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HomeMy WebLinkAboutThe Citizen, 2016-08-18, Page 5THE CITIZEN, THURSDAY, AUGUST 18, 2016. PAGE 5. Other Views Oh my. Wasn't that a party? Just off the left coast of this country, between Vancouver the city and Vancouver the island, lies a sprinkling of Edenic atolls known as the Gulf Islands. Nestled deep in the cleavage of this leafy/rocky archipelago you'll find Mayne Island. Not big, as Gulf Islands go — maybe 20 square kilometres. It's home to about 1,000 people. Usually. On July 13 Mayne experienced a one -day population bump of 167. They were recently arrived Syrian refugees who are currently finding homes in the nearby city of Victoria. Mayne Islanders had invited them all to a party. A party just for them. It was a sight. Gaggles of goggle-eyed kids, dark-complectioned men and — Stephen Harper if you're reading this, stop now — dozens of women in robes and headscarves. Halal hamburgers on the grill, mounds of salads and bottomless cups of ice cream, studded with Mayne Island cherries. It was all 'on the house' along with kids' games, music and yoga sessions — even a men's -drum circle. I don't know if `Potluck' translates into Arabic, but the visitors got the idea quickly enough — sussed it out that these preternaturally friendly islanders had opened their kitchens and their hearts to a group of Arthur Black strangers uprooted from the other side of the world. "Other side" in every sense of those words. These people came from places like Aleppo, Damascus and Homs. War-torn hellholes of bombed out buildings, shell -holed streets and burned -up husks of vehicles rusting in the sun. They had left a land where their ears were assaulted daily by the screams of jet fighters, the ratcheting of machine guns and the whump of heavy artillery. Now they were on a Canadian island, where the loudest noise came from squabbling geese, the avuncular chirps of territorial robins and the delighted squeals of their own children leavened by the plangent moan of a BC Ferry whistle. An oasis of utter tranquility; not a tank or a rifle of even an army uniform to be seen. But how meaningful could such a party be? After all, these Syrians spoke little or no English and you can probably hazard a guess as to how many Mayne Islanders are fluent in Arabic. Didn't matter. Communication was occurring on other planes. People sang and danced. At an open-mic session some men got up and sang songs from their homeland — something they'd been terrified to do in Syria for years. Who paid for all this? Mayne Islanders — mainly. The Syrian Refugee Support Group got together with the Lions Club, volunteers cooked up the food, BC Ferries picked up the tab for getting the Syrians — correction — the Syrian -Canadians — from Victoria to Mayne and back. But Mayne Islanders made it all happen. With payoffs a -plenty. Party -goers kicked in $13,000 toward a fund to pay for ESL lessons for the group. A teenager offered, in halting English, to help pick up garbage after the event. And then there was the 10 -year old Syrian girl who impulsively grabbed a microphone and shouted "Come closer" to the crowd. Then she sang "0 Canada". English was new to her, so she didn't get the words pitch -perfect. And she threw in a three -word cadenza. "I love Canada" she said. Oh my. Wasn't that a party? Five years later, the scars remain Five years ago this weekend, a force of nature cut a swath through Huron County, felling trees, devastating buildings and claiming one life. Later classified as an F3 tornado, the storm made landfall and tore through Goderich's downtown core before making its way northeast through farmland, Benmiller and more farmland before losing most of its destructive power, and, it's a good thing it did. I will always remember that weekend for several reasons. First and foremost, my family was hit pretty hard by the tornado. Both my father and my paternal grandfather's homes were hit by the tornado. My father's roof ended up needing replacement and my grandfather's old two- storey home was traded in for a slimmer, younger model as the house couldn't be salvaged after the storm. Secondly, the landscape of Goderich changed dramatically and, as someone who spent a good part of my childhood, and even life beyond that, there, it still hits me. For those not from the area, it may be hard to remember, however, I spent countless Friday nights and Sundays driving up Highway 8 towards the `five -points' intersection in Goderich. I was either heading to visit Ashleigh on my weekends or coming home to Goderich on my weekends when I was away at school. Anyone who travelled that stretch of road west from the outskirts of Goderich right into its commercial district would see a sea of tree tops on their way in and a beautiful canopy of cover when they got there. While some people who live in Goderich may be used to the absence of the trees, my relatively small amount of time going to the town has made me acutely aware of what was lost that day. Like in most accidents, the wounds heal, but the scars will still be there. Thirdly is another locale that still bears the scars of the devastating tornado is Benmiller. You have to be driving a certain direction, but when you come upon the small village you Denny Scott ethythilL Denny's Den can see the banks of the Maitland River are still barren after the destruction that carved its way through the county. Stumps of trees and some remaining logs are all that remain after the tornado devastated the area. Again, as someone growing up and traversing these roads, it's hard not to see what once was and realize just how much was lost by that tornado. Lastly was what I was doing when the tornado struck. I was at the Walton Raceway covering the annual Walton Motocross and the rain that hit the event led to ankle -to -knee deep puddles, sheets of vision -impairing rain, and lots of people, myself included, seeking shelter in the underground passageways that dot the landscape at Walton. Thinking at the time that