Zurich Citizens News, 1970-02-19, Page 5THURSDAY, FEBRUARY 19, 1970
ZURICH CITIZENS NEWS
PAGE FIVE
Separate School Board in Action
( by Wilma Oke)
The Huron -Perth County
Roman Catholic Separate School
Board at a meeting in St. James
School, Seaforth, last Monday
night accepted the tender of
Leo's Plumbing, Heating and
Electric, Zurich for $341. to
increase the 100 ampere service
to 200 ampere service at St.
Boniface School in Zurich. The
work to be completed by Febru-
ary 27. The only other tender
was from Gingerich Sales and
Service of Zurich for $369.
Trustee Ted Geoffrey, R, R. 2
Zurich, reported the two new
buses bought by the board at the
end of December are in use in
the Zurich area and proving sat-
isfactory. He said gasoline tanks
have been installed at Ste. Mar-
ie School, R. R. 2, Zurich and
at St. Boniface School, Zurich.
The board endorsed the fol-
lowing resolutions which had
been passed by the Welland
County Roman Catholic Separ-
ate School Board and presented
to the Ontario Department of
Education; Re pre -qualification
of contractors --"Whereas many
urban school boards have exper-
ienced difficulty with certain
contractors in school building
programs, and whereas it is
extremely difficult not to accept
the low bid in tendering, and
whereas often the low tenderer
is a contractor whose ability has
not been proved, therefore, be
it resolved that the Ontario Sep-
arate School Trustees' Associat-
ion petition the Ontario Depart-
ment of Education to institute
a program of pre -qualification
of urban school building cont-
ractorsenerally similar to that
now in force by the Ontario
Department of Highways where
contractors tendering on projects
costing $150, 000 and over would
have to be certified before ten-
ders submitted by them would be
considered for acceptance by a
board."
The second resolution was
that the Ontario Department of ,
Education implement the follow-
ing recommendation from the
Ontario Committee on Taxation
1967 Report (the Smith Report).
1, "In each municipality, the
assessment of corporations that
cannot under the Assessment Act
direct their taxes for school sup-
port be segregated into a distinct
allotment taxable by public and
separate school boards in exact
proportion to the relative pupil
enrolment of the boards.
2. "If all publicity supported
elementary schools of Ontario
are to be treated with complete
equity, they should have ident-
ical access to local tax resources
uninhibited by peculiar defects
in the structure of taxation.
Once this identical access has
been secured, grants can be
paid on the sole basis of fiscal
need and capacity, uncluttered
by extraneous formulas designed
to take account of structural
shortcomings."
3. "Our basic criterion has
been that of equity, which in
terms of school finance means
that all schools in the publicly
supported Ontario System should
be subject to similar fiscal treat-
ment, whether the source of
revenue is a provincial grant or
a local tac,"
The third resolution: That the
Ontario Department of Educa-
tion re-establish the former Cor-
poration Tax adjustment Grant
which was removed in 1969.
The fourth resolution: That
the Department of Education re-
institute the payment of grants
for Special Education as per 1968
Grant Regulations to all Public
and Separate School Boards that
do not receive the location
weighting factor of 1. 2.
At the suggestion of Trustee
Vincent Young of Goderich a
letter of appreciation is to be
sent to the staff of St. Mary's
School in Goderich for the assis-
tance given to make possible the
well organized program for the
large crowd which attended the
opening of the addition to the
school, The Hon, William Davis,
Minister of Education for Ontario,
was the guest speaker for the
occasion.
The board voted to pay for
former Business Administrator
Paul Franck, Stratford, 410 of
his wages for vacation pay in
lieu ofa vacation in 1969 which
he was unable to take because
of the pressure of work.
A Borrowing By-law for $850,
000 from Capital Aid Corporat-
ion at a rate of 81% was approv-
ed,
A By-law was passed to convey
the deed of St. Patrick's Con-
vent at Kinkora to Episcopal
Corporation of Diocese of Lon-
don.
Trustee Joseph Looby, chair-
man of the Finance and Insurance
Committee, gave a report on a
recent meeting that the insurance
coverage of the board was up-
dated. Mr. Looby reported the
total coverage for fire and ex-
tended coverage amounted to
$5, 111, 641 wits a premium
amounting to $4,172. 40 per
year for this. The total premium
for all insurance for the board
amounts to $8,142.53 per year.
Leeson -Killer Insurance Ltd. ,
of Stratford is the agency for the
insurance,
The Board approved the pay-
ment of tuition fees for children
of Huron -Perth Separate School
NOTICE OF ANNUAL MEETING
Notice Is Hereby Given That the
95th ANNUAL MEETING OF THE
Hay Township Farmers' Mutual
Fire Insurance Company
will be held in the
Township Hall, Zurich
— ON ----
SATURDAY,
SATURDAY, FEBRUARY 21, 1970
AT 2:00 P.M.
To elect Three Directors to replace those whose term of
office expires and to transact all business as may be done
• at a general meeting of policyholders.
The retiring directors are Arnold McCann, Dashwood; Theo
Steinbach, Zurich, and Ezra Webb, Grand Bend, who are
eligible for re-election.
Mr. Webb does not intend to stand for re-election.
JACK SCOTCHMER,
President
JOHN R. CONSITT,
Secretary -Treasurer
supporters who were registered
in Public School Kindergartens
in September, 1969. The schools
affected are Our Lady of Mount
Carmel, R, R. 3, Dashwood, Holy
Name School in St. Marys; and
St. Boniface School in Zurich.
A list of local plumbers,
heating,contractors and electr-
icians is to be supplied to each
Principal of each school by Feb-
ruary 23, to be called if an em-
ergency should occur in these
units of the school.
