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HomeMy WebLinkAboutThe Citizen, 2012-01-19, Page 4PAGE 4. THE CITIZEN, THURSDAY, JANUARY 19, 2012.Editorials Opinions Publisher: Keith Roulston Acting Editor: Shawn Loughlin • Reporter: Denny ScottAdvertising Sales: Ken Warwick & Lori Patterson The CitizenP.O. Box 429, BLYTH, Ont. N0M 1H0 Phone 523-4792 FAX 523-9140 P.O. Box 152, BRUSSELS, Ont. N0G 1H0 Phone 887-9114 E-mail norhuron@scsinternet.com 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; $115.00/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: Monday, 2 p.m. - Brussels; Monday, 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 January 21, 1965 Brussels Village Council held its inaugural session on Jan. 11 with two new members taking the oath of office. I. G. Campbell and J. L. McCutcheon were welcomed as councillors. The inaugural meeting began with a blessing by Rev. Jennings of St. John’s Anglican Church in Brussels. Jennings commended council on the fine work being done and even offered several suggestions for the future. The inaugural session of Grey Township Council was also held on Jan. 11. The meeting was opened by Rev. Allan Johnston of Brussels. The Brussels Midget hockey team defeated a team from Stoneschool on Jan. 13 in Belgrave, taking down the visitors by a score of 6-5. Goals were scored by David Huether, John Rock, Dean Gibson and Gerald Snell, while David Gowing scored two. The team also travelled to Ripley to defeat the home team by a score of 8-1. A curling team from Brussels won first prize at a draw at the Howick Lions Club’s annual bonspiel. Members of the team were George Mutter, William Stratychuk, Max Oldfield and Jack McDonald. The Maitland Valley Conservation Authority was set to hold its annual meeting at the town hall in Blyth on Jan. 28. January 21, 1987 Bruce Shillinglaw of RR1, Londesborough was named one of the recipients of the 1986 Norman Alexander Conservation Award, along with Jack McGregor of RR5, Clinton. The awards were handed out at the annual banquet in Varna for the Huron County Soil and Crop Improvement Association. Norman Alexander, for whom the award is named, was on hand to present the two winners. This was the first time the award had ever been shared between two winners. Blyth Village Council was in the market for a new councillor after Tom Cronin officially filed his letter of resignation. on Jan. 13. Councillors were surprised at receiving the letter, stating that Cronin’s resignation would take effect Feb. 1. Cronin said he was “just through” with being a representative, saying “you people who have not been reeve, you have no idea what you sacrifice for your town”. Cronin had been a councillor since 1977 and served as the village’s reeve from 1980 to 1985. Blyth Village Council made the decision to help fund a group of village merchants in creating a tourism brochure that would promote shopping in Blyth. Brussels Village councillors voted to give themselves a modest raise of $100 a year. Reeve Hank Ten Pas would now make $2,100 per year, as opposed to $2,000 and councillors would go from making $1,400 per year to $1,500 annually. January 19, 1994 Blyth residents were set to begin recycling as of April 1. Blyth Village Council passed a motion agreeing to enter into a recycling program with the Bluewater Recycling Association at a special meeting of council held on Jan. 11. The Bluewater Recycling Association, which was formed in 1989, at the time was owned by 46 different municipalities in four counties. After an abundance of snow since the beginning of December, Don Blake and Rick Konarski were pictured in the Jan. 19 issue of The Citizen out snowmobiling. The pair were both members of the Brussels and Walton Trailblazers and had been out on the trails a lot due to the ample snowfall in the area over the past month. Influenza had arrived in area schools with several students coming down with the bug, with school board officials saying the bug seemed to have hit a little harder in 1994 than it had in previous years. January 18, 2007 Members of Huron East Council welcomed representatives from the Ministry of Transportation to travel Highway 8 and see the need for improvement along the provincial highway. Alongside four representatives from the Ministry of Transportation were Huron East Deputy-Mayor Bernie MacLellan and Huron-Bruce MPP Carol Mitchell. The Ministry had proposed improvements on Highway 8 between Mitchell and Seaforth that were set to begin in 2009-2010. The Ministry was busy working on a preliminary design and an environmental assessment before any other work could be done. Morris-Turnberry Council began to take a look at its election system, which included