The Citizen, 2011-02-10, Page 22PAGE 22. THE CITIZEN, THURSDAY, FEBRUARY 10, 2011.
CPP to increase
with councillors
Huron East to hold full-day planning meeting
Huron East’s chief building
official Paul Josling presented his
year-end report to council at its Feb.
1 meeting, detailing where permits
had been issued and how much they
were worth.
Josling issued 10 residential
permits in Brussels with a total value
of $226,100, four commercial
permits with a total value of
$549,000 and one institutional
permit at a value of $20,000.
In Grey, Josling issued 17
residential building permits totalling
a value of $1,181,500, 18 farm
permits totalling a value of
$2,142,000 and one industrial
permit for a value of $160,000.
In McKillop, 16 farm permits
were issued for a value of
$1,150,500 and 17 residential
permits were issued for a value of
$591,500, while there was one
commercial permit issued for a
value of $15,000 and one
institutional permit was issued for a
value of $5,000.
In Seaforth, 22 residential
building permits were issued for a
value of $1,167,180, four
commercial permits were issued for
$120,500 and two institutional
permits were issued for $1,124,400.
In Tuckersmith, 31 residential
permits were issued totalling a value
of $9,346,460, 14 farm permits were
issued for a value of $964,000 and
three commercial permits were
issued for a value of $342,000.
In total, there were 15 permits
issued in Brussels, totalling
$795,100, 36 permits issued in Grey
totalling $3,483,500, 25 permits
issued in McKillop totalling
$1,762,000, 28 permits issued in
Seaforth totalling $2,412,080 and in
Tuckersmith 48 permits were
issued totalling a value of
$10,652,460.
These permits add up to 152
issued throughout the entire
municipality at a value of
$19,105,140.
Huron East councillors have setaside an entire day to discussstrategic planning for themunicipality for the next year, thenext four years and even the nextdecade.On Feb. 19 councillors will be
sitting down, in a location that has
yet to be determined, to discuss the
important issues facing the
municipality going forward.
As part of the municipality’s third
strategic planning session at the Feb.
1 regular council meeting, priorities
were laid out by Huron County
planner Sandra Weber.
Over 30 issues had been identified
by councillors at the previous
meeting and between the Jan. 18
meeting and the Feb. 1 meeting,
Weber asked councillors to rank the
issues as to their importance in order
to whittle the list down.
Several councillors identified the
Brussels Library as one of the most
important issues going forward.
Several spoke to the issue, saying
that it has been hanging in limbo for
far too long and that something
definite should finally be done about
the situation.
Councillor Bill Siemon felt a
public meeting should be organized
for sometime within the next twomonths where the future of thelibrary would be decided.Councillor Joe Seili felt thatanother public meeting wasunnecessary, saying that there hadalready been two public meetingsand the fate of the library had beendecided. It was council which hadnot followed up on the decision that
was made, he said.
“The public should tell us what to
do,” Siemon said.
Seili said that he felt that if the
library situation in Brussels wasn’t
solved by the end of the year, that it
should be closed altogether.
“New libraries get usage,” he said.
“Let’s put a timeline on it and that
puts it in council’s hands.”
The criteria for an issue being of
the highest importance was that four
or more councillors had identified
the issue as being one of the five
most important issues facing Huron
East.
Over four people had said the
Brussels Library was just that. Other
issues that received four or more
votes were serviced industrial and
residential land, infrastructure in
Vanastra and an economic
development strategy and tourism
marketing plan.
Several councillors acknowledged
that all of the issues on the list were
important and that all warranteddiscussion. This is when the all-dayplanning meeting was proposed.In addition to the issues that hadreceived top billing by councillors,there were also the issues ofrestructuring and the ward systemthat had been mentioned by MayorBernie MacLellan at the Jan. 18meeting. Several councillors
identified this as an issue that would
take hours of discussion alone and
felt the all-day meeting would be
appropriate.
