HomeMy WebLinkAboutThe Goderich Signal-Star, 1975-08-28, Page 51,
•
Do we really need a
BY SUSAN WHITE,
EDITOR
HURQN EXPOSITOIR
We have joined the many people in this
province . who have objected. to Ontario
Hydro's recent request for rate increases,
Sure we're already paying quite' a bit for
hydro, and sure a 38 percent rate hike
seems a bit much. But the real reason we
object to .Qario Hydro asking for more
and more from its customers Is because we
think Hydro is planning for the past.
You can start from a wrong premise and
then work, from it and do projections and
estimated expenditures and budgets that
"prove" that the wrong premise is valid.
We think that's what Hydro is doing.
All their thinking and planning for future
hydro use is based on usage in the pre -
energy crisis- 1960's. Sure they are ,at-
tempting to have enough power reserve so -
that the province never runs short. But is
that really a responsible position to take in
a world that is running out 'of resources?
What is Hydro doing to reduce con-
sumption?
You see, Hydro plans to double Ontario's.
power output in the next eight years. That
will cost a huge amount of,,money,:money
that could be spent on housing and' other
urgent needs. Dr. John Deutsch, former
chairman of the Economic Council of
Canada, says that by investing so heavily
in power generation we .may actually be
lowering our standard of living because
there will -not be enough money left for'
other priorities.
It is a little known fact that, with all their
talk of saving energy, Hydro billings still
favour big electricity users over small
ones.
41 .
The more appliances you have and the
more power you use, the cheaper your
'hydro rate is. -So-even if the ecology con-
scious consumer gives up some electrical
goodies, he's paying more for obeying his
conscience,
A Toronto . newspaper article cited the
example of a Thornhill man who had in his
house, four TV's, a dishwasher, two
stereos, a heated pool, washer, drier,
power tools, total air conditioning and
about a dozen outside lights •that switched
on automatically at -dusk, He wag amazed
that his` hydro bill, in summer,, is $32 pt;r1,
month.
In Seaforth as of August ,1, when rat('
increases here go into effect, customer,
will be billed at &'cents an hour for the first
100 kilowatt hours; 3 cents an hour for the
next 400; 1.5 cents for the next 1,000 and 1,7
cents for any kilowatt hours above that.
This. could mean that the little old lady
whosuses a hot plate to cook and does her
washing at the laundramat is subsidizing
the power costs of someone with a large air
conditioned- house and a• heated pool.
, Hardly the way to encourage people to
save energy, is it? The trouble with these
rates is that they were designed originally
to encourage people to use more hydro, buy
.,a
Taxpayers pay. whopping
4 BY DAVE SYKES s `on"s of the Ontario and other rural
The Canadian taxpayer, the lowliest, of .areas that simply rely on weekly papers as
*breeds in the animal kingdom, unwillingly their news sources.
shelled. out $600,000 last 'week to inform Taking our own County of Huron as an
most, not all, Ontario voters of changes'in example, a survey taken by the Ontario
the federal riding boundaries. Government and two independent'search
The money, in questiortwent to publish a , companies indicated that 51 percent of the
171/2 page advertisement in 44 daily people take a daily newspaper. Drawing •
newspapers across Ontario describing the from my limited mathematical•education,
v riding changes in both word and maps. The that should indicate that 49 percent of the
Federal, law go. erning the Federal people in the county rely on weekly
Electoral BoundarCommission for , newspapers for local news and probably
Ontario requires peiblrcation in all daily look to television to round out their national
newspapers in the province printing in and international scope.'
eitherEnglish or French. '"'.. A reader in Huron County•hasaccess to a
But the -taxpayer has to look beyond the number of daily newspapers such as the
amount of 'money 'that was spent and Globe and Mail, London .Free Press,
question the commission on whether or not Toronto Star 'and perhaps such smaller
it was spent wisely. Brian McCool, - dailies as Stratford, Owen Sound ' or
secretary of the Federal Electoral Woodstock. ..
