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HomeMy WebLinkAboutThe Citizen, 1996-05-08, Page 4C The North Huron itizen Publisher, Keith Rouiston Editor, Bonnie Gropp Advertising Manager, Jeannette McNeil The Citizen Is published weekly In Brussels, Ontario by North Huron Publishing Company Inc. Subscriptions are payable In advance at a rate of $27.00/year (S28.24 + $1.76 G.S.T.) In Canada; $62.00/year In U.S.A. and $75.00/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: Monday, 2 p.m. - Brussels; Monday, 4 p.m. - Blyth. We are not responsible for unsolicited newscripts or photographs. Contents of The Citizen are © Copyright. Publications Mall Registration No. 6968 BLUE RIBBON AWARD 1995 P.O. Box 429, BLYTH, Ont. NOM 1H0 Phone 523-4792 FAX 523-9140 P.O. Box 152, BRUSSELS, Ont. NOG 1H0 Phone 887-9114 FAX 887.9021 S S Double vision Letters THE EDITOR, The experts have spoken. Waste Management consultants, that the county paid for, warned Huron Council against proceeding with the proposed Ashfield landfill. R. Cave and Associates came outright in speaking against the site whereas consultant Gore and Storie warned of the millions of dollars that the county could lose by even building the dump. Both reports showed that with proper engineering of present sites, there was ample space even in technically full dumps. The life of even full dumps could be extended to 10 years more. The question cries out to all taxpayers. Why should Huron Council add upwards to $5 million to county costs, when in the mouth of consultants, there is no need for a new dump. Sincerely, Robert McQueen. THE EDITOR, The Fergus & District Kinsmen have undertaken the largest fundraiser in the six year history of the club. In 1993 "Coins for Change", a project that covered over 13,441 square feet of floor area with pennies, raised in excess of $45,000. In 1994 "Castle C.F.", Tear Down the Walls saw a cola castle constructed out of 100,000 cases of Pepsi products, raising over $20,000. Now after careful planning we present: "Bike For Breath" — Help Find A Cure Tour — On July 1 Michael McBeath, a 23-year-old afflicted with Cystic Fibrosis, Don Cousins and Dave Pluecks, members of the Fergus and District Kinsmen, will depart from Fergus on an awareness tour throughout Central and South- western Ontario. This 30-day bicycle tour will push Michael to the physical limit as the team travels on their 2,500 km trek. While on the tour donations for CF research can be made. Information for Bike For Breath, The Annual Ride and how you can help will be distributed. Our•goal is to raise awareness of this dreaded disease and to return to Fergus having raised money for research. Your involvement is paramount to our success!! With sponsors such as Magna International, Polycon Industries, Moore Business Forms, Bell, The Royal Bank of Canada, L & M Food Markets, Arthur Chrysler Sales & Leasing, Westinghouse Canadian Service and Automated Engineering Technologies our journey is ready to begin. Make your pledge to help find a cure or control for the No. 1 killer of inherited diseases affecting children and young adults. Should you elect to join our awareness campaign and require additional information do not hesitate to contact us. The communication lines are dedicated to this project. Major sponsors, with a corporate donation, will have the firm's logo displayed on one of the promotional advance vehicles for the duration of this tour. Sponsor recognition will be one of our priorities. If there are possibilities of an exchange of services for promotion, we would Photo by Janice Becker entertain all proposals. Please be generous in helping Michael realize his dream of finding a cure for cystic fibrosis. Respectfully, Bruce C. Lloyd Project Co-ordinator. THE EDITOR, A tax cut is needed if jobs are to be created and Ontario is to compete. Some people say we cannot afford to do it. Our government believes we can't afford not to do it. High taxes kill jobs and slow economic growth. Ontario has the second highest level of taxes in North America. This makes it more expensive to establish or sustain a business here and to produce goods and services here. Simply put, that makes it harder to create jobs in Ontario. Michigan, our single largest export market, lowered taxes 21 times in four years and now enjoys its lowest unemployment levels in 25 years. They are not alone. Other North American competitors and more than 50 countries around the world are cutting taxes. What all of these jurisdictions have learned is that lower taxes help make them competitive. That is why we will be cutting provincial income taxes. Because it's good for the taxpayer. It is family friendly. It's good for job creation and the economy. It's good for our competitiveness. We