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HomeMy WebLinkAboutThe Citizen, 1986-11-12, Page 4Is it really so hard to say well done? After a year of controversy the figures are in on the operation of the Brussels, Morris and Grey community swimming pool. The news is very, very good. It was only a year ago that the pool was the first controversial meeting The Citizen covered and there were all kinds of complaints about the way the Lions Club was doing things and dire predictions about the viability of the whole project. All during last winter the dire predictions from critics continued right up until the day the pool opened. Some critics said the attendance figures the Lions predicted were set unrealistically high. They predicted a deficit far higher than the committee predicted. Well, swimming registration was higher than expected. Attendance was higher than expected. Revenue was strong enough that a healthy surplus was recorded in the first year of operation. The pool is nearly paid for. Instead of congratulating the people who fought the pool project through to completion, there are those instead who like to point out that without grants from municipalities and Wintario, the pool would have lost money. Is it so hard to say “Well done’’? Go ahead, try it. It won’t hurt a bit. REQ UESTFORA SMALL MIRA CLE No time for complacency When he spoke at an all-candidates meeting at Brussels for voters in the Ontario Milk Marketing Board regional member ’ s election last month, Bruce Saunders painted a bleak picture for young farmers trying to get into dairy farming. “I think we’re going to see a generation of young people who aren’t going to be able to get into dairy farming.’’ Saunders, since elected as the local director to the OMMB, seemed at least to have taken more time to think about the problem than the other candidates who expressed concern about the problem but seemed to accept that the high cost of quota was just a fact of life, thatperhapsitwas time to accept the fact that only the sons of rich families could expect to get into the business. That is the talk of the complacent people. It’s the kind of talk that says rather than change the system for all its faults, we should change the people to fit the system. There’s no doubt that dairy producers who are already in the business get nervous when people start talking about finding ways to reduce the value of quota. Quota, for milk, eggs, chicken or turkey, after all, is one of the most valuable assets any farmer can have, often worth more than the farmer’s land, buildings, stock and machinery put together. But commodities with high-cost quotas are sitting on a time bomb. The quota system, designed to save the family farm, can actually destroy the family farm if the cost becomes so high young people can’t get into the business. We’ve already seen evidence of that with the concentration of production in the feather industry. We’ve seen it in the concentration of ownership in cheese factories, creameries and dairies where the biggest asset many of the small plants of 25 years ago had was the quota huge corporations like Kraft and Ault Dairies were happy to buy from them. ino one should expect those farmers now in the business to be stripped of valuable quota without compensation but something must be done. Dairy farmers, or at least leaders of dairy farm organizations, seem too ready to accept the status quo instead of seeking solutions. An organization capable of putting together such impressive advertising campaigns should also be capable of putting together some sort of body to brainstorm the present problem and find a solution that is equitable to all. Anyone who questions the validity of production controlled marketing boards should just look around and see which farmers are in sound financial shape and which aren’t. Quotas have proven their worth in terms of giving farmers a chance to make decent money from their efforts. But unless solutions are found to the problem of high quota cost it will have been a short-term, hollow victory. Democracy in action It was democracy in action, something that can be too seldom se in two-cent postal increase saying the post office should justify the increase by giving improved service. Too often in Canadian politics party discipline leads to blind obedience by back-benchers. The rebellious Conservative members deserve credit for making our democracy more democratic. Last week the backbenchers of the Conservative government Ottawa rebelled against the government’s proposal for a I do not know the place where he is lying, It may be jungle or by tropic sea; But on this day, if you have time, Lord, Perform this little miracle for me. Bid all the strange and brilliant flowers vanish, And briefly, in their place, Let lilacs bloom and spread upon that earth, Lord, A white and starry net of Queen Anne's Lace. And when the dusk comes softly down this evening, Just for an hour, bid other birds be still, And for a boy who may be homesick there, Lord, Create a Whip-poor-will. Anon. he world view from Mabel's Grill “But Billie never misses coffee break,” Julia persisted. “Even if your car is up on the hoist and only needs the oil plug put back in and you have an appointment with the Prime Minister, he’ll leave you hanging while he comes to Mabel’s.” “Yeh,” says Hank, “Isn’titnice to see a guy who has his priorities straight.” “And,saysWardBlack, “When it comes to hunting season, Billie has his priorities even straighter. After all you can talk any day but hunting season only last four days.” WEDNESDAY: Tim O’Grady was talking about the American elec­ tions results this morning. It must be pretty discouraging for Ronald Reagan, Tim figured, to have the Democratselected when he had out. “He can convince the Ameri­ can people that he’s right to bomb Lebanon, to invade Grenada and to mine the harbours of Nicaragua but he can’t convince them to vote Republican,” Tim says. THURSDAY: Hank Stokes says he was watching the television show the other night on Edouard Sauoma, head of the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations who gets $200,000 a year and sometimes deliberately lets people go on starving so he could play politics within the organization. “I guess it proves farmers are as dumb as some people say we are when a guy can getthat much for letting people starve while we starve trying to feed people,” he says. campaigned so hard to keep them this week on page 6. Letter to the Editor are published [640523Ontario Inc.] Serving Brussels, Blyth, Auburn, Belgrave, Ethel, Londesborough, Walton and surrounding townships. Published weekly in Brussels, Ontario P.O. Box 152 P.O. Box429, Brussels, Ont. Blyth, Ont. N0G1H0 N0M1H0 887-9114. 523-4792 Subscription price: $15.00; $35.00foreign. Advertising and news deadline: Monday 2p.m. in Brussels; 4p.m. in Blyth Editor and Publisher: Keitn Roulston Advertising Manager: Beverley A. Brown Production and Office Manager: Jill Roulston Second Class Mail Registration No. 6968 V There are people who will tell you that the important decisions in town are made down at the town hall. People in the know, however know that the real debates, the real wisdom reside down at Mabel’s Grill where the greatest minds in the town (if not in the country) gather for morning coffee break, otherwise known as the Round Table Debating and Filibustering Society. Sincenotjusteveryone can partake of these deliberations we will report the activities from time to time. MONDAY: Julia Flint was talking this morning about the plan of the doctors to charge $120 an hour for their time in telephone consulta­ tions etc. “If they’re going to start doing that, maybe I’ll start charg­ ing for the time they keep me sitting in the waiting room,” she said. Hank Stokes said if doctors are going to start charging by the hour he thinks they should put in a time clock so they can punch in and punch out when telephone calls start and end. Hank Stokes suggested maybe the doctors would expect their customers to leave tips soon to help out their costs. Mabel, cleaning up one of the tables nearby, said she had a tip for doctors: not to expect to get much in tips from the customers who hang out around here. TUESDAY: Billie Bean hasn’t been in at the sessions for the last couple of days. When Julia wondered why everybody just looked at her kind of blankly as if she’d dropped in from another planet, “It’s deer hunting sea­ son,’’ Hank Stokes said, as if everybody in her right mind knew.