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HomeMy WebLinkAboutThe Citizen, 2019-08-29, Page 4PAGE 4. THE CITIZEN, THURSDAY, AUGUST 29, 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.huroncitizen.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 $380/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 August 29, 1968 Huron County Council, under the direction of Warden Cal Krauter of Brussels, moved to establish its first- ever planning board. In a 34-5 vote, council passed a motion that would request that Huron County be designated its own single planning area. The request would be sent to the Department of Municipal Affairs. Under the bylaw, the board would consist of five Huron County councillors, the warden and five civilian members. Long-time Brussels businessman D.M. MacTavish chose to retire after 43 years in business in the village. MacTavish had come to Brussels from Wroxeter in 1925 as the manager of the Farmers’ Co- operative Store and he would then later go into business for himself. The Brussels Horticultural Society’s annual flower show was held at the St. John’s Church hall and Mrs. J.W. Moorhead of Benmiller, who judged the show, said that not only were the 295 entries bountiful, but they were also of very high quality. August 29, 1973 Blyth would have a new hog assembly yard in the coming weeks. Lloyd Stewart, the secretary of the Huron County Pork Producers, made the announcement, telling reporters that the yard would be operated by Ed Watson of Blyth. The first hogs would be shipped from the yard on Tuesday, Sept. 4. The announcement represented the culmination of two months of work by the Huron County Pork Producers to convince the Ontario Hog Producers Marketing Board of the need for two new marketing yards in Huron County. Rev. Stanley McDonald of Londesborough United Church was elected High Chaplain of the High Court of the Canadian Foresters for the Dominion of Canada at a recent meeting of the organization held in Vancouver, British Columbia. August 30, 1995 With the bidding process over, the Hay Township property near Dashwood had been selected as the candidate site for the 1999 International Plowing Match. Neil McGavin of the Huron County Plowmen’s Association said it was a very difficult decision, but that the Dashwood site was ideal because of its proximity to larger city centres and accommodations. Charlene Townsend of RR4, Seaforth was crowned Huron County Queen of the Furrow at the local match, which was held near Dungannon. That year, Paul Dodds was the match’s Champion Senior Plow- person, while Jason Gemmel of RR3, Kippen won the Ross Gordon Award for the best crown on Junior Day at the match. August 27, 2009 OPP Const. Patrick Armstrong and a number of friends and family members worked to create the Dave Mounsey Memorial Fund in the memory of Mounsey, a fallen police officer who called Blyth home. Mounsey’s story dated back to a serious car crash in 2004, which encouraged Mounsey to join the Blyth Fire Department. When Mounsey died in a single-vehicle crash in 2006, Armstrong was on the scene. Just before Mounsey’s death, he and his partner, fellow OPP officer Brenda Carey, had participated in a marathon in British Columbia to raise funds to buy a defibrillator for the Blyth Fire Department. Armstrong said the fund would continue Mounsey’s work and purchase defibrillators for public buildings across Huron County. The first executive of the fund included Blyth Fire Chief Paul Josling as the vice-president, Celeste Bailey as the president, Susan Ethelston as the treasurer and Andrea Matheson as the secretary. Armstrong said that plans were already in place for the first defibrillator donation, which would be placed somewhere in Blyth on Oct. 6. An application from the Brussels Lions Club gave the heritage Brussels Library structure new hope, as the Lions were applying to grant program introduced by the federal and provincial governments with the hopes of funding an addition. The Ministry of Education determined that an appeal of the recent accommodation review committee (ARC) process that opted to close several area schools was valid. The Ministry was already in the process of appointing a facilitator to the appeal. Local pastor Ernest Dow, one of the leaders of the Blyth branch of the appeal, said the review would focus on reviewing the process itself and finding consistency with the board’s own accommodation review policy. The Blyth Fire Department welcomed a new addition to the Emergency Services Training Centre site in Blyth with the donation of a train tanker car from CN. The piece came to Blyth from Toronto. Blyth Fire Chief Paul Josling said the tanker car was involved in an accident and unusable by CN. However, because it was still fitted with all of the necessary valves, it could be used by the department for several different training purposes. 