HomeMy WebLinkAboutThe Citizen, 2011-04-07, Page 28After long deliberations resulting
in budget cuts, North Huron
Township Council is prepared to
host a public meeting to present this
year’s budget.
During its regular council meeting
on April 4, council dealt with several
outstanding issues involving the
budget that would not affect the
bottom line before they were
prepared to hold a public meeting
where the budget would be officially
presented.
Council is prepared, according to
comments made during the April 4
meeting, to present a budget that is
3.5 per cent higher than last
year’s.
This increase does not mean that
taxes will be raised by 3.5 per cent,
only that the township will require
3.5 per cent more money to operate.
Whether this will be obtained
through higher assessments, more
assessments or through tax increases
will be discussed at the meeting.
Taxes are comprised of three
major components: municipal taxes,
county taxes and education taxes.
The education taxes go to local
school boards and county taxes are
used to fund Huron County
initiatives. If the municipality does
increase taxes, whatever they
increase it by will only increase their
share of taxes collected from
property owners.
The exact impact the increased
budget will have on taxes wasn’t
known by staff at the time, but that
information will be available at the
budget public meeting set for April
18 from 6:30 p.m. to 7:30 p.m.
The issues that council had to deal
with included the hiring of summer
students and some staffing issues
that, due to confidentiality concerns,
needed to be held behind closed
doors.
Chief Administrative Officer Gary
Long stated that councillors worked
long and hard on the budget and cut
items that dropped the budget’s final
tally by an estimated $300,000 to
$400,000.
Continued from page 1
should be able to count on funds
from Central Huron, or know that
they weren’t getting anything, but
nothing in between.
“It’s not fair to them,” Lobb said.
“Either close the door or work with
them.”
Deputy-Reeve Dave Jewitt said
that a mixed message was being sent
to the people of REACH.
It was at this time that Metzger
proposed his third option that
suggested that the municipality’s
contribution to REACH be
decreased by the amount it would
take to fund the Telephone Road
project.
Metzger’s proposal, however,
could not be considered until the
vote on the first proposal happened
and since the first proposal was
accepted, Metzger’s proposal died
on the table.
Barnim and Colquhoun did not
vote in favour of the budget, but it
did pass and will be officially
considered as a bylaw on Monday,
April 11 at council’s regular meeting
at REACH.
Continued from page 1RMP.“The dedication paid off,” she said.“All those chats made a difference.
“You should be very proud of your
work and very proud of what you’ve
accomplished.”
Mitchell did say, however, that the
work on an RMP is far from
complete, saying that one of the
major players has not yet come to the
table with its share.
“Farmers have made a
commitment to RMP and on [March
29] the McGuinty government made
a commitment to RMP,” Mitchell
said. “But one partner has not come
to the table.”
Mitchell said that the federal
government still needs to make a
commitment to an RMP to protect
farmers across Canada.
“In order for our programs to
work, we need the federal
government at the table,” Mitchell
said.
She said that it has long been in the
fabric of farmers and rural residents
to ask for something when they feel
they need it, which is exactly what
happened with the 2011 budget.
“We have done it together and we
will continue to do it together,” she
said. “And as an agriculture minister,you don’t get a better week than I didthis week.”Former president of the Huron
County Federation of Agriculture
and Ontario Federation of
Agriculture director at large Wayne
Black hosted the event said that in
addition to thanking Mitchell for her
work, several lower tier
municipalities also deserved thanks
for their work in developing an RMP.
He said that several municipalities
had gone to bat for commodity and
agricultural groups on several
occasions and that they continued to
lobby on farmers’ behalf.
He also thanked the groups who
had helped in the early stages of
consultation with Mitchell, such asthe OASC, Ontario Cattlemen’sAssociation, Ontario Veal, OntarioPork, Ontario Sheep, Ontario Grains
and Oil Seeds and the Fruit and
Vegetable Growers of Ontario, in
addition to the Ontario Federation of
Agriculture and the Christian
Farmers Federation of Ontario.
Black said that there would be
much more consultation to come and
that there would have to be more
lobbying done in order to bring the
federal government on board with
the plan.
Mitchell makes RMP announcement in ACWPAGE 28. THE CITIZEN, THURSDAY, APRIL 7, 2011.
North Huron to
present budget
REACH funding
remains hot topic
Big news
Huron-Bruce MPP and Minister of Agriculture, Food and
Rural Affairs Carol Mitchell was at a farm in Ashfield-
Colborne-Wawanosh on April 1 to announce the inclusion
of $150 million in the 2011 provincial budget for a long-
awaited Risk Management Program that has now been
expanded to include beef, pork, veal, sheep and fruits and
vegetables. (Shawn Loughlin photo)
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By Denny Scott
The Citizen