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HomeMy WebLinkAboutThe Huron Expositor, 1990-11-28, Page 2Luxpositor SINCE 1860. SERVING THE COMMUNITY FIRST Incorporet Ing The er uss.ls Post Published In se.tertlt. Ontario Every why Marakig �IA i IP Pial. (swami IAstnsr r 1111111411111111408. M. a ilsesa. ws►Min owa&A411W1. £ .ijtlre0 llopresmisehe 11114111111110801111. Yds. PIM SIAM Was Odosil aAsslrl�i, SIMISO l/twpa ACCOUNTI IOs M Amass Mar aulirseli Ueda Mime MAernber Getwilue c ewes'► UIea4pr Assoc Onforto Catrotwasity Nswspsr A.mIsMse Ontario Press Council Commonwealth Press Union international Press lnststut• Sub.cnpnton Rotes Canada '22 00 a year w+ odronce Senior Omens '19.00 o year in advance Ou»tde Canada '45.00 a yor, an advance Stngle Copies 60 cents each Second close moil rogistrotrw, Number 06% WEDNESDAY, NOVEMBER 28, 1990 idltoriel end alwlneas ° ipe - 10 Mein stmt. Seaforth Telephone (S11) S27-0240 Fax 527-21130 Melling Address - P.O. b: $ . Sealorlit. Ontario. N01C IWO New respect Ontario students are gaining a new respect for trees, thanks to a forestry program making the rounds in the schools. Focus on Forests, the Ministry of Natural Resources forestry education program, is a hands-on learning program designed and written by teachers, with input from govemment and industry foresty experts, and is gaining accolades from around the province. • The project shows students in primary/junior and inter- mediate/senior grades that forests provide not only wood products, but also wildlife habitat, environmental benefits, a livelihood for communities and recreational opportunities. Activities, songs and presentations are used to bring forestry and environmental awareness into the classroom. Program leaders are ministry staff, resource specialists, or selected teachers, and each undergoes three days of intensive training at centres across Ontario to get an understanding of the program. The leaders then conduct six -hour workshops that teachers must take before they can receive the workbooks for their classrooms. The subject matter is not taken lightly. Nor should it be. In addition to the schools, the program is being made available to such groups as the Boy Scouts and Girl Guides. Perhaps those groups can pass on their knowledge to the vast majority of others - specifically the adult population, which is more than likely the most liable to take our forests for granted. Politicians managed assets Dear Editor. Your readers, with other Canadian taxpayers, are the victims of an expensive cover-up being carried out by our elected leaders in Ot- tawa. Our Members of Parliament cur- rently have a gold-plated pension plan that is truly outrageous. After only six years in office, MPs can start collecting their pensions the very day they leave Parliament, regardless of their age. What's worse is that MPs of all parties are deliberately covering up the true cost to taxpayers of this lavish scheme. A recent report by the federal .government's chief actuary showed that the MP pension plan is $144 million in the red! Who will have to pay this huge IOU? The tax- -Letters payers of Canada. Until recently, no one had heard about this huge liability because it was handed over to a House of Commons Committee that meets in secret and publishes no minutes. The whole situation is shameful. MPs should come clean and fun- damentally reform their pension plan. Maps are now held in dis- respect they've earned it. They'll get respect when they start to lead by example. Yours truly, David Somerville, President. -Rural Roots by Jeanne Kirkby The social vision Last week we listened to the Throne Speech prepared by Ontario's new NDP government. All special interest groups remembering promises heard in the past, had great hopes and expectations built up for a new political approach in our province. But the speech was general in tone with no definite commitments to anyone. Probably given the surprising amount of the Ontario deficit, this was a wise course for the new government to take. We were especially looking for how they would attack the farm crisis, but there were only a few fast words on that topic. Thank Goodness for the printed word. By studying the next day's newspaper and by reviewing the text of a speech given in Huron County by Elmer Buchanan, Minister of Agriculture and Food, this is how I read the picture. Our new government intends to improve its programs to stabilize farm incomes. it will work toward a social vision that recognizes the interdepen- dence of farmers and food processors, consumers and producers, city and country. Cooperation is stressed and the right of rural people to share in the benefits of society is emphasized. Protection of the environment is a priority. What is its idealistic "social vision"? Let's get down to the nifty -gritty! In Clinton on November 9, the Minister identified the five social sectors with interests in food production as; the producers of the food, the businesses supporting farmers, other residents of small rural communities, the food processing companies, and the large percentage of city people who eat Ontario food. He wants these five parts to recognize that we are interdependent, and learn to replace competition with cooperation. The Minister emphasizes that rural people have the right to enjoy the benefits of society while urban people should enjoy the fruits of the country. And we must all