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The Citizen, 1990-03-21, Page 36PAGE 4. THE CITIZEN, WEDNESDAY, MARCH 21, 1990. Opinion Paying without control Frustrated Huron County Councillors voted unanimously last week to ask for an operational review of the Huron County Children’s Aid Society even though they all agree that the agency has an important job to do. The councillors were frustrated, however, because they had been handed a bill for an additional $ 100,000 by the CAS for its 1990 budget and felt powerless to do any thing about it. It’s not the first time councillors have had this kind of frustration. At various times the county’s Board of Health and its library board have also had councillors fuming. The problem lies in the various ways departments of the county run. Some departments such as planning and development or the road department a re committees of council. Their budgets a re approved by the whole council and a council committee oversees the operations of the department. Other bodies spending county money, however, like the CAS, the Board of Health and the library board, are provincial boards. Council may appoint some of its members as members of the board but once the board has made a decision, the county council is bound by it. At county council meetings recommendations of departments are voted on by council; recommendations of independent boards are simply read out as a matter of information. The problem is the county is still expected to pick up part of the tab for the expenses of these agencies. The province usually picks up the biggest share but still the county has a significant contribution. In the case of the Children’s Aid Society this year the increase alone will be $100,000 to the county, a 38 per cent increase. This is on top of a 16 per cent increase last year when even that wasn’t enough because the agency ran a deficit over and above the levy increase. The county in the past has tried to dissolve the county library board and make it a committee of council but the private members bill died when the provincial legislature disolved. It’s a problem. Boards like the CAS need some autonomy or councils may try to interfere in the workings of the agency but at the same time people who have to pay the bill should have some control aside from a few members appointed to the board. Some solution has tobefound to make such boards more responsive to the people who pay the bill s, both the taxpayers and their representatives, the county councillors. The politics of fear When all else fails there is one strategy the federal government of Brian Mulroney always falls back on: scare the hell out of them. The government’s politics of fear is very much in evidence again this week as the heat is turned on to try to convince the public and the premiers opposed to the Meech Lake constitutional reform package that they had better approve the agreement or else. Speakingin Ed mon ton on theweekendJoe Clark gave a new variation of the old theme when he said that nobody ever said that the Meech Lake proposal was perfectbutthatwe’d better accept it because the alternative was too fearful to imagine. He brought back memories of the FLQ crisis of 1970. He talked about the breakup of the country. This trying to scare people into agreeing with it is old hat to this government. The same tactic worked effectively to get many people to support the government in the last election when it said Canada must have Free Trade or our economy would wither and die. The same tactic has been used to try to convince people that the deficit must be slashed or the country is doomed. The problem is there’s a kind of diminishing return on this kind of argument. It’s a bit like the boy who cried wolf. After a while people get tired of being told they should be frightened and they say to heck with it. People both in English Canada and in Quebec aren’t buying the fear angle right now. They need some more positive reason to want to keep their country together. They need a leader with a sense of vision with a sense that this country can work and is worth sacrificing for. To some extent the Mulroney government is a victim of the times, saddled with the unpopular task of trying to tighten the purse strings on a nation that wants to spend beyond its means. But Brian Mulroney has failed to find the positive things that make Canadians proud to be Canadians. We need'a vision. We need enthusiasm. We need someone to put some positive emotion into our national soul to replace all the negative emotion the bigots and the doomsayers have been brewing. The problem is that when we need a great leader all we’ve got is Brian Nature's sculpture Mabel’s Grill 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 So­ ciety. Since not just everyone can partake of these deliberations we will report the activities from time to time. MONDAY: Tim O’Grady said he went to a couple of hockey games on the weekend and couldn’t get over the difference. One game involved kids 10 or 11 years old and there was hardly a penalty, let alone a fight. The other game was adults and it was mostly fights with the odd hockey thrown in. Yes, Julia Flint said, we kind of get it backwards don’t we. When kids cheat the rules or fight in real life we hope they’ll start being more mature and act like adults. In hockey, the closer they get to being “adult” the more they learn how to cheat and fight. TUESDAY: Everybody was mar­ velling at the warm weather as they walked around in their shirt sleeves. “I suppose,” Hank Stokes said, “it’s the beginning of this greenhouse effect. If you think about that, it’s kind of hard to enjoy it.” Billie Bean said he didn’t want to think about it. “This may be the beginning of the end of the world but what a way to go.” WEDNESDAY: Ward Black said that if people in eastern Europe were listening to our sports news these days it’s no wonder they’re beating down the Berlin wall. “Can Continued on page 5 The Citizen is published weekly in Brussels, Ontario by North Huron Publishing Company Inc. Subscriptions are payable in advance at a rate of $19.00/yr ($40 00 Foreign) 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 pm- Brussels; Monday, 4 p.m - Blyth. We are not responsible for unsolicited newscripts or photographs Contents of The Citizen are © Copyright Serving Brussels, Blyth, Auburn, Belgrave, Ethel, Londesborough, Walton and surrounding townships. Editor & Publisher, Keith Roulston Advertising Manager, DaveWilliams Production Manager, Jill Roulston Second Class Mail Registration No. 6968