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HomeMy WebLinkAboutThe Citizen, 2016-09-15, Page 4PAGE 4. THE CITIZEN, THURSDAY, SEPTEMBER 15, 2016. Editorials Opinions Publisher: Keith Roulston Editor: Shawn Loughlin • Reporter: Denny Scott Advertising Sales: Brenda Nyveld & Nicole Gillespie The Citizen is published 50 times a year in Brussels, Ontario by North Huron Publishing Company Inc. Subscriptions are payable in advance at a rate of $36.00/year ($34.29 + $1.71 G.S.T.) in Canada; $160.00/year in U.S.A. and $205/year in other foreign countries. Advertising is accepted on the condition that in the event of a typographical error, only that portion of the advertisement will be credited. Advertising Deadlines: Mon. 2 p.m. - Brussels; Mon. 4 p.m. - Blyth. PUBLICATIONS MAIL AGREEMENT NO. 40050141 RETURN UNDELIVERABLE CANADIAN ADDRESSES TO CIRCULATION DEPT. PO BOX 152 BRUSSELS ON NOG 1HO email: info@northhuron.on.ca The Citizen P.O. Box 429, P.O. Box 152, BLYTH, Ont. BRUSSELS, Ont. NOM 1H0 NOG 1 HO Ph. 519-523-4792 Phone Fax 519-523-9140 519-887-9114 E-mail info@northhuron.on.ca Website www.northhuron.on.ca Canada ..ocna CCNA Member of the Ontario Press Council We acknowledge the financial support of the Government of Canada through the Canada Periodical Fund of the We are not responsible for unsolicited newsscripts or Department of Canadian Heritage. photographs. Contents of The Citizen are © Copyright CMCA AUDITED One size doesn't fit all Huron County Council is once again at a standstill over the South Western Integrated Fibre Technology (SWIFT) Project after it learned that the massive project is designed to solve problems Huron County doesn't have. The idea behind SWIFT sounds good: to bring a high speed fibre optic internet network to 3 5 million people in 16 municipalities and regions in southwestern Ontario. The problem with the project is in the very grandness of its goal — with one stroke to deliver a fibre optic system to one of the most populated areas of Ontario. As far as Huron County goes, that's where the problems start, not the solutions. For one thing, SWIFT's one -size -fits -all solution means that only the giants of the industry are big enough to bid on the work to be done. Ironically, these giants such as Bell Canada have shown little interest previously in improving service for rural customers. The giants become interested however, when the federal, provincial and municipal governments are providing a huge numbers in subsidies. Meanwhile, Huron County has been better served by smaller private and co- operatively -own telecoms which have been attempting, with their limited resources, to take fibre optic connections to a growing number of rural residents. Now they may be hurt by subsidies to giant competitors. On top of that, the SWIFT proposal doesn't address Huron's real problem — getting connections on the "last mile" to rural homes. Meanwhile it may duplicate service to urban centres that are already served. The problem is that the federal and provincial government want to have a big bang that will get lots of attention instead of doing the hard work that will actually solve local problems. Having set up this mammoth project they may be unwilling to listen to smaller local solutions that might work better. They need to rethink SWIFT. — KR Solve a problem, create another Looking Back Through the Years The promise by Premier Kathleen Wynne in Monday's speech from The promise by Premier Kathleen in speech from the throne opening a new session of the provincial legislation to remove the eight per cent provincial portion of the HST from electricity bills may help cool the anger of homeowners, but it will only make the province's fragile financial predicament worse. Lowering the tax on electrical bills is estimated to cost the provincial treasury a billion dollars a year in lost revenue. Since the government is supposedly working to balance the budget before its term ends, this hardly seems like a helpful move. Some might call this buying taxpayers favour with their own money. Actually it's more likely pleasing taxpayers' with borrowed money. Going in debt to make electricity costs seem less painful is not a solution. — KR Will humans never learn? Sunday's 15th anniversary of the terrorist attacks on the World Trade Centre and the Pentagon which coincided with new hope for a cease-fire from the atrocities in the terrible Syrian war illustrate again that some misguided people can't put humanity ahead of their simplistic agendas. The hijackers who flew their planes, full of innocent passengers, into the Twin Towers and the Pentagon killing thousands more people who had never done any harm to them, couldn't separate the guiltlessness of these individuals from their hatred of the country the victims called home. If anything, the situation in Syria is even more inhumane with the government of Bashar al -Assad so determined to stay in power that it has bombed its own cities to rubble and used nerve and chlorine gas against its own people. The several rebel groups trying to bring his government down have also resorted to war crimes against the ordinary civilians. It's depressing to think that despite all the hard lessons of man's inhumanity to man, from the death camps of