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HomeMy WebLinkAboutTimes Advocate, 1994-04-06, Page 5to start smoking. The province finally gave in Feb- ruary 21 saying it had no choice as contraband cigarettes were pouring in from Quebec. "We've ,been forced into this move because of the flood of cheap cigarettes from Quebec, Finance Minister Floyd Laughren told a news conference in late February. "By lowering the tax on cigar- ettes we are basically fighting crim- inal activity and giving some relief to retailers and the people who work in those retail stores," he said. "I was really hoping against hope that pressures would build upon the federal government to reconsid- er...to make this move unneces- sary." Laughren said the loss of $500 million in revenues will mean spending cuts in the spring budget because he doesn't want to impose new taxes. Smokers in Ontario are paying about $23 a canon for cigarettes, down from about $41. Roads cost over $3.5 million GODERICH - Thursday was hudget day for Huron county coun- cil but it was also a chance for councillors to listen to a fairly in- depth account of its road system. County engineer Dennis Merrell said Huron spent $3,652,000 on maintenance costs which included paving and bridge repair. "We had tremendous co-operation from the employees in tough times," said M The county has 106 bridges on its road system and Merrall said they are aging and will soon need to be repaired. Huron's road department's wish list, which is a needs study states that eliminating all needs from the road system, would cost $48,087,000. "This county has eve- ry right to be proud of its road sys- tem," said Merrall. The Ministry of Transportation provided a normal subsidy of $4,844,600 and the county road levy was $2,647,00() which was the same as the levy in both 1991 and 1992. Marie Hick- nell of McKillop Township asked how much it cost per kilometre to pave. "It can he anywhere from $30-50,000 per kilometre. It de- pends how much you put down," said Merrall. l INVESTMENTS GIC/RSP 1 Yr. - 6.00% 3 Yr. - 6.75% 5 yr. - 7.50% .rt Segregated Funds 1 YR. - 22.86% 2YR. -11.68% �1 3YR. -12.17% Gaiser-Kneale 235-2420,238-8484 • GIC rates subject to change- Sh.jrt- 'erm rates available. Segregated fund rates reflect actual past performance Future returns will vary. HAVE US PREPARE YOUR 1993 PERSONAL TAX RETURN RECEIVE pUR1' REFUND FROM REVENUE AS CANADA LITTLE AS 2 WEEKS ryri. :‘.ectron,caOy w'th Us Accurately and Efficiently Starting at519.00 Call for an appointment at our offices located in: Hensall, Clinton. Exeter, Grand Bend 263-3039 or 1-800-567-0844 Fax: 262-3111 W. H. MacGREGOR FARM ACCOUNTING SERVICE 114 King St. 16 years experience Hensall ■ Back in Time from the archives of the Times - Advocate 10 Yetlttli Ago April 4, 1984 - An additional $300,000 added for the county road department and S190,000 for reserves accounted for most of the 13.6 percent tax hike ap- proved by Huron county coun- cil. The $16.2 million budget was approved 21 to 7 in a re- corded vote. Exeter council gave final ap- proval to a new system of gar- bage collection for the town aimed at reducing vehicle use and man hours. Under the new bylaw, garbage will be picked up on only one side of the street. Regular garbage pickup will re- main on Mondays for the west side of town; on Fridays for the east side of town and on Wednesdays for Main street and the area north of the river. Gar- bage must be at the curb at 8 a.m. to ensure pickup. The auditorium of the Lucan Community Centre was filled to capacity Saturday night as resi- dents of Biddulph township said thanks to Austin Hodgins for 35 years of dedicated service to the municipality as clerk. He missed only two meetings during that time, once to have surgery and the other to get married. One of the most exciting hockey games in many a year ended this season for the Exeter Hawks as Murray Hunter scored at 16.22 of a second sudden - death overtime period to give the Grand Valley Harvester a victory in the OHA semi-final series. 25 Years Ago April 10, 1969 - Members of Exeter council are getting irritat- ed with other levels of govern- ment stepping in to take over some of their duties. Regional government proposals have been a sore spot with some councillors and this was wors- ened with the announcement that county council is planning to take over Wellington street west in Exeter as part of the county road system. A strike- believed to be the fir§t ever in Lucan was called Wednesday morning by about seven employees of the Central Hotel when the owners refused I to negotiate a proper union con- tract. Plumbers attending a special meeting with Grand Bend coun- cil Monday night were given permission to begin individual hookups on the village's newly installed water system. 50 Yesui Ago April 7, 1944 - Deputy Dis- trict Governor J.J. Edwards of Petrolia paid his official visit to the Exeter Lions Club at their supper meeting. He gave a very fine address referring to the rapid growth that has taken place together with the service work that is being accom- plished. At the regular meeting of the Exeter Board of Education, principal Harold Sturgis report- ed enrollment at the high school of 170 and public school enroll- ment of 151 was reported by principal Waghorn. 