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HomeMy WebLinkAboutThe Citizen, 1986-10-15, Page 1Serving Brussels, Blyth, Auburn, Belgrave, Ethel, Londesborough, Walton and surrounding townships. VOL. 2 NO. 42 WEDNESDAY, OCTOBER 15, 1986.40 CENlb Grossman to speak to PC's Ontario Progressive Conserva­ tive Party leader Larry Grossman will be the guest speaker at the first P.C. event for the newly created provincial riding of Huron at a fundraising dinner Friday in the Brussels Community Centre. Under recent redistribution leg­ islation passed by the government in July, the former riding of Huron-Middlesex has become the riding of Huron. The new boundar­ ies basically follow Huron County borders. The dinner, with an anticipated crowd of 400, will mark the first gathering of the new riding association and will alsobe the first time local P.C.’s have been addressed by Grossman as the party leader. Also attending the dinner will be Murray Cardiff, M.P. for the federal riding of Huron-Bruce and newly elected president of the Ontario P.C. Party Tom Long. Grossman will be in the western Ontario area for several meetings that day, including a luncheon speech to the Owen Sound Cham­ ber of Commerce. Tickets for the dinner are $20.00 per person. The reception begins at6:00p.m. Grossman will speak at approximately 8:15 p.m. Further information on the dinner may be obtained from Donna Wood, Hur­ on P.C. riding association presi- denmt at (519) 482-3481 (office) or (519) 482-7744 (home). Shy driver visits Queen's Villa An unknown driver paid an unexpected visit to Queen’s Villa apartment building in Blyth early Saturday morning, leaving plenty of signs of his passing, but no identification. Wingham OPP report that a vehicle left Hwy. 4 and cut across thebuilding’sfrontlawn, doing $300 worth of damage to a Huron County road sign, a chain link fence, the lawn and two trees. Police are investigating the inci­ dent. Goderich OPP report a good holiday weekend, with only two minor motor vehicle accidents, no impaired driving charges, and less than 50 highway traffict act charges being laid. Proud aunt Maxine Houston of RR 2, Brussels shows off her four-week-old niece, Denise Camochan of Seaforth at last week’s Quilt Show at Duffs United Church in Walton. Several members of the UCW, sponsors of the show dressed in 1880’s costume for the occasion, including Mrs. Houston who modeled a dress passed down in her family from before the turn of the century. Baby Denise enjoys the comfort of an antique baby carriage, loaned by Max and Barbara Watts of Brussels. Crop insurance changes urged Fed up with the perceived inadequacies of the current Canada-Ontario Crop Insurance program, a Blyth-area farmer has prepared a resolution seeking input from Huron County farmers on ways in which the program might be improved. John Van Beers, of RR 1, Blyth, formulated the resolution which was adopted at the annual meeting of the Huron County Federation of Agriculture (HFA) in Brussels October 9, clearing the way for the formation of a committee to supply input towards a review of the insurance program. “I’d like to see farmers who are not involved in other committees get involved with this one, so they would have time to work on it,’’ Mr. Van Beers said. ‘ ‘There are serious faults with the program, and there is an urgent need for grassroots input into (a review); there are so many good ideas out there that need to be heard.” Mr. Van Beers suggested that perhaps the committee, on behalf of the HFA, might prepare a questionnaire which could be run in local weekly and farm papers in order to get the greatest return of information in the shortest time. “With so much concern around Pressure for emergency farm aid mounts If anything good can be said to have come of the recent devastat­ ing crop losses in Huron County and across the province as a result of record September rainfalls, it may be that the disaster has touched so many farmers, and that strength may truly be in numbers. “Adversity could create a stron­ ger line of defense (against the loss of the family farm)” commented Zurich area farmer Paul Klopp, newly-elected president of the right now (because of crop losses), this would be the logical time to do it,” he said. Fed by persistent rumours, speculation has been growing in the county that major changes to the existing crop insurance pro­ gram are due to be announced, the Continued on page 25 Huron County Federation of Agri­ culture, commenting on the new feeling of the need to fight back growing among farmers in the county. “Normally you would never have been able to get 40 farmers out to a meeting on a Monday morning with only a few hours notice. I think they are getting fed up with going 100 per centtothe wall just to break even.” He was referring toameeting Continued on page 25 Energy Centre could help farmers, McGregor says If farmers from the Huron, Bruce and Grey county areas exerted pressure on the provincial and federal governments to make sure fermentation alcohol is em­ ployed in gasoline to replace lead, a substantial new market for farm grains could be created locally, members of the Huron County Federation of Agriculture were told in Brussels, Thursday night. Speaking to the annual meeting of the Federation, Sam McGregor from the Bruce Energy Centre said Canada is lagging far behind other jurisdictions in the use of ethanol (grain alcohol) addition to gasoline to replace lead. In the state of Michigan alone, he said, the equivalent of 18 million bushels of grain is being used to produce fuel ethanol. Currently no grain is used for ethanol fuel production in Ontario. In outlining plans for the Energy Centre which will use excess steam capacity from the Bruce Nuclear Power Development to power industries, he said one of the first tenants of the Centre will be a 7.5 million-litre-per-year grain alcohol plant scheduled tobe completed by August of next year. It is supported by a $1.4 million interest-free loan from the federal government. The government has been less anxious, however, to support the project by legislating that ethanol and methanol be used to replace lead in gas. The pressure is heavy against such a move from the major oil companies, Mr. MacGregor warned, because they can see 10 per cent of their market going down the drain if methanol from natural gas and ethanol from farm grain crops are combined with gasoline. The potential for farmers, how­ ever, is large, he said. “If three parts grain alcohol was blended with five parts methanol and added to gasoline, some 40 million bushels of corn, wheat and/or alcohol could be employed annu­ ally to satisfy Ontario’s require­ ments for gasoline octane when lead is finally phased out. ’ ’ He said a major portion of the industry supplying this alcohol would locate in the Bruce Centre because of the access of both steam and electricity purchased from Ontario Hydro at one third normal rates. If ethanol production takes off in Ontario he sees cereal grains being used more than corn, which is the main crop used in the U.S. Cereals can be used in crop rotation with alfalfa and while it doesn’t yield quite as much alcohol as corn, it produces a better by-product of Distiller’s Dried Grain which can be sold as a feed supplement to red meat and dairy farmers. Cereals also have the added benefit of being harvested earlier for more security of supply, he said. The second of the initial occu­ pants of the Energy Centre will be a four-acre greenhouse complex us­ ing excess heat. The greenhouses will also be supplied with carbon dioxide from the fermenting pro­ cess at the alcohol plant to stimulate the plants. The potential for greenhouses at the Bruce Centre is tremendous, he said. Energy savings can be $32,000 an acre off the usual Ontario cost of $48,000 an acre for greenhouses. Just to replace the imported tomatoes at the Toronto Food Terminal would require 300 acres of greenhouses. But, he warned, it is the time for the people of the area within a 50-mile radius of the centre to get behind the project. “Damn it we have to get behind it before they take it away from us and give it to Darlington (nuclear plant)”, he said.