KDSS soccer team hit by bug

Page 10

Independent
The Kincardine

PM40005269 R08067

VOL 35, ISSUE 43

KINCARDINE, ONTARIO

WEDNESDAY, NOVEMBER 4, 2009

$1.25 INCLUDING GST

H1N1 second
wave hits
Kincardine
By Kristen Shane

Kincardine residents were set

to see the first H1N1 flu shot clinic
here Monday night, but clinic dates
are coming too late for many in the
community who have already caught
the virus.
Grey Bruce Health Unit officials
confirmed last week that the second
wave of the outbreak is in full swing
in the region.
We really saw a good increase
during this week of people visiting
the emergency departments with
respiratory illnesses or flu-like symptoms, said Alanna Leffley, a health
unit epidemiologist.
Locally, Brenda Rantz of the South
Bruce Grey Health Centre, said last
week that emergency room visits
at the four hospitals the corporation runs in Kincardine, Walkerton,
Chesley and Durham have doubled.
Normally, 50 or 60 people would visit
an emergency room per day.
Yesterday, (Oct. 28) we had seen 60
by mid afternoon, she said.
As of Thursday, more people were
visiting Kincardine and Walkerton
ERs than Chesley and Durham.
So Rantz, who is in charge of
pandemic planning for all sites, and
other hospital officials decided to
limit visitors to patients. No visitors
are allowed in the Walkerton sites
maternity ward. Other patients at all
four sites can only have one visitor at
a time between 2 p.m. and 4 p.m.
The limitations are simply precautionary, said Rantz.
Officials know that people in the
community who have the virus (and
possibly dont know it) are coming
into the hospitals. We simply want
to reduce the risk to our patients, they
are ourresponsibility, she said.
Luckily, the virus hasnt hit hospital staff, she said. Hospitals have not
had to call in any extra personnel.
Normally, around two-thirds of staff
get the seasonal flu shot each year.
This year, so many were lining up to
get the shot at in-house clinics that
the hospitals ran out of vaccine.
(We) are simply waiting for more
to come, said Rantz.
More is on the way, but a delay in
vaccine production is causing slow(continued on page 2)

Getting the jab

Public health nurse Helen Risteen gives Rev. Dennis Cluley of Kincardine his seasonal flu shot last Monday. Cluley was
among 349 people who packed the Kincardine and District Secondary School cafeteria to get the shot at the clinic for
people more than 65 years old. Kincardines first H1N1 flu clinic was held at the medical clinic Monday. (Kristen Shane
photo)

Commencement woes:
will ye no come back again?
By Kristen Shane
Five years ago, Marie Hutchinson
left her Ripley home to study science
at the University of Western Ontario
in London. Now, shes in her second
year of medical school there.
She would love to come home to
start her practice after she graduates.
I have family there. Kincardine is
a great place to be, she says, on the
phone from London.
Her boyfriend is also from the
Kincardine area.
Then, theres the fact that the
community is desperately short of
doctors.
But Hutchinson is leaning towards
specializing in obstetrics and gynecology. And if she does, she likely wont
be back. The Kincardine hospital

doesnt have a maternity ward.

And, she says, the way the hospitals been going, its hard to predict
what will be there in the future.
Back in November 2004, Hutchinsons class marked its commencement from Kincardine and District
Secondary School. On Saturday, a new
crop of fresh-faced KDSS graduates
will cram into a gym full of doting
parents and teachers for this years
ceremony.
About half of the graduating class
from the year before (2007-8), or 90 students, pursued university or college,
says Peter Wolfe, a KDSS guidance
counsellor.
Its very typical, he says. We
have an abnormally high rate of
students heading off to post-secondary.
The majority likely moved to the

city to take their courses on campus.

But will they ever return? Like
Hutchinson, some are already guessing not.
Laura Brown, 17, is still eight
months away from graduating. If she
goes away to university for microbiology like shes thinking of doing, she
probably wont move back to work in
Kincardine.
In terms of the field that I want
to go into, there (are) not a lot of
jobs around here, she says. If there
were the jobs, I think I would come
back.
Others are not so fond of settling
in their hometown.
I know a couple of my friends
who definitely say they want to leave
and never come back, she says.
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Community Focus
The Kincardine

Independent

Page 3

THE KINCARDINE INDEPENDENT, November 4, 2009

Is our municipality feeling rural brain drain?

