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HomeMy WebLinkAboutThe Citizen, 1992-04-29, Page 4Taking a tough stand Huron County Board of Education trustees, often maligned for their failure to hold the line on budgets, took a tough stand in this year's budget-setting process and county taxpayers will benefit..at least in the short term. The 2.5 per cent increase in taxes may not have been the zero per cent trustee John Jewitt wanted, but it is lower than might have been expected if trustees hadn't made it clear to staff early on that they wanted deep cuts in proposals. An earlier proposal asked for a 5.3 per cent increase but trustees sent it back, demanding at a meeting April 13 that the increase be zero. The board will actually spend less than last year but taxes will still increase. These cuts won't be painless. To some extent the cuts are just postponing for the future capital projects that should be done now. These are the kinds of cuts that can't go on forever the building and the entire education system will collapse if they do. The trustees have established, however, that there is a bottom in the well. Important as education is, there is a limit to the resources society has to support this one of many demands on taxes. Education and health care costs have mushroomed and given their importance, few have wanted to say no to requests for more. But now the limit has been set. People within the two fields will have to look at how to allocate scarce resources. It may mean we have to come up with innovative new ways to provide education, just as traditional methods of providing medical care have been altered through services like home care. Nobody wants to change if they can avoid it Education, however, must change. The trustees are assuring the system will change.—KR Accentuate the positive Such is the self-effacement of Canadians and their total absorption with bad news, that even when we get good news it goes virtually ignored. Such was the case recently when an international study showed that Canada is the best place in the world to live. Not Germany. Not Japan. Not the U.S. Not Sweden. Canada! The study took into account all aspects of life, not just the cost of milk, of VCR's and made Canada look good besides our southern neighbours. But did anyone notice? We hardly took time from complaining about taxes or the "high" cost of food to smile for a moment. We hardly stopped worrying about the future of the country to think what we'd be losing if we did split up: the country that works better than any other country on the planet Deep down we’ve know for years we are a country blessed with natural resources, plenty of food and plenty of space. Now it's been confirmed but nobody has to worry about Canadians becoming too smug and self-satisfied. We hardly noticed.—KR What moral high ground? One of the reasons for the stunning victory of the NDP in Sept. 1990 Ontario election was that people were tired of political convenience and liked the perception that Bob Rae and the NDP were cleaner than clean, eighteen months in office have stripped that illusion away. The Shelley Martel affair has killed off the last vestiges of the smugness of the NDP that it somehow occupied the moral high ground on a long-term lease. That Ms Martel still holds on to her office after being, at best, an admitted liar and defamer of other's reputations and at worst, someone who used her office to fight a vendetta says a lot about how far the idealism of Mr. Rae has slipped. Early on in his mandate he fired a minister for posing, fully clothed, as a Sunshine boy in he Toronto Sun. Today he protects a minister who has carried on inexcusable behaviour. No matter what financial gain the private sector might have had from Sunday store openings, Mr. Rae said he wouldn't go against the rights of workers to have a common day of rest. High ideals, even if it may help send shoppers across the border. Yet then the government is apparently ready to allow gambling casinos into Ontario in the name of raising more money for the government despite the hardships this may bring to many people who are the victims of compulsive gambling, or the families of compulsive gamblers. The government that once had a firm moral anchor now seems to be floating in this direction or that direction whenever the breeze blows. Sad to say the biggest reason for electing this government has now been lost—KR Looking Back Through the Years ONE YEAR AGO May 1,1991 The Blyth Festival received a special award at the Excellence in Public Education awards night in Holmesville for its efforts to involve high school students in drama. Carol Irwin, Festival presi­ dent and board members Marie McGavin and Sheila Richards accepted the award. Six people from Central Huron Secondary School also received awards at the Excellence in Educa­ tion banquet. The recipients were Ruth Linton, long-time health nurse and students Vivienne Stephens, Angela Reid, Fayanne Love, Paul Jewitt and Rick Howson. Bruce Fischer, of RR 3, Brussels, was the first $100 winner of Club 284's Early Bird Draw. The draw was the first in a series of nine to be held every Saturday, with pro­ ceeds from the draw going to the St. John's Lodge #284 Brussels for community betterment. THREE YEARS AGO April 26,1989 Klaus and Kristin Henschel, jointly charged with 10 counts of theft over $1,000 and nine counts of fraud over $1,000 in connection with the collapse of Brussels Stock- yards Limited were remanded for plea until May 17. Manivan Larprom of Grey Cen­ tral School in Ethel was the big winner at the Huron County Sci­ ence Fair in Clinton. She received the Conservation Award, presented by the MVCA and Ausable-Bay- field Conservation Authorities for the best conservation-related pro­ ject, and won a trip to the Canada- Wide Science Fair in Newfoundland. FIVE YEARS AGO April 29,1987 A reward of $500 was offered for the arrest and conviction of vandals responsible for killing thousands of fish on a Blyth-area fish farm, owned by Donald Elliott. The fish were deprived of oxygen after the vandals turned off the water supply to* large outdoor tank. The North Huron itizen P.O. Box 429,P.O. Box 152, BLYTH, Ont.BRUSSELS, Ont. N0M1H0 NOG 1 HO Phone 523-4792 Phone 887-9114 FAX 523-9140 FAX 887-9021 The Citizen is published weekly in Brussels, Ontario by North Huron Publishing Company Inc. 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