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HomeMy WebLinkAboutThe Citizen, 2005-04-21, Page 1$1 (93c + 7c GST) Serving the communities of Blyth and Brussels and northern Huron County Volume 21 No. 16 Thursday, April 21, 2005 NH I NORTH HURON PUBUSHING COMPANY INC. | Inside this week Pg. 7 Pg. 8 Pg-9 Pg-15 Pg-24 Madill students stage Bible story Sad end to season for Ironmen Equestrian centre plans activities Money for farm plans announced Blyth log cabin gets new roof Citizen cartoonist wins award again For the fourth year in a row and fifth time in the last six years. Citizen editorial cartoonist I. A. Nespolon has taken home an award from the Ontario Community Newspaper Association’s Better Newspaper Competition. Nespolon, who draws cartoons for several other newspapers as well as The Citizen, won second place in the Cartoonist of the Year category for a cartoon from the Kingsville Reporter. In 2002 he won a third place in the competition for a cartoon entered-by The Citizen and in 2003. second place for another Citizen cartoon. Federal Ag. Minister visits Brussels Media scrum Federal agriculture minister Andy Mitchell, second from left, answers questions of local media at the Brussels Livestock on Saturday, during a tour of the Huron Bruce riding. Huron Bruce MP Paul Steckle is at left. (Jim Brown photo) By Jim Brown Citizen staff Minister of Agriculture and Agri­ Food Canada. Andy Mitchell, visited the Brussels Livestock. Saturday, where he met with heads of local municipalities and agriculture Organizations. Earlier in the day, Mitchell made a major announcement in Mildmay. He finished the tour of the Huron Bruce riding with a dinner at the Belmore Community Centre. In Mildmay, he announced that the federal department and the Ontario Federation of Agriculture had signed an agreement to deliver more than $57-million in federal government support for a program to help Ontario farmers expand their environmental stewardship activities and make environmental consid­ erations a farm-business priority. The funding is being provided under the Canada-Ontario Environmental Farm Plan Program (EFP) and Canada-Ontario Farm Stewardship Program (COFSP). At the Brussels Livestock, Mitchell was involved in a scrum with local media members before sitting in on a closed round-table discussion regarding the problems faced by rural municipalities. Huron East Mayor Joe Seili felt the round table discussion was very good, even though the heads of the municipalities were unable to brief the minister on their specific concerns due to a time restraint. He noted Mitchell listened to the presentations that were made and those in attendance listened to the proposals from the minister. According to Seili, the minister conceded there were five major urban areas across Canada which are highly successful and they have reached this success from the work of the people in the rural communities. “I am glad he (Mitchell) was able to take the time out of his busy schedule to visit our municipalities and hear our concerns,’’said Seili. North Huron Reeve Doug Layton felt the whole thing was rather non- informative with the minister offering no solutions to the problems in the agricultural sector. He indicated four or five briefs were presented by agricultural groups, with copies provided for the minister. The minister indicated he would review the briefs and answer each with a written reply. Layton indicated the minister spent a lot of time talking about new marketing strategies. The minister discussed the recent successful meetings held in Asia and Cuba to increase the sale of Canadian agricultural products. According to the North Huron Reeve, there was no opportunity for the heads of local municipalities to speak although the Mayor of Kincardine made a presentation on getting a packing plant up and running in the municipality. Layton said the minister was vague in any response he made. During the media scrum in Brussels, Mitchell said essentially they are working with the United States to get the border open to all Canadian cattle and beef products. One labour problem solved, more on tap By Stew Slater Special to The Citizen A new agreement between the Ontario government and the provincial leadership of the Elementary Teachers Federation of Ontario (ETFO) means that labour pressures have eased for public school boards across Ontario in one area. Pressure has increased on the secondary side, however, as various local groupings of the Ontario Secondary School Teachers Federation (OSSTF) have entered legal strike positions. The Avon Maitland District School Board is no different. According to Tom Barker, local president for OSSTF District 8, over 95 per cent of Avon Maitland secondary teachers expressed support for entering a legal strike position during a March 29 vote. He stressed the local union is “still negotiating” with board officials, and that it hasn’t yet entered the “conciliation” stage, after which a certain time must pass before any labour action - ranging from work- to-rule to a strike. . Barker offered “three weeks from now” as the earliest possible time the District 8 local might consider a work-to-rule, and added some action would certainly take place before the end of the school year if no progress is made. The Avon Maitland local of EFTO, meanwhile, joined its counterparts in the rest of Ontario by calling off its month-long work-to- rule. The move, which went into effect Monday, April 18, came in response to an agreement between the provincial education ministry and the union’s provincial negotiating team. According to Avon Maitland human resources superintendent Jim Sheppard, the provincial agreement provides some key commitments upon which boards can now build what are expected to be four-year deals with their elementary teachers. These commitments include: funding to provide the salaries sought by ETFO; the freedom to phase in the provision of 200 minutes of teacher preparation time per week; and funding for specialty teachers in such areas as music and physical education. “I was a Grade 7-8 teacher myself, and I know how difficult it can be when you’re trying to cover all of the specialty areas,” Sheppard said. “By putting those types of resources into the schools, the students are going to benefit.” There was, however, another commitment made by the government in reaching the EFTO deal: that boards would reach local agreements by June 1. Failing that, a renewed work-to-rule campaign is expected. “We’ve got a good bit of time now . . . but we still have our local bargaining to do,” Sheppard cautioned. ETFO local president Brian Doubleday expressed confidence North Huron 2005 budget increase likely to be 4% By Pauline Kerr Wingham Advance-Times Although final budget deliberations for North Huron are not completed, the township is looking at an increase of approximately four per cent as of Monday night. April 18. The breakdown according to wards is 4.12 for Wingham, 2.99 for Blyth and 4.18 for East Wawanosh. The municipality had been looking at a budget increase that was in the area of nine per cent, but opted to use a portion of the OMPF funds to keep the increase down. Approximately $170,000 of the OMPF funding will go to reserves. Huron County is still discussing outstanding issues can be ironed out before June 1. He went so far as to predict Avon Maitland could be one of the first “two or three or four” boards to settle under the new provincial agreement. He stressed, however, that “a couple of issues” remain which are “very significant ... to elementary its budget, and is looking at an increase of 18 per cent as of the April 7 meeting. Results of the county’s budget meeting held April 19 were not available as of press time. However, the county, too, has the option of using at least a portion of OMPF funds to reduce the budget from 18 per cent. North Huron is still awaiting money to which it is entitled under OSTAR funding for waterworks projects. Apparently the claim for the studies portion is “moving along” but there is no word from the federal government on the rest of the claim. Council's public works committee report included discussion on a teachers.” He added the June 1 deadline - actually midnight on May 31 - is not negotiable. “If we don’t have a deal by June 1, everything that was in place under Phase 1 and Phase 2 (of the work-to- rule) goes back in place, and we begin plans for implementing Phase 3 and Phase 4,” Doubleday said. proposal for a new fire hydrant for the Emergency Training Centre in Blyth. Clerk-administrator John Stewart explained the centre has a pond from which it gets water, but there are concerns that during a long period of drought, the pond might go dry. Stewart said a second meeting is planned with training centre officials to discuss the cost of running a line to the centre — it would have to go under the highway — and concerns about the impact of a large amount of water being used. Council also held a brief discussion on the move to change the term of office for councillors from the present three years, to four.