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The Citizen, 2018-03-08, Page 4PAGE 4. THE CITIZEN, THURSDAY, MARCH 8, 2018. Editorials Opinions President: Keith Roulston • Publisher: Deb Sholdice Editor: Shawn Loughlin • Reporter: Denny Scott Advertising Sales: Brenda Nyveld • Heather Fraser 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 + 11.81 G.S.T.) in Canada; $160.00/year in U.S.A. and $205/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. Canada MAIL AGREEMENT NO. 40050141 RETURN UNDELIVERABLE CANADIAN ADDRESSES TO CIRCULATION DEPT. PO BOX 152 BRUSSELS ON NOG 1H0 email: info@northhuron.on.ca Property tax needs to be fixed The inequities inherent in the property tax system on which municipalities' revenue depends were highlighted once again at the recent Local Politicians Forum held by the Huron County Federation of Agriculture. Of particular concern at the forum was an issue also raised before several municipal councils recently — the effect of the recent valuation of farmland by the Municipal Property Assessment Corporation (MPAC) will have on taxes paid on productive farmland. MPAC valuations are based on recent sales of comparable properties and since the price of farmland soared over the last few years, the assessed value of farmland makes up a much larger share of total assessment in rural municipalities. It means, according to the Ontario Federation of Agriculture (OFA), that bare farmland will soon pay 21.6 per cent of all property taxes instead of the 14.2 per cent in 2016 before the reassessment. More than 40 years ago under recently -deceased Gordon Hill, the OFA fought and won the battle that farmland should only be taxed for services for land, like roads and drains, and not services for people, like education. As a result, for tax purposes farm homes are separated from the rest of the farm and farmers pay the full residential tax burden on them. Farmland is assessed separately with a tax rate of 25 per cent of the residential amount. Farm leaders argue that with the increased assessed value of farmland, that percentage should be reduced so farmers don't have to pick up a disproportionate share of people services. Behind all that, of course, is the flaw of the property assessment system. Just because neighbours sold their farms for a huge increase in farmland prices does not make the farmer, who hasn't sold, able to pay higher taxes. Similarly, it's hardly fair if a senior citizen who has lived in a house for 50 years faces huge tax increases because people bought neighbouring houses, tore them down and built large, expensive homes. Governments at all levels need to seek ways to make the tax system fair to the people who simply want to keep living or farming where they always have instead of being forced to sell because taxes become too high because of increased assessments. — KR Invest, don't subsidize One of the smaller items in last week's federal budget was a $50 million fund to support local journalism across Canada over the next five years. Wow! That ought to fix the decline of local news gathering! Given that there are hundreds of newspapers across Canada, $10 million a year is a token amount that will do nothing more than allow the government to say it's doing something. Minister of Canadian Heritage Melanie Joly was hammered after an extensive review of federal government cultural support did nothing to address the loss of so many local journalistic voices (since 2010, 225 weekly and 27 daily newspapers have closed or merged operations). There's debate among journalists whether the government should subsidize media. Quite frankly, if the federal government was to restore the advertising to newspapers that it has axed in recent years, it would be much more helpful than providing $10 million a year in subsidies. On the other hand, it was infuriating to a community newspaper supporter to hear CBC News Network's business program On The Money call on Paul Godfrey, president of Postmedia Network, as a spokesperson for the newspaper industry. Godfrey, whose newspapers have never found a Liberal (or liberal) they could support, claimed the Liberals wanted to kill off newspapers because most of them opposed their agenda. He handily overlooked his own destructive management of newspapers that starved them of the resources and leadership that would allow them to truly serve their communities. Government can't really save community journalism, but it can help by spending more of its advertising budget with local newspapers. Corporate owners like Godfrey have a much greater influence but they lack the commitment and common sense to make it happen. — KR It's tough to be his friend Hydro One sent crews to the U.S. east coast this week to help hard- pressed utility companies there cope with the destruction of last week's punishing late -winter storm that left millions without power. Crews were heading across the border at the same time U.S. President Donald Trump was announcing his latest moves to punish Canada for what he sees as our unfair trade advantage with his country. Trump has his own weird reality. Despite figures from his own government which show that when goods and services are both included, Canada and the U.S. basically have balanced trade, he continues to insist we have a huge surplus — and he wonders