HomeMy WebLinkAboutThe Goderich Signal-Star, 2009-01-14, Page 12Page Al2 - Goderich Signal -Star, Wednesday, January 14, 2009
Do vou ove win er, o
Doi you LVE winter? Are you glad it's would miss winter. I really love it.
here? Would you say that you look forward I was sitting in the other room and
to it? I personally couldn't admit to this something about what he was saying just
- until last week when I started consider- wasn't computing -- "I love winter" — "I
ing a little attitude adjustment in this area. would miss winter"? For whatever reason,
It happened when I overheard my hus- these sentences were turning my brain to
band on the phone. He was talking about mush.
the fact that my dad was spending the I had never considered that there might
winter down in Arizona. At one point he actually be people who could say with all
said, "I hope that they are enjoying it. I sincerity that they LOVE winter. I realized
ou look forward to winter?
A thank you to Hydro One customers
On Sunday, December 28, 2008, a winter storm packing winds of up to
100 kilometres per hour knocked out power to more than 235,000 Hydro
One customers. Another wind storm that followed the next night interrupted
Power to an additional 24,000 customers.
In the wake of these back-to-back storms, Hydro One, with the support
of local utilities, assembled 1,300 workers - as many as worked to restore
power following the 1998 Ice Storm. In addition to this small army, the
Company used every ATV, snowmobile, and helicopter available.to get to
hard to reach and remote places to clear hundreds and hundreds of trees
and broken poles.
We were able to restore power to more than half the affected customers
within the first 24 hours. But many of our customers were without power
for several days; some into the New Year. We regret the inconvenience •
the storm -related outages caused our customers. We thank them for their
patience and resilience. We also appreciate the support and courtesy they
extended our employees who worked in the cold and in challenging terrain
to bring every customer back on line.
Hydro One wishes to thank local emergency services and municipal workers
who cleared roadways and made safe downed power lines until crews were
able arrive on site. We also wish to thank the local utilities that provided
support to restoration efforts including:'Middlesex Power, Erie Thames
Powerlines, West -Coast Huron Energy Inc., Woodstock Hydro, Norfolk Power,
Westario Power, Chatham -Kent Power, Peterborough' Utilities Group,
Orangeville, Hydro,,Hydro One Brampton, Veridian Power, Lakefront Power,
Hydro Ottawa, Barrie Hydro, Parry Sound Hydro, North Bay Hydro, Greater
Sudbury Hydro, Newmarket Hydro, Powerstream, Ottawa River Power,
Oshawa Hydro,Toronto Hydro, Lakeland Power and Newmarket -Tay Power
Distribution Ltd.
www.HydroOn.Networks.com
hydr8�e
Partners in Powerful 'Communities
that there were people who loved to ski
and snowshoe and go ice -fishing. Weren't
they just making the best out of a bad (and
cold) situation'? Weren't they just making
lemonade out of lemons?
Winter had long ago become a form of
torture for me. When 1 moved out here
from Toronto 16 years ago, I had to learn
how to drive in winter. And unfortunately
I took some hard lessons in the ditches of
Huron County along the way. I often have
had to travel for work and so have done
enough white -knuckle driving to indelibly
etch on my soul that I truly hated winter..
Then I find children. Bundling these lit-
tle guys up in enough clothing so that they
wouldn't become frostbitten only to find
out as I squeezed them into their car -seats
that they had to go to the bathroom left me
pining for the simplicity of summer more
and more.
I never understood the stories about
the old sourdoughs that would lived up
North in the Arctic -- traveling by dogsled
— nearly freezing to death
just to get to town. Maybe I
have read too many Robert
Service poems that in detail
describe the frozen skin and
the cold air searing the lungs
with every breath, but I had
never considered the idea
that maybe these old guys
actually CHOSE to live up
there — because they LIKED it!
And so, last Friday, I decided to ask my
husband what in the world he was talking
about. Ironically, as we sat down in our
living room with warm coffees in hand,
the sun was shining in through the win-
dow, big fluffy snowflakes were falling
and there was no wind blowing.
As I looked at the winter wonderland
outside, I started to wonder whether the
word "Duh" was going to be the answer to
most of my questions. But on I pressed.
"How can you honestly say that you
LOVE winter?"
Province must fix assessments
You can count me among
the 4.7 million Ontarians
who has a problem with the
provincial government's
2008 property assessments.
For me it was all in the tim-
ing.
On the day that we received
our assessment notice from
Ontario's Municipal Property
Assessment Corporation
Volvo announced it was clos-
ing it Goderich doors, putting
a potential 500 + individuals
out of work.
It was also during a week
when we were in the throes
of the federal election, where
the focus by all candidates
was the sudden and "unex-
pected" downturn in the
economy.
Add to that the prospect of
losing a school,
and it's very
hard to factor
in a new
assessment
process that by
MPAC's own
admission was
initiated by the
McGuinty government to
provide an additional level of
property tax stability and pre-
dictability.
Get that?
"Stability" in an unstable
economic time, and "predict-
ability" when by the admis-
sion of most politicians these
days the financial hardships
we are facing were
Unpredictable.
Letters to the editor of the
Signal -Star of late suggest
that some homeowners may
end up paying more in prop-
erty taxes. That's true. What's
also true as I understand it is
that some will pay less and
others will pay nothing at
all.
If you fall in the less or
nothing crowd I would be
very interested in hearing
from you, because I haven't
met anyone yet who falls into
either of those two catego-
ries.
When Premier McGuinty
was pressed on the issue of
the property assessments, he
himself admitted that they
were unrealistic.
He also isn't about to scrap
the 2008 assessments even
See GODERICH, Page 17
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