HomeMy WebLinkAboutThe Goderich Signal-Star, 1979-03-29, Page 34PAGE 12A—GODERICH SIGNAL -STAR, THURSDAY, MARCH 29, 1979.
]iffering
ideas about
hydro need
BY HENRY HESS
Members of the Porter
Commision on electric
power planning heard
differing points of view on
the desirability of ad- ..
ditional bulk power
facilities in southwestern
Ontario as the nearings
continued last week in
Wingham.
At the Tuesday evening
session Dr. J.K•':
McGregor, a Wingham
doctorwho described
himself as a concerned
citizen and father, told
the commission in an
unscheduled brief that
electricity is "cheap at
any price." He urged the
members not to lay down
principles etched in
granite which might
restrict future choices.
Calling electricity "the
oil of the future", Dr.
McGregor argued that
technological ad-
vancements will require
ever-increasing con-
sumption of energy and
he said s.ociety has not yet
arrived at the stage of
using renewable
resources.,
Modern life depends on
electricity he said, but
when asked by Elbert van
Donkersgoed of the Food
Land Steering Committee
which he considered
more vital to supporting
life, electricity or food, he
refused to make the
comparison, saying it
would be like comparing
apples to oranges.
The other side of the
coin was turned upby
representatives of the
Turnberry-Howick Hydro
Corridor Committee and
the National Farmers'
Union who reiterated the
argument made by all
farm- gioiips- AT -Have
appeared before the
commision: the, use of
prime foodland for non-
agricultural activities
must be carefully
weighed against the need
for food, both now and•in
the future.
Hilda Ecchlin of the
National Farmers' Union
told the commission the
NFU recognizes the need
for generating stations
and power lines, but it
wants to see them built
with a minimum of
disruption to agriculture.
She questioned whether
power complexes, such
as the Bruce nuclear
power development, have
to be built in agricultural
areas.
"This power doesn't
serve our area," she
pointed out. "The lines
cross our land on its Way
to the cities."
She also asked whether
such installations are
being built to fill •a
domestic need or for
export of power.
"How much power does
Ontario need," she asked.
The NFU is calling for
. zero growth of cities in
.`.,agricultural land, such as
Toronto, Hamilton,
London, St. Catharines
and Niagara Falls. Not so
very long ago,almost all
the land between Toronto
and- Harniiton—vias- far -
mland and supplied
Toronto with all its dairy
products, she noted.
NOT JUST PRETTY
Pat Daunt of Wallace
Township, a member of
The Concerned Farmers
of the United Townships,
declared that farm
Organizations need to get
through to people that the
countryside isn't just a
beautiful scenic area; it's
where a big industry,
Canada's' biggest, is
engaged in producing
food.
Someonemust answer
the question how much
hydro electrical power
Ontario can produce and
use satisfactorily and still
have enough farmland
left to feed the people,
Blake Sanford, an NFU
resource person from
)E;ssex County, .added.
More and more land is
being taken but of
production and used for
generating stations,
power corridors and
industries to consume the
power, he pointed out.
George Adams,
chairman of the Turn.-
berry-Howick corridor
committee, also told the
commission the question
of bulk power facilities in
southwestern Ontario
cannot be considered
without also looking at
the implications for,
foodlands.
Conflicts between
Hydro and farmers could
be avoided by placing
generating stations on
sites which are not good
foodland or miles across
good foodland from the
load centres, he said,
pointing out that if good
foodland is avoided en-
tirely there are still 208
million acres in Ontario
on which to place elec-
trical lines and
generators. Ontario
covers 220 million acres,
of which only 12 million,
51/2 percent, are con-
sidered foodlands.
"Surely the •e is
room for both food
production and
generating facilities in a
province that large
without one encroaching
upon the other!"
The committee's brief
also pointed out that
while the province
currently has a huge
surplus of electrical
energy for export, it still
imports largequantities
of food. Net imports to
Ontario in 1977 included
1.2 million dozen eggs, 13
million pounds of poultry,
841 million pounds of
fresh fruit and 350,000
tons of feed grains.
The brief called for
establishment of ' a:per-
manent monitoring body
of Hydro policies and
declared that no more
foodland should be
,sacrificed for the
generation of surplus
energy.
WANT EXPANSION
The commission . also
heard a brief from a
Bruce County delegation,
including Warden Arthur
Speer, Gary Harron,
chairman of the Bruce
Economic Development
Committee, Port Elgin
Mayor Ian Jamieson and
councillors Kathy Cook
and Peggy Knowlton.
Harron urged the
commission . to recom-
mend that Ontario Hydro
expand the Bruce nuclear •
generating complex,
saying he feels uses can
.be found for the energy
while the waste heat and
steam will attract many
industries to the area.
He said he feels nuclear
power is the answer to
future energy needs and a
continuation of expansion
at the Bruce site is
needed to stabilize the
economy of the county.
Jamieson' added that
cutting back the growth
of the power station will
place severe strains on
the town of Port Elgin,
which has gone into debt
for__services to ,ac-
commodate the influx of
workers. He said it isn't
his position that Hydro
should build at all costs,
but he pleaded for a final
decision on the future of
the plant so the town can
proceed on that basis.
However, Dr. Arthur
Porter noted that most of
the delegation's
recommendations fall
outside the mandate of
the commission, which is
to consider load growth in
southwestern Ontario up
to the ,end of 1987 and
from 1987 to 2000 and the
ability of committed
existing and committed
bulk power facilities to
supply the load.
Consideration of the
specific_ nature of ad-
ditional bulk power
facilities which may be
required and their
locational and en-
vironmental aspects is
specifically excluded
from the terms of
refdrence.
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