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2 The Canadian Statesman, Bowmanville, May 23,1984 Section Two ( Editorial Comment ] Was It an Election Budget? The latest Ontario budget is one which should keep political, forecasters guessing. Whether the document foreshadows a provincial election or whether it places the government government in a convenient "holding pattern" pattern" is anybody's guess. Certainly, the budget leaves the choices open. On the one hand, it could be branded a pre-election blueprint for expenditure because it distributes distributes a few choice plums to the electorate. For example, it has held the line on personal, corporate and sales tax increases. It kept the tax collector's collector's hands off cigarettes and liquor which traditionally bear the brunt of increased taxation. No doubt the move will be hailed by both consumers consumers of these items and the manufacturers. manufacturers. Moreover, the Province will distribute distribute $30 million to the auto industry industry in a three-year plan for plant modernization and other improvements. improvements. Then there's a $450 million program program to provide training and work experience to Ontario's unemployed unemployed young people during the next three years. But few of these items can be cited as outright efforts to grab voter support. Many of the provisions provisions are spread over a three-year period which would indicate that they are long-term schemes to boost the economy rather than short-term vote-getting strategies. Finally, that 4.9 per cent rise in Ontario Health Insurance Premiums Premiums does not look like the work of a government expecting to call some sort of snap election. It still appears to us that the next provincial ballot will take place within a year, but the latest budget suggests it will be toward the end of the next 12-month period, and not before. Meanwhile, the Provincial Tories have left their options open, just in case. All of this should come as no surprise. The provincial budget makes few political mistakes and it's just one example of the Conservatives' Conservatives' knack for holding onto their political power in Ontario. Letter to The Editor Time of Use Electric Rates Dear John; Would you be apt to shower before before 7 a.m. if it only cost half as much to heat your water at that hour? Would your son postpone drying his hair or watching T.V. until after 11 p.m.? Would your wife wash her dishes and clothes between between 11 p.m. and 7 a.m. if it only cost half as much for electric power? These questions may become become very real in the not too distant future if Ontario Hydro adopts a system of electricity pricing called "Time of Use Rates." Bill Morrison and myself, representing representing Newcastle Public Utilities Commission, just finished a two day symposium in Toronto, on Daily and Seasonal Rates, organized by the Ontario Municipal Electric Association. Association. Over two hundred attended attended this Seminar representing industry, public utilities, direct eléctrical users, Ontario Hydro and the media. The topic under discussion discussion was not new, but has been under study since 1973. In 1979, the Ontario Energy Board asked Ontario Ontario Hydro to bring in a pricing policy that would more nearly reflect reflect the cost of producing electricity. electricity. In order to accomplish this, Ontario Ontario Hydro would have to charge more at peak consumption periods (9 a.m. -12 a.m.) and less during the night hours. In theory, if the consumption consumption was at the same level day in and day out all year long, Ontario Hydro wouldn't have to build any more generating plants in the foreseeable future. There will always always be peaks and hollows in electrical electrical consumption. Electrical energy cannot be stored. The most optimistic objective would be to level out the peaks and hollows in Poet's Why Did It End This Way Why did it end this way That question lurks as I lay Was I too young Was it not good Or was it too wrong These questions have lurked The troubled head I have Was it my fault Or was it yours Could it have been both Where did it start Was it in the golden light usage through incentives and penalties in the price paid for power. Don't expect these Time of Use rate changes to happen overnight. Even if they were adopted now, it would take until 1987 to put them into effect. I think the first step would be to have the large direct industrial customer like St. Marys Cement or International Nickel use the price incentives inherent in Time of Use rates. Next to adopt these rates would be the 324 Municipal Municipal Utilities who would have the option of offering the variable rates to their large customers. Finally, would be the residential user on a voluntary basis. The sophisticated add on meter to record the different electrical consumption at the different different times in the day can now be purchased for less than $100.00. The whole theory behind this Time of Use Rates is to lower the peak demand in order to slow down the construction of any more power plants. Even lowering that peak power use by 2% could save construction construction of a multi million dollar nuclear power plant. John if you and I and a million others in Ontario Ontario would buy electric cars, drive them between the hours of 7 a.m. and 11 p.m. only, then charge the batteries in the off peak hours, I, could guarantee you a lower cost of electrical power per kilowatt hour. Might not be too far from reality if the price of gas takes a further jump in price. Very complicated and technical, but nevertheless there is a good possibility that you and I will be faced with Time of Use electrical rates before this decade is over. Yours truly, Robert L. Stevens Vice Chairman P.U.C. Newcastle. Corner Or the existence of the wicked evil When did it begin Was it the beginning Maybe it was the middle or the end Was there always that doubt Why did it happen Did we not like it Were we not ready Where did it all go Did it go with the wind Or did it go like