A newly-elected first-time council member asked the current Trent Lakes Council members to defer a decision about raising building fees at a public meeting to discuss the proposal.
Councillor-elect Laurie Riley made a presentation to council during the public meeting portion of the session.
She will become a member of council when the incoming members are sworn in on November 16th, 2026 at 7 pm.
Director of Building and Planning/ Chief Building Official Eric Guay made a presentation about the fees to council in October.
In Ontario municipalities are required to hold public meetings to change building permit fees. The public meetings are held to ensure transparency and allow the public to provide feedback before changes are enacted.
This public meeting on this issue was held during this week’s regular council session. This was the last meeting of the current council term.
Riley said she felt compelled to address council and said she was disturbed that it looks like these changes are being rushed through rather than delayed until Trent Lakes has an Economic Development Strategy.
“The bottom line is that we are not attracting new development and not open for business,” Riley said. “We do not have a good product to sell.”
She said that a survey showed there were issues with response times to voicemails and about interpersonal skills in the building department.
“During the election there were many questions and support for an economic development strategy,” Riley said. “We have a fundamental problem and the council needs to be responsive.”
“By passing this you are handicapping the future council,” she added. “You are only one member short of being considered a lame duck council (referring to the fact that Councillor Peter Franzen had left the meeting earlier).”
Riley defeated Franzen in last week’s election.S
he asked that the council vote on the issue be recorded.
Mayor Terry Lambshead asked Guay if he had any answers to Riley’s questions about the fees.
“There were no questions proposed so I have no answers,” Guay replied.
Deputy Mayor Carol Armstrong said that Riley made excellent points, but added that the increases are minimal and comfortable and similar to increases made by surrounding communities.
“We haven’t increased fees in a while and haven’t heard about planning department fees being an issue,” Armstrong said. “The issues we did hear about we have started to address and one step was to hire a new CBO.”
Armstrong said it will take a while to get an economic strategy in place.
“So it makes no sense to wait to increase fees”, she added. “We can address it again later when we do have an economic strategy.
Councillor John Braybrook asked for a recorded vote on the motion. The four council members present voted unanimously to approve the increases.
The new permit cost increases are:
• New Residential from $1.54/sq ft to $1.58sq/ft
• Accessory Structures from 91 cents sq/ft to 93 cents sq/ft
• Decks from 42 cents sq/ft to 43 cents sq/ft
• Demolition from a fee of $164.47 to $168,42
The increases are projected to increase revenue for the building department by approximately $11,800.
