The Huron Expositor, 1997-10-01, Page 1Ctderrfeet
Big crowd enjoys
Ciderfest on Sunda
under sunny skies.
See page 0
Your Community Newspaper Since 1860 --- Seaforth, Ontario
Briefly
Pie in the face
Asa fundraiser for Huron
United Way, SDHS students
will be holding a "Pie in the
Face" event at the Seaforth
Fall Fair on Friday. For $2 a
pie (whipped cream on a pie
plate) you can 'pie' one of
the lucky 'targets.'
Similar events are being
held in Goderich. Clinton and
Exeter, according to Kim
Bilcke, Huron United Way
chair. All proceeds from the
event go to the organization.
Teachers rally
today in Exeter
Huron teachers will be
holding a rally today
(Wednesday) at Helen Johns'
office m Exeter at 4:30 p.m.
Teachers represented by
OSSTF, HWTA, OPSTF and
OECTA and other education-
al workers will hold be
boarding buses in all centres
of Huron County to arrive at
South Huron DHS at 4:30
p.m., at which time they will
march to Helen Johns' office.
The education workers are
protesting Bill 160, Ontario
government legislation that
will take a further $ I billion
from education, according to
a press release from the
OSSTF.
"Our working conditions
are our students learning con-
ditions," states Mary Ann
Cruickshank, president of
OSSTF District 45. "Our
members are here to tell
Helen'iohns we wilt not back
down to government initia-
tives which will bankrupt our
public education system."
CUPE claims
victory in Bill 136
In a recent press release, the
Ontario leader of the
Canadian Union of Public
Employees (CUPE) says
provincial government
amendments to Bill 136 rep-
resent a victory for tens of
thousands of Ordinary work-
ers and have prevented a
province -wide strike.
"Mike Harris would have
had a strike on his hands had
he not backed off on Bill
136," said Sid Ryan. COPE
had an 87 per cent strike
mandate. The union repre-
sents 180,000 workers across
Ontario. ,
COPE remains concerned
about the impact of Bill 136
on workers who do not have
the right to strike, such as
hospital employees. "If the
ministry attempts to use Bill
136 to skew the arbitration
system in favour of employ-
ers, this government can
expect labour grief," says
Ryan in the CUPE press
release.
October 1, 1997 - $1.00 includes GST
Grant ,approval
The Ausable-Bayfield
Conservation Authority has
received formal approval of
this year's grants from the
provincial natural resources
ministry: $94,722 for flood
and erosioncontrol struc-
tures, flood forecasting and
warning, plan input, and
watershed planning and
administration; funding 'for
conservation land taxes totals
.$0,642.
PHOTO BY DAVID SCOTT
YUMMY TREAT - Sisters Jordanne, (left) 2, and Shannen Murray, 4, enjoyed candy apples
Sunday afternoon at the annual Ciderfest celebrations at the Van Egmond Reserve.
Election could be `yawner'
BY GREGOR CAMPBELL
Expositor Staff
November's municipal
elections may end up being a
big yawn around here.
Nominations close in 10
days, a week Friday, and as
of this Monday morning few
candidates had officially filed
papers.
As it stands there arc no
candidates in the running for
any of the council positions
in either Seaforth or
McKillop Township.
The town requires a mayor,
reeve, deputy -reeve and four
councillors. All the surround-
ing townships elect a reeve,
deputy -reeve and three coun-
cillors.
Only the reeves, both
incumbents in Tuckersmith
and Hullett townships, Bill
Carnochan and Tom
Cunningham respectively,
had.officially put their names
forward as of Monday mom-
ing.HIBBERT/W. PERTH
Two councillors had filed
papers to run for the two
councillor positions for
Hibbert Township in the
newly amalgamated West
Perth set up. They are Barb
MacLean and Lou Maloney,
Both sit on Hibbert's current
council.
Under the new ward struc-
ture West Perth elects a
mayor and deputy mayor at
large. In addition there are
nine councillors to be elected,
three from the ward of
Mitchell and two each from
the townships of Hibbert,
Fullarton and Logan.
Nobody has yet put their
name forward for the position
of trustee for the Seaforth-
CONTINUED on page 2
Threat of province -
wide strike by teachers
1997 FAIR AMBASSADOR - The 1997 Seaforth Fall Fair Ambassador was crowned
Saturday night at the community centre. This year's ambassador is Amanda Denys of RR 3
Kippen. From left to right: Julianne Ryan, second runner up, 1996 ambasa$dor Erin
McNaughton, 1997 ambassador Amanda Denys, first runner up Jane Powell.