the rain Why did it end this way MaryAnn Van Dyk Stye (Eanabtan Stateaman 623-3303 (*CNA Durham County's Great Family Journal Established 130 years ago In 1854. Also Incorporating The Bowmanville News The Newcastle Independent TheOrono News Second class mall registration number 1561 Produced every Wednesday by THE JAMES PUBLISHING COMPANY LIMITED 62-66 King SI. W., Bowmanville, Ontario L1C 3K9 i-tto 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 of advertisements produced by the employees of The Canadian Statesman, The Newcastle Independent and The James Publishing Company Limited are protected by copyright and must not bo reproduced without written permission of the publishers. $15.00 a year -- 6 months $8.00 strictly In advance foreign -- $45.00 o year Although every precaution will be taken to avoid error. The Canadian Statesman accepts advertising in its columns on ilm understanding that it will not bo liable for any error in the advertisement published hereundnr unless a proof of such advertisement is requested in willing by the advertiser and returned to The Canadian Statesman business olhco duly signed by the advertiser and with such error or corrections plainly noted in writing thereon, and in that case it any error so noted is not corrected by The Canadian Statesman its liability shall not exceed such a portion of the entire cost of such •idverlislrnent as the space occupied by the noted error bears to the whole space occupied by such advertisement It's Time to Rediscover Each Other SUGAR and SPICE Revisiting Perth There's something rather ghoulish about revisiting your old home town after forty-odd years and giving a speech about what it was like to grow up there forty-odd years ago. The younger people don't know what you're talking about. The people your own age are either deaf or dead, and don't know what you're talking about either. Well, that was a recent experience. I was asked to speak at a Chamber of Commerce dinner in Perth, where I was reared, after a fashion. Special theme of the evening was the celebration of the 150th birthday of the Perth Courier, the second oldest weekly newspaper in Canada. Perth, down in Eastern Ontario, was a centre of culture and class (rich and poor), when Ottawa was a brawling lumbertown and Toronto was Muddy York. My speech was the ideal moment for a lapse into rotundic hysteric hyperbole, and plain old bull-roar. I successfully avoided all three, as is my wont. I just told the truth, as always. And, as always, I received a standing ovation. The standing ovation, which used to be a rare and heartfelt response to a speech in which a politician promised new roads, new docks, or a new post office, has become as emotional as a good sneeze. It is now a chance for people to get off their bums, up from those hard chairs borrowed from the funeral director, on which they have squatted for two hours or so, and stretch their arthritic joints. It also signals the end for those who have fallen asleep. You can hear the groan of relief welling beneath the hearty handclapping. •K. •_ I didn't praise the Chamber of Commerce. In fact I stuck a needle into them. As a former weekly editor, I know all about the Chamber of Commerce, in another town. We met monthly if we could get a quorum. There were always four of us. I guess that was a quorum: the President, two members dragged out of the pub or off the curling rink, and me, as reporter. Talk of new industries, new approaches to tourism, and a general up-grading from the parking meters floated through the air for two hours, then we'd all go happily home, for another month. This one was a little different. The officials talked in hundreds of thousands of dollars, mostly government grants, where we used to talk about the impossibility of raising $200 for a tourist information booth. At any rate the Perth Chamber was gracious and exceedingly generous. I think the whole trip didn't cost me more than $100. I also needled the publisher of the Perth Courier, but rather gently. I've been over that route, and publishers get the needle from readers so regularly that they barely feel it, except when it goes to the bone or the heart, which it does every time. What shook me was how old a lot of people were. There I was, feeling a ripe old twenty-eight, and these ancients came shuffling up and saying, "Hey, Bill, remember the time we...?" My only resort was to say "Hoor you?" When I found out I was mortified. A great strapping chap stuck out his hand and said, "Bill?" I responded, "Hoor you?" He just said, "Roy", and there I was confronted, and recognizing a first cousin I hadn't seen since 1945, he just out of the navy, I just out of the air force, having a couple of beers together. We hadn't seen each other, or exchanged so much as a card, since. A few other faces emerged from the bald heads and lined faces: Cam Chaplin, a raw-boned dairy farmer who tackled in football like a brick wall hitting a heap of marshmallows; Jack Scott, another boy of the same ilk; Kay Lightford, sister of my old college room-mate, and her brother, Grover, a widower with six children who married a widow with four, and who grasped me earnestly by the lapels and told me I should consider marrying again. Aside from a few, it was a family reunion. My big sister, dammer, who instigated the whole affair; put me up for three days and tried to force-feed me. Her son, Pete, an Air Canada captain, just happened to drift up from Montreal and his little sister, Heather, took a jaunt down from Pembroke. I used to babysit them. My little sister, a nurse, drove with her husband, some white-haired old guy called Jack Buell, with whom I'd played football forty years ago, floated in from Brockville. We had quite a time, swapping lies and figuring out who was dead, who'd had a stroke, who was divorced and why. We'll probably not ever be together again until the day my ashes arrive in an urn. Something unusual, and very moving for me, occurred at the dinner. I was told that an elderly gentleman, or as some put it, "an old man", had been waiting