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The
THIS WEEK
Citizen
Huron County’s most trusted independent news source
Thursday, February 11, 2021
Volume 37 No. 6
Publications Mail Agreement No. 40050141 Return Undeliverable Items to North Huron Publishing Company Inc., P.O. Box 152, BRUSSELS, ON N0G 1H0
Budget process to begin By Shawn Loughlin The Citizen
A total loss In the early evening hours of Feb. 2, a house on Alexander Street in Brussels burst into flames as a result of unattended cooking, according to the Ontario Provincial Police. Members of the Brussels division of the Huron East Fire Department were on the scene well into the night, working to extinguish the blaze for nearly six hours. A
backhoe was eventually brought in to demolish the home, which was deemed a total loss. Firefighters then reattended the next morning to snuff out flare-ups. Members of the department were grateful for food and coffee deliveries, courtesy of community members who chipped in to pay for the deliveries. (John Stephenson photo)
Huron East Treasurer Paula Michiels has recommended a five per cent increase to the municipal levy as a jumping-off point to budget deliberations. Michiels said she would provide councillors with the first draft of the budget at the Feb. 16 meeting with the final draft to be considered at the March 16 meeting. She did, however, provide councillors with some high-level points of her proposed first draft, including her target tax levy increase. Michiels told councillors at their Feb. 2 meeting that, given the financial hardship brought about by the COVID-19 pandemic, she wasn’t comfortable proposing a tax levy increase of greater than five per cent. However, in order to simply cover funding losses and rising costs, council would have to approve a 4.1 per cent increase. This means, she said, that would only represent a 0.9 per cent increase to the tax rate after factoring in those losses, which wouldn’t even cover the full rate of inflation. The cuts, Michiels said, include a reduction of over $90,000 in the municipality’s Ontario Municipal Partnership Fund (OMPF) allocation and an increase of $122,000 to its insurance payments. There was a net decrease in the municipality’s policing costs, which hasn’t happened in recent years, so Continued on page 6
Most businesses following provincial rules: Klassen By Denny Scott The Citizen Huron East continues to lead the region with nearly two thirds of the total active cases of COVID-19 across Huron and Perth Counties being located there. As of Monday, according to Huron Perth Public Health (HPPH), there have been 1,267 positive tests results in Huron and Perth Counties, an increase of 40 cases since Feb. 1. A total of 95,427 tests have been completed for residents and, as of Jan. 24, the most recent day for data available, 1.6 per cent of weekly tests were coming back positive. There are seven active outbreaks across the HPPH area, including one at a hospital. St. Marys Memorial Hospital has an active outbreak that was declared Jan. 31. Since then, there have been seven confirmed cases: three in
patients and four in staff. There are currently four active outbreaks in long-term care facilities in Huron and Perth Counties: Seaforth Manor Nursing Home has a total of 62 cumulative cases since the outbreak was declared on Jan. 17, including 43 cases in residents and 19 in staff; Caressant Care Nursing Home in North Perth has 71 cumulative cases since the outbreak started on Jan. 10, 43 in residents and 28 in staff; Fordwich Village in Howick has one confirmed case in a staff member in an outbreak that started Jan. 30 and Hillside Manor in Perth East, now in its third outbreak of the pandemic, has two cases: one in a resident and one in a staff member in an outbreak that started Feb. 3. There are two active outbreaks in retirement homes. Caressant Care Retirement Home has an active outbreak that started Jan. 7 and has,
since then, reported 42 cases: 30 in residents and 12 in staff. Seaforth Manor Retirement Home has eight active cases in residents in an outbreak declared Jan. 31. As for local counts, several municipalities in Huron County had no change over the past week including Ashfield-ColborneWawanosh (21 cumulative cases), Bluewater (32), Howick (34) and North Huron (38). Cases were on the rise in Central Huron, which is up to 50 cumulative cases from 47; Goderich, which saw an increase from 11 to 18; Huron East which increased from 80 to 89 cases; Morris-Turnberry which increased from 40 to 42 and South Huron which has four new cases for a total of 94. In Perth County, North Perth saw an increase of seven cumulative cases to 339, Perth East climbed from 132 to 133, Perth South
climbed from 29 to 31, West Perth climbed from 26 to 28, St. Marys increased from 28 to 30 and Stratford gained one case for a total of 288. Active cases are located in Huron East (48), Goderich (six), South Huron (four), Central Huron (three), and Morris-Turnberry (three) in Huron County. In Perth County, there are seven active cases in North Perth, two in Perth South, one in West Perth, two in Stratford and two in St. Marys. There are currently a total of 78 active cases in Huron and Perth County. There are currently 93 cases in isolation and a total of 3,371 isolation orders issued since the start of the pandemic. Currently, there is one case hospitalized across HuronPerth, with a total of 48 since the start of the pandemic. Exposure tied to outbreaks continues to be the most likely form
of acquisition in Huron and Perth Counties with 30.6 per cent of cases being labelled as such. Household contacts account for 26.5 per cent of likely acquisition while close contact account for 16.2 per cent. Travel accounts for 1.3 per cent of likely acquisition of COVID-19. Representing one in every four cases, unknown acquisition accounts for 25.3 per cent. WORKPLACE CAMPAIGN During a press conference on Monday, Medical Officer of Health Dr. Miriam Klassen reported that the majority of businesses in Huron and Perth Counties are following the rules set out by the Reopening Ontario Act. As part of a workplace safety campaign, 15 provincial offences officers, accompanied by public health inspectors and representatives from Stratford Police Services, Continued on page 20