The Citizen, 2006-03-30, Page 1Volume 22 No. 13
Inside this week
Thursday, March 30, 2006
$1 (93c + 7c GST)
Dufferin, Peel and York Counties to
stop accepting sludge or any septage
material from being spread on their
land until the farm income crisis is
resolved.
"With winter storage tanks being
near full and spring spreading just
weeks away, I feel this is an
excellent opportunity to send a
message to Queen's Park," he
said.
Farmers from the Grass Roots
Movement organized a rally at
Queen's Park on Thursday, March
23.
Dave Linton, a hog-farmer from
outside of Brussels said the rally and
other recent protests were out of
frustration with the Ontari6
Federation of Agriculture and other
farm organizations.
"There's a real frustration with the
farm organizations and the
backroom deals," he said. "I'm sick
of the Ron Bonnetts and the Paul
Misteles (vice-president of the
OFA). I think [the rally] came out of
the farmers wanting to take things
into our own hands."
Linton said he was surprised and
impressed with the amount of
support the farmers received from
Continued on page 14
Time moves on
P 13 Facts on smoke
g. alarms
P 23
Brussels native to
rg. be on Bravo
Huron E.
holds
the line
By Heather Crawford
Citizen staff
Daylight Saving Time Regina April 21
The Citizen
orthern HurOn County
Accident
There was an accident on Dinsley Street in Blyth during the
early afternoon on Monday, March 27 when the driver of a
vehicle struck a pole. There were five passengers in the car,
all students from F.E. Madill Secondary School. One
passenger suffered head injuries after hitting the front
windshield of the car. The extent of his injuries is unknown.
Pg. 2
Pg. 8
Pg. 9
There won't be an increase in taxes
for Huron East residents this year
unless the assessment on their house
was above average, finance-manager
and treasurer, Bi'ad Knight said.
"There was a balanced budget this
year with a slight increase of
approximately $40,000 (added to the
tax levy for Seaforth only)," he said.
A . tax levy increase of
approximately three per cent was
attained which is equivalent to
additional taxation generated by real
assessment growth in 2005, meaning
taxes should not be higher this fyear
or anyone with the average
assessment.
There is more money allotted to
road work this year. The amount of
money reserved for road work is
$1,095,000 compared to $687,000 in
2005.
There is a new reserve specifically
for bridge work with $333,417 set
aside.
The municipality was given an
additional $411,372 from the Ontario
budget for roads although MPP Carol
Mitchell said "the province
recognizes the importance of the
municipalities and has given
unconditional funds."
This money was not factored into
the budget. "This is a good position
for council to be in," Knight said
regarding receiving the money after
the budget was set.
Approximately $612,741 was
spent on roads, bridges and storm
sewer work in Brussels between
2001 and 2006. In the same amount
of time, $1,001,612 was spent in
Grey.
The total revenue outlined in the
budget is approximately $10,400,001
which is a slight increase over last
year's revenue of $10,298,995.
The Brussels, Morris and Grey
Continued on page 6
By Heather Crawford
Citizen staff
Where's agriculture?
That was the question on many
farmers' minds when the Ontario
budget was announced Thursday.
.March 23.
"There was almost no mention of
agriculture," Huron Federation of
Agriculture president Nick Whyte
said. "They did mention more
funding towards encouraging
agriculture innovation."
This includes awards for agri-food
innovation excellence. Over the next
five years, $2.5 million will be
awarded.
Whyte said the only other increase
in spending for agriculture '(vas $125
million already announced before
the budget.
A surprising difference was the
funding for special one-time
assistance which was dropped from
$277 million last year to $16 million
this year.
Huron Bruce MPP, Carol Mitchell
said she wanted to clarify that
agriculture was not cut. "It went
from $863 million to $880 million,"
she said.
• Leona Dombrowsky, Minister of
Agriculture, Food and Rural Affairs
echoed Mitchell's statement.
"The budget is good news for
farmers and the people of rural
Ontario," she said in a press release
Friday. "It contains new money
foragriculture and rural
infrastructure and increases my
ministry's core budget by $17
million."
The National Farmers' Union
(NFU) does not agree. President
Don Mills said the NFU is
disapointed but not terribly surprised
by the budget.
"The budget contained no
significant increase in core
agriculture funding and nothing to
reflect the immediate crisis farmers
are facing," he said."The
government obviously still doesn't
understand the level of hurt out in
the farm community."
Mitchell said she feels the
government does recognize that a
need is there. The area that needs
more work, according to Micthell is
in funding for assistance.
"That's where the rubber is going
to hit the road," she said. "We need
income stabilization and a multi-
year strategy."
Mitchell said this is something the
McGuinty government is working
on.
"The budget speech
acknowledged the seriousness of the
economic crisis for farmers and the
rural economy, but has left it to the
federal government to take action,"
Ron Bonnett, president of the
Ontario Federation of Agriculture
said.
"Spring planting won't wait for
governments to continue kicking the
ball around. Someone in government
needs to show real leadership and
take. action if they truly want
continued domestic food production
in Canada," he said.
A protest has been proposed by
the Simcoe County Federation of
Agriculture.
President David Riddell said he is
encouraging all farmers in Simcoe,
The other passengers received minor hand injuries. Three
off-duty police officers including Brenda Carey of Blyth
(talking to witnesses at left) arrived on the scene along with
Blyth firefighters. Ambulance attendants as well as several
OPP cars arrived on the scene shortly after. (Heather Crawford
photo)
Get to bed early on Saturday
because you're going to be losing
out on some sleep.
With the first Sunday of April
coming on the second day of the
month, we can enjoy an early start
to Daylight Saving Time this year.
At 2 a.m. this Sunday, it's time to
spring forward, by turning your clocks ahead one hour.
However, the longer daylight evenings will come even sooner in 2007. As
the United States, the country's closest trading partner, has decided to add
four weeks to DST, the Canadian government also legislated the change.
The change from Eastern Standard Time was initiated as an energy-
saving measure.
The conventional wisdom is that shifting an hour of daylight from early
morning to evening reduces residential electricity consumption by better
matching waking time with daylight hours (power use in the commercial
and institutional sectors, however, tends to be more or less constant
throughout the day).
Whether it actually works or not, appears to still be open for debate.
However, next year Daylight Saving Time will arrive the second Sunday in
March, and Eastern Standard Time will resume the first Sunday in
November. rather than the last Sunday in October.
Student's essay
wins for District
Atoms win WOAA
championship
Dale rink wins
Rann trophy
Farmers feel province let them down