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l Editorial Comment An Industry in Transition ) Section Two The Canadian Statesman. Bowmanville. March 28,1984 3 Yet another task force has held hearings and produced a report confirming that agriculture in Ontario Ontario is in a state of crisis. In fact, the title of the report released last week by the NDP caucus task force on agriculture suggests that if the proper steps are not taken, and quickly, the family farm may be a thing of the past. Among its major recommendations recommendations it calls for a new influx of low- cost capital through revitalization of the Province of Ontario Savings Offices, higher interest cost subsidies, subsidies, subsidies, on the sale of all beef cattle, hogs and sheep produced produced and marketed in Ontario and a substantial increase in the provincial provincial budget for agriculture. There is no denying that agriculture agriculture today is a deeply troubled industry industry and that many of its problems problems --. everything from bankruptcy bankruptcy to soil erosion and loss of fertility--can be traced in one form or another to the need for money. 1 But it is dismaying to find that no serious attempt has yet been made to examine the problems and the proposed solutions in terms of the evolution of the farming industry. "The family farm cannot be allowed to disappear," the report says, and few would disagree. But what is the family farm today, and where is it headed? Agriculture is an industry in transition, with all the problems that accompany revolutions in production production techniques. In some ways its situation may be likened to that of the small artisans whose livelihood livelihood was wiped out by the industrial industrial revolution. Aside from the name, the family farm of today bears scant resemblance to that of 100 or even 50 years ago. The traditional family farm was not a capital-intensive industry. Typically small and diversified, it was seldom highly profitable but was able to cope with fluctuations in the economy and the marketplace. marketplace. Its success depended more on the sheer hard work of the farmer and his whole family than on the sympathies of the local banker. Equipment was often rudimentary and suited to the scale of the enterprise; larger equipment such as threshing machines was not purchased but hired in as required. If the hours were long and the labor often backbreaking, this was seen as the price to be paid for independence independence in a chosen way of life. The typical farm of today is quite different. Larger, more specialized and far more mechanized, it is by contrast a sort of food factory, able to produce vast quantities of meat or grain with only a fraction of the labor. Such efficiency did not come without a price, however. The factory factory farm also has a vast appètite for capital, making it vulnerable to increased interest rates or falling commodity prices. It is quite conceivable that some of the problems facing agriculture can be eased, at least in the short term, by the application of so- called "green poultices", but throwing throwing money at a problem will not necessarily make it go away. Band- aid solutions will reduce irritation, but can heal only the most superficial superficial of wounds. What is needed is a closer look at where the agricultural industry stands today in terms of its economic evolution and where it is headed. This may require asking uncomfortable questions about today's farming practices, including including the massive reliance on enormously enormously expensive equipment and chemicals which produce impressive impressive efficiency in terms of labor but may threaten the viability of agriculture agriculture in the long term. The long-term health of farming is vitally important to us all. It has been said, and rightly so, that our whole civilization depends on the top six inches of the earth's soil. It is time for a closer look at how we are managing our legacy. -- Wingham Advance-Times Time's Running Out No doubt many readers have been following political events at Ottawa with keen interest in the past few months and are looking forward to what will happen from now until an election is called. The Conservative party's new leader Brian Mulroney appears to be firmly in command of his caucus and is now in the process of announcing his party's platform should they gain power. Meanwhile, the Liberals are deeply involved not only in a leadership contest that will" climax on June 16th, but also searching for candidates for an election that probably will follow within a few months, possibly as early as October. Over the weekend, those already in the race for the party leadership and the Prime Minister's job, at least until after the election, were testing the waters and the delegates at an Ontario Liberal meeting in Toronto. From all reports, there were no obvious winners or losers in their Toronto exposure although Jean Chretien and John Turner, at the moment, still appear to be the front runners, from all reports. Very soon, we should be hearing from anyone interested in contesting the local nominations, especially Liberal and New Democrats, because they will need to become well known and have a good organization in place should an election come this fall or earlier. No doubt, incumbent Allan Lawrence will again represent the Conservatives and will be hard to beat because of his popularity, his experience and his organization. Rev. Ed. Schamerhorn, the