One man still at large in armed robbery investigation
 

 by Neil Zacharjewicz

MANITOULIN - Police are still searching for Michael R. Trudeau, age 21, of Wikwemikong, who is a suspect in a recent armed robbery and a home invasion.

The Ontario Provincial Police (OPP) describe Mr. Trudeau as a First Nations male, with brown hair and brown eyes. He stands approximately six foot, two inches, and weighs approximately 191 pounds.

Anyone with information on the whereabouts of Mr. Trudeau is asked to call the Manitoulin detachment of the OPP or Crimestoppers at 1-800-333-TIPS (8477), where they can remain anonymous and be eligible for a cash reward of up to $1,000 for information leading to the arrest and conviction of Mr. Trudeau.

The OPP and the Wikwemikong Tribal Police have already arrested two individuals in relation to the robberies. The arrests were the result of an investigation into the home invasion robbery which occurred at the home of Jim and Donna Maguire, of Manitowaning, on December 4. As a result of the investigation, it was revealed that the robbery was linked to another armed robbery which occurred at Patsy's Family Restaurant in Wikwemikong on November 22.

Terry Barnhart, age 23, of Wikwemikong, is facing two counts of robbery with a weapon, two counts of forcible confinement, one count of breaking and entering a dwelling/house with intent to commit an indictable offense, one count of assault with a weapon, and two counts of robbery with a firearm. He has been remanded into custody, and will appear in Wikwemikong Criminal Court on January 13, 2004.

Also charged is Johnatan Beaudry, age 21, of Wikwemikong, who is facing two counts of robbery with a weapon, two counts of forcible confinement, one count of disguise with intent, one count of assault with a weapon, one count of breaking and entering a dwelling/house with intent to commit an indictable offense, one count of possession of a weapon for a dangerous purpose, one count of breach of probation, two counts of breach of recognizance, and two counts of robbery with a firearm. He has been remanded into custody and will appear in Wikwemikong Criminal Court on Wednesday, January 7.

Trailer camps fuming over tax

by Michael Erskine

TORONTO---Changes to the way semi-permanent trailers are taxed in Ontario will place a damper on the industry, said Bill Ferguson, of Silver Birches.

"I only have a few," he said. "Many others have a lot more, it will have a fairly major impact."

The changes that have Mr. Ferguson and his peers concerned are part of a 16-year battle over the taxation of trailers that began in 1987, when the Supreme Court of Ontario ruled the province was acting properly in adding the value of mobile homes and trailers that are more-or-less permanently installed, to the tax bills of trailer park owners.

A subsequent application to the Ontario Court of Appeal by the Ontario Private Campgrounds Association was abandoned in 1990, when the Minister of Revenue placed a moratorium on further assessment of campgrounds while consultations were conducted with stakeholders. That moratorium was lifted in 2003.

The law is a hot issue for thousands of trailer park operators and the people who use trailers in remote areas as a vacation spot. Trailers and mobile homes in year-round campsites have been taxed all along.

"It should be clear right from the start that we are not talking about campers that pull in and out of a campground," said Darryl Bender, Municipal Property Assessment Corporation (MPAC) spokesperson. "These are trailers that might have foundations, sun rooms built off of them, permanent-type sewer and water hookups."

The assessment officers from MPAC fanned out across the province visiting trailer parks and assessing the value of trailers placed on them. Tax notices have now begun to arrive in campground owners' mailboxes, and most are decidedly unhappy about the increase.

The general concept behind taxing the landowner, rather than the owner of the trailer, follows the same principle as applying property tax to renters. The cost of the tax is expected to be added into the rent or lease payment made by the person occupying the property.

"The Assessment Act directs us to place the assessment on the property," said Mr. Bender. "It is the property owner who will get the assessment."

Part of the problem lies in the retroactive nature of many of the tax bills. In some cases, this has led to bizarre complications. One campground owner reported he was being taxed on trailers that had since been moved to one of his competitor's operations.

In other cases, the property assessments are far in excess of the purchase price of the unit. But it is the property owner, not the trailer owner, who must appeal the decision.

"There is no cost for the property owner to file a request for consideration," said Mr. Bender. "It can be done at any time in the tax year."