why we resent his retaliation. We want to be good neighbours and help our friends when they need it. After a while you have to wonder, however, why we should continue to help Americans when their President repeatedly attacks us. — KR We acknowledge the financial support of the Government of Canada. The Citizen P.O. Box 429, P.O. Box 152, BLYTH, Ont. BRUSSELS, Ont. NOM 1H0 NOG 1 HO Ph. 519-523-4792 Phone Fax 519-523-9140 519-887-9114 E-mail info@northhuron.on.ca Website www.northhuron.on.ca �ocna M Member CMC AUDITED CCNA Member of the Ontario Press Council We are not responsible for unsolicited newsscripts or photographs. Contents of The Citizen are © Copyright - And for 'Most Embarrassing International Political Performance', the 'Baggy' goes to... 1 1 1 VieaSeCort si1.5, Gari-) Looking Back Through the Years March 12, 1958 The Ladies Division of the East Huron Agricultural Society were set to host a St. Patrick's Day bake sale at the Brussels Library to help raise funds for the organization. At the Capitol Theatre in Listowel, Debbie Reynolds was on the screen in Tammy and the Bachelor, while Jayne Mansfield starred in The Wayward Bus. Brussels Village Council held their regular meeting and voted to issue a grant to the East Huron Agricultural Society for $300 for the coming year. In addition, council also approved a grant for the local horticultural society for $50. March 8, 1978 Blyth's centennial year turned out not to be as expensive as expected as the village was able to turn a year- end surplus of just under $9,000. The credit stemmed from costs being under budget in a number of departments, including fire, roads, water, centennial and recreation. Cross-country skiing enthusiasts Keith Roulston, Kim Van Vliet and James Roy took a trip of about 10 kilometres through East Wawanosh Township in an attempt to raise $200 in pledges for the Blyth Centre for the Arts. March 13, 1991 Brussels Livestock officially changed hands on March 5 and the new division of Gamble and Rogers held its first sale on March 12 at the location. Local dignitaries, including CKNX farm editor Murray Gaunt, were on hand for the festivities to officially mark the business's changing of hands. With the Canadian economy in trouble, Huron County's welfare budget soared by 65 per cent in 1991 over the budget from the previous year. The total county budget would top $2.2 million with the province paying just over $1.7 million of it. The Blyth Branch of the Huron County Library was set to close on March 13 until March 18 in order to move to the library's new location, a large space located in the north wing of Memorial Hall. After combing through the budget department by department for hours, Huron County Council settled on an 8.3 per cent increase to the mill rate in its budget. The time spent on potential cuts to the budget were considered by some to be arguing over relatively minor details that failed to significantly impact the budget in the end. Kevin Lund and his TVO crew were in Brussels filming a special segment on the village for the provincial channel. One of the events the crew attended was the Brussels Optimist Club's Atom hockey tournament, which had been held at the Brussels, Morris and Grey Community Centre. Roger George, president of the Ontario Federation of Agriculture, was in Huron County to serve as the guest speaker for the East Wawanosh Township Federation of Agriculture's annual general meeting. Also at the meeting, the 50th in the organization's history, a number of past -presidents were honoured due to the historical nature of the meeting. Ralph Scott, Donald Dow, John Taylor, Chris Palmer, Jack Currie, Walter Elliott, Robert Henry, Charlie Smith and Simon Hallahan were all on hand to help the federation mark its historic anniversary. Barry Elliott was named the organization's president that night for the coming term. March 13, 2008 Morris-Turnberry Council approved 2008 budgets for both the Blyth and Wingham Area Fire Boards, which resulted in a total allocation of just under $200,000 between the two departments. Huron County Council was not in favour of buying company cars for five members of the senior management team, as well as for the chief administrative officer and the warden, but that would not be the last they would see of the issue, as it was destined to return. The reasoning behind the suggestion was that it would be cheaper in the long run to buy the seven vehicles, rather than paying the five managers, chief administrative officer and warden mileage on their own vehicles. Tyler Cartwright of the Blyth Scouts received a special award through the organization for his honesty and quick -thinking as he waited for his school bus one morning. Cartwright observed some children sharing pills and he reported it to his teacher when he got to school and ensured the safety of the young students. Several Brussels Public School students, including Jacob, Teegan and Mackenzie McGavin, began a new student action team called Kids Care. The group's goal was to preach social consciousness and raise money for worldwide causes. The women of Blyth were in the midst of preparing for the 14th annual Women's Day Out, which was planned for April 12. The theme for the year was `Bloom Where You Are Planted" and the event's keynote speaker was Eleanor Wood of Troy.