Gore Bay trucking magnate named to Order of Canada

by Lindsay Kelly

MANITOULIN-It's been a banner year for Gore Bay businessman Doug Smith.

After receiving a prestigious trucking industry award earlier this fall, the Manitoulin Transport proprietor has just been named to the Order of Canada, this country's highest civilian honour.

A list of the Order's most recent inductees was released by Governor General Michaelle Jean on December 28. Mr. Smith is being recognized in the industry, commerce and business category, "for his contributions as a business leader, philanthropist and champion of economic and community development in Northern Ontario."

Around Manitoulin, Mr. Smith is known simply as the man behind the familiar red and white Manitoulin Transport trucks that traverse Island roads every day. The trucking entrepreneur founded his business more than 50 years ago, and today the company boasts 60 terminals across the country, with the company's head office remaining in Gore Bay.

When contacted last week about his induction, Mr. Smith joked that he was "collecting the award as the most senior member of the Manitoulin team. I've been here a long time," he said.

The humble trucking magnate said he was "completely surprised" to receive a phone call from the office of the Order of Canada telling him of his induction. "I had no idea they had been working on it for a couple of years," he said of the group who nominated him, which included Harry VanderWeerden.

Mr. VanderWeerden said that when it came to nominating his long-time friend, he felt Mr. Smith's 50-year career and hard work deserved to be recognized.

"The reason I did it is because I've known him for 45 or 46 years, and I've pretty well watched him expand his company from two trucks in the early '60s to a major, major transportation company," he said. "Right now, I think it's one of the biggest private truck firms in Canada, if not the biggest-that's quite an achievement."

Getting the nomination in took two years, collaboration with Mr. Smith's sons, and "numerous, numerous calls," but Mr. VanderWeerden said it's well worth it to see his friend receive this award. "It was no bother," he said. "It was something I wanted to do."

Mr. Smith's success has been decades in the making. It began in 1957 with Smith's Wholesale, the family business, when a truck and trailer was purchased to transport produced moving from the Ontario Food Terminal to Manitoulin Island for distribution. Three years later, Mr. Smith acquired Hill's Transport and renamed it to Manitoulin Transport. At that time, the entrepreneur pitched in loading furniture, driving and working on the trucks.

In 1980, Mr. Smith employed his first eight "Supertrucks," whose design allowed for the transport of temperature-controlled goods to Northern Ontario while pulling a stake and rack trailer. The trucks were also capable of transporting heavy product like lumber or steel south while carrying general freight in the Supertruck box.

The invention earned Mr. Smith renown for his ingenuity. It and his strong work ethic are hallmarks of his long and distinguished career. Today, his sons Gordon and Jeffery have carried on the family tradition, and have been employed in the business for more than 20 years.

For these contributions and more, Mr. Smith was given the Service to Industry Award at an Ontario Trucking Association convention in the fall. The award recognizes commitment vision, leadership and service in executives in the province's trucking industry who have made outstanding contributions to the development and success of the industry.

Mr. Smith and his wife, Phyllis, have also been keen community supporters, backing several service clubs on Manitoulin, in addition to running one of the biggest employers on the Island, Mr. VanderWeerden noted.

"Manitoulin Transport, although it's situated in Gore Bay, or Gordon Township, every community on the Island is affected by him," he said. "You just have to look at the parking lot in the morning and see where the cars are coming from."

Yet despite this long list of accomplishments, the businessman debated whether or not to agree to the induction, fearing he might upset others.

"I didn't know whether I should accept it or not," Mr. Smith said. "A lot of people don't like those that are a step above them, and the Order of Canada would tend to put you there."

A long talk with his family finally convinced him that the acceptance of the honour was appropriate, and that "a lot more people would be upset if I didn't accept it," Mr. Smith chuckled.

The Order of Canada was created in 1967 and is awarded to Canadians in all sectors of society who have shown a lifetime of outstanding achievement, dedication to the community and service to the nation. The award takes the form of a medal bearing a white, stylized snowflake at the centre of which is a maple leaf inscribed with the Order motto, "Desiderantes meliorem patriam"-which translates from Latin to "They desire a better country"-and which is surmounted by St. Edward's Crown.

Mr. Smith joins 60 other appointees into the Order of Canada, including three Companions, 18 Officers, and 40 Members. Mr. Smith will be inducted as a Member, which recognizes "a lifetime of distinguished service in or to a particular community, group or field of activity." A date for the induction ceremony has not yet been announced.

Lake Huron water levels sinking towards record low

by Jim Moodie

LAKE HURON-The new year is shaping up to be a new nadir for Lake Huron.

As December drew to a close, the level of the continent's second-largest lake was within a couple of inches of its all-time low, and experts fear that the lake could dip below that dubious mark as early as this month.

"We have been below what the International Joint Commission considers a crisis level for six to seven years now," remarked Mary Muter, chair of the Georgian Bay Association's environment committee. "And now it looks like we'll be setting record lows in January."

The lowest reading so far occurred in 1964, when the lake dwindled to 175.62 metres (as expressed in height above sea level). That was nearly a metre below its long-term average, and almost two below the record high measured in 1986.

As December began, Huron was just eight centimetres above this historic ebb. As of press time, that buffer had been reduced by half, putting us just four centimetres away from an unprecedented plunge.

The December issue of 'Level News,' Environment Canada's monthly bulletin on Great Lakes water levels, focussed almost entirely on the looming crisis faced by Huron and Michigan, which function as one system since the two lakes are conjoined.

"Although it is too early to say just how large the 2007-'08 seasonal declines will be on each of the lakes, it is probably safe to say that anyone affected by, or interested in, water levels on Lakes Michigan-Huron is watching this year's seasonal decline very closely," the bulletin states.

