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The Citizen, 1993-04-07, Page 1Business 20 businesspersons think BIG about Blyth's economic potential Entertainment Rag and Bone's `A Promise is a Promise', ambitious, say reviewers Sports Brussels Bulls wrap up season at annual awards banquet ictory parade Sirens, horns and shouts of "Blyth's number one!" echoed through the streets of Blyth Sunday night as Blyth Bantams celebrated their capturing the All-Ontario Bantam "E" championship with a ride on the fire truck. The team won both games on the weekend to sweep the final series and capture Blyth's first All-Ontario championship in 21 years. STORY ON PAGE 8 HCBE feels teachers may abuse UI "T e North Huron itizen Vol. 9 No 14 . 04.0004:A0(iV7 1993 600 GST included See page 27 See image 25 See page 6, 7 L Bernard resigns as Brussels Fire Chief Brussels village council accepted the resignation of Fire Chief Howard Bernard Monday night. Council will appoint a new chief for the 14-member department later this month, before the resignation becomes effective on April 30. The resignation will end 33 years of service with the department for Chief Bernard, 11 as the chief. "I hate to leave because it's been part of my life for quite a while," he said Tuesday morning."It's just get- ting too much. I'm getting to the point I like to relax on weekends." He also said the increasing load of paper work involved in being a fire chief, even a small department like Brussels, was becoming a burden. Dates set for business dinners Responding to a survey which indicated local business owners would like more meetings on com- munity improvement and business promotion, The Citizen is hosting another meeting. In February, The Citizen spon- sored a successful meeting for local business people on community development. This month, business owners will be able to hear a panel discussion on marketing your business. includ- ing how to promote on a shoestring. In Blyth, the meeting will be held April 21 at the Blyth Inn Hotel at 7 p.m. The meeting in Brussels will take place at the Golden Lantern Restaurant at 7 p.m. on April 14. Sitting on the panel for these meetings will be David Peacock of the Blyth Festival, Dave and Judie Glen of Glen Farms (a very suc- cessful small Huron County food processor) and possibly one other business with experience in market- ing. A speaker has already been booked for meetings in June. He is Ed Bennett, head of the Milverton- Mornington Development Corpora- tion, which was formed to try to breath new life into that community after the closure of its major indus- trY. Blyth Brook gets federal funds Over the next two and a half years, the Maitland Valley Anglers organization will be rehabilitating the Blyth Brook. They were the lead partner among nine contributors who raised $155,371 to match a government grant to fund the project. The federal government, under its Environmental Partners Fund, which supports the voluntary efforts of Canadians, contributed $145,689. The money will be used to reha- bilitate the brook, to lower summer stream temperatures, improve water quality, reduce the silt load and to Continued on page 3 There are two possible candi- dates for the position of chief. The two will be given time to decide if they want to seek the position, then council will meet to choose the suc- cessor. By Lisa Boonstoppel-Pot Teachers on summer maternity leave are abusing the Unemploy- ment Insurance Act, says adminis- tration at the Huron County Board of Education. Determined to fight what they term as "wasteful expenditure" the HCBE began writing government officials in November 1991 urging them to review the Unemployment Insurance (UI) Act. Since that time, they've received many replies but no action on their concerns which stemmed from a 1990 change to the UI act allowing individuals to collect UI benefits during a parental leave which could be taken anytime within 52 weeks of the birth of a child. "The result of this change is that all across Canada, all teachers who have or adopt a child can collect UI benefits during the months of July and August, even though they experience no break in service or loss of earnings," states Bob Allan, director of education for the HCBE. "Our basic question is 'Why should anyone be able to collect UI benefits for periods of time when they have not experienced an inter- ruption in earnings?' " he said. This question was directed to MP Murray Cardiff who passed it on to Monique Vezina, the minister of State for Employment and Immi- gration. She wrote back in early 1992 stating "...even though teachers are employed on a yearly contract and, in some cases, are actually paid every two weeks during the non- teaching summer period, legally, earnings must be allocated to the period worked." She then added "Where the UI legislation prohibits payment of regular UI benefits in the non- teaching periods to full-time teach- ers, maternity and parental leave benefits are of a different nature and are therefore payable." The letter was read by Bob Allan who said "I placed the letter in the board's private section because I would have been ashamed to give the minister's response public expo- sure." "The issue, of course is not what the law states or how we administer the law," he wrote in a letter to Mr. Cardiff. "The issue is that school teachers in Canada can draw a full annual wage and simultaneously draw UI benefits." He then implored Mr. Cardiff to "get this morally reprehensive situ- ation corrected." In reply, Mr. Cardiff wrote "I agree this is a matter which needs a second look." He stated he would discuss the policy with Ms Vezina. In August 1992, Mr. Cardiff wrote back to the board saying the payment of special benefits to teachers during July and August isn't a new feature since teachers have been able to collect these ben- efits for approximately 10 years. However, he told Mr. Allan "Employment and Irnmigration Canada will include this subject as part of its ongoing examination of the UI legislation." Since then, there has been no more correspondence from the fed- eral government on the issue. However, the HCBE has gar- nered support from the Canadian School Board's Association, The Carleton Board of Education and the Ontario Public School Board's Association. But not everybody supports HCBE's stance on this issue. Flo Dyck, president of the Huron Wdrnen Teacher's Association says though the board is technically cor- rect in its argument, it just doesn't happen. "Parental leaves that occur in July and August are very rare and not at all the norm," she says. Moreover, when a child is born, Ms Dyck argues, there is a loss of earnings for the combined family income as only one parent may col- lect for the 10-week parental leave (UI covers 15 weeks pregnancy leave for the mother and 10 weeks parental leave for either mother or father but a parent may take an additional 10 weeks unpaid leave ). "Thousands of women teachers take pregnancy/parental leaves of 35 or more weeks each year and receive the maximum 25 weeks of UI benefits," she says. "They suffer a loss of total income whether or not some of these weeks occur dur- ing July and August. In addition, a few fathers and adoptive parents are able to claim UI benefits also with a loss of income due to an unpaid leave." She adds "Hopefully, better informed government representa- tives see the position of the HCBE on UI benefits as reactionary and discriminatory against employees in education." She hopes the board will recon- sider its position on the issue. Holiday hours The offices of The Citizen will be closed on Friday, April 9 in recognition of Good Friday. Deadlines for advertising and editorial news will remain the same.