Boundaries Commission for Ontario said •Perhaps the ser•.•ey indicated the
that if he were in charge he could have . number of homes .who have subscriptions
probably come up with a better scheme. to a daily paper while numerous pick 'p a
,Howe,ver• Mr. McCool's probl"ems are daily sporadically on their way to or from
extended beyond simply getting the riding work. But certainly the percentage of
changes published•in all the daily papers. people ,who pick up a paper at newsstands
Mr. McCool stated- that 'the weekly or variety stores could not round out the
newspapers and ethnic papers were "down ' daily readership to 100 percent.
our throats". and'he offered the explanation 1 '' This should leave a percentage, albeit- a
that "it was a nice plum and they don't get small one, of readers who would not be
"any of it." s a ' reached and who may not be informed by
It is understandable that Weekly the electoral boundaries changes. If the
newspapers " were, anxious. to get their government recognized a commitment to
fingers in the advertising dollar pie but inform the taxpayers of the changes to'the
many weekly newspapers have legitimate w tune of $600,000 it must recognize a-com-
. complaints for • being 'shunned by the mitment to reach' all the people.' .
fission. •
comm
Just looking at a ,.-map of Ontario it is
inconcewahle that the province's daily
papers can reach the popula&.'Admitteflly
our foremost dailies such as th'e°Globe and
Mail and the Toronto Star can be •pur-
chased anywhere in the province but there
'must he communities in Nhern remote'
But aside from ,that problem there were
also questions of whether the 'format of the
advertising wasted, space. Proofs were
circulated to all the daily' papers in the
same format despite the size differences
among 'the newspapers: Generally the
daily papers run either eight or nine
columns on a full sized_.page while. tabloids,
• ,
Dear Edit() r co fulfilled)
Reader interest in
(continued from page 4) ,
himself of this invitation and
thus afford us the opportunity
of discussing our billing
structure with him. -
our relationship has always
been a productive one.
As Commodore of the
Goderich Sailing Club, m'41y( I
urger you to become more 'bb-
jective' in your political ap-
Yours truly,' .3proach. Elections are the time
D.A. Rolston, Manager ; for approaching all political
Goderich P.U.C. 'iarties -for support for 'your
special interest. The record of
CYA ,and OSA. is such that it
should not have its- f putati:on
reduced to, that of a'partisan
!organization. Your Tetter does
just_that.
As a candidate for the New
Democratic Party in the
current election, I would urge
you to have greater respect for
the credibility of our mutual
organization, CYA.
Sincerely,
Paul Carroll
Co m'tufo dore
rep l re $
AN OPEN LETTER TO THE
CYA APPEAL BY MR. KOBY
Dear Mr. Koby,
Your letter of August 13, 1975
urging support of local PC
candidates and requesting that
I, urge my fellow sailors to do
the same is hereby
acknowledged.
May I suggest that fou are
doing a great dis-serviceto
both 'the Canadian Yachting
Association and the Ontario
Sailing Association by taking
such a position as a 'director of
the CYA". The implication is
that CYA and OSA programs
are Tory political ploys to gain
votes from a special interest
group. both knew that That is not
true. The CYA and OSA have
provided (and will continue to
provide) valuable services to
the Canadian boating public. In
particular? th'e various
programs for kids are of
tremendous , importance in
providing sailing . experience
for the general public and
thereby helping us achieve our
goal of promoting the sport'of
sailing.
Personally, I have been
highly involved in "this type of
program in our own 'club. for a
ntiinber of years. We have
always worked closely with
OSA and I ' might suggest that
'taper euro rig
Dear Editor: ,
1 wish to bring to., the at
tention of your readers the
statement made in:the Signal -
Star of Aug. 21 by one of the,
local candidates.
He so stated and I quote from
the 'paper- "Rumors "for hn
Ontario Hydro heavy water
plant or' Nuclear Power_
generating Station for Huron'
County were squelched' by Mr.
