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$1.25 GST included Serving the communities of Blyth and Brussels and northern Huron County Thursday, April 18, 2019
Volume 35 No. 16
RWANDA - Pg. 10
Allan Thompson revisits
Rwanda 25 years later
OPA - Pg. 16
Belgrave woman to serve
as provincial director
BOOK SALE - Pg. 7
Annual used book sale to
benefit Repository of History
Publications Mail Agreement No. 40050141 Return Undeliverable Items to North Huron Publishing Company Inc., P.O. Box 152, BRUSSELS, ON N0G 1H0
INSIDE
THIS WEEK:
Easter on the Trail now set
Budget delivers for
Huron: Thompson
This year, to promote the use of
the Greenway Trail, the Friends of
the Village of Blyth will be holding
a special event dubbed Easter on the
Greenway Trail, which is set for
April 20 at 10:30 a.m.
On Saturday, the event will start at
the Bainton’s water tower on the
trail and participants are encouraged
to bring their own Easter
basket.
Allison Elligson is organizing the
event, and said that there will be
1,000 plastic eggs hidden along the
trail. While a select few eggs will
have special prizes in them, most
will be empty and can be traded in
for a treat bag at the end of the event,
Elligson said.
“We’re hoping to encourage
people to spend a bit of time actually
enjoying the trail,” she said, “which
is why we chose to properly hide
eggs along the trail, as opposed to
just throwing a bunch of candy on
the ground.”
She said there will be a photo area
with props and decorations, as well
as the Easter Bunny to allow
families to get Easter photos.
While similar events have
staggered times for different age
groups, Elligson said that because
there is no benefit to hoarding eggs
the Friends of the Village hope
everyone will be able to enjoy the
event without older children
taking an inordinate number of eggs.
Elligson said, when Friends of the
Village Liaison Lissa Kolkman
asked her to take part, she was happy
to try and encourage people to take
advantage of the Greenway Trail.
“I love having events in our own
community and working with fellow
Blyth residents,” she said.
Elligson, as a parent, knows
that it’s a hassle travelling out of
town for seasonal events, so to
be able to have Easter events
in Blyth is a benefit for everyone.
LIBRARY
The fun that day doesn’t end at the
Greenway Trail as, at 11 a.m., the
Huron County Library’s Blyth
Branch will be hosting a special
Easter event. The branch is inviting
youth of all ages to the site after the
egg hunt at the Greenway Trail for
Easter crafts.
Despite some criticism of Premier
Doug Ford’s first budget, which was
tabled at Queen’s Park last week,
Huron-Bruce MPP and Minister of
Education Lisa Thompson says
there is plenty to be excited about in
the document.
Finance Minister Vic Fedeli tabled
the budget on Thursday that will see
a total of $163.4 billion spent, $4.9
billion more than the previous
Liberal government’s final spending
figures.
The government does, however,
aim to eliminate the province’s
deficit in five years, projecting a
surplus by 2023/2024. The
government projects a deficit of
$10.3 billion in 2019/2020, $6.8
billion in 2020/2021, $5.6 billion in
2021/2022 and $3.5 billion in
2022/2023 before the projected
surplus the following year.
This came after Ford’s
government adjusted the deficit. The
Liberals stated that the deficit was
$6.7 billion, but the Progressive
Conservatives insist it is actually
$11.7 billion. The adjustment came
as the result of an accounting
decision, no longer choosing to
count approximately $11 billion in
government co-sponsored pension
plans as assets on the province’s
books.
In an interview with The Citizen
on Friday, Thompson said the
budget delivers good news for all of
Ontario, including those areas under
her purview, like her riding of
Huron-Bruce and the province’s
education system.
“The PC government of Ontario is
protecting what matters most; that’s
our frontline jobs, that’s our health
care, our education, our social
services,” Thompson said.
She added that the government
inherited a “huge burden” with not
just the provincial deficit, but its
debt as well, so she and her
colleagues have identified what’s
important to Ontarians through
extensive consultation.
“We have worked for many
months in terms of identifying
priorities and what matters most to
people and we’ve landed on a very
responsible path forward in which
we’re protecting what matters most,”
Thompson said.
In Thompson’s riding of Huron-
Bruce, she says there is plenty to
help residents along, but many of
those announcements were made
before last Thursday’s tabling of the
budget. She points to funding for
natural gas expansion and
infrastructure aid for municipalities,
in addition to the expansion of
broadband internet throughout the
province as examples. Thompson
also said that protection for the
Great Lakes will be of interest to
Huron and Bruce County residents.
She also said the government is
working to improve property
assessment through the Municipal
Property Assessment Corporation
(MPAC). Thompson says that many
have lost confidence in property
assessment, so the government will
be looking at enhancing the
accuracy and stability of property
assessment through MPAC.
Furthermore, in Huron-Bruce,
Thompson says she and the
government will stand with farmers
and manufacturers and help to
promote careers in the skilled trades,
beginning in the educational system
and working up through universities
and colleges.
As for social services, Thompson
insists that freeing up child care
workers to best decide how to do
their jobs is a step in the right
direction and in terms of
government assistance, helping
Ontarians to obtain employment is
the best assistance of all.
“We’ve modernized child care,”
Thompson said. “The previous
administration, it was almost like a
nanny state. They were prescribing
[how and where] child care could
happen and we are looking to
ensure, going forward, there’s
flexibility, access and affordable
child care across the province.”
In regards to government
assistance, Thompson says that the
previous system wasn’t helping
Ontarians get back on their feet and
Central Huron is back under par as
far as its budget is concerned, with
Treasurer Terri Rau presenting a
budget Monday night with a tax rate
decrease of 1.78 per cent.
This is the seventh straight year
Central Huron has presented a
budget with no increase to the tax
rate. After five straight years of a tax
rate decrease, last year Rau
presented a zero per cent overall
increase to the tax rate.
The tax rate decrease will
represent a reduction of $23.28 in
taxes per $100,000 of residential
assessment in Central Huron. There
has been, however, nearly a 10 per
cent increase in assessment across
the municipality, Rau said.
While the tax rate is decreasing,
spending for Central Huron is on the
rise. Rau reported Monday night that
there is a 6.5 per cent increase in
cash requirements for a total budget
of just over $7.4 million, just over
$400,000 more than last year’s
budget.
Rau told councillors that Central
Huron will take just under half of the
taxes collected at 49.1 per cent,
while 34.4 per cent will go to the
county and 16.5 per cent will go to
local school boards.
In the coming days, the budget
will be posted on Central Huron’s
website at www.centralhuron.com.
Central Huron tax rate to drop
Spring is coming
The students at Hullett Central Public School weren’t going to let some unseasonably cold
weather ruin their soccer game on Monday as Justin Fleet, left, and Lincoln Bolinger took to
the pitch to test out their skills – even if they had to wear their boots and toques and keep their
hands inside their winter coats. (Denny Scott photo)
By Shawn Loughlin
The Citizen
By Shawn Loughlin
The Citizen
Continued on page 19
By Denny Scott
The Citizen