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HomeMy WebLinkAboutThe Citizen, 1993-11-10, Page 6-New Ontario Minimum Wage Regulations The following new minimum wage rates take effect at the beginning of the first week of January, 1994: General (including domestics New Rate Previous Rate and harvest workers) $6.70* (6.35) Students under 18 6.25* (5.90) Liquor servers 5.80* (5.50) Hunting/fishing guides 67.00** (63.50) Hunting/fishing guides 33.50# (31.75) *hourly rate; **5 or more hour day; # less than 5 hours. Maximum room and meal allowances in calculating the minimum wage, applicable to general workers at the beginning of January, 1994 are: Room — private (weekly) 31.00 (29.40) — non-private (weekly) 15.50 (14.70) Meals— (each) 2.50 (2.35) — (weekly) 52.50 (49.35) Room & meals (weekly) — with private room 83.50 (78.75) — non-private lodging 68.00 (64.05) Housing (weekly) for harvest workers only — serviced 97.15 (92.10) — unserviced 71.70 (67.95) For more information, contact your local Ministry of Labour office. CI Ontario PAGE 6. THE CITIZEN, WEDNESDAY, NOVEMBER 10, 1993. County council streamlines committee structure When the 1994 Huron County Council begins meeting in Decem- ber it will have a new streamlined committee structure. Under the new committee struc- ture adopted by county councillors at their November meeting, there will be only five committees of council compared to seven at pre- sent. The changes to the committee result from a Strategic Planning Committee which has been meeting throughout the summer and held two in camera meetings at Cen- tralia College in July and Septem- ber where councillors could give Huron County is attempting to get a $1 million JobsOntario grant to help with the renovation of the old Huronview building into sever- al different office buildings, War- den Tom Tomes told county council Nov. 4. The 1950 "Eastdale" wing has already been renovated by the Huron Day Centre and the Huron County Health Unit already occu- pies the 1967 wing. Under the plans the Huron County Library would renovate the 1953 wing. The difficulty is that the build- ings are supplied by a central heat- ing plant in a part of the building which is slated for demolition because consulting architects have said it would be too expensive to renovate. New heating plants will have to be installed during the ren- ovation of the buildings. *** With high prices for hard maple logs the number of ''notices of intent" to cut lumber have increased 60 per cent this year, County Tree Commissioner Joe Gibson, in his annual report to council, said the number of notices increased to 219 from 137 a year ago. One conviction was recorded for illegal cutting of trees with a $2,000 fine. The publicity generat- ed by the fine has created more concern and care on the harvesting of timber, Mr. Gibson said. *** The county will send a letter to the Huron County Federation of Agriculture pointing out the impli- cations of a tax strike proposed by the Federation if there is not a reform of the education tax system. The Federation called for removal Grey reeve seconds motion Continued from page 1 port when council had already made a motion that it would take no new grants. There is a need at the CAS but other agencies also have needs too, he said. He expressed confidence the CAS fundraisers would meet their goal. (To the end of September $64,000 had been raised.) Leona Armstrong, reeve of Grey Township seconded the motion for the support in principle and asked that executive committee "look favourably on the request (for assistance". But Bob Hallam, reeve of West Wawanosh said money should be going to programs to help children, not provide fancy new offices. "If the government wants to put up fancy buildings let it pay for them." The county, he said, is under strict budget constraints. The motion to give support in principle was tabled after a motion from Zurich Reeve Robert Fisher to await the outcome of the meetings between the clerk-administrator and the CAS executive director. their opinions on the process. Under the new structure, the new committees will be: •Administration, Finance and Personnel replacing the current executive committee. •Agriculture and Public Works, combining the Roads Committee and the agricultural aspect of the old Agriculture, Planning and Development Committee. In the future, the implementation of the Waste Management Master Plan would come under this committee and there is the possibility that the inspection services of the Health Unit could also be included, pend- *** The welfare load in Huron Coun- ty is shrinking slightly. There were 17 fewer cases and 27 fewer bene- ficiaries in August, John MacKin- non, administrator of social services reported to the Seniors and Social Services Committee. It rep- resents a 2.64 per cent drop from August 1992. With 2.28 per cent of the population receiving welfare assistance, Huron is the third low- est municipality in the province. By comparison, in Sault Ste. Marie, 9.92 per cent of the population receives assistance. *** With the retirement of the direc- tor of Public Health Inspections Ed Harrison, Klaus Seeger of Auburn The HCBE trustees were present- ed with a draft discussion paper concerning alternate approaches to staffing, at the Nov. 1 meeting. The paler was presented by Director Paul Carroll as a starting point for cost cutting measures needed to meet the demands of the Social Contract and the board's own financial difficulties. Mr. Carroll stated the reason for the paper was to have open and col- laborative planning. "Education restructuring must be undertaken through