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The Acton Free Press Wed February A free rides over Of Till Tit January 13 1976 Dear Mr Johnson Thank you for your letter of November 30 challenging me my to the that rural muni prior to regional government had long too little in terms of services received welcome the opportunity to elaborate upon th ion which on he face of it seems rather bald Let me assure you first of all that in my comment I was not referring to physical services to properly I know as is pointed out in the letters to area papers that rural properties do not receivi water sup ply municipal sewage disposal or collection sidewalks do not for them as such and should not piy for These are not the issue Thin art however a wide of municipal services which are direct available to rural residents in their wider and in respect of which the previous structure of local government permitted kind of tax Iet me deal with some of these beginning with those where the service must travel to the retipicnt than vice- vtrsa policing Police services wert pn v ided in the rural area by the Ontario ro- In towns however the or services of this property taxes urban residents Urban residents were ml il solved though from neccssit to piv their income taxes and sales which ire devoted in part to the support of Urban residents then arc pmt for police for their own and for the vast majority of the The argument is sometimes n ade that his extra burden en town residents is justified because town provide law enforcement me sa that because of the distance from the P detainment headquarters the I ice service provided to rural is tantamount to no service it ill Tew even far over the vcars is that rural people do not the need f r police services the way hit pit do There is no doubt that town rces be tome involved in matters such is irk with which the need not eon itself Most by law enforcement func tionshavea natural relationship law en which is difficult to segregate Rural municipalities it is to be presumed must also malee provision for the live and effective enforcement of their laws Any government f the name must do so But this fact in itself is n argument why other aspects f law in should be legitimate derived from municipal revenues in towns but not in townships It is worth remembering that in urban and rural alike these other aspects of police service include not only actual criminal apprehension and car accidents but patrollinc and tion work as well as the and one varieties of minor episode with which modern day polite forces inevitably be come involved The fact remains tint townspeople through their municipal cor ration had been larcgly pr ividing these for themselves whereas he Pro vincc whose funds are derived from urban as well as rural dwellers had been ing them for rural Certainly distance is i factor With he Pattern of settlement which prevails in this it has always been and will be that rural areas require i form of service than the areas For the reasons above however this is bj no means a satisfactory ment that rural residents do not need pol ice services nor that rural residents do not receive and make use of police services which all things considered are sufficient to meet this need Human nature heme what it is I would be surprised las I think would you if township fnmihis did not supply heir fair share that small seg ment of the population who occupy the limi and attention of police forces Hie fad that taverns dances ind busy Inter sections arc located in towns does not to my mind absolve township families from paying their fair share of the police costs thus occasioned It is important to note as well that lo cal taxation for police is not nor should It be a fee for service It is on ability to pay It has bun observed that the actual cost of P P is far in excess of the levy for polite services to some rural communities in regional government areas It was also noted by row that police services had improved Let me address the matter of fire pro lection which has many parallels to police proleclion Here again the argument is advanced that the factor of distance rend town based firefighting forces of liltle benefit rural properties There is little point in denying that the further one lives from town the more likely it is that owner will have to writeoff a barn In which a fire has ota start and the best to be hoped for is to save adjacent buildings It Is worth pointing out though hat in most townships in Central Ontario non farmers are the resident majority and that a large proportion of these live close enough to a Ire department to take mean Ingful advantage of It I might also point out that Ontario legislation dealing with Hon Darcy Rural areas must pay municipal fire service is entirely no municipality is required to pro vide contribute to or enter into agree ments for fire protection The face that virtually nil townships do so indicates that benefit is indeed received by most rural residents and that their fire insurance premiums would otherwise be higher than presently The question is whether or not rural residents contribute adequately and equitably for the fire services available to them portion of the township area is covered by the town fire department Payment for this service was usually on the basis of an agreed upon amount per fire paid over by the tow when the lire department had responded to a call More often than not it was widely recognized these payments did match the true per fire cost to the own of organizing ana equipping its fire brigade More seriously perhaps the fire brigade had to be plonnea and equipped to service both the urban and rural parts of the whole fire area yet the onus fell to the town council to provide for the recruit ment training and dealing with volunteer and or professional firefighters to fore cast needs and convince the townships of these needs to undertake the purchasing and financing For townspeople the vice including such general items as clerk and council time was planned for and paid for in advance on the basis of the assessed due of the property to be protected so that protection uld be available if need The rural area on the other hand wis ifforded the luxury of having a fire materialize only when needed a ready planned manned equipped and pud for without hiving had to shoulder the advance