Door keys are to be available
only to the caretaker, the Prin-
cipal, and the Board Office in
any school with a problem of
too many people having a key to
enter the school. When such a
problem arises then the tumblers
in the lock are to be changed
and new keys issued to the above,
0
Government Plans
Tax Rebate System
The Ontario Government has
announced the continuation of
its Residential Property Tax Re-
duction Proggram,
Municipal Affairs Minister
Darcy McKeough said:"Although
there have been a few problems
in the areas, the program has
worked well since it was introd-
uced in 1968. Research shows
that, in the present circumst-
ances, this program is the most
effective way available to the
Government for directly reliev-
ing the burden of property taxes
on homeowners and tenants in
the Province,"
The Minister added that "if
a more flexible system of per-
sonal income tax can be intro-
duced in the future, it is pos-
sible that the burden of property
tax could be mitigated through
a closer integration of the per-
sonal income tax and property
taxes."
Experience has shown that the
"basic shelter exemption" as
recommended by the Ontario
Committee on Taxation tended
to give proportionately more
relief to those areas where pro-
perty values and the level of
local taxes are low, Mr. Mc -
Keough said.
To provide more equitable
assistance, particularly to res-
idents of municipalities where
the average tax burden is high-
est, the method of calculating
the amount of the reduction has
been changed. In future, the
tax reduction will be calculated
by using a simple two part for-
mula. For 1970, the tax reduct-
ion will be a standard sum of
$30. plus 10% of the average
residential tax paid by house-
holders in that municipality in
1969.
Mr. McKeough said the basic
sum of $30, represents a stand-
ard contribution by the Govern-
ment towards the cost of all
municipal services while the 10%
of the average taxes paid gives
a greater relief to the residents
of municipalities with relatively
high tax rates.
The majority of taxpayers
will receive a greater benefit
in 1970 than they did in 1969.
However, there will be some
taxpayers whose tax reduction
in 1969 was considerably more
than the rebate due in 1970
under the new formula, " he said,
"In order to avoid an undue
reduction in the amount of the
payment, it is proposed that
no taxpayer will lose more than
$5 in the rebate as compared to
1969. Similarly, it has been de-
cided to place a ceiling of $15
on the amount of the increase
in tax reduction payable to any
taxpayer. These proposals are
based on reductions for a full
year. Proportionate adjustments
will be made for householders
entitled to the benefit for part
of the year only, " Mr. McI<e-
ough said.
As in 1969, no taxpayer will
receive a tax reduction exceed-
ing 50% of his taxes for any
property.
National Farm Union Official Speaks
To Enthusiastic Crowd at Dashwood
South Huron Local of the
National Farm Union hosted
a capacity crowd of aggresive
farmers on Monday evening
at the Community Hall in
Dashwood.
Opening comments were
given by the chairman of the
temporary executive for this
district, Vincent Doyle. He
stated that because of the
co-operation and interest which
has been shown in the past
few weeks, the local group
are planning.a Charter night
in the near future, at which
an official executive will be
installed.
Addressing the group
were directors Blake Sanford,
Essex County, Jerry Huzevka,
Lambton County, and Peter
Myers, Kent County, Director
of} Organization of N. F. U.
One of the highlights of Mr.
Meyers' address was taxes.
He stated that "school tax
reductions were one of the
achievnients realized by the
N. F. U. , due to the effort
that over 100 township and
county councils had en-
dorced the N. F. U. brief
which called for the removal
of education taxes from farm
lands and agricultural build-
ings. Some townships had
gone so far as to appeal their
assessments levied on them.
lvlany have sent letters to the
Departmant of Municipal Affairs,
requesting that this unfair tax
burden be removed, " he added.
In answer to questions
regarding the marketing
boards, Mr. Myers stated
that the N, F. U. was not
advocating the abolishment of
such existing marketing boards,
and that in some of the areas,
the marketing boards have to
be more aggressive and
ultimately use the policy
of the N.F.U. in national
marketing boards or provincial
marketing board cannot
operate or bargain effectively
in national or international
•markets.
"There is a movement right
across Canada to organize farmer
provinciallyinto special interest
or commodty groups, for
the soul reason of keeping groups
of farmers divided into
competition against each'
other, " quoted Mr. Meyers.
Mr. Sanford urged farmers
to work together as a group
to reach a common objective
which one cannot reach alone.
Mr. Huzevka remarked
that the N.F.U. has organized
in eight provinces, and to -day
started to organize in Quebec,
His closing comments were
"Instead of living off each
other, we should support
each other, "
The objective set by the
N. F. U. is to promote the
fame family as a necessary
and vital part of the agricult-
ural industry in Canada by
advancing economic and
social policies that will
assure farmers and their
families of attaining
economic and social justice.
Your Last Chancy
TO SAVE
25% OFF
ALL GLIDDEN PAINTS
SPRED SATIN • SPRED LUSTRE
SPRED HOUSE PAINT
Zurich:'RO,Hardware
,e.
General
/T TAKES
TWO TO MAKE AN
ARGUMENT, EXCEPT contracting
WHEN YOUR
MARRIED
."1;"
te
WE WILL BUILD YOUR
HOME • COTTAGE • BARN • GARAGE
One contract will take care of your complete project, including
PLUMBING • HEATIN
ELECTRICAL WORK
Backhoe Service Now ®W Avanlla,ble
Aluminum Doors and Windows
BUILDING
and
REMODELLING
STANDARD STOCK
SIZE DOORS
Completely Installed
Only $38
Richard Bedard
DIAL 236.4679 ZURICH