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HomeMy WebLinkAboutThe Citizen, 2012-04-26, Page 4PAGE 4. THE CITIZEN, THURSDAY, APRIL 26, 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 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; $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 May 6, 1965 The Brussels 4-H Beef Calf Club held an organizational meeting at the Brussels Library to install the officers for the year. Jean Roe was named president, while Neil Gowing was named vice-president. Grant’s Shoe Store in Brussels was broken into and a number of pairs of shoes and men’s pants were stolen. The break-in occurred in the early morning hours of May 1. Entry was gained by smashing the glass in the front door of the building. Five pairs of shoes taken from Grant’s, however, were recovered by police when they found a car southeast of Brucefield that had been abandoned once it ran out of gas. The car had been taken from the home of Gordon Stiles the same night. Police believed the break-in took place between 4 a.m. and 4:30 a.m., as the Stiles’ car was last seen in the driveway between 2 a.m. and 3 a.m. The following night the Brussels Creamery and Topnotch Feed were both forcibly entered. Mr. and Mrs. Marinus Van Veen of Grey Township celebrated their 35th wedding anniversary at the New American Hotel in Brussels. April 29, 1987 Brussels’ 115th birthday and homecoming celebration officially began on April 23 with a gala fashion show at the Brussels, Morris and Grey Community Centre. The fashion show was held by the Brussels Figure Skating Club to kick off the event that was to officially take place in July. The show featured over 50 models presenting over 100 outfits to the over 400 people in attendance for the event. The oufits were loaned to the club for the show from the three Brussels clothing stores. Morris Township Council held its annual tax rate increase to just 2.6 per cent for 1987 thanks to good management, a large surplus left over from 1986 and a light winter. A $500 reward was being offered for the arrest and eventual conviction of vandals responsible for killing thousands of fish at a Blyth- area fish farm sometime between the evening of April 24 and the morning of April 25. Donald Elliott, the owner of the farm offered the reward, asking anyone with information to bring it to the OPP. The damage was discovered on the morning of April 25 when the water supply to a large outdoor tank was turned off, depriving more than 3,000 market-sized trout of oxygen and subsequently killing them. Fortunately for Elliott, another 2,000 trout on the farm were housed indoors and were unharmed during the incident. Police estimated the damage to be between $3,000 and $5,000. April 27, 1994 Brussels Village Council received some good news on their budget at their April 20 meeting, being told the village was in good financial shape with an accumulated surplus of nearly $45,000. The good news made it easier for council to pass the 1994 budget with a zero per cent increase in the general purpose tax levy for Brussels residents. After the Huron County Board of Education pared its budget down to maintain the millrate, the General Legislative Grants were announced and 1994 would include “the strangest changes in any set of grant regulations” since Director of Education Paul Carroll began working for the board. The changes, for Huron County residents, equated to a 6.1 per cent increase to the millrate, meaning that portion of the budget, on a residential assessment of $60,000 would increase by $33 in 1994 over the previous year. Over the previous months, the board had worked to decrease its budget by over $1.7 million, and Carroll pointed out that without that work, residents would be faced with a double digit tax increase. April 26, 2007 Police were out in full force on April 19 at Central Huron Secondary School, responding to a threat scrawled in graffiti somewhere on the school’s grounds. While students did attend school that day, the OPP brought in a canine unit prior to the opening of the school to determine if there were any threats and once the school was determined to be safe, a ‘locked door’ policy was used over the course of the day. The only entrance in use was the main entrance and when entering, students were subject to having their bags searched and being searched themselves with a metal detecting wand. A fashion show was scheduled for that night at the school and it was held without incident as well. Blyth-area native Greg McClinchey defeated two contenders on the Huron-Bruce Liberal bill at the party’s nomination meeting held in Belmore. McClinchey defeated Blyth-area resident Dr. Maarten Bokhout and Saugeen Shores resident Mark Kraemer. Huron East broke ground on a brand new healthcare facility to be built in Seaforth. Mayor Joe Seili said he hoped the facility would help address the growing need for quality healthcare in Huron County. 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 Russian roulette politics Perhaps there’s an ingenious strategy in Ontario Progressive Conservative Leader Tim Hudak’s vow to vote against the Ontario budget even before it was released, but in the short term it has meant more of what he said he didn’t want: taxes. Premier Dalton McGuinty reached an agreement with NDP leader Andrea Horwath, Monday, to support the budget of his minority government. In doing so, the two leaders prevented a defeat of the budget which would have sent voters back to the polls after only electing this government last fall. Horwath’s price for support was a two per cent income tax surtax on the estimated 23,000 Ontarians who earn more than $500,000 a year. The Premier agreed to the tax if the $470 million it was estimated to raise each year went to pay down the deficit. Horwath also extracted a pledge from McGuinty to raise welfare and disability benefits by one per cent. The government will pay for this by more or less taxing generic drug manufacturers, paying them one per cent less for the 10 most popular generic drugs. Apparently there is also some proposal to help the horse racing industry. While Horwath didn’t get everything she wanted, she can at least say her party accomplished something in order to lend support for the budget. McGuinty can say he was forced to raise taxes to prevent another election, but that he saw to it the extra money went toward reducing the deficit. What does Hudak get to say? Since he announced before the budget was even released that his party would vote against it, he effectively put himself on the sidelines. He could have, like Horwath, used the government’s two-seat minority to bargain for changes in the budget. Given the government’s current austerity plans to cut the massive deficit, he was probably closer to the government, fiscally, than the NDP is. He chose to rule that out. Perhaps, come next election, he can use this new tax to hammer the Liberals for raising taxes, though it’s hard to imagine most voters are going to feel sorry for people making more than $500,000 a year. Perhaps he can show that the Liberals and the NDP are in bed together. On the other hand he’ll have to defend himself against charges he was quite prepared to send voters back to the polls for another expensive election only months after the last indecisive one. On the face of it, that doesn’t seem to have been a wise strategy. — KR Building bridges Now people in the rest of Canada can thank Albertans for more than their oil and the money from it that fuels the economy, thanks to their decision Monday to re-elect Premier Alison Redford’s Progressive Conservative government. Canadians had, according to all the polls, been facing the prospect of a government of the Wild Rose Party which still carries the sentiment of Albertans being abused by the rest of the country that dates back at least to the National Energy Policy of Pierre Trudeau. There were hints that Danielle Smith’s party, if elected, would start putting up barriers between Alberta and the other provinces. She was objecting to how much Alberta contributed to equalization payments to poorer provinces. There was talk about pulling out of the Canada Pension Plan and setting up its own plan, much as Quebec has done. Instead, against all predictions, Redford swept to victory with another majority. Apparently fears of a Wild Rose government caused people who normally supported smaller parties like the Liberals and NDP, to vote for Redford in an election with one of the highest voter turnouts in years in Alberta. “Tonight, Alberta chose to build bridges,” Ms Reford said in her acceptance speech Monday night. She had visited other provincial capitals since winning the party leadership, building new relationships across the country. So Canadians can thank those Albertans who chose to build bridges. We don’t need another semi-separatist province. — 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.