costs and responsibility It would not be unfair me to suggest that i similar comment may be made in respect of cultural and recreational ties and programs During own itnce a councillor in the City of Chat mm the Citv library received a large pro portion of its users from the surrounding irt is but less than I percent of its reven Cities and towns across the Province tan verify this experience with respect to such serv ices as libraries centres arenas day care centres grant supported groups like the and so on Here don forget we re talking about casts where the user has to go to the to benefit from its so we be quite sure about our facts To the minor extent that the costs of these services are recouped from user fees moreover the townships must be subject to previous comments about sharing neither the onus of responsibility nor those hidden costs associated with planning and financing project Naturally in some cases townships do absorb some of these and in your case this might have been true In general however this has not been the history of urban rural relation ships One last point about benefits needs to be rused which is loo easily discounted and too often forgotten I am referring to all hose indirect benefits which accrue to ru residents by virtue of their proximity to a prosperous progressive well managed town Rural land values and development prospects for non agricultural purposes that is as well as a decent life for modern country dwellers owe as much in my opinion to this factor as they do to the beauty and tranquility of the rural land scape The availability of safely inspected buildings to which township as well as town people may retire the development and promotion of industries at which town people may work the en and regulation of business in which town and township people may shop the insistence upon sound town planning all these and more are examples of municipal services provided by towns which benefit not only the townspeople but also the surrounding district Any critical observer moreover must admit that In the relatively urbanized areas of Central Ontario these common lies have become increasingly strong and these common benefits have become increasingly direct Now in many parts of Ontario we have a municipal structure to recognize these common interests and to provide for direct participation in decision miking for the community It also makes tax avoidance difficult if not impossible In a true farm environment with Its strictly market towns there may once have been some justice to the frequent re tort that these extra town supplied ser vices were offset by the business of the farm population and were recovered in the form of higher prices Not only does this mixing or private and municipal finances shed more confusion lhan light on the is sue but it is clear in Central Ontario that the true market town has virtually disap peared that most town dwellers are nol in business locally for themselves It is only a minority of the townspeople there fore who would be able to redeem In this way their subsidy on services to rural people The Government of Ontario has taken steps to ensure that rural residents can undertake their proper responsibility in the provision of municipal services with out shouldering an undue or unfair burden of all the market value of property the basis of assessment for real property tax purposes gem era decreases as the distance from town increases This fact Is due to more than the absence of physi Urban services for a property will lack these whether it Is half a mile or to miles from town Rather this fact derives from the very distance factor which I pre vlously mentioned such as less effective fire protection The difference of course Is made up in expenses which an individual must meet his private pocket such as higher fire insurance premiums You will realize that I am talking In terms of two properties identical in all respects except location Clearly an expensive brick home on a fiveacre farm lot even 10 miles from town will be assessed at a higher value than a small frame house with a foot frontage only half a mile from town The Province has ensured that land which is used for agricultural purposes will be assessed at its value in exchange as farm land only that is if sold by one practising farmer to another practising farmer to be used for farming In this way true farmers are not penalized for changes inland value which may have been caused land use planning policies or land speculation consequent upon urban ex Farmers moreover arc nol subject taxation despite the fact hat hey do carry on their business upon their property In addition you are aware I am sure of the Province farm tax rebate program A genuine agricultural property is eligible to receive from the Province a rebate equalling per cent of the property taxes levied upon for general municipal purposes Notice though that this program does not discourage that levy from reflecting Ihe full municipal portion of financial support for municipal services madeavailableiminus of course the very hefty Provincial contributions to municipal expenditures The raising of municipal revenue Is expected in com with provincial transfers to match the services provided and to be apportioned in the whole benefiting area on the usual and accepted basis of property assessment Towndwcllere arc not being asked to subsidize country dwellers by i municipal tax bill which is making available a subsidy to farmers in recognition of the Importance of their industry to the Province at large I feel that I must add a last word about the role of land use restrictions and part lot controls in all this since 1 noticed that Mrs Moore included this as one of her criticisms in her letter to the Champion first of all it should be clear that rural property owners are not the only people subject to zoning subdivision controls In most towns the need for municipal tanning has been realized and acted upon many years It is easy to imagine the chaos expense and inconvenience that would result if every town dweller were free to subdivide his lot will or to build whatever he wished wherever he wished To the best of my knowledge though no planning policies be they Provincial or dwellers however are reluctant to that the same sort of restrictions on unplanned or land use changes which apply