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HomeMy WebLinkAboutThe Citizen, 2019-05-02, Page 4PAGE 4. THE CITIZEN, THURSDAY, MAY 2, 2019. Editorials Opinions President: Keith Roulston • Publisher: Deb Sholdice Editor: Shawn Loughlin • Reporter: Denny Scott Advertising Sales: Brenda Nyveld • Heather Fraser The Citizen P.O. Box 429, BLYTH, Ont. N0M 1H0 Ph. 519-523-4792 Fax 519-523-9140 P.O. Box 152, BRUSSELS, Ont. N0G 1H0 Phone 519-887-9114 E-mail info@northhuron.on.ca Website www.northhuron.on.ca Looking Back Through the Years CCNA Member Member of the Ontario Press Council The Citizen is published 50 times a year in Brussels, Ontario by North Huron Publishing Company Inc. Subscriptions are payable in advance at a rate of $38.00/year ($36.19 + $1.81 G.S.T.) in Canada; $180.00/year in U.S.A. and $205/year in other foreign countries. 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: Mon. 2 p.m. - Brussels; Mon. 4 p.m. - Blyth. PUBLICATIONS MAIL AGREEMENT NO. 40050141 RETURN UNDELIVERABLE CANADIAN ADDRESSES TO CIRCULATION DEPT. PO BOX 152 BRUSSELS ON N0G 1H0 email: info@northhuron.on.ca May 2, 1968 The Brussels community was in shock and despair with the sudden death of Reginald Sullivan, a father of four who was killed in an automobile collision. The owner and operator of Sullivan Transport was killed the previous week when the car he was driving left the roadway and crashed into a tree near Fordwich. The Majestic Women’s Institute of Brussels was inviting all members of the public to their May meeting to hear guest speaker Manuel Shears of the Department of Health and Welfare. Shears would be speaking on the Canadian Pension Plan at the meeting, which was set to be held at the Brussels Library. Mr. and Mrs. Glenn Smith were honoured for their 25th wedding anniversary. The celebration included a special family dinner. The event was made even more special with the presence of Mr. and Mrs. J. Thynne, who had just marked 50 years of marriage. May 2, 1973 The Blyth Butcher Shop was due to reopen thanks to former resident Don Scrimgeour returning to the community to take over the shop. Scrimgeour reopening the shop ended a local meat shortage that lasted over a week due to the illness of Ernest “Freck” Button, the previous owner of the shop. Button had passed away after a brief illness and shortly after closing the shop. Scrimgeour had planned on purchasing a butcher shop in Lucknow, but when the deal fell through, he returned to his hometown of Blyth. Nearly 170 people were on hand at Blyth Memorial Hall to honour William Thuell after his retirement after serving Blyth for over 50 years. Blyth Village Council hired a new clerk-treasurer for the village: Norm Shaw. Shaw, who hailed from Kitchener, would be replacing Irvine Wallace. He began on May 1. Between 250 and 300 people made their way to Memorial Hall for the April 29 production of The Farm Show. The cast of the Theatre Passe Muraille show was touring the production around western Ontario after it had earned high praise in Toronto during two runs there. May 3, 1995 A rift had opened up between Blyth Village Council and Hullett Township Council regarding the arena in Blyth. Blyth Council had received a letter from Hullett Council saying that the township would withdraw its support if Blyth didn’t honour an agreement that guaranteed Hullett representation on the board. Blyth Councillor Gerald Kerr, who also served on the board as well, said the idea behind reducing the number of representatives was to save money. However, if Hullett were to withdraw its support of $10,000, that would be a much larger problem said former reeve Dave Lee from the audience. “These people seem to want to spend money, they don’t want to save anything,” Kerr said. The decision was then made to advertise for positions and see if any Hullett residents were interested. May 7, 2009 A new agreement between North Huron and the Belgrave Arena Board was floated with much fanfare. The new agreement would put the power back in the hands of the public, rather than the township. “The aim of the new agreement is to put the control back in the hands of the public,” said Greg McClinchey, a North Huron councillor and the author of the agreement. “We want this to be a community centre in the true sense. The community’s centre.” While the Avon Maitland District School Board assured The Citizen that labour harmony had arrived throughout Huron County, members were busy deflecting accusations from the Elementary Teachers Federation of Ontario (ETFO) union, which had taken out full-page ads in local newspapers chastising the board for its large class sizes. Trustee Doug Pratley said that the Avon Maitland and Bluewater boards were targeted with these ads. Other trustees assured members of the public that both union members and the local community would benefit from the new deal struck. Members of the “hot stove” division of the accommodation review committee were urging members of the public to stand up and have their voices heard in the ongoing fight against the Avon Maitland District School Board and the closure of local schools. “The main thing for us is to get the public’s support to help make sure the trustees listen,” said Mark Beaven, co-chair of the committee. He said there were two issues at