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Home My WebLink AboutThe Huron Expositor, 1998-01-14, Page 3rWINTER INTERLUDE ENCORE I THE HURfON EXPOSITOR, January 14, 1999-3 Lights, camera, action... A film crew from out west is in Seaforth this week. 1t is working on a piece on William "Bible Bill" Aberhardt, the former Premier of Alberta and founder of the Social Credit Party. A woman visited this paper late last .year doing. some advance research. Clerk/treasurer'Jim Crocker told last week's meeting of • Last November's annual' Christmas party of thc Seaforth Business Improve- ment Association made a profit of $2,500, according to last month's meeting's min - Marion Lansink volun- teered and has been accepted as student representative on the BIA. Two local businesses, Design • Concrete and Jannette Stoll. is presented engraved gold in recognition of her 25 years as a Health Care Aide at the Seaforth Manor by Joanne Ryan. Director of Carc and Trudy MacDonald Health Care,Co-ordinator during a surprise get-together of staff and residents on with an and silver watch Whitney-Rihey Funeral Home. have,' also joined the association as associate mem- Thursday. (Fitton photo) hers Bell gives song and dance over lon BY JACKIE FI[TTON Expositor Editor• . Why is it a long distance call to London from Seaforth when five miles down the road in Dublin it's not long distance'' Helen McLean says Seaforth got left out of the process and wants to know why Seaforth residents didn't have an 'individual vote. ' The telephone company announced in late December that Seaforth will get local toll-free calling service. to Goderich. - Seaforth wanted an expand- ed local area to London and petitioned the Canadian.. Radio -Television Telecommunications (CRTC) along with other area munici- palities under thc coordina- tion of the Huron -Tel Communications of Ripley McLean says it was up to Bell Canada .to inform -each customer of it's intentions when it made the proposal. • Don Hogarth. Communications spokesman for Bell Canada said the -rationale behind Seaforth having local calling to Goderich is because Bell Canada wanted to fink every- one to the closet main busi- ness centre in their area. "One of the factors taken into account is where people, drive.' You could be in one community and do business in 'another. In the case of Dublin and Mitchell they were 'joined in all points in' between with London. because that was their natural main business centre in their area, he said. • For Seaforth it was deter- mined the main business cen- tre closest meeting the traffic pattern criteria was Goderich.. The decisions by, Bell Canada were made in part as a result of submissions and correspondence by Bell cus- ' tomers throughout Ontario. He said he couldn't -access the informationon how many submissions were received' from the Seaforth area which -played a vital part in what ,was taken to the CRTC. . Hogarth said there was a lot of publicity surrounding the proposals. He said all com- munity newspapers around the'province were all notified . of the proposed changes. "What we try to do speak- ing in a general sense it try to link everyone to the closest closest main business centre g distance! in their area." McLean said "Seaforth got .left out." She, said she has talked to other citizens who are just .appalled at Seaforth being left out. . . "We didn't have a say and the bottom line is we were never asked." • The issue was approached through Seaforth Connell, Huron Telephone and the businesses of Seaforth who all petitioned against the rec- ommendation. A diabetic, McLean said she requires specialized care and the majority of her med- ical calls are to London: • McLean doesn't know if any other seniors in Seaforth are in the same predicament. "Mitchell: gets to London_ Dublin gets . to London Seaforth gets to Godericjt and Wingham. And we never had a say." McLean said. ,Price of gas still rises at pumps 'SCOTT HILGENDORFF SSP News Staff' When the price of .gas to Goderich was set at 56.3 cents per litre. it colt Grant Chisholm. a