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HomeMy WebLinkAboutThe Goderich Signal-Star, 2009-10-21, Page 7Goderich Signal -Star, Wednesday, October 21, 2009 - Page 7 �O inion Province reports H1N1 cases on the rise for early October To the Editor, The Ministry of Health and Long -Term Care has issued the latest edition of the On- tario Influenza Bulletin. Highlights on the H1N1 flu virus in the bulletin for the sur- veillance period of October 4 to October 10, 2009 include: For the surveillance period of October 4 to October 10, 2009: Influenza activity in Ontario was higher compared to the previous week. Slightly more patients reporting influenza - like symptoms consulted sentinel physicians this week than the previous week. The rate of influenza -like illness (ILI) in patients seen by sentinel physicians contin- ues to be above the average rate expected at this time of year. One health unit reported widespread influ- enza activity and three health units reported localized influenza activity for the current Letters opinion reporting week. 20 health units reported spo- radic influenza activity. There are 4,221 confirmed cases of H1N1 flu virus reported through the integrated Pub- lic Health System (iPHIS). As of October 14: - - 25 deaths have been reported among con- firmed H1N1 cases. - 19 people who have the H1N1 flu virus were in hospital as of 8:30 a.m. on October 14, a number of whom have underlying med- ical conditions. - 388 other people have been hospitalized and have since been discharged. More hospitalized cases were reported this week compared to last week. No new deaths among cases were reported this week. Please note this influenza information is based on the surveillance period from Oc- tober 4 to October 10. Case counts from the previous week are submitted to the Ministry by public health units every Tuesday. Data on hospitalizations and deaths is submitted daily and therefore is accurate as of October 14. You can keep track of the virus at home, as the Ontario Influenza Bulletin is available on the ministry website at: http://www.health. gov.on.ca/english/public/updates/archives/ hu_09/sf_weekly_update.html. David Jensen, Ministry of Health and Long -Term Care Corporations don't 'get' small towns From previous page. I feel strongly that this is simply another example of a faceless corporation coming to a small town for profit and thinking that we won't notice that they are taking huge advantage of us - prior to relocating their whole service. To all the big corpora- tions out there: -- please stop doing things 'for our own good' and thinking that we are not quite as bright as those of you who live in metropolitan areas, so we won't notice. If you would bring your families along with your business- es, you would experience some of the reasons why we live here, not because we are not quite bright, but because we value the culture of small towns. Peggy Denomme, Goderich Goderich: A town with some serious idenity issues It's a town with an identity crisis. Goderich is in the process of reinventing itself in an effort to be more attractive to busi- nesses. How? With outside eyes and ears, courtesy of Yfactor of Toronto. How are they doing it? • With inside eyes and ears, courtesy of our own residents. I had the opportunity to sit in on a "vision- ing session" last week, wherein reps from tourism, the port, town, works, high school, Chamber of Commerce, AMGH, and pretty much any other group you could cook up put their heads together to answer such hard-hit- ting questions as: If you were vacationing in Mexico and met someone thinking of relocat- ing a business, how would you sell them on Goderich? Essentially, it was a think-tank containing all the usual suspects - people whose opinions are already well-known and well-document- ed. I thought I could write the story before I even heard a peep. And yet, I was surprised at the level of dis- agreement there was around the table. Here I thought we all worked toward the same goal in Goderich - food on the table and skates on the kids. Everything else is gravy. But, there were some real points of conten- tion - especially when it came to defining the town's image. High school students were calling it pro- gressive while lifers in the municipal ring were calling for change. Do we just want to be Canada's prettiest? Are we content to simply prune our rose- bushes and plant tulips each year? Or do we strive to be known for our innovation, our location or just something other than pretty? It's not an easy ques- tion to answer. Goderich wants the world to know it exists but it also wants to main- tain its out-of-the-way charm. It wants to get green, move with the times, get caught up in the global trends, but Goderich also wants to be able to take the phone off the hook and sip a beer on the back porch. We want to be accessible to all people and places - take advantage of our gateway to the world - but we can't get the money we need to expand our harbour. We want to distance ourselves from the big cities surrounding us, while at the same time we want people to know we aren't in the middle of nowhere. Basically, we're Billy Graham without the Crusade. So, we turn our focus outward to try and make sense of it all. Let's take a look at how Yfactor defines themselves. "Yfactor is a progressive Toronto, Ontario based firm that helps economic development and non-profit organizations across Canada and the United States to be competitive and to succeed online." What they propose to do is the same for Goderich by creating a new image and a dy- namic statement that explains who we are, proclaims our goals and is quick to the point. But we have personality conflicts which would make even Sybil raise an eyebrow. Say a new business was thinking of com- ing to Goderich and perhaps even locating downtown. A few obstacles emerged. Number one: Where do I live? Number two: Are my peers welcoming and accepting? Number three: Is there really that much money to be made in this town? Number one is tricky. We don't have too many residential units available yet. Potential investment opportunity? You tell me. Number two is generally yes, provided you don't step on anybody's toes or provide any in -town competition. Number three shouldn't matter if we attract businesses with far-reaching sales but short - reaching manufacturing needs. However, all that stuff is known. There have been studies upon studies upon studies conducted over the past decade that all show we need businesses and even break it down to what type. However, I have yet to see a butcher or shoe -repair attraction and retention policy that rivals its medical counterpart. We don't have housing set aside for grocers downtown and we probably never will. The Square is still traffic -congested except when Santa rolls around and downtown is full of open areas that nobody is building on. I'm not trying to be negative here. I'm thinking about change. We need to strike the flint and discover fire. But how do we do it with years of 'that's -just - how -it -is -here' wetting the kindling? 1 suppose the question is; how do you im- plement change in a small town? The only answer I can think of is decisively and devastatingly... Kind of like removing a band-aid. But this isn't necessarily change. It's just trying to convince other people that hey - Goderich ain't so bad. The fact that we're having difficulty doing this can mean two things: Goderich is so full of greatness that we can't boil it down to a vision statement OR we lack the confidence to put some real money and effort into change instead of waiting for a report to reiterate what the last report already established. The large-scale manufacturing of yester- day will not come back. Instead, it will be the mom -and -pops that slowly add jobs to the area. Most of our employers have less than five staff. At that rate, we'd need one hundred new businesses to make up for one Volvo. I'm not saying run to the bookie, but smart money says that's not going to happen. So... think about it; Goderich. Where do you want to go from here? What steps do we have to take to get there and what obstacles need to be overcome? It seems we're so concerned with coming up with the right answer that we don't give any credibility to what we actually want. The only limits we have are the ones we set on ourselves and for decades, they were livable. But, the world is different now. Families are different now. Business is different now. Goderich, however, remains the same, only because it lacks the spark to stand up and say "I can change and this is how." Let's hope Yfactor can instill a little "why not?" into our pretty, peaceful town. 1