with such good reason in town apply with equally good reason to themselves Yet imagine the cost to society if we were required to he wants with his property The reasons for not wishing mires trained development In the rural areas are very different First we all want to preserve the countryside Itself and those qualities which make It a prized resource A countryside visibly overwhelmed by man buildings ana the traffic they generate Is not countryside at all A countryside where the trees have all been felled and the have all been rutted or grown to weed Is pot the resource we prize A countryside where the stream banks are being eroded and the ground water Is being polluted by too much exploitation has become less a prize than a menace A countryside where size farm units are being priced out of the market by land speculation where proper farm operations arc threatened by more and more weeded and unfeneed vacant land where livestock operations are increasingly hampered by the odour complaints of too- close non farm neighbours and by more of their dogs running in packs this Is a countryside which is losing Its economic value to us all as well as Its social value These ore some of the costs which country living by too mony concentrated groups of non farm people threatens to impose on the community at large There art others which are Just as real and have a strong significance for proper and municipal government Roads bear a substantially increased volume of traffic and have to be graded more often if not paved The volume of police activity and the frequency of fire colls inevitably increases which only serves to aggravate rather than minimize the expense at to the distance factor which had Official Plans used them to control development ind which had established reserve funds to finance arenas and libraries when needed now find that these facilities become unexpectedly over burdened that the need has grown more quickly than the reserve funds and that they must cither issue debentures or let service deteriorate It Is entirely possible therefore that the creation of more and more farm lots will lead to an increase in the very taxes which ire offered as the reason to seer and sell the lots in the first place Many of the costs due to country living are as the letters point out borne by the individual Water supply sewage disposal garbage collection are his responsibility Hydro telephone tire more expensive to supply and therefore to purchase Insurance premiums are higher But the mdividu has a choice it must be remembered Countrv living clearly a luxury which is presumably deemed worth- the extra expense by those who calculate that they can afford It But just because the individual Is willing to undertake his share of the costs of country living there Is surely no reason why the community at large should not J- recxonthecostswhlchitwilltherebyincur bath as a municipality and as a society There Is no reason too why the com munlty should expect less than Its fair share of property lax from this group by ess making public services available to them at a subsidy is no reason finally why the public should not as in urban areas reserve the right to control land uses and the land subdivision in order that the cumulative actions of individuals not become a burden upon the whole community or a blight upon the future The only exception to this principle would apply to agricultural producers Farmers do not have a choice about living in the country their trade depends upon it and this Is a trade which is of basic portancetousall For this reason formers must to the maximum feasible extent be expenses which arc incidental to living there I hope I have substantiated to your satisfaction my claim that the introductior of regional government has corrected some inequities which had previously existed CHRISTIANS the Lord Jesus is coming to rule over the Gentiles Rom IS II from the of forefather David In Jerusalem sure as Israel Is a nation again Wickedness and violence Increases the time trouble has commenced Learn about this over looked Gospel message God declared purpose and the troth of eternal tree before door la shut Time files Write ASK Box III Weston defends views on rural areas NEW ARRIVAL Kids CORDS by Open Monday Through Saturday Tack Togs T Guelph St Bodnar wants semester changes Georgetown Trustee Ernie will ask Board of to the possibility of lengthening school days from September to December so the first semester can end at Christmas gave notice Thursday he will propose changes in the board modified school year rules He explained the school year changes around in mid January and then grade write exams The students are off for two weeks at Christmas then they are in class for nine days and then grade 13s write three exams in days This is inefficient said In an interview this week He thinks the school days in the first semester should be longer so exams can be written before students have Christmas holidays Under the present system a great deal of touching time use of school facilities put to their best use said He explained grade 13 students lake three courses each semester and because of individual lime tables exams arc difficult to schedule thinks if the second semester started the beginning January students could be out of school by late May or early June and teachers could get out earlier too for work or further education He suggested the teachers could prepare time tables for the second semester during the Christmas holidays noted the teachers wouldn get as long a Christmas break but then whoelse gets two weeks off at Christmas semester two Christmas made a lot of sense for all grades not just grade pupils The present system efficient so It would be at least worthwhile to look Into changes The system should be made more efficient because that is what everyone is paying for concluded February is Master Pel Food Your Pet Would Like To Be Your Valentine MASTER PREMIUM DINNER kg MASTER PREMIUM DINNER 0k MASTER DOG KIBBLE MASTER DOG KIBBLE 0k MASTER DOG MEAL ib MASTER DOG MEAL MASTER ECONOMY CANS 24x15oz 56 MASTER LUXURY CANS Now for the Month of February You Can Save on any purchase of 5 or more units of any MASTER PET FOOD Save 30 per unit PLUS we still offer the MASTER KENNEL PLAN OFF the price of your 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