Hayter who produced a letter
from Hydro to Him stating that
no •plans short or long range
had been made for establishing
a hydro plant in Huron County,
'The ,letter said that a list of
plans for Hydro's expansion
until 1992 did not include any
sites for Huron."
With all due respect to Jim
Hayter, I believe that he iS
" misleading the public, Ontario
Hydro and the P.C, Govern-
ment have indicated a desire to
build a ,.generating plant in
Huron County. This is so stated
CK�
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GODERICH SIGNAL -STAR, THURSDAY, AUGUST 28, 1975 --.PAGE 5
t power?
more gadgets and get a break in the pocket when hydro rates are increased, con -
book 1'heynot appropriate, at a time suimers cut electricity use at , non peak
when we are l'ear'ning that there is adiimit times( This means that power peaks
to resources and that consumption can't go remain hig and Hydro companies must
up and up and on and on forever. ,, keep hig reserves to meet them,
But some European companies have
managed to level off power consumption
by charging higher rates for power used in
peak periods. This apparently is working,
and Sweden aims for zero energy growth
by 1990.
Hydro's huge rate increases are based on
plans to give the province a power reserve
of from -29 to 38 percent from now until 1980.
The reserve rate recommended by the
Edison Institute, spokesman for US power
companies, is 15 to 20 percent.
If Ontario Hydro got rid of 'billing that
encourages over consumption and waste,
probably, even that reserve could be cut.
'One or ,t.wo less nuclear plants would be
necessary. Less good- agricultural land
would he carved up for power line and
Hydro customers and the provincial
government would both have more money
to spend on other needs,
There' are further ways to cut down on
bow. much reserve power Ontario needs.
,Experience in other_ countries shows that
unwise
would run half the size of that page and the
ads were simp 4 scaled to fit the pages.
The Globe and Mail and Toronto Star run
a nine column page format and the 'ad-
vertisi•ng, which was essentially drawn up
for an eight column -page, was floated in
the two papers, with wide borders.
Naturally these ' papers can demand
exorbitant advertising rates because of the
circulation and a Globe and Mail article
indicated that at 'the papers lowest ad-
vertising rates, the boundary ads cost
$99.,445. This" means that approximately
one-third of the advertising dollars spent
went to the two Toronto papers.
The adsnplaced in the tabloid size Toronto
Sun, which is half the size of a full-sized
- page, were clear enough to be read. If the
pages could be read at half the size 'then
half of the advertising dollars could have
been saved by reducing the ads to tabloid
size for all the papers. ,
The Electoral Boundaries Readjustment
Act became law in November of 4964. An,
independent commission is responsible for
'recommending the boundaries of federal
districts and their names every ten years.
The commissions are appointed for each
province.. - "
In the revision of the boundaries Ontario
will now have 95 • members, ,seven more
'than presently sit in the legislature. tie
population of each electoral district trie'fo;,
correspond to the electoral quota for the
province whichis 81,000.
Under the readjustment the electoral .
district of Huron will consist of the County Grand gen
of Huron,, the townships of Carrick,,,,,
Culross, Huron and Kinloss in Bruce
County -and the Township of Biddulph in'the
County of Middlesex:
The..,.total population ofthe new district is
66,683 which 'makes it one of the smallest
The point is, Hydro doesn't have to keep
spending more and more on the assump-
tion that we are going to use more and
more power. The boom clays 'of the sixties .
are bust and we need many things more
than'we need more electric gadgets.
And we can' do without. Los Angeles,
California cut power consumption under
the threat of the Arab oil embargo two
years ago, Los Angeles still gets along on 9
percent less power than they did in 197,1-72.
