Wish list

Mayor reflects on two years, with high hopes for two more

Acouple of weeks ago, the County’s council, along with key members of the municipal staff, spent a day at 106 Bridge in Picton. They were discussing the County’s future, halfway into this term of council.

“It was a check-in, just to see how we’ve been doing, to reflect on our successes and see what we could do going forward for the next two years,” says mayor Robert Quaiff. “Set some priorities and goals and discuss the strategic plan at length, see if we have the same vision and see what we can do better in the next two years.”

The strategic plan was the focal point of the meeting. A year ago, council had commissioned consultant Lauren Miller of MDB Insight to develop a new corporate strategic plan, giving council direction and a set of goals to focus on for the second half of its term.

A FINANCIAL PLAN
Those goals include achieving financial sustainability, creating a business-friendly environment, maintaining rural and historic character, developing a community with stable employment and affordable housing and ensuring sustainable community healthcare.

The plan reads like a Christmas wish list. The document Miller created acknowledges the County’s stagnant population growth, and the County’s 2016 operating budget identifies taxation as two-thirds of the County’s annual revenue.

Still, Quaiff is optimistic that through cooperation and better planning, it can be done.

“One of the biggest things was the financial sustainability, create a financial plan, put it in place and have reserves that allows us to achieve financial objectives down the road,” says Quaiff. “I think if we can get staff and council to develop multi-year operating and capital budgets, you can plan further down the road… We’re going to go to budget first week in December, and we’re going to set that, but that’s for next year. We don’t have anything for the year after; we don’t have anything set up for the year after that.”

PRIORITIES
For Quaiff, it’s about prioritizing and planning ahead, recognizing that the population is limited rather than hoping for growth. And that means making some sacrifices.

“Somewhere down the road, council’s going to have a strong will to say, we’re not going to upgrade that road to that expense, when there’s other major infrastructure, like 49, like your major roads coming in and out, when they need the work,” says Quaiff. “The secondary roads, they’re going to have to wait, or they’re going to have to be put back to gravel, or pulverized and surface treated, and start planning that way.”

Housing is another challenge for council. To date, the current council has not implemented anything concrete toward improving access to affordable housing, despite passing several motions in favour of it.

“This council is really focused in on and concentrating on affordable housing,” says Quaiff. “Since I’ve been on council in 2000, the municipality and council has always said that one of their top priorities is affordable housing, and then we don’t do anything. We don’t get involved, and it’s going to take a financial commitment on behalf of the municipality.”

Quaiff pointed to options that council may have that don’t involve additional spending, including offering discounts to developers willing to build affordable housing stock. He highlighted a proposal that had come to the County recently from a developer for a 24- unit affordable housing project.

“We are in discussion with the developer. This will all have to be discussed at budget time. I don’t know how far I want to get, other than I’m working on it, to get some affordable housing, and… it’s going to require an investment from the County that definitely will be a budget impact, but it’s 24 units that are never going to get built unless we waive connection and development charges.

“It gives us an opportunity to start addressing, somewhat, without Lennox and Addington social services, the ability to do something like this with a developer,” said Mayor Quaiff.

But the dwindling housing stock and lack of new development in the County is a complex, thorny issue. While Quaiff disagrees that developers are put off by the cost and bureaucracy involved with building in the County, he does recognize another issue.

“We know that we’re going to be addressing a huge issue here shortly with the Airbnbs. Because there’s more and more concern that people are snapping up the lowerpriced homes, fixing them up a little bit, not living in them, but just renting them out. So I think there’s now 440 Airbnbs in Prince Edward County. On the one hand it’s good because it’s bringing additional people into the County, but on the other hand, neighbours aren’t knowing who their neighbours are anymore, either.”

When it comes to stable employment, Quaiff admits that a seasonal tourism industry makes that goal difficult to achieve.

“We’re still crippled when it comes to a major manufacturer coming, and it’s just where [are we] going to put them? Who wants to come here? There’s no rail, we’re away from the 401. It’s a struggle for us,” says Quaiff. “I think we’re always going to have the same problem as well when it comes to growth, because there’s just not [any] manufacture that’s coming to the County.”

But that doesn’t mean council can’t focus on improving the local workforce for the tourism industry. At the meeting, council discussed offering service-related training.

“There are so many upscale restaurants now that there is a shortage of people in Prince Edward County to actually work there,” says Quaiff. “[Councillor Lenny Epstein] wants to maybe look at the town hall, set something up like a whiteboard classroom, to start those training and get investment involvement from local wineries and those food industries and stuff like that so that we can start to address instead of people coming from Belleville and Napanee coming into the County to work and take those jobs. If we can start an education program here that at least focuses on that, and we can start to address that as well.”

Quaiff says there are concrete paths toward achieving some of the County’s goals. Through an involved community and a strong economic development department, improving heritage and helping small business is work the County does every day.

He does understand that to make decisions on the more difficult goals council has set, they need to work together.

“I think it’s just going to take more commitment by council and more vigour. Let’s get this going, let’s get this done, rather than keep asking staff for a report all the time. Let’s just get some direction and let’s get going forward,” says Quaiff. “I think I got a pretty strong message from this retreat, and I think you’ll see some improvements. That’s about all I’ll say on that part.”