JANUARY

For his role in placing Dufferin County and his own township on an international energy map by spearheading development of the Melancthon Wind Farm, Melancthon Mayor Garry Matthews was picked as this paper’s “Newsmaker of the Year” for 2005. The wind farm 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. Mayor Matthews became a driving force in bringing in the industry to this area when three developers approached him. “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.”

Ontario’s Ministry of Transportation (MTO) has described Hockley resident Larry Calcutt’s safety concerns about the intersection of Highway 9 and Airport Road as unwarranted. Mr. Calcutt last week labelled this intersection one of the most dangerous in Canada because of the number of serious accidents he has witnessed while working at a Sunoco gas station located at the intersection.

Dufferin County has lost one of its most famous residents with the passing of Walter Massey Tovell, one of the founders and great benefactors of its museum and archives. The museum’s curator, Wayne Townsend, said Dr. Tovell, “or ‘Doc T’ as he was referred to here, became involved with the museum at the initial planning stages. Although there was discussion at the time about the location, he believed that the museum should be situated in a rural environment so users could enjoy the quiet and beauty of Dufferin’s countryside rather than the bustle of town.”

In a motion circulated to all Dufferin municipalities, Amaranth Township council opposed county takeover of recycling, except for the hazardous waste days. The council lamented that it has not received county support for its multi-faceted approach to recycling: electronic recycling; blue box recycling; clear bags, and ongoing monitoring and approval of a new certificate of approval for the landfill site.

The provincial Oak Ridges Moraine Conservation Plan has Mono residents questioning how they can use their land if it becomes part of the Town’s zoning bylaw. At a public meeting,Wendy Nott, planning consultant with Walker, Nott, Dragicevic Associates, gave those present an overview of the draft bylaw in which she stated only a small area of the town will be affected by the plan.

The provincial government has radically overestimated the amount of growth Dufferin can sustain, says a new report by Weston Consulting Group commissioned by the county to respond to the province’s planned growth objectives for the next 25 years, a plan which forecasts a population explosion of 27,000 people in the county by 2031. The report says the projection is seriously flawed and the province is anticipating grow by more than half of what the county can actually physically sustain with existing services. Later in the month, Mono planning director Mark Early said a prediction that Dufferin will

have about 27,000 new residents by 2031 was “outrageous — for the lack of a better word.” He noted that number, cited in the provincial government’s proposed growth plan for the Greater Golden Horseshoe is larger than the current size of Orangeville.

R. J. Burnside and Associates Limited has won an untendered contract to act as a consultant regarding an estimated nearly $17 million in required improvements to five Orangeville water wells. The Orangeville-based engineering firm’s proposed General Work Plan was approved by town council without debate. The estimated $16.8-million cost is in addition to more than $1 million in work already carried out on town wells, which were found subject to potential contamination from surface water. The $16.8 million cost estimate was produced during the environmental assessment process.

David Tilson entered his campaign office in Orangeville shortly after the close of polls in the Jan. 24 federal election to loud cheers and applause for his second victory as MP for Dufferin- Caledon and his Conservative party’s first nationally since being formed from a merger between the Progressive Conservative and Canadian Alliance parties. “Outstanding,” he remarked to his crowd of supporters. “This is no longer the winter of our discontent.” He said accountability “is a clear message we carried out in this campaign and it’s one that will not be forgotten.” Unofficial results show Mr. Tilson won the riding with 47.9 per cent of the votes, up 5.1 percentage points from the federal election in 2004, when he unseated Liberal incumbent Murray Calder. The number of residents who voted was up slightly from the previous federal election with just over 4,000 more voting in this election and a turnout representing 65.1 per cent of those eligible.

Building a new commercial or industrial project in Shelburne could soon be much more appealing if town council elects to drop development charges to attract new business. Town council will consider the financial impact of eliminating development charges on new industrial and commercial projects at a public meeting on Feb. 27. Town staff has been reviewing many aspects of the current development charges bylaw, including recognizing new lands such as the Fiddle Park lands and School Road, and will also investigate the financial impact of dropping the charges for commercial and industrial development. A 70-acre business park in the south end of town was unveiled during a open house last February, and while there have been some nibbles, the land remains vacant nearly a year after the first look. Development charges in the Shelburne are set $1.14 per square foot, or $80,000 an acre, this compared $6.64 per square foot and $400,000 an acre in Mississauga and $2.47 per square foot and $150,000 an acre in Barrie. The situation elsewhere in Dufferin varies widely. In Orangeville, there currently are no development charges on industrial land, while commercially zoned property carries a maximum development charge of $7.09 a square foot but much lower charges apply in the central business district.

