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$1.25 GST included Serving the communities of Blyth and Brussels and northern Huron County Thursday, November 18, 2010
Volume 26 No. 45
INSPECTIONS - Pg. 7Mandatory septicinspection program tabled HOCKEY - PG. 24 Blyth and Brussels couldamalgamate associationsSPORTS- Pg. 9Silver Stick comes to Blythfor 25th anniversaryPublications Mail Agreement No. 40050141 Return Undeliverable Items to North Huron Publishing Company Inc., P.O. Box 152, BRUSSELS, ON N0G 1H0INSIDE THIS WEEK:C e l e b r a t i n g 25 YearsTheCitizen1985-2010
Board says it
won’t negotiate
with appeals
Remembrance
Brussels Legion President John Lowe and Padre Sandra Cable placed their poppies upon
wreaths last Thursday at the Brussels Remembrance Day ceremony. Nearly 200 people
attended the Cenotaph last Thursday to honour those who have fought for the freedom of
Canada. Ceremonies were held in both Blyth and Brussels, as well as at some of the area
schools. (Shawn Loughlin photo)
Ontario Municipal Board (OMB)
appeals against proposed site for a
new elementary “super school” in
Wingham will no longer be dealt
with by the Avon Maitland District
School Board (AMDSB) or North
Huron Township.
In a press conference at F.E.
Madill Secondary School on Nov.
10, representatives of the school
board stated that they are no longer
focusing their efforts on the appeals
and that they will let the OMB
handle them.
“We’re done with negotiations,”
Director of Education Ted Doherty
stated. “We’re currently waiting for
[an OMB] hearing date.”
Doherty said they would continue
to speak with appellants Bob Pike
and Richard Elliott (for Elliott’s full
response see page 12), but that they
have made changes to try and
resolve the appeals and that it is now
time “to let the OMB handle the
appeals.”
Doherty stated that they hope to
have the appeals dealt with as soon
as possible, but that their presence is
frustrating.
“We’re still planning for the new
school to be open for fall 2012,” he
said. “But we have a few hurdles
yet. I’m disappointed that we
weren’t able to state that the appeals
had been dealt with, but we’re still
optimistic the students will be here.”
North Huron Reeve Neil Vincent
was also behind the school, saying
“we’re pleased to be supportive [of
the school board].”
In a press release from the school
board, Jenny Versteeg expressed
frustration over not being able to
resolve Pike’s appeals.
“We are disappointed that we
could not reach an agreement with
Mr. Pike,” she said. “However, we
feel that we have been talking with
Bob for over a year now, and it is
now time to move forward into the
OMB process using the site plan
developed along with the municipal
councils.”
AMDSB Chair Mike Ash stated
that once the school was on its way,
more work was ahead of the board
and its educators.
“Once we get approval to build
the school, we need to start bringing
the five communities together,” he
said. “We’ve began that training
with teachers and administration
being trained in new techniques and
new teaching methods so that we
can get the best results for the
children.”
Ash explained that the board had
successfully completed this process
in other communities, and that the
goal was to honour the heritage and
culture of “five buildings” while
building and blending the heritage
and culture of the new building.
Despite reports from North Huron
Township that progress was being
made with Bob Pike regarding the
appeals, Vincent stated that this
outcome was always possible in the
mind of township staff and
councillors.
“We always knew it could
happen,” he said. “We’re working
through a process here, and a deal is
never done until it is completed.”
North Huron Chief Administrative
Officer Gary Long stated that the
township was hoping to work past
the appeals.
“We were hoping to avoid this, but
now the appeals are in the hands of
the OMB,” Long said. “[Township
staff and councillors] literally spent
hours and hours working with the
appeals to try and resolve them.”
The OMB appeals aren’t the only
barricade to be bypassed, as the
AMDSB is still waiting for word
from the Ministry of Education
regarding an additional $1.3 million
that needs to be assigned to
the project due to site plan
changes.
By Denny Scott
The Citizen
Several area councils now have
plenty to think about, and a month to
act, after Huron East’s Nov. 9
meeting concerning a Low
Frequency Noise (LFN) bylaw.
Representatives from nearly 10
municipalities and townships were
in attendance at the special meeting
of the councils in Seaforth, which
had to be moved to the Seaforth
Community Complex from Huron
East Town Hall because the hall
couldn’t accommodate everyone.
Ashfield-Colborne-Wawanosh,
Bluewater, Central Huron, Norwich,
South Huron, West Perth,
Wellington County, Saugeen Shores,
Huron-Kinloss and Arran-Elderslie
were all represented at the meeting.
Initially only five municipalities
were expected by the meeting’s
organizers.
Huron East Council organized the
meeting, putting word out to
surrounding municipalities over a
month in advance to discuss a
potential LFN bylaw. In addition to
the aforementioned representatives
and the majority of Huron East
Council, the municipality’s solicitor
was there to discuss how a LFN
bylaw would have to be drawn up
and tested against a court’s scrutiny.
One of the most important points,
solicitor Greg Stewart said, was the
aspect of “good faith”, in that the
bylaw would have to be drafted in
good faith, otherwise a court could
strike it down.
Because the provincial
government has overtaken the
planning aspects of anything related
to renewable energy with its Green
Energy Act, Stewart explained that
no bylaw could be drafted that
would attempt to circumvent that
legislation.
He said that the Municipal Act still
allows municipalities to govern over
certain things, and one of them is
sound. So if the bylaw is passed in
order to govern LFN, that is
acceptable, but if the bylaw is passed
to restrict the construction of
industrial-sized wind turbines by
“going through the back door” the
bylaw would be deemed to have
been drafted and passed in bad faith
and would be struck down.
This was an issue that was debated
at length, as several members of the
anti-turbine groups Central Huron
Against Turbines (CHAT) and
Huron East Against Turbines
(HEAT), as well as several
councillors, pointed out, the reason
the meeting was called, was wind
turbines.
Several members of the gallery
stated that it was no secret that the
meeting was called because of
concerns over alleged adverse health
effects from wind turbines.
“It’s a wind turbine meeting,”
Huron East McKillop Ward
Councillor Andrew Flowers said.
“To me, we just opened up a
challenge right there.”
A councillor from Norwich, an
area currently facing two small wind
turbine developments, agreed,
saying that it may be tough to hide
that the concern of those in
attendance was wind turbines.
“In reality, wind turbines are the
problem,” she said. “We’re all aware
of that.”
This was one of Stewart’s greatest
concerns, he said, in that the
wording of the bylaw, should it be
drafted, should not include anything
about wind turbines specifically. It
should govern LFN in all its
incarnations throughout the area.
There were, however, other steps
that would need to be taken as well,
including several studies that would
show that LFN poses a problem to
the general population.
Stewart said that it certainly is a
grey area, but that if a bylaw is
enacted to regulate nuisance noise
and vibration, that wasn’t a problem
before wind turbines were erected in
the area, then it is still a valid
concern, but admitted that it can be
difficult to prove.
“It’s under your jurisdiction to
pass a bylaw to restrict nuisance
noise and vibration, so if it’s not a
nuisance before something comes
in...” he said. “It’s grey and that’s
where it gets slippery, but the
Municipal Act says you still control
these things.”
Stewart likened it to a law against
driving while drinking ginger ale.
He said that while a law against
driving while drinking alcohol has
been backed up by studies that
alcohol impairs one’s ability to
operate a motor vehicle, similar
research has not been conducted into
the effects of ginger ale on a driver,
Low-frequency noise bylaw discussed
Continued on page 13
By Shawn Loughlin
The Citizen