Huron County councillors seem convinced that the recent cut in Ontario Municipal Partnership Funding is another example of the lack of rural representation at Queen's Park.
Huron East Mayor Bernie MacLellan says the claw backs in funding clearly target agriculture, but he adds neither Huron East or the County of Huron have a strong enough voice to get the attention of the province. MacLellan says the issue first has to go to the Western Wardens Caucus, and he's suggesting the Western Wardens work with their counter-parts in Eastern Ontario to get the attention of Queen's Park.
MacLellan points out that if all of the agricultural areas in the province speak with one voice, they might be able to get a response.
The next Western Wardens meeting isn't until January and Huron County will raise the issue at that meeting.
MacLellan points out the province had agreed to cover 75 per cent of the property tax on farm land because it was used for growing food that everyone eats and no one is living on it. Now that they're taking that back, the municipalities have to pass that loss on to other tax payers, and he maintains that's not fair to anyone.
