HomeMy WebLinkAboutThe Huron Expositor, 1995-03-08, Page 11Board one step closer to
St. Columban addition
Senior students should be at St. Columban School this September.
The Huron -Perth Roman Catholic Separate School Board is
reviewing draft specifications for the addition at St. Columban
School. Gerald Thuss, superintendent of business and finance, said
he expects to advertise for tenders by the end of March.
Thuss said the board will outline what it wants in the addition and
will hire a general contractor based on the company's plan to con-
struct it, including architectural drawings.
The 6,600 -square -ft. addition will include a demountable gymna-
sium, three classrooms, changerooms and washrooms. The kinder-
garten to Grade 3 students who currently study at the school will be
at St. Patrick's School, Dublin next year. Meanwhile, the senior stu-
dents at the Dublin school will be at St. Columban School next
year. The full size demountable gym is more suitable for the older
students.
New waste technology
continued from front page
Under current government leg-
islation, municipalities are oblig-
ated by law to develop new land-
fill sites in preparation for the clo-
sure of old sites reaching capacity.
But Bailey said both the
Conservative and Liberal Party
leaders have promised to change
the legislation if elected in the
upcoming provincial election.
Bailey, who is a former execu-
tive member with the Ontario
Federation of Agriculture, said
both parties recently told his orga-
nization that they would reverse
current legislation and allow
incineration methods to become a
widespread practice in Ontario.
"There are already some very
good incineration plants in British
Columbia and in Brampton," said
Bailey. "They have incineration
plants where the emissions are
cleaner than the air in our major
cities.
"Council hasn't looked at any
other methods. They just keep
saying `legislation.'"
At present, members of the
Planning and Development
Committee are awaiting the
results of further drilling on a
potential landfill site in the north -
em portion of Ashfield Twp.
The drilling work is planned for
the spring.
County Council also leaned
that the estimated cost for the new
landfill site will likely reach $5
million.
"As of the end of last year, we
hayp spNpt„$950,000 is preparing
the master plan," said Huron
County planner Craig Metzger.
"The County's portion is slightly
more than half, about $500,000.
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"It will take about $1.55 million
to carry us through to completion
of the master plan."
Counc. Bill Mickle called the
search for a landfill site "a consul-
tant's dream.
"What is this going to cost the
taxpayer of Huron County? It's
ongoing, ongoing, then you
retreat, then you start up again."
According to Gary Davidson,
the Huron County director of
planning and development, grants
from the province will cover 60
per cent of the total cost for a new
landfill site. Huron County will
have to cover the remaining 40
per cent.
As for alternative methods of
waste management, Davidson said
"there doesn't seem to be any tech-
nology that doesn't involve a land-
fill site at the very end of the
waste stream,"
But Bailey still thinks the search
for a new landfill site should be
halted.
"A landfill site is a landfill site,
whether big or small," he said.
"Poisons will get into the water,
and that's not going to go away."
Bailey said County Council
should examine waste manage-
ment practices inr areas where "the
problem is real.
"They should look at Asia,
Europe or the United States.
"They have incineration plants."
Bailey suggested council should
also consider looking at a waste
management system currently
being developed by Kincardine -
based Canadian Agra.
"But it's not popular with coun-
cil to talk about anything other
than a landfill site.
THE HURON EXPOSITOR, March 8, 1995-11
.1
News and Views
Tory says agriculture being ignored
iBY DAVID SCOT"!'
Agriculture has tended to be the
forgotten cousin in the Government
of Ontario for the last 10 years,
said PC provincial agriculture critic,
Noble Villeneuve.
Villeneuve spoke to a roomful of
south Huron farmers recently in
Hensall at the W.G. Thompson
board room about what a Mike
Harris government would do for
farming if elected.
He spoke mainly about a report
undertaken in 1993 entitled 'The
Mike Harris Task Force - Rural
Economic Development.' The
report was the result of town hall
forums conducted in rural Ontario
about grassroots concerns farmers,
small business people and educators
had about the way they were being
governed.
The report isn't limited to
agriculture. It takes stances on
graduated licensing, gun control,
junior kindergarten, waste
management, minimum wage,
policing and other things that aren't
directly related to agriculture.
He told the farmers assembled
that the provincial government has
cut funding to the Ministry of
Agriculture 10 per cent in each of
the last two years.
