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HomeMy WebLinkAboutThe Citizen, 1989-06-07, Page 5Reviewing party THE CITIZEN, WEDNESDAY, JUNE 7, 1989. PAGE 5. Councillors unimpressed by P.O. efficiency claims Brussels Reeve Gordon Workman leads the reviewing party past the cadets on parade during the 10th annual inspection of the Brussels Cadet Corps May 30 in Brussels. The event included a special display of the armed forces new familyof personal weapons from the Royal Canadian Regiment in London. Cadets hold 10th inspection The 10th annual inspection night for the Brussels Cadet Corps was held at the Brussels Legion May 30. Brussels Reeve Gordon Work­ man was the reviewing officer for the evening. Inspecting officer was P.O.M. Stege, Area Cadet Assis­ tant from London. Also taking part in the review were Capt. Al White, representing the Army Cadet County reverses position on mayors Continued from page 1 responsibility for administration be transferred to the appropriate adja­ cent municipality. The council turned thumbs down on the proposal that all heads of councils, including the mayors of towns, be required to sit on county council. Brian McBurney, Reeve of Turn­ berry township pointed out this was the opposite to what the county council had said last year in its reply to the first draft of the document called “Patterns for the Future’’. Warden David Johnston agreed that this was a reversal of policy. The county had approved the proposals to have mayors on coun­ Can politicians be charged for leaks too? Continued from page 4 the information it contained. What then would have happened if the person who had given Mr. Small the document had photocopied it and given him the copy instead? Unless the copying was done on a government photocopier with government paper, technically it wouldn’t be possession of stolen property. Would he have been charged? If he would be, a lot of journalists would be in trouble, and a lot of things would be going on that the public would never get to know. Nearly every week involves some­ thing that could technically be called a theft. I have, myself, on one occasion received a photo-cop­ ied copy of an internal document of a federal government agency that showed that while the agency was saying one thing publicly, it was planning to do something entirely different in its private planning. And if journalists can be guilty of theft in such areas, can Members of Parliament also? Pat Nowlan, the Nova Scotia M.P. who has made himself few friends in the League and Ted Elliott and Ross Bennett, representing the Brussels Legion, sponsors of the Corps. Master Warrant Officer Steve Martene of Seaforth won the Master Warrant Officer Award. The Glanville Warrant Officer Award went to Warrant Officer Mike Jardin. The most improved Cadet Award went to Cadet Darren Bauer. cil last year, but later when the consultation committee visited Huron and had a public hearing last June, the mayors of the Huron towns made it perfectly clear they didn’t have the time to sit on county council as well as their normal duties. Tom Cunningham, Reeve of Hullett regretted this change feel­ ing it made the council seem to be talking out of both sides of its mouth. Still, Reeve Cunningham ex­ pressed great disappointment in the Consultation Committee’s Re­ port saying it wasn’t half the document of the original “Patterns for the Future’’ report. “This doesn’t give us meat,” he said. “It gives us a county structure much Progressive Conservative Party by sticking to his own beliefs, pointed out that if possessing pilfered documents was a crime, many of the party leaders of the Conserva­ tives would have spent time in jail during their years in opposition when they used leaked documents to embarrass Liberal governments. The only people likely to gain from all this are the lawyers who, if there is a conviction, will no doubt fight this one all the way to the Supreme Court. The government is a loser. It now looks not only sloppy for allowing at least two leaks of its most confidential document, not only devious for maintaining there was only one budget leak when it knew all along there had been two, but now petty and vindictive as well. But the biggest losers, if the charge is upheld by the courts, will be the Canadian public. It wili mean that secretive governments will be given added power to be secretive. We can easily get along without knowing about leaked bud­ gets but there are many other things that are going on under the As well as the inspection the cadets put on a number of demon­ strations of survival techniques and first aid. Following the inspection there were displays including the display of the new family of personal weapons with the armed forces put on by C company of the First Royal Canadian Regiment, London. like Oxford (a restructured county which is the home of committee chairman Charlie Tatham, M.P.P. for Oxford). There were some good points in the original document that would have given the county wider powers to assume certain powers if needed, he said, but now these are gone. Reeve Cunningham worried that the restructuring would make government more remote and talk­ ed about a friend near Brampton who couldn’t get answers to his complaints about problems in the rural area because the government was centered in Brampton. “When they start lumping Blyth and Hullett or Clinton and Hullett, the larger municipality can dominate.” cover of government secrecy that we should know about. Adding the threat of prosecution to those who accept those leaked documents will hinder freedom of the press and the exercise of the public’s right to know. Brussels council reappoints auditor Despite quotes that apparently would have cut a considerable amount of the village audit bill, Brussels village councillors voted Monday night to reappoint its present auditor for another year. Unhappy with the cost of the audit by Pannell Kerr MacGilli- vray, council had asked in February for quotes on how much the job would cost with other auditors. The bill for the 1988 audit of the village books, those of the Public Utilities Commission and all the other associated boards and committees Continued on page 10 While Ed J. Borza told Canada Post’s story of increased efficiency