Liberal QUfe (Eanabian Statesman 623-3303 (+CNA Durham County's Great Family Journal Established 130 years ago In 1854. Also Incorporating The Bowmanville News The Newcastle Independent The Orono News Second class mall registration number 1581 Produced every Wednesday by THE JAMES PUBLISHING COMPANY LIMITED 62-68 King St, W., Bowmanville, Ontario L1C 3K9 U L ► JOHN M. JAMES Editor -- Publisher GEO. P. MORRIS Business Mgr. BRIAN PURDY Advertising Mgr. RICHARD A. JAMES Assistant Publisher DONALD BISHOP Plant Mgr, All layouts and composition ol advertisements produced by the employees of The Cansdlan Stalesman, The Newcastle Independent and The James Publishing Company Limited are protected by copyright and must riot be reproduced without written permission ol the publishers. $15.00 a year - 6 months $8.00 strictly In advance foreign -- $45,00 a year Although ovnry prucnution will bn tnkon to avoid inior, Tho Canadian tilalnsman occopls niivorllsmg In its columns on tho undfifi,landing that U will not bn liabln lor any niror in tho ndvoitisomonl publishud huroundur unloss a prool ol r.uch advuillsumonl in rmtunslml in willing by tho advurlir.vf and mturnod to 1 he Canadian filalosman business oMicu duly signed by tho advertiser and with such error or corrections plainly noted in writing thereon, and in that case il any error so noted is not corrected by The Canadian Statesman its liability shall not exceed such a portion ol the (mine cost ol such adveile, Imont as the space occupied by ttie noted error bears to the whole space occupied by such advertisement Sam at Queen's Park Winter Scene by Lori Fydirchuk March 26,1984 The debate over Ontario Hydro's nuclear program has attracted a high level of public attention. The problems problems with pressure tubes in CANDU reactors have been much in the news lately and, understandably, some confusion has arisen about the implications for Ontario's electricity consumers. consumers. Hydro's recent decision decision to proceed with retubing retubing at Pickering Units One and Two has brought the issues into focus once again. Perhaps because of the climate of uncertainty over nuclear energy, concern over the construction of the Darlington Generating Station Station has been revived as well. This week, I would like to shed some light on developments at Pickering and look at how the Darlington Darlington station fits into our over-all approach to energy in Ontario. Hydro had earlier proposed proposed that Units One and Two at Pickering, be restarted restarted later this year and had begun the necessary approval process with the Atomic Energy Control Board. During the preparation preparation of its submission, Ontario Ontario Hydro continued to evaluate alternatives, inspect inspect the pressure tubes and analyze its findings. These findings showed that early replacement of the pressure tubes is the practical and more prudent course. The pressure tubes will be replaced by the new zirconium-niobium tubes, the type used in all CANDU 1 reactors built after Pickering Pickering Units One and Two. The retubing plan ensures that the units will be back to full power at the earliest possible possible date. When anuclearunitisout of service, electricity must be produced by other means. In Ontario that means coal-fuelled generating stations, which are much more expensive to operate than nuclear stations stations - about $200,000 to $250,000 per day more expensive. expensive. Since 1971, the four units at Pickering A generating station have produced almost almost 160 billion kilowatt hours of electricity at about 60 per cent of the cost of coal-fuelled generation. Despite the oustages at Units One and Two, the Pickering Pickering station has averaged 76.2 per cent capacity performance performance in the past year. Critics point to Darlington Darlington as an example of misuse of public funds. Ontario Ontario Hydro, they say, doesn't need the extra nu- clear-produced electricity. The facts do not confirm this view. The best forecasting measures that we can devise devise indicate that Ontario . will need new sources of power within this decade, and generating stations must be planned up to 15 years ahead. With Darlington, Darlington, we are building for the future: we have already invested about $2.2 billion in it. The capital cost of a nuclear nuclear plant is high, but over the lifetime of the plant it is much cheaper than burning burning oil, gas or coal to produce produce electricity. Darlington is the most effective way to meet our forecast requirements requirements while taking older coal-fired plants out of service service as their economic lives come to an end. Nuclear power plants were planned primarily because because they are cheaper than coal and the uranium fuel is available here in the province. province. Most importantly, nuclear nuclear power plants produce no acid gas emissions. The fact remains that they are among the best environmental environmental "scrubbers" we have at our disposal. Currently, there are over 3,000 people employed on the Darlington project, the plant will offer 27,000 man- years of employment and will require a permanent staff of600 when completed. The Government of Ontario is strongly committed to the Darlington Generating Station Station because of the economic benefits to the province: through projects like Darlington we are actively actively improving Ontario's prospects for long-term economic growth. Congratulations to Ron Swartz for being elected again as President