Fees for services in Borden-Carleton

BORDEN-CARLETON - Borden-Carleton chief administrative officer Wendy McInnis has noticed the town is losing money by providing certain services.

“The town is not charging enough for building and development fees. Not even close,” said McInnis.

From July to November 2019, the town paid $2,200 in fees to a development officer and only charged $400.

“That’s a big variance,” said McInnis. “It’s money we’re taking from someplace where it could be.” For example, the town does not charge anything for a legal zoning inquiry, despite the amount of administration work that is involved.

Another, more frequent, occurrence is when a property changes hands, the lawyers want to know if there are any water and sewer charges attached to the property, said McInnis. One such inquiry took three hours of phone calls. Additionally, there’s no difference in development fees between business and residential properties.

“It’s not about making money it’s about recouping the cost of the administration,” said McInnis.

Councillor Laurel Palmer Thompson agreed, adding she brought up the development fees structure last year during budget discussions. “We are losing a lot of money here, and staff time,” she said at the January meeting. The planning bylaw was approved in 2018 but hasn’t been updated in quite some time. Councillors agreed that the planning and bylaw committee will take the CAO’s work and continue to review the current fees.