Our Environment

My thoughts on Some environmental issues

Township Plan

South Frontenac Township needs to develop an Environmental Plan.

This must mesh with the new Official Plan that will be finalized in 2023 and sent to Frontenac County for approval.

Work on this, with public consultation and meetings, should start in 2023.

electrification

Electric Vehicle (EV) technologies have improved and there are more and more options available.

We need to explore potential locations where charging stations can be installed.

New township builds must include EV charging stations.

Our fleet of vehicles should be reviewed to see where EVs are appropriate. This could include the smaller vehicles used by some departments.

We are still going to need fossil fuel powered vehicles until EV technology is able to power the larger vehicles. These would include Fire Department apparatus, pick-ups, tandem dump trucks and plows, as well as loaders, backhoes and graders.

Smaller equipment items such as trimmers and blowers are certainly suitable for battery power vs gasoline.

heating Equipment

When HVAC equipment requires replacement in a SFT building, we need to look at heat pump technologies.

These are capable of providing the required heating and cooling in our climate.

All new township builds must make use of these technologies and be constructed to the LEED certification.

septic inspection

I support septic re-inspections for SFT.

We should look to start with properties located on our lakes.

The township can look to see what has worked in other locations across Ontario. We don’t need to develop our own system.

There are two issues that will need to be discussed and public input received on.

These are:

  1. Mandatory vs voluntary inspections.

  2. How to deal with required system maintenance/replacement where the property owner cannot afford the work.

Small scale hydro generation and solar energy

I do not believe that we have suitable locations in SFT for small scale hydro generation.

We would need something similar to what is located in Gananoque for this. We do not have a large enough river or lake dam to support this.

We should look at the feasibility of adding solar panels on existing township properties.

New township builds can certainly include these.