play. The first was the proposition that Grade 7-8 students from local elementary schools could be sent to area high schools early and the second was the overloading of aging schools and the inclusion of portables in order to fit students in from closed schools. Beaven also took aim at local trustee Colleen Schenk’s proposition that students need access to the best technology, asking how that would occur if students were in portables. We acknowledge the financial support of the Government of Canada. We are not responsible for unsolicited newsscripts or photographs. Contents of The Citizen are © Copyright Here, you do it! At a recent meeting of Huron County Council, councillors worried about what additional problems may be heading their way as the provincial government conducts 24 reviews of provincial ministries and programs. Councillors have a right to be concerned when the provincial government seems ready to cut its own expenses by fobbing off duties onto municipalities. Already municipalities are warily trying to assess how they’ll continue to provide needed services despite cuts to funding from the government of Premier Doug Ford. At the very moment when flooding of some of the province’s main rivers is dominating news, for instance, the province announced it was slashing the funding in half for flood management by the province’s conservation authorities – after years of previous cuts already had these organizations running on a skeleton budget. With increasing problems caused by climate change, the work of these bodies is more important than ever and so municipalities may have to pick up the additional cost. Flooding may also become a greater problem in future because the government cut a tree-planting program that’s seen 27 million trees planted since 2008 (toward a goal of 50 million) – trees that might have helped prevent floods in future by slowing runoff from storms. Ontario’s rural libraries will be especially hard hit by the government’s 50 per cent cut to the Southern Ontario Library Service and its Northern Ontario counterpart. With limited funds to buy books, smaller library systems like Huron County’s were able to pool resources to share books through an inter-library loan program, a service unfortunately discontinued because of the cuts. Municipalities also don’t know at this point what cuts to health units will mean. Municipalities may have to pick up more of the financial burden if they want to keep important health programs in place. It may look good for the Ford government to cut its costs (while also cutting taxes) but it’s all show if it simply shifts the financial burden to municipalities, and to municipal taxpayers, particularly low-income homeowners who will pay proportionately more of their income as they struggle with higher property taxes. — KR The future is now As thousands of homeowners in Ontario, Quebec and New Brunswick are forced from their homes yet again because of flooding, it’s become time to examine what the long-term solution is to the problem. The preferable answer for homeowners, of course, is that somehow governments can wave a magic wand and make the floodwater go away in future springs when the snow melts and excessive rainfall amounts swell rivers beyond their banks, but that’s not going to happen in most cases. We need to look at the situation realistically and that may involve governments buying homes in flood-prone areas and having people move to higher ground. It won’t be a cheap answer. Quebec Premier François Legault angered some affected homeowners when he stated his province would pay people a maximum $200,000 to move from their low-lying properties. Many of the homes involved have, until recently, been highly-desired waterfront properties worth far more than Legault’s offer. On the other hand, we need to look at the projected costs of these desperate flood-control efforts year after year. How much are Canadian taxpayers paying, for instance, to deploy armed forces personnel to fill sandbags and help rescue residents stranded by the rapid rise of flood waters? Many years ago there was a problem with homeowners in Lowertown Wingham being flooded out almost annually until homes were bought and people moved to safer areas. Today that’s just an historic memory. We need to bite the bullet and pay people to leave flood-prone areas in Ontario, Quebec and New Brunswick and make this recurring story an historic footnote. — KR Let’s clean up our stinking act The news was treated almost as a moment of fun to lighten the nightly newscast when Rodrigo Duterte, president of the Philippines, threatened to declare war on Canada if we didn’t quickly clean up tonnes of garbage, originally from Canada, that was dumped in Manila and has been rotting there since 2014. While a declaration of war seems a little over the top, who can blame the Philippines if they resorted to hyperbole to get the attention of Canadians? In five years, most of us had never heard of this problem before Duterte made us take notice. Frankly, it’s embarrassing that Canadian governments representing both major parties didn’t clean this dirty secret up long ago. While we claim to care about the environment we’ve broken international law with this act. It’s time to hold our noses and clean up this stinking mess.— KR &