SHARBOT LAKE. Central Frontenac councillors voted on May 12 to accept three recommendations from their housing consultant, including one that would create a separate municipal corporation to own and operate a proposed 24-unit housing project on Garrett Street in Sharbot Lake. Motion 2026-196, moved by Councillor Phillip Smith and seconded by Councillor Bill Everett, carried at the regular meeting. According to the May 12 draft minutes, which are on tonight's May 26 council agenda for approval, no member of council declared a pecuniary interest on the item.
The recommendations come from a March 4, 2026 report titled "Housing, Servicing, & Ownership Workshop Report," prepared for the township by Lindsay Blair, Executive Director of 2B Developments Consultants & Associates Inc. of Perth. The report identifies the financial mechanism that the Municipal Services Corporation option is designed to deliver in direct language. Recommendation #2 reads, in full: "The municipality should explore creating a municipal services corporation to own and operate the housing project. This could enable the municipality to take on the debt to build the project, with the debt not being consolidated within the municipal financials. Moreover, this could further reduce existing municipal obligations if the library is incorporated within the proposed project." Council accepted that recommendation as written.
What council voted
The motion bundles three items together. Staff are directed to include a library and communal space within the proposed Housing and Development plan for the Sharbot Lake school site, and to review related funding opportunities. The township is to explore creating a Municipal Services Corporation (MSC) to own and operate the housing project. Preliminary geotechnical and hydrogeological investigations on the Garrett Street property will test servicing feasibility. The motion also authorized completion and submission of an updated questionnaire from Blair's report.
Phillip Smith, who moved the motion, also chairs the Central Frontenac Housing Advisory Committee that forwarded the recommendations to council. The April 30 committee minutes record him in the chair on the same items he carried to the council floor twelve days later.
The mayor's disclosure status
Mayor Frances Smith was in the chair at the May 12 meeting. According to the May 12 draft minutes, at Item 5 of the agenda, Disclosure of Pecuniary Interest, the entry reads "None Declared." Smith is currently listed by the Frontenac Municipal Services Corporation (FMSC) as its President, the corporation jointly owned by Central Frontenac, North Frontenac, South Frontenac, and Frontenac Islands. She was elected FMSC President and Board Chair at the corporation's inaugural board meeting on January 15, 2024, and signed FMSC By-law #1 in those dual capacities on March 25, 2024. According to FMSC's CEO, Justin Bromberg, Smith stepped down as Board Chair at the corporation's February 24, 2026 annual general meeting and was succeeded in the Chair role by North Frontenac Mayor Gerry Lichty; Smith remains FMSC President per Bromberg's April 17, 2026 response to NFNM. The AGM date is independently confirmed in Frontenac County records; Bromberg's own statement is the on-record source for the chair-election outcome.
Whether any declaration was required under the Municipal Conflict of Interest Act is a legal question for legal counsel, not for this report. NFNM takes no position in this report on whether a pecuniary interest existed. What the draft minutes establish is the disclosure status on the record: the mayor was present, the item was put, and no interest was declared.
The financial logic on the page
The Blair report places the financial case for an MSC ahead of any operational case for one. The report's "Key Concerns Identified" section, drawn from a 32-question survey of council and staff during the February 11, 2026 workshop, lists three concerns that emerged from the room itself: "Limited borrowing capacity and existing debt constraints," "No perceived capacity to take on additional debt," and "Concern regarding soft costs associated with creating an MSC."
In other words, council and staff said in the workshop that the township cannot easily take on more debt and that setting up an MSC has its own cost. The report responds to those concerns by recommending the township explore creating an MSC, in part because the MSC structure allows the township to take on debt that would not appear on its books.
The numbers in the report set the scale. Blair proposes a 24-unit low-rise minimum density, a mix of one- and two-bedroom units, affordable rents of $950 a month for one-bedrooms and $1,550 for two-bedrooms using the federal Build Canada Homes affordability calculator, a $500,000 minimum municipal equity contribution, and a debt-coverage-ratio target of 1.00 to 1.1. The report identifies the development site as "the Garrett Street property" in Sharbot Lake. The broader "Sharbot Lake school site" phrasing that has appeared in council and committee discussion refers, in Blair's report, to this specific parcel.
