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HomeMy WebLinkAboutThe Huron Expositor, 1997-05-28, Page 1HuRo• . ()SPICE VOLUNTEER SERVICE Health Huron Hospice starting bereavement group in Seaforth. See page 3 Your -Community Newspaper Since 1860 --- Seaforth, Ontario Briefly. r Trustees get chopped to fdr Huron County may be rep- resented by tour public -school trustees next year, instead of the present 16, when it joins Perth, under recently passed Ontario gov- ernment legislation, to become the Huron -Perth District School Board. Allan Carter. chair of the Huron County Board of Education as it now stands. says guidelines he has received indicate the county will lose 75 per cent of its trustees and representation on the joint board will be based on population. Perth County will have five and Huron four. Of this county's four elect- ed public education represen- tatives, it has been recom- mended by the local educa- tion improvement committee that the municipalities of Seaforth, Clinton, McKillop. Tuckersmith, Hullett, Blyth. Stanley and Bayfield share one of these trustees. • Carter, who is on this local committee, said areas of rep- resentation for trustees arc only proposed and still not final. One trustee has been pro- posed for Goderich (town and township), Colborne, Ashfield. West and East Wawanosh. Another of Huron's four is would represent Howick. Wingham, Turnberry, Morris. Grey and Brussels. The final trustee would rep- resent Exeter. Hensall. Zurich, Hay, Stephen and Usborne. Now three options The Central Huron Restructuring Committee. narrowed its options to three when it met at Clinton last Wednesday, and will proceed to prepare costings of each before presenting them to the seven municipalities, includ- ing Seaforth, that arc mem- bers at another meeting June 18. Then three public meetings will be held, including one in Seaforth at the high school July 9. The time has not been set yet. Signs damaged Some political parties are getting perturbed in the area. "It has come to the attention of some political parties that election campaign posters, whether large or small, have boon either removed entirely, damaged or destroyed to the point of being useless," notes Monday's press release from the Huron County detach- ment of the Ontario Provincial Police. "The hardest hit area is Clinton (Central Huron) and into, Bruce County." "If anyone has observed any suspicious vehicles or persons 'at thesepolitical election signs or has knowl- edge of their destruction,' the O P "requests the assistance Of the, public to help apive this type of crime" by calling the area detachment at 524- 8314.orHuron County Crime Stealers it 1.800 -2.22 -TIPS (U May 28, 1997 -- $1.00 includes GST • 4„ SATURDAY MORNING BIKE RODEO - Block Parents in Seaforth raised some need- ed funds with a bicycle rodeo at St. James School on Saturday morning. About 80 chil- dren participated, as did Const. John Marshall of the Ontario Provincial Police. The wee rider was Jordan Po • •e. School taxes up County, town pass zero increase budgets BY GREGOR CAMPBELL Expositor Staff •Local taxes rose about $26 on a $100,000 residential assessment in town for public school supporters this year, and about $9 for separate school ratepayers. The increases come from the respective boards of edu- cation, clerk/administrator Jim Crocker reported to the May 6 meeting of Seaforth Council. He noted this municipality and Huron County both passed budgets with zero per cent increases from last year. According to tax informa- tion and correspondence for-. warded to council from the Huron County Board of Education for last week's meeting, 49.1 per cent of the public board's revenue this fiscal year is to be raised through local taxation with another 44.2 per cent in. transfers from the province and 6.8 per -cent from "tuitions and miscellaneous." Seaforth's total contribution to public education through local taxation is the lowest of the five towns in Huron at $674,695, compared to $3,464,296 for Goderich, $2,135,975 for Exeter, $1,155,854 for Clinton and $1,155,171 for Wingham. The -local education tax for all towns, villages and town- ships in the county totals $29,386,564. By comparison, another $26,453,329 comes from Ontario transfers. Minutes of the Huron -Perth County Roman Catholic Separate School Board meet- ing April 28 state it "approved the 1997 expendi- tures budget of $34,098,416 and set its residential mill rate in Huron. and Perth Counties at 1.1 per cent high- er than 1996" which result in mill rates,of 8.501 for Huron County, 264.471 for Stratford and 172.426 for the remain- der of Perth County. The public board's residen- tial/farm nidi rate for Huron is 8.782 for 1997. It's busi- ness/commercial mill rate' is now 10.332. To continue or not with amalgamation ♦ BY TRISH WILKINSON MP pensions hot topic at SSP News Staff all candidates BY CARLA-ANN OUD SSP News Staff Huron -Bruce candidates faced -off on issues, ranging from pensions for: federal politicians to Native rights during a question period hosted by the Huron Federation of Agriculture,°in Holmcaville, M.ay 22. :It was not a debate..40th candidate had a minute and:a half to respond to questions posed by a Papel wbo drew on written suggostiofs<from the crowd. The more than 200 people, who packed the godefich ' Township Hall, nuneined;rel- atively quiet until:the.last question which keit .wj1 pensions for MIs. Before answering "h does your party plan to m political pensions realistically comparable to those of other Canadians," Reform candi- date Do„uu•Fines joined the