(continued from page 1)

In some ways, she

can see their point.
I love Kincardine.
Its a very, very nice
town. But its so isolated. Its so far away from
everything, she says.
Statistics Canada
compared how many
youth left home between 1988 and 1996,
and how many were
living in their hometowns in 1997. In Ontario, only about 22 per
cent came back to rural
and small-town areas;
slightly more returned
to their city homes.
Adults aged 40 to 59
almost doubled the number of 20- to 39-year-olds
in the Municipality of
Kincardine three years
ago, according to census
statistics. A population
bar graph divided into
four-year age brackets
looks like an M, with
a hollowed-out middle
where 30- to 34-yearolds sit.
The locally-born who
could have boosted those
bars are working in Saskatchewans oil patch,
teaching snowboarding
in Whistler, B.C. or taking teachers college in
Australia.
So, is Kincardine feeling rural brain drain?
If it is, Wolfe has a
personal hunch its not
that severe.
I think for a typical
small townKincardine has a large number of grads that come
back because of Hydro.
But if you go away from
the area affected by hiring for Bruce Power, I
think the brain drain
is a much greater problem, he says.
Back 20 or so years
ago, Wolfe says, there
was a stigma that if local grads went to work
at the Bruce Nuclear
Powe r D eve l o p m e n t
site, they were just set-

tling for the job next

door and they lacked
the sense of adventure
to discover the outside
world.
I dont think thats
the case right now, says
Wolfe. I think there
(are) a lot more students
saying, My goal is to
become an operator at
the plant, which we
didnt hear a lot of in
the past.
He skims down the
list of last years graduates and picks out 10
students who went to
Cambrian College in
Sudbury.
Thats a big number
for one school, he says,
especially given that its
about a six-hour drive
from here and there are
more than 20 other Ontario colleges to choose
from.
Many students anticipate getting their
power engineering degree at the school and
coming back to work at
the plant, he says.
A l o n g s i d e l o c a l s,
there are those who
come from across the
province and beyond to
take jobs there. These 20and 30-somethings are
buoying the ranks left
vacant by local youth
who have found greener
pastures elsewhere.
After a high dollar
and soaring electricity
prices tanked the pulp
and paper mill where he
was working in Thunder Bay, Shaun Perry, 30,
took a job as an operator
at Bruce Power three
and a half years ago.
You just basically
move where the work
is, he says.

Up north, he might
have gotten another job
at a saw mill for a couple
years at $11 an hour, he
says. Its just not competitive with what the
Bruce can offer, so Im
here.
Hell likely stay here
long-term for the job,
but, I can live here 30,
40 years and not (feel at)
home, he says. Youre
not really from here unless youre from here.
Youre never really part
of the group.
But for all the Shaun
Perrys who have jobs
here but cant call it
home, there are Marie
Hutchinsons and Laura Browns who feel at
home here but may not
find jobs.
Good jobs are what
keep people in Kincardine, says Mayor Larry
Kraemer.
We do have one predominant industry, and
I think it would be an
advantage to diversify,
have more options if
possible, he says.
I think that if were
going to have continued growth, we need to
find a way to keep the
kids, or perhaps attract
some to the area that we
dont have right now,
says Kraemer. One of
the best examples is to
promote post-secondary
education.
Kraemer is a member
of the board of directors of the Lake Huron
Learning Collaborative.
T he Goderich-based
non-profit group is trying to bring more postsecondary training to
Huron-Bruce.
An e-lear ning cen-

tre at the former Westario Power building on

Queen Street is already
running. But space is
cramped because medical records and other
supplies are being held
there until the medical centre addition is
finished. Kraemer says
he hopes the centre will
eventually house classroom-style courses, as
well as e-learning and
video-conferencing with

universities and colleges across Ontario.

Jobs and education
aside, there are other
factors involved in convincing someone to start
a career here.
For instance, they
have to look out for their
familys best interest
and be able to afford a
place to live.
Kincardine is a very
expensive place to live,
Hutchinson notes, refer-

ring to high-priced real

estate.
These are the decisions some of this weekends grads will have to
weigh two to four years
down the road after finishing post-secondary
school. Will the Kincardine lighthouse beckon
their journey home? Or
will ye no come back
again?

164 tons diverted from

dump in July, August
Kincardine diverted 164 tons of recyclables from being dumped into landfills
this summer. About 80 tons were diverted in
July, and slightly more than that in August.
Newspaper and cardboard made up about
two-thirds of the diverted materials.
Of the seven Bruce County municipalities that make up the Bruce Area Solid Waste
Recycling group, Kincardine is normally
one of the top recyclers; it also has one of
the largest populations. By the end of August, Kincardine had diverted 783 tons of
recyclables so far this year. Comparatively,
neighbouring Huron-Kinloss Township
which is slightly more than half Kincardines population had diverted 405 tons
during that time.
In other municipal news from Kincardine:
*The municipality issued 17 building
permits in September, only about half the

number of permits it granted last year in

that month. The municipality saw a similar slump in the value of construction: it
dropped from $6.8 million last September to
only about $1.3 million this year.
The statistics reflect a general decline in
construction in Kincardine this year versus
last year. September showed one of the worst
drops so far this year.
Most permits were given to build singledetached homes, or for home additions and
miscellaneous projects such as decks.
*Kevin Klerks quit as the chair of the
Accessibility Advisory Committee at the
end of September, saying he didnt have
enough time to devote to the group. Council
accepted his resignation Oct. 7. His seat is
now vacant. That leaves the committee with
only two members of the public, a councillor
and a municipal staff resource.

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