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The Citizen, 2019-06-13, Page 4PAGE 4. THE CITIZEN, THURSDAY, JUNE 13, 2019. Editorials Opinions President: Keith Roulston • Publisher: Deb Sholdice Editor: Shawn Loughlin • Reporter: Denny Scott Advertising Sales: Brenda Nyveld • Heather Fraser The Citizen P.O. Box 429, BLYTH, Ont. N0M 1H0 Ph. 519-523-4792 Fax 519-523-9140 P.O. Box 152, BRUSSELS, Ont. N0G 1H0 Phone 519-887-9114 E-mail info@northhuron.on.ca Website www.northhuron.on.ca Looking Back Through the Years CCNA Member Member of the Ontario Press Council The Citizen is published 50 times a year in Brussels, Ontario by North Huron Publishing Company Inc. Subscriptions are payable in advance at a rate of $38.00/year ($36.19 + $1.81 G.S.T.) in Canada; $180.00/year in U.S.A. and $380/year in other foreign countries. Advertising is accepted on the condition that in the event of a typographical error, only that portion of the advertisement will be credited. Advertising Deadlines: Mon. 2 p.m. - Brussels; Mon. 4 p.m. - Blyth. PUBLICATIONS MAIL AGREEMENT NO. 40050141 RETURN UNDELIVERABLE CANADIAN ADDRESSES TO CIRCULATION DEPT. PO BOX 152 BRUSSELS ON N0G 1H0 email: info@northhuron.on.ca June 13, 1968 The Brussels Post reported on the finding of a balloon by Mrs. William Adams near the family’s home on the Fourth Concession of Morris Township. It was found after a storm had made its way through the area. The balloon was orange and was emblazoned with lettering that read “Higginbotham School, If found, call Di – 10557”. Adams called the number on the balloon and found it had been released in the northwest section of Detroit, making it all the way to Huron County. Jan van Vliet was installed as the new president of the Brussels Legion. Cal Krauter was named the first vice-president, while James Armstrong was the second vice- president. Construction was underway for new restrooms at the community park, park of a centennial project that was made possible thanks to a centennial grant. Archer Grewar said that once the restrooms were completed, it was the centennial committee’s hope that dressing rooms could be added as well. At the same time, the Brussels Lions Club was working to repair the bleachers. June 13, 1973 East Wawanosh taxpayers would get a break at tax time this year with a mill rate reduction in the budget. For public school supporters, East Wawanosh residents would pay five fewer mills. The drop meant East Wawanosh residents would be paying less in taxes than they had the previous year. Some members of the Huron County Pork Producers were not pleased with the decision made by the Ontario Pork Producers’ Marketing Board to move the county’s only assembly yard from Clinton to Hensall. In a press release, representatives of the board said the move was necessary due to a requested increase in rent at the Clinton Sales Barn. However, a large number of pork producers turned up at the Huron County Federation of Agriculture meeting on June 7 to voice their displeasure with the decision. Many of the producers said they lived north of Clinton, which meant they would have to drive an extra 12 miles every time they needed to bring their hogs to market. June 14, 1995 Less than one hour after the polls had closed, PC Helen Johns was declared the local MPP with 46 per cent of the vote. Her party would go on to win 82 of a possible 130 seats in the legislature. While Johns said she was happy with the win, she said she wasn’t necessarily surprised with the big numbers in the riding. “I was not surprised with the big numbers,” she said. “We saw a real change in the last week of the campaign as we went door-to-door. People were listening to our answers and saying that they liked our policies.” Liberal John Jewitt placed second in the riding with 24.2 per cent of the vote, followed by Paul Klopp of the NDP with 23.96 per cent. The Citizen was honoured with a blue ribbon in the national Better Newspapers Competition, meaning that The Citizen was in the top third of the General Excellence class for tabloids in its circulation class. June 18, 2009 The landscape of education in North Huron looked to change drastically with the announcement of $8.8 million in provincial funding for the construction of a new school in the northern end of the area. While the Accommodation Review Committee (ARC) had been working to make recommendations and save local schools from closing, Avon Maitland District School Board trustees were just two weeks away from voting when the funding was announced. The option before the board was the closure of Blyth and Turnberry Central Public Schools, with excess students heading to East Wawanosh and Wingham Public Schools, with local Grade 7-8 students being moved to F.E. Madill Secondary School. The announcement, made by Huron-Bruce MPP Carol Mitchell, however, changed everything and Board Chair Jenny Versteeg said it was good news because of the possibilities that came along with the funding. With over $40,000 already in the bank, the third-annual Ainsleigh Bontaine memorial golf tournament was looking to raise even more money to the Children’s Health Foundation. Organizer Brent Scrimgeour said the event was already oversold, with only 160 slots available for the tournament, held in Clinton. A special public meeting was scheduled for June 18 at the Seaforth and District Community Centre to discuss the issue of wind turbines in Huron East. The meeting was organized by a new protest group that had dubbed itself Huron