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HomeMy WebLinkAboutThe Citizen, 2019-10-31, Page 4PAGE 4. THE CITIZEN, THURSDAY, OCTOBER 31, 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 October 31, 1968 The Brussels Lions Club held its annual father and child night on Oct. 28 at the Brussels United Church. Lions President Jan van Vliet presided over the event, while the United Church Women served dinner for the night. Huron County Council officially decided to declare an open season for deer hunting on Nov. 4-6, though that decision was dependent on the actions of adjacent counties Grey, Bruce, Perth and Wellington. While Grey and Bruce Counties had agreed, Perth and Wellington had yet to weigh in. The decision would also be subject to the approval of the Ontario Department of Lands and Forests. For 1968 Huron County had scheduled $1.9 million in road and bridge work and it was nearing completion for the year on schedule and on budget. The Brussels Canadian National Rail station had been broken into, though nothing of value had been stolen. The thieves gained entry into the station by breaking a window and then scared off when local agent Gordon Ross arrived on the scene. The Greys remained atop the Brussels Area Dart League standings, though the 5th Line team was hot on their heels with 30 points, compared to The Greys’ 35. Harry Jacklin remained in first place in the individual standings with 40 points, just ahead of Hilt Ward, who had 39. October 31, 1973 Former Huron County Warden Glen Webb of Dashwood was elected the Huron riding president of the Ontario Progressive Conser- vative Association on Oct. 26, succeeding William J. Dale of Seaforth. Members of the Blyth Fire Department were called in to join departments from Clinton, Seaforth and Brucefield with a factory fire in Vanastra at the former air base. While the effort and strength were there, it was for nearly nothing when thieves stole a pop cooler from the front of Gowing Sunoco over the weekend. Norm Gowing, the owner of the gas station, said the machine contained about 90 bottles of pop and very little money at the time it was stolen. The annual banquet of the Huron County Road Superintendents’ Association was held at Memorial Hall in Blyth. Karl Haberer, road superintendent of Hay Township and president of the association acted as the chairman for the evening. Well-known Huron County artist Jack McLaren was in the midst of preparing for a special exhibition in Goderich on Nov. 15-16. He planned on including 60 works of art, which represented just a fraction of his career output. November 1, 1995 What had become an annual tradition in Brussels, pranksters were at it again, setting another fire on Devil’s Night, Oct. 30. The Brussels Fire Department first responded to the home farm of Jack Cardiff where 30 bales of hay had been set alight. There had also been a number of other fires set throughout the village in the days leading up to Halloween, including a case of arson that nearly burned a Turnberry Street home to the ground with the resident inside. Blyth United Church hosted a special anniversary service on Oct. 29, celebrating the church’s 135th anniversary. October 29, 2009 Both Brussels and Grey Central Public Schools found themselves embroiled in a new Accommodation Review Committee (ARC) process and the preferred option being presented by the Avon Maitland District School Board suggested the closing of both schools. Superintendent of Education – Operations Mike Ash said the recommendation was a starting-off point for the discussion and that nothing had been finalized. The recommendation also stated that Brussels students could attend the new “super school” being built in Wingham, while Grey Central students could attend Elma Township Public School. Ash said at a special meeting held on Oct. 22 in Newry that the review was really focused on one thing: what’s best for the area’s students. “This is an emotional ride. We understand that because we’re talking about your schools. All we ask is that you keep an open mind. It’s about ensuring the best possible education into the future,” he said. Huron East Mayor Joe Seili, however, took note that the option would close two schools in Huron East, leaving just one in the whole municipality, the largest in Huron County. Seili promised the school board that the fight put up in the previous ARC process by Blyth, Belgrave and Wingham residents would be a “cakewalk” compared to what the board would face in Huron East. Patrick Armstrong, founder of the Dave Mounsey Memorial Fund, was in Blyth to present a defibrillator to Memorial Hall. Armstrong said his hope was that the charity could help place a defibrillator in every public building throughout Ontario. 