audienod;}�irapplauding the question. Fines said Reform,Party MP Deborah Grey gage�lp�;a pension worth $1.4 million. Reform wants to replace that pension system with one sim- ilarto the private sector where employees and employers put money in. Liberal incumbent, Paul Steckle responded "We could do like the Reform and say, '...we will give up our pen- sion, but want $150,000 a year. Politics, he said is in "somewhat of a different league' and cannot' be. com- pared to a pension earned in other fields. "I am not asharned of the fact that lave a.penston plan. I did not go into politics to for the pension.” Colleen Schenk of the Progressive Conservatives said, people outside of poli- tics ,shouldreview the pen- sions to avoid the conflict of interest which comes from politicians setting their own pensions and salaries. According to Jan Jobnstoae, of the New Democrat{ic Party, con- stituents sWairl. decide how much pension is enough for their politicians. Callii .the present MP pensionplop "obscene," Dave Joslin, the candidate for the Christian Heritage Party, said it as well as the Canada Pension Plan should be scHe said people would be able to plan for their own retirement if taxes were cut. Trade and jobs The Canadian Pension Plan re-entered the discussion as Fines answered how his political party "could address the increasing level of imports as factories were closing." Fines said Canada has done well as a trading nation, but payroll taxes arc preventing the creation of new jobs. The Reform Party wants to stop a Liberal government proposal which asks an employer to split a $1,400 increase in contributions to tbb Pension Ain•.with an employee. ".That kind of thing is going to be a : job killer like we:have never seen." Johnstone said our payroll taxes, comparable to the United States and other 07 ' countries, would probably attract more companies to Canada because "it's cheaper to do business here." Canadians do not have to fear,itnports, said Schenk. A "terrific" free trade system brought $1 billion into Canada., Q9ve iuoft ,should ensure ll tic;hftsp;levet. playinggtt+;dpalttlg with world trade organizations. Joslin echoed Schcnit'a call for a level playing field, say- ing Canada "can compete ,with anybody." Countries which didn't trade by those rules, could "go somewhere else." Canadians who have gone abroad on Liberal trade mis- sions, *0 Steckle, have wit- netModi t "we are one of' the beat countries in the world to trade with." Citizens should be mare optimistic when the Liberal government has created more than''' 800,000 jobs and foresees another 700,000 in the next two years. Transfer payments to provinces One question connected declining federal transfer payments to provinces with job losses and reduced ser- vices. The four candidates yying CONTINUED on page 5 The consultant has had his say, the public has had its say, and now it's up to the six local municipalities to decide if they want to continue the amalgamation process. Councils ,from Bayfield, Zurich, Hensall and the Townships of Stanley, 'Tuckersmith and Hay decid- ed at Monday night's all - council meeting of the Municipal Restructuring Committee .(MRC) to take a motion back to their individ- ual councils to vote on whether or not they wish to continue the amalgamation process. "At some point, we have to decide if were going to go further," Bill Carnochan, reeve of Tuckersmith To rnship, said. "I don't think by any means that we have all the answers to this...but do you stop the process before you get to the end?" Patricia Carrier, reeve of Bayfield, also stated she thought ,they should continue the protlfas before the provin- cial government does it for them. "My fear is that in 1998 pr later, we may be told that we .have to do something we're .not too keen on," Carrier said. "I don't think we on discard what we've worked on so far." However, Jim ,hove, deputy -reeve . of Hay Township, sold he thought amalgamation should be put on hold for the next elected group of representatives to deal with. "I think it's a new council that should pick this up and carry on," Love noted. Still, the MRC stated sever- al times that they don't have many options. Ca'rnochan said that in Ontario, there are 13 amalgamations already finalized, with 19 waiting on thc provincial government's approval. Jack Coleman, reeve of Stanley Township, added that thc county might also be fac- ing the possibility of a one= tier government, as Huron County Council has a motion on the table for next Thursday's meeting to decide whether or not they want to start looking at this possibili- ty. "It shocked me the way it came out. A lot were in favor of it," Coleman said. Carnochan added that if this one -tier government for the county does happen, pre- vious patterns have suggested that there will be much less local government representa- tion than they are recom- mending under amalgama- tion. He noted that under a single tier, it looked like either one or two people were going to have to look after 10,000 to 13,000 people. Besides concerns of repre- sentation, councillors thought that looking at a one -tier sys- "tem might be to their advan- tage, if it could save more money than their proposed amalgamation. "As far as locking at single tier...everybody has to kee their options Open." Catnoohan said. Councillor Brian Johnston, from hayfield, also thought looking at the one -tier 'system might be good economically for the group. However, when it ane to the MRC'ta proposal, he,.along with oth- ers, stated there were still too many uncertainties. "I counted in the report, CONTINUED on page 3