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 You don’t see what savings cost Speaking to the Association of Municipalities of Ontario last week, Premier Doug Ford confirmed that, come Jan. 1, 2020, his government will make municipalities pay for 30 per cent of the costs of public health and 20 per cent of the cost of new daycare spaces. By downloading expenses to towns and cities, his government can move closer to balancing its budget, while also cutting provincial taxes. The thing about tax cuts is that the savings are easily seen. The additional expenses that may arise from failing to invest in programs are not so readily evident, and indeed may not show up for years. Take daycare, for example. Strapped for cash as they are, municipalities may decide not to open new daycare spaces. If they’re unable to find day care they trust for their kids, mothers may decide not to work, which means they don’t pay taxes. Since salaries often increase with the length of time someone is in the workforce, interruptions to take care of children at home may mean future earnings are compromised, and fewer taxes are paid. If children get a jump on their education by attending a daycare that helps develop their ability to learn, there may be penalties for society in the future because the adults they become don’t reach their potential. Much of the benefit of public health, where municipalities have been dealt a significant financial blow, is in preventative medicine. Public health officials, for instance, have programs to keep track of West Nile Virus infections in mosquitoes. If municipalities should decide to cut such surveillance and we ended up with more people going to hospital, at the province’s expense, the tax savings are going to seem small. It’s tempting for people to vote for politicians who promise to cut taxes. Sometimes, however, we can be voting for short-term gain, but long-term pain. — KR So long ‘sunny ways’ When the Liberal Party last week dug up a 2005 video of Conservative Leader Andrew Scheer speaking against same-sex marriage, it not only showed the campaign for the Oct. 21 election had begun, but that Liberal Leader Justin Trudeau’s “sunny ways” are dead. When Trudeau led the Liberals to victory in 2015, he promised to do things differently, looking at the positive side, rather than being negative. It’s a notion that’s hard to maintain once you form the government and become target of criticism by citizens, opposition parties and the media. Pierre Trudeau, the Prime Minister’s father, also turned to bare-knuckle politics after he was nearly defeated in his second election in 1972. In returning to the standard political practice of denigrating your opponents, Trudeau isn’t doing much more than others have done before him, and others are doing to him now. Still, it’s a shame that there’s apparently no long-term success to be found in emphasizing positive values instead of negative ones. — KR We need to pay our share Brazilian President Jair Bolsonaro became a convenient target this week when it was revealed the Amazon rainforest, called the “lungs of the planet” is being endangered by nearly 80,000 wildfires and that his government didn’t seem to make much of an effort to fight. Monday, the Group of Seven leaders, meeting in France, pledged technical help and $20 million in financial aid to combat the massive fires, but that treats the symptom, not the cause of the problem. Depletion of the Amazon rainforest, which absorbs huge amounts of carbon dioxide and is estimated to emit 20 per cent of the world’s oxygen, will continue as long as Brazil is expected to pick up the cost of maintaining this vast stretch of land, while the rest of us reap the benefit. Although Brazilians also benefit from having the air cleaned by the rainforest, it’s much easier for them to see the benefit of developing the forest for logging, mineral exploitation or farming, which provides tangible financial benefits. It must seem ridiculously hypocritical to Brazilians for North Americans to demand their country maintain the rainforest for the good of the planet when many of us live in cities that wouldn’t exist it we hadn’t stripped the forests from eastern North America 200 years ago. Imagine how much carbon would be stored in those forests if they still existed – and how much less carbon dioxide would be emitted if those cities had never been built. If we want to protect the rainforest, we must find a way to make it less financially attractive to cut and burn the jungle than it is to maintain it. If we in the rest of the world are benefitting from a healthy rainforest, then we need to compensate Brazil for not exploiting it for short-term gain. Perhaps we need to finance, through a carbon tax for instance, making the rainforest a publicly-protected area and paying to replace the money the country would have made by exploiting the same land. To expect Brazil to pay the cost of protecting the lungs of the world while we benefit is too much like pointing the finger at others for climate change. We’re all in this together and we all must share the cost. — KR &