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The
THIS WEEK
Citizen
Huron County’s most trusted independent news source
Thursday, July 8, 2021
$1.50 GST included
Volume 37 No. 27
Publications Mail Agreement No. 40050141 Return Undeliverable Items to North Huron Publishing Company Inc., P.O. Box 152, BRUSSELS, ON N0G 1H0
Second doses climbing locally By Denny Scott The Citizen
Back in business Huron County’s most beloved raceway opened to the general public on Sunday, with a full slate of races at the Clinton Raceway. Horse racing did go ahead last year, with a modified schedule and spectator rules, as a result of the COVID-19 pandemic. This season, the
raceway is authorized to host 25 per cent capacity in its grandstand, which will be good news for the many Huron County residents who make horse racing a big part of their lives, or for those just looking for an exhilarating Sunday outside in the Huron County summer. (John Stephenson photo)
North Huron will retain ward system By Denny Scott The Citizen After a lengthy discussion and three attempted motions, North Huron Township Council will retain the status quo when it comes to council composition. During Monday night’s meeting, council decided to stick with six councillors, two elected from each ward, and one reeve elected atlarge. The deputy-reeve will be elected from among the six councillors following the municipal election. The decision to stay at the existing structure wasn’t unanimous, however, with council representatives from Wingham Reeve Bernie Bailey, DeputyReeve Trevor Seip and Councillor Paul Heffer - all voting against the move while the Blyth and East Wawanosh ward representatives Councillors Kevin Falconer and Ric McBurney from Blyth and Councillors Chris Palmer and Anita
van Hittersum from East Wawanosh - voted to stay the course. The discussion started with Clerk Carson Lamb revisiting the discussion from council’s last meeting, when he encouraged council to decide how the deputyreeve position would be elected, recommending an at-large vote. Several council members felt the issue was brought up without warning, however, with some saying the position of the deputyreeve is tied to the composition of council and deciding one before the other wasn’t possible. As a result, council had to work through what Lamb called the four layers of the issue before the next municipal election: how the deputy-reeve is elected, how large council will be, whether the ward system will be maintained and, if the ward system is maintained, whether the wards should be changed. Lamb presented the following five options for council’s
composition ahead of the next election: A five-member council including reeve and deputy-reeve elected atlarge and one council member from each ward. A five-member council elected entirely at-large. A seven-member council elected entirely at-large. A hybrid option with seven council members: the reeve, deputy-reeve and two councillors elected at-large alongside one member from each ward. The status quo, including the reeve elected at-large and six councillors elected from their wards. Reeve Bernie Bailey started the discussion by reminding council that two and a half years ago, members decided this issue should be discussed, then told council to treat this like any other decision. “This is just another decision,” he said. “If you don’t want to change things, we won’t. This is just
another conversation and the staff have put together very good information for us to go by.” Bailey invited each member of council to address the issue before trying to determine a path for the group. The first to speak was van Hittersum, who said that the larger council presents a better chance for representation and said that wards make sure local issues are being brought forward. “More members is more diversity,” she said. “[Having seven councillors allows us to] better spread out the workload.” Councillor Chris Palmer spoke next. During the first discussion two weeks ago, he said changing the council system could result in the wards wanting to leave North Huron. On Monday, however, he provided a history lesson about amalgamation before saying he preferred the status quo. He said the amalgamation Continued on page 22
During a recent Huron Perth Public Health teleconference, Medical Officer of Health Dr. Miriam Klassen said that the number of people receiving their first COVID-19 vaccination is slowing down. Klassen said that, while second dose figures continue to climb, the number of people receiving their first dose has somewhat stalled. Over the past three weeks, there has been minimal increases from 71.5 per cent to 72.3 per cent to 73.5 per cent. In the weeks preceding that period, those numbers jumped as much as eight per cent over seven days. That 73.5 per cent value represents 93,898 people who have at least one dose of the COVID-19 vaccine in Huron and Perth Counties. The number of fullyvaccinated people, over the last week, jumped from 29,968 to 48,285, or from 23.4 per cent of eligible residents to 37.8 per cent. Statistics for local residents with at least one dose, broken down by demographics, are below: • 12-17: From 5,019 (53.1 per cent ) to 5,181 (54.8) • 18-24: From 6,094 (52.3) to 6,337 (54.3) • 25-29: From 4,796 (51.6) to 5,002 (53.9) • 30-39: From 9,912 (56.1) to 10,221 (57.9) • 40-49: From 10,720 (66.7) to 10,977 (68.3) • 50-59: From 14,954 (76.9) to 15,130 (77.8) • 60-69: From 19,024 (88.4) to 19,149 (89) • 70-79: From 13,938 (96.3) to 13,986 (96.6) • 80+: From 7,980 (96.5) to 7,997 (96.7) Statistics for Huron-Perth residents with two shots, broken down by demographics, are below: • 12-17: From 112 (1.2 per cent) to 226 (2.4) • 18-24: From 838 (7.2) to 1,804 (15.5) • 25-29: From 905 (9.7) to 1,676 (18) • 30-39: From 1,819 (10.3) to 3,570 (20.2) • 40-49: From 2,133 (13.3) to 4,026 (25.1) • 50-59: From 3,868 (19.9) to 6,973 (35.8) Continued on page 3