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 The high cost of consumerism The Township of North Huron’s decision last week to purchase a used trash compactor at a cost of $390,000 demonstrates once again the high cost of our consumerism. The more we citizens buy, the more needs to be disposed of at some point, leading to an increased need for costly landfill capacity. Few of us think about this as we shop, buying new things to replace household goods that must then be disposed of. We grumble every time we have to buy a bag tag for our garbage, or face higher property taxes because of the high cost of operating landfill sites but other than that, we seldom consider our society’s massive waste problem. Despite the best efforts of our municipalities, we’re not solving all the problems. Ray Letheren of the Blue Bayfield organization told the Rural Talks: Climate Change in Huron County conference in Blyth last week that the plastic problem in the Great Lakes is even worse than the well- publicized islands of plastic waste floating in the oceans. It’s why his organization began collecting plastic water bottles, persuading Bayfield to ban the sale of disposable bottles and setting up bottle-filling stations. Despite our griping, in general our population is richer than ever. With that comes an ability to buy new clothes, furniture, etc. just because we want to, rather than making things last until they’re worn out. To save time cooking, we buy more packaged foods or takeout meals, all with increased packaging. Nobody wants to go back to the days when people were so poor they needed to make things last. At the same time, people seem to have a hard time disciplining themselves not to buy more, more, more, especially when advertisements and fashion advisers are urging us to keep up with the latest trends. Only when we see the cost of dealing with the mountain of things we dispose of might we see the problem we’re creating. — KR Thank you Premier Ford The Ford government’s announcement last week that it will not force more municipal amalgamations was welcome news. Steve Clark, the province’s minister of municipal affairs, told municipal leaders that a review which studied governance structures in 82 of Ontario’s 444 municipalities concluded that top-down approaches were not effective. Hurray! This is the premier, remember, who interrupted Toronto’s 2016 municipal election to impose a cut in the number of councillors because he was sure he knew how to run the city better than the sitting council. There’s been a common practice of premiers, particularly Progressive Conservative ones such as Mike Harris and Ford, to believe that bigger is better when it comes to municipalities. The result, particularly in rural Ontario, has been a distancing of local government from citizens. Municipal structures have become bigger, but the cost savings that were supposed to result from fewer politicians were taken up by more municipal employees (not to mention expensive services off-loaded by the province to municipalities). The problem is that under the circumstances of our country’s founding, municipalities are the creation of the provinces. The branch of government that is closest to the people, that is most able to read the needs of the people, is at the whim of rules set by more distant provincial governments. This is particularly bad in Ontario when the government sitting in the middle of Canada’s largest city sets the rules for a vast area of rural communities. Here’s hoping that this is a true change of heart by the Premier, and not just a momentary diversion because of his unpopularity in the polls. Towns, villages and townships know best what their people need. — KR What a mess we’re in! The result of last week’s federal election leaves us with a minority government and renewed calls for separation both in Quebec and the prairie provinces. What did we do to deserve this? Canadians had happily thought separatism was, if not dead, then at least dormant in Quebec. But with all the federalist parties opposing Quebec’s Bill 21 which discriminates against those who wear symbolic religious clothing like head scarves or turbans from holding high-profile government jobs like teaching, Quebecers resurrected the separatist Bloc Quebecois, giving it the province’s second largest number of seats. Meanwhile in Alberta and Saskatchewan, having sent all the Liberal MPs packing yet still having a Liberal government, frustrated residents have been calling for separation from Canada. The anger ignores the fact that the difficulty in getting oil pipelines built is not with eastern Canada but from British Columbia protesting every move made to get oil to market. Separation would not reverse the efforts of west coast environmentalists. It seems we’re doomed to live by the old Chinese curse: “May you live in interesting times”. Let’s hope we’re soon boring again. Let other countries in the world be more “interesting” than Canada. — KR &