Disclosure: The author is a declared candidate in the upcoming North Frontenac municipal election and a subject in this article. Rob Lesperance is a declared candidate for Ward 2 councillor. All claims attributed to the author are documented in township records and correspondence on file.
On April 4, Rob Lesperance emailed Mayor Gerry Lichty a full bylaw amendment package for affordable small-home clusters in North Frontenac. New zoning category. Pre-built modular homes from Ontario manufacturers. Communal water and septic to keep costs down. Four to eight units on a single lot, rentable at $1,350 a month. He had presented parts of it to the Housing Advisory Task Force. He had presented to council. He had sent detailed research comparing North Frontenac’s bylaws to South Frontenac, Central Frontenac, and Greater Napanee. He copied the township clerk.
At 4:54 that afternoon, Lichty replied: “I will not be bringing this forward to Council.” He told Lesperance he had the right to contact the Township Clerk and request presentation time.
Not “let me review it.” Not “we need more information.” Not “I’ll circulate it to staff.” The mayor who controls the advisory body built to funnel housing recommendations to council would not bring one forward through that channel. He offered a procedural detour instead. It was the third time in seventeen months a housing proposal went to North Frontenac through proper channels and went nowhere.
What Lichty Closed the Door On
The proposal Lichty refused to bring forward was not a napkin sketch. Lesperance’s bylaw amendment package proposed a new Affordable Small Home Cluster zone under Zoning By-law 55-19. Four to eight homes under 1,000 square feet each, on a single lot. Mandatory communal water and septic, cheaper per unit and better environmental protection than individual systems. Pre-built homes from certified manufacturers: ekoBUILT, Guildcrest, Southshore.
Cost: $1.25 to $1.65 million for five to six units. Rent target: $1,350 a month. Eighteen-month completion timeline. Lesperance’s projections show the project paying for itself over time. He also proposed process improvements, including a 30-day pre-consultation guarantee, flat permit fees, and a streamlined checklist for CSA and Ontario Building Code approved modular homes. His research showed the changes could cut approval timelines from nine-to-eighteen months down to three-to-six.
On April 5, Lichty responded again, citing financial viability concerns and a figure of $1.5 million over 20 years, but provided no analysis to support it. At 8:44 that morning, Lesperance pushed back, citing the HATF’s own mandate to “provide housing related information, advice, and recommendations to Council.” At 9:16, Lichty replied: “the HATF will continue to work on issues of their choosing.” At 9:48, Lesperance responded point by point, correcting Lichty on the HATF mandate and asking for the analysis behind the $1.5 million figure. “No detailed analysis or numbers have ever been shared,” he wrote. None were provided.
The HATF Contradiction
The Township of North Frontenac’s website states the task force exists to “provide housing related information, advice, and recommendations to Council.” A resident did exactly that. He brought housing-related information. He provided advice in the form of bylaw comparisons and proposed amendments. He offered a recommendation, a new zoning category with costed projections and a timeline.
Lichty’s response: “the HATF will continue to work on issues of their choosing.” The mayor who created the mandate is now deciding what the advisory body is permitted to advise on.
CAO Klatt told NFNM in writing on March 31 that the HATF is “currently exploring options.” The task force was appointed by council nearly a year ago. In that time, when Morton raised housing questions, Lichty’s consistent response was that the task force was new, still getting started, needed time. When Morton filed a delegation request in January, Lichty texted: “Why would you not put this through the HATF.” After a year of being told to let the HATF work: no housing plan, no recommendations to council, no successful funding applications. And when a resident finally brought a specific, costed recommendation, the mayor blocked it from reaching the table the HATF was built to supply.
The HATF advises council. Lichty decides what the HATF advises on. And when a resident follows the process anyway, the mayor blocks the advice from reaching the table it was built to reach.
Three Proposals, Three Dead Ends
Daniel Segal got the same treatment seventeen months earlier. On November 22, 2024, he brought a 30-to-40-unit municipal housing corporation proposal to council. Prefabricated homes with eco-friendly design in the $250,000-$300,000 range. Deputy Mayor John Inglis said the proposal “could get us thinking about possible solutions.” Council received it for information under Resolution #376-24. Council gave no direction to staff. Nothing has happened since.
On February 27, 2026, Donald Morton delivered a delegation to North Frontenac council proposing that the township amend Zoning By-law #55-19 to permit Tiny Homes on Wheels as year-round dwellings. The current bylaw defines “Dwelling, Tiny Home” with one blocking clause: “any wheels shall be removed.” Morton proposed replacing it with “installed as a building” criteria, fixed and anchored to the site, wheels off the ground, connected to approved services, permitted and inspected under the Ontario Building Code. He filed the delegation request with the clerk on January 19, submitted a 10-slide presentation and speaking notes on February 18, and presented in the council chamber on February 27. Council passed Resolution #57-26: “receives for information … and thanks him for his time.” No staff direction. No referral to planning. No follow-up.
