Garry Matthews For his role in placing Dufferin County and his own township on an international energy map, Melancthon Mayor Garry Matthews has been picked as this paper’s “Newsmaker of the Year” for 2005.

The newsmaker designation would not have been something the mayor dreamed of when he was a kid living near the excitement of the original Woodbine Race Track at Toronto’s Queen Street and Kingston Road. Nor did the title of mayor enter his reveries.

In those high school days, the young Garry simply wanted to become a teacher of technical courses. He did fulfill his original dream, and then a series of meetings led to his arrival in Dufferin as a “hobby farmer,” and his eventual foray into the political arena.

“On the international map” is not an exaggeration for what is happening in Melancthon.

The township’s wind generation (wind farms) industry will have the capacity to produce something in the order of 200 megawatts (67.5 megawatts from the nearly complete Phase 1, and 132 MW from Phase 2). That compares with a vaunted Shell Oil offshore installation and other such facilities worldwide. That has attracted almost all the major media to the area.

“They’ve all been up here,” he said.

And the “newsmaker” definition is well deserved. Mayor Matthews became a driving force in bringing the industry to this area when a trio of developers approached him more than three years ago.

“I’d read about (wind turbines) before, so we sat around the kitchen table over lunch (and discussed it.) I invited them to council and to Rotary, and it went from there.”

Even so, the mayor says he had no concept of the eventual scale of the industry, except to the extent that the province was and still is looking for alternative sources of electrical energy. As well, the farming community is always looking for alternative sources of revenue.

Wind turbines solve part of the energy problem, as well as providing a source of revenue for farmers. On energy, Mayor Matthews is a believer in tapping all clean sources: wind, water and solar, as well as nuclear. The Melancthon project

might not have gone to its proposed ultimate scale if it hadn’t been for the entry of Calgary-based Canadian Hydro Developers Inc. (CHD) about a year after the initial discussions.

CHD is a publicly traded company, listed on the Toronto Stock Exchange. After CHD began leasing land for its turbines — including sites on the Matthews farm — it was time for the mayor to leave the table.

But, perhaps because of his early involvement in negotiations, there are still some who believe he has a vested interest in the development.

“That’s not so,” Mayor Matthews said in an interview Tuesday. “I’ll get paid only on the basis of what the turbines on my property generate. I’ll not get paid for anything generated on my neighbour’s property.” He said each turbine is metered. Lease payments are based on a combination of production and the price paid for the energy.

Mayor Matthews said no one could ask for a more cooperative organization than CHD, all the way from top management right down to the construction crews. In the placement of turbines, he said, the company consults with the landowner after it has done its required soil and other tests. “They’ve been very good to work with.”

He said the company strives to take up a minimum of cropland for both the turbines and access roads, and to consult on matters such as vision.

No one knows where the turbines are likely to be sited before all the tests and consultations have been completed.

“I’m sometimes asked where a turbine will be placed. I tell people to talk to their neighbour and to the company. People lease their land but that’s not a guarantee there’ll be a turbine.” He said some lands are not suited to erection of the large towers.

But the environment must be well suited. The mayor said CHD personnel spent many days studying the wind and the routes of migratory birds long before the first tower was erected.

For Mayor Matthews and his wife, Dorothy, it’s been a long and varied road — from the Beaches area of Toronto to Melancthon — and sometimes not an easy one.

It might have begun with young Garry’s Grade 13 (senior matriculation) graduation, and his two years of working with an engineering firm before enrolling in an engineering course at Queen’s University. “There were no grants in those days, and no one to (help with tuition so I) did design and drafting with an engineering firm between high school and university.”

At university, the thought of a technical teaching career continued to beckon, so Garry decided a degree could wait while he attended Teacher’s College. (The college then didn’t require a degree. Garry completed his degree with night and summer courses in later years, after he’d obtained his permanent teaching certificate after three years’ experience.)

The teaching turned out to be somewhat different from the dream. Rather than a straight technical venue, Garry found himself in classrooms teaching math, science, English and art. “The kids taught me about art. I couldn’t draw a straight line or a circle. One year, I even taught Home Economics. That was interesting.”

While on various courses, the future mayor began to meet teachers from Dufferin, and was encouraged to buy a farm near Horning’s Mills in partnership with Tom Harding. Eventually, he and Dorothy sold their Scarborough home in about 1975 and purchased their present farm. For about 19 years of his North York teaching career, he became a daily commuter.

The mayor’s early exposure to Dufferin politics came during the 10-year study into waste management. That led to his election to the township council in 1994, his re-election in 1997 and appointment as reeve upon the death of Gordon Oldfield in 1998. He was re-elected as reeve in the elections of 2000 and 2003, was the last remaining “reeve” in Dufferin until the title of the head of his township council was changed to

mayor” in the fall of 2005.

The mayor’s entry into farming wasn’t a decision taken lightly. “I took farm courses at Guelph (University) in the late 1950s, for people from the city.” He said these covered almost everything about animals including cattle, horses and chickens.

And is it really a “hobby farm” that Garry and Dorothy have been operating for the past 30 or so years? At one time, they had 100 head of cattle in a cow-calf operation but have reduced their herd to about 30.

And what does the future hold? Mayor Matthews said he hasn’t decided whether to seek another term on council. It would be a difficult decision either way. He said he enjoys meeting people and working with municipal affairs. He would miss that.

On the other hand, the lingering question is whether, at 69, it’s time to kick back and relax with the family.