The Citizen, 2015-03-19, Page 1CitizenTh
e
$1.25 GST included Serving the communities of Blyth and Brussels and northern Huron County Thursday, March 19, 2015
Volume 31 No. 11
CHURCH - Pg. 18
Majority vote to close
Duff’s United Church
HOCKEY - Pg. 8
Midget AE Crusaders win
first OMHA final game
Publications Mail Agreement No. 40050141 Return Undeliverable Items to North Huron Publishing Company Inc., P.O. Box 152, BRUSSELS, ON N0G 1H0
INSIDE
THIS WEEK:
Is it spring yet?
Two-year-old Brynn Bell, left, and four-year-old Layla Bell, both from London, visited the Blyth
Creek Maple Farm over the weekend for one of their new Sugar Bush Adventure Tours that
have been held all week to coincide with March Break. The Bells spent some time at the site’s
Ojibwa camp, more specifically, in its teepee. The tours included plenty of activities, including
a look at the First Nations’ method of making maple syrup. (Vicky Bremner photo)
County clarifies troubling 2014 business report
County to begin
facilities review
After jaws hit the floor in
November when the Four County
Labour Market Planning Board
announced that Huron County lost
617 businesses in 2014, further
research has led local planners to
encourage the board to look at the
bigger picture.
The report, first discussed at
Huron County Council’s Nov. 12
meeting, moved council to ask the
Huron County Planning and
Development Department to further
investigate the figures. The figures
were called surprising at the time
and were said to reflect very poorly
on the county’s economic standing.
After further digging, Director of
Planning and Development Scott
Tousaw told councillors that the
study’s figures were indeed accurate,
but were far from complete in telling
Huron County’s story.
The decline in businesses in 2014
of 10 per cent, he said at council’s
March 11 committee of the whole
meeting, came after an 18 per cent
increase in county businesses in
2013. The five-year trend, he says,
which provides a more complete
picture of Huron County’s business
base, is that there has been a nine per
cent increase in businesses in Huron
County over the past five years.
Tousaw suggested that the
county’s report be shared with the
Four County Labour Market
Planning Board and that perhaps a
longer time frame be suggested for
the release of future reports.
This was also the suggestion of
John Thompson Editorial Services, a
consulting firm that was retained to
further analyze the board’s report.
The company stated that context is
essential to analyzing figures such as
business trends and that a year-over-
year comparison doesn’t provide
enough context to be considered
representative.
Tousaw also told councillors that
there are a number of other factors at
play as well. He said there is no way
to differentiate between a business
on the books with zero employees
and one with 250 employees. They
are equal as far as the study is
concerned.
He also cited the income cut-off in
order to be considered “a business”
in terms of the study. He said that if
a business doesn’t earn a gross
income of $30,000, it isn’t
considered a business. With many
small or part-time businesses,
including some agricultural
operations, oscillating around the
cut-off, it could mean that in a good
year, the business would be included
in the study, while in a year with a
slightly lower income, it may not.
Grain and animal farms, Tousaw
said, could also be a factor, as those
numbers have fluctuated greatly in
recent years. Since 2010, the report
states, the number of crop
production businesses in Huron and
Perth Counties has nearly doubled,
while during that same period the
number of animal production
businesses has declined by between
20 and 25 per cent.
Tousaw also mentioned, as he did
in November, that 420 of the 617
“lost” businesses were officially
registered as companies, but had no
payroll and no employees, which
was worth noting, he said.
Huron East Mayor Bernie
MacLellan said he found the report
to be extremely helpful and he
agreed with Tousaw, that it helped
provide context to the figures first
presented in November that perhaps
lacked context.
Central Huron Mayor Jim Ginn,
however, had a slightly different take
on Tousaw’s report and the 2014
study, saying that he felt it was
already too late to provide the
outside world with context on Huron
County. He said the county will take
some time to recover from the
report, feeling that the “damage is
done at this time”.
Council received the report,
authored by Tousaw and Senior
Economic Development Officer
Mike Pullen, and suggested that it be
forwarded to those at the Four
County Labour Market Planning
Board.
Huron County is looking to
examine its existing facilities in an
unprecedented, county-wide review
that has never been done before.
Director of Planning and
Development Scott Tousaw
presented his report, the first in a
series, to Huron County Council at
its March 11 committee of the whole
meeting, saying that a long-term
facilities plan will help guide
maintenance and capital decisions,
address operational issues and allow
for facility and financial planning,
while at the same time addressing
accessibility, energy consumption
and security issues, among others.
With some buildings aging and
others outgrowing their usefulness
due to the fact that they were
repurposed buildings in the first
place, Tousaw said that council will
have to make a big decision in the
near future as to whether to maintain
the status quo of a number of
different Huron County buildings
strewn throughout the county or to
build a new facility that would house
all county departments under the
same roof.
Tousaw suggested that a detailed
conversation should take place at a
future council meeting regarding the
future of county buildings so that
staff will have some direction.
Even if councillors determine to
stick with the status quo, Tousaw
said, that it would still be helpful to
know in terms of direction to staff. A
40-year outlook, Tousaw told
councillors, is the goal, but even a
20-year outlook would be helpful for
staff.
The buildings included in the
review are the court house, the
assessment office, the registry office
and the corporate records office,
which are all in Goderich, and the
Health and Library Complex and the
Jacob Memorial Building, which are
both on London Road, just south of
Clinton.
The report, Tousaw said, does not
include the county’s specialized
buildings, such as homes for the
aged, ambulance stations, highway
patrol yards or museums and the
Huron County Historic Gaol.
In Tousaw’s 15-page report, he
outlined a number of issues and
concerns with each building that will
have to be addressed in the coming
years.
During preliminary discussion
about the report at the March 11
meeting, Tousaw focused on two of
the county’s largest buildings: the
court house and the Jacob Memorial
Building.
Tousaw said that it is no secret that
Huron County court services would
be happy to have more space at the
court house. Currently a number of
offices, as well as council’s
chambers, are being utilized at the
central Goderich building.
Goderich Deputy-Mayor Jim
Donnelly, however, recalled a report
that came through Goderich Town
Council suggesting that the office of
the Attorney General may be looking
at building a new structure to house
all Huron County court services in
the future and that that group’s
intentions should be investigated
before the county goes much further.
In terms of the Jacob Memorial
Building, Tousaw says that while the
building is currently full, it’s
complicated, expensive and isn’t
necessarily the best fit for the
county. It was a building that had
The Citizen
Celebrating 30 Years
1985~2015
Continued on page 16
By Shawn Loughlin
The Citizen
By Shawn Loughlin
The Citizen