Before Morton filed the delegation, Lichty texted him: “Why would you not put this through the HATF.” After the presentation, Lichty sent one line: “Thx for your presentation this morning.” Nothing else followed.
On April 4, Rob Lesperance sent a detailed bylaw amendment package to the mayor. The mayor refused to bring it to council.
Three people. Three constructive proposals. Three times through proper channels. Three identical outcomes.
Before entering municipal politics, Lichty worked for the Ontario Ministry of Housing and served as Chief Designer with Toronto Community Housing. He was facilities manager for the Region of Waterloo. He founded Northwind Management Consultants, which delivered asset management and operational consulting to the social housing industry for more than fifteen years. The man who spent his career building the kind of housing North Frontenac lacks is now the mayor refusing to bring housing proposals to the table.
The Township’s Own Answers
NFNM submitted five questions to CAO Corey Klatt on March 26, 2026. He responded March 31.
Does North Frontenac have a housing plan? “The Township does not currently have a housing plan,” Klatt wrote. The HATF is “currently exploring options.”
Has the township applied to the Building Faster Fund’s rural stream? It has not.
The CMHC Rapid Housing Initiative? The application window closed in March 2024. North Frontenac never applied.
The Housing-Enabling Water Systems Fund? Applied, not successful.
The Municipal Housing and Infrastructure Program? The township received $1,022,000, for stormwater management in Plevna, not housing.
No plan. No applications to the Building Faster Fund. The Rapid Housing Initiative came and went. The one housing-related application failed. The money that did arrive went to stormwater.
South Frontenac secured $3.2 million from the Housing-Enabling Water Systems Fund for approximately 100 units in Verona. Central Frontenac is pursuing up to 45-50 units at the former Sharbot Lake school site with FCM feasibility funding. North Frontenac has 23 affordable units for a permanent population of 2,285. A task force exploring options.
The township’s median age is 61.6, more than twenty years above the Ontario median. Nearly 60 percent of its dwellings are seasonal or vacant. Only 60 renter households exist in the entire municipality. This is a population aging on fixed incomes in a housing market that barely acknowledges renters exist, served by 23 affordable units and a task force still exploring options.
“Nothing Will Change”
Lesperance sent an unsolicited email on March 23, 2026, responding to a draft article Morton had shared with him. In it, he wrote that the mayor told him “even if I do get in that nothing will change.” Lesperance called it “quite presumptuous.”
He was describing what Lichty said to him after a council meeting. Lesperance wrote that the mayor has been “increasingly harder to work with” and that the HATF, which Lichty chairs, is “not willing to even respond to” proposals Lesperance has shared. “Some of what I have shared to him are easy to implement and would cost peanuts to incorporate in the bylaws and make things more enticing for developers,” Lesperance wrote. “But to flat out tell me that even if I do get in that nothing will change? That is quite presumptuous.”
Told Not to Talk
Lichty told both Lesperance and Morton, separately, not to communicate with each other. Lichty gave the directive to Morton verbally, and the author documented it at the time. Lichty told Lesperance verbally after a council meeting, confirmed independently by a witness to the exchange. Both are declared candidates in the upcoming municipal election. Lesperance is running for Ward 2 councillor. The mayor knows this.
The Record
Three residents brought solutions through proper channels. One was received for information seventeen months ago. One was received for information two months ago. One was blocked before it reached the table.
Two of those residents are declared candidates in the upcoming municipal election. Both were told not to talk to each other. And the township, by its own admission in writing, has nothing to show for the time it has spent telling people to wait.
Every one of these facts is small enough to excuse on its own. A proposal received for information: that is normal procedure. A task force still exploring options: these things take time. A mayor declining to forward one resident’s bylaw package: that is his prerogative.
It is never just one. It is all of them, exposed to the air at the same time.
Disclosure: The author is a declared candidate in the upcoming North Frontenac municipal election and a subject in this article. Rob Lesperance is a declared candidate for Ward 2 councillor. All claims attributed to the author are documented in township records and correspondence on file. This article relies exclusively on township records, official correspondence, and on-the-record statements from named sources. No anonymous sources are used.
NFNM submitted five written questions to CAO Corey Klatt on March 26, 2026. Klatt responded March 31, copying Clerk Tara Mieske. NFNM sent further questions to Mayor Lichty on April 2, 2026, copied to all council members, the clerk, and the CAO. A follow-up was sent the morning of April 6, 2026. No response has been received from the mayor. Questions and full responses are preserved on file.