fuel -suppi'icr in Lticknow.14t).2 cents • per •Iitrc' 10 get it there' Chisolm wan a speaker invited to give presentations to the Liberal Caucus Committee on Gasoline Pricing in one of its province - wide stops in Goderich. Jan. 8. I 1 His cost begins with a 20.6 cent pre litre rack price (the cost from the refinery). Add road tax. GST. and hauling. costs and the price reaches 49.2 cents per litre when it is supplied to a gas station. . The station then has to add to the price to cover the cost of running the facility. "I don't think there's ahy room for anyone to say . they're being upped off." said Chisholm. He was one of three speak- ers at the meeting sharing their thoughts an issues of gas supply and pricing to the gasoline committee. The com- mittee, made up of '12 MPs who have volunteered to look into the issue of fair gas pric- ing, is travelling the province this month in response to an outcry from their constituents. Rick Hammond, a co-owner of Gra-Nam fuels, an indepen- dent wholesaler who supplies fuel to Chisholm, also gave a pre Iation l e suggested the committee should look at the issuc of gas station ownership. indicating there are only a few major fuel suppliers who own a large number of gas stations. Hammond expressed con- cerns about the future of the small, independent gas sta- tions. suggesting they arc being forced out by the larger competitors through such manoeuvres as offering lower gas prices at their stations. The large companies can afford to lose money on the sale of their gas. forcing thc smaller independents. out of business. Four MPs, Huron -Bruce MI' I'aul Stecklc, Mitldlesex- Lambton-Kent MP Roisc- Maric Ur, Dan Mc'jeaguc MI' for Pickering -Ajax -Uxbridge and chair of the committee. and Roy Cullin MP for Etobicokc 'North. sat on a panel at the meeting to h'ear from the presenters and public and 10 ask questions of the presenters in their quest to gather as much information as possible about the supply of gas from tho .refineries to the price setting at thc pumps. After they finish touring -the pmvincc, they plan to prepare a report,coptaining recom- mendations they hope will lead to fairing pricing prac; tices. Cullin, wanted to know how the price of gas in a communi- ty is raised at several stations all at once. • He said it's not all the retail- ers sitting at a donut shop deciding to raise the price. "i'm sure there's communi- cation but- not the way people think." Hammond said. He said thc laws don't stop a retailer _from taikine to the ,station down thc street about changes in. their gas prices but when they do talk, it's usually with a lot of swearing. asking why the other retailer changed the price. That forces the others tri do the same. Hammond also pointed out. it's not like the competition between grocery stores. With gas stations. there are, large signs denoting the price and as soon as one station changes it, .the others can see, and follow the lead. A recent article in The London Free Press illustrated unc gas station that lowered its price to 49.9 cern per litre while other stations were priced around 50.5 cents. This generated several complaints from the presenters. Hammond said that compa- ny is a price leader, lowering its price and forcing everyone •else to do the same to com- pete.. In his presentation, Don Edward of Edward Fuels in Ooderich_said he doesn't understand why anyone would sell gas that cheaply. "i think it's unreasonable," he said, suggesting 54 cents a litre would be a reasonable, minimum price at the pumps to keep the gas station's doors wen. • "The people who hate their gas prices have to be remind- ed we have the second. lowest gas prices in the world." he said. adding the United. States has the lowest bedause there, is less tax. With the highest taxes. Edward said there are also people trying to beat the sys- tem and pointed to fraud and tax evasion as a problem in tie industry that is being over- looked. In that case. he said the • major oil companies deserve some credit because they do pay their taxes for everylitre