The Wingham Advance-Times, 1979-03-28, Page 1.1
iil� A1111,111!.1)-1 It
FIRST SECTION
Wingham, WeduMday, March 28, 1979
Prospects br fight
me ■ am ■ ■ ■
to save acture nospirai tueas
rroepftw are ur►gmer for ware neard his report in closed hospital solicitors didn't think This will not necessarily help
Wingham and District Hospital in session and details were not there was much hope of fighting the hospital in attempting to
its battle to maintain its status as made public, but it apparently the cutbacks on the legal frontmeet its budget this year,
a loo -bed hospital. held out some hope that the In other business at the however, since the ministry
Solicitor Robert Campbell hospital has a legal basis to meeting Gord Baxter, board normally reclaims any money
attended the meeting of the board challenge the cut$. treasurer, reported the hospital unspent at the end of a year.
of governors last week to advise Further details are expected in was about $73,000 under budget The board heard a letter
the board on courses of action the near future. as of the end of January and he written by Acting Chairman
with regard to the bed cuts or- It had previously been reported estimated it would be $50,000 to Boris Milosevic to Health
dered by the health ministry. The at a public meeting that the $75,000 under as of the end of the Minister Dennis Timbrell,
budget year March 31. (The Protesting the bed cuts and
hospital financial year runs April requesting a meeting with the
1 to March 31.) minister. A special meeting or"*
— — — — • J — the board has been called for
#WVerQ l acclaent.4 Two new members Thursday evening to consider the.
brief which has been p. ; . 8 ..1.
.. U,9► m i rwe� i y �.;QS 'oin firefighters for presentation to the minister.
Isobel Garniss, chairman of the
....,.... rh :r-.:,...•.,„-�y,�,..:.;•;- >.'u.,iia �.1,atiU",,o &:.uaal111ii.d+O,.
.;,r aaacaaai.Zi'8 have jOlned !' .
A number of persons received of highways 86 and 87 in Turn- the Wingham ` fire department, reported that - group has been
minor injuries in several motor berry Township. bringing the total number of looking into the possibility of
vehicle accidents late last week, Douglas Morland of RR 1, volunteers who can be called out purchasing gifts which could be
provincial police at the Wingham Gorrie, was admitted to in case of a blaze to 23, Fire Chief Presented to staff member8
detachment report. Wingham and District Hospital Dave Crothers reported this retiring from the hospital after 10
David MacDonald of RR 1, with back injuries following an week. or more years service. The board
Parry Sound, and a passenger in incident last Thursday. Police Bruce Henry and Bob Steffen voted to accept the concept of
his vehicle, James LaCroix, also report Allan Thornton, also of RR will be taking their places in the such gifts, with Executive
of Parry Sound, were injured in a 1, Gorrie, had stopped on Con. 10- department April 1. Director Norman Hayes pointing
single car accident on County 11, west of Huron County Road 28, In another change, Ernie out the money would come from a
Road 12 at Sideroad 30-31, when he and Mr. Morland Merkley is being promoted to the separate fund and not from the
Howick Township, last Friday. became involved in an alter- rank of captain in the depart- operating budget.
Another single car accident the cation. As Mr. Thornton started ment, also effective April 1. He It was also revealed, from the
same day injured Hazen Mac- to drive ahead Mr. Morland fell joins Harley Gaunt, who is the minutes of the February board
Pherson of Fruitland. This ac- to the roadway and received other captain in the fire depart- meeting, that there will be an end
cident took place at the junction minor injuries. ment. to subsidized meals in the
hospital cafeteria. The cafeteria
is being placed on a pay-as-you-
go basis, with an estimated 25 Der
THE BIKES ARE OUT again, so it must be spring. These young lads took advantage of
F; their week's holidays and the beautiful warm weather to play some bike tag. Rodney
- Jones, Jamie Robertson, Dwayne Jenkins, Kirk Oldfield and Doug Montgomery talk over
the game rules.
Porter Commission
LAND -SEA -AIR iACKAQE Tt Uft
Business or pleasure - book now!
SERYWE
r. ffA INEZ -
Listowel, Ontario W 291-2111
Coll Toll free 1-100-265-3220
Single Copy Not Over 86c
cent increase in prices. (The.JUBILANT PEEWEES—A triumphant Wingham PeeWee Port Perry In the final p p
February meeting had been held p 9 y game to capture the Group C
in closed session.) team set out to paint the town red following its victory in the championship. The team toured the town on the fire engine
Goderich Peewee tournament Saturday. Wingham downed to let everyone know it was 'Number One'.
. iq pro-blems ahead','if,'.
..........
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Bulk hydro transmission line The sixth BNPD generating wouldn't have a problem;" he lines will be upgraded to carry will be required to connect the
failures could cause serious unit is scheduled to start said. about 4,300 megawatts by 1983 station with the power grid.
problems in the future unless operation in November, 1982, just Mr. Daunt argued that the and the measure will be Mr. McClymont said the report
more bulk lines are built soon in three and a half years away and costs of the excess capacity are "stretching this system to its was prepared in the fall of last
southwestern Ontario, an Ontario that generation capacity will tremendous, estimated at bet- �•
P h' limit though load growth will year and in light of lower elec-
Hydro spokesman told the Royal exceed the transmission lines' ween $635 million and $3 billion, surpass the lines' capacity by tricity consumption forecasts
Commission on Electric Power capabilities without the 500 kV are unnecessary and are causing 1989.90, according to Ontario made since, the submission
Planning in Wingham last week. line, he stated. inflated hydro bills across the Hydro load growth estimates. might have been written dif-
Ken McClymont, transmission Great stress is placed on province. Mr.McClymont said a new ferently.
