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The Citizen, 2008-02-21, Page 1The CitizenVolume 24 No. 8 Thursday, Feb. 21, 2008 $1.25 ($1.19 + 6c GST)Serving the communities of Blyth and Brussels and northern Huron County Inside this week Pg. 8 Pg. 9 Pg. 10 Pg. 16 Pg. 20 Local teams advance in playoffs Centre holds land stewardship workshop A salute to local Scouts, Guides Drama students get grant Benefit held for grandchild of locals For North Huron council and administration the time is drawing near to get their priorities in order. Two budget meetings have been held, the most recent, last week. Director of treasurer/finance Donna White said these had been “number- crunching” sessions that currently have the increase to the tax rate sitting at roughly eight per cent. Now, she said department heads will be taking a look at their budgets, prior to the next discussion with council scheduled for March 4. “The goal is to get the figure down to between five and six per cent.” White said there are not any specific projects lined up for the 2008 budget. “Over the years we’ve had lots of projects on the go, so this was the year when we were going to try and catch up.” Part of that catching up was to include putting money into reserves for upkeep and repairs to many of the older buildings as well as for any other major expenditures that may come up in the future. “However, at this point it’s not looking like that’s happening either.” An application was submitted last week for the Municipal Infrastructure Investment Initiative (MIII) funding. This would allow for the complete reconstruction of two blocks on Minnie Street. White said that should the application be approved they would be notified by March 31. “At this point we’re looking to have the budget ready by that time so that if we get the grant we can finalize it with just minimal discussion after.” If the grant doesn’t come through, White suspects that the work will not proceed. NH gets priorities in order Hitting the trails It was a perfect day for the 4th annual Easter Seals Snowarama trailride held on Feb. 16. More than 100 riders hit the trails for their 130-mile run taking them towards Brussels, Wingham and Lucknow before meeting for a BBQ and door prizes at the Blyth Clubhouse. The run began at the Londesborough Hall with breakfast served to approximately 200 by the Londesborough Lions. Tickets were sold on a custom-decaled fridge donated by Scratch and Dent in Clinton which was won by Jim Middegaal. The 50/50 winner of $211 was won by Brandon Taylor. The top pledger was Betty Ortlieb with pledges of $750. Committee members are please to report that while final figures have not been tallied, the last figure was $12,600 which exceeds last year's total. They acknowledge the contributions of participants and sponsors who made the event such a success. (Vicky Bremner photo) The Huron County Dairy Producers heard about some interesting opportunites when they met for their annual meeting last week in Brussels. The guest speaker of the afternoon was Nissim Avraham, ethnic market specialist for the Dairy Farmers of Ontario. Avraham gave a presentation focusing in on ethnic markets like the Middle-Eastern, Indian and Chinese markets of Ontario and Canada and how Ontario farmers can take advantage of these niche markets. Avraham was educated in Jerusalem and did some work in Central Africa before continuing his education at the University of Guelph and joining the Dairy Farmers of Ontario in August 2007. Avraham said that the potential to tap into these markets is available; all Ontario companies need to do is have a will to expand to these markets and the milk. Avraham used the example of kosher products for the Jewish community. Kosher products comprise just a third of the market that Middle-East, Indian and Chinese markets occupy in the province, yet they are always readily available in many mainstream stores. Avraham said that products for the Middle-Eastern, Indian and Chinese markets are available in Ontario, but they are coming from Quebec and British Columbia and only being sold in specialty stores for double the price of Canadian-made mainstream products. He said that kosher consumption is approximately the same as Halal consumption, yet while kosher products remain a priority, Halal products remain ignored. First, Avraham said, Ontario producers have to look at what these cultures consume in their home countries. Middle-Eastern culture, Avraham said, consumes half of the daily dairy intake that Canadians do. He said that products are coming into Ontario, but from Quebec. These products are being sold at specialty stores for double the price of Canadian cheese and are still not currently accepted at major store chains in the province. While the Indian population is the largest, they consume just one-third of Canada’s daily consumption, 97 per cent of which is currently coming from British Columbia. Due to the culture, with many Indians being Hindu, their main source of protein is milk. Hindu cheese, Avraham said, is used a lot like how the western world uses meat. He said that Indian cheese is raw milk boiled and then citric acid is added. This means the cheese won’t melt, so it is cooked and eaten as a meal. In addition to that milk and cheese consumption, he said, Indians are also a large consumer of yogurt, consuming 10 times the yogurt of the average Canadian. The Chinese culture, while not known for its dairy consumption, has recently started looking upon dairy as a cheap source of protein and Chinese milk and yogurt products are coming from China and are currently in Toronto specialty stores. Avraham calls these three niche markets “very promising” and says that nearly 10 plants in Ontario are already developing new products to satisfy them. “We have the market, the product A more than three hour-long public meeting designed to highlight the ins and outs of Huron County’s proposed budget for 2008 drew four members of the general public to the Holmesville community centre on Saturday. The remaining occupied chairs were filled with county staff and councillors, as well as several municipal-level councillors. County treasurer Dave Carey outlined the highlights of the 2008 draft budget, which proposes a 6.93 per cent levy hike. Carey noted, there isn’t a lot of room for negotiation given that 4.78 per cent of that increase is represented by pay hikes and spiraling operational costs. The newest addition to the budget, a $500,000 donation to the Huron County CT scanner campaign, does not have an impact on the levy since that allocation is coming from reserves, reported Carey. Among the revelations to those assembled was word from county engineer Don Pletch that the Ministry of Transportation Ontario’s planned roadwork on Highway 8, between Goderich and Clinton, is “unofficially” called off for this year. Ultimately, most of the questions lobbed at county councillors and staff were delivered via municipal-level politicians. County warden John Bezaire of Central Huron expressed disappointment in the sparse attendance at Saturday’s meeting. He also vowed to review the necessity of such events given the high costs involved in bringing out staff and councillors on a Saturday. Bezaire noted that it’s his hope the county is able to find a way to trim its expenses in upcoming service- delivery review talks. He noted that as it stands, the county is entrusted with doing “too much with not enough.” “We’re not funding what we want when we use those kind of reserve funds,” he said. Plus, said Bezaire, an upcoming provincially-mandated asset- management study is likely to show vast swaths of the county’s infrastructure are in dire need of repair. “We can’t keep on like this, I don’t believe. So, we’ve got some decisions to make.” According to this year’s county budget draft, nearly $4-million in reserves are being utilized in order to reduce the levy hike. The county treasurer noted the effect of those depleted reserves will be felt in 2009, because the same reserves won’t be available. Further, the county will no longer have the benefit of using federal gas- tax revenue since that program is scheduled to end this year. Dairy producers hear about ethnic market opportunities By Shawn Loughlin The Citizen Continued on page 9 By Bonnie Gropp The Citizen Poor turnout to budget meeting By Cheryl Heath Clinton News-Record