promised to cut taxes to create jobs and we will. By roughly $4 billion over three years. That means taking the total tax rate burden to where it was pre-1990, before the Bob Rae government. Job creation is the key. If we want jobs for ourselves and our children, we must be able to compete with the rest of the world. Helen Johns, MPP Huron. PAGE 4. THE CITIZEN, WEDNESDAY, MAY 8, 1996 `Disentangling) one hand Whatever happened to "disentanglement"? If your memory can go back past talk of provincial tax cuts and federal fudging on the GST, you'll recall disentanglement was the policy that was supposed to clear up the lines of responsibility of local and provincial governments, giving more to the local governments in some areas, taking the cost of other programs away. But if the rumours circulating among municipalities are true, the provincial government seems to be disentangling its own hand, while leaving municipalities with their hands tied by expense and red tape. Rumours surfacing last week said the government may be planning to charge rural municipalities for OPP services. Already last fall's economic statement dumped more of the cost of roads on municipalities as the provincial government tried to trim its costs. It seems that only one half of the equation is in play here: the province saves money by dumping expenses on the municipalities. The idea behind disentanglement makes sense: let the people who get the service pay for it. But the rumoured cost of the policing charge, up to $200 per household, doesn't correspond with the service rural municipalities get. A charge of $2 per household might be better. If you live in a rural township you'll be lucky if you see a police cruiser go down your road once a year (and then you wonder which of your neighbours' kids got in trouble this time). Even in villages like Blyth and Brussels, the $200 per household would be a huge chunk of the local budget, while the service provided would be a pale imitation of the policing larger municipalities get either through contracting the OPP for service or through their own police departments. What the rumour policing charge sounds like is one of a growing number of cases where government agencies try to protect their budgets by dreaming up "user fees" that just shift the tax burden. Federally, for instance, an agency has been set up which will charge fees to the testing of new farm chemicals and build a new bureaucracy based on a government-mandated user-pay system. It would be nice to think that someone has really stopped to envision what our country will look like when this government down-sizing is finished. What we seem to be getting, however, is a situation where politicians and bureaucrats protect their backside: the powerful will maintain security while the weak get clobbered. The federal government has protected itself by shifting costs to the provinces; the province is off-loading costs onto the municipalities; and the municipalities, who nave the least clout, have to live with the chaos. Disentanglement implied there was some common sense behind the reforms. This one-handed disentanglement gives no impression of common sense: just a h. ad-long rush to shift costs. — KR Census a pain, but necessary From the groans heard issuing from homes and businesses in the next week, one might think it was income tax time all over again. Instead it's census time and even though it comes along only once every five years, it's a pain for everyone who has to fill in a form. Many will grumble that the census is just one more intrusion of government into their lives. They'll see the pain in the census, they just won't see the gain. The benefit of the census, however, goes not just to the government but to private business and individuals. The census helps businesspeople decide'if there is a potential for their products in a certain area of the country: there's no sense starting a business catering to pre-school children, for instance, if the population in a community is mostly senior citizens. The census helps agencies plan for the future: as the baby-boom ages, for instance, we've got to plan the services they will need as seniors. Just how much service will be needed depends on the baby-boom age group in each community. The census can help us get an accurate picture of our own community, let alone the country as a whole. The 1991 census in agriculture, for instance, provided the informationlo confirm that Huron County farms produce more food than any other county in Ontario, and that there are more farms and more farm cash receipts in Huron County than in Nova Scotia, New Brunswick, Prince Edward Island or Newfoundland. All this may not make filling in the form easier, but it may remind us why we're doing it. — KR E ditorial