FEBRUARY Adraft $17.6-million budget for 2006 submitted to Orangeville council would face homeowners with property tax increases of about 11.5 per cent — nearly $170 for the “average” residential property assessed at $221,300. The budget submitted by Treasurer Wayne Church calls for total spending of $17,623,300, up about $1.8 million from the 2005 figure of $15,844,000 — an increase of 11.2 per cent.

Figures presented to council indicated that if the draft budget is approved, a ratepayer whose home was assessed at $221,300 by the Municipal Property Assessment Corporation will face paying $1,613 to the town, plus as yet undetermined amounts to the county and province — up $168 from last year’s $1,445. In 2005, the same hypothetical homeowner had a total property

tax bill of $2,846.83, with $836.30 going to the county and $565.66 to the province’s education levy.

Perhaps depending on what Wiarton Willy had to say about winter this morning, Canadian Hydro Developers Phase 1 wind turbines in Melancthon’s could soon be sending 34.5 kilovolts of electricity down the 10th Line of Amaranth but not officially until the end of

March. Jeff Carnegie, in charge of the local project for Calgary-based Canadian Hydro, said the aim is to have all the turbines on line by the end of this month, one month ahead of schedule. However, he added, “That’s a bit weather-dependent.”

A dramatic reduction in the per-household flows into Orangeville’s water pollution control plant has given town council some breathing

space as it considers whether to proceed with a costly plant expansion. A chart presented to council showed that the three-year average daily flow per residential unit has dropped from 1.45 cubic metres in 2001 to 1.26 cubic metres last year — a decline of slightly more than 13 per cent. As a result, although the treatment plant’s capacity has been unchanged in the period, at 14,400 cubic metres per day, population growth has been accommodated without reaching the design capacity. In fact, the chart shows an uncommitted reserve capacity that would allow for the addition of 1,069 new housing units beyond those currently approved.

Dufferin County has approved a tax rate decrease for 2006, but a 13 per cent increase in assessments means property owners can expect to pay about six per cent more this year than they did in 2005. The increase is only about one-quarter of what taxpayers might have expected before the county’s draft budget went on the chopping block late last year. The county’s website had an earlier draft, which indicated a 23 per cent hike. Instead, the 13 per cent assessment increase has enabled the county to reduce the tax rate by 4.84 per cent. According to the county’s calculations, this would amount to an increase of $35.76 for a house valued at $180,000 in 2005. The assessment hike would increase the 2006 levy on the hypothetical house to $823.48 from last year’s $787.72.

With 28 of 28 area landowners now in favour, the development of 12 wind turbines on and near Ashton Ridge Golf Course north of Grand Valley appears assured. The development, under the name of Windrush Energy, is a project of Land’s End Corporation, of which John Pennie of Adjala is president. In an interview, Mr. Pennie said all 28 area residents had initially been in favour of the project, but one had temporarily withdrawn approval and had launched a zoning objection to the Ontario Municipal Board. A pre-hearing had been scheduled for Feb. 10, but the resident has now withdrawn the objection, so “100 per cent of the residents are in favour.” The project’s 12 turbines, with the potential of generating 18 megawatts of electricity, is not a large undertaking by comparison with the two Melancthon Wind Project’s phases, but Mr. Pennie said he’s looking at other areas elsewhere in the area. And George Dick, an Ashton Ridge resident and manager of Orangeville Hydro, is excited about the project. “It’s good for the community, good for the environment, a source of income for the township and residents plus free electricity (for some). There are lots of benefits.” Mr. Dick said the only downside is “if someone doesn’t like the look (of the turbines).”

In a 3-2 vote after a lengthy and passionate discussion with each other and residents, Orangeville council decided to divide zoning for the southern portion of the undeveloped Veteran’s Way land. Approximately half of the land (62.5 acres) will be rezoned to accommodate about 400 residential units in the easterly portion. The remaining half will be used for both commercial and industrial development, which will be subject to new policies for the types and phasing of uses. Councillor Gail Campbell did not participate in either the discussion or the vote because she lives in the area and housing prices on her street may be affected by the decision made. The opposition to the motion by Deputy Mayor Jim MacGregor came from Councillors Warren Maycock and Rob Strang.

A notice of motion by two county councillors could mean the end of Dufferin’s

pilot composting project. The motion follows word that the composting facility that has been receiving the county’s compost could be shut down on a moment’s notice. Public Works Director Trevor Lewis said the imminent shutdown of the Guelph facility has forced the county to switch from clear green bags to green bins for the approximately 2,700 homes in the program. Switching to bins, however, does not solve the problem. Dufferin lacks an alternative site and Guelph was the only one that would accept plastic bags, Mr. Lewis said. There will also be a change in the definition of what is compostable. Unlike Guelph, most composters do not accept animal waste, diapers or yard and garden waste — affecting residents on the program in Shelburne, Orangeville and Grand Valley. From Mono, where all homes are already on a greenbin composting program, the compostable stuff is taken to the Herhof facility in Caledon. There, animal waste and diapers are excluded. Ironically, Dufferin a few years ago had an opportunity to use the Caledon facility, but opted for Guelph.

