SERVING THE MAPLETON COMMUNITY
THE
COMMUNITY NEWS VOLUME 49 ISSUE 46
DRAYTON, ONTARIO
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FRIDAY, NOVEMBER 18, 2016
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Mapleton remembers - Members of the Mapleton community gathered in Cenotaph Park in Drayton on the afternoon of Nov. 11 for the annual Remembrance Day service. Community Christian School students Elisa VanderKooi, left, and Madison Sauer read a selection titled Those Who Gave. More photos on page 4. Photo by Caroline Sealey
Stevens: Agricultural development charges impact would be ‘enormous’ By Patrick Raftis MAPLETON - Leaders of area farm organizations addressed council here on Nov. 8 on the topic of proposed development charges on agricultural buildings. Mapleton’s current development charges bylaw includes a 100 per cent exemption for buildings constructed for “a bona fide farm use.” A proposal presented at a public meeting on Oct. 11 would see the exemption reduced to 75%. That would mean someone building a new barn, for example, would pay 25% of the non-residential rate of $2.65 per square foot of gross floor area, which works out to 66 cents/ft2. The proposal drew opposition from the Wellington Federation of Agriculture (WFA) and a number of area farmers at the Oct. 11 meeting. On Nov. 8, WFA president Janet Harrop and Henry Stevens of the Christian Farmers Federation of Ontario (CFFO) addressed council, noting they were speaking on behalf of various commodity groups as well.
“We are here to speak as one strong, united voice representing the various farm organizations and commodity groups active in Mapleton and Wellington County in opposition to the proposed bylaw changes,” said Stevens. “The potential ramifications on the agricultural sector are enormous.” Stevens added, “Largelyrural municipalities such as Mapleton depend on a healthy agriculture sector for the municipality’s own health.” While acknowledging a municipality’s needs to raise funds for infrastructure, Stevens said agricultural development charges are “not a legitimate method of raising those revenues.” He stated, “Development charges were never intended to cover the ongoing costs of maintaining existing infrastructure. Existing hard infrastructure such as roads were to be maintained by the municipality using the existing assessment base.” Stevens said the municipality will “automatically” receive additional funds through increased assess-
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ment as prices on farm land continue to rise. Harrop said agricultural development charges are “an entire agricultural community issue.” Implementing the charges “will affect all sectors, builders and suppliers,” Harrop told council. “Increased capital costs will affect our competitiveness as farmers when all farms around us don’t have these charges.” Harrop stated cost of service studies conducted by farm organizations in the U.S. and by the Ontario Federation of Agriculture (OFA) show that agriculture, through its general tax base, “is already paying significantly more in taxes than the cost of services that that agricultural land uses. “General road and bridge improvements are used by all residents and tax classes of the municipality. Agriculture should not be the only tax class to pay for these improvements. It’s unmerited.” Councillor Dennis Craven said he feels the agriculture community needs better information about the use of SEE CHARGES » 5
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Family resource - University of Guelph history professor Catherine Wilson gave a presentation on the Rural Diary Archive located at the University of Guelph to the Mapleton Historical Society on Nov. 7. The idea for the archive came after Wilson received her great grandmother’s diaries dating from 1884-91. The archives has 130 diaries that are currently being digitalized and transcribed onto the website. Photo by Caroline Sealey
Professor finds ‘True Stories of Love and Loss’ in rural diaries by Caroline Sealey DRAYTON - The gift of a family member’s 1884 diaries lead University of Guelph history professor Dr. Catherine Wilson to embark on an ambitious project. Wilson created a Rural Diary Archive that preserves the pre-1900 history of rural life in Ontario. “I was thrilled to receive the diaries of my great grand-
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mother Lucy Middagh from the late 1800s,” Wilson said. “Sharing the diaries with my students was an interesting process as they struggled with the hand writing and vocabulary. The crumbling books with faded writing needed to be transcribed and digitalized.” Wilson gave a presentation on True Stories of Love and Loss - The Rural Diaries to members and guests of the
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Mapleton Historical Society at the Drayton United Church on Nov. 7. Wilson said she found students were brilliant with technology but not so successful with cursive writing. With assistance from the Francis and Ruth Redelmeier Professorship in Rural History, Wilson and her students began the process of placing the diaries SEE RURAL » 8
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