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Feature Article February 5

Feature Article February 5, 2004

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Municipalities get benefits from throne speech

The inaugural throne speech from the new revamped Liberal government in Ottawa contained some goodies for local townships. County governments and local townships will become exempt from GST, and although local governments were already receiving a rebate for just under 60% of the GST they were paying, the new 100% rebate will translate into a savings that may approach $100,000 in some cases. The Fairmount Home will be eligible to save GST as well, and those savings will probably be greater than some individual townships because of all the purchases a Home for the Aged makes. At the time of publication, local township staff members were still calculating their respective savings from this Federal measure, and seeking to determine if the scheme went into effect on January 1 or will only start in April.

Omya holds 2nd public meeting on water taking

On the heels of another setback in their water taking quest, Omya Canada will hold the second of its required public meetings on water taking and will present an annual report regarding river flows and water taking and annual river flows for 2003 as prepared by Dr. Edgar Watt, an engineering consultant hired by the company.

Until December 18, it looked like Omya would be permitted to take 4,500 cubic litres per day from the Tay River, provided the water flow levels in the river were at a prescribed level, but that all changed when the Ministry of the Environment (MoE) placed a one year moratorium on all new water takings, limiting Omya to the 1,500 cubic litres per day it had been permitted to take. The other shoe dropped on January 16, when the MoE decided to revoke the water taking permit entirely, putting in place a 6-year 1,500 cubic litre per day limit on Omyas Tay river water taking. There has been intense media coverage of this apparently localized issue. It has prompted numerous articles and editorials in the Ottawa Citizen and the Toronto Star and a segment of Country Canada on CBC television was devoted to the issue last Sunday. Omya Canada has recently changed its media strategy and is now releasing more regular press statements. It has launched a website devoted to its perspective on the matter, supportlanarkgrowth.com.

The public meeting will be held at Glen Tay School on Glen Tay road at 7:00 pm on Wednesday, February 11.

With the participation of the Government of Canada