The Council of the Township of Whitewater Region received a report on the growth-related policies, and moved to endorse positions of Arnprior, Petawawa and Renfrew to recommend that the County of Renfrew proceed with a transportation master plan, and development charges background study.
That motion was that “the Council of the Township of Whitewater Region:
Receive this report for information purposes as it relates to the County of Renfrew’s infrastructure options to address growth;
Endorse the positions of the Towns of Arnprior, Petawawa, and Renfrew recommending the County of Renfrew proceed with a transportation master plan and development charges background study outsourced to a specialized firm to ensure upper-tier growth impacts are planned for and addressed by the county; and
Encourage the County of Renfrew to consider all allowable services as part of the development charges study, including additional paramedics bases across the County.”“The County has seen some pressure due to growth.” CAO Rob Trembley said. “If you look at the Statistics Canada recent release, you’ll see that some communities in the County are growing. That means that there are impacts not just on lower-tier infrastructure, but also upper-tier infrastructure. What those towns are requesting from the county is that right now they only on replacement, but they’re going to have to deal with the impacts on their infrastructure due to growth.”
He said that the Township had looked at cost sharing and the county levy as means of paying for expansion of the infrastructure.
“What this report endorses is the positions of those towns that the county should do its due diligence and look at a background study for development charges.” CAO Trembley said. “it doesn’t mean it’s going to do a development charge, it doesn’t mean it’s going to apply a development charge across the county. It’s a very diverse county. It’s not just to roads, they should look at it for a variety of its services.”
“The County should look at all of its financial tools to deal with its impacts on its services, and not necessarily rely on the levy for everybody to pay for the impacts of growth that aren’t being spread throughout the county.”
He said that a transportation master plan would also be “good to not just look at its current level of service in terms of infrastructure, but across the board and take the time.”
He also said that the Council was going to have a presentation on development charges and on a transportation master plan as said by Reeve Cathy Regier, who was not present due to illness.
He said that they due to the “political nature and diversity of opinion” they chose to not comment until now.
“What I find frustrating is that it’s something the County is going to implement going to collect, whether we pay them or not. I hope that this is a different story in that we don’t pay unless we get to collect.” Councillor Jackson said. “That’s the only way that I would be in favour of it. I’m not in favour it.”
CAO Trembley said that the County would have to do a background study to “understand all the projects that could could be part of a DC charge” before implementing a development charge, which would be a 2-3 year process.
“The County should deal with the growth impacts on its infrastructure, and not expect to cost-share that with the lower tiers, or force everybody through the levy. The levy is not necessarily representative of where growth is happening. The levy is kind of all over the place.”
“What we’re saying is that the county has to figure out how it’s going to pay for its for how it has to collect and plan accordingly.” Trembley said. “Some communities in Renfrew county are growing and some are not. Our is growing.”
“Is this only for in front of county roads or is it any road that flies onto a county road?” Mayor Moore asked.
CAO Trembley said that it had to do with the county.
“We have a development charge we have implemented and it has not slowed down growth. The development charges do not slow down growth. We’ve seen the opposite.” he said. “This has to do with the county services and assets.”
Councillor Jackson presented a update that the county roads “are traveled by many and should not be limited to a specific municipality to pay for any growth in that area. We all know the Cobden road here is traveled by out-of-towners, it’s traveled by cottage owners, it’s traveled by homeowners within Whitewater Region, Bonnechere Valley, North Algona/Wilberforce, Admaston-Bromely, anybody who travels through. To add the development charges for roads, I 100% disagree. Paramedic services, it’s going to impact services across the board, it would still be beneficial to a number of municipalities that are close.”
“I just don’t think that it’s the right thing to do for a county to do development charges.” she said. “I say you raise it through the levy, then everyone is paying for it through the levy, one
“I don’t like to agree with Charlene [Jackson], but I agree.” Councillor Mackay said. “You don’t feel like you have any control over Renfrew County.”
Councillor Olmstead said that he would “rather see a levy apply right across the board rather than to pick and choose the regions that are going to be paying for particular roads or particular services and whether you get a new permit or whatever in a municipality.. I don’t think anyone should have a particular advantage or disadvantage, I think it right across all municipalities in the region.”
“I can’t believe that we don’t have a plan for growth on the County level, I find that odd.” Councillor Nicholson said.
“I’d feel more comfortable understanding what the problem is, and then looking at options to fund it.” Councillor Nicholson said. “I’d like to see what County plans to do.”
“We don’t know when that’s gonna be.” The Mayor said, indicating the study would determine that.
“I think staff have hit a number of projects that have caused concern for the County. One: Petawawa Boulevard.” Jackson said. “A lot of the traffic is going up to the Base. There’s a lot of traffic going up there from the County. How can you just justify that just Petawawa developers would have to pay for that growth? We have a number of military people all over the County. City of Pembroke, social housing in Renfew, Arnprior. Why should they pay the development for those social housing? A lot of what happens is residents that need to go on social housing move from the other areas and they can’t afford to have a car, they need to walk, have taxis. When we’re rural municipalities, it hard to be on social assistance, get on social housing. I think they’re going to have a very difficult time determining what percentage goes to which municipality. I just think that county should stay at the county level and pay through the levy because for the roads, everyone from everywhere in the county go there as well.”
“It’s very difficult to say that we need the expansion. We’re going to see the population start to deter to the younger age group. It’s going to start going down in ten years, we know that from age demographics. A twostory duplex goes for 4-5000 in the village of Cobden. We might have to think of getting rid of those old age homes. Social housing is going to be big. we’re going to need housing that affordable for the younger people.”
“It’s a drastic calculation, and I don’t know how it’s gonna be fair.”
“I think that if gets voted down, then the direction should be that the County plan for growth.” CAO Trembley said. “How they fund it can be figured out later, but its doing the master transportation plan and figuring that out, and then the finance piece comes later, based on what I’m hearing [from Councillor Jackson].”
“Who’s going to administer this?” Councillor McLaughlin asked. “Are we going to collect it? we’re going to need to have more staff to administer this?” He expressed support for a levy across the board, saying that the motion looks like “one big nightmare of administration.”
Councillor Nicholson asked if development charges were spent in the region that they were collected.
Treasurer Crozier said that the study would have to determine what the collected charges could be used for, and it would be ‘what they would have to figure out” on the County level.
“I want to come up with a cost-sharing agreement that reflects our needs.” Nicholson said. “I don’t know how to reword the motion, but I think this need to be addressed.”
The motion was defeated, and the floor was opened to new suggestions for language of the motion.
Councillor Jackson proposed the new wording would be the Whitewater Region “reiterate that it supports growth, and encourages the County of Renfrew to plan for growth, and the necessary planning and investment in infrastructure to support it.”
The new motion was carried, but Councillor Neil Nicholson asked if he could comment on another motion, which the mayor allowed, but Clerk Clark Miller said that the motion had moved on, so the Council moved on.
