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$1.25 GST included Serving the communities of Blyth and Brussels and northern Huron County Thursday, October 29, 2015
Volume 31 No. 42
FALL HOMES - Pg. 13
‘The Citizen’ presents
annual fall home guide
SPORTS - Pg. 8
Hockey season begins with
Crusaders Weekend
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:
Unveiling
Blyth Festival Artistic Director ‘Cowboy’ Gil Garratt, right,
announced the upcoming 2016 Blyth Festival season at the
Festival’s Galawe’en fundraising event at the Blyth and
District Community Centre on Saturday. Garratt was
assisted in unveiling the poster for the season, painted by local
artist Greg Sherwood, by Blyth Festival director of Marketing and
Development John McHenry, left, who was dressed as Johnny
Depp’s 2005 interpretation of Willy Wonka.(Denny Scott photo)
Festival to host four premieres next year
Huron East reconsiders dropping ward system
Huron East Council is making
good on its promise to revisit last
year’s service delivery review –
looking at topics such as general
government, administration and
protection services, among others.
Councillor Nathan Marshall, who
was behind the first service delivery
review, completed in February of
last year, also spearheaded this
review, saying that the councillors
newly-elected last fall should now
be included in the process.
The first topic discussed was
general government. During the
discussion, several councillors
floated a number of potential ways
to increase Huron East’s government
efficiency, including reducing the
number of councillors and
abolishing the ward system.
Councillors asked 10 questions in
each category in order to gauge how
they felt the municipality was
performing and perhaps how it could
be done better.
The questions are:
• Does the municipality really
need to continue to be in this
business/service?
• What do citizens expect of the
service and what outcomes does
council want for the service?
• How does current performance
compare to expected performance?
• Do the activities logically lead to
the expected outcomes?
• How is demand for the service
being managed?
• What are the full costs and
benefits of the service?
• How can benefits and outputs of
the service be increased?
• How can the number and cost of
inputs be decreased?
• What are the alternative ways of
delivering the service?
• How can a service change be best
managed, implemented and
communicated?
Mayor Bernie MacLellan said that
councillors from a particular ward
always strive to “protect” those
wards and their citizens when
discussion arises. He said he felt it
was time for the ward system to be
abolished, or at least changed, and
that might mean “literally changing”
the municipality’s boundaries.
Councillor Alvin McLellan
pushed back on the mayor’s claim,
saying that he doesn’t necessarily
seek to “protect” the Grey residents
who voted for him, but rather to
represent them and also serve as a
presence in the community.
He also said that if saving money
was council’s ultimate goal by
reducing the size of council, he’s not
sure that would happen. Not to
mention, he said, that if there was
only one councillor to represent each
ward, it would completely change
the landscape of who could serve as
a councillor.
Between the meetings that he and
fellow Grey Councillor Dianne
Diehl attend, if they were left to just
one person, McLellan said being a
Huron East councillor would
become a full-time job. That, in turn,
would discourage anyone with a
full-time job from running,
something he felt Huron East
wouldn’t want to do.
There is no doubt that seven
people (an alternative council size
suggested that would consist of a
mayor, a deputy-mayor and one
representative from each of the five
wards) could do the job, McLellan
said, but how much of a saving
would remain at the end of the day
would be questionable.
Councillor Ray Chartrand echoed
McLellan’s sentiments, saying he
receives a lot of calls and goes to a
lot of homes and he would hate to
lose that personal touch from Huron
East’s government.
He did, however, say that he felt
council could shrink to include nine
representatives.
If council wanted to implement a
change like this, however, Chartrand
said input from Huron East
ratepayers would be a must.
Councillor David Blaney agreed,
saying that council would be
considering “fundamentally
changing” governance in Huron East
and “not even telling people about
it.”
He also said that if consideration
was being given to a change, it
would be imperative that council ask
the public before a change is made,
not after.
“How are you going to explain it
to the public? You have to ask their
opinion before, not justify it after,”
Blaney said.
After the extensive conversation,
staff will comprise a summary of the
discussion and present it to council
at a future meeting before next steps
are considered.
The Blyth Festival will be hosting
four world premieres in 2016, all of
which are either set locally or
focused on local people.
During The Blyth Festival’s
Galawe’en fundraising event on
Saturday at the Blyth and District
Community Centre, Artistic
Director Gil Garratt unveiled the
shows, along with the poster for the
event.
“Next year, we have four brand
new world premieres on the Blyth
Festival stage,” he said. “Two are
plays I actually commissioned
within 48 hours of starting as
Artistic Director last year... [and all
four] take place in Huron County.”
Opening the season is Our
Beautiful Sons: Remembering
Matthew Dinning by Christopher
Morris.
The show focuses on the Dinning
family, who are from Wingham.
Corporal Matthew Dinning was
killed in the line of duty in 2006
while in Afghanistan after becoming
the youngest member of the Close
Protection Unit, Garratt explained,
and the story is about his parents,
Lincoln and Laurie.
Morris, whom Garratt had worked
with during his early days at the
Festival in Death of a Hired Man,
has wanted to write a piece for some
time, according to Garratt, and was
looking for a story that could catch
his attention.
“He travelled to Afghanistan and
Pakistan,” Garratt explained. “Then
he came home and heard Matthew’s
story.”
The play is a “beautiful portrait of
a community and an unflinching
The Citizen
Celebrating 30 Years
1985~2015
By Denny Scott
The Citizen
By Shawn Loughlin
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Continued on page 32