('hy doesn't Hydro see what we can do?
advertising bill
electoral districts in Ontario. Now that
information cost the taxpayer $600,000 plus
the additional cost of a daily newspaper if
one was not -inclined to purchase a sub-
scription, •
Thisvrnay not be a valid point - but could°
the commission only publish the boundary
readjustment in paper that affect ' the
circulation area of that paper? In the case
,,•
of the larger dailies reaching the province
the costs incurred would not.be altered but
shtaller''tlailies do not affect a large area
. and much of the advertising in relation to
maps and so firth justcipesn't apply.
• Or even cutting the advertising to tabloid
size 'pages would save half the space and
certainly it's a reasonable demand on ow-
, 'modern technology go ask for clarity in
smaller print. But then the suggestions are
only second guessing government policy
which,onehas to admit it has become 'a
popular game when more than $1•2 million
is spent on advertising.
CUIROSs
Teesnate,
'Qh f 1OWICK
ORRIS
B►assets
L.GREY
looks like this noir
politics,
in Report .,No. 556 SP 'Long
'Range Planning 'of 'the•Electric
Power System.' -•
It is 'fiery unfortunate when
an important situation such as '',The artiole was excellent - a
the location of a generating fine •example of good respon-
plant in Huron Count should . sible reporting. The facts given
become a political football, yes were fair•, objectives and, ac -
'a red herring to' be. used by local -curate.
We, the family who -along
with Police Constable and'Mrs,
Fortner in recent months, have
quoted above, .lover the., suiter,eci cn''ielly at the hands 'of
credibility of the candidate. various news media - doubly
appreciate these qualities and
wish to express our sincere
thanks to Mr, Sykes.
'KJ . Hazlitt n Yours sincerely, •
A my Isabella Fortner
Toronto','Ontario
p o
-to the Ontario Police rrCom-
mission - against conviction of
two charges laid under. the
Police Ad. '
Small time politicians.
1 suggest that statements
such as made in the press .and
Yours'very truly,
1
Likes kosivenir
Dear Editor, ' •
A friend in Goderich sent me
a copy of the Birthday Souvenir
edition you"printed for'the 125th
celebration.
1 shall read it with much
pleasure and interest,; since I
spent so many !Peb Wee weeks
inGoderich.
Previously I had composed
the little Goderich celebration
acrostic. Thought you might
like to use it as a sentiment
from U.S. and also an old friend
of things, Goderich:.
• Sincerely
Mrs, Grace Tolbert,
Cumberland, Maryland.
Editor's Note: Mrs, Tolbert's
poem appears elsewhere on
this page in the poetry corner,
Good icork.
Dear Editor•,
Recently - The Godt'rlc'h
Signal Star featured an article
written by Signal Star reporter
Mr, David Sykes covering the
appeal in Toronto of .nty son
Police ConstahlosTdin Fortner -
of 'the Goderich Police Force -
o
�3oth sidles ,noir
Dear Editor': :...
Sonie tinge ago we discovered
that our youngest daughter (18
mos) had some allergies and
because of considerable
irritatie; t on her feet she could
wear only 100 percent cotton
socks: i had difficulty finding
100 percent cotton socks in
GodovR brs
in 'the 1 I1 nn: ut wrenlocated Shoppetwopaithe
only two they fiad 'so I bought
therm no, h at approximately •90
cents a hall'
5}ie, wort' ih,'t11 a fe'w tulles
and \*he'11 i took her shoe's off
one d,1the one', shi' had on
were i,rae'ttcally iti shreds. 1
took. the'nT back to the store and
the s,lle'.,wornan told me she
couldn't d, anything altout it
until the; \lana•g('r saw them
and nlateie ,1 decision. That was
fine 1 we nt hack Se\'eral time's
and although he Was never
there ilrr message *as ap-
plrently" w'' 11 going,to see the
Triomf ,,tl(5nlan before .h(
would after either 0 t'0 t1 1d, tir
another 111 of socks.
i w,i11 in I.1st Friday and. \1r .,
4
licies and poems
Gregg, the owner was there and
when I inquired,,,about the
socks, now over a month since
they were returned, he said he'
Would he seeing a salesman
some title. in mid -Septet -liber.