"Agriculture and Food have been
chopped. The rest of the ministries
have continued spending money.
The Ministry of Agriculture under a
Harris government would not suffer
any further cuts," said the Tory
agriculture critic.
Villeneuve said the provincial PC
government would pare down
educational administration.
"In education you have to
remember that 40 per cent of the
salaried people never see the inside
of a classroom. Does that tell you
that maybe they're a little heavy on
administration as opposed to
education? That's where the cuts
would occur," said Villeneuve.
He sated his objections to Allan
Rock's new stricter gun legislation.
"Eighty-five million dollars is
being spent by the Government of
Canada to force law-abiding legal
gun owners to register and re-
register and to acquire FAC's
(Firearm Acquisition Certificates) to
own a rifle. We think $85 million
would be a lot better spent if they
spent it on protection of the public
and policing," said Villeneuve.
He admits the province
overspends and is in financial
trouble.
"We have a major spending
problem. In the last 10 years we've
increased spending from $26 billion
to $55 billion and we're still
closing hospitals, shutting down
hospital beds. We're not even
cutting the grass on provincial
highways. We have a spending
problem," he said.
The provincial Conservative party
has taken a "reduction" platform for
the upcoming election.
"A reducuon in government, a
reduction in bureaucracy, a
reduction in spending and a
reduction in income tax to provide
a climate that's conducive to
Ontario becoming again the engine
of the economy of Canada," said
Villeneuve.
He said a Harris provincial
government would slash the number
of civil servants in Ontario.
"We've promised to cut 15,000
(civil servants) out of the
bureaucracy, go back to where we
were in 1985 - at 82,000. We have
about 100,000 now," said the
agriculture critic.
Villeneuve also said a provincial
Tory government would create
725,000 new jobs. How many of
those would be agriculture -related?
"I would say you're looking at
125,000-150,000 of those jobs
involving the manufacturing of
products used on the farm,
equipment used on the farm, sales,
all along that chain - the
transportation, the processing.
Twenty per cent of the jobs in
Ontario are agriculture -related," he
said.
The new ethanol -processing plant
in Chatham will create about 300
jobs but many more for the
construction of the facility, said
Villeneuve.
He was asked in a press
conference how the federal budget
will impact on farmers, especially
with diary subsidies being cut and
the Crow Rate being removed for
grain producers.
"It's of major concern. Fifteen per
cent of the milk being cut in the
upcoming year and another 15 per
cent in year immediately following.
Quite obviously it's going to be
creating some problems within an
industry that has been very stable,"
said Villieneuve.
"What's going to help is the
removal of the Crow Rate which
will provide some support or
strength to the grain market here in
Ontario because at least the
transportation costs will not
subsidized for western grain coming
into our area. The long team effect
is that we may well see more hog
production in Alberta and
Saskatchewan which would then
compete with our hog industry here.
So it's a double-edged sword," he
said. - -
TEXAS BOUND - Track and field athletes `Lori Perrie (left) and
Carly Price of Seaforth District High School are off to train Texas
in a couple of weeks, thanks to the support of Seaforth Branch
156 of the Royal Canadian Legion. Lori will train in her specialty
field events, and Carly hopes to improve her hurdling.
OFF TO CHAMPIONSHIPS - Members of the Seaforth Stingers
Junior A Ringette Team were selling hot dogs and pop on the
Main Street Saturday to help raise money for their trip to the
Provincial Championships next week. The Stingers will represent
the Western Region.
Lab costs hit ,local hospital,rA
Increased laboratory costs
could cost Seaforth Community
Hospital an additional $13,000
this year, the Seaforth Commun-
ity Hospital Board of Governors
was told on Feb. 28.
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THE SAFETY DILEMMA
(c t994 by Craig Nicholson. All rights reserved.)
