Lanark

Local issues. Ontario-wide lessons.

Thirty-Six Per Cent of Lanark’s Ambulance Trips Were Transfers Between Hospitals.

An ambulance with two paramedics can look busy without answering a 911 call.

Lanark County recorded 13,219 patient-carrying paramedic calls in 2025, and an extraordinary 36% were transfers between health facilities. With four hospital sites in the County, patients are frequently moved for diagnostics and other services. Council has now approved a one-year pilot using Lanark Transportation Association vehicles for appropriate low-acuity transfers so ambulances can remain available for emergencies.

The cost comparison is equally revealing. County staff said a patient-carrying paramedic call costs just over $1,000, while the proposed accessible-van pilot is estimated at about $300 per day, or $75,000 annually, with half potentially eligible for provincial funding. The exact savings will depend on how many transfers can safely move to the new service, but the operating logic is compelling.

This is what municipal innovation should look like: identify an expensive resource being used for a task that may not require it, design a lower-cost alternative and measure the result. Lanark should publish ambulance hours released, emergency coverage gained, transfer costs avoided and patient outcomes after six and twelve months.

The surprising problem in Lanark was not a shortage of ambulances alone. More than one-third of patient trips were using ambulances for transfers. Sometimes the cheapest new ambulance is the ambulance you stop using for something else.

Lanark’s Roads Need 19,000 Tonnes of Asphalt—and Asphalt Prices Jumped 48% in Three Years.

Municipal inflation becomes much more understandable when it arrives by the tonne.

Lanark County planned to purchase more than 19,000 tonnes of asphalt in 2026 while completing pavement preservation on 17.2 kilometres of roads and rehabilitation with paved shoulders on another 16.5 kilometres. The County says asphalt pricing had jumped by a historic 48% over the preceding three years, although pricing stabilized for 2026.

That kind of increase can overwhelm an infrastructure budget even if Council adds no new service. Lanark’s 2026 road capital program totals about $11.8 million, supported partly by approximately $2.18 million from the federal Canada Community-Building Fund and $662,376 from Ontario’s Community Infrastructure Fund.

Residents should therefore stop seeing a road budget simply as kilometres repaired. The County should publish tonnes of asphalt purchased, average price per tonne, cost per rehabilitated kilometre and the share funded by local property taxes versus senior governments. That would show when tax pressure comes from more construction and when it comes simply from buying the same material at a much higher price.

Lanark did not need 48% more asphalt to get the same road. For a period, it simply had to pay dramatically more for it—and that is how inflation quietly becomes a property-tax problem.

Lanark Has Paved Shoulders on Nearly 75% of Its County Roads. That Is More Than a Cycling Story.

Lanark County says nearly three-quarters of its County road network now has paved shoulders, part of an ongoing program that continues through the 2026 construction season.

Paved shoulders are often discussed as cycling infrastructure, but their value is broader. They provide recovery space for vehicles, reduce pavement-edge deterioration, offer room for pedestrians and cyclists and can make rural roads safer when slow-moving farm machinery or disabled vehicles occupy part of the roadway.

That makes Lanark’s program worth evaluating as an infrastructure investment rather than merely an amenity. Compare collision rates on road segments before and after paved shoulders. Measure pavement-edge maintenance. Track cycling and pedestrian use where practical. If the County can show measurable safety or lifecycle savings, other rural municipalities have a replicable case for doing the same.

The surprising story may be that the extra strip of asphalt beside the travel lane is doing several jobs at once. Lanark is already at roughly 75%; now taxpayers should see what that investment has actually bought them.

Lanark Sent Ambulances Across the Leeds-Grenville Border 1,407 Times in One Year.

Municipal boundaries are obvious on maps.

They are much less useful when somebody calls 911.

Lanark County paramedics responded to 1,407 cross-border calls in the United Counties of Leeds and Grenville in 2024, according to County reporting. A newer dispatch protocol is expected to reduce those calls, with 2026 volumes forecast to be around 20% below the 2024 level. Lanark reported $405,920 in 2024 cross-border revenue, with ambulance funding shared with the province.

The numbers reveal how interconnected rural emergency systems already are. The closest ambulance may sit on the wrong side of a municipal line, and sending it can save time. But every vehicle that leaves Lanark is temporarily unavailable to Lanark residents.

The right question is therefore not whether cross-border response should occur—it should when it benefits the patient—but whether compensation, deployment and dispatch rules keep both systems adequately protected. Counties should publish cross-border calls received and supplied, average time outside jurisdiction and the net financial effect.

Lanark’s ambulances crossed into one neighbouring county more than 1,400 times in a year. Rural emergency medicine already operates regionally, whether municipal governance admits it or not.

Lanark’s Property-Tax Base Is 86% Residential. That Makes Every Business Matter More.

Lanark County’s 2026 levy is approximately $47 million, with residential property representing 86% of taxes paid and about $9.5 billion of the County’s $10.7-billion total assessment.

That concentration is economically important. A community with a larger industrial and commercial assessment base can spread municipal costs over more types of property. In Lanark, homeowners carry the overwhelming share, meaning every expansion of the non-residential tax base can help diversify who supports County services.

Economic development should therefore be evaluated partly through fiscal impact. When a business expands, how much new commercial or industrial assessment is created? How many jobs arrive? How much additional municipal servicing does the project require? A project creating $10 million of assessment with limited new infrastructure burden may be more valuable to taxpayers than a development producing the same assessment but requiring major roads and services.

The surprising Lanark number is not the $47-million levy. It is that residential property carries 86% of the tax load. Economic diversification is therefore also tax-base diversification.

Should Municipal Building Officials Have a Boat to Inspect Waterfront Properties?

A boat appearing in a municipal agenda may sound trivial. In Lanark Highlands, it raises a much larger question about the expanding reach of municipal enforcement.

An August council agenda included a proposal to purchase a boat, motor, trailer and safety equipment, funded from Building Code Administration reserves, to assist with Building Code enforcement on waterfront properties. There is an obvious operational case.

Some waterfront properties cannot be easily reached from a public road. Building officials have statutory duties. Unsafe construction does not become acceptable simply because the property is remote. But enforcement powers deserve boundaries and transparency. Municipalities now have access to increasingly sophisticated GIS systems, aerial photography and digital property records. Adding direct water access expands the practical ability of officials to reach secluded properties.

Residents should therefore know precisely how that power will be exercised. Will inspections occur only after a permit application or complaint? Can officers approach a property from the water without advance notice?

What statutory authority governs entry?
What records are kept?
Who approves use of the boat?

How will fishing, recreation or ordinary waterfront activity be distinguished from matters requiring enforcement? These questions are not arguments against the Building Code. They are arguments for clear rules. Government inspection powers exist because unsafe buildings can endanger occupants and neighbours. Property rights exist because citizens are entitled to privacy and predictable limits on government intrusion. Both principles can coexist. Lanark Highlands has an opportunity to make the balance explicit rather than waiting for a dispute. If municipalities are acquiring new tools that expand enforcement capability, shouldn’t residents also receive stronger transparency about when and how those tools can be used?

SHOULD A MUNICIPALITY BUY A BOAT TO ENFORCE THE BUILDING CODE ON WATERFRONT PROPERTIES?

Lanark Highlands has considered acquiring a boat and related equipment to assist with waterfront Building Code work.

That seemingly small purchase raises a fascinating property-rights question.

Ontario municipalities increasingly use GIS, drones, aerial imagery and other technology to understand what is happening on private property. A boat adds another enforcement tool.

There are legitimate reasons for inspections. There are also limits on municipal authority.

How far should municipal enforcement extend when your backyard happens to be a lake?