Lambton County: Balanced budget forecast, despite hit to short revenue

Lambton County officials expect to end 2023 with a balanced budget, even with a projected $475,000 revenue shortfall because of a shortage of justices of the peace in the local provincial offenses court.

“There’s always, in a budget, some good news and some bad news,” Larry Palarchio, the county’s general manager for finance, told a county council committee.

The bad news includes an expected shortfall in revenue the county receives from the payments of fines issued in the provincial offenses court because of a shortage of provincially-appointed justices of the peace presiding over cases heard there under the Highway Traffic Act and civic bylaws, as well as provincial environmental protection, occupational health and safety, animal control and trespassing laws.

A county report says municipalities across western Ontario have seen a reduction in provincial offenses court operating hours because of a justice of the peace shortage blamed on “retirements, leaves of absence and insufficient hiring.”

Beginning in September, Lambton is expected to operate its provincial offenses court only one day a week, or less, because of the shortage. It had two days of short each week before cutbacks began in 2022.

“I think the issue at this point in time, in terms of appointments, is catching up the number of retirements that have occurred over the last number of years, particularly with COVID pressures,” said Stéphane Thiffeault, the county’s chief administrative officer. “As a result of that, there has been a backlog for appointments.”

The committee backed a staff recommendation that the county petition the provincial government “to immediately address the chronic lack of justices of the peace” in the region.

“They should have had this figured out five years ago that people are going to retire,” said Lambton Shores Mayor Doug Cook.

The recommendation goes to the full county council in September.

Ontario’s Ministry of the Attorney General said in July there are more than 325 justices of the peace in Ontario and 42 vacancies were advertised in April. An advisory committee was reviewing applications that were received by the May 31 deadline and will present the ministry with a list of recommended candidates.

“The ministry continues to work closely with the judiciary to ensure that all court locations are effectively resourced,” a spokesperson said previously.

Lambton officials have made suggestions to the regional senior justice of the peace, including removing a cap on the number of hours justices of the peace can preside, using justices of the peace from outside the region, allowing them to preside remotely, as well as expediting new appointments and modifying their training.

Thiffeault said there is a “fairly rigid” system for appointing and training justices of the peace.

“They appoint once a year, if I understand correctly,” he said. “And once you’re appointed, it probably takes at least another 18 months to two years for the individual to be able to sit independently on the bench.”

In what he called an “early warning” for council, Palarchio said, “If this isn’t rectified in the short term, we may have challenging revenues for 2024 and beyond.”

Revenue from provincial offenses court fines is used to pay the cost of operating the local court, as well as grant funds to Lambton’s municipalities to help with local policing costs, and to Sarnia police to help with the cost of court security. This year’s Lambton budget also called for nearly $424,000 in short fine revenue to be used to lower county property taxes.

Thiffeault told the committee that along with the impact of fewer days of court, the number of charges coming before the local court “has gone down dramatically over the last 10 years” and “larger, six-figure fines have been fairly inexistent in the last little while.”

Large fines have, in the past, included those paid by local industries for convictions on environmental charges.

A county financial update based on the first half of 2023 also points to an anticipated $324,000 deficit in the infrastructure and development services division caused by inflation, supply chain disruptions and emergency culvert repairs this summer following intense storms.

In one case, a culvert failure following heavy rain opened a sinkhole in Lakeshore Road in Lambton Shores.

Surpluses projected in other county divisions are expected to absorb the shortfalls.

“We’ve seen some positive results as far as interest rate revenue on our investment returns for our reserve funds, so that’s the good news story of the budget,” Palarchio said.

[email protected]