of the- Durham Region Law Association. Association. Might I apologize to the Knights of Columbus for missing their Brotherhood Brotherhood night. It was incumbent incumbent upon me to attend the Durham Region Law Association Association annual meeting where the Treasurer of the Law Society, Laura Legg, spoke to lawyers of the Region. Region. March is Red Cross™ Month SUGAR and SPICE \ i The Joys of Travel standard-bearer in that last election, so far has not indicated what his plans are this time and no names have been put forward by the NDP. Now, time is of the essence and no doubt Liberal and NDP strategists are contacting any prospects they feel might be able and willing to make a good run and possibly win the area seat for their party. But, they'd better get into high gear quickly to make certain whoever runs will have as much time as possible to campaign. Thanks Merchants Dear Sir, The reason I am writing to you is to thank the local merchants of Bowmanville for their generous donations donations towards door prizes for the recent "March Break Bonanza" children's program. I am a placement placement student from Durham College and it was my first chance to meet some of the people, to see what the downtown area had to offer to the public and an opportunity to see more of the town itself. I found the local business people to be very supportive of any town activity and most pleasant to talk to. The small town and friendly atmosphere atmosphere of Bowmanville reminds me of home back in Labrador, and it is this feeling that has helped make my placement a successful one throughout the year. The people of Bowmanville can be proud of their town and the people who live there. Sincerely, Patricia J. Harwood Durham College Sports Administration Student Sometimes I am convinced I was born 30 years too soon. When I sëé the wonderful opportunities for travel young people have today, I turn pea-green with envy. When you and I were young, most of us didn't get much farther than the next town. A minority visited the city occasionally, and it was considered a big deal. And a shal whale of a lot of people never did get to see a big city in their entire lives. And were no worse off for it, of course. ) Man, how that has changed. Nowadays, young people go galloping off to the four corners of the earth with no more thought about it than we'd have given to a weekend in the city. They're so blase about it that it's sickening to an old guy like me, who has always yearned to travel, and never had the time or money or freedom to do it. In my day, during the Depression, the only people who could afford to travel were the hoboes. They could afford it because they didn't have any money. They rode free on the tops and inside the box-cars of freight trains. And they didn't have any responsibilities except the next meal and a place to sleep. Looking back, I was one of the lucky ones. Most of my generation of youth was forced by circumstances to stay home, get any job available, and hang on to it like grim death, never venturing forth on the highroads of life. I was the envy of my classmates, when, at 17, I nabbed a job on the upper lake • Jjoats, and could come home Ywhgging of having been to such bizarre, exotic places as Duluth, Sault Ste. Marie, Detroit, the Lakehead. Today's youngsters would sneer at such bourgeois travels. They exchange anecdotes about Morocco and Moscow, Athens and Australia, Paris and Port-au-Prince, Delhi and Debrovnik. Fair nauseates me, if does. By the time he was 22, my own son had lived on both coasts of Canada, been to Mexico, New Orleans, Texas, Israel, Ireland and a hundred other places that are just names in an atlas to me. He's been to Paraguay, South America, and has visited Argentina and Bolivia. He speaks four languages. I speak one, not too well. My nephews have seen more countries than Chris Columbus or Sir Francis Drake. One's an airline pilot, and knows Europe, North America and the West Indies the way I know my way to school. Another has worked in the Canadian north, Quebec, the Congo, Jamaica, and Costa Rica. My nieces are just as peripatetic. They've been to the West Coast, France, England, Russia. A four- day trip to New York, for them, is scarcely worth mentioning. Migawd, I'd have given my left eyeball to see New York when I was their age! I thought it was pretty earth-shaking the first time I saw Toronto. Toronto, ye-e-c-ch! Thousands of university students annually take a year off, borrow some money, stuff a packsack and head out for a year of bumming around Europe, the Mediterranean, North Africa, India. Rotten kids ! In the last decade, the travel bug has spilled over into the high schools. Some of them are beginning to sound like agencies, with frequent announcements over the P.A. system: "Will the group going to Rome in the winter break please assemble in Room 202 at 3:30 for a lesson in tying your toga." "All those taking the Venezuela trip are requested to see Mr. Vagabond in room 727 at 3:15 today." "Those who are involved in the spring break trip to the Canary Islands should have their passports by March 1st." "An urgent meeting will be held today for those who plan to take the London-Paris trip during spring break. All seats are now filled. If enough are interested, we'll hire another plane." It fairly makes your head swim, especially when your own idea of a trip south is 100 miles to the city for a weekend, a trip west means a visit to great-grandad, and a trip east means you're going