this must be the most horrendous weather in the county, I was unaware of the fact that a tornado had touched down in Goderich and travelled nearly 20 kilometres inland causing nearly 40 injuries and doing $130 million in damage. A lot of issues were brought to light after the tornado came calling including the need for more advanced warnings (such as air sirens) and the need for a way to contact every individual in the county in case something like this ever happened again. We also, in my opinion, became a lot more scared of the weather for better or worse. This isn't the first bout of horrendous weather I had to live through. As a matter of fact, Goderich seems to be a bit of a magnet for this kind of trouble compared to anywhere else in the county. When I was much younger, what was thought to be a tornado rolled through the town in 1995. It was later discovered that the weather event was actually a cyclone. I remember carefully making my way upstairs (my parents had sequestered my sister and I to the basement due to the storm) to try and get a glimpse of what was occurring outside. I remember thinking it looked like a bad rain storm and little more. The rain was hard and nearly sideways, but I didn't see the danger of the storm until a few seconds later when I saw someone I can only explain as incredibly insane or incredibly cheap running down the road after his planters (which were more floating than rolling thanks to the high winds). However, after that cyclone, I can't remember a single instance of hiding from bad weather until the tornado rolled through five years ago. Maybe it's some kind of meteorological shift, but it seems to me that, since that day, there have been more bad weather warnings, more possible tornados and, in general, more intense weather situations than there were before. I don't know if these events are simply more prevalent because people are aware of the danger they can cause or if they are actually happening more often. Regardless of whether it's being more sensitive to the danger or the danger happening more often, it's hard not to look back and remember what happened that day every time I see the banks of the Maitland in Benmiller or the conspicuous absence of trees over the area east of The Square in Goderich. So while this weekend may mark the Walton 2016 TransCan Canadian Grand National Championship Motocross for some and the Huron County Plowing Match for others, for me it marks five years since the day the F3 entered the vocabulary of everyone in Huron County. Final Thought You have enemies? Good. That means you've stood up for something, sometime in your life. — Winston Churchill Shawn Loughlin Shawn's Sense When two become one you can forgive Huron East councillors who are of the mind that the concept of "shared services" have mutated into an ever-growing monster that approaches single - tier government. Mayor Bernie MacLellan addressed the controversial issue at council's Aug. 10 meeting, saying that he never spoke of single - tier government, or meant for councillors or residents to jump to those conclusions. And he's right, he never spoke about shared services as being a precursor to single -tier government, but you can understand why some would interpret it that way. Mass council meetings, joint delegations seeking further participants and using the Morris-Turnberry/North Huron project as a model would make anyone with a bit of background in municipal politics see a mass amalgamation just around the bend. What councillors in Huron East have now brainstormed, however, seems to be the way to proceed, at least in my opinion — and Central Huron Council has essentially said the same thing, without specifically coming out and saying the same thing. North Huron and Morris-Turnberry are essentially amalgamating their services. Their governance structures will remain separate, but as far as the services they provide, North Huron is Morris-Turnberry and vice versa. Amalgamating services from Molesworth to Exeter doesn't make sense. For municipal CAOs who are already run off their feet looking after their own municipalities, I disagree with MacLellan when he identifies that position as one with some room for efficiencies. What Central Huron and Bluewater have done with a number of services — including a fire chief and a community improvement co- ordinator — makes more sense to me. If a service is necessary, but there simply isn't enough work to warrant a full-time position, you look to share with a neighbour. What you don't do is force efficiencies down the throats of dedicated employees. If a municipality is running smoothly and cheaply compared to its neighbours, as Huron East seems to be, then you don't keep trimming to the bone. Yes, costs are rising and funding is dropping, but there are basic needs in every municipality and in my mind a massive shared services agreement from the north end of the county to the south will mean far, far less in terms of service for your tax dollars. You can't fault councillors for wanting to look, though. It stands to reason that there's always one department or another that could be trimmed up — but sometimes there isn't and finding that you're wrong about that assumption should be good news, not bad. Many people, including some at Huron East, have said that what's going on with North Huron and Morris-Turnberry is what happened in Huron East in 2001 when Seaforth, Brussels and McKillop, Grey and Tuckersmith Townships amalgamated to make Huron County's largest municipality. And this concept for North Huron and Morris- Turnberry may just work — but for them. It's a proposal tailor-made for those two. Very often those in Huron County, especially those involved in local politics and planning, complain about the one -size -fits -all approach to rural Ontario policies handed down from Toronto or Ottawa. People so attuned to the failures of a one -size -fits -all approach shouldn't be so quick to then apply that same approach to their municipalities in hopes of saving a few bucks.