in mail delivery between major urban centres at the June session of Huron County Council Thursday, he couldn’t hold out hope to questioning councillors of improv­ ing the delivery between communi­ ties within the county. Mr. Borza, director of collection and delivery for Huron Division (everything west of Toronto) of Canada Post read a 10 page speech to the councillors telling of the improvements in Canada Post ser­ vice, councillors during the ques­ tion period at the end spent most of their time on the less optimistic side of the corporation. Mr. Borza said 94 per cent of mail was delivered within the same city within two days; 95 per cent of mail was delivered within the three days set as the standard for delivery between major urban cen­ tres in the same province; and 96 per cent was delivered within the standard of four days between major urban centres in different provinces. In Huron Division the figures were 97, 95 and 96 per cent, he said. But while Hay Township Reeve Lionel Wilder congratulated Mr. Borza on Canada Post’s turning a $600 jnillion loss into a small profit, he wondered why it took five days for a letter to get from Zurich to Clinton. Canada Post’s recovery might be saving him taxes, Reeve Wilder said, but he was having to pay penalties on bills for late payment because of slow delivery by the post office. Mr. Borza could offer little encouragement for improvement. Many small communities have only one delivery by truck a day, he said. By the time the letter was mailed, was picked up late in the day or the next day, was trucked to No assurance MOE rules won’t change Continued from page 1 province had found themselves in trouble when, after years of taking part in such a study, they found that the Ministry of the Environ­ ment (MOE) had changed its standards and the study had to be done all over again. He asked if the county had any assurance the MOE wouldn’t change the groundrules sometime in the future before Huron got a new site in operation. Dr. Gary Davidson, head of the Planning and Development Depart­ ment said that it would be nice to get that kind of assurance but the MOE isn’t likely to give it. The Ministry has approved the terms of reference for the study, he said, but has given no assurance it won’t change its standards in future. “What we do know is that we’re going to need more facilities by the mid-nineties and whoever is going to expand must go through Envir­ onmental Assessment. Right now the county is further down the line in the environmental assessment procedure than anybody else.” Stage Two of the report which will now begin will look into potential waste management sites and examine potential markets for things like recycled garbage. It will look into waste management ad­ ministration and which level of government (local municipal or county) should be looking after waste management. Stage 2B will examine alternative methods of dealing with wastes. Jo-Anne Richter, Co-ordinator for the project said Friday the Stage 2A is scheduled to be completed by mid-December, 1989. a large urban centre for sorting for a day, then trucked back another day, it meant a minimum of three days for delivery. The only way to improve deli­ very, he said, would be to add on more inefficient highway service and that would drive up the basic cost of the service. Mr. Borza talked about the gains to be made through franchising out postal services to local businesses rather than maintaining a govern­ ment owned post office but Sea­ forth Reeve William Bennett was less than impressed. Mr. Borza said that in those communities where service has been switched from government-owned facilities into retail outlets, the hours of service had increased from 29 hours a week to an average of 65 hours a week, an increase of 126 per cent. An independent survey, he said, showed 90 per cent of people satisfied with the new services in communities where the switch had been made. Reeve Bennett was worried about the specific problem emerg­ ing in Seaforth. Canada Post is a tenant there in the federal building but the department of Public Works has suggested it may sell the building. What would happen in that case, the Reeve wanted to know? Mr. Borza said that if the building was sold the post office might be moved into a retail business. But Reeve Bennett poin­ ted out, the post office is a focal point of a small community. People like to go there and wait around to meet their friends. No store owner would want people hanging around, crowding his business. But, the Reeve said, people from the city (such as Canada Post management) just wouldn’t be able to understand how small communi­ ties operate. Mr. Borza wanted to talk about the benefits of the new community mail boxes (supermailboxes) and how they make it convenient for people to get their mail near their own home. Bill Mickle, Reeve of Exeter where the superboxes are being installed wanted to know about two aspects of the boxes from a municipal standpoint. Would, he asked, there be a garbage contain­ er at each box for people to throw away their junk mail and who was responsible for keeping the area clean and for removing snow in winter. Mr. Borza said the flyers were important mail to the businesses who bought the service so no garbage container would be includ­ ed. He would expect people to take the mail home and not to litter, he said. Canada Post, he said, would be responsible for keeping the area snow free. John Doherty, deputy reeve of Goderich and a Canada Post letter carrier, argued that the new super­ mailboxes are not as economically operated as Canada Post says they are and argued people will get poorer service through retail out­ lets than through government- operated post offices. He asked how many employees would lose their jobs through the post office changes. Mr. Borza said nobody has lost a job through the changes at this point. Canada Post waits for oppor­ tunities to arise, such as the retirement of a postmaster, before making changes, he said. Canada Post also informs federal and local politicians 90 days before such changes are made, he said. One reeve later complained pri­ vately, however, that a change had been made in his township recently with council not receiving any notice at all.