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$1.25 GST included Serving the communities of Blyth and Brussels and northern Huron County Thursday, February 14, 2019
Volume 35 No. 7
SPORTS - Pg. 7
Blyth broomball team
claims provincial silver
AWARD - Pg. 18
Belgrave-area youth
honoured with award
Natural Heritage Plan report coming this spring
Grant
review
coming
Huron County’s controversial
Natural Heritage Plan will be
returning to public consciousness
later this year through the Planning
and Development Department.
Planner Monica Walker-Bolton
spoke to Huron County Council at
its Feb. 6 meeting, saying that the
department is working towards the
five-year review of the Huron
County Official Plan over the next
two years. She said the department
hopes to address a number of issues
within the Official Plan, but that
updating it every five years is part of
its regular schedule.
“The review of the plan needs to
provide maximum opportunity for
residents of the county to be
informed of and participate in the
review of the plan and the
development of any new policy,”
Walker-Bolton said in her report.
“Over the next year, there will be
opportunity through public, agency
and stakeholder workshops to
discuss and gather input. In addition,
the recent and ongoing community
consultations being undertaken by
the [Huron County] libraries is also
very valuable information to inform
policy directions.”
Walker-Bolton then outlined a
number of areas that could see
revisions in the five-year review of
the Official Plan, including policies
to address climate change and
housing policies, both in accordance
with Bill 139. It will also aim to
update the language regarding
public consultation in accordance
with Bill 73, as well as inclusion of
drinking water source protection
policies and updates to reflect the
county’s economic development
strategy. There will also be policy
updates to the agriculture, natural
environment, extractive resources,
settlement patterns and community
services sections as identified
through the public, agency,
stakeholder and council consultation
process and policy additions as
needed to be consistent with the
Provincial Policy Statement, such as
active transportation policies.
Several councillors then asked if
there would be mention of the
Natural Heritage Plan in the Official
Plan update, wanting to ensure that
concerned members of the public
were given plenty of notice if and
when the issue would be up for
At its Feb. 5 meeting, Huron East
Council approved its annual roster
of grants, but not before some small
changes were made and larger ones
were suggested for the future.
Council approved $18,570 in
grants to local organizations with
little debate, just under its annual
grant budget limit of $20,000,
however, Councillor John Lowe
suggested evening up two grants to
ensure equal treatment among
communities.
Historically, the Seaforth Lions
Club had received $2,000 for its
Santa Claus parade, while the
Brussels Santa Claus parade had
only received $500. Lowe felt it was
time that disparity came to an end
and suggested increasing the
Brussels grant by $500 and reducing
the Seaforth grant by $1,000 for an
even $1,000 to each parade.
Lowe said that it was his
understanding that the extra money
for Seaforth was generally used to
book bands for the celebration.
However, he said, perhaps if
Brussels was able to book bands
with some extra money it could
improve its standing as a parade as
well, adding that it only made sense
that the two communities received
the same amount of money from the
municipality.
Council approved the change with
little discussion.
However, the big change being
The Alice Munro Festival of the
Short Story is hoping to expand to
include programming for the
youngest and most promising
readers and writers the community
has to offer.
Karen Stewart from the festival
spoke to Central Huron Council at
its Feb. 4 meeting, highlighting past
successes of the festival and the goal
of expanding it to include a
corresponding children’s festival.
Stewart told council that in
addition to the festival’s annual
activities, which include on-stage
presentations and workshops
throughout the county, she hopes
to expand to include outreach
into local schools for the youth
portion of the established festival.
The festival, scheduled for May
24-26, will include youth
programming at schools in
Wingham, Howick and Clinton,
which was music to council’s ears.
Mayor Jim Ginn said that council
was somewhat miffed last year when
the festival held events in Wingham
and Bayfield, completely ignoring
Munro Festival to expand
Feet! Feet!
The Blyth Brussels Bantam Local League Crusaders took
on the Huron-Bruce Blizzard on Saturday afternoon at the
Brussels, Morris and Grey Community Centre, and despite
getting spun around once or twice, the locals came away
with a 3-1 victory over their opponents from the north. This came
on a weekend when many area hockey teams were in action and
a local broomball team came up just short of provincial glory in
Barrie. (Nick Vinnicombe photo)
By Shawn Loughlin
The Citizen
Continued on page 2
Continued on page 9
Continued on page 12
By Shawn Loughlin
The Citizen
By Shawn Loughlin
The Citizen
INSIDE
THIS WEEK:
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STUDY - Pg. 3
Community centre study
approved in Huron East