Who 2B Developments is
2B Developments was founded in 2018 and is based at 18 Drummond Street West in Perth, Ontario. Lindsay Blair is its Executive Director according to the federal lobbying registry and South Frontenac Staff Report 2025-107; Central Frontenac's January 27, 2026 council resolution authorizing the Build Canada Homes application refers to her as President of 2B Developments. The firm currently advises both Central Frontenac on its Sharbot Lake project and South Frontenac on its Verona housing project. Both townships are FMSC shareholders.
In July 2024, the Eastern Ontario Regional Network announced that it and 2B Developments had received $1 million from the Canada Mortgage and Housing Corporation under the Housing Supply Challenge Stage 1 program for a project called Rural Impact. The stated purpose was to design and replicate the municipal services corporation model for rural water and wastewater servicing. FMSC was named as a partner in the announcement, and Frances Smith was quoted in her capacity as FMSC president. Blair's affiliated entity, Rural Impact Canada, was subsequently named a CMHC Housing Supply Challenge Round 5 finalist for its municipal-services-corporation program, and runs an MSC advisory practice.
On January 6, 2026, 2B Developments registered a federal lobbyist, Jacob Gorenkoff of Homeward Public Affairs, on subject matters that include "Build Canada Homes – Program Design and Implementation." On January 27, 2026, Central Frontenac Council authorized 2B Developments to submit a Build Canada Homes application on the township's behalf. The April 30 committee minutes confirm Blair has since submitted that application.
Public township records show two payments from Central Frontenac to 2B Developments in February of this year: $11,865 on February 12 and $17,854 on February 27, for an aggregate of $29,719. The February 12 payment appears in Report 039-2026 (Cheque Distribution Report) at the February 24 council meeting; the February 27 payment in Report 051-2026 at the March 24 meeting. Both were processed through the Administration department. Under Central Frontenac's procurement Schedule B, engagements valued at under $20,000 are direct procurements approved by a department head or authorized designate; engagements valued between $20,000 and $75,000 require informal or invitational procurement approved by a department head together with the CAO/Clerk or treasurer. No request for proposal or invitational procurement record for the housing-consulting engagement appears on the township's public bids and tenders page. The township's 2026 Vendor of Record list, approved by Motion 2026-25 on January 27, 2026, includes 2B Developments. A separate motion at the same meeting, 2026-31, authorized 2B to submit the Build Canada Homes application referenced above. The Vendor of Record mechanism permits non-competitive engagement of listed suppliers. How the 2B engagement was procured under By-law 2025-50, and which approval pathway applied, is a question the public record does not answer.
The committee path
The recommendations reached council through the Central Frontenac Housing Advisory Committee, chaired by Phillip Smith. The mayor was listed as regrets at the April 30 committee meeting and was not in the room when the committee voted to forward Blair's report to council.
The committee minutes make one distinction worth carrying into the council record. In discussing the 2B questionnaire, the committee was, according to the minutes, "hoping for some questions to relate to interest in Frontenac Municipal Services Corporation model." The council motion that followed used the generic phrase "Municipal Services Corporation (MSC)." The committee's discussion was about the existing FMSC; the council motion authorized exploration of a corporation that would be set up under the same Municipal Act provision.
The committee minutes also record three updates that bear on whether the project can be built at all. Cambium, the geotechnical consultant retained for site investigation, reported preliminary indications that depth to bedrock at the Garrett Street site "may be greater than anticipated." Ontario's Minister of Municipal Affairs and Housing, Rob Flack, was expected to visit both the Sharbot Lake site and South Frontenac's Verona site. And Blair confirmed a Build Canada Homes grant application has been submitted on behalf of the township.
What's next
Tonight's regular council meeting begins at 6 p.m. in the Council Chambers at 14216 Road 38. The MSC item is not on the agenda for further action; council accepted the recommendations on May 12 and the questionnaire deadline noted by the housing committee was today. Council is scheduled to receive Phase 1 of the Implementation Plan and to consider By-law 2026-27, which amends Schedules A and B of the procurement by-law to incorporate Buy Ontario Act requirements. NFNM will follow up next week on what council decides tonight.
NFNM has not put questions to the township, the mayor, or 2B Developments in advance of this article and is sending right-of-reply requests to each on the date of publication. Any responses received will be published. Comment is welcomed at [email protected].