Bancroft this Week

Tax sale proceedings to come earlier for property owners

People in Hastings Highlands may be more behind on their taxes than they suspect.

Council quarrels over sign

Hastings Highlands staff is looking into the municipality’s agreement with Hospice North Hastings for its LED sign.

Council to appoint next member

Council wants to appoint Frank Hickey to fill its empty Ward 1 seat.

Turtles have been roaming these parts long before land development, roads and motor vehicles. Ideally, it would be great if the turtles would stay off the roads. A notion that seems highly improbable but not impossible as the Ministry of Natural Resources and Forestry is now focusing efforts on the strategic conservation of ecosystems and species at a landscape level

Council made a choice that didn’t suit ratepayers

While reading the Aug. 25 Bancroft This Week, I noticed that Councillor Alex Walder has written about the at-large versus ward system.

Response: ‘Assessing the risk of doing nothing’

The Ontario Forest Industries Association is the provincial trade association representing Ontario’s forest sector. For 75 years, OFIA has represented forestry companies ranging from multinational corporations, to family-owned businesses that operate across Ontario. The forestry community is deeply rooted in every region of Ontario and has been connecting and supporting families for over 150 years. Today, Ontario’s forest sector directly supports 57,000 men and women across the province.

SARA wasn’t created just to annoy industrialists

All one needs to do is take a short drive around the Bancroft area they will see quickly how important the forestry industry is to this community. Many of the buildings are clad in wood siding and every single one of them was constructed of wood framing of some sort.

Recording ban likely violates Charter, lawyer says

Procedural bylaws that disallow recordings of public council meetings wouldn’t hold up in court, says a media lawyer listed by the Canadian Media Lawyers Association.

SAR Act misguided, foresters say

Nitschke and Freymond took turns explaining to council why they feel the updated prescriptions for 28 species at risk defined in the updated SAR guide would “shut down mills” in the far north and damage the economies of communities throughout the province, fueled by the forestry industry.

Wynne’s Watts: delivery charges

It sure is gratifying to see the consumer attention to the latest application from Hydro One, our local distributor, to jack up our rates again for 2018 to ’22. Ten years ago when I first started my rants on our egregious electricity costs, a rate application would not hit the radar for most folks. But today, even the politicians want to get on this bandwagon (note recent letters from Smith and Thibault, our MPP and our current Energy Minister). Energy Ministers under the Liberals has been a revolving door over the past 14 years but Mr Thibault is the current holder as of this month.