were talking to the committee of adjustment of making severances and lots and developments more affordable, this is going in the opposite direction and this is coming from the province.”
Kaiser, who is not seeking re-election, reiterated that he hoped the next council would continue to press the matter.
“I still think it’s adding unnecessary charges to the development of properties without the choice as to what school board and in fact it not only takes away choice, it mandates that all boards be funded by everybody, not just the board of choice,” said Kaiser.
-Another issue that will spill into the next term of council will be any decisions relating to the regulation of short-term accommodations (STA).
Council was presented a report compiled by the town staff that is intended to help guide budget discussions in the coming month.
The report indicates staff will continue to work on drafting by-law amendments while seeking further in public and stakeholder input. The next term of council will be asked to provide more direction for town staff such as how to provide weekend and evening responses to complaints, what are the goals of the by-law, what are the priorities of enforcement as opposed to other by-law infractions and how should the increased enforcement be funded.
“I’m very happy with this report, I think that it captured exactly what we had discussed and I think we’re on the right track at this point,” said councillor John McCormack.
-Kaiser took the opportunity for statements by members to call out what he described as an ‘abomination’ of a job by the Municipal Property Assessment Corporation (MPAC) in compiling the voter’s list.
“I’m not going to get into specifics other than I think it’s kind of a problem when the deputy mayor’s not even on the voter’s list nor any of his family, but to be fair I did move into a different house at the same postal code,” said Kaiser. “But there are other stories, there are far worse stories, people with different names that have never had that name before that appear on the voter’s list that shouldn’t. I just think it’s appropriate that we, prior to the election, express our displeasure.”
Mayor Marg Isbester agreed, adding that during her time as warden of Lennox and Addington County it was up to her to sign the cheques that were sent to MPAC for their services.
“I believe, and you can’t quote me but I’m going to say it out loud, I think for the final quarter it was $149,000 and I’m not sure for what,” said Isbester.
Much to the satisfaction of both deputy mayor and mayor, town clerk Jessica Walters informed them that MPAC would no longer be handling the voter’s list responsibilities as of Jan. 1, 2024.
“We are assured it will be better on that date,” said Walters.
-Though the final meeting before the election, this group of council will meet last time on Nov. 8 before passing things on to the next council. They did perform a bit of house keeping first, passing a motion to cancel the scheduled Oct. 25 meeting (which would have fallen the day after the election). The Nov. 22 meeting was also cancelled, instead to be used as orientation for the incoming council. Lastly a meeting scheduled for Dec. 20 was pushed up to Dec. 13 so as to give a little more space between the holidays for anyone planning to travel.
The inaugural meeting of the next term of council is slated for Dec. 6.
-Isbester closed to meeting by encouraging residents to vote.
“We live in a country that we are extremely lucky to be privileged to vote,” said Isbester, who is not seeking re-election. “I look back here and we have candidates that are interested enough to come out and watch the meetings even though they’re not part of the process at this point and we had a full slate of candidates other than one acclimation. Make sure that you honour these people by getting out to vote. Pretty simple to do. I went online today and was able to do it just minutes after it opened. It’s extremely easy, there is absolutely no excuse. I’d like to say if you don’t vote you shouldn’t be able to complain, but I know that won’t have any bearing.”