HomeMy WebLinkAboutThe Brussels Post, 1980-03-26, Page 2not 'il,:ghP$1.:'tolirw'l
ifor:
Evelyn Kennedy - Editor Pat Langlois - Advertising.
Member Canadian Community Newspaper Association and
Ontario Weekly Newspaper Association'
Subscriptions (in advance) Canada $10.00 a Year.
Others $20.00 a Year. Single Copies 25 cents each.
We need our trees
The editor of The diengarry News is worried about he nuMber of
•trees being cut in his neighborhood. He shares the 'views of many
townspeople' in Ontario. He writes:
"We received a phone call from a very concerned citizen last week.
He was lamenting the demise of some very old, but very heal;thy trees
in his neighborhood. It seems they fell victim 'to the wood-heating
craze. ,
"His point is, well taken. We have noticed that wood cutting is on the
increase. As more people join the wood-heating set ,there is a greater
demand for the resource. As demand goes - up; so Mies the price.
Entrepreneurs are now buying bush lots for the express purpose of
cutting the trees. If this is done in en organized fashion and a bush is
thinned rather than levelled, little:harm is dohe.
"On the other hand, it takes many gears for a tree to 'grow. It is
surprising just 'how much the character of a neighborhood can be
altered when even a few majestic trees are felled.
"Some' municipalities are in" the process of putting controls on top
soil removal. Will we have to put similar controls on tree cutting to
protect our environment? Should a person be free to cut whatever he
Wants?
"These are sensitive questions. Sorhe day, very'soon, we may have
to answer :them."
WEPNESDAY, FEBRUARY 13, 19I,
Serving Brussels: and the surrounding community.
Published each Wednesday afternoon at Brussels, Ontario
By McLean Bros. Publishers Limited
To the editor:
Health Care Act alarms reader
I am alarmed! Within the next few weeki
the proposed "Health Care Services Consent
Act" will be presented, to the Ontario
legislature. This bill, if passed, could
remove the legitimate rights of parents to
decide what is best for their children.
This is what could legally happen right,
here in Ontario Girls and/or boys under
sixteen years of age (no minimum age) could
1) obtain an abortion; 2) get contraceptive
counselling; 3) be fitted with a mechanical
contraceptive device; 4) get prescriptions for
the pill; '5) be treated for sexually transmit-
ted diseases; 6) consent on their own to most
surgery. All without their parents' know-
ledge or consent even if they were living at
home with their parents.
There is also another very dangerous
provision in this bill which pertains to
mentally incompetent persons. This bill
could authorize certain medical and surgical
procedures (human exPerimentation,, organ
transplants, sterilization for contraceptive
The purpose of this open letter is to advise
the general public that the Huron County
Historical Society have been included in the
plans of 'the new library building in
Goderich;‘
We will have 'a fireproofed
' Archives Room and wilt be working closely
with the Library staff to improve on the
cataloguing, filing and protection of the
valuable historical documents We now have
and hope to obtain in the future. The
acquisition' of the fire-proofed vault puts us
in at :better position to accept historical data
from individualS or organizations.
We as It Society are interested in all
purposes, psychosurgery for behavior con-
trol) not presently permitted on mentally
incompetent persons 'or minors.
I see this bill as a usurpation of parental
authority, as a grave injustice to the
mentally incompetent, and as a giant
regressive step as far % as morality is
concerned.
This bill will become law unless concerned
people stop it. Those, Who are concerned
could write to Tho• Hon. Dennis Timbrell,
Miniqer of Health, and to their local MPP.
The same letter should go to The Hon. Roy
McMurtry, Attorney General of Ontario; The
Hon. Keith Norton, Minister of Community
and Social Development, The Hon. William.
Davis, Premier of Ontario. The address for
all of the above is: Parliament Buildings,,
Queen's Park, Toronto. M7A 1R3.
If you wish .more information, call 357-
1874.
S. Campead,
Wingham
historical documents of early Huron County
residents. We ask your readers to contact us
if they plan on disposing of business or
personal papers, deeds, books, photographs-
all belonging to the past history 'of Huron
County settlers and their families which
would be of interest to future generations. It
is our duty to preserve these things.
If you require further information, please
contact me.
Sincerely)
Isabel Theedom
PR, Huron Co. Historical Society
78 Rattenbtiry St. W
Clinton, Ontario NOM 1L0
operating temporarily from• premises used
for my campaign headquarters. The new
constituency office, which will serve the
whole riding of Huron-Bruce, is a federal
office operated, under the. House of Com-
mons for the benefit Of all conitituents. To
locate it permanently in premises, associated
- with a-political party seems to me inapprop-
riate. I believe "Brussels is an Cxcellent
location, for the new office,- and the.'
availability of the Main St. preniises,means
that the new office will be siiperbly situated.
'both for residentS of Brussels and for
constituents coming from, all • Parts of the
riding.
I do not :believe Brussels is becoming a
ghost town. A new federal office here is a
'sign of growth, not decline, and becatise it
serves the whole of Huron County and .part
of Bruce, it will draw, new customers to
existing businesses in Brussels.
When the new office.opens, early in. April,
residents of Brussels will hav,p a chance to
bring ' enquiries and problems affecting
federal jurisdiction directly to me.' .r hope
then that all will see the office contributes to
the growth of Brussels! There may even be a
pot of coffee on the burner. -
Yours sineerely,
Murray 'Cardiff, M.P.