to a funeral or a wedding among the relatives. Next thing you know, this travel binge will bulge over into the elementary schools, and great 747 -loads of little shavers from Grade Eight , will be descending on the unsuspecting residents of Hong Kong and Rio de Janeiro. Lord help them. The residents, not the kids. Perhaps this sounds like sour grapes. Well, it is. As Shaw said: "The trouble with youth is that it is wasted on the young." And as Smiley says: "The trouble with travel is that it is wasted on kids who don't know a Grecian urn from an Italian pizza." Oh, it's not that I haven't travelled. I've been to Great Britain. And spent two years staggering around in the blackout or wading through the torrential rains of bonnie Scotland. I've been to France. Slept five weeks in a tent in an orchard in Normandy. Been to Belgium. Antwerp; buzzbombs. Know Holland well. Spent two weeks locked in a box-car in a railway siding at Utrecht. Am intimately acquainted with Germany. Was bombed in Braunsweig and Leipzig, and spent a delightful six months in salubrious Pomerania, as a guest of the Third Reich. Oh, I've been around all right. But somehow it wasn't quite the same. Rattling through Deutschland on a train with a 10-day stubble of beard on your chin and a tag-end of sour black bread stuffed into your battledress blouse is not quite similar to climbing aboard a 747 with your tote-bag and waiting for the stewardess to bring your first meal. Would I trade? Not on your life. Letters to the Editor March 7,1984 Mr. Sam Cureatz, M.P.P, Durham East Constituency Office 34A King Street West Bowmanville, Ontario L1C 1R2 Dear Sam: I acknowledge receipt of your letter of February 8, 1984, concerning the 2% adjustment adjustment to the class ratios. In my subsequent letter to you of February 16, 1984, I outlined the reasons for this adjustment. 1 note in your letter that many ratepayers have certain misconceptions about the adjustment and 1 would like to tnke this opportunity to address these concerns! One misconception isiliat assessors are adjusting the market values, I am certain that you appreciate that the adjustment is to the class ratio and it is applied uniformly uniformly to every class and, consequently, every property property in the municipality. The market value that appears appears on the Notice of Assessment Assessment is the assessor's estimate of the actual 1980 market value of the properly. properly. There is also a concern that the 2% adjustment represents represents an attempt to sneak in a tax increase to make up for previous assessment losses, This is, of course, a misunderstanding of the process of municipal finance. finance. The adjustment is necessary to protect the constant value of the assessment assessment base. The result of the decline in the value of the base would not be n loss of municipal revenue but an increase in the mill rate since the municipality calculates calculates its mill rate to meet its annual revenue requirements requirements and to pay its share of Regional and school board levies. Without the 2% adjustment, adjustment, it would be necessary for the municipality to set a higher mill rate in order to offset the first year changes to the Roll. The advantage of reflecting this adjustment adjustment on the assessment rather than the mill rate is that it allows the ratepayer to determine the impact of the reassessment on Ills property by simply comparing comparing his old and new assessments assessments using last year's mill rate. If litis adjustment were not reflected in the assessment, assessment, it would be lost within the annual mill rate increase due to increased municipal expenditure. Thank you for bringing these concerns to my attention. attention. Sincerely, Bud Gregory (Minister of Revenue) To the Editor: This June, Gananoquc, Ontario, known as the Canadian Canadian Gateway to the Thousand Islands, will be joining in the provincewide provincewide Ontario bicentennial celebrations, It will do so by a Heritage Days extravaganza extravaganza known ns Gala Gananoquc. The event will take pince on three separate separate weekends, June 15 through 17, June 22 through 24 and June 2!) through July 1. On each of those weekends, the citizens of Gananoquc and visitors to this area will be able to join together in a giant heritage celebration. Each weekend lias a different theme and each weekend has a giant major event to distinguish it, supplemented by a variety variety of other smaller happenings happenings hosted by virtually every group or organization in the municipality, Tlie first weekend will focus on a large three-day bluegrass and country music festival featuring various major Canadian stars of country music, At this time, talent includes the Tommy Hunter Show, Sylvia Tyson and Family Brown, The second weekend focuses on our na tive heritage and features an authentic Indian Powwow Powwow that will attract native Indians from both the United States and Canada. The third weekend will feature feature one of the largest boat cavalcades in North American American History as several American and Canadian tour boat operators team up to guide hundreds of other era It through the magnificent magnificent Thousand Islands. As organizers of this large event, we wisli to invite former residents and visitors visitors to Gannnoquo, or anyone anyone else for that matter, to the event. To Unit end, we hope you publish this letter and help us in the cause, Kindest regards, Barry Grills Publicity Director