Concerned with the magnitude of tax increases required by the town’s draft 2006 budget, Orangeville councillors accepted Mayor Drew Brown’s suggestion that they adopt a “zerobased” budget process. Meeting as council’s Finance and Administration Committee, the councillors heard the mayor express concern about council’s inability to find the savings

needed to come in with a reasonable budget that avoids a significant tax increase. He said there’s no doubt there will be an increase but it should be something the average person can agree with.

Some organizations in Dufferin will be affected if the Canadian Union of Public Employees (CUPE) Ontario takes political action, in protest of proposed provincial pension reforms, that could begin as early as tomorrow. According to a newsletter the Upper Grand District School Board sent home with students, after-school activities, including night school and continuing education programs and all communityuse permits, would be cancelled. “The operations department have been contacting the groups that are affected, Board chair Bob Borden said. Mr. Borden says that one night’s activities have been cancelled for certain and other nights will be cancelled for the duration of any strike action. As anticipated, schools in Dufferin will remain open, but there could be an impact if there is a major mechanical or electrical concern. The school board acknowledges that CUPE Local 256, which includes maintenance workers, will participate in the strike, but an agreement with the local will ensure custodial and routine maintenance service is maintained. Mr. Borden noted that the caretakers’ negotiations over local issues are completely separate to the actions of CUPE Ontario this week. Dufferin-Peel Catholic District School Board schools should see no interruption in service because its CUPE Locals 2026 and 1483 voted last week not to support any strike action.

MARCH

The potential harmful effects of pesticide use on themselves, their children and the environment had many residents lining up to voice opinions on a draft Orangeville bylaw. During the second public meeting town council held on the proposed Horticultural Pesticide Bylaw, the majority of residents stated they were in opposition to the bylaw as going either too far or not far enough, although some support it. The bylaw would, among other things, require warning notices to be posted 24 hours before a planned use of pesticides, including the date and time of the planned application and contact information as well as the type of pesticide and the reason for its use; require similar postings on any property abutting that where pesticide use is planned if the property owner has advised the Town in writing that he or she wishes such advance notification; require the Town to maintain a record of properties requiring the advance notification; require the warning notices to remain at the sprayed location for at least 48 hours after the application; limit any pesticide use to application on a horticultural landscape “on a spot spray basis”, and ban spraying within 10 metres of “natural open water, a wetland or well, or greater distance if set out in the pesticide application instructions.” The bylaw would also require commercial applicators to be “properly licensed under the Pesticides Act, to have current I.P.M. (Integrated Pest Management) accreditation and follow I.P.M. methods.”

At least five of the eight Dufferin municipalities indicated an interest in exploring gasification as a means of disposing of waste, following an ad hoc meeting in Shelburne. “We made positive progress. Several were reassured that there are other municipalities looking at the technology to solve their waste problems and generate electricity,” said Shelburne Mayor Ed Crewson, whose council is committed to investing up to $50,000 in a feasibility study. He described the overall proposal as “thermal generation of electricity” plus composting of the entire waste stream, and the ad hoc group as “a coalition of the willing, moving forward.” Two of the five —Shelburne ($50,000) and East Luther Grand Valley ($5,000) — committed funding for a feasibility study. The others, Orangeville, Mulmur and East Garafraxa, are committed in principle to at least a request for proposal (RFP) for the study. Amaranth, Melancthon and Mono have been non-committal. Mayor Crewson said the group would both circulate and advertise a request for proposal (RFP), based on their agreed terms of reference. Circulation would include both a company represented by Peter Turrell of Grand Valley and Pinnacle Technology, which had attended

the meeting. Gasification is neither incineration nor is it a new technology, said ELGV Mayor John Oosterhof. “It’s in use (all over) Europe, although not yet popular in North America. Hitler was using it in the Second World War.”

Caretaking services at 42 of the Upper Grand School District’s 70 schools will continue, a provincial mediator having succeeded in hammering out a settlement of a wage dispute. Members of Local 256, Canadian Union of Public Employees (CUPE), who have been without a contract since last August, had set March 2 as a strike deadline. They voted to ratify the new agreement. A strike by CUPE would have affected Dufferin’s three high schools and most of its elementary ones. Settlement of the Local 256 contract is not related to CUPE’s opposition to the provincial government’s changes in the Ontario Municipal Employees Retirement System (OMERS) that at one point led to threats of a province-wide wildcat strike.