potentially abolishing the ward system. The Blyth Farmers’ Market was set to continue in the summer of 2007, after its future was temporarily in doubt. Vandals were hard at work in Clinton spraypainting profanity, rude gestures and derogatory remarks on the walls of Central Huron Secondary School. Later the same night, Colborne Public School was spraypainted, quickly followed by Fordwich United Church.. We acknowledge the financial support of the Government of Canada through the Canada Periodical Fund (CPF) for our publishing activities. We are not responsible for unsolicited newsscripts or photographs. Contents of The Citizen are © Copyright A code that misses the point If the purpose of changes to the Ontario Building Code is to promote energy conservation and reduce carbon emissions that cause global warming, it’s missing the point in overlooking the special case of Old Order Amish and Mennonites. In a story this week Ashfield-Colborne-Wawanosh Chief Building Official Kirk Livingston explains that under the new building code he and other building inspectors working with Old Order communities will not have the flexibility to accommodate the home-built practices builders there use. The previous code called for double-paned windows, for instance, but building officials such as Livingston had successfully argued on their behalf that a single-paned window, plus a storm window should be allowed. But the new code calls for triple-paned windows that can only be manufactured commercially. You can look at this from two directions. From one point of view, which no doubt some people will share if they resent the different rules that are often applied to Old Order communities, you can say that the same laws should apply to everyone. It’s only fair. But if you want to be fair, how fair is it that a rule meant to force our society to cut its carbon emissions adds greater expense to the one group in Ontario that has a virtually carbon-neutral footprint? About the only petroleum Old Order Amish and Mennonites burn is oil for their lamps or, in some cases, a little for gas engines to power pumps or other implements. Compare that to the rest of us who drive cars, take flights to southern vacation spots, heat with gas, oil or electricity and put tons of carbon into the air. Certainly it can be argued that single-paned windows, even with a storm window, waste heat, but the Amish and Mennonites burn wood usually grown on their own farm. The carbon emitted will be taken up in the trees that are growing on the farm for future use as fuel. What harm will it do if these communities use triple-paned windows? Purchasing expensive, manufactured windows is one more cash outlay for people who already struggle to find money to pay taxes for schools, community centres and more that they don’t use. The idea of a building code that promotes energy efficiency is a good one, but in not providing exemptions for the most energy-efficient people in our province, the designers of that code can’t see the forest for the trees.— KR Should tax cuts be cut? As the Ontario government seeks ways to rein in an expected $16 billion deficit, big business isn’t making it any easier for Finance Minister Dwight Duncan to ignore calls from Andrea Horwath, New Democratic Party Leader, to halt further scheduled cuts to corporate taxes. Duncan has followed the philosophy that making a jurisdiction as low cost as possible for business will pay off with the creation of jobs. It hasn’t happened. “We’ve cut the general (corporate tax) rate almost a third in two years, the manufacturers’ rate has been cut from 12 per cent to 10 per cent, business education taxes have been frozen for 13 years, the capital tax has been eliminated, most businesses are benefitting from the tax credits contained within the HST,” he said Monday. “So they’ve got to step up to the table and invest here in Ontario and we’ll look forward to working with them.” The current economic malaise is becoming a vicious circle. Statistics show that major corporations in North American are sitting on a mountain of cash that they’re apparently afraid to spend because of their unease about the economy. The problem is that the economy won’t improve until corporations start hiring employees and spending the money that’s been sitting in savings. The flip side is that while the slow economic growth continues, governments find their incomes curtailed and either run up deficits or have to make deep cuts in their programs. If tax cuts aren’t creating jobs and increasing government revenues then it’s hard to cut funds for roads and schools and hospitals without including tax cuts should be among the cuts. — 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.