.Huron-Bruce
country that provides training for the
person who wants 'to run their own
business. Business schools are all aiming
at turning out three-piece-suited robots to
run big business and government, not the
small business.
Then we have financial institutions that
favour big business over small business.
We have consumer associations which
seem to want more and more -government
• regulation which indirectly drivesbusiness!:
to the big business because the big
business is the only one 'that can survive
strangling in red tape.
And there are the customers. In town
after town in our area in recent years we
have seen the big, absentee landlord
businessman moving in to set up shopping
centres filled with big business owned
retail outlets. Small businessmen in every
town have objected but in every case the
public has embraced the new centres with
open arms. A 'few cents off the jar' of
instant coffee means more to the average,
townsman than having a locally-owned
business community.
Yet hit' all the small, businessMan 'is to
blame for a good deal is his own plight.
Discouraging though the situation is there
are still opportunities there, opportunities
th-at often are being overlooked by our
businessmen. In this are for instance theie
is tourism. We are sandwiched between
Lake Huron on one side with millions of
yearly visitors and Stratford on the other.
side which also attracts millions. We are.
close to the major population centres of
Canada. Nearly every town has something
that can• be promoted as an attraction.
' And tourists unlike local people aren't
looking for another big-business controlled
shopping centre: They're looking for small
interesting shops with owners and staff
who are friendly, not pre-programmed
robots. They're not looking fol. Sameness
but uniqueness. That's what the small
businessman can offer. Do it and I think
he'll probably also win back a lot of his own
customers once they get tired of the
sterility of the shopping centre.
But not only do many local businesses
ignore tourists, they seem to want to drive
them away. No • effort to help tourists is
made by providing information on interest-
ing .placeS to Visit in the commimity. There
are even some businesses that refuse to
give exchange on the American dollar.
Nobody wants to supportiv loser. As long
as small town merchants 'sit around feeling
sorry . for themselves things will only get
worse. If they get together, get some
energy and drive back and look like-
winners again then they might be silt-,
prised how much brighter the fUttire
Let's hope they do. The future of our
Small towns depends on the mainstreet
merchant.
In a front-page article and editorial for
March 12, you draw 'attention to the'
imminent opening of the Huron-Bruce
federal constituency office where Smith's
Coffee Shop was located. I would like to
comment on a couple of points mentioned. in
your account.
The availability Of good facilities for young
people to meet and socialize among friends
is irnportant to any community,and does, I'm
sure concern tit all. The, fact that young
people tended to use- Smith's Coffee Shop
over the past six years is a 'tribute to' the
atmosphere . Howard and fern Smith pro-
vided. We, may all regret the closing of the
Coffee Shop, which had, been for sale for a
considerable periodof time. Yet none of us
can qUarrel with Howard's and Fern's
decision to retire from the business and
enjoy their relaxation.
The editorial concerning the restaurant
closing raises the spectre of declining
business in Brussels, 'however, and some-
how the opening of our new constituency
office is associated with it. I would like to
address that issue directly, for in , fact my
decision to locate the Huron-Bruce constit.
uency office in Brussels:, brings a new
business into town.
Until now; Brussels has not had a federal
constituency office, though since the recent
election I have had 'a member of my staff
Ask the Historical Society
before you throw out
Behind the scenes,
by Keith Roulston
It is not a good time to be a small
businessman.
You can pick any number of discourag-
ing facts of iife to make you want to get out
of business. There's the interest rate that
,his reached levels we., would have thought
impossible only a year ago.. There's the
cost of petroleum-based fuels which, in
some businesses are a big production
input. There's the inflation rate'which sees
suppliersTaising their prices so quickly you
can hardly keep ahead. There's the
prospect of an economic slowdown proving
that if you think things are black now they
can get even worse.
On top of it- all there's the feeling that
nobody really cares. The governments,
!provincial and federal, speak about how
hard these new interest rates are but they
offer no help. Their policies seem often to
encourage the absorption of small busi-
nesses by big one. And the public, it often
seems it can't run fast enough from• the
little guy to the big one.
The small businessman we are most
familiar with is the main street merchant.
He is the symbol of the small town. We
tend to judge towns by the energy, and
attractiveness of the main street buSMOSs-
es. Main street buildings are the face of the
community, the thing that every stranger
' driving through town eyaluates the 'com-
munity on.. Most .often the main street
merchants are also driving forces behind
many activities in the community: service
clubs, churches and community boards.
In a lot of small towns however, the main
street businessman seems ready to throw
in the sponge these days. Faced with
increasing pressures he seems to be too
tired to go on fighting. He either sits
quietly living out his years until retirement
or decides to sell out or close down.
All towns go through cycles. There are
times when the business community is full
of young energetic people and times when
the spark seems to have been beaten out by
too many long years' of long hours. The
problem is at this time in history that there
isn't a new generation coming along to
replace the old, tired generation of
merchants. There aren't' a, lot of young
people willing to take the plunge into
running their own business,
And what encouragement is there for
people to run their own business? People
complain about small businessmen being
inefficient yet for him to be as skilled, as
other professionals in society is something
of a miracle. We have schools to teach
people to be doctors, lawyers, economists,
architects and dentists, 'We keep turning
Out teachers and nurses although we
already have too many of each. We have
school's' turning Out actors when the actors
we already have can't make a living. Yet as
far as I know there is not one school in the