East Against Turbines (HEAT). An expert on potential adverse health effects associated with wind turbines, as well as several members of the Ripley and Shelburne communities would also be on hand to share their experiences with wind turbines. We acknowledge the financial support of the Government of Canada. We are not responsible for unsolicited newsscripts or photographs. Contents of The Citizen are © Copyright These jobs are first class The good news is that according to Statistics Canada’s monthly Labour Force Survey, which was released last week, Canada’s unemployment rate fell to the lowest level in four decades. The bad news, according to skeptical economists, is that self-employment accounted for nearly all of the nearly 28,000 jobs created in May. This isn’t the first time economists have discounted the value of people creating their own jobs. There seems to be a prejudice among professional experts against those who start up a business compared to those who are hired by some multi-national corporation or government agency creating “real” jobs. Certainly when times are hard and people are driven to start up a business because there are so few job openings, there will be many cases of failure as people don’t think things through well enough to survive. Even in the best of times a significant portion of new businesses will fail. On the other hand, a “real” job created by – say – an automaker can disappear, along with thousands of others, when the decision-makers, living in far-flung locations, decide to shift production to lower-cost locations in Mexico or the southern U.S. Similarly, what seems like a solid government job can evaporate if a new government is elected that wipes out a program created by the previous government. A small business created by a striving entrepreneur may fail but it may also succeed and create even more jobs. If those 28,000 newly self- employed, for instance, hired one extra employee they’d double the impact of their new business. We in rural areas like Huron County depend on the local entrepreneur for growth in our economy. From farmers to carpenters and electricians, from hair-dressers to massage therapists, these are people who stuck their neck out and created the jobs after major companies closed plants. These businesses, planted firmly in Huron County, are unlikely to suddenly uproot and take off for greener pastures elsewhere in the world. Their owners are our neighbours and belong to local service clubs or business associations. They aren’t distant executives who can make a decision that will put people out of work without personally dealing with the repercussions. Economists may continue to think of self-employment as a sort of second-class job. We in rural Ontario should be thankful for every brave person who decides to start a business. — KR We’ve so much to do The commissioners of the National Inquiry into Missing and Murdered Indigenous Women and Girls certainly got attention when their final report, delivered to the federal government last week, accused Canada of conducting genocide against the Indigenous people of Canada. The use of the controversial term may, unfortunately, have distracted from the real message that we need drastic change to right our nation’s wrongs toward the original owners of our land. The report issues 231 “Calls to Justice” to prevent further murdered and missing Indigenous women, many of them looking at the root cause that puts people in danger in the first place. Many of the problems facing Indigenous peoples are due to distance – both physical distance because many First Nation communities are remote with their problems out of sight, and emotional distance because those of us in mainstream Canada can’t relate to the inherited experience of Indigenous peoples. We’d like one simple change that a government can undertake to make the problem go away. It’s not that simple. There are some problems that affect Indigenous communities generally that can solved with new programs or policies, but many problems are going to need to be tackled on a community by community basis. For instance, last week the Manitoba First Nation of Shoal Lake 40 got a life-changing 24-kilometre gravel road to connect it directly to the outside world. It had been cut off since an aqueduct to supply fresh water to Winnipeg in 1915 had cut off the community’s land access. While at the ceremony opening the road, Minister of Indigenous Services Seamus O’Regan promised the community would get a new water treatment plant. People there have been forced to boil water to make it safe to drink for decades. Meanwhile, the people of the Grassy Narrows First Nation in Northwestern Ontario have been waiting decades for governments to clean up the mercury, dumped in the river by a paper mill more than a half-century ago, that has been killing and making local residents ill since the 1960s. If problems like this were happening in southern Ontario they’d have been fixed long ago. Part of the reason our governments haven’t taken the actions they should have to resolve such out-of-sight, out-of-mind problems is that they have to answer to taxpayers like us. Righting the wrongs of the past is going to cost money which will come from us, and if taxes go up to fix these issues, we may vote the bums out. There is no easy way to solve these problems. It’s going to take a huge effort and a massive amount of money, and a revolution of our attitudes. But it must be done and we need to start today! – KR &