provincial-school board consultation, school board-employ- ee and school board-community consultation." "Some of the changes may include a smaller board and fewer staff with more pupils per teacher," he says. Everyone involved in the process felt the changes should be dis- cussed in the most public forum possible allowing emotions and anxiety to be dealt with, he says. A recommendation made in the paper suggested a systematic review of staff complement and the organization of the Education Cen- tre, Learning Resources Centre and support staff throughout the sys- tem. Mr. Carroll says he hopes much of the adjustment can be made through normal attrition rather than requiring layoffs. "It is hoped that the restructuring will include a provision for retrain- ing and re-skilling any individuals who find their current position redundant," he says. "Our goal is to minimize, if not prevent, job loss." Mr. Carroll says the paper is not a solution to all the problems faced ing the recommendations of a study currently under way. •Health and Seniors, combining the Board of Health and the Huron- view/Huronlea component of the present Seniors and Social Services Committee. •Planning and Development, combining the planning and devel- opment portion of the Agriculture, Planning and Development com- mittee with the waste management master plan. Once the plan is adopted the waste management portion would be included in the Agriculture and Public Works com- mittee. director of public health inspection. *** The last meeting of the 1993 county council term will be Dec. 2. Election of the 1994 warden will be Tuesday, Dec. 7 at 2 p.m. The first official meeting of the 1994 council will be Dec. 8 at 10 a.m. Huron Tourism, a development of the tourism groups of the Com- munity Development Areas has been formed in conjunction with the Huron County Planning and Development Department. The county has given permission for the name "Huron" to be used in the group's name. *** The county will tender for its insurance needs after 1994. In the meantime, council voted to contin- ue to use Frank Cowan Company as its insurer because a quote from OME didn't meet the county's requirements. The cost of insur- ance, none-the-less, will drop to $122,906 this year from $139,429 last year. by the board but one measure to cushion the financial blow in 1994. The paper will be distributed to all groups associated with educa- tion and to those affected by the proposed changes. 71-ustees see video from province Pat Semi, a co-op resource teach- er made a presentation to the HCBE at the Nov. 1 meeting, out- lining the success of the co-op edu- cation system in Huron County. She says there are presently 600 secondary and adult students in the system who earn a total of 1200 credits each year. A policies and procedures manu- al has ben developed for co-op teachers and it will be available through the board. ***** Huron County Director of Educa- tion Paul Carroll presented the board with a short video from the Premier's Council on Health, Well- being and Social Justice. The video outlined the connec- tion between a health community and education. It suggested the par- ents need to work in tandem with the schools to develop a health community. It also suggested that education needed to recapture its former share of the provincial budget. "Studies have shown that students with a higher education tend to have a healthier life and therefore require less from health services." Continued on page 21 •Social and Cultural Services, would combine the present Cultural Services Committee with the Social Just like homeowners, Huronlea and Huronview are turning to con- venience foods to shorten meal preparation time, Wayne Lester administrator of the two homes for the aged told Huron County Coun- cil Thursday. Mr. Lester was responding to a question from Goderich Reeve John Doherty who wondered "how much down to earth home cooking goes on." That question was prompted by a question a month ago from Brussels Reeve Gordon Workman. Reeve Workman had been told that the two homes were still preparing their own food but under questioning from Reeve Doherty, Mr. Lester explained that some elements of food preparation Services function of the present Seniors and Social Services Com- mittee. are being purchased to save time. The homes have purchased frozen vegetables in the past, he said, but now "we are anticipating the elimi- nation of time-consuming prepara- tion of casseroles." The homes will still cook roasts and meats and has state of the art cooking facilities but "we want to minimize the time in preparing food before you cook it," Mr. Lester explained. It's the same kind of shortcuts that people have been taking in their own homes for years, he said. One of the areas the homes are looking at is the time-consuming peeling of potatoes. Even though there are peeling machines in use, a lot of time is still used in cutting out the eyes once the peeling is done, he said. County council briefs County seeks jobsOnt. grant of education taxes from property has been appointed the acting and suggested, in a resolution for- warded to the Ontario Federation of Agriculture, that if the government doesn't act, the OFA should lead a withholding of the education por- tion of the property tax. If there was a tax strike, munici- palities would have to borrow money to pay education taxes. *** HCBE studies staffing Some convenience foods served at county homes, councillors told Getting ready Lenora Davidson of Blyth UCW prepares for the annual clothing sale and silent auction held at the Blyth United Church on Nov: 3 and 4.