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HomeMy WebLinkAboutThe Wingham Advance-Times, 1973-03-01, Page 15Cro ads yearLister* * Advent Forst Conte - to gid, by UAW people in "heartland of Mt+ rory weak in The Uistowai Banner/ Tbe Wine Advanc .TiMeS and Th. t Forest c onf..rate by Welr r Oren. Limited. DrN E. ,t[. Veva 'have divided ,.thio 4► parts :general. ob$erval some special' development pm b- lems, themeetings th ; and a conclusion; First of general .,observation, Ho>u. County its. the. county in Ontario to undertake 'a comprehensive plan g program on a pattens goo.. ' the,1971 rs. f sayy<that so that e people will not refer: to e sporadic.a Wings. that ,'were deck. ;art the, ;'Se's , rt coo ties .'Thein recogm that; " alb .► ° F rl la lning tlse a .'r+ieultural` lend isw ,consideredi the category rather' than some that's left over - after spotted in all the hig apartmnents,..thecar washes, W the.�tekinia, courts. The. critldm that;,' planning consultants y!d planners are urban oriented ; IS being answered in Huron c ou y. It was very interesting,.;to *Oe this as a process ,being woed out in the workshops themselves. - I'd like to suggest that if positions ..are opened in rural and regional planning these Opportunities would soon be filled by: y, ,g planners, many of them coming from the University of Quelph and who have ` a . rural background. Certainly you wouldn't wait very long bore you found that there were people w p defi ;telt' were geared in to �tt . `lenasyou have u eased'planners ay`uf `Hsterifng only, and being employed only by urban authorities. , Recognized Base/ Huron County, professional planners seem-' . to have recognized the bread and butter base to Huron County and • are planning for it. Planning in an agricultural area requires full knowledge of the functional basis of land classification and land capability. Everyone concerned must learn all he can of the in- tellectual resources available. and this applies alike to farmers, the, town people and government: workers. Government Could Learn I hope you won't think I'm out of order but I think quite a few people in the Ministry of Agricul- ture and Food could learn a lot more about what has gone on in the last few decades regarding the technology of land classifi▪ ca- tion. and land use and certainly the elected and appointed mem- bers, in fact, everyone. This knowledge should reach into the colleges ofagricultural tech- nology and the secondary schools and there is evidence that this is already happening in Huron County. Now the timing for Huron County planning is good. Most of the impact crises brought up in the workshops, rather interest- DAVID HOWES: of Har:ristgn keeps a large stock' of ;coal at Howes' [Wilding Centre. • e a..:;Y R,� µ •.ir' 50 years ago if was everywhere today a fuel that is very rare After a hayday of almost 75 years, coal has just about com- pletely dropped out of the fuel league. History tells us the first coal to reach Midwestern Ontario arrived as early as 1856 on the Grand Trunk Railway. Prior to that coal was hailed by horse- drawn wagons . from Hamilton and Dundas. . About a century later -in the middle 1950's—coal and coke hit their peak in this area and other parts of Ontario and Canada. Since then, coal as a fuel, has bit the dust. No longer is it used to provide clean, warm heat for homes, commercial and in- dustrial establishments, office buildings br institutions. Thousands of furnaces (some of them from Western Foundry in Wingham) which for many years burnedcoal, have been converted to gas, oil or hot water. In the 1930's advertisements in the Gorrie Vidette and Wingham Advance -Times advertised coal regularly. Elsewhere on this page., you will see one which claims over 100,000 Canadian furnaces burn 'blue coal'. Still Some Outlets In the heartland of Midwestern Ontario, few merchants sell coal today and most agree it 'isn't practical to maintain big stocks of coal or coke. However, for those of you with a fireplace or coal -burning stove in your kitchen as an emergency measure if the modern heat fails, the following people will be glad to sell you some coal. David Howes of Howes Build- ing Centre in Harriston usually has between 100 and 500 tons in stock depending on the time of year. He sells both hard and soft, but hard coal is the much bigger seller.. "We've been selling coal since the early 1900's and our biggest customers today are farmers. Some .people, not many in town, buy coal from us but it is just to supplement their wood burning stoves," said Mr. Howes. He indicated his firm had not considered going out of the coal business but it comes to a point where it isn't practical anymore. Archie Montgomery of Blyth has sold coal for 30 years from his yard beside the tracks near the fgrmer railway station. He delivers by truck, sometimes as far away as Seaforth and Dun- gannon. Monotonous - "Sometimes it's pretty mono- tonous," says Archie, "but we can get all we want now from Pennsylvania and