outside the hall for about two hours, wanting to see me. A bit bewildered, I told them to have him come in. And I finally nailed the old devil who have been writing me for years, signing himself, at first, "Your TV Repairman", and later, over the years, just "YTVR." I knew he lived in Westport, Ont., but couldn't answer his blunt and caustic comments, his kind and encouraging notes, his sensitive letter when my wife died. And there he was. He wouldn't come in to dinner. He had to drive home, in the dark, at over 80 years. He'd come all that way just to say hello, Smiley. He gave me a gift which I thought might be a chamberpot, chamberpot, with his sense of humor, neatly wrapped. It turned out to be a beautifully handwrought wooden bowl, which I shall treasure. More about him later. Letters to the Editor To Community Involvement Committee, c/o Dorothy Hartford. Ladies and Gentlemen of the committee, I would like to take this opportunity to submit to you, some general information regarding the Bowmanville Creek Anglers Association and the Bowmanville Creek and surrounding area. It is certainly a pleasure to see an increasing public interest in regard to conservation conservation awareness in the Bowmanville Creek and adjoining adjoining area. Wo have an excellent excellent natural resource in this area, as seen during the spring and fall migration of Salmon, Brown and Rainbow Rainbow Trout. This splendid run of lake raised fish is creating an ever increasing number of tourists and sport fishermen to this area, during the instinctive seasonal runs of these magnificent magnificent sport fish. These fish are working their way to the ideal spawning grounds in the northern stretches of stream. Needless Needless to say, the revenue chanelled into the Durham Region, as a direct result of this natural phenomenom, is a definite asset to us all. Unfortunately, this spectacular spectacular display of nature comes to an abrupt halt at the Vanstone Mill Pond, situated immediately north of the Highway #2 bridge. It has been our club's priority since its conception, four years ago, to establish a fish ladder over this man made barrier. This will enable these sportfish to continue their migration to the excellent excellent spawning grounds north of the mill pond dam. The owner of Vanstone Mill lias been more than happy to co-operate with our club's endeavors to transfer the fish from the lower pond to the upper stream, where they can easily negotiate twelve more miles of quality quality reproductive waters, The number of hours involved involved in organizing, planning, planning, building weirs, sandbagging areas to direct water flow, and creating pulley systems to actually transfer the fish, are countless. countless. The labor offered for these physical tasks is given by the dedicated members of the B.C.A.A. To date, we have approximately eighty members. This spring we transferred seven hundred and three fish, each one having to be recorded as to size, sex, number of scars, and readiness to reproduce. reproduce. The results of the stream survey, done by the Ministry of Natural Resources (M.N.R.), has shown an excellent excellent return for the effort put forth during the transfer. transfer. The quality of reproduction reproduction is equal to that of streams having no obstructions obstructions whatsoever. This is quite reassuring when we realize that very little reproduction reproduction takes place south of the #2 Highway. This is due to poor water quality, and high summer water temperatures (be cause of the lack of vegetation vegetation protectively covering the stream against the heat of the sun's rays). These are not condusive to the propagation propagation of salmon and other trout species. In the past, when the transfer was left to the M.N.R., as few as sixty five fish were transferred in a season. Obviously, this was not near enough to maintain maintain the present numbers of Rainbow Trout, whicli have been increasing from a dwindling fifteen hundred to two thousand fish, to this year's figure of approximately approximately thirty five hundred. Budget and manpower have been the main reason for the lack of performance by the M.N.R. A fishway at the mill pond certainly seems to be the correct alternative, alternative, as opposed to the manual manual transfer of fish by the B.C.A.A. If kill to the M.N.R. to lift the fish, it would he a seasonal expenditure to the taxpayer. Alter several trips to Queen's Park, discussions and letters to local media, and communication with the M.N.R. (Linday district), public pressure is coming to bear. It has now been proposed to us, that if we could raise enough funds (25% had been suggested) towards the approximated $95,000.00 cost of installing a fishway, Queen's Park would take this as an indication indication of public interest. At this point they would start proceedings towards installing installing a fish ladder. Up to now, the B.C.A.A. has taken the initiative and acquired two possible proposals for this project. This includes one from the M.N.R. (British Columbia). We didn't seem to be making headway with our own ministry. Our own M.N.R. has proposed to do a leasabilily study regarding regarding the possibility of constructing constructing the fishway which is so necessary. This is a definite definite step in the rightdirec- tion. Please help us enhance this very valuable natural resource; not only for ourselves ourselves but for future generations. generations. Mike Nelson, Vico President Bowmanville Creek Anglers Association (B.C.A.A.) May 15, 1984 Dear Mr. James: Please accept our thanks for your recent coverage of activities at Lord Elgin Public Public School. Certainly the students always always look forward to their pictures in the paper. As well, the community appreciates appreciates it in terms of communicating communicating news. Again, please accept our thanks for both pictures and write-ups of our Bicentennial' Bicentennial' and Education Week celebrations. Sincerely, On behalf of Lord Elgin Teaching Staff, G. Gleibs, Principal.