The Citizen, 2015-12-10, Page 8PAGE 8. THE CITIZEN, THURSDAY, DECEMBER 10, 2015.
Ask A Financial Advisor
How Do I Turn My Needs Into Goals?
Brian Hilt - Financial Advisor
79 Ontario Road, P.O. Box 1450
Mitchell, ON N0K 1N0
(519) 348-9873
brian.hilt@edwardjones.com Member - Canadian
Investor Protection Fund
What do you need from your finances? And what do you want?
When it comes to investment planning, it helps to think in terms of needs and goals. You can
turn your financial needs into goals by assigning specific dollar amounts and time horizons.
To clarify your needs, think of your financial life as a pyramid. At the base of that pyramid are
your foundation needs. These are the basic requirements of everyday living-things like
shelter, food, clothing, health care, taxes, insurance coverage and an emergency fund.
Higher in the pyramid are lifestyle needs. These can be anything from paying down the
mortgage to saving for a vacation to investing for retirement. They're the long-term portion of
your financial plan.
Once your needs are clear, determine when you need to meet them and how much they'll
cost. For example, when will your child attend university and how much should you save and
invest?
There you go-you've just turned your need into a goal!
Have a question you want answered here? Ask Brian by phone or email.
Sports
Petitions call for increased Belgrave centre funding
Members of the Belgrave
Community Centre board addressed
Morris-Turnberry Council regarding
its May decision to cut funding to
the group during Council’s Dec. 1
meeting.
Board President Jonathan
VanCamp and Board Member Ron
Cook presented to council, with
VanCamp reading a prepared
statement outlining the frustrations
of the board.
“We’re here to discuss the funding
cut to the Belgrave Community
Centre Board by 75 per cent without
any notification,” VanCamp said,
going on to explain the cut wasn’t as
frustrating as the fact that Morris-
Turnberry Council did so without
consulting or even telling the board
about the decision until the board
had requested its annual funding.
Morris-Turnberry cut the funding
from $20,000 annually to $5,000 due
to usage, which, according to
VanCamp, translated into minor
sports.
“That only makes up one-tenth of
what we do at the centre,” he said.
“Our board was never consulted on
this or asked for input.”
VanCamp went on to say that he
was told that the board was wrong to
be building reserves. He also said he
found it frustrating that members of
council regularly attend board
meetings for other recreational
centres in Bluevale, Belmore and
Brussels.
“No one felt it necessary to take in
Belgrave meetings in regards to
recreation facilities and usage,” he
said. “I have attended your meetings
every other year to explain expenses
and I always end my presentation
the same way; by extending an invite
to council to come to the board
meetings.”
From there, VanCamp said that,
after having support from 20 years
worth of Morris-Turnberry council,
the current session of council was
showing no respect for the board or
the Belgrave community.
“Our board does understand that
Morris-Turnberry has other facilities
you give grants to,” he said. “We
fully support that. We don’t want to
see any of them losing funding. We
don’t agree, however, with how
council has conducted itself with the
Belgrave community, community
centre and its board.”
VanCamp and Cook delivered two
petitions to the municipality, one for
Morris-Turnberry ratepayers and
one for users of the centre, both
filled with names of people stating
that council needed to revisit the
decision that led to the funding cut.
“We were asked by community
members to start this petition,”
VanCamp said. “Mayor Paul
Gowing has stated he has no plans to
revisit or reinstate the funding,
however we have delivered these
petitions.”
VanCamp finished his
presentation by saying that the
community centre and its board will
continue to run in the interest of the
Belgrave community and citizens of
both North Huron and Morris-
Turnberry with or without council’s
support.
Gowing thanked the pair for
coming with the report and
commented on council’s decision as
not being a negative remark.
“Unfortunately, this is being
received as a derogatory action,” he
said. “It was not meant in any way to
be that.”
Gowing explained that the board
had done a fantastic job of running
the centre, amassing a $140,000
surplus.
“It’s not really appropriate,
however, for us as a council to grant
funds to sit in reserves outside of our
control,” he said. “That’s basically
what has happened here. You are
in a very strong financial position....
Our job is one of setting priorities
and money has to flow to high
priorities and the community
centre’s current financial position
made us believe this is the right
position to take.”
Gowing said that, if there were
financial shortfalls in future
programs or projects, Morris-
Turnberry Council would be there to
help the organization.
“You have done a miraculous job
of getting the community centre into
a great financial position,” he said.
“This reduction in the grant was not
meant in a negative fashion at all.”
Gowing said he appreciated what
the board does and said it was
unfortunate there wasn’t better
communications at the time.
Councillor Sharen Zinn wondered
why there wasn’t anyone on the
committee and, after some
discussion, it was pointed out that
when the new board was formed, it
was to be independent of both North
Huron and Morris-Turnberry
Councils.
“The community centre was set up
as a not-for-profit corporation and
the structure of it was such that we
would not have representation on the
board,” Gowing said. “We would be
at arm’s length.”
Council was also told there was no
agreement with the board since the
board was instituted as independent
from council several years ago.
Cook then pointed out that
$120,000 might seem like a lot of
money to have in reserves, but with
all expenses considered, it wasn’t.
“It takes $80,000 just to keep the
doors open in a year,” he said,
“$120,000 isn’t that much
considering that. If it only took
$20,000 to keep it open, then six or
seven years worth of operational
costs in reserve might seem like a
lot, but $120,000 is less than two
years operational costs if something
goes wrong.”
Cook then re-iterated that it wasn’t
the cut to funding, but the way it was
handled.
“The biggest hurt to this isn’t the
funding, we will survive that,” he
said. “No one came to the board and
said this is what was being looked
at.”
VanCamp said that, since he last
presented to council in 2014, the
board has spent more than $30,000
on a new generator and is looking at
accessibility costs, playground
equipment and repairing a large
crack in the floor of the ice surface,
meaning those reserves could be
lessened considerably in the near
future.
He also stated that he wasn’t
happy that other recreation
committees had councillors
attending regularly when Morris-
Turnberry hadn’t had any
representation at a community
centre board meeting in any capacity
in more than six years.
Gowing said he wasn’t hearing
that the board was put in a tough
financial position by the decision,
so, in his opinion, the decision
wouldn’t be revisited. He asked if
the change would stop the board
from providing the services it
provides.
“We’ll get by,” Cook said.
By Denny Scott
The Citizen
Close
The Wingham Regional Atom Silver Stick tournament was held last week with games mostly
in Wingham and a few at the Blyth and District Community Centre including the game above
on Saturday between the Blyth Brussels Minor Hockey Association Atom Crusaders and the
Minto Mad Dogs. While Blyth earned a 3-0 win over Minto, they fell in the ‘C’ division finals to
TCDMHA by a score of 5-2. The ‘B’ championship was taken by Kincardine who triumphed
over BCH in a tight 2-1 game. (Vicky Bremner photo)
No Tax on All Coatsuntil December 13
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