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HomeMy WebLinkAboutThe Citizen, 2015-03-12, Page 14MILLER (Hunter), Joan. In loving memory of a dear wife, mother and grandmother, who passed away March 14, 2002. In our home she is fondly remembered, Sweet memories cling to her name. Those who loved her in life sincerely, Still love her in death just the same. – Loved and remembered by her family Ken, Stacey, Jody, Chris, Veronica and Mikaela. 10-1 -------------------------------------------- STEPHENSON, Velma, who peacefully left us on March 17, 2014. When tomorrow starts without her, Don’t think we’re far apart, For every time we think of her, She is right there in our hearts. – Missed by Courtney and Bonnie and families. 10-1 INCOME TAX PREPARATION and E-Filing. Business, farm, personal. Call Sunshine Country Consulting, 519-887-6011, 810 Turnberry St., Brussels. 07-11 -------------------------------------------- INCOME TAX PREPARATION – farm, business, personal. Get your credits. Call Shirley 519-357-2053. 07-6p -------------------------------------------- INCOME TAX PREPARATION – farm, business, personal, Stephen Thompson, 519-482-3244. 06-12 -------------------------------------------- FAXING SERVICE We can send or receive faxes for you for only $1.00 per page. The Citizen, 413 Queen St., Blyth. Phone 519- 523-4792. Fax 519-523-9140. tfn BOOK FOR 2015: TWO-BED- room cottage with bunkhouse at Point Clark, includes fully-equipped kitchen, gas barbecue, fire pit, horseshoe pit and much more, close to lighthouse and beach. To find out more or to book your holiday call 519-523-4799 after 6:00 p.m. tfn -------------------------------------------- PAGE 14. THE CITIZEN, THURSDAY, MARCH 12, 2015. All word ads in The Citizen classifieds are put on our webpage at www.northhuron.on.ca Classified Advertisements In memoriam Services acation propertiesV Real estate Right At Home Realty Inc. Nature Lovers 100 Acres ~ Westfield Road, well maintained 1880s, 3 bedroom log home, good barn and shed, approx. 85 acres mixed bush, 12 acres cropland. Bush trails, creek, etc. Lots of possibilities. Priced right at $368,000. Brian Potter, sales rep. 519-357-3622 1-800-520-3276 Modern Split Level Home ~ Spotless 4 level, 4 bedroom home on spacious mature treed lot. Priced at $239,900. Listings Wanted ~ Spring is a prime time to sell. Homes, farms, lots and acreages are needed. Give me a call. SOLD See histories and historic photographs on the Huron History section of our website www.northhuron.on.ca Continued from page 1 different tale. MacLellan said it would be “pretty tough” if he were in the shoes of the provincial government to look at the county budget, with a two per cent increase to the tax levy and, depending on the year’s expenditures, between $35 and $40 million in reserves, and believe councillors when they told him how hard up for money the county is. He said that if the county wants to do a little long-term financial planning, perhaps reserves should be utilized even more to provide people with a true picture of the county’s financial situation. Gowing disagreed, saying that when looking at the county’s situation, people should look at the complete taxation picture. He said that once budgets are factored in at the lower-tier levels, it’s clear that Huron County is being hit very hard at budget time by a number of factors. Howick Reeve Art Versteeg agreed, saying that lower-tier budgets are certainly being impacted due to OMPF cuts and changing funding models. Howick, as has been widely reported, is facing a potential tax rate increase of over 25 per cent as a result of a number of factors, OMPF cuts being one of them. Goderich Mayor Kevin Morrison said that the declining funding, which is expected to continue, is simply a sign of the times and that councillors should get used to it. “I think the time has come that we can no longer rely on others for funding,” he said. In the county’s press release, Gowing commented on the fiscal realities of the county, saying he has been in contact with representatives from numerous branches of government. “In the past month, on behalf of my fellow councillors, I’ve spoke to both the Minister of Finance and Minister of Agriculture, Food and Rural Affairs about our concerns regarding OMPF cutbacks,” Gowing said in the release. “Rural municipalities have to work together to make the province understand our demographic and fiscal realities.” Treasurer Michael Blumhagen was complimented by several councillors on his easy-to- understand budget summary, which was presented to council at its March 4 meeting. That summary is now available on the county’s website at www.huroncounty.ca/ financial/ Budget passed Processing, a need in Huron Continued from page 11 cent matching contributions) concerned Jeff Klomps of the Farm Finance Committee, Phil Dykstra of Ontario Pork and Harvey Hoggart of Beef Farmers of Ontario. “Neutering these programs makes them ineffective for farmers,” said Klomps. He’d like to see them uncoupled, paid out separately and returned to their former levels. Hoggart echoed this statement. “While I get your point that they need more dollars, we have a province that is broke and we need to get money to the front lines and I don’t see a solution for that right now,” answered Thompson. “But I will continue to take it forward and use what I learned today for debate.” Lobb said he and Klomps have been going to the same meetings for seven years, so he knows exactly what Klomps wants and how he will respond. “I always say that farmers need to make a living out of the markets, not out of their mailbox,” he said. Dykstra said the hog farmers are very appreciative of the quick response for funding when the Porcine Epidemic Diarrhea crisis hit the hog industry. However, he questioned why four out of five applications to the Grow Forward 2 program are being rejected. Lobb countered that he thought one in five is probably a “decent rate of acceptance.” Hoggart also wished to see funds directed to the beef sector to offset the costs of mandatory traceability. Thompson said she is definitely onside with the beef industry’s successful feeder finance program adding that beef farmers would be wise to collaborate with other organizations with existing traceability programs to reduce costs of establishing their own. Lobb