An Orangeville apartment owner went to town council March 6 seeking a level playing field for the tax ratios on all apartment buildings. A Shelburne resident who owns a 12-unit apartment building on John Street, Mike Ashmore told council there appears to be no reason for the difference in property taxes between multi-residential buildings with more than six units and those with less than six units, as the servicing cost to a larger building would typically be less on a per-unit basis. He states the ratio of taxes on multi-residential to residential rates is currently 2.68:1. This meant that an apartment assessed by the Municipal Property Assessment Corporation (MPAC) at $80,000 would pay $2,784 in taxes for 2005 if it is in a large multi-residential building but only $1,039 in a building with less than six units. “The effect is to distort the apartment market, increasing rents in areas of housing of the higher density, which the province wants to encourage,” he said in a letter to council. “The tax rate in my building on John Street is $4 per square foot of usable living space. If this rate is applied to the average residence of 3,000 square feet [of] usable living space, the tax would obviously be $12,000. Can you sell that rate to your residents? If not, why charge it to multi-residential owners?” He also stated that by law, property owners are required to pass on the reduced tax rates to tenants, who tend to be on a lower income or retired. In the past two years, Mr. Ashmore has faced a 40 per cent tax increase but under provincial legislation must pass on 3.6 per cent reduction to his tenants. However, now he is going through expensive and extensive hearings to apply for rent increases above guidelines to recover other cost increases such as water. He would like the Town to follow Vaughan and Richmond Hill, where apartment taxes are equal to the residential ratio, and lobby the county council to look into the tax ratio.

Canadian Hydro Developers Inc. (CHD) announced Wednesday that its $126 million, 67.5 megawatt Melancthon I Wind Plant (“Melancthon I”) achieved commercial operations on Saturday, March 4. Energy Minister Donna Cansfield were joined by Melancthon Mayor Garry Matthews, Amaranth Township Mayor Bob Currie and John Keating, CEO of Canadian Hydro Developers at a ceremony marking the opening of the wind farm. The 45- tower project near Shelburne is 100% owned and operated by Calgary-based Canadian Hydro. All of the electricity is being sold to the Ontario Power Authority under a 20- year renewable energy supply (RES) contract. Annual average long-term generation of the plant is expected to be 195 gigawatt hours, enough to power about 25,000 homes. During the remainder of 2006, Melancthon I is expected to generate 140 GWh of electricity. “Melancthon I is Ontario’s first utility-scale wind plant and first wind-energy RES contract awarded project, to become commercially operational,” said John Keating, CHD’s Chief Executive Officer. “The success of this project is due, in no small part, to the support of all of

our stakeholders, including our employees and directors, consulting engineers, landowners, contractors, bankers, lawyers, financiers, shareholders, insurers, and last but not least, the many representatives of the federal, provincial and municipal governments. We thank all of you for this tremendous team effort.”

Dufferin County Council rejected a proposal to scrap a pilot composting program and instead approved a county-wide composting program next year for all member municipalities. There was also word that the county is considering developing its own composting site by the summer. In February. a motion from Amaranth and Melancthon was tabled proposing to discontinue the existing composting program with pickups in Orangeville, Grand Valley and Shelburne. However, the motion was defeated and council approved a motion from the Community Development Committee resolving that the county fully fund a compost program for all municipalities in its 2007 budget. Warden Earl Lennox said he was “optimistic that by June the county will be heading for a composting site on the 200 acres.” He was referring to a 200acre site the county currently owns in East Luther that was purchased with the intent of using it as a landfill site. The site received approval as a landfill site under the Environmental Protection Act, the major hurdle, and has a Draft Provision Certificate of Approval to accept garbage. If the county was of the mind and complied with the provisions of the approval, a landfill could be developed on the site.With this in mind, there is an assumption that approval for a less intrusive composting facility would not take much effort. Mono Mayor Keith Thompson, chair of the Community Development Committee, said county council needs to proceed with the composting facility

A windswept fire in Amaranth that took about 12 hours for three fire departments to extinguish resulted in “total loss” of the house with damage Orangeville Fire Chief Andy Macintosh said has been estimated at

$150,000.The fire started around 2:30 p.m. Tuesday when no one was home and was called in by a mail carrier. The Orangeville crew that was first on the scene called in help from the Shelburne and Grand Valley fire departments.With about 20 fire fighters on site battling strong northwesterly winds, it took more than 150,000 litres of water to smother the flames. “It was like trying to put a fire out in a wind tunnel,” said Chief Macintosh. “It was very difficult and it had been burning for quite a while before we got the call.”

The fire chief said they believe it was an electrical fire that was started by fallen hydro lines that had been connected to the house. “The weather played a big factor in the whole situation,” said Fire Chief Macintosh.

Continued next week