Photo by Michelle Dorey Forestell/Kingstonist.
At the onset of the last budget meeting for 2024, Town of Greater Napanee Council were party to a presentation from Quinte Conservation’s Chief Administrative Officer (CAO) Brad McNevin and Christine Philibert, Water Resources Manager.
The presentation focused on the work of Quinte Conservation in the Greater Napanee region, from flood management to educational outreach, and more.
“We are watershed based, and, locally, that is the Napanee River and wherever it drains within the Napanee region,” said McNevin. “We’re a community based environmental agency and we have a mission to create a sustainable ecosystem where people and nature live in harmony.”
As noted by McNevin, Quinte Conservation presides over a jurisdiction of 6,000 square kilometres and roughly 165,000 people. The organization owns over 30,000 acres of land.
There was also a fulsome discussion surrounding a 12 per cent increase to the Quinte Conservation budget for 2025 locally. Throughout its jurisdiction, Quinte Conservation will receive an additional $96,000 compared with last year.
“We work closely with our municipal partners. There is a cost-sharing formula that allows us to share costs across all our municipalities,” said McNevin.
The levy contribution from Greater Napanee is $251,789. Comparatively, that of Belleville is over $1.2 million, while that of Prince Edward County is $719,485.
“We have a Board of Directors that we answer to, and currently have 17 representatives from the 18 [regions] in our catchment area that are part of that board,” said McNevin.
As noted by McNevin, based on new legislation, it is now required that members of the Quinte Conservation Board are elected officials from their various jurisdictions. Importantly, McNevin pointed out that the budget is passed by a weighted vote.
In the presentation, McNevin outlined three categories of programs and services provided by Quinte Conservation.
Category 1 is Mandatory and Enabling Services. As per the presentation, this includes natural hazard management (including flood control and low water response), water quality testing/monitoring, drinking water source protection, and conservation authority lands/areas.
Category 2 includes, but is not limited to, flood and erosion control infrastructure operations and management not owned by Quinte Conservation, as well as land acquisition of environmentally significant properties.
Category 3 focuses on special projects, including reforestation and community engagement, among others.
While Quinte Conservation does receive some money from the provincial and federal governments, McNevin noted that several programs are reliant upon funding from municipalities. These include, but are not limited to: conservation education and outdoor programs (including staffing and operation), local water quality monitoring, and the Depot Lakes campground.
“In terms of flood forecasting and warning, this was a program we started in 1984 when the province delegated their responsibility to conservation authorities,” explained McNevin. “With regard to this, our objective is to communicate how high the water will get and, when it gets high, to communicate this with municipalities in a timely manner so they can prepare.”
“We use the same techniques to monitor conditions and communicate about low water and drought,” he added.
When speaking to the water control infrastructure program, Philibert noted there are approximately 40 water control structures owned by Quinte Conservation.
“Our staff operate these dams, do regular checks, minor and capital maintenance, and any studies associated,” noted Philibert. “The Depot Lake Dam is one of our largest structures, built in support of the Town of Greater Napanee. The purpose of the dam is to provide low flow augmentation to the Napanee River.”
The Depot Lake Dam, as per Philibert, does not currently meet design safety criteria.
When it came to question period, councillors questioned both the rising costs associated with the conservation authority and what is being provided for that increase.
“Are we paying a bit more because of the possible danger of the Napanee River flooding? We are getting a 12 per cent increase while many other are only getting a 4.1 per cent increase,” questioned Councillor Bob Norrie.
McNevin noted the Town has several structures located within the Napanee River Watershed that are considered to “be of benefit to the municipality.” He added that the costing formula is based on the current value assessment.
Councillor Bill Martin pressed the issue further, wanting to know “why the big increase this year?”
As per McNevin, the jump in budget for Quinte Conservation is part of the Water Control Infrastructure Asset Management Plan. The phased plan will see a gradual increase to the budget, but will plateau in 2027.
“The cost will steadily increase up until year six of the plan, which is 2027,” said McNevin. “Then, it will be at 13 per cent of the cost of the program for the next five years.”
Meanwhile, low water levels were a main concern for Councillor Michael Schenk, who wondered what could be done, especially where Quinte Conservation has little jurisdiction over decisions made by the International Joint Commission (IJC), the governing body that influences water levels and flows from throughout Lake Ontario and surrounding areas.
McNevin noted he would see if Quinte Conservation could inquire as to whether Conservation Ontario would lobby on the Town’s behalf with the IJC to see what can be done.
Council also received a verbal staff report regarding the Ontario CCTV (closed-circuit television) Grant Program for the 2024-2025 fiscal year.
Ellen Hamel, Manager of Financial Services for the Town, noted staff have recently become aware of a December 16 deadline for the second round of intakes for the CCTV Grant Program.
“We’re here in front of Council to see if there’s consensus for staff to submit a second application to build on this existing program with the OPP. We have worked with the OPP and are looking at conducting a project of about $120,000 total. This would result in an additional 12 fixed units and three mobile units,” said Hamel.
The Town would be supporting 50 per cent of this project to the tune of $60,000.
Councillor Angela Hicks queried staff as to the value of having these cameras throughout Greater Napanee.
Staff noted a couple of “big cases” have seen a huge benefit from the CCTV system.
Council passed a resolution to support this application.
In other news impacting the budget, the municipality recently received news that the Office of the Solicitor General would provide a proposed $722,799 in financial relief for OPP Services. This comes after the provincial government announced plans to propose financial relief of this nature on the same day (Friday, Nov. 29, 2024).
Copy of letter via Town of Greater Napanee.
If the funding is approved, OPP Services being billed to the municipality would go down to $4,318,854 (from the original $5,041,653). This represents a 5 per cent increase over the 2024 billing amount, opposed to the original 23 per cent increase.
This news from the Solicitor General reduces the burden of the OPP Billing to an isolated tax levy increase of 1.35 per cent, as opposed to the original 6.3 per cent.
As per staff, if all other factors remain unchanged, the draft budget as presented has a total tax levy increase of 6.21 per cent.
Council will reconvene for budget discussions in 2025.
Sarah Williams is a Napanee-based reporter with the Local Journalism Initiative (LJI). The LJI is funded by the Government of Canada.