BY TRISH WILKINSON
SSP News Staff
The threat of a province -
wide teachers' strike contin-
ues to loom over Ontario as
the federation unions tell the
government to back down
with proposed legislation or
face a walk -out.
The new legislation, intro-
duced last Monday by the
provincial government as the
Education Quality
Improvement Act, would
overhaul Ontario's education
system by capping class sizes,
cutting teacher preparation
time and making the
province, not the school
boards, responsible for setting
education property tax rates.
Huron union representa-
tives referred to the proposed
Bill 160 as an attempt to strip
$1 billion from the system.
"The bottom line of this
legislation is to remove $1
billion from education," Paul
Dyck, president of the Huron
District's Ontario Public
School Teachers' Federation,
said. "This legislation would
tell teachers we want you to
do more and more with less
and less."
Dyck stated that if the gov-
ernment doesn't withdraw the
Act, they could be faced with
a "full shutdown of every
school in the province."
"A strike is not inevitable,
but it is still probable," Dyck
stated. "This is such an
important fight for public
education and for our profes-
sion."
Ontario Secondary School
Teachers' Federation District
45 Huron Officer John Clarke
said that the Harris govern-
ment knows where the unions
stand, and added that if they
don't back down, there will
be action from the teachers in
between the bill's second and
third reading.
"We will not stand by and •
watch (the government) take
another billion dollars out of
education...we will not allow
them to do that to our stu-
dents," Clarke said.
However, union represen-
tatives clearly stressed that a
strike would be used only as a
last resort, as teachers' unions
across Ontario are following
an action plan that calls for a
walk -out to be the last of 16
other steps.
"This is not something
teachers wish to do, or want
to do. Our students should be
in the classroom," Dyck said.
A local organization plan,
Dyck continued, will include "
media releases, press confer-
ences, a "massive" letter writ-
ing campaign and protests.,
starting with an information
rally today (Wednesday) out-
side MPP Helen Johns' office
in Exeter.
Clarke noted that there are
many concerns that teachers
are trying to bring to both the
MPP and the provincial gov-
ernment's attention, including
allowing non -educators to
CONTINUED on page 2
New group samples
lake water for pollution
BY GREGOR CAMPBELL
Expositor Staff
A new group that calls itself
SOL=VE has emerged "to
organize and oversee a stan-
dard process that involves
collection of the samples
from seven beaches along
Lake Huron" where water
quality, in particular high E.
coli bacteria levels, has been
hotly debated by those con-
cerned recently.
The tests will cover nearly
50 km of coast in Huron and
Lambton Counties.
Prominent among members
of this group, and listed as
"key contacts" in Friday
afternoon's press r,icases are
Joe Gleason, the environmen-
tal activist from Huron's
Edge who first focussed pub-
lic debate on the issue, and
Tom 'Prout, the general man-
ager of the Ausable Bayfield
Conservation Authority.
The group says its goal "is
to identify sources of the pot-
lution by volume and evacu-
ate new and cost-effective
technologies that will provide
for a cleaner environment.
"The end goal is to encour-
age leadership by govern-
ment officials and appropri-
ate action by industry, munic-
ipalities and residents -
whether through legislation
or public pressure, accord -
to the press release.
RT'NG HAS BEGUN
SOL=VE stands for save
our lake = value environment
and also has members from
the Maitland Valley
Conservation Authority, local
businesses and local munici-
palities. The press release
says "other groups are being
approached to join, such as
OMAFRA (agriculture min-
istry). MOEE (environment
ministry), hog producers,
OFA agriculture federation),
health units and cottage asso-
ciations."
The seven beaches are at
Port Albert, Goderich,
Bayfield, St. Joseph, Grand
Bend, Port Franks 04
Ippetwash.
Testing began last Tuesday,
will continue for a minimum
of six weeks," and the first
set of results will be released
toward the end of November.
The samples will be ana-
lyzed by Garry Palmateer,
EnviroMicrobial Services
Inc..out of London, who was
formerly with the environ-
ment ministry.
"He is an industryleader in
testing methods used to
determine the human, live-
stock or other sources of E.
coli bacteria," SOL=VE says.
"At this time Huron's Edge
and the Ausable Bpyfield
Conservation Authority are
taking initiatives to bring
additional ,partners and fund-
ing to the study so ,that test-
ing pity be continued tttia
fail, as' well as next spring
midsummer MAIMS."
Before results are released'
the group says "will meat to
review the results and agree
on the interpretation."
TEST METMOD
The "antibiotic resistance"
teat method will be used to
discover source of the E. coli.
By exposing the bacteria "to
different antibiotics used by
CONTINUED on page 2