its good coal. We sell mostly hard chestnut, it seems to be the best. It's hard and shiney and burns real well. We also sell hard rice stoker coal in fall and winter and hard buckwheat stoker in the fall. No more coke, it's too expensive, the same as Alberta coal -the freight costs are too dear." Mr,, Montgomery's price is $39 a ton for hard chestnut and the stove coal. Gorrie Building Supplies Ltd., in Gorrie sell hard chestnut, hard stove or furnace coal and soft stoker coal. Proprietor Jim King admits coal is pretty scarce around ' this area but he un- derstood coal was available in Elmira for about $43 a ton. Mr. King is correct—Schaner Fuels Ltd., of Elmira with a coal yard in St. Jacobs—sell anthra- cite -at $43 a ton to some customers in Millbank and Alma. "We get out coal from Pennsyl- vania and although wedeliver, our sales decrease every year," adds Mr. King. We understand Johnson Fuels and Heating in Palmerston and Manning Coal in Blyth also still sell some coal in this area. But it would appear that coal— one of the best fuel dollar values -was dropped to the level of supplementary heat or strictly for use in emergencies. In many instances wood has re- placed coal as the source of heat in the fall and spring. 1O�000 CANADIAN fURNfS''� GIVE r GNATER lli $A7IJFACTION: i.e coa Don't take chances with unidentified fuer. Follow the example of over 100,000 Canadian hotineowners who have changed to better heating. Burn 'blue coal' for the finest, most trouble- free heating you've ever enjoyed. Order a ton today. MacLea>c Lumber & Coal Co. Phone 64W. BLUE COAL, the modern fuel for solid comfort, was a big seller for alrno5t 75 year's- in our are Thit advertisemtnt claimed 1O0;000 Canadian furnaces couldn't be wrong ingly, were drawn from other parts of Ontario, but,ttiings that couldbaPl>er4 in Huron' County. Now this doesn't mean that Huron County is spared of problems, It has plenty of them, but most of the ones mentioned are still manageable, especially to those of us who come from some parts of Ontario where we. almost feel we've reached a point • of no return .in; regard to problem solutions. Garden'S Now some specific develop. mental problems, Almost all Of Huron County is Class I: Ila and ' III land. It' is;,a' veritable garden spot, a truelood bank. Itreally is a resourceor the future in the real sense -of the word. Its potential productivity must be measured against the future On- tario when ° m ist of the Urban cor- ridor is influenced by urban de- velopment. The spill out from the corridor is already felt in Huron County and already the people of the. county must. direct their attention to questions such as this: Can urban development and other non rural uses such as cottages .on the iakeshore,.and escape, estates, ,be rationalized withoUtidestroying .t ''agrarian base of the county. In the London area we used to refer to the term • of'urban drones and rural hives. t don't know whether that would be applicable. to Huron : County or. not. Through planning it la: hoped that justifiable non-agricnitural uses will be so placed and en. couragedd that the economy of the county Will be enhanc, not weakened. Towns and: cities can have tidy ,hems rather h,mi rag- gedRoadscan edges. c n be arteries of transport rather than invita- tion to spr4wt.. Cottages can be grouped rather than becoming a string of shells one row deep closing access to the water for the land locked interland. Something whichisn't appar- ent in their planning but I would. like to put a warning here, be- cause of the work that I'm doing in other parts. of Ontario. Man industries will Neap out of the `corridor in the next 25 years -It did ,come up peripherally because people. did say, what if a 'Ford plant locates in Huron County, a Ford plot type .of thing. 1 a' new pladt necessarily generate a shadow of urban users or is it possible for workers to lve in al- ready well established townand villages? The Meetings were well ;or- ganized, ''the M4440 1011 of all these meetings has i ` been ex- cellent and.` I. wish to " commend from where I'm standing now those people who hada part; in it. The consensus of the meetings regarding Huron: County was that- • planning w.as desirable' and necessary. the exact. definitions of planning varied,' Mit *lost 'agxeed that it involved steering devebop7nhent .toward ` sociall desired goals, with befits start,' Jog now. I thought that this Was important. Not . seine benefits' in some 'vague future, but now. ' And hence, planning to be realistic has to have some trade offs, some trade offs are inevitable. These',have to be rationalized ' by 'the elected councils ` and decision ' Makers, now this is, provided the people .are involved in .these decisions that are being made:. I mean that thea decisions 'are nOt made: by the elected repres ta- tives. The time scale came up as being 'important, but it is a moving target, we all . 