I speculate on the economy of the snowmobiling
LIlike to think of myself as a safe snowmobiler. I'm an community trying to significantly reduce snowmobiling-
aware, cautious and responsible rider. I knoW the related fatalities. Remember, we're talking big bucks and
rules of the road and have experience on my side. a handful of erstwhile snowmobilers who aren't listening
I've snowmobiled 100,000 kilometers Over the past anyway.
twenty years or so without serious mishaps. Except for a
barrel roll in the Bruce Region and an annual windshield Lives that for the most part are deliberately put at risk by
replacement, my sleds have survived intact. their owners. Not innocent victims, but people who know
better, play the odds and lose. How choked up should I
There are thousands of riders just like me. Folks who live get? How much money should we spend trying to
for winter and snowmobiling, pray for early freeze-up and change human stupidity? Besides, most of our safety
snow. Snowmobilers who practice safe riding. People . messages are misdirected at our own members who are
who have put their dealers' kids through school. already on side. Preaching to the converted.
Each of us has had our moments at the edge. Those
infrequent times when inattention, impatience, over-
confidence or even anger have brought us face to face
with our own heart -in -the -throat mortality. And we've
settled back again into the comfort of our responsible
riding, secure in the certainty we've learned our lesson
this time. And if not, that there'll be as many more ,this
time's, as we need. Knock on wood.
February 5 to 12 was Provincial Snowmobile Safety
Week. A week most of us will have ignored because we
already consider ourselves to be among the ,good guys
and gals., Besides, we've heard it all before.
On average, snowmobiling-related incidents account for
30 to 40 fatalities each winter. I chose this phrasing very
deliberately because it seems that most of the victims
are locals using a sled to accomplish another primary
purpose such as ice fishing, going to or from a party or
joyriding to the store.
They're not snowmobilers, much less OFSC members,
who use their sleds for the primary purpose of trail riding.
And I emphasize trail riding because that's what Ontario
snowmobiling is. Make no mistake about is. With less
than three per cent of snowmobiling-related deaths
occurring 'on OFSC trails, it doesn't take a genius to
conclude that most victims have not really been
snowmobiling, or ,snowmobilers, at tragedy time.
Their demises are snowmobiling-related,, not
snowmobiling fatalities. A fine distinction perhaps, but a
definable line nonetheless. One most frequently
misunderstood and ignored by law enforcement
agencies, the media and the public. Each new
snowmobiling-related death erroneously paints our
sport black again. Perception is reality.
Through the Ontario Snowmobile Safety Committee
and the Ontario Federation of Snowmobile Clubs,
almost a million dollars is being thrown at
snowmobiling safety each winter. In targe part to
combat this negative perception. How many true
snowmobiling deaths are there? How does that
compare to the rate of airplane or auto or
pedestrian or killer bee deaths? Very favorably, I
submit.
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It's the yahoos we're after, and I suspect they're mostly
unreachable anyway. Certainly they rarely respond to the
logical, reasoned approach espoused by safety
practitioners. Prolific safety information has no impact on
these risk takers. I sometimes wonder if they can even
read. But it makes the rest of us feel better for trying.
This dialogue is not intended to belittle Ontario's
snowmobiling safety initiatives, admittedly the world's
best. Or the folks who make there happen. Instead, it's to
explore a perhaps more realistic context end set of
expectations for what is and is not possible snow safety -
wise.
Let's face it. Every winter, idiots are going to kill
themselves foolishly. Some will do it on snowmobiles.
However they choose to die, alcohol, speed, darkness,
unfamiliar terrain or drowning may be contributing
factors. Mostly they'll be young males challenging their
mortality. Unfortunately, they may take some innocents
with them. And leave more grieving behind.
So maybe our safety energies should be redirected to
saving these poor souls from unnecessary agony. Maybe
Ontario Snowmobile Safety Week should target the
passengers and loved ones of high risk takers - all of
whom suffer by chance, not choice. The slogan could be:
,Don't gamble with your happiness - hide his keys.,
Let's address the real problems and targeted solutions,
to admit our limitations, to put the blame for
snowmobiling-related fatalities squarely where it belongs
- on those high risk takers who die defying the odds.
Certainly the fault cannot be laid on snowmobiling,
already a safe sport when participation rates, riding
frequency and distances travelled are properly factored
in. Nor should we snowmobilers feel guilty or ashamed or
even sympathetic when another yahoo bites the snow
dust. That's one more who won't raise the tally of
innocents lost.
Until next time, happy trails and remember: Sled Smart -
Ride Safe, Ride Sober. For more information on local
snowmobiling, Snowaramas and clubs contact the
Ontario Federation of Snowmobile Clubs (OFSC) at 1-
705-739-7689. To plan your Ontario tour, call 1 -800 -283 -
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