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$1.25 GST included Serving the communities of Blyth and Brussels and northern Huron County Thursday, February 9, 2012
Volume 28 No. 6
AGRICULTURE - Pg. 15Pork Producers holdannual meeting SCHOOL - Pg. 23Council denies waivingfees for school celebrationFINANCIAL- Pg. 6Financial section providestips for tax timePublications Mail Agreement No. 40050141 Return Undeliverable Items to North Huron Publishing Company Inc., P.O. Box 152, BRUSSELS, ON N0G 1H0INSIDE THIS WEEK:
Hudak in Blyth to open Thompson’s office
‘Dedicated’ $1.7 million to help county budget
Getting grilled
After the opening of Huron-Bruce MPP Lisa Thompson’s new constituency office in Blyth on
Feb. 1, Thompson and Conservative Party leader Tim Hudak faced a barrage of questions from
local media outlets about the election and the party’s plans for the future. (Shawn Loughlin photo)
Several Huron County councillors
aren’t happy with how Warden
Bernie MacLellan has handled the
budget thus far and they let him hear
about it at the Feb. 1 meeting.
MacLellan also brought forth a
$1.7 million surprise to councillors
that left many speechless.
Goderich Mayor Deb Shewfelt
first raised the issue, asking when
the draft budget would be presented
to council, saying that historically
under previous wardens, the budget
had been presented by mid-January.
MacLellan responded by saying
that there is no real guideline as to
when the budget should be presented
to council, just that the process has
to be concluded by the end of April.
He said that he was aware that a
first draft would normally be
presented to council by January, but
that he was still reviewing it and
planned on presenting a first draft to
council later this month after some
“fine tuning” had been done.
MacLellan said he was going to
take the “padding” out of many of
the departments’ budgets, not
allowing each department to forecast
for its own future. This method, he
explained, would give council a true
representation of each department’s
budget and would make balancing
the year’s budget a simpler task.
MacLellan said each department
head could make a presentation to
council, whether it be at
Wednesday’s Committee of the
Whole meeting or the second day of
Committee of the Whole on Feb. 15.
However, he said he was looking at
bringing a budget forward that
would have a modest one per cent
tax increase across the county.
Shewfelt, however, felt that
council was being kept out of the
process.
“I appreciate what you’ve
attempted to do,” Shewfelt told
MacLellan. “But what if council
feels we’ve missed a step here?”
MacLellan said the budget process
this year would be even more
difficult than anticipated with the
province clawing back another
$500,000 in Ontario Municipal
Partnership Fund (OMPF) dollars.
Howick’s Art Versteeg agreed with
Shewfelt, saying that he would have
liked to see the budget earlier,
feeling that he and the other
members of council might not have
as much time as they would like to
review the budget line by line.
Ashfield-Colborne-Wawanosh’s
Ben Van Diepenbeek agreed, saying
that the “cuts” MacLellan was
making were made at his discretion
only and other councillors may not
agree with them, but that they
haven’t been given the chance to
make that opinion heard.
“We have never seen what you’re
cutting,” Van Diepenbeek said, “and
we’re being asked to accept it
without any debate.
“We’re not going to know what
was cut. Are we ever going to see
Huron-Bruce MPP Lisa
Thompson opened her two
constituency offices on Wednesday,
Feb. 1, one in Kincardine and one at
408 Queen Street in Blyth.
Well-wishers and supporters
crammed into the main street office
in Blyth to see Thompson officially
open the location and to hear
provincial Conservative Party
Leader Tim Hudak speak.
Thompson, who grew up near
Belgrave, was the perfect candidate
to convert Huron-Bruce into a
Conservative stronghold according
to Hudak after MP Ben Lobb
replaced retired Liberal MP Paul
Steckle four years ago.
“We knew taking Huron-Bruce
would be an uphill battle but I’ve
known Lisa for 10 years and I knew
she could do it,” he said. “As soon as
Lisa came forward I knew we were
going to win this riding.”
Hudak stated that Thompson’s
experiences as a leader in
agriculture and a mother as well as
“never apologizing for standing up”
made her the ideal person to
represent the area.
Thompson also received praise
from the party leader who said she
made quite an impact on her first
day at Queen’s Park.
“My first day after being elected
standing up in front of everyone
wasn’t easy,” he said. “It took
awhile to open my mouth.
“Lisa asked a question on her first
day about the Kincardine Jail,” he
said, adding that she impressed
many people with that.
Thompson has also focused on
industrial wind turbines, a major
factor in the Conservatives’ plans
according to Hudak.
He said the lack of local say and
the way that wind developments
seem to be splitting churches and
neighbours is something his party
wants to deal with.
“Lisa knew it was wrong,” he
said. “She is fighting against it to let
neighbours and councils have their
say and restore local council.”
Hudak stated that Thompson “hit
the ground running” on wind
turbines and several other issues and
said she will make the voters of
Huron-Bruce proud.
“She will be fighting for small
communities and serving the good
people of Huron County,” Hudak
said.
Thompson stated she has fond
memories of growing up in the area
and said that, while Belgrave was
her home in the “heart of North
Huron”, Blyth has proved very
welcoming.
“People are keen for change and it
feels awesome to be welcomed in
the way I have,” she said.
Thompson outlined for the
gathered community members how
she hopes to affect change in the
area including bring members of the
caucus to Huron-Bruce so they can
see what issue matters most.
During an impromptu media
scrum after the official opening in
Blyth both Thompson and Hudak
By Denny Scott
The Citizen
Continued on page 13
By Shawn Loughlin
The Citizen
Local teacher wins curling gold
Maurice Wilson, Grade 6/7
teacher at Grey Central Public
School, returned to work after a few
weeks off, receiving a hero’s
welcome and a gold medal around
his neck on Friday.
Wilson coached the Wilfrid
Laurier University’s women’s
curling team to a gold medal at the
Karuizawa International Curling
Championship in Japan and returned
to work on Friday jetlagged and on
very little sleep.
Wilson, who had coached the team
for three years, led a team with very
little international experience to
victory in Japan. In addition to being
relatively inexperienced on the
world stage, Wilson said his team
also was by far the youngest team in
contention.
The journey began for Wilson’s
group last year when they qualified
for the championship in St. John,
Newfoundland.
In preparation for the international
event, Wilson and his team began
attending workshops with world-
renowned curling coach Rob Krepps
in Edmonton, Alberta, which were
set up by the Canadian Curling
Association. The team first attended
one of these workshops in
November.
Wilson said the experience was
“terrific”, adding that he had known
Krepps for several years, but knew
him as an opposing coach when his
team would play against The
University of Alberta.
“We worked very well together,
very well,” Wilson said. “After this
whole experience I consider him a
close friend and even a mentor.
“I’ve been involved in curling for
30 years and I learned more in the
last year than I did in all that time.”
Krepps was involved with
Canada’s Own The Podium initiative
at the 2010 Vancouver Olympics and
Wilson said he and his team were the
beneficiary of that knowledge and
strategy.
Over the course of this season,
Wilson said, his team had
participated in just under 60 high
By Shawn Loughlin
The Citizen
Continued on page 13
Continued on page 12