Historic march re-enactors come to South Dundas

Since elected in 2004, I have heard from many constituents of SD & SG concerned with those who abuse our fair and generous immigration system. People reacted very strongly to ships showing up on Canada’s shores with 400-500 supposed refugees aboard. Many of my colleagues reported receiving the same feedback from Canadians across the country. That is why I am happy to report that the Minister of Citizenship and Immigration, Jason Kenney, listened to concerned citizens and introduced the Protecting Canada’s Immigration System Act, to crack down on this abuse. 

This legislation will restore integrity to our asylum system by making Canada’s refugee determination process faster and fairer, resulting in faster protection for legitimate refugees and faster removal for bogus claimants. Further, it will put a stop to foreign criminals, human smugglers, and bogus refugees abusing our generous immigration system and receiving lucrative taxpayer-funded healthcare and social benefits.  

There have been many stories in the news reporting on bogus refugees, serious criminals and those who have committed crimes against humanity exploiting Canada’s generosity and taking advantage of our refugee system. This type of abuse means that legitimate refugees have to wait in line while resources are used on these bogus claims. These bogus refugees aren’t actually fleeing from persecution, but seek to take advantage of Canada’s refugee system to receive our taxpayer-funded healthcare, welfare and other benefits. As soon as they land in Canada, they are eligible for many taxpayer-funded benefits and can receive these until their bogus claims are thrown out. This legislation aims to fix this problem.

I believe this legislation will give overworked immigration officials the tools they require to protect legitimate refugees and get them the help they need while at the same time, quickly removing claimants that abuse our generosity. 

Guy Lauzon 

Member of Parliament

Stormont-Dundas-South Glengarry

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Emergency services descended on Evonik Oil Additives Canada Inc. Industries of Morrisburg November 23, not for a real emergency, but for real training, in case of a real emergency. 

“As a Responsible Care® company, this is a good measure that we undertake to protect our employees and our community,” says Carmine Bonacci, Evonik President, Plant manager, of Friday’s training exercise that had local emergency service personnel from the South Dundas fire department, Cornwall and SD&G EMS and the SD&G OPP called to the scene of a ‘fire’ in a storage building. 

Bonacci explained that Evonik regularly takes the lead role in ensuring that the community of South Dundas and its emergency response personnel are prepared to appropriately respond to an emergency at the site industry which manufactures oil additives. “At the end of the day, we need to make sure our people and the community are safe.” 

According to Bonacci, most of the additives manufactured are non-hazardous polymers, but some are hazardous raw materials are used during the manufacturing process. 

Friday’s emergency training exercise had been a few weeks in the planning, but only a handful of the employees who left the building following a 9:30 a.m. fire alarm knew that the fire was simulated. 

The emergency responders however did know that the call was simply a training exercise and their response to the scene was quick, as it would be in a real situation. 

Those staff who did know of the drill were on hand to evaluate the scene for later critique to determine how the situation could be better handled in the case of a real emergency. 

“Here we rehearsed a scenario where there was a fire in a storage building,” explained Chris McDonough, Fire Chief for South Dundas Fire and Emergency Services. “When we arrived on scene, we learned that two people were unaccounted for, so we assume that they are in the building. So, our priority is to search for the victims before we suppress the fire.” 

Upon arrival Chief McDonough also received an update concerning what chemicals were in the building in question, that information would be relayed to a hazardous materials team in Cornwall for evaluation. 

“This is a good exercise for all the emergency services,” said McDonough. About 20 South Dundas firefighters, three paramedics and one OPP officer attended the scene. At the end of the scenario, all had the opportunity to discuss areas for improvement. 

“By doing exercises like this, we find out what we can improve on, and that’s what it’s all about,” said McDonough. “It’s a good exercise for them (Evonik) and it’s a training bonus for us.” 

McDonough would like to see South Dundas Fire and Emergency Services participate in a training exercise like this at different locations in the municipality once every year. 

“It is a costly endeavour,” said McDonough referring to the firefighters need to take time off work and for plant production to shut down during the exercise. “But, it’s worth it, because now, in the case of an emergency, we all know exactly what we need to do.”

[…]

The average residential ratepayer in South Dundas can expect to pay an additional $15.47 on the municipal portion of their property taxes.

The average residential home in South Dundas is valued at almost $160,000.

By the end of South Dundas council’s second meeting to deliberate the 2013 budget, the group’s decisions mean that an additional $241,400 is needed for the municipality’s operations and priority capital projects.

In the second day of budget deliberations council made some further cuts to their donations budget and cut the purchase of two pickup trucks. 

However, they also decided to add in funds for a major project in the Morrisburg (Industrial) Business Park, that will extend Campbell Street  north and east, opening up commercial land for development.

In this budget, council is setting aside funds for repaying the debt that will be incurred through the Morrisburg Collegiate Institute redevelopment project and funds for impending landfill expansion and closure costs.

“I think this is a reasonable budget,” said South Dundas mayor Steven Byvelds at the conclusion of deliberations. “We did some long term planning.”

The Counties portion of the residential tax bill is also increasing. Last month counties budget deliberations resulted in a $16 increase to the average residential ratepayer.

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