He then immediately accused
me of rotting them in bleach,
said that,I should, know by now
how to launder all fabrics-
whether
abricswhether :•or not • there, were
washing instructions on the
package -and when I denied
purposely ruining .children's
Socks, he' said the company
would know what I did when
they made their tests. All of this
in front of oth6.r customers and
despite the fact that I assured
him the other pair- was perfect,
I then'sked hint for the name
of the salesman that pe,,haps.J
could deal, directly and he
refused to give it tame but said
if I wanted I .could write to
Trimfit in Rexdale., He didn't
have the address at this store.
The merchants on Thc'
Square, wonder why peti,ple go
to Stratford or Landon to shitp
and why they are not opposed -to,.
a mall.' i ,have purchased over
$300, wort Iv of children's
clothing bath for my own Oise
and as_ gifts in this store and for
a 9Oc pair of socks he w as not
only extremely rude and angry
at elle hut was going to have the
i(1(0(1 " sent to criminal-
laundere rs lah in Rexdille
before he, ss 1 1(1 .offer the
c'ustot11('r's.lti t'ac'ti00.
'>4ee(11ess to s,1> shopping for
( hilclren's clothes w ilh►10 litnt?ei
he',done in his store and 1 Would
riitt hesitaw to tell my friends of
the treatment i received. 1 have
ret'urile(1 thtings,10 stores in -the
Inst and have 11019r felt that I
was trying to get away with
something.,
if \1t' `(Jt i'p0 wants to retain
business 1'. 1111 0" with his
C P,I(M1 •t•s, he had •11erhaps
heti' r hell, (1 01 1e0s1 in snlrrtl
me aslo e '1111 cttslorner i
1'OQIUN BACK
89 YEARS AG
The merry-go-rou pulled
• up stakes ris morning and left'
on the arty train.
Some cows were Th The
Square one night last week and
made their supper on some of
the flowers and other square
ornaments, .
The Square at the head of -
` f-Iar'i ilton St. was in a bad state
for part of this week owing to
the hydrant leaking. There was''
mud galore.
A large number of men in the
'vicinity have noticed the
special rates to Manitoba and
have gone west to help harvest,
the bounteous crop of wheat.
The skating and curling rink
Is gradually nearing com-
pletion under the supervision of
D. McLaren. A crow's nest wa,s
found on the ridgepole Monday
last and three of the young ones
-did a lot of cawing when it was
removed.
The roof of the large coal and
woodshed of J,.S, Platt caught.
fire from a -spark from the
smoke stack about. • noon on
Tuesday,'The` fire brigade was
called out. Fortunately, a pail
service was successful in
putting out the fire and the
f'irenien were not needed,
Stratford 'Beacon: "The
Daily -Signal hag not been
properly supported ' by the
.businessmen , of Goderich.
Probably when the bright .lithe
sheet. has ceased to exist,, the
merchants may be sorry that
they had 'nett contributed their
share towards keeping ibt alive,
• Mr. McGillicuddy .,has,, fur-
nished the best advertisement
Goderich,has ever had1+That his
`� enterprise has not been ap•
-
,,preciated goes to show that a
town can be afflicted with
something much worse than
cow pasture streets."
60 YEA RS AGO
Owing to the turbiiient state of
Lake Huron, the passenger
steamer Huron .which arrived
from Detroit early' Wednesday
morning is' still lying in port.
Her captain attempted to make
the trip up to fI'obermory last
night, but after being out six
hours returned to port, This
afternoon' the to.
paraded The Square in a body
and, made things look lively.for
a while.
The charm of a, perfect June
evening, with the odor of roses
in the ai'' and a cloudless
surnmer sky added the final.
note `of exquisite harmony to
the appointments of a sweetly
Simple wedding at Grace M'.W.