Because the trailer is taxed as part of the assessment of the property, First Nation camp and trailer parks will be exempt from the ruling, regardless of who owns the trailers parked thereon.

"We look at who owns the property," said Mr. Bender. "We look at each individual case, we look at who is the owner of the land, and that is how it is taxed."

Algoma Manitoulin MPP Mike Brown said his office had approached the Ministry of Finance on a number of matters concerning MPAC, including the issue of trailers.

"It is fair to say that MPAC is giving quite a number of MPPs indigestion these days," said Mr. Brown. "It would also be fair to say quite a number of MPPs are not happy."

Issues with how MPAC is handling matters have been cropping up, not only in low volume markets, where historically a few anomalous property transfers could easily skew data, he said, but also in those higher volume markets where one would expect numbers to be more stable and reflective of the market.

"We are getting some odd results, and we want to know why," said Mr. Brown.

As to situations where trailers have moved since the assessment was done, he said that would appear to be a fairly clear case for a request for consideration.

"Clearly this legislation is aimed at properties where the trailer is not a movable item," he said. "If it isn't working, we need to find out why."

Washington BSE scare could impact rebounding beef market

by Neil Zacharjewicz

MANITOULIN - The recent discovery of Bovine Spongiform Encephalopathy in a dairy cow in Washington State wasn't the sort of Christmas present beef producers across Canada were looking for.

The discovery, which was announced on December 23, is not only bad news for the American beef market, but it is also bad news for Canadian beef producers, suggested Jan Joyce, Manitoulin Advisory Councilor for the Ontario Cattlemen's Association (OCA).

"It is another blow," she said. "I am not anticipating any good out of this."

Ms. Joyce said initially she was optimistic beef prices were bouncing back, but now the Americans are going to find themselves in the same position Canada did; with export markets banning American beef. The United States will build up its own surplus. That is bad news for Canadian beef producers, as the Americans are the top market for Canadian beef. Now, she said, that need will be reduced.

"It is really disheartening," Ms. Joyce stated.

The OCA did welcome the announcement by US Secretary of Agriculture Ann Venneman that the US will be implementing new regulations to further harmonize food safety rules between Canada and the US. She suggested the rules between the two countries must be compatible so as to re-establish confidence by other trading partners, as well as beef and cattle trade between the two countries.

Ms. Venneman announced the US will immediately require the removal of Specified Risk Materials (SRMs) from cattle carcasses, and that the country will implement a national cattle identification system. OCA pointed out Canada has already taken both of these steps.

SRMs refer to those parts of a carcass known to potentially carry Bovine Spongiform Encephalopathy (BSE) prions, including the brain and spinal column.

The OCA are insisting that the recent case should not affect the rule making process already under way by the US, which would allow the country to reopen its border to live Canadian cattle.

"The US is asking other countries to make decisions based on science, not on public perception, when deciding to reopen their borders to American beef. That is exactly what we expect them to do," stated OCA President Ron Wooddisse. "We know (BSE) is not contagious between animals and we know that BSE can be contained."

The OCA suggested that officials in both Canada and the US have always known that it was possible that a few animals born prior to both countries' August 1997 ruminant to ruminant feed ban could contract the disease.

"This is exactly what's happening but we're never going to reach outbreak status. We learned from the troubles of the United Kingdom a decade ago. That is why we have so many safeguards in place," said Mike McMorris, executive director of OCA.

Among the existing safeguards are a stringent testing and surveillance program at processing plants across the country, an import ban on cattle and beef products originating from countries with BSE, the feeding ban and the mandatory Canadian Cattle Identification Program.

It is estimated that since the May 20, 2003 announcement of BSE in Canada, Ontario beef farmers have lost more than $100 million.

"The economic loss and stress placed on farm families has been extreme. We look forward to a resumption of trade as soon as possible," suggested Mr. Wooddisse.

The Ontario Federation of Agriculture (OFA) is vowing to work with other farm organizations, as well as the provincial and federal governments, to minimize the impact on farmers due to the situation.

