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HomeMy WebLinkAboutThe Citizen, 2011-10-20, Page 4PAGE 4. THE CITIZEN, THURSDAY, OCTOBER 20, 2011.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 norhuron@scsinternet.com 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 $34.00/year ($32.38 + $1.62 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: norhuron@scsinternet.com October 18, 1950 The Belgrave School Fair came to an official close after what was being called a successful concert presented to a capacity crowd at the Foresters Hall. Melville Presbyterian Church was set to hold its anniversary service on Oct. 22 with special guest Rev. Gordon McPherson of the Riverdale Congregation of Toronto. On Oct. 24 a court of revision would take place at the Brussels Library regarding the village’s assessment role for 1951. Complaints against the assessment role would be heard that night with Brussels Clerk G.R. Campbell asking those attending to “govern themselves accordingly.” October 22, 1975 East Wawanosh Township Reeve Simon Hallahan and organizers of the original Belgrave Co-operative were on hand to cut the ribbon on the new U.C.O. store in Belgrave after a substantial expansion. Ontarians awoke on Oct. 21 to find the Canadian Union of Postal Workers on strike, but local post centres like those in Blyth, would remain open despite the labour dispute. West Wawanosh Township Council received the first $10,000 of its grant under the Home Renewal Program. The program was designed to help lower income families make necessary improvements to their homes. A grant from the Local Initiatives Program was approved for distribution to the Blyth Festival. The grant would go towards several improvements throughout the Memorial Hall theatre in Blyth. It was expected that work on the improvements would begin in January, 1976. Improvements would include the refinishing of floors, seats and other woodwork, the installation of a lighting control booth in the theatre’s old projection room and improvements to the balcony, stage and the overall look of the theatre. Despite the grant covering the majority of the project’s costs, over $2,000 still needed to be raised locally. The Blyth Standard was one of the many local locations accepting donations. East Wawanosh Township Council donated $300 to the Blyth Union Cemetery. The donation was one of several made by local municipalities to help the cemetery board cover its financial shortfall. The publishers of The Blyth Standard assumed ownership of The Teeswater News, a 101-year-old publication. The acquisition brought the number of publications being produced at the Blyth office to four, which in addition to The Blyth Standard and The Teeswater News, included The Rural Voice and The Village Squire. October 15, 1986 In the early morning hours of Oct. 11, a driver passed through the front lawn of Blyth’s Queen’s Villa apartment complex, leaving a trail of destruction behind. Wingham OPP officers reported that a vehicle left Hwy. 4 and cut across the building’s front lawn doing $300 worth of damage. The vehicle took out a Huron County road sign, a chain link fence and two trees, in addition to causing significant damage to the property’s lawn. An event being held in the newly- created riding of Huron was to be held at the Brussels Community Centre where leader of the Ontario PC Party Larry Grossman would attend a dinner and also speak to a crowd of over 400 people. Also attending the dinner would be local Huron-Bruce MP Murray Cardiff and the newly-elected president of the Ontario PC Party Tom Long. October 21, 2004 The third annual Blyth Witches Walk was set to take place on Oct. 23. The second year of the event raised $1,800 for the Blyth Fire Department while the Witches Walk raised $1,100 for the department in its first year in 2002. Halloween would take place on its normal date of Sunday, Oct. 31, despite a local initiative to move the night of ghouls and goblins to Saturday, Oct. 30 for the year. The idea had been considered in North Huron, Central Huron, Huron East, Morris-Turnberry and Ashfield- Colborne-Wawanosh. Local musician Phil Main celebrated the release of his second studio album with a concert at Blyth’s Memorial Hall. North Huron Council was considering a marketing plan for its community centres that would cost $13,000 to implement. The decision wasn’t final, however, as several councillors felt the work could be done in-house, rather than be contracted out. The Avon Maitland District School Board benefitted from one- time government funding to the tune of $710,000 under the Liberal government’s Good Schools Open initiative. The money came as part of $31 million through that initiative that was earmarked for rural schools throughout the province. Local sheep farmers were still struggling with the after-effects of the BSE crisis. The concerns of sheep farmers were brought to a recent meeting in Ottawa where lamb industry leaders presented a recovery strategy to federal officials. 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 Look at the whole rural picture Central Huron Mayor Jim Ginn hit the nail on the head during a recent discussion at Huron County Council regarding surplus farm house residences when he called for examining all policies, not in isolation from each other, but as to how they affect rural life. Pointing to a recently announced Accommodation Review for Holmesville and Colborne Central Public Schools he said: “We’re losing our communities. We need to have an all encompassing conversation with other parts of rural Ontario to see if they would like this issue addressed, and part of the problem is the Provincial Policy Statement.” Ginn was speaking to his own belief that policies on rural severances should be less restrictive but the conversation is wider. There are many things that affect rural society and the rural economy but are treated in isolation without anybody looking at how one thing affects another. Take the two cases Ginn mentioned: the school system and the Provincial Policy Statement which affects the way officials plans for local municipalities must be written and administered. As Ginn says, fewer homes mean fewer children to go to schools which means schools are being closed because a funding formula set by the province doesn’t provide enough money to meet the unique needs of rural areas. There’s really no one looking at rural Ontario as a whole. School board trustees, working under provincial regulations, look only at education in isolation of what school closures mean to rural economic development. Planners look at the world through the perspective of planning regulations set by the province. Municipal councils are hemmed in by tight boundaries on what they’re allowed to do, boundaries set by the province. Meanwhile the people setting these rules at the provincial level see things through a Toronto perspective. It’s a system that has been growing through successive Liberal, Conservative and NDP governments but if Premier Dalton McGuinty wants to understand why rural Ontario voted for the opposition parties, he has only to look at the inability of rural communities to shape their own futures. — KR Contradictions, contradictions Speaking in London last week, Federal Finance Minister Jim Flaherty expressed some sympathy with the Occupy Wall Street movement. Something needs to be done to address the growing gap between the richest and poorest segments of society, he said. But at about the same time Flaherty was making his comments, Federal Labour Minister Lisa Raitt was blocking a strike by Air Canada flight attendants. Among other issues, the flight attendants are worried about Air Canada’s attempts to set up a new discount airline to compete with other discount air carriers – an airline that would offer a starting salary of only $18,000 a year to flight attendants. The government has definitely sided with the airline in its attempts to drive down wage costs. Has it pressured Air Canada executives to vastly reduce their salaries to make their airline more competitive? But the contradictions go beyond the government. When the “Occupy” protests moved to Canada this weekend, they adopted the slogan of the 99 per cent of people who are left behind while the one per cent gets richer and richer. But the 99 per cent is not homogenous. Many of that 99 per cent will support the government’s attempts to prevent the airline attendants from getting a better deal because they don’t want their lives complicated by a strike. Many more have demanded cheap air fares because they want to travel more and spend less – but they ignore the fact that somebody is going to suffer financially in order for them to to get cheaper vacations. We – most of the 99 per cent – have been happy to buy products made by people making less in a day (or in a week) than our workers make in an hour. We have ignored the fact that in doing so, we helped people lose their jobs here and created competition to drive down wages. Most of us are contributing to the growing gap between the wealthiest and the poorest, which is why the solution is so difficult. — 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.