confirmed the federal government’s commitment of $7.5 million to a national traceability database. PACKING AND PROCESSING PLANTS The closing of Quality Meats was a blow for pork producers, said Dykstra. It used to slaughter 30 per cent of the Ontario kill and without easy access to the U.S. market, these hogs are now being shipped to Quebec. Fortunately, Quebec is short on hogs, but what happens when hog numbers increase and they refuse to take Ontario hogs? “We need a strategy for packing and processing in Ontario,” said Dykstra. Hoggart agreed, saying that in the beef industry, “it doesn’t make sense that cattle go across the border and are shipped back in boxes.” Thompson said that Ontario definitely needs more processing so that Ontarians are the ones adding value and being the exporters, rather than importers. FOREIGN WORKERS In conjunction with the need for processing plants, Dykstra said it is imperative that primary production continue to be exempt from the Temporary Foreign Workers Program so that plants can run at full capacity. Lobb argued that Canadian jobs need to be offered to Canadians first and if a company has trouble attracting workers, the issue of pay, attitude and how the workers are treated needs to be addressed. “I used to work at Wescast and it’s a foundry. It was hot as heck in the summer, and there were night shifts, but there were umpteen applications to work there because they treated their workers very well.” McQuail concurred saying work conditions are important and workers need to feel valuable. He has to turn people away from working at his farm. Regardless, for plants to stay open they need workers and when Canadians won’t take those jobs, there needs to be room to allow temporary works to fill those positions, concluded Dykstra, LABOUR LAWS Bethany Johnson of the Huron County Christian Farmers Association zoned in on the Ontario Retirement Pension Plan (ORPP) and said while Premier Kathleen Wynne has challenged agriculture to create 120,000 new jobs, she’s also making it more difficult to keep existing jobs by asking businesses to contribute to the ORPP. “The ORPP is going to cost business more to do business in Ontario.” Combine that with a growing disparity between Canadian labour laws and the costs associated with paying for overtime, vacation pay, etc., to the lack of labour laws in other countries, and there is an uneven playing field. “We put more rules on ourselves, yet import from countries that don’t have any rules.” Thompson agreed to the concerns about the ORPP, saying, “We also see it as a labour cost that is tough for business to recoup. We hear that one way small business will be dealing with it is to hire less employees so we are challenging it every chance we get.” EXTENSION SUPPORT A few leaders mentioned their worry about the loss of personnel at Ontario Ministry of Agriculture, Food and Rural Affairs (OMAFRA) due to retirements and job loss. This concern was one of Thompson’s primary take-home messages from the meeting. “We have to make sure we don’t lose the support that allows farm organizations and community groups to continue to prosper,” said Thompson, citing the retirement of someone like Jane Muegge who represents “a conduit of networking and understanding of rural Ontario” which in combination, accelerates the economy. CONNECTIONS Pat Jamieson of the Public Relations Committee reminded the group, “We’re all in this together.” That was later exemplified by Johnson and Black. After the meeting, Johnson went up to Black hoping there weren’t hard feelings over the neonicotinoid issue. Black said, “It’s very important to remember that we can get passionate about the issues but friendships and relationships still trump feelings about business.” Brussels collection discussed Garbage collection in Brussels may take centre stage for a future discussion of Huron East Council, as Brown Sanitation has expressed an interest in collecting the village’s trash. Councillor Nathan Marshall informed council that the company, which already collects waste in Seaforth, Egmondville and some of Tuckersmith, has expressed an interest in expanding its services into the Brussels Ward. After Marshall first approached council with the request in February, staff then prepared a report on waste collection throughout the municipality and presented it to council at its March 3 meeting. In his report, Chief Administrative Officer Brad Knight detailed a number of factors around making a change to the current Waste Management collection in Brussels. “Garbage collection/recycling will continue to evolve and may be affected by other developments such as the pending closure of the Mid- Huron Landfill site,” Knight said in his report. “Council may wish to acknowledge that Brown Sanitation is an option, but before commencing a formal process to select options, council should determine the service levels that are acceptable in the various wards.” Knight expressed a concern about the level of service being expected in various wards evolving beyond what Brown Sanitation can provide. He cited a specific example from last year of Brussels Ward councillors looking into the potential for a wheelie-bin system, which is currently being used in various other Huron County communities. He also detailed some issues currently being experienced in Seaforth and suggested municipal collection as a potential solution. “In Seaforth, the municipality has experienced problems with contamination of the large overhead- dump depot recycling bins,” Knight said in his report. “A solution to this could be to move garbage collection/disposal to a municipal service and make it part of the municipal tax rate. With the present commitment to Bluewater Recycling for wheelie-bin recyclable pick-up, it may be logical to move to a co- collection wheelie-bin service that is currently provided to many urban areas by Bluewater Recycling.” Knight suggested that council take a “good look” at a wheelie-bin system before proceeding further with any other options, saying it would represent a “major change” for Brussels. Marshall told council that he had advised a representative from Brown Sanitation that his best course of action would be to speak to council in the form of a delegation. Knight agreed that was the appropriate way to proceed. By Shawn Loughlin The Citizen