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Home My WebLink AboutClinton News Record, 2015-03-11, Page 22 News Record • Wednesday, March 11, 2015 Huron County debates regional broadband scheme County wants to see business plan before sending representative Marco Vigliotti QM! Agency Huron County council is delaying sending a repre- sentative to a regional high- speed Internet committee after some members raised concerns about the absence of a business plan from the group. The Southwestern Inte- grated Fibre Technology Committee (SWIFT) is peti- tioning Huron County for a financial commitment and to appoint a representative from council to act as an envoy to the group. Huron Warden Paul Gow- ing, however, says council wants to first see a business plan before committing to the group, which is seeking to create a "ubiquitous, affordable and accessible regional ultra-high speed broadband regardless of population density," accord- ing to its website. "It is not in our budget. We will consider it when we get a business plan," he told council at its March 4 meeting. According to Gowing, SWIFT is only at the stage where it is submitting requests for information to find out what kind of cable and Internet infrastructure is "already in the ground." "There's a lot of leg work to be done here," he cautioned. County administrators say the invite represents a new direction from SWIFT but stress that the organization behind the committee, the Western Ontario Wardens' Caucus (WOWC), hasn't really dis- closed details about what the purpose is of the committee. Gowing says he was informed at a recent meet- ing that Huron and Perth were the lone counties from the WOWC, which counts as members every southwest- ern county government from Simcoe to Essex, to not explicitly declare their sup- port for the SWIFT high- speed initiative. "Huron County and Perth County are really the only two that haven't put forth that we are going to support this," he said. "The other municipalities are support- ing (it) in principle." Gowing says he is taken back by the fact that devel- opment of a full business plan from the group would take "at least six months." Another sticking point with SWIFT remains discus- sions with Internet service providers in Huron County, which Gowing claims "haven't moved forward at all:' According to a release from the WOWC, the broad- band initiative could prove to be immensely beneficial to the region by allowing individuals and businesses alike to have faster and more reliable access to cru- cial information networks. "Small and medium sized businesses need broadband access to market their goods and services, communicate with customers and suppli- ers, source funding and interact with employees working from home or on the road," reads a segment from the WOWC's back - grounder on SWIFT. Huron County council approves 2015 budget Bluewater approves 2015 budget At their March 4th session, Council approved the 2015 budget for the Corporation of the County of Huron. The budgetary process is an annual policy exer- cise where Council deter- mines capital and opera- tional spending priorities for the organization. This year, the budget objective was to maintain essential and valued public services while ensuring the long- term fiscal sustainability of Huron County. Ulti- mately, the budget reflects a combination of provin- cially mandated service levels and the service rec- ommendations of county staff, which are based on information gathered from the public. "This was the first budget deliberated by this Council since taking office in December and I was very pleased with the quality of our discussions," said War- den Paul Gowing. "We met our target of keeping the county levy to a 2% increase and passed the budget in a timely fashion." Recognized during delib- erations, a number of fiscal pressures will continue to influence decisions regard- ing the county's budget in future years. These chal- lenges include a rigid pro- vincial tax ratio structure, which is placing an increas- ingly large tax burden onto residential property owners; the rising costs associated with providing services to an aging population; and, the reduction in Ontario Munic- ipal Partnership Funding (OMPF). "In the past month, on behalf of my fellow Council- lors, I've spoken to both the Minister of Finance and Minister of Agriculture, Food and Rural Affairs about our concerns regarding OMPF cutbacks," said Warden Gowing. "Rural municipali- ties have to work together to make the province under- stand our demographic and fiscal realities." Huron County's budget details have been summa- rized by the Treasury Department and are availa- ble on the county's website http://www.huroncounty. ca/financial/ On March 2 Bluewater Council approved the 2015 Operating and Capi- tal Budget with a focus on maintaining core services, investments in infrastruc- ture, and delivering qual- ity programs and services in a cost effective manner. The Budget was approved in principle and will be formally ratified by by-law at the March 16 Council meeting provided that the County and Education rates have been finalized. Budget highlights include: • tax levy of 5.6% ($1.98 decrease for every $100,000 in assessment, municipal portion) • the establishment of a fleet budget to effectively ATTENTION ADVERTISERS! DEADLINES Our Weekly Deadlines are as follows: ADVERTISING & EDITORIAL Friday @ 2:00 pm News Record 53 Albert St. S, Clinton PH: 519-482-3443 www.clintonnewsrecord.com OFFICE HOURS: Mon. - Fri. 9am - 5pm CLOSED TUESDAYS LET'S ALL DO OUR PART! PLEASE RECYCLE 1 1 1 1 BOTTLES CANS manage fleet costs and vehicle replacement • $3.2 million in road and bridge upgrades • funding for a new Stra- tegic Plan, Development Charges Study, and Water/ Sewer Financial Plan • funding for a back-up generator at the municipal office to ensure business continuity • purchasing a pumper - tanker for the Fire Service and redeploying other apparatus to save costs • eliminating the annual large garbage pickup • increasing bag tag fees from $2.50 to 3.00 to more accurately reflect waste management costs • reducing the cost of gov- ernance by having two Council meetings per month, instead of three • reducing community grants and committee budgets by 40% The biggest impact to the 2015 Budget is the cost of the new OPP funding formula. In 2015, Blue - water will pay $898,132 for policing, compared to $723,047 in 2014. This is a difference of $175,085 which equates to a 2.84% tax increase before Coun- cil and staff started budget deliberations. This is year one of a five year phase-in of increased policing costs that will see Bluewater's OPP costs increase to $1,491,240 by 2019. "The budget process is becoming an increasingly difficult task for small rural communities, and Bluewa- ter is no exception," said Mayor Hessel. "Council and staff have worked together to find a balance between funding service delivery and protecting core services, making investments to upgrade our infrastructure, and looking longer-term to our future needs while keeping taxes competitive." "The status quo is not an option for Bluewater and we'll be looking to forge partnerships with our municipal neighbours to share services and Coun- cil will be making deci- sions based on our Asset Management Plan and our Strategic Plan that will be developed this year," added Mayor Hessel. "Council are committed to strategic financial man- agement and we'll be developing a three year budget plan as well as establishing a Service Delivery Review Commit- tee. Ultimately, difficult decisions will have to be made in order for us to protect core services and make investments in our community to retain and attract residents, stimu- late economic develop- ment, and reposition Bluewater for the future." Copies of the 2015 Operating and Capital will be available at the munici- pal office and online at www.town.bluewater. on.ca once the Education and County rates are confirmed. clintonnewsrecord.com