live in harmony with a sustainable environment. in any agreement between parties, each side must give and take. From the food producers' point of view, 1 think this means we should be aware of consumer tastes and trends, and try to meet their demands. Are they into lean beef, low fat dairy products or dark yolked eggs from free range chickens? We must educate them to the purposes of our farming inputs and practices, and strive to come up with a universal definition of the term "organic", so that those wishing to go that route would know exactly what it means. in return, would we be able to enjoy the social benefits of a Go -Train in Huron County, or get our post offices hack? Farming by consumer trends and fads is a little like trying to govern by popularity poll. With the recent talk of recession, layoffs, bankruptcies, Tera to ease !r. Plastic roads an innovative idea 1 rouoavod an ialssaaria4 areas 1011,010 in is asai1 soma weeps moo, about age products beoo.t pos- sible b.of Mc avaiIbeamy at new 111111169,19 - It seer sitar everywhere we turn theses days we arc reading about someone, sotncwt>rrc, who is cunugg across new acetal alloys, ocw plastics, new ceramics - Or st.sncihmg. And all these naw somethings promise to provide lbs perfect answer to some chicane Or another. This most recent press tekasc not ody reveals information about hip implants made of ssoet and coated with ceramic, and computer cis that wort with light, but it proposes the use of recycled plastic milk jugs in our roads. --Sweatsocks to the releaser. goads wiAdcte=s in than should last loser it roads without the ad - chum Noce asphalt road materials arc camplicatdd outwits at Oil based compounds, they rind tier "flow" at High temperatures, leav ins tuts under heavy traffic loads in the but summers. In the winter the nmateriall becomeit befall, and can selZwevar, when special plastics ars added to the asphalt, the long plastic molecules can "knit" the asphalt together, and the result is a by Heather Rubins* sold slrtaee this can tart Weber, under heavier loads, at bots high aid low temperatures. Pretty innovative, oh? However, what is eves mon innovative is the new twist that resciu s arc now lulling to this idea. It scans that rather than spacial, custom made (and costly) plastics, they are proposing the use of waste plasuc:s such as old milk jup or old.uzes. Byling chest plastics as asphalt mladr�crs, =cat- chers say we could extend the lives of both our roads and our landfills. 0111,10 Maybe someday soon wc'l be driving home oa cop of the tiros we used to drive home on. The whole concept is as anuaing one, or at least, so 1 dsiat. Sevens like Just yesterday that this kind of dung was the stuff of science fic- tion novels, , and n it's a part ut ow oeveryday f ltvec. And that's the case, 1 wonder what the science fiction novels of tornossow have is store for us. And just bow long they too will be on the shelves before they become obsolete. Sloths don't pay the full price The electricity rate from Seaforth PUC may be going up, and I'm not responsible for it. Last week I had to cover PUC and the new rates proposed for 1991 were announced. I was given an handout lacking pages other people received. What their han- douts contained was information I wasn't supposed to have. For example, they got a chart showing a comparison of proposed rate increases in nearby municipalities. I wasn't allowed to see the names of those municipalities. Seems that's top secret information. I've always had a gripe with Ontario Hydro over their double tier system of charging less per kW.h for anything above the 250 kW.h. of usage allowed under minimum billing. I don't see why rates should go down for residential customers who use more energy. It seems to me I'm being forced to subsidize sloth. At the PUC meeting I was so bold as to ask why the double tier system exists, especially in a time when Hydro is supposedly trying to teach us to conserve energy. It seems obvious that if you really want people to conserve energy you charge them a higher rate for War in NOVEMBER 28, 1890 Mrs. Birchall was seen on Woodstock streets Friday, for the first time since her husbands execution. Mrs. Birchall, accompanied by her sister, mrs. West Jones, lett Woodstock Monday for New York, en route for England. Mrs. Birchall does not believe that her husband made a confession of guilt to Rev. Dean Wade. The prisoners of St. Paul de Vin- cent Penitentiary presented Bishop Bond with a silver -headed cane on the occasion of his jubilee. Mr. Jont Irvine, of Richwood, near Paris, met with a very painftil accident on Tuesday last week. While in his yard he was attacked by his neighbour's boar. His clothes were badly tern and two large cuts were made in his leg, which had to he stitched up by a doctor. He had a narrow escape of his life, but fortunately he had a heavy neck - yoke in his hand and managed to beat the animal off. Canada exported nearly a million dollar worth of goods in erects of what she imported during the month of October. NOVEMBER 27, 1911 The large number of horses re- -Just Thinking anything after the first 250 kW.h. Get 'em in the wallet, where 11 hurts the most. That'll teach 'em. (At least their GST portion will increase.) But, instead Hydro will spend millions of dollars on 'education programs' that many people will ignore or just not hear about. I was told that actual conservation of energy