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HomeMy WebLinkAboutThe Citizen, 2013-12-19, Page 4PAGE 4. THE CITIZEN, THURSDAY, DECEMBER 19, 2013.Editorials Opinions Publisher: Keith Roulston Acting Editor: Shawn Loughlin • Reporter: Denny ScottAdvertising Sales: Lori Patterson & Sue Brindley The CitizenP.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; $130.00/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 December 21, 1988 The former Brussels Stockyards closed its doors once again on Dec. 14 with no clear indication of when it would be back in operation. Gordon “Harry” Brindley had submitted the winning tender to purchase the facility and was all set to begin conducting business, but it was closed because of a failure to obtain the Livestock Dealer’s Licence necessary to operate the facility. Brindley chalked the problems up to a miscommunication with the Ontario Ministry of Agriculture and Food’s Beef Financial Protection Branch (FPB). “I have all the paperwork [required] ready to go, but so far I haven’t been able to pin [the FPB] down on what kind of a bond we’ll have to post in order to get the licence,” Brindley said. Bayfield Reeve Dave Johnston was elected Huron County Warden on Dec. 13, defeating McKillop Reeve Marie Hicknell for the position. The 51-year-old businessman was named to the position by a 20-12 vote margin. Johnston had spent five years in the Navy and 15 years on a Toronto-area police force before moving to Bayfield, where he became reeve in 1983. The Brussels Junior D Bulls defeated the Exeter Hawks by a score of 8-5 on a night where defenseman Kevin Talsma made his goaltending debut. Starting goaltender John Steffler was injured in an on-ice collision, which sent Talsma, who said he had goaltended some last when he was in PeeWee hockey, into the crease for the rest of the game. December 24, 2002 Blyth’s Lavern Clark was named Citizen of the Year for Blyth and its surrounding communities. Clark was presented with the award by Diane Radford, a member of The Citizen’s board of directors, for his dedication to community service. The Municipality of Huron East launched its new website. The website had been eagerly anticipated by councillors and residents, as it had been in the works since the municipalities first amalgamated in 2000. The project took off, however, when Huron East hired Bonnie Lafontaine as the municipality’s economic development officer. Morris-Turnberry Council discussed some serious issues at its council meeting, with Councillor Kevin Pletch suggesting that council should be reduced to just two representatives per ward with a mayor elected at-large. The motion, however, was voted down with only Pletch and Mayor Keith Johnston voting in favour of the dramatic change. December 21, 2006 The Blyth Festival announced a small surplus from its 2006 season. At the annual general meeting of the Festival’s board of directors, Board President Deb Sholdice announced that the 2006 season brought with it a surplus of $5,200. “Over 24,600 people saw a show at the Blyth Festival last summer – an increase of seven per cent over last year. Plans for 2007 are falling into place and season tickets are selling well for next year,” Sholdice said. “Our amazing staff, committees and volunteers are gearing up to promote and raise funds for our 2007 activities. Two of our plays from the 2006 season will be produced by other theatres.” Schoolhouse was scheduled to be produced at the 4th Line Theatre near Peterborough, while The Ballad of Stompin’ Tom looked to open in Gananoque in May 2007, before it was scheduled to return to the Blyth Festival later that year. December 20, 2012 Huron County Council approved the hiring of a new chief administrative officer in the wake of the dismissal of former chief administrative officer Larry Adams. It was announced that Brenda Orchard would begin working with the county on Jan. 28, as she was currently serving as chief administrative officer for Annapolis County in Nova Scotia. “We are very pleased with the calibre of applicants for Huron County’s CAO position,” said Huron County Warden George Robertson, who said that of the 45 applicants, 22 had significant municipal experience. An official plan amendment was approved by Huron County Council that allowed Euro-Parts, an appliance parts dealer originally out of Lucknow, to move into the former East Wawanosh Public School. Huron County Planner Sally McMullen said she couldn’t support the application, as she was bound to follow a certain set of guidelines, but that an “extraordinary effort” had been made during the process by the company’s owner, Henry Van Heesch. The building that had, for so many years, housed the Winthrop General Store was torn down. It had been a staple in the Winthrop community for over 50 years. The Avon Maitland District School Board named North Huron trustee Colleen Schenk its chair for 2013. Schenk, who represents schools in North Huron, Morris- Turnberry and Howick, would serve her second term as chair. She has also served as vice-chair once as well. 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 You can’t move land While the immediate pain of the announcement last week that Kellogg’s will be closing its London cereal plant will fall on the 565 workers who lose their jobs and the city of London, which will take a hit to its economy, the ripples from this loss will spread wider, including farmers in Huron County who grow crops like corn. The London plant in 2011 made 750,000 boxes of various types of cereal including popular brands like Corn Flakes, Frosted Flakes and All Bran. A lot of grain was bought as raw materials to make those cereals. Certainly the Kellogg’s plant used a small portion of the grain grown across the region but it’s a combination of the demand of many buyers that creates the demand that drives prices high enough for farmers to make money. Southwestern Ontario is an incredibly productive area for growing food. In recent years the movement towards a global economy has seen many higher-value crops we grew disappear, like the vegetables that were grown for the defunct CanGro Foods plant in Exeter or tomatoes for Heinz ketchup plant in Leamington which is scheduled to close next year. Despite the diversity of the region, it seems the global market wants only commodity crops like corn, wheat and soybeans. But in the specialized world of global food production, if buyers like Kellogg’s disappear, more and more of those commodity crops will have to be exported. When the cost of transportation required to get Canadian crops to global food processors is subtracted from the world price, farmers are going to get less for their crops. For those who believe that markets are always logical, it makes sense that food processing moves to wherever it can be done cheapest. A precious resource such as the land and environment of southwestern Ontario cannot simply be picked up and moved like a factory. In a world where food is increasingly scarce, maximizing the potential of the productive farmland needs to be valued as highly as saving money with lower labour costs. –KR Recipe for decline Few Canadians were probably surprised when Canada Post announced drastic changes last week as it tries to cope with a spiralling decline in the use of its services. The one head-shaking surprise is one of the company’s proposed remedies: a 35 per cent increase in first class postage. It was perhaps only fitting that Canada Post announced its changes just before Christmas. This period was once the busiest time of the year for the post office as people sent out dozens of Christmas cards and packages. The packages may still be sent but most people have cut back drastically on the number of cards they send and some people have stopped sending cards completely. Christmas cards are just one small example of declining use of Canada Post. People send e-mails instead of letters and pay their bills online to save buying stamps and sending cheques through the mail. Yet though Canada Post’s revenues have declined, it still has huge infrastructure costs. It must maintain a service for everyone in Canada (13 million households) to be able to receive mail promptly. Even those who have cut back their use of the post office expect the service to be there if they want it. Given this squeeze between the reality of costs and expectations, something had to give. So when Canada Post announced last week that it was going to discontinue door-to-door delivery in urban centres, one of its most expensive services, it was hardly surprising. People in new subdivisions have had to make do with group mail boxes for years now so they won’t feel sorry for those who have lost door-to-door service. No doubt there will be more such cuts. Perhaps people in rural areas will also have to get used to a centalized box facility as well. But the move to an 85-cent first class stamp (if you buy in booklets – $1 if you buy a single stamp) seems certain to compound Canada Post’s problems. Nothing’s surer to speed up the decline in postal use than increasing the cost by 35 per cent. This move is so dumb it makes you wonder about the logic of Canada Post’s other proposals. –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.