line planner for the provincial generating 'units when the "Because nuclear power transmission line is needed
utility, reported on two bulk electricity is rejected and it could represents such a high capital between the two transformer
transmission bottlenecks at the take up to two days to put the cost it doesn't represent a stations to solve the problem or
Tuesday afternoon session of the nuclear reactors into operating penalty to put it in early," Mr. feeding too much electricity
commission's hearing. condition again. The costs of McClymont replied. Generating through the lines could cause
Postalrates
Unless new bulk transmissions replacement electricity could be capacity unused doesn't lose its voltage fluctuations elsewhere in
lines are built to lead from the as high as $500,000 a unit for each value. the power grid, causing Iia •
Bruce nuclear power develop- rejection. Another danger of OTHER PROBLEM blackouts. are going up
ment (BNPD) as many its six of having inadequate transmission The other major bulk trans- Keith Kidd, consulting
eight generating units in service capacity is the possibility of a mission line bottleneck in south- engineer for the Royal commis- As of April 1 it will cost more to
or under construction will series of power outages. western Ontario is between the sion, asked if the transmission send a card or letter in Canada.
produce electricity which Pat Daunt of the Concerned Middleport transformer station lines planner felt there will be a That is the day postal rates are
couldn't be carried from BNPD if Farmers of the United Townships in the Hamilton area and the need for a thermal generating taking a three -cent jump to 17
the 500 kV (kilovolt) line is out of reviewed statistics which showed Buchanan transformer station station in the Niagara Peninsula cents for first class mail and 15
service for some reason. Ontario Hydro has excess near London, Mr. McClymont area, as was stated in Ontario cents for third class (greeting
If that scenario took place 3,000 generating capacity of 3,400 reported. Hydro's submission to the cards, etc.).
megawatts of generating megawatts, more than would be Current peak load on the commission. It will also cost more to
capacity at the Bruce couldn't be rejected in the scary scenario double circuit and single circuit The submission stated that a correspond with friends abroad,
used because it would overload depicted by Mr. McClymont. lines between the stations is thermal generating station will as the rate for overseas airmail
transmission lines, Mr. Mc- "I'm saying if you didn't use about 2,400 megawatts and their be needed before the year 2000 jumping to 35 cents from 30 cents
w....... tea. tLIJhe (excess) capacity at all, you capacity �s 2.900 megawatts. 'Fne and new bulk transmission lines for the first ounce.
D,iffering views ion needor more electric 41111
ower
Members of the Porter Commission on it would be like comPa ri a I t
electric power planning heard differing
points of view on the desireability of
additional bulk power facilities in south-
western Ontario as the hearings con-
tinued last week in Wingham.
At the Tuesday evening session Dr, J.
K. McGregor, a Wingham doctor who
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 advancements will require
ever-increasing consumption of energy
and he said society has not yet arrived at
the stage of using renewable resources.
Our life depends on electricity, he said,
but when asked by Elbert van Donker-
agoed of the Food Land Steering Com-
mittee which he considered more vital to
supporting life, electricity or food, he
refused to make the comparison, saying
ng PP es o
oranges.
The other side of the coin was turned up
by representatives of the Turnberry-
Howick Hydro Corridor Committee and
the National Farmers' Union who
reiterated the argument made by all
farm groups that have appeared before
the commission: 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 Ecklund of the National Far-
mers' 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 com-
plexes, 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 their way to the cities."
She also asked whether such in-
stallations are being built to fill a
domestic need or for export of power.
"How much power does Ontario need-,**
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 Hamilton was farmland and
supplied Toronto with all its dairy
products, she noted.
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.
Someone must answer the question
how much electrical power we can
produce and use satisfactorily and still
have enough farmland left to feed our
people, Blake Sanford, an NFU resource
person from Essex County; added. More
and more land in being taken out of
production and used for generating
-*-t;pnwer corridors and industHes
to consume the power.
George Adams, chairman of the
Turnberry-Howick corridor committee,
also told the commission the question of
bulk power facilities in southwestern
Ontario cannot be considered without
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 electrical lines
and generators. Ontario covers 220
million acres, of which only 12 million, 5
lei per cent, are considered foodlands.
"Surely there is room for both food
production and generating facilities in a
province that large without one en-
croaching upon the other!"
The committee's brief also pointed out
that while the province currently has a
I
huge surplus of electrical energy for
export it imports large quantities 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
permanent monitoring body, of Hydro
policies and declared that no more
foodland should be sacrificed for the
generation of surplus energy.
The commission also heard a brief
from a Bruce County delegation in-
cluding Warden Arthur Speer, Gary
Harron, chairman of the Bruce
Economic Development Committee,
Port Elgin Mayor ian Jamieson and
Councillors Kathy Cook and Peggy
Knowlton.
Mr. Harron urged the commission to
recommend 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 fu►,—re energy ,tag and a
continuation of expansion at the Bruce
site is needed to stabilize the economy of
the county.
Mr. 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
accommodate 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 recom-
mendations fall outside the mandate of
the commission, which is to consider load
growth in southwestern Ontario up to the
end of 1987 and from 16e to 2000 and the
ability of existing and committed bulk
power facilities to supply the load.
Consideration of the specific nature of
additional bulk power facilities which
may he required and their locational and
environmental • aspects is specifically
excluded from the terms of „ _'I'. . � _.
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