The Rural Voice, 1981-12, Page 18Season's
Greetings
from
KEN CAMPBELL
AND STAFF
,4'
KEN R.
CAMPBELL
FARMS LTD.
R. R. 1 Dublin 527-0249
PG. 18 THE RURAL VOICE/DECEMBER 1981
VOICE OF A FARMER
Hydro debate
by Adrian Vos
Ontario Hydro has announced the selection of the route for the
planned transmission line to take electric power from the Bruce to
the Ontario grid.
The selected route will go right through
Ontario's most productive agricultural
county, Huron. Hydro's Chairman Macaulay
explained in his announcement,- --that
although this route is a bit longer and more
expensive to build, resistance against it
would be so much less that the total cost will
still be lower than the close -second selection,
to the ESSA station near Barrie.
This supports the opinion that the Huron
County Federation of Agriculture, on the
advice of their power line committee, chaired
by Vice -President, Tony McQuail, made a
serious error in judgment when they decided
not to participate in discussions on route selection.
The reason given was that it was haying time and having hay in
the field rained upon would be too costly. The committee never
considered using the rainy days for study.
The Power Line Committee lost its credibility when McQuail
went on CKNX-TV to express his opposition to power lines on the
ground he is opposed to nuclear power.
Hydro officials must have rolled off their comfortable chairs in
glee when they heard him. With all his sincerity and almost
religious convictions against "nukes" McQuail is beating a dead
horse. What is more damaging is that the HCFA has unanimously
decided to help with the beating.
It just doesn't make sense to object to a powerline per se. There
is general agreement that since the Bruce station is built, the
power must go out. McQuail stated that since Ontario has enough
power we should let it sit bottled up in Bruce. That is just not
realistic.
When the Porter Commission recommended to consider the
possibility of building even more nuclear plants so Ontario electric
rates could be held down by exporting power to the USA, the
cause against nuclear power was lost. It apparently takes a long
time for some of us to accept that.
Porter recommended building no generating plants on Lake
Huron at least until the year 2,000.
He told me, "that means 'never—, but with the grid only a few
miles from the lake, and the year 2,000 only 18 years away, the
temptation to forget Porter's report will be great.
It is important that any power line has the least disruption on
agriculture and food production, be it in Huron or in Dufferin
county. However, by not telling Hydro through participation in
the hearings pf the effect on Huron farmers, Hydro selected this
route through a process of elimination. Of course they did. No one
told them any different.
HCFA will say that this is only the beginning because a full
environmental hearing still has to start and the process can still be
reversed. That is poppycock; theoretically it is possible, but the
majority of Ontario participants in other regions have already
decided that Huron is the place, and any overturning of that
decision is an uphill battle.
What is particularly galling is that five years of successful
participation in the Porter hearings by 22 farm organizations and .
(Cont. on page 39)