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The Citizen, 2013-06-06, Page 23THE CITIZEN, THURSDAY, JUNE 6, 2013. PAGE 23. Continued from page 1future holds for renewable energy. “My conclusion is that there are a lot of unknowns,” said Brad Knight, Huron East’s chief administrative officer. “I’m not sure what to expect.” Knight speculated that going forward, the wind approval process may be a lot like the solar approval process, where developers have to appear before local councils and ask for council’s blessing on the project. If council’s approval is not received, the project could still be approved by the province, but it was highly unlikely. Knight said that one encouraging aspect of the new regulations is that there is finally talk about property tax. He says that the province will be working with local municipalities on the issue of property tax, ensuring that municipalities aren’t lost in the shuffle. He speculated that it’s likely a taskforce whose full-time job it is to monitor such projects would be working between municipalities and the province, likely through the Associated Municipalities of Ontario (AMO). Knight said, however, that as he understands it, the new regulations would not apply to the municipality’s controversial St. Columban wind project, which has given birth to the anti-wind turbine group Huron East Against Turbines (HEAT). Rob Tetu, one of the founding members of HEAT, suggests that the coming changes to the approval process is just an example of the Liberal Party trying to save face as a potential election looms. First and foremost, Tetu said, he was disappointed to see that the government has done nothing to acknowledge the ever-growing list of Ontario municipalities that havedeclared themselves “unwilling hosts” to wind turbines. Locally, both Huron East and Central Huron have made such a declaration. Tetu says the government’s entire energy policy is wrong and that the announced changes aren’t even enough to scratch the surface. He said that rural municipalities with homes scattered all over the countryside are not the right setting for wind turbines and that the government has still failed to recognize that. Huron East Mayor Bernie MacLellan says that “the jury is still out” on the new policies that were announced last week “for the simple fact that we’re not 100 per cent sure what these changes will mean.” He acknowledges the fact that the approval process being altered sounds good in the media, but they weren’t the changes anyone wasasking for. “They sound good on their face,” he said, “but we still have no veto power.” MacLellan said that developers will now have to work out their differences with municipalities before they can apply for approval, but that if the differences between the two parties are not settled, developers can still apply without the municipality’s approval. “We don’t have any teeth in this,” MacLellan said. Like Knight, MacLellan acknowledged that the talk of property taxes is encouraging, because under the current structure it had been unfair to the rest of the public in municipalities with wind turbines. “That’s an important development,” he said. Central Huron Chief Administrative Officer Peggy Van Mierlo-West also says that the changes are a step in the right direction. She says that while some of the changes mean good things for municipalities, the fact that theprovincial government is even talking about wind turbines is a good sign. Van Mierlo-West said that when the Green Energy Act was first enacted, wind turbines were dropped in the laps of Ontario municipalities and then the government remained silent for years as developments began to crop up. “A lot more work needs to be done,” Van Mierlo-West said. She also acknowledges that health effects, one of the biggest issues discussed by anti-turbine groups, have yet to be addressed by the government. “I think we still have to dig a little deeper into what this announcement says,” she said, “but I think the fact that they’re finally speaking about it is a good thing.” Continued from page 1 out if the adjustments we made are sustainable or if they will require tweaking,” he said. “We need to see through the construction of new schools in Wingham and Listowel, we need to finalize any capital work being done to accommodate full-day kindergarten, so based on all of those factors, we believe that a review would not be a good move at this time.” Ash said, “The conclusion that we have drawn in a broad sense for this year, is that our elementary schools appear to be stabilizing in terms of their enrolment. Over the next two to three years, we are not going to see a lot of change, up or down, for elementary schools across the district.” “That is great from a perspective of planning; it also means that we are at a point in most areas of the board where our consolidations are having the desired impact in terms of ensuring that our enrolment is stable,” he said, but noted the declining enrolment in the secondary schools is still going to have an impact on finances. Ash said, “We will feel that more in our secondary schools, but the move to put the Grade 7 and 8 students in our secondary buildings has been a significant factor in us being able to make effective use of those buildings. While those decisions were not easy to make and were certainly not universally accepted in our communities, the results from these moves have been positive in every single case and our students are in a positive learning environment as a result.” Secondary enrolment will continue to decline and the board is expecting a 12 per cent decline over the next seven to 10 years and that will continue to have a significant impact on the budget. The other challenge the board will see over the coming years is the impact that declining enrolment will have on the ability to offer programming. “One of the things we will be working on is to ensure we are offering quality programming in all of our schools. That is a process that will involve a lot of discussion but we already have some solutions in place, through e-learning and blended learning, as we are now dealing with the effects of declining enrolment and are doing so successfully,” said Ash. “We have 12 per cent of our secondary students taking an e- learning course this year and that is significantly higher that some other boards in the province and that is because we have been planning ahead and taking advantage of the technology to meet our student needs,” he said. Ash said another issue the board faces is within the infrastructure. “Our building ages are not getting younger, in a few cases we have been able to build new buildings, but we still have older buildings (76 per cent of AMDSB buildings are over 46 years old) and that has an impact on our ability to ensure that our students are in a positive learning environment,” he said. The AMDSB has over $18 million in priorities to maintain the buildings and are having to make difficult decisions in how those needs will be addressed. “Those needs are not going away in the short term and are being exacerbated by the effects of declining enrolment,” he said, adding provincial budget constraints are also having an impact on the budget. Continued from page 21 Lakeshore United, Goderich; July 29 - Aug. 3, Fordwich United, St. Mary’s United; Aug. 5-9, Brucefield United; Aug. 12-16, Grace United, Tavistock; Aug. 19- 23, Credit Union, Grand Bend United. All children are welcome. If you are 13-15 and looking for a one week chance to work/volunteer at the camps, the pay is $50/week or 25 hours of community service, which could be useful for students looking to complete community service hours. For more information call your local United Church or Kathy Douglas at 519-523-4380. Review not a ‘good move’ at this point says Ash Turbine changes have no ‘teeth’ says MacLellan Camps to be held throughout county 60th Wedding Anniversary The family of Ross and Mary Procter would like to invite you to a Come and Go Celebration of their 60th Wedding Anniversary Sunday, June 9, 2013 2:00 - 4:00 pm Wingham Golf & Curling Club Best Wishes Only www.redgreen.com Call 1-877-862-5984 or www.blythfestival.com SATURDAY, OCT. 19, 2013 – 7 PM - BLYTH MEMORIAL HALL Call 519-672-1967 or www.centennialhall.london.ca WEDNESDAY, OCT. 9, 2013 – 7 PM - CENTENNIAL HALL - LONDON MAKES A GREAT FATHER'S DAY GIFT 402 Queen St., Blyth • 519-523-4535 PIANO REPAIRS Pianovations Music Centre Happy 50th Wedding Anniversary Eric & Vernice Prescott on June 8 Have A New Addition? Call for prices and details 519-523-4792 or 519-887-9114 Let everyone know about your new bundle of joy! The Citizen See histories and historic photographs on the Huron History section of our website www.northhuron.on.ca