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HomeMy WebLinkAboutThe Citizen, 1993-08-04, Page 4Through the Years From the files of the Blyth Standard and The Citizen 24 YEARS AGO AUGUST 6, 1969 Jim Reece will be applying a new coat of paint to Memorial Hall. Blyth Branch of the Royal Canadi- an Legion donated the paint. Brownies Drive-In at Clinton will be featuring Chitty Chitty Bang Bang and No Way to Treat a Lady. Grocery specials for this week are: 10 oz. Maxwell House instant coffee. $1.49; Gerber's baby food, six jars for $.79; 48 oz. pineapple juice, $.39; and Giant Tide, $.95. A subscription to the Blyth Stan- dard costs $4 per year. 12 YEARS AGO AUGUST 5, 1981 Morris celebrates its 125th birth- day. The parade, with over 200 floats, entertained the huge crowds on the streets of Brussels. Memorial Hall gets spruced up C The North Huron itizen eNA P.O. Box 429, P.O. Box 152, BLYTH, Ont BRUSSELS, Ont. NOM 1H0 NOG 1HO Phone 523-4792 Phone 887.9114 FAX 523.9140 FAX 887.9021 Publisher, Keith Roulston Editor, Bonnie Gropp Sales Representatives, Jeannette McNeil and Julie Mitchell 1•410 The Citizen Is published weekly In Brussels, Ontario by North Huron Publishing Company Inc. Subscriptions are payable in advance at a rate of $20.50/year ($19.16 plus $1.34 G.S.T.) for local; $31.03/year ($29.00 plus $2.03 G.S.T.) for local letter carrier In Goderich, Hanover, Llstowel, etc. and out-of-area (40 miles from Brussels); $60.00/year for U.S.A. and 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 p.m. - Brussels; Monday, 4 p.m. Blyth. We are not responsible for unsolicited newscripts or photographs. Contents of The Citizen are Copyright. Publications Mall Registration No. 6968 PAGE 4. THE CITIZEN, WEDNESDAY, AUGUST 4, 1993. It was messy but it worked It was noisy, and it was messy, but in the long run, the provincial NDP government received what it wanted from the "social contract" talks with public service unions: it saved nearly $2 billion from its payroll and also saved thousands of jobs. After months of listening to critics, from union leaders and rank and file government employees to opposition leaders to municipal politicians, the announcement that most public service unions had reached agreement with the government prior to Sunday's midnight deadline probably doesn't seem much of a success to ordinary Ontarians. A relief, maybe, now that we won't have to listen to all the cries on anguish and anger, but hardly a success. But looking at what the province wanted when it started the whole effort to reach a social contract, and looking at what it got, one has to realize it accomplished most of what it set out to do. There's no question the province had to cut its budget deficit and that if there were to be significant cuts, it had to reduce the burden of a payroll that accounts for one in every 12 Ontarians. The government could have cut the payroll by layoffs of thousands of workers. Its alternative was to ask everyone to give a little to save the jobs of many. That's more or less what happened. Once it decided to use its legislative clout to force a reduction in its payroll, the government could have arbitrarily cut salaries, and set back the income of provincial employees for years to come. Instead it offered a payroll freeze, plus unpaid days off for workers to reduce the overall payroll costs. It means that workers will remain at a higher level of pay when the freeze comes off three years from now. The social contract hasn't been an unqualified success. The government fobbed off some of its economic problems on municipalities at a time most had already set their budgets. That was unfair. It botched the requirement that municipalities cut payroll costs whdn it said only employees with over $30,000 incomes would be included — unaware that most rural municipalities have few employees above that total. It's also likely the controversy probably brought uncertainty to 900,000 government-sector employees whose nervousness tightened purse strings and prolonged the effects of the recession. Still, the conflict that has filled newspapers and air waves for the past couple of months was mostly the kind of posturing that goes into a bargaining process. The government, with so many veterans of labour negotiations from the other side, knew all about bluster and bombast and quietly pushed forward. In a way, its imposed Sunday midnight deadline, was like a strike deadline in reverse. Fred Upshaw, head of the Ontario Public Service Employees Union complained the government "held a gun to our heads," but isn't that what unions do when they threaten to strike? It's unfortunate that it takes so much fighting and screaming to reach this kind of agreement but in the end it was reached. Under the difficult circumstances Ontario faces these days, it was probably the best we could hope for. — KR Any violence is too much One can endlessly debate the figures quoted in last week's report on violence against women but the fact remains that any violence is too much violence. There is no doubt that too many women are being beaten, raped, molested and generally abused. The problem is, what can we do about it. There may be some new laws that can help the situation but laws are really a simple-minded solution to a complicated situation. What is really needed is simple respect for other people. Respect for the other person isn't a male-female issue but a person-to-person issue. Is there more violence against women today than in the past? It's difficult to understand why there should be. In general, our society has come a long way in understanding and tolerance in the past 40 or 50 years. Ironically, however, the greater freedom for women may also have put them in more danger. When women were considered people to be sheltered and protected, there was a gallantry on the part of men to protect women from a tiny minority -'who would take advantage of them. As women became more equal, that protection was reduced. But women aren't equal when it comes to physical strength. Most men have the ability to force most women to do things they don't want to do. It takes civilization to make people who have power use their power only for good. This is a battle that's much harder to win than just making laws. It's a battle that must be won. — KR The baby contest was won by Matthew Shortreed, son of Valerie and William Shortreed of Walton. Other winners were Michele Thompson, Ainslea Livingston and Terry Nichol. Winner of the queen contest was Carol Wheeler. Linda Cunningham, daughter of Mr. and Mrs. Tom Cunningham of Auburn, returns home after a two week inter-provincial 4-H exchange program. Miss Cunning- ham travelled to Nova Scotia. "The Tommorrow Box" plays at the Blyth Festival. 6 YEARS AGO AUGUST 5, 1987 Robbie and Carole Lawrie sell Letter to the editor MPPs take pay cut to set example THE EDITOR, in the fall. The NDP Members of your This session of the Legislature is provincial caucus have chosen to winding down. This past session lead by example and have agreed to has been very busy with the a 5.5 per cent cut in wages. This is economy dominating all on top of a three year wage freeze discussion. Because of drastically for all Members, Cabinet Ministers, reduced income, we recognize we the Premier and senior civil don't have the money to spend that servants. we used to. In addition, there will be a review The government has a three part of the MPP pension plan in the fall. plan to deal with our financial The leaders of all three parties have situation. The first is the Expendi- agreed to address this question. ture Control Plan. Four billion Work on reform options will proceed over the summer for action Continued on page 14 E ditorial their decorating business to two long time employees John Battye and Don Stewart. A tractor rented by Howick Twp. slips into a large groundhog hole and causes $1,000 to the vehicle. Bluevale Cougars win the Annu- al Brussels Fastball Tournament. Crop Specialist Brian Hall says the heavy rains recently will leave the crops in the northern part of the county in better shape than those to the south. Corn yields will be down in the southern areas because of the lack of rain during the important polli- nation period.