Seili, who had been absent for the
first two strategic planning meetings
echoed MacLellan’s sentiments on
the ward system and the reduction in
the size of council.
He said that every citizen in Huron
East pays taxes just like the next
citizen does and that every citizen
should have an equal say in the
election of every representative.
He also stated that he would like to
see council reduced to seven
members, which was the number
proposed by MacLellan when he
first stated his intention to revisit the
size of council.
In addition to being the moderator
of the meeting, Weber was asked to
alter her list of priorities into a list of
items of long-term importance and a
list of items of short-term
importance.
That way, councillor David Blaney
said, the issues could be addressed
appropriately, as it was unfair to
compare an important short-term
project to an important long-term
project and determine which wasmore important to the municipality.Because the list asked for the topfive issues facing the municipality,there were many issues that receivedno votes. These issues will alsoreceive discussion at the specialmeeting, however more weight willbe given to the issues that receivedmultiple votes.
Not receiving any first-place votes
were the Huron East municipal
office capital project, youth
retention, infant day care programs,
outdoor recreation programs, the
reuse of Maplewood Manor, a record
of past information, transportation
throughout the municipality and
discussions with the Avon Maitland
District School Board on the fate of
Brussels Public School.
Surprisingly, despite the amount
of attention the issue receives on a
meeting-to-meeting basis, wind
turbines was rather low on the list,
with the issue receiving just one
first-place vote with nearly 20 issues
being ranked before wind turbines.
Another issue that had initially
been listed as a priority didn’t
receive many votes because the
process had already begun. The
hiring of a new clerk/administrative
officer to replace the retiring Jack
McLachlan had initially been listed
by several councillors. The search,
however, has already begun and a
consulting firm has been hired to
help with the process, so several
councillors felt the issue had already
been dealt with sufficiently and
therefore, didn’t vote for it as apriority.MacLellan says that he wants theFeb. 19 meeting to start “no laterthan 9 a.m.” and probably run until 3p.m. or 4 p.m.The location has not yet beendetermined. Several councillorsassumed that the meeting wouldsimply take place in council’s
chambers in Seaforth, but others felt
that there were certain ward barriers
that came with the desks and that
having the meeting in a neutral
location such as the Brussels, Morris
and Grey Community Centre or the
Seaforth Legion might help
councillors to look past their wards
and think about Huron East as a
whole.
It was agreed, however, that no
large fee should be paid to hold the
meeting, when a perfectly good
building, council’s chambers, would
be sitting empty.
Seili said he would be unable to
attend the meeting and as a result,
felt that he should abstain from any
subsequent discussion on strategic
planning, saying that if he wasn’t
there from the start, it wouldn’t be
fair.
Several councillors disagreed,
saying that they didn’t think that was
true and that they would welcome
Seili’s comments.
Seili, however, didn’t budge,
saying he had strong beliefs on the
topic and that he would not be
participating in the discussion after
meeting the Feb. 19 session.
Continued from page 1
$425. Breckenridge also received
$397 for meetings and $84 in travel
expenses.
Councillor Jamie Heffer also
received $737 for attending three
additional meetings. He had $484 in
conference expenses and travel.
Councillor Jamie McCallum
also received $737 for attending
three additional meetings and
$449 in conference expenses and
travel.
Councillor David Baker received
an additional $465 for attending two
extra meetings.
Councillor John Smuck received
$396.84 for meetings but had no
conference or travel expenses.
Councillor Neil Warwick
had $295 in meeting expenses
attending one additional meeting but
no extra conference expenses or
travel.
One area of expenses that is bound
to increase with the new council is
the Canada Pension Plan (CPP)
contribution the municipality must
make on behalf of councillors. With
four of the previous councillors
being senior citizens, they had no
CPP contributions. As it was, the
municipality paid nearly $1,300 to
CPP.
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519-887-9114 The Citizen
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Nearly $20 million
in building permits
through Huron East
By Shawn LoughlinThe Citizen
By Shawn Loughlin
The Citizen