'this and °itis like Godericdz to Exeter,:You want to go to Exeter, but you n't. • set .your - course for ' going ;term s fields and 00 on. "'4 have to followroad, and although .your goal is Exeter you have to plan for the .'next .100 Yards o•r as,' far , asyou can see ahead 'as.you drive the car and Planning has this kind of a :dill "'sion >i>l a *constantly renewing. eedOnta Plan 'i mems me. om what 1 t .-.tip �` ..< tis ,platform,. he ball was in theOrov '.s side of the urt, and an p . plan .for. ; ta' io is necessary. Even if this, merely: °,states •s if call .ho'1 +.`� a vin swill' P� y ▪ haodle its- fes, ts frregional: ' apo sibili :ies` ima `n om yesterday • ment is C'l� xlatttraity tho counties alrea` planning reconcile a 'the severe Thei -sibilitIe in can handle or expect sovereign: governments ;everyone, notonly those in .County;, but again f got` from 'the reefing ,Byvv, L. . T tishten a. _ ..,Pei b �ty],�,�Wilr� it • ���� '�itr nt�r�flow is'planning. That sounds familiar because, as you are probably saying, we have been doing that continuously, and over the years someone has always been telling the farmer to plan your work and work your plan whether it be fi- nancial, cropping or livestock. Now, however, it is land use planning on a broad scale that will affect the farmer, but is far bigger and beyond the land use plan on an individual farm: The Ontario Soil and Crop Im- provement Association held a Land Use Conference in Decem- ber 1972 in Toronto with some 325 delegates present from every county in the province, delegates, not ...dy represented farmers, but also agri-business, universities, urban people, selected ministries of. the Ontario Government and municipal councils. There have been some recom- mendations made as a result of this conference and if anyone thinks this is of little importance, then one sentence included in the suggestions when a recommen- dation was made to establish an Agricultural Land Use Advisory Board, may make you stop and think. Why Agriculture? I quote, "The terms of refer- ence for the Advisory Board may make you stop and think." I quote, "The term of reference for theWily � , }: ,. , I lie quiite_`wide fl ipein the'%bean: ning. However, it is suggested that included in the responsibili- ties of the- Council would be the development of a policy state- ment on, Why the Agricultural Industry is Needed in this Prov- ince." Who would have ever thought that anybody would even think of questioning the need of an agri- cultural gri-cultural industry in Ontario? Whose responsibility is it at the local level to take the leadership and coordinate the thinking and decision of the local people? Municipal councils are becoming involved, but perhaps a .larger group of farm people should be providing information to plan- ning groups already working in this field.. Is the• County Soil and Crop Improvement Association the logical group to take the lead in suggesting the agricultural needs of soil for our crops, and why the • nation requires this enterprise in Ontario? Some of the suggested recom- mendations, as a result of this Ontario Land Use Conference in December 1972, which will be given some consideration across the province are listed in the fol- lowing paragraphs. Name Council 1. The Ontario Soil and Crop Improvement Association request the Minister of Agricul- Deputy Minister says land -use no more than `lip service' Ontario will stop being a plea- sant place to live unless some way is found to control "a mess of residential industrial develop- ment," Ontario Environment Deputy Minister Everett Biggs said. Mr. Biggs said the failure to fit agriculture into the picture has been one of the major shortcom- ings of land -use planning to date. ' As a result, larnd-use planning in rural areas has tended to be nothing more than tip service and rationalization of present land use trends. Blames Communication Mr. Biggs blamed this failure on a complex communications barrier between rural and urban society, and said the urban indif- ference to rural areas and the rural anti -urban bias is going to make It hard to sell land use pl ah- niitg concepts to farmers. In the mntime, developers are going to develop the best` Act agricultural land. "It's easier than rolling rocks out of the way," Mr. Biggs ex- plained. He said the problem with plan- ning institutions to date is that they are largely optional and can only be activated by local muni- cipal councils. Mandatory "The notion that land use plan- ning can be made effective through a patchwork of indivi- dual planning areas is today ,a myth," he said. Mr. Biggs said it is obvious that land -use planning must be made mandatory throughout the province. He told farmers it is impossible fof' small local governments today to deal with planning on terms that will allow implemen- tation of effective policy. Mr. Biggs said, in practice, land -use planning has become largely.;' oriented to adrnirlistra- 1 ..... 