Loading...
HomeMy WebLinkAboutThe Citizen, 2015-08-20, Page 4PAGE 4. THE CITIZEN, THURSDAY, AUGUST 20, 2015. Editorials Opinions Publisher: Keith Roulston Editor: Shawn Loughlin • Reporter: Denny Scott Advertising Sales: Lori Patterson & Amanda Bergsma The Citizen P.O. Box 429, BLYTH, Ont. N0M 1H0 Ph. 519-523-4792 Fax 519-523-9140 P.O. Box 152, BRUSSELS, Ont. N0G 1H0 Phone 519-887-9114 E-mail info@northhuron.on.ca Website www.northhuron.on.ca Looking Back Through the Years CCNA Member Member of the Ontario Press Council 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 N0G 1H0 email: info@northhuron.on.ca August 15, 1979 East Wawanosh and Morris Township Councils decided that they would split the upcoming costs associated with the Belgrave Community Centre. The arrangement was made in an attempt to help offset some of the centre’s deficit. The Brussels, Morris and Grey Community Centre found itself paid off thanks to a donation from the Brussels Lions Club. The club presented the Arena Building Fund Committee, represented by Jim Prior, with a cheque for over $4,000. The cheque was presented as part of the club’s third annual elimination draw, which had been held at the community centre. In another project, the club also presented a cheque for $1,000 to the Woodstock Relief Fund, which followed a tornado striking the community. The Brussels Optimist Club was also busy helping out the fund, heading to Woodstock to donate their time. August 22, 1990 L.H. Resource Management, headed up by Chris Lee of Walton, had been busy in recent months building a giant compost mixer that would serve to help the composting process along. The machine, produced in Walton, was bound for the University of Minnesota. The Citizen described the machine as a “mammoth roto-tiller” adding that it pretty much performed the same function. Rick Findley, a director of the Ontario round table on the Environment and the Economy leading up to the election, was the guest speaker at the Maitland Valley Conservation Authority’s general meeting and he said things were worrisome. “We are on a downward swing and depleting our capital at an accelerating rate. The environment is suffering,” he told those gathered at the meeting. The Blyth Festival began its own recycling program in hopes of lessening the burden on the Blyth- Hullett Landfill. After several Brussels teens died in a car accident the week before, a grief specialist with the Huron-Perth Centre for Youth and Adolescence was assigned to the community to help young village residents talk their way through the difficult time they may be having. August 22, 2001 Fear of a local emergency in the same vein as Walkerton had Huron East Mayor Lin Steffler urging council to hire a water and sewer operator. “I just don’t want to run into problems because I’m not going to be a very happy camper if we do,” Steffler told council at its Aug. 14 meeting. She told council that the municipality could not continue to “fly by the seat of their pants” on the issue any longer. Bruce Whitmore of McKillop in Huron East was busy preparing his property for the Huron County Plowing Match, which was coming up later in the week. The Whitmores had been involved in the world of competitive plowing in Huron County for years and their daughter even spent a year as Queen of the Furrow before the family was set to host the match. Kang Yoon, owner of the Brussels Pharmacy, was back in the village distributing prescriptions to residents after working for 16 days on a mission in Kazakstan. Yoon was one of 140 people who took part in the Asian mission trip. Jack Wilkinson, president of the Ontario Federation of Agriculture, was in Huron County, specifically at the Winthrop-area farm of Ernst Gubelman, for a round table discussion on the state of farming across the province. August 21, 2014 Central Huron athlete Lexi Aitken was in China for the Youth Olympics. She had been nominated by Athletics Canada to head to the event alongside a number of other young athletes. The former Hullett Central Public School student would be competing in the 400-metre hurdles in the Olympics, with two qualification races preceeding the main event at the games. Blyth Lions Club member Charlie Shaw was honoured for 40 years since the Charlie Shaw International Youth Camp had been created. The camp, and the young people it catered to over the years, was celebrated with a special gala event in Blyth. Duff’s United Church Minister Peter Kugba-Nyande announced that he was moving on to a church in Alberta after spending several years in Huron County. The move, he said, would allow him to reunite with his wife, who had been in Alberta for some time while he was still working in Ontario. The Blyth Festival’s Phillips Studio played host to a special retrospective cabaret to mark the Festival’s 