HomeMy WebLinkAboutThe Citizen, 1997-02-12, Page 13THE CITIZEN, WEDNESDAY, FEBRUARY 12, 1997 PAGE 13.
Rural municipalities take $3.2 hit in FTR cancellation
Continued from page 1
although there has been talk in the
past that the OPP could charge as
high as $400 a household.
Rural municipalities will also
take a $3.2 million hit in the can
cellation of the Farm Tax Rebate
program, Nix said. Farm property
will now be taxed at 25 per cent of
its value, meaning farmers may end
up about the same as they did under
the farm tax rebate, but the munici
palities will end up with less
money to meet their needs, unless
they raise taxes.
It will cost the county an extra
$1.2 million because of the loss of
provincial support for Huronview
and Huronlca homes for the aged.
That pales beside the $3.6 million
the municipalities may have to pick
up in funding for other non-county-
owned homes for the aged when
the province stops its support of
these.
The county will have an extra
$1.4 million in costs for public
health, but the standards will still
be set by the province, Nix said.
Library grants have been cut
entirely, meaning an extra
$138,000 has to come from some
where.
It is expected that the county will
Landfill goes on and on
The days of Huron County's
involvement in waste management
are numbered, Gary Davidson,
Huron County director of planning
and development told county coun
cil's February meeting. But some
councillors worried just how high
the number is.
Mason Bailey, reeve of Blyth
touched off the debate arguing the
county was supposed to be out of
the landfill business by now, fol
lowing the cancellation of the pro
posed Ashfield site for a
county-wide landfill, and adoption
of a north and south zoned system
with the north zone using Morris
Twp.'s site and the south using
Exeter's.
Bailey said the Hullett-Blyth
landfill site committee didn't feel it
needs help from the county to run
its site and doesn't think local tax
payers should be paying to develop
other sites that they may never have
to use. "We also thought that we
had settled the matter a while ago,
that we were going to get the coun
ty out of it."
Bailey said that tests done at the
Blyth site show more than 50 per
cent of the site could be dug up,
screened and recycled, giving much
longer life«to the landfill. "We feel
we should not be contributing fur
ther to the costs of waste manage
ment in Huron County.
"We are committed to developing
a waste management master plan
and Blyth has to pay its share," said
Laurie Cox, chair of the Planning
and Development committee.
"At some point you may be wish
ing to draw into the Morris site,"
said Warden Murray Keyes.
But other councillors also
expressed annoyance that the coun
ty wasn’t getting out of the landfill
business sooner. "The county was
to develop a plan and get out," said
Bob Hallam, reeve of West
Wawanosh.
Craig Metzger, waste manage
ment masterplan co-ordinator said
the county is in the process of get
ting out of waste management. It is
developing a plan and that plan will
be turned over to the zone landfills
to implement, he said.
As councillors looked for some
definite end to the process, David
son explained that he is hoping to
have the final draft of the Waste
Management Masterplan at this
month's Planning and Development
Committee meeting. Once the plan
is adopted by the county, it will be
turned over to the two zones. "We
hope that the municipalities in the
zones will work together to deter
mine how the (landfill) capacity
will be used," he said.
Bert Elliott, reeve of Morris said
he'd much rather each municipality
could find extra capacity of its own
but he warned that there had better
be co-operation if Morris is going
to act as a zone site. "If Morris
Twp. is going to be a waste man
agement site for some other part of
Huron County there will be com
pensation," he stressed.
have to assume Hwys. 4, 8, 81 anu
86 (as well as 82, 84 and 87 which
it takes over this year). Based on
county maintenance costs, this
would be an extra $718,000 a year.
But Exeter Reeve Bill Mickle
pointed out, this estimate does not
include capital costs to bring these
roads up to county standards. The
province did offer some (though
the county said it wasn't enough)
funding to bring Hwys. 83, 84 and
87 up to standard, but Mickle said
his understanding was there would
be no such funding for the other
highways.