75 Your* Ago April 6, 1919 - Michigan vot- ed this week to remain "dry" by a majority of I00,(XX) votes, but Detroit polled a heavy "wet"majority. Exeter's Main street has been scraped and the mud carried off, making for a great improve- ment. A Targe crowd attended the annual spring livestock show at Hensall sponsored by the South Huron Agricultural Society. Stallions, halter and harness horses, hulls and cows were thc classes shown, and excellent quality was apparent in all clas- sifications. Returned soldiers this week included Richard Cook, Grant Hooper, Waldron Crewes, John M. Hunter, Wilbur Mitchell and William Berry. J Statistics Canada Times -Advocate, April 6, 1994 Page 5 Local cigarette sales lower than average EXETER - It's been just over a month since the price of cigarettes was lowered. And while statistics show that sales of legal cigarettes has increased across Canada, the same can't be said locally. "Sales are about the same," said Pat Crawford manager of Golden Triangle Convenience store. "It's strange, we were expecting a change in sales," she said. Kim Bilcke, the manger at Beck- er's also said sales are down. But, she said, the store hasn't been a pig What do you think? Do you think the sales of cigarettes have increased since the prices were cut? cigarette seller for quite a while. "We're particular who we sell to," she said. "All staff try to enforce the age restriction and that means losing thousands of dollars in reve- nue," she said. Ontario was hesitant to cut the price of cigarettes saying the high price was in part a strategy to keep young people from smoking. Statistics Canada figures showed the sales of cigarettes rose 35.8 per- cent for the month of February when comparing sales last year. The increased sales is a direct re- sult of both federal and provincial attempts at curbing the sales of ille- gal cigarettes by lowering taxes. The federal and Quebec govern- ments slashed tobacco taxes Febru- ary 8 in an attempt to stop cigarette smugglers along the United States border. The Ontario government resisted lowering its share of tax on cigar- ettes, saying the province would lose $5(X) million in revenue and ptrssibly cause more young people Ellen Green, Exeter "I don't smoke but I im- agine so. Anybody 1 know who smokes, yeah." Karin Roger, Exeter "I would hope not. I don't know, I don't smoke." Diane Gloor, Mitchell "I'm sure they have. We'll be paying more taxes though. They need to get the money from somewhere else." Joanne Bengough, Hensall "Yes they have increased. A lot of people have started again because they can af- ford fford it." Michel Bonnot, Exeter "Yeah, I'm sure they have increased. I find though, peo- ple have'more respect for non-smokers." Huron County brings in zero percent budget increase By Fred Groves T -A staff GODERICH - Praised for their efforts by council, Huron county department heads have brought in a zero per cent increase budget. Thursday morning, there was very little discus- sion as council rubber-stamped its 1994 $27,508.653 budget. "This is probably the tightest or leanest hudget you have passed in a long time," county administra- tor Jocyln Murray told council. Back in September, council agreed to have their department heads slash wherever they could in or- der to come up with a zero increase. Council got ex- actly what it asked for. "It's one of the quickest budgets passed here," said warden Allan Gipson. "When they come in at zero, it's hard to question it." When the motion camc before council to pass the hudget, there wcrc no questions and only a dozen or so hands went up showing they were in favour of it. Thc rest did not participate in thc vote and seemed unconcerned. The only discussion camc near the end of the meeting when it was time to pass the bylaw to es- tablish the general county levy. At that time several councillors and the department heads had already left. "I thought there would be more discussion. I thought it was going to be discussed after the regu- lar council meeting?" questioned a somewhat con- fused Exeter deputy -reeve Lossy Fuller. Exeter reeve Bill Mickle was surprised there was no discussion on the new hudget. "I was under the impression there would be dis- cussion on thc hudget," said Micklc as the bylaw for the levy was being put forth. The 26 Huron county municipalities will have to come up with a total of $8,238,549. (see attached budget notes, for amounts of local municipalities). There is also $308,346 unallocated into the hud- get which was placed in provision for contingen- cies. Huron county is still waiting on some grants from the province. "Any other year we'd know by this time what they were," said Gibson of the grants. When asked if the $308,346 set aside in reserve will be enough to cover the grants, Gibson said, "hopefully it is hut I wouldn't want to be 100 per- cent sure." • Micklc also had concerns about the contingencies. "I wonder if the committee (Administration, Fi- nance and Personnel) identified what contingencies were. 1 look at it as unforeseen circumstances hut not hudget overrun of some departments." The county has several sources of revenue from -which they are able to keep Huron going. Besides the federal and provincial grants, there are fees and service charges which this year hope to amount to $2,501,795. Other revenue, including rent from var- ious buildings is $660,696. Budget notes: • Thc following is how much each local munici- pality will pay in taxes to the county in 1994 - Exet- er. $615,729; Hensall, $173,409; Zurich, $60,559; Hay, $464,429; Stanley, $341,722; Stephen. $673;434; Usbornc. $266,103. • The combined impact of the province's Expendi- ture Control Program and the Social Contract Legis- lation was to reduce the provincial unconditional grants in 1993 by S225,020 to S790,648. The full impact of the social contract in 1994 resulted in a further reduction in the grants by $31,333 to $759,315. • With a zero percent increase, certain grants had to be limited. Among those were the county's nine fall fairs which were dropped to $7,350 from $1 1,026. • In 1993, Huron County paid out $5,107.953 in welfaree. The hudget predicts this will drop as only $4,731,514 was allocated. 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