isn't really wanted by Ontario Hydro. Apparently, if everybody really conserved energy, it would put a lot of people out of work, namely Ontario Hydro people. I was told growth is the only way to ensure Hydro's staying power in the future (I believe their being a monopoly has something to do with their power, too). I said 'Nobody wants more nuclear stations,' and I was told 'Not everybody doesn't want more nuclear stations.' It's the same thinking as deciding to become obese to show that I support farmers, or actually more often than not in the case of by Susan Oxford obesity, to show that I support multinational food processing com- panies. It's the same kind of thinking that since landfill sites are becoming too full to operate any longer and workers in that business may become unemployed, I should make more garbage to help them keep their jobs. Or, lumbering com- panies should continue to destroy the Temagami forests because some people won't learn to do something else for a living (like planting forests). The best examples of crazy growth to employ people is the example of the super huge hydro dams planned for the Amazon River and James Bay, or even the soon to debute war with Iraq. All these come with a price tag of death to people, many of them already clin- ging by a delicate thread to life and survival of their people. All to allow some homo sapien pinkus rotundas the right to leave their lights on when they want to. If a person in Seaforth isn't paying very much for electricity I suggest it's because that person is a conservationist, frugal or just doesn't have the money to purchase electronic appliances and entertain- ment, let alone run them (assuming they want the gadgetry in the first place). So, in this era of wanted unbridled growth, or unbridled girth, it's obvious I'm not doing my part to keep Hydro people employed because I try hard not to consume too much electricity. Hydro's idea of energy conser- vation is to have us spend between $15 and $30 on energy efficient light bulbs. These masses of plastic (some sire made in Mexico, probably at poverty wages) throw very little light, take up space because of their incredibly stupid shape (which makes them easi l y indentifiable to the dim witted), and will only end up in landfill sites to sit for hundred of years because they're made of plastic. 1914 makes good business -Years Agone quired for the war is putting a good deal of money in the hands of Canadian farmers, and in many instances, the farmers of the United States as well. About 5,000 have been bought and shipped from this city for war purposes and the buying has scarcely got rightly begun. Shipload after shipload of horses is being forwarded to the front from Si. John and Halifax. These horses are bought all over Canada and taken to St. John and Halifax by rail. An officer of the British army is receiving the horses. They are selected and bought by competent men appointed by the Dominion government and then received by the British army of- ficial. A good many are bought from west of the Great Lakes. Among the other supplies are Mts. The manufacturer is getting exten- sive orders. Some of the mills are working day and night to meet the demand not only of the Canadian troops but to fill numerous pur- chases by the British war office. Financial conditions in ()ntarin continue 10 i • . ve and to promise from the Archives improvement. There has been talk of reopening the Toronto exchanges on a cash trading basis and in other ways the bright side has shown itself. The city of Toronto, for example, wanted money. The money market had not been par- ticulary encouraging. The wise ones at city hall concluded to try an issue of bonds to a total of S2,000,000 on terms of one, two and three years. The issue was placed in due course, and. hugely to the relief and joy of the city treasurer, people have bought the bonds. The woollen mill at Benmiller, famous throughout the county for its excellent products. is now busy turning out blankets; and yams to fill a Government army contract DECEMBER 6, 1940 Main highways from Seaforth were open Wednesday after a week long blizzard, which old-timer illy was ane of the wont early Decem- ber storms within their As the storm reached niliestr= on Wednesday, every road leading from town was blocked, despite steady work on the part of county and provincial snowplow crews. As the storm lessened during the night the plows were able to cut their way through the drifts, but travel on any road is still hazardous. Conces- sion roads are completely filled, many being impassable for horses. A broken bridge at Mitchell forced heavy traffic to detour around a concession road and two large plows, supposed to work this stretch of highway, became stranded on the detour. The storm indirectly led to a fire alarm at midnight on Friday. A large transport, after bucking drifts on Railway Street all afternoon and evening, finally reached Main Street, and as it did a short circuit caused a fire in the engine. The brigade extinguished the fire with chemicals. it took a transport from eight in the morning until six at night to fight its way from Mitchell to Seaforth on Wednesday. On the huge transport was a l0 -ton cater- pillar tractor which lead to be ready for wort at Port Albert on Thursday morning. When the clew learned it was impossible to go further west, they bedded die truck into a snow - Toni tepm e ISA •