Mickle also worried about the
economic impact of loss of provin
cial highways. "It's important to
have a good road access to the 400-
series highways," he said. While
Huron might maintain the former
provincial highways at equal or
better condition, he said, there are
other municipalities between
Huron's borders and the major
County of Huron
Preliminary "Who Does What" estimated Impacts
Savings Additional
Costs
Board of Education Taxes 27,319,000
Children's Aid 449,000
Community Reinvestment Fund unknown
Farm Tax Rebate 3,168,000
General Support Grant 9,953,000
Gross Receipts Tax (Telephone & Telegraph)189,000
Business Occupancy Tax 1,214,000
Property Assessment Costs 1,240,000
General Welfare (GWA)1,195,000
Family Benefits Allowance (FBA)7,000,000
Hostels 0
Shelters 0
Drug Benefit Card unknown
Social Housing 1,100,000
Homes for Special Care 0
Child Care unknown
Long Term Care
Huronview/Huronlea 1,202,000
Other long term care homes 3,658,000
CCAC 3,300,000
Public Health 1,456,000
Community Policing 4,318,000
Airport 0
Fire Inspections unknown
Water & Sewer Inspections 8,2000
Water & Sewer 0
Library Grants 138,000
Community Ambulances unknown
Provincial Offenses unknown unknown
Highways 718,000
Net Tax reductions and additions 27,768,000 39,931,000
Net Cost to Huron Taxpayers 12,163,000
TOWNSHIP OF
HULLETT
NOTICE TO
DOG OWNERS
1997 Dog Tags are now available for sale at the Municipal Office.
By-law 1993-1 of the Corporation requires that an owner of dog(s)
shall annually on or before the 31st day of March in each year
cause such dog(s) to be registered.
Fees:
a) For each neutered male or spayed female dog $10.00
b) For each additional neutered male or spayed
female dog $15.00
c) For each male or female dog, if only one is kept $20.00
d) For each additional male or female dog $30.00
e) The owner of a kennel of pure-bred dogs, registered
in the registry of the Canadian or any other recognized
Kennel Club shall, before any kennel licence Is
issued each and every year:
i. Produce a Certificate of Registration
ii. Pay an annual fee of $30.00
Upon registration and before a licence tag Is issued, the owner of
a spayed female dog or neutered male dog, shall produce a
Certificate of a Veterinary Surgeon that such female dog has been
spayed, or that such male dog has been neutered.
Beverly M. Shaddick, A.M.C.T.
Clerk-Treasurer
Township of Hullett
highways which might not work to
the same standards. "We're balka-
nizing the whole province into dif
ferent levels of economic
development," Mickle said.
Nix said there is one possible
source to lighten this load, the $1
billion Community Reinvestment
fund the province has set up. But
Mickle said, at best this appears
only enough to cover the loss of
block funding.
On the other hand, Nix outlined
additional expenses for the munici
palities that the county hasn't been
able to get enough information
even to be able to estimate the
impact. These include the cost of
drug benefit cards for welfare
recipients, child care, fire inspec
tions and community ambulances.
Mason Bailey, reeve of Blyth,
worried about the economic impact
of the changes on commercial and
industrial properties which will
have to absorb the extra costs with
out benefit of losing the education
portion of their taxes. Bailey said
he'd heard one estimate that their
taxes could be 47 per cent higher
than at present. "We require all the
commercial property owners we
can encourage if we want to create
jobs," Bailey warned. "Many com
mercial property owners say they're
in bad shape now and if they have
to pay more they'll close down."
He warned that if businesses
close and jobs are lost, there will be
a higher demand for welfare, which
the county now must pay 50 per
cent of costs, and a smaller tax base
to pay the higher costs.
Pat Down, reeve of Usborne,
objected to Nix putting community
policing costs in the calculations at
$250 per household. "We don't
have protection, we have response
(to calls)," she said, claiming that
the costs for rural townships should
really be $50 per household.
Warden Murray Keyes told
Down it was all well and good to
say the costs should be $50 but
"They may tell you what you have
to pay". ,
Bob Hallam, reeve of West
Wawanosh, worried that the addi
tional share of health costs the
county must now foot, might leave
it vulnerable to promises made by
vote-buying provincial politicians
in future elections.
Lynn Murray, county clerk
administrator, agreed that if the
province is setting the standards for
programs, but the county is picking
up 50 per cent of the cost, local
taxes could go up because stan-
jards were changed for political
reasons.
Mickle wondered about the hon
esty of the provincial government
in making the announcements, not
ing the municipalities weren't able
to get information on what the
changes will mean financially. "I
began to wonder whether their
impact studies are so bad they
won't release them," he said.
Warden Keyes agreed. "We're
putting figures together," he said.
"The province has never put togeth
er figures to present their side."
NOTICE OF
ANNUAL MEETING
Established 1876
The 121st Annual Meeting
of the Members
will be held in the
OFFICE BUILDING
of
McKILLOP MUTUAL
INSURANCE COMPANY
91 Main Street South, Seaforth, Ontario
on
WEDNESDAY,
FEBRUARY 26th
at 1:30 p.m.
- to receive and dispose of the 1996 Financial and
Auditor’s Reports.
- to elect 3 directors. The retiring directors are: Alex
Townsend, Don McKercher, Lavern Godkin. All are
eligible for re-election.
- to transact any other business that may properly
come before the meeting.
- any person wishing to seek election or re-election as a
Director must file his intention to stand for election in
writing with the Secretary of the Company at least
seven days in advance of the Annual Meeting.
(By-law #21 (d).
JAMES CARDIFF
Secretary-Treasurer-Manager