Conditions were dry in November, with increased evaporation and water supplied to the pair of lakes approaching record-low proportions, according to Environment Canada. "As a result, daily water levels on Lakes Huron-Michigan fell 13 centimetres during November, eight centimetres more than their (usual) decline for the month."

As December began, the level of both lakes was 66 centimetres less than normal for this time of year. Barring a deluge of precipitation or sudden gift of overflow from Superior, the federal agency was anticipating that "levels on Lakes Michigan-Huron could begin 2008 as low as they were in 1965," with "new record lows (to) follow if low water-supply conditions persist."

Ms. Muter said that some residents of Lake Huron are already pronouncing a record low, based on "the markers they have on their docks to track water levels." And one government gauge on Lake Huron has already registered a single-day reading that was below the all-time dip, according to a Michigan newspaper; it doesn't stand as the record, though, because to do so the same measurement (or a lower one) must be sustained over a one-month period.

But even if the lake retains a bit of a technical cushion above its record low for now, riparian dwellers like Ms. Muter are feeling anything but reassured. "The US Army Corps of Engineers is saying that we'll be 15 inches lower in 2008 compared to 2007," she said. "Projecting into next summer, we could be a foot lower than last year."

Low water has significant economic consequences for shipping companies, which are forced to lighten the loads of freighters, but also for cottagers and marinas, which wind up with elevated docks, exposed water lines, and shallower harbours. A few people might welcome a broader beach, but generally it's bad news, both for the environment and business.

"We know already that this is leading to huge applications for blastings and dredgings," said Ms. Muter.

Her organization, which represents cottagers across Georgian Bay, has pointed to the lake's outlet via the St. Clair River as one of the key factors in the lowering of Huron. A study commissioned by the group blamed scouring and dredging of the shipping channel at this passage for an increased outflow from the lake.

Preliminary findings released this fall by a bi-national group conducting a multi-year study of the upper Great Lakes seemed to refute that claim, based on images recorded by underwater cameras, but Ms. Muter believes that much more analysis needs to be done before the river is ruled out as a culprit in Huron's water woes.

"Our basic response has been that to try to draw conclusions from preliminary findings is inappropriate," she said. The footage taken of the riverbed "is kind of like taking a photograph when you need an MRI," she analogized.

MP St. Denis's bill would promote

teaching of Native culture in schools

by Alicia McCutcheon

OTTAWA-Just before parliament broke for the holiday season, a bill was introduced "to promote the teaching of Aboriginal history and culture in Canada's schools."

The bill, so new it has not yet been named, is the brainchild of Algoma-Manitoulin-Kapuskasing Member of Parliament Brent St. Denis. In the preamble it states:

"The teaching of Aboriginal history and culture is deficient at the primary and secondary school levels, which has contributed to current levels of misunderstanding of the important place of Canada's Aboriginal people in our country's history and to a lack of appreciation for important cultural, legal, historical and political matters such as treaties and the land claims process and for the deep roots of Aboriginal peoples in the land and their culture."

"This is something I've noticed over the years," said Mr. St. Denis. "A lack of appreciation of our First Nations culture which leads to misunderstandings."

He spoke of the "quiet acknowledgment" the First Nations people have of their spirituality, traditions and culture and thinks it should be quiet no longer.

The idea for the bill came after the National Day of Action on June 29 when Mr. St. Denis attended the peaceful protest at the swing bridge in Little Current.

"When Chief Pat Madahbee and Terry Debassige were making their speeches they called on me to make a commitment," he said. "It was their inspiration. The Day of Action was a way to promote understanding and distribute information, and out of Little Current came this suggestion."

Mr. St. Denis said he realizes it has been many months since the protest, but explained that the drafting procedure-the process undertaken to make sure parliament will approve of the language of the act-took some time.

"It should pass muster," he said. "But it can take a long time, even years. If an election should be called, I will re-introduce the bill."

Mr. St. Denis said it is still too early to predict what the other parties will make of the bill, but it has gone over well with the Aboriginal caucus, of which the MP is a member.

"The Bloc probably won't like it," he said, explaining that the party would not like the federal government treading on provincial territory (which education is).

"If the bill is passed, it would have the federal government encourage the provincial governments to include, in our grade and high schools, Aboriginal history," he explained. "Not to force the feds on the provinces, but rather encouraging them to adopt what we are suggesting," said Mr. St. Denis. "This is the opposite of what residential schools were all about-to promote diversity rather than squash a culture. This is just the beginning of a long process."

EDITORIAL

Order recipient an ambassador for Manitoulin

The Order of Canada is our nation's highest civilian honour and the Governor General has announced that Doug Smith has been successfully nominated for induction into this elite group.

The Manitoulin Expositor and the Manitoulin West Recorder would like to offer public congratulations to the visionary Mr. Smith.

From the Manitoulin perspective, Mr. Smith's business, Manitoulin Transport, is a genuine industry for the town of Gore Bay, where the company's head office is located.

Mr. Smith has been true to his roots and has clearly made a commitment to his home town of Gore Bay and to Manitoulin Island in general to create jobs where he could.

But Mr. Smith and Manitoulin Transport have long been innovative leaders in the trucking industry and so the company from Gore Bay proudly carries the Manitoulin name the length and breadth of North America.

Doug Smith is the only recipient of the Order of Canada to have been born on Manitoulin and to have made his life and career here.

Well respected Ojibwe artist Daphne Odjig, born in Wikwemikong, also received the Order of Canada a few years ago but Mrs. Odjig has lived a great deal of her life in Western Canada.

Congratulations, Doug. This is a real honour for Manitoulin Island as well.

LETTERS TO THE EDITOR

Contributing photographer congratulated for delightful images

More wilderness visitors should carry cameras instead of guns

To the Expositor:

Thank you John Savage, for the