The Rural Voice, 1985-07, Page 6easOnab'e
N retuSed`
Otter •
COMBINES
MF 750D Hydro ....... $11000
MF 750D ............. $11000
MF 510D, late model .... $9000
MF 410D .............. $6000
MF 300 gas & header.... 83500
AC gas & 4 -row, narrow corn
header..............$3500
JD 7700D ............. $9500
CASE 600, two heads
(like new) ........... $2200
JD 444 corn header ..... $4000
MF 63, 6 -row corn header $3100
TRACTORS
IH 1086 with cab ...... $16,200
IH 484 with loader ...... $9100
AC 185 with loader SOLD $7700
Two MF 1085
with cab each, $9500
MF 1155 with cab....... $7500
MF 1135 with cab ....... $8000
FORD 3000 $4700
CASE 580B, Ioade SOl.D.;khoe
JD 1010 crawler, loader, back-
hoe
Z
SPECIAL
COMBINE SALE
JULY 20
Combines at 2 p.m.
WILL TAKE TRADES AND
LIVESTOCK
"You name it we have it!"
BRINDLEY
AUCTION
mile east of Dungannon
529-7970 529-7625
4 THE RURAL VOICE
FEEDBACK
Foodland Hydro
for all people
I applaud CFPL television's
Inquiry program entitled "Power for
the People" aired on May 26, 1985.
However, though the broadcast was
an hour in length, the surface of the
issue — using food land for a
transmission corridor — was barely
scratched.
Ontario's food land is extremely
vital and totally irreplaceable and
therefore should not be used to sup-
port an electrical transmission line.
The citizens of Ontario are already
paying high prices for their electricity
supply and taxpayers are also suppor-
ting Ontario Hydro's inconceivable
$23 -billion debt. Now they are being
pressured to sacrifice food land.
Ontario Hydro must be forced to use
less productive land for transmission
lines; our future depends on it.
During the past decade, the
Ontario government has given
Ontario Hydro an unfettered leash
and it has run out of control. This has
spurred the formation of groups of
concerned citizens, such as Foodland
Hydro, to try to enforce some logical
planning to save already depleted
prime agricultural land for our future
generations. Ontario Hydro is clever-
ly manipulating these concerned
citizens groups, pitting them against
each other by proposing a scenario of
various transmission systems from
the Bruce Nuclear Power Develop-
ment.
Hydro now recognizes that the
resistance of these groups is greater
than anticipated, so recently it quietly
put forward yet another system, the
M7, which treats all areas of
agricultural opposition "fairly" —
they all get at least one "string of
lines." The proposed M7 system con-
sists of one 500kV single circuit from
the Bruce Nuclear Power Develop-
ment (BNPD) to Barrie, one 500kV
double circuit from the BNPD to
London, and one 500kV single circuit
from Nanticoke to London. This will
certainly not quell the resistance put
forward by opposition groups, but
will greatly increase their momentum.
Frequently we hear of the "NIM-
BY" syndrome — "Not In My Back
Yard." No, of course not, nobody
wants it in his back yard, but there is
far more at stake here than a
transmission tower being an eyesore.
It is the damage to the land, frequent-
ly irreparable, that is the concern to
agriculturalists. These lands may
never again be able to support the
present crop yields.
It is not only the area at the base of
the tower that would be erased from
production; the affected land would
encompass the entire transmission
line right-of-way. That is approx-
imately 300 acres of prime
agricultural land south from the
BNPD to London, plus 250 or more
acres for a transformer station. Yet
Ontario Hydro emphatically states
only 25 acres are lost to a transmis-
sion line on this route. The inconve-
niences of working around towers
damage to drainage systems, obstruc-
tion to aerial spraying, and compac-
tion of the land are a few of the many
nuisances to be tolerated.
A responsible government should
ensure the protection of prime
agricultural land by effective
legislative planning, with which
Ontario Hydro must comply. These
repeated malpractices of Hydro
should never be allowed to occur
again.
At present, if Hydro feels its in-
terests are threatened, it will use any
power at its disposal which it deems
necessary to protect itself. Ontario
Hydro has to convince no one, and so
acts in its own interests, regardless of
the consequences to others; it obeys
no regulatory bodies, holds no
shareholders' meetings, and is subject
to no elections.
The new Ontario government must
take the reins of Ontario Hydro and
bring it under control; citizens groups
must continue to fight, at their own
cost, for the preservation of
Ontario's food land for the future
generations of this province.
Foodland Hydro is fighting, fighting
for all people in Ontario, to help re-
tain their food land. If nothing is
done, future generations will rightly
condemn our generation for selfish
misuse of Ontario's most important
resource — prime agricultural land.
Jane Rose
Ailsa Craig
Don't abandon parity
In his column in the June issue,
Mr. Vos states quite clearly the case
against parity pricing. But we feel