"Political leaders, having lived through one BSE situation, are urging their cattle producers to stay calm and wait for all of the facts to be revealed. Losses experienced with BSE so far this year are approaching $2 billion for Canadian livestock producers. Staying calm now may not be that easy," stated Ron Bonnett, president of OFA.

Mr. Bonnett said learning of the latest BSE situation was bad enough, but the situation was compounded by the revelation that the dairy animal in question had come from a northern Alberta herd.

"Getting involved in a blame game scenario won't accomplish much for anyone in this current BSE situation, given our beef market has developed into a North American model. We need to concentrate on verification of the identity of the animal in question and the examination of possible source of feed contamination either in our country or in the US," Mr. Bonnett said. "Canada's livestock commodity organizations can be proud of the traceability features they have developed and implemented to help them give assurance of food safety, not only to Canadian consumers, but to customers around the world."

Food basket review

by Michael Erskine

MANITOULIN---'Jillian,' is a fictional person based on a lot of real people who lead real lives and struggle with real and desperate issues every day in the Districts of Manitoulin and Sudbury.

She was included in the 2003 Sudbury and District Health Unit Nutritional Food Basket Report, along with the equally fictitious and equally real 'Brundage' family, to try and put a real face on the suffering and poverty that face people every day in this region.

As a single mother struggling to properly care for her two children, Jillian will have to find $121.02 to provide a week's worth of nutritious meals for her family in a rural area like all of Manitoulin. Last year, living in Sudbury, Jillian would have had to budget $114.98 for the same basket of food. If she lived in Sudbury today she would need $117.54.

The food basket contains no toothpaste, no soap, no deodorant. You won't find Doritos or McCain's shrimp lasagna in the basket. The budget doesn't allow for personal hygiene products, even feminine ones, nor are there any vouchers to eat out at even a fast food outlet contained in its mythic volume. Instead there is 2% milk, hot dog or hamburger buns, fruit cocktail, canned, yogurt, flour-white/purpose, and potatoes. Cheddar cheese and whole wheat flour, broccoli, mozzarella cheese, rice and cabbage. Staple, solid and unpreprocessed foods make up the bulk of the food basket. There is no room for frills, only 66 food items make up the food basket to provide nutrition for her family.

Jillian can't afford frills, after paying her rent, food and utilities, she has barely $130 left in her monthly budget to cover everything else her family needs. The hygiene products and cleaning supplies that are not part of the food basket, the clothes to protect her family from the cold westerly winds blowing off the North Channel, that $130 must cover those expenses. Birthdays and school trips are major challenges to be faced each year.

The Brundages, if you can believe it, both work at minimum wage jobs and are in even worse shape than Jillian.

Mrs. Brundage thought that now her two children were in school, she could go back to work and help out the family budget, but after she went back to work, the added costs that working entails means the family is nearly $343 in the hole. They were better off, by $643, when she stayed at home with her pre-school children.

The Brundages will require a great deal of creative budgeting, notes the report, to get by at Christmas and birthdays.

"This year we decided to put a more human face on the report by including three thought provoking case studies," said Public Health Dietician Tammy Cheguis. "We hope to clearly demonstrate that low-income earners are not making ends meet and that action is needed if we are going to eliminate hunger and poverty in our community."

The report certainly delivers sobering insight to those who will bother to read it.

The myth of the welfare bum is still heavily ingrained in the social psyche however, as the drunk who spends the family's welfare cheque in the bar each month, children be damned, stands in for the hundreds of others who struggle desperately to provide the basic necessities for their children.

While Jillian may have had poor judgment in her choice of mates, her children had no part in those decisions. Yet it is on their tiny shoulders that the brunt of the decision to not raise welfare rates for the past 10 years have fallen. The case studies in the Sudbury and District Health Unit Nutritional Food Basket Report brings that fact home in chilling detail.

As part of the report, the Sudbury District Health Unit is calling for the creation of a 'food charter,' to promote food security in the Sudbury and Manitoulin Districts.

A nutritious diet plays a critical role in the maintenance of a healthy community and maintaining food security plays a huge role in the ability of children to grow into healthy productive adults, but the current system maintains so delicate a balance between parsimony and basic needs that realistically, Jillian faces an impossible task.