111111Lit tl tion of development and land divisions, without ' taking into account the large needs of society as a whole. There hasalso been too much emphasis on dollar or assessment planning—development for the sake of assessment that can be gained by an individual munici- pality. Mr. Biggs said farmers who asked for compensation for land reserved for agricultural de- velopment aren't taking into account the economics of the situation. "From a practical standpoint, there couldn't possibly be enough money in the provincial trea- sury," Remit!. He also said he disagrees with farmers who had suggested in workshop sessions that land shouldn't pe kept for agriculture if it doesn't pay enough. :tore and Food forthe-. rovince, of, Qnt arl t o' o to' b � t;a establish .� �.t Land Ilse.'0#14OirMtftitr This advisory council , could have the responsibility of 'docu- menting the amount, type and locations of land that should be preserved for agriculture. ' It would have the responsibility . of presenting agriculture's point -of - view' when decisions are made relative to land use. 2. The Ontario Soil and Crop Improvement Association would encourage, through their organi- zation of county, and district asso- ciations, the developthent and bolding of meetings to inform farmers on the planning process, and the issues in Land Use Plan- ning. This would also allow for pro- viding information to non - farmers on land use planning as it applies to agriculture. 3. The Ontario Soil and Crop Improvement Association en- courages the participation of farmers on local planning of boards. This would ensure grass root participation in discussion and decision at the local level. 4. The Ontario Soil and Crop Improvement Association form a Land Use Committee from their own directors. The function of this committee would be to see that the previous three recom- mendations are initiated and to monitor the progress of the ac- tions as a result of actions taken. If the recommendations listed were put into practice then there are some additional considera- tions necessary as discussed in some of the discussion' groups at the Land Use Conference. Three of these questions e, "Can official plans be presented to the general public, in a form that is easier to understand?" "Should more emphasis on land use planning be included in the curriculUh at the Colleges of Agricultural Technology?" "Is there a need for some personnel in the Onario Ministry of Agri- culture and Food to have as their main responsibility a planning function?" Think About It We hope, that anyone reading this article will give it much thought and then express them- selves in this regard to the writer, your Crop Improvement , Town- ship Director, your Township Reeve or visit the Stratford office of the Ontario Ministry of Agri- culture and Food to tell any one of the staff members what you think. Is agriculture in Ontario need- ed; can proper land use planning keep all industry in the proper balance; .should we, and could we, then keep the family farm for rt generations to come? 0 sly relays of cial_ land use control regulatio critic°ally important. specifically,set out:` in there must not be any eo about this, The problemsvf. ing agriculture viabl technical as well as operatioi Theeconomics of the martial place must be recognized, the came into ° the discUssions all the time and they 'were covered. pi' many various ways. Each one.*`, them was worthy,of a conference in itself, but the consensus was that as long as we were dealing with planning that solutions are possible only if the physical faces for the agricultural activities are maintained, and that's where we started with 'land use planning. This returns us to recognizing Please turn to Page 8 Case study Heroe. County In mid December, an intensive and searching two-day Land Use Conference was held at the Sky- line Hotel in Rexdale by the Ontario Soil and Crop Improve- ment Association in co-operation with the Ontario Ministry of Agri- culture and Food. More than 400 recognized authorities on land use and plan- ning and concerned representa- tives of conservation, soil and crop associations, Junior Far- mers and other agricultural s were in attendance In additio , dozens more represent- ed plann'ng departments from counties, unicipalities, cities and province ; real estate firms, church gro s, conservation authorities, industry and univer- sities. The conference, planned for months, presented the best cur- rent information on land and re- source planning .in two days. Among the highlights 'of the conference were three case study reports. One of these, the first Ontario county to undertake a compre- hensive planning program geared to the 1970's, was Huron County and the report on this page is presented here now as it was by E. G. Pleva, observer and chairman of the study. The report is comprehensive in itself, but it dogs present a proto- type which is likely to be followed by many counties in the imme- diate future. We urge you to read it in the hope it will clarify many uncertainties and possibly an- swer many questions you may have on land use altd what it really is.