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HomeMy WebLinkAboutThe Citizen, 2005-12-08, Page 1Serving the communities of Blyth and Brussels and northern Huron County Volume 21 No. 48 Thursday, Dec 8, 2005 $1 (93c + 7c GST) Physician situation dire, says reeve _By Bonnie Gropp Citizen editor Residents may not understand just how dire the situation is. ' That was the message delivered by North Huron reeve Doug Layton to council at the meeting on Monday night regarding the physician shortage. “This is a serious problem that affects everyone,” said Layton. He stated that by April it is expected that North Huron will be short five doctors. Also, he said, there are currently 4,000 orphan patients and this will obviously increase by April. “If there was ever a pandemic I hate to think what might happen,” said Layton. The reeve is currently sitting on the physician recruitment board and said that all six municipalities served by the Wingham hospital, are also represented. In addition to North Huron there are Howick, Morris-Turnberry, , South Bruce, Huron-Kinloss and Ashfield- Colborne-Wawanosh. “It looks like they are throwing their support onto this committee.” He stressed his view that council was going to have to “take a serious look at what we can do to help” the committee to encourage doctors to come to Wingham. The public too needs to understand the situation, he said. “1 think a lot of citizens don’t realize the seriousness of this problem.” Later in the meeting economic development officer Kerri Herrfort announced a fundraiser for this year that could realize a profit of $20,000 to be used in the recruitment process. She also explained that someone has been hired to seek out names and numbers of recent medical graduates and others who might be encouraged to practice in Wingham. Helping hands Blyth’s firefighters responded to a two-vehicle crash at Londesborough Road and Dutch Line on Thursday around 2:30 p.m. Emergency personnel assisted the victims and prepared them for transfer to hospital. According to police, a 17-year-old driver has been charged with failing to yield to traffic on a through highway. No further details were available at press time. (Keith Roulston photo) Packing plant moves closer By Keith Roulston Citizen publisher Interested farmers will likely get their first look at plans for a proposed $17-$26 million Brussels beef packing plant Dec. 21, Huron East mayor Joe Seili says. Updating about 100 farmers at Beef Symposium 2005 in Brussels, Thursday, Seili said Huron East officials had met a week earlier with officials from Giffels Associates, the Toronto consulting firm hired by the municipality to study the possibility of constructing a packing plant next to Brussels Livestock, east of the village. He reported things looked positive at the meeting and the project was nearly at the point to call people back together who had taken part in a meeting in August when the idea of a farmer-owned packing plant was first put before farmers. Seili said the study is looking at several different models for a farmer-owned co-operative, both in Ontario and the U.S. The incentive is that under the the federal government’s Ruminant Slaughter Equity Assistance Program, the government will pay $500 for every $1,000 of farmer investment up to $20,000 per farmer for a farmer-owned operation, he said. It means if about $10 million can be raised from producers most of the $17 million needed for the first phase of the plant would be nearly attained. That first phase would process about 1,000 head of cattle a week. A second phase, raising the cost to $26 million, would raise the capacity to 2,000 head a week. The plant is being designed to handle special products like organic beef and corn-fed beef, Seili said. Research is also being done into the need for a multi-species plant, also handling veal and lamb. Seili said the plant’s products would be aimed at higher-value foreign markets. Already buyers from Eastern Rim countries have been looking at plans for the plant to see if it will meet their needs, he said. The plant must be federally- inspected in order to supply foreign markets and so far dealing with the Canadian Food Inspection Agency has been relatively smooth, Seili .said. It’s important to get all the CFIA concerns dealt with upfront instead of making expensive changes during construction. “The biggest thing is we’ve got the land, we’ve got the zoning,” Seili said. “We’ve got a community that wants to make this go. We have people who want to help you,” he told the producers. County committee considers tiered response By Heather Crawford Citizen staff A tiered response agreement between local fire departments and ambulance services is being proposed to the Health Ambulance and Social Services Committee for Huron County on Dec. 13. The agreement would define what emergencies the fire department would respond to along with the ambulance service. Currently the Blyth Fire Department responds to all medical calls. “There’s not going to be a whole lot of difference (after the agreement is signed),” fire chief Paul Josling said. “It’s really just formalizing what’s in place.” The tiered response agreement will be finalized and sent to all fire, ambulance and police services in Huron County, Josling said. This will be followed by a separate agreement specifying which emergencies each department will assist in. Huron East fire chief Marty Bedard said fire fighters in Brussels and Seaforth already respond to many medical emergencies. “It’s really a matter of crossing the t’s and dotting the i’s,” he said. David Lew, manager of. land ambulance operations for Huron County said he had already met with local fire department representatives, the fire protection advisor, OPP officers and dispatch representatives. “The feedback has been pretty positive,” Lew said. “We had a rocky start but that was because there was a misunderstanding of what [the agreement] meant.” Lew said he had been told in the past that if the ambulance needed assistance, or if people in the area weren’t happy with the response time of emergency service workers than the first approach was to go to council.” With the new agreement, Lew said “if there is a need, it will be developed at the grass roots.” He does not envision any problems and said the new agreement, if passed would help accountability and efficiency. If the proposal is approved by the committee, it will be sent to the different fire, ambulance and police departments in the county who will discuss what kinds of services they should assist with. From there, the agreement must be passed by each municipal council. Josling said he is expecting the agreement to be ready by Jan. 1.