40th anniversary. The event was attended by a who’s who of the Festival crowd from decades past, including Nobel Prize winner Alice Munro. We acknowledge the financial support of the Government of Canada through the Canada Periodical Fund of the Department of Canadian Heritage. We are not responsible for unsolicited newsscripts or photographs. Contents of The Citizen are © Copyright Local capacity counts The best path for the expansion of high speed internet in rural southwestern Ontario was the topic of debate at Huron County Council again last week but the lesson of the past effect of distant ownership should be top of mind for councillors as they grapple with the solution. Representatives of the Independent Telecommunications Providers Association (ITPA), a group of 10 smaller, locally-owned telecommunication companies, several from Huron County, sought to present councillors with an alternative to the South West Integrated Fibre Technology (SWIFT) project which would see taxpayers fund an initiative to expand high speed internet in rural areas. Because it is so far- flung across the southwest, the SWIFT initiative would, virtually of necessity, turn rural internet provision over to the telecom giants. ITPA has tried to present an alternative which would depend on the existing smaller companies which, in the case of Huron County, are the providers which have done the most to expand high speed service in the area. In a sense, we’re reliving the history of telecommunications in rural Ontario. Nearly century ago Bell Telephone didn’t see the potential for enough profit in serving rural customers so rural residents came together to form small co-operatives to provide telephone service down rural concessions. By the 1960s the small companies like the one that served Blyth, Brussels and Auburn were bought out by Bell because there was money to be made. But as time went by, Bell once again didn’t want to invest in modern infrastructure and so both urban and rural residents did without high speed internet until local companies like TCC and Wightman Telecom stepped in to fill the gap. As councillors debate whether to support the SWIFT or ITPA proposals they should remember history and the importance of retaining local control of telecommunications infrastructure. — KR He’s just not worthy E-mail correspondence that was revealed last week at the trial of Senator Mike Duffy for fraud and breach of trust, show that top officials in the office of Prime Minister Stephen Harper have taken the concept of plausible deniability to new extremes – extremes that call into question the fitness of Harper to hold the job as the leader of our country. According to e-mails between top officials in the Prime Minister’s office filed in court, a plan was devised to repay the expenses that Senator Duffy had improperly claimed (for which he is now on trial) by having the Conservative Party provide the money. When party officials realized this would require $90,000, they refused to pay. Nigel Wright, then chief of Harper’s staff, instead wrote a cheque from his own pocket to cover the expenses, with the government claiming Duffy had repaid the money himself. Wright confirmed this action in an e-mail to Ray Novak, then Harper’s principal secretary and currently his chief of staff. Conservative Party officials, however, claim Novak never read this e- mail, even though it was from his boss at the time. Prime Minister Harper continues to claim that he was unaware of all this activity attempting to make the Duffy scandal go away and insists that he fired Wright when he found out. Even taking him at his word, however, simply shows Harper as incompetent and deliberately uninformed. The e-mails show that the efforts to hide the Duffy affair were widespread within the Prime Minister’s office, not just the lone- wolf action of Wright. These were all people hired by the Prime Minister. If he didn’t know what they were doing he should have. What’s more, the leader of any organization must set the moral tone under which his employees operate. Employees should know that they must act honestly because you won’t accept any other behaviour. Conservative Party attack ads have for months successfully branded Liberal party leader Justin Trudeau as “just not ready” by showing an interview team saying that he’s just not up to the job he’s applied for. Similarly, if there was a review of Stephen Harper’s ability as president of a company, the verdict should be “he’s just not worthy” of the job. As NDP leader Thomas Mulcair said last week, Canadians have an opportunity to fire Harper in the Oct. 19 election. If voters choose to return him to office for another term, what message are they sending about our nation’s tolerance for dishonesty? – 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.