Nazi Germany to the killing fields of Pol Pot's Cambodia, we still have people reverting to behaviour that sacrifices the rights and the lives of guiltless people for their own short-term interests. No matter what efforts are made toward human enlightenment it seems some people will still choose to act on the dark side. — KR Letters Policy The Citizen welcomes letters to the editor. Letters must be signed and should include a daytime telephone number for the purpose of verification only. Letters that are not signed will not be printed. Submissions may be edited for length, clarity and content, using fair comment as our guideline. The Citizen reserves the right to refuse any letter on the basis of unfair bias, prejudice or inaccurate information. As well, letters can only be printed as space allows. Please keep your letters brief and concise. September 16, 1959 Highway 4 between Blyth and Clinton was set to see improvements in the 1961 road work schedule. "With No. 4 Highway between Blyth and Clinton being in such deplorable condition, and seemingly every day continuing to become worse, many residents of the area have been wondering just when reconstruction work would begin on this highway," The Blyth Standard stated. Jack Sprung, who was renovating his home at the time, brought an issue of The Blyth Standard from Jan. 24, 1918 into the newspaper's office. The editor at the time of the edition was J.H.R. Elliott. The issue of the newspaper featured two letters on the front page, one from Capt. Wil Fingland and the other from Lance Corporal Bert McElroy, both of whom were serving overseas with the Canadian Army. September 17, 1970 Over 2,000 people were in attendance for the 1970 Belgrave, Blyth, Brussels School Fair, which was held on Sept. 12. The 1970 event was the 50th annual fair. The day began with a lengthy parade, which included 11 floats from the former school sections, as well as a number of local bands, including the Brussels Legion Pipe Band and the Hanover Trumpet Band. David Hulley, a high school teacher from Mitchell, was the guest speaker at the Brussels Lions Club meeting. Hulley addressed problems with the education system with the club. Dave Wheeler came out on top of the Brussels Agricultural Society's ensilage corn field crop competition results with a total score of 93. Stan Hopper was just behind with 92, followed by Charles Bray with a score of 91. Also featured in the parade was School Parade Princess Barbara Muilwyk of RR4, Brussels, as well as attendants Joyce Pearson of Brussels and Kathy Dunbar of RR1, Belgrave. September 17, 1986 Both Jack Riddell and Murray Elston announced their intentions to seek the Liberal nomination in the two new ridings created by a shift in riding boundaries. Riddell, who was serving as the Minister of Agriculture and the MPP for Huron -Middlesex, and Elston, who was serving as the Minister of Health and MPP for Huron -Bruce were both looking at new ridings — Riddell would run in Huron, while Elston would run in Bruce. Both men lived in Huron, but the announcement ended weeks of speculation by announcing their intention to seek other seats in the coming election. Despite the worst rainfall in the 66 -year history of the Belgrave, Blyth and Brussels School Fair, the event went ahead as planned on Sept. 10. With a record rainfall of between six and seven inches across Huron County the previous week, the white bean harvest was in real trouble according to Brian Hall of the Ontario Ministry of Agriculture and Food. Just two weeks earlier, the office was predicting an excellent bean harvest, thanks to the conditions, with higher than normal yields. Those expectations, however, were shattered with the heavy rainfall and only between 20 and 25 per cent of the crop in. An Auburn -area man was listed as being in serious condition in a hospital in London after he was stabbed eight times in a fight outside of the Bedford Hotel in Goderich. The fight began inside the bar, where two men were arguing. They were ejected from the establishment and onto the street, where the altercation occurred. September 18, 2002 Jo -Ann McDonald of Walton was named the Citizen of the Year for the Brussels area. Nominators said that McDonald was one of the community's "real volunteers" who could be found "everywhere" volunteering for a number of organizations. McDonald had spent time over the years volunteering for the Brussels Legion, Duff's United Church and its Sunday school, the Brussels Agricultural Society, the Grey Township Heart and Stroke campaign, the Brussels, Morris and Grey Catering Group, Brussels curling, minor hockey, the Walton Hall Board and the Walton and area sports club, among others. Spread amongst nearly 70 participants, the Brussels Terry Fox run raised just under $4,500, exceeding the run's total from a year before. Over $600 of that total was raised courtesy of roadside donations collected by volunteers Carol Thornton and Joan Jacobs. With the "extremely dry" summer of 2002, farmers were having to harvest their crops early. Brian Hall from the Ontario Ministry of Agriculture and Food said that yields were proving to be very uneven. Nicole Lowe was chosen as the 2002 Brussels Fall Fair Ambassador. She was crowned by 2001 Ambassador Kelly McDonald.