The Rural Voice, 1979-05, Page 23the heavy industrial development in his area, Essex is still a very
productive agricultural county, and nobody will deny that. When
told that white bean production in Essex -Kent had declined from
80% to 2% of the total Ontario production because of pollution,
he first denied this and then found different reasons for the
decline.
But the Harrow Research station has deinitely shown ozone
pollution from the Detroit -Windsor area s the culprit. He said
that there is less corn produced in Essex, but that this is because
the new varieties allow production in more Northern locations.
Now this is replaced by soya -beans, he says.
He also says that there is no worry about city expansion, for
even Ford held the bulldozers back for two weeks, so soya beans
could be harvested first. Small consolation if one knows that that
soil will never produce food again.
It is the attitude that industrial development is good, period,
that has led to so much unnecessary loss of good food producing
land. One could feel sorry for the government people, who
preach the gospel of development so earnestly. But they too
must learn that industrial development is only good if it doesn't
infringe on other important development. That progress is only
good if it is measured as a total, and not as the progress of a
single segment of the community.
Sometimes it seems that Ontario Hydro is learning this
wisdom. Anexample is the settlement along the Bruce -Huron
Power transmission line.
The power that seems to be most needed by Ontario Hydro is
the power of co-ordination. The empire is so big now, that it
appears as if the decisions of the different departments are made
completely independent from each other.
Pat Daunt, the cattleman from Huron, who has fought and
worked iwith Hydro for many years, pointed out to the Porter
Commission that many non -Hydro people had worked with
Hydro to study how best to use the land, but none of this was
evident in its prese ntations to the Commission.
The presentation to the Porter Commission by the Mayor of
Port Elgin and other officials from the Bruce development area,
pointed to the dilemma these people are in. Before any study was
done, Ontario Hydro decided to put the Nuclear Development
among them. No one at the time knew what this entailed for the
area and most were delighted. Only after the project was well
underway, did the negative aspects become apparent. Thef
increased coststo the towns and villages were bankrupting them,
until Hydro and the Ontario taxpayer came to the rescue with
grants and other monetary band-aids. This gave the
municipalities time to plan and try to prepare against the time
that the construction phase of the development would wind
down.
Now, suddenly, through no fault of Ontario Hydro, for they
couldn't foresee the oil crisis either, there is a great surge in
energy prices and everyone starts cutting down on hydro use
through various means, and Hydro's forecasts are all cock-eyed;
construction must be slowed and even part of it cancelled
altogether.
The Bruce municipalities are caught off guard and the plans
for the replacement and transfer of jobs from plant construction
to new industry are lagging behind the wind -down at the
development.
There have been some bright spots. The Bruce men told Porter
that some marginal farmers had worked at the plant, and with
the extra money had built up the farms to make than viable
today. This sounds much like the well-known story of the farmer
who won a million in a lottery and when asked what he woulu do
with it, replied that he would keep on farming till it was all gone.
Huron County residents apparently have heard what was
happening in Bruc? and told the ministry of industry people at
the recent seminar on development very clearly that they wanted
none of it.
1
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-ROSCO
Now is the time
/` w a
A reputable company and
an honest dealer can offer
you a good deal more
Come in and see us today!
Haujh
Equipment
One mile east of Brucefield on Huron No. 3,
Brucefield, Ontario
Canada
(519) 527-0138
THE RURAL VOICE/MAY 1979 PG 21
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