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HomeMy WebLinkAboutThe Citizen, 2011-01-13, Page 6PAGE 6. THE CITIZEN, THURSDAY, JANUARY 13, 2011.The time for action is now, says writer Josephine St. project to make progress in 2011 This year will see the beginning of the most noticeable work on the Josephine Street project. The sewer, water and street reconstruction will commence in 2011 with the section from Highway 86 north to the Wingham Fire Hall being completed this year. The Josephine Street project committee met last week and reviewed much of the work that has been done by the project engineers, landscaper planners, municipal and county staff to date. The new streetlights and posts will be ordered soon. The street design requires a few more changes before it can go to tender but those are expected to take place quickly and the tender process will begin in early spring. A small group from the committee will be attending the International Lawn and Garden Trade Show and Conference in Toronto this week where they will be looking at options for garbage and recycling receptacles, benches and bike racks. Lorie Falconer, member of the committee representing the Huron County Accessibility Advisory Committee will forward recommendations to the representatives so that all considerations for accessibility will be taken into account when they are gathering information. Municipal signs directing motorists to parking have been put up in the town. Additional temporary signage will be used throughout the entire process facilitating access to storefronts and businesses. Just as it is currently very important to keep the parking on main street open and available for customers and visitors it will be crucial through the duration of the project to keep parking spaces available for those supporting our businesses. Planning now for employee parking, identifying alternate entrances and clearing the backs of buildings is an important process in ensuring the reconstruction runs as smoothly as possible for suppliers and customers. The municipality will continue to update business operators and residents throughout the duration of the project. Questions can be directed to the municipal office and will be responded to by the appropriate staff member or department. THE EDITOR, After reading the editorial in the June 17 edition of The Citizen entitled “Getting Back Some Control”, and an editorial from the Jan. 6 issue entitled “The Challenge Ahead”, I was reminded of many exchanges over the past several months. Back then the editorial stated, “tell people they have no real say in the future of key components in their community, and people don’t feel so inclined to devote their time to making things better. You may even promote apathy in the community that feels there’s no point in trying to make a difference.” And now, the advocacy is to find the badly-needed leadership necessary to “reinvent our local communities to deal with the realities of the 21st century”. As rightly asserted back in June, “communities that want to remain lively and healthy need to find ways... to regain control”. Appealing to municipal government accomplishes little, insomuch as they are only able to do what the provincial government allows them to do. I make no bones about the fact that it is the province which pulls the strings, and it is the “top- down governance” of the province which views us small population areas (read as rural, and small voter areas) as being inconvenient to their big, bigger, biggest strategy. Through a strategy of economic diaspora, they are slowly eroding the services needed to sustain small (and yes, rural) communities from remaining viable. If our “manifest destiny” is to be herded into larger and larger communities because that is the most efficient way to manage us, what do people in small communities do to take back control of their manifest destiny? In my particular business, I drive through a lot of rural Ontario, and while driving, I've been thinking about the pictorial representation of an Ontario road map, and of all those red dots on the map; small dots, large dots, and some even larger dots. Each of these dots represent people, us – relatively small numbers in and of themselves perhaps, but people (taxpayers, contributors to local economies, Ontarians). These dots have relatively little influence because they are small voting blocks. But what would happen if we connected the dots and took a collective approach to the broader issues facing rural Ontario? On several levels it is as much about rural economic strategy, as it is about education, healthcare and choice. What might happen if that collective voting block got together to frame policy as it applies to rural Ontario? What if the campaigns being waged against local school closures, by individual little villages and towns, became a broader-based collective effort. What if rural voters and taxpayers, collectively, began enforcing their collective economic and political will? We need an advocate for rural communities and against the onslaught of data-based decisions by bureaucracies far removed from rural Ontario. What if there was a Communities for Responsible Action that could collectively take a position on block voting on issues affecting rural Ontario such as school closures (see economic fallout), building wind farms adjacent to rural communities (see health concerns issues), or natural gas sequestration (see water quality issues)? A positively-motivated movement, which was truly grass roots. There is a feeling of being powerless, without voice, that we don’t matter; that our apparent lack of interest and involvement speaks volumes of the disconnect between those elected and those who elected them. In my opinion, it’s time for all people of good intent to step up. The time to be paying close attention, with more involvement, and not less, is now, because perhaps it’s true, we can’t always rely on government to provide our answers. Greg Sarachman, Blyth. Letters to the Editor See where your love of cosmetics can take you.        ontario.ca/myfuture With a range of grants, scholarships and loans, starting college or university may be easier than you think. Turn your passion into a career. Farmer disappointed in labelling practices THE EDITOR, It is extremely disappointing that Canadian consumers wanting to support local food are not always served well by Canadian food labels. The members of the Christian Farmers Federation of Ontario are very disappointed that the labelling practices of Canadian food processors and retailers don’t always clearly identify where the food was grown and processed. But there are some bright spots. Our fresh fruits and vegetables have excellent mandatory labelling rules that provide Canadians with informed choices when making their purchasing decisions. We believe that consumers should have that same knowledge for all of their food purchasing decisions. If you care about where your food comes from, you need to ask yourself if current labelling practices really give you enough information about where your food comes from. If you find the answer as dissatisfying as we do, you need to talk to your MP about this important food issue. Sincerely, Henry Stevens, President Christian Farmers Federation of Ontario. See histories and historic photographs on the Huron History section of our website www.northhuron.on.ca The Citizen