produced at the refinery. Edward- said sonteone should be looking at the peo- ple who are .taking the lead and dropping their price below cost to see that the taxes have been paid ori the fuel that is in their tanks. He said there is a small group of people doing this but it forces them all to lower their prices. In response to committee concerns that the larger com- panies are lowering their prices to, try to force'out thc smaller, independents, Edward said it is usually the indepen- dent who lowers the price first. • "I _just don't think they are colluding in that area:" he&said of the larger companies. He points to the possibility of collusion at the street level where one retailer calls his . supplier to say he has to put his price down because. the guy across the street just dropped his. However, the guy across the street has done thc same thing too with his own supplier, say- ing his competition just dropped the price. But in his presentation, he raised a new issue for the committee that its members had not heard before. Edward suggested that something other than' proper gasoline is being sold at some stations. "There's a lot of stuff that passes for gasoline that is made," he said. He said a lot of misinforma- tion is given at border points about the contents of what is being brought into the country and that some fuel contains PCBs and other chenllcals as a way of disposing of them. continued on Page 5 COUNSELLING • Marriage • Family • Personal Growth • Learning Disabilities BRIAN O'REiLLY, D.s.w. 160 Huron St 482-9249 Seaforth & District Community Centres HOCKEY. POOL '97-98 RANK STANDINGS Pts. as olden. 11!98 1. Dave Scott I 2. Terry Gray II 3.- Bob McNaughton *3 4. Dumtar I 5. Dumtar III 6. CDB013 7. Flanagan - Kevin 8. Main St. 3 9. JMC 10, Bob McNaughtont11. 11. McNaughton - S 12. SIC 1 13. Bobby Clarke 14. Tim McNaughton 42 15. Alain Vigneautt I 16. Jett Nesbitt 12 17. Withal Weapons 18. .116 19. Alain Vigneault I! 20. .Bruce's Best 21. Sarah 22. Flyers,- 011 23 Joe 11 24. Main St. 2 25. Watford 1 26. Flanagan - Mike 27. Jim's *2 28. Lindsay 29. Mery Bennett - 01 30- SDCC Quick Pix 31. Dave Scott II 32 Nana 33. Sundin's Leafs 02 34. Forever Hab 35. Legion of Doom 03 36. Bill Boon 37. Bill McIver 38. Bobby Orr 39. Son Has No Clue 40. Mery Bennett - 53 41. Taylor II 42. Derek Nesbitt 43. George Townsend 44. DB -26 45. A&W*2 46. BBB -3 47. Dave Scott III 48. Ken Tknmermans 49. The Fans 60. Hooters 101 This ad sponsored by 445 444 442 442 441 440 440 440 437 436 436 436 435 435 434 433 432 429 428 427 '427 426 426 426 426 424 424 424 424 424 423 423 423 422 421 420 420 420 420 419 419 418 418 417 418 4 418 418 418 415 527-0180 23 Godortoh $t. W., t+leatorth council the crew had con- tacted him in the past few days from Edmonton (where it was expected to go down to -34C that evening) seeking permission to film from town property, if necessary. They arrived Monday. . Aherherdt was horn around Staffa in Hibbert Township and members of his family lived in Seaforth for many years. The historical plaque on the front lawn'tif the local high school tells more about him. AKEY BROS. PAINTING & DRYWALL ;uality workm-• • tree estimates ' written guarantee Call Dave 5?' -239 7 ~I P1 -\\ll 'Ft ..\l\lt • REPAIRS • REBUILDING • KEYS RECOVERED • DAMPP CHASERS • REGULATING • BENCHES BRUCE PULSIFER 348-9223 Mrscxra.r. Fall & Winter Fashions 1/2Price 4LAJKFS&M ) FASHIONIecS 30 Main St., Seaforth 527-0278 Seaforth Community Hospital Foundation Present `SAT. FEB. 14,1998 SEAFORTH & DISTRICT COMMUNITY CENTRES MUSIC by "PRIME" - Meal by GRACE CAMPBELL CATERING 3 TRIPS TO BE WON Las Vegas . for 2 • Courtesy of Wi and ••• - Trevi !_'' - Niagara Falls ;Get -A -Way' - Carlson , Courtesy of wagonilt Travel" - "^ Owned & operated' be Ellison Travel and Tours Toronto Theatre Weekend r TICKETS: $50. Per Person. Available at Seaforth Community Hospital MIRE' REGULAR STOW FABRICS, PTTENS & M.S.R.P. SO% OEE 04R REG. TRICE NOME DECOR Collection dO /o Off 00R RIG. MICE 447 Hututl Street. Sttatlotd 0,mmeriy C.un,unnwo 272-2722