Church, which 'united in the
holy bonds of ,marriage Mis's
Edna Nichols and 'Howard
•Bate,man.. One of the in-
teresting features in the
groorn's part of the• wedding
was the fact t.hat,,.,the suspen-
•'ders that he wore had been
carefully embroidered seventy
years - before 'by his grand-
mother f(ir- his • grandfather's ,
wedding,
1 t is time to begin the
finishing touches on the stock
'for the full fair'.. Push the stock
breeding business. Gra in-
growing is sure to fail if per-
sisted in, Stockbreeding? —
never' Pigs wrl,l . fatten - on
sproalt('d wheat so that ,if the
haver, shows -the price doW'n too
Hy, the man -with the livestock
still has another- chancy. An
unmistable � proof of efficiency,
in farming' is .capacity to
deliver the land from an eXcess
of water at .one tl,me and at
another -still have plenty to
grow 11 good crop,
('anleron''s Millinery has a
now stock, of good material: as,
'a spacial- bonus on August 31
they will sell 1 lb of 3 -ply white,
hlack or grey rix yarn made
by Paton's for (lOr,
always right" or at least the t(i hint the socks had been.
customer has, rights which do bleached, He noted a telltale •
not. include' beitqg treated •50 ..creamy shade which indicated.
discourteously, • bleaching and said the„ con -
For my money 90c worth of dition of material would also
good public relations in the'first indicate the socks had been
•
„instance would have paid 'for btached. Mr. Gregg -said the
'itself many , times over sup.- Crtstorner may have
'posing he never recovered the
%vholesale costs.from Trimfit.
Yours truly,
Mrs, N. Flynn
Editor's note: Mr. Gregg at
The Jenny Wren Shoppe • says
he has been haying this brand
of 'cotton sock ''for many years
without previous cotllplaint. Fie
points out that this customer
purchased one package. (two
pair); to, 0 package) out of
' several dozen packages for sale
in his store, and fou.ud only alae
pair of . 'socks not to .hot;
satisfaction. He finds' this
tc
strange' said
1
w'a
s
obviot
S
'uaknowingly bleached the
socks, but he felt they were
'nonetheless, bleached,' He Braid
he .was willing to return the
socks to the manufacturer
where that company would test
the socks, in their own private'
laboratory, He denied
threatening to send the socks to
a criminal -launderers lab,
adding •he knew. of no sueh
place, Mr. Gregg told the
Signal -Star he felt the ckiin
was unjustified in',this case, and
said that legitimate complaints
are all handled to the
satisfaction of the customer.
GODERI CH, 125 YEARS
One and a l l
• Now'on,call
Enthusiasm, shouldn't
hunting in old papers
',Until we find
Ne'4's of past c apers
i)ue to tease out' mind.
Recalling too
Extra nice thirigs -
, Done by r1 fey',
The archives
We search through
Even past lives
Now brought to view
Tell us news thr ives
Yes, interesting too.
pall.
Fun we should take
in recalling the past
•Very ready to mtike
1•;ndut'in'g memo! to last.
--Grace Tolbert
5 PEARS AGO
i)amage was estimated at
ahitut 875,000 when an early
morning fire .raged through
Garland's Children's Wear and
the edge of Schaeffer's
Interiors.' It was the first major
business fire on. The Square
since the old British Exchange
Hotel. now the site _ of,
Woolworth's store, was burned
to the ground some 15 years
ag,,. - Scary three different
persons turned in an a-larm for
the fire which was first located
ahout 1:30 a.m. Sunday.
Attendance at the Hugon
(''runty' Pioneer- Museum is
crowding the -20,000 mark for
this season: In addition to many
visitors from most of Canada,
they also registered ',from the
United States„ Germany;`
:Scotland, England, Japan and
Holland., Marc Dutch people
from overseas have visited
here than any year previous.
The Penny Carnival at Judith
G(iodcrham Perk was a
resounding success according
to officials at the pool,