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The Citizen, 2012-04-05, Page 1say CitizenTh e $1.25 GST included Serving the communities of Blyth and Brussels and northern Huron County Thursday, April 5, 2012 Volume 28 No. 14 SPORTS - Pg. 11Local winter sportsteams are featured CELEBRATION - Pg. 27Women’s Day Out returnsto Blyth April 14SCHOOLS- Pg. 6Nearly 100 locals onprovince’s Sunshine ListPublications Mail Agreement No. 40050141 Return Undeliverable Items to North Huron Publishing Company Inc., P.O. Box 152, BRUSSELS, ON N0G 1H0INSIDE THIS WEEK: Thompson can’t support ‘do-nothing’ budget North Huron calls meeting after ‘demands’ made What do we have here? Six-year-old Hannah Hoyles, left, and her five-year-old sister Rachel were big winners on Saturday at Auburn’s first annual village Easter egg hunt. Approximately 50 children were in attendance for what organizers called a huge success and the event could become an annual Easter affair. (Vicky Bremner photo) A ‘do-nothing’ budget is how Huron-Bruce MPP Lisa Thompson defines her first budget in the Legislature. Thompson says she’s proud to be from rural Ontario and was frustrated to see that the area she represents was not even mentioned in last week’s budget announcement. “[This budget] means more of the same,” Thompson said in an interview with The Citizen, “and I’m so frustrated to have to say that.” Despite the fact the Liberal government promises to save $17.7 billion over the next three years with the presented budget, Thompson said there were no ‘bold steps’ contained in the budget and that it will do nothing to help create jobs in Huron-Bruce, or Ontario. Finance Minister Dwight Duncan said the multi-billion dollar savings will occur throughout the province while increasing revenue by $4.4 billion without tax hikes. The budget states that wages will be frozen for hundreds of thousands of public servants and that the pensions of public servants will be revamped to save the province billions of dollars. The budget will freeze corporate income taxes at 11.5 per cent through 2017-2018, while they had been scheduled to drop to 10 per cent next year. The Business Education Tax will also be frozen, while it was scheduled to decrease starting next year, a move that should save the government $300 million annually. But Thompson believes the McGuinty Liberal government is taking its biggest money-maker for granted with this budget. “The number one sector in Ontario wasn’t even mentioned,” Thompson said. “I’m just shaking my head. They must be taking agriculture for granted or ignoring it altogether.” The only mention of agriculture in the budget, Thompson said, was in the Business Risk Management Plan and how it would be capped at $100 million. That cap, Thompson says, will prevent a lot of bigger producers in the province from tapping into the program. Thompson was also extremely disappointed in the budget presentation announcement that previously promised funding to the hospitals in Wingham and Listowel under former MPP Carol Mitchell had been cancelled. “Election promises were made and now we’re really not seeing the Liberals walk the talk,” Thompson said. Thompson said that while promises were made last fall during the election, the budget has now come in to save seats across Ontario’s prized possession: the Greater Toronto Area. “It was an out-and-out lie,” Thompson said, “and that’s absolutely unacceptable.” However, one of the topics Thompson was most frustrated about didn’t appear on the budget document: the closing of the Bluewater Youth Centre in Central Huron. Thompson says she still has a bad taste in her mouth from the process to close the centre that she suspects has taken months with those in the community catching wind of the closure just days before it happened. Thompson says that at a time when it’s a known fact that the province is struggling with overcrowding in correctional facilities, to close a centre that’s ready to receive people just makes no financial sense. “This is an insult to the intelligence of the people in Ontario,” Thompson stated in a press release issued late last month right after the budget was announced. “People know that it is the McGuinty Liberals’ high spending policies that got us into this historic debt and deficit hole. They are continuing to move ahead with expensive programs that the province cannot afford.” When asked how she would change the budget if given the chance, Thompson says the change she would like to see is with personnel, and changes to the budget would follow. She said she would want to see provincial Conservative leader Tim Hudak in the Premier’s seat, as opposed to current Premier Dalton McGuinty, but that’s not a decision Steve Howe, Communications Director for the Avon Maitland District School Board, was happy to put any rumours regarding delays or cancellations of the new public school being built in Wingham to rest after a board meeting on March 29. “Any of those rumours were false and had no basis in reality,” he said. “As a matter of fact, at our board meeting last week, the school board approved the tender for building the school.” Howe said the plan is to have the school finished and open in the fall of 2013, hopefully for the first day of school that September. He stated that if the school wasn’t prepared for that day, students would be moved in later in the fall but would be there by the end of the fall. “Whether it’s on the first school day in September or, like was done at Little Falls Elementary School in St. Marys where the students moved in after Thanksgiving, the students will be in the school in 2013. He said that a completion and Fire coverage, and how the Municipality of Morris-Turnberry’s decision to strike out on their own, proved a hot topic at North Huron Township Council’s April 2 meeting North Huron councillors received a letter from the Municipality of Morris-Turnberry outlining the following three options that Morris- Turnberry felt were reasonable for North Huron to agree if Morris- Turnberry was to drop its own fire department and continue a coverage agreement with North Huron: “1. That the Township of North Huron and the Municipality of Morris-Turnberry form a joint fire board with Morris-Turnberry using an equal partner in ownership, which will include joint responsibility in the operation and management of the fire department. 2. That the township of North Huron close the Wingham Fire Station and Morris-Turnberry construct a new fire hall and form a new department on the corner of Arthur and North Street West, which could serve the Township of Turnberry, Town of Wingham and lands in the East Wawanosh Ward and the Morris Ward, as designated. The Township of North Huron would maintain its Blyth station and serve the south end of the Morris Ward and the Hamlet of Belgrave, as designated. 3. That the fee that the Municipality of Morris-Turnberry pay North Huron for fire suppression service be based on current assessment, less capital costs in the budget, with a cap on the budget increase, based on [Consumer Price Index (CPI)], which would generate a savings to Morris-Turnberry of approximately $67,484.” North Huron Chief Administrative Officer Gary Long stated that Fire Chief John Black was unable to attend the April 2 meeting but he would prefer to work with council to deal with each request in detail. Council, however, didn’t wait to let their problems with the options known. “The principal problem I have, especially with point one, is that this is an attempt to return to a fire board situation that didn’t achieve the kind of coverage, safety and security for Continued on page 22 School tender approved By Denny Scott The Citizen Continued on page 24 By Shawn Loughlin The Citizen By Denny Scott The Citizen Continued on page 28