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The Citizen, 2010-04-01, Page 4PAGE 4. THE CITIZEN, THURSDAY, APRIL 1, 2010.Editorials Opinions Publisher: Keith Roulston Reporters: Shawn Loughlin, 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; $105.00/year in U.S.A.and $175/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 PAP REGISTRATION NO. 09244 RETURN UNDELIVERABLE CANADIAN ADDRESSES TO CIRCULATION DEPT. PO BOX 152 BRUSSELS ON N0G 1H0 email: norhuron@scsinternet.com March 31, 1948 After a period of warm and spring-like weather, the temperature had dropped once again for the Blyth Easter parade. Easter bonnets and other finery were put away and replaced by warm coats and toques to combat the unseasonably cold weather. “Today is the last day of March and it won’t be long before we’ll be enjoying April showers and then May flowers,” boasted The Blyth Standard. An article boasted fine customer service by the Huron County travelling library service, which served Blyth and several of its surrounding communities and schools. The Huron County Library’s book exchange had been made over the weekend, which brought several new books to the travelling library, in addition to nine new books that had been purchased for the library by the Blyth Library Board. As of March, the library featured a collection of over 100 new books that were available to library subscribers. April 4, 1968 Brussels held its annual Skating Carnival at the arena and saw an eclectic collection of costumes and participants glide onto the arena’s ice. “The costumes of those competing in the various classes were varied and colourful. Some mothers must have stayed up all night creating the many imaginative and attractive outfits worn by the small fry,”The Brussels Post reported. “Some of the clowns were most amusing and livened up the evening’s proceedings with their antics.” Costumes at the carnival included Gumby, Mickey and Minnie Mouse, Mighty Mouse and the devil. Before leaving the Brussels branch of the Canadian Imperial Bank of Commerce, Wayne Klein was honoured by his fellow employees with a dinner party, which was held at the New American Hotel. Klein had worked at the Brussels branch of the bank as an accountant for just over one year before being transferred to the Lindsay branch in the middle of April. A Brussels landmark, known as the former Ballantyne home, which was owned by William Stevenson of Grey Township at the time, burned to the ground. The Brussels Lions hosted a guest speaker at their monthly meeting, Mr. Guinoz Kahashi from Jamaica, who had been working in Clinton as a high school teacher. March 28, 1990 The Brussels PeeWee hockey team eliminated Blyth in the group championship series. Brussels closed out the series with a 6-2 victory in Blyth. Grey Central Public School raised $3,360.50 from Jump Rope For Heart for Huron County. Over 110 students participated in the event. The Blyth Lions club was in the final stages of preparing for their 19th annual Little Lion Novice hockey tournament. Eight teams were set to take part in the two-day tournament. Stella starring Bette Midler was showing at The Lyceum Theatre in Wingham, while Academy Award darling Driving Miss Daisy was playing at The Park Theatre in Goderich, being held over for a second straight week. March 29, 2000 Brussels Minor Softball had been dropped due to a lack of administrative assistance. As outgoing president John Harrison was attempting to find a replacement, he received only one inquiry, which was from a young man, who Harrison said couldn’t take on the whole association on his own. Harrison, who left the post after 10 years, said a minimum of three people, but preferably about six people, would be required to run the organization for any given season. Because of two years of dry conditions, 40 days of rain would be needed to raise water levels. Maitland Watershed’s hydro- logist, Jack McPherson said that the area was worse than it was in 1999, noting that 30 to 40 days of rain would be needed to sufficiently raise the levels. Former Walton Public School principal Alice McDowell was welcomed back to her post at the school only to return to the University Hospital in London, as she had come down ill once again. At a seminar for local dairy producers held in Brussels, John Root expressed his displeasure in the number of farm-related accidents that had been occurring in the area. He went on to discuss many dangers around the farm that could be easily avoided, if only farmers would take certain proactive steps to prevent the danger. Turning Heads and Making Waves, a hair salon in Brussels had just opened its doors, which remain open today. Janice Machan opened the salon, saying that it had always been her dream. The Blyth Midget Bulldogs had won the All-Ontario Championship for 1999-2000. Going through the OMHA playoffs, the Bulldogs had swept three series in a row, beating Alvinston, Woodville and Normanby all three games to none. We acknowledge the financial support of the Government of Canada through the Publications Assistance Program (PAP) toward our mailing costs. We are not responsible for unsolicited newsscripts or photographs. Contents of The Citizen are © Copyright Thinking big, getting small In an increasingly centralized, top-down-thinking country, rural services that don’t meet the urban norm can suffer – and rural communities with them. That is the case with the small food processors who have employed many in small towns and villages for generations. The story heard again last week at a community forum on local food held in Wingham was of the people designing the rules for inspection of meat processing plants insisting on applying many of the same regulations to small abattoirs that they do to big packing plants, even though there’s almost no comparison in the way they process food. The small plants are battling perceptions, of course. In a world where bigger is better and “professional” is the highest term of compliment, many people would probably jump to the conclusion that food coming from a federally-inspected major packer might be more trusted than that from a small plant on the edge of some town or village. Yet it was the largest food processing company in the country that had the listeriosis outbreak that killed consumers two years ago. What’s more, speakers at the forum emphasized, meat processed in a small local plant actually gets more inspection time than meat from large, disassembly-line packing plants. In large plants the meat takes a few seconds to pass by an inspection point. At a local plant, the inspector has several minutes to do a thorough inspection. Of course it’s not as efficient for governments to have inspectors who don’t conduct as many inspections per day, so perhaps that’s why government may want to pay lip service to keeping small plants open, while quietly turning a blind eye as they close because they can’t meet regulations set up for large packers. But if Carol Mitchell, Ontario’s minister of agriculture, food and rural affairs, wants to put some emphasis on that “rural affairs” part of her portfolio, she should pay heed to a suggestion at the community forum that she set up a task force of people who know about small scale food processing and give them some authority to produce reasonable rules that still protect consumers. There needs to be a counterbalance to the “big thinking” of the officials who expect small plants to live by the same rules as large packers. Rural jobs and infrastructure depend on it.— KR Nice try but no cigar If only the world was as rational as Ontario Treasurer Dwight Duncan would apparently like to believe it is. Last week Duncan said part of his plan to begin trimming the deficit that swelled because of the recession, would be asking provincial employees to take a pay freeze. Though he has no power over them, he suggested municipal employees might also want to be part of the solution and accept wage freezes. Oh sure! Duncan’s request might make sense to people who don’t work for government. Across Canada, 500,000 people lost their jobs during the economic crisis. Many more feared for their jobs, saw their hours cut or had their wages frozen. Meanwhile public sector employees were mostly untouched, getting their regular increases last year and this. But while the justice of Duncan’s proposal may be evident to those who don’t work for government, no doubt public employees see things from a different perspective. And wishing doesn’t make things so. Duncan’s deficit-fighting plan also is based on his forecasts that the rate of increase health care costs will be trimmed in coming years. The salaries of people working in the health care system are a huge part of those costs. But if the government tries to hold the line on these costs they may run into an external reality. U.S. health care reform will require many extra health professionals to treat an additional 32 million patients who can now afford health care. No doubt some of those professionals will come from Canada, accepting higher salaries than our system offers. If doctors and nurses feel aggrieved, the greener pastures south of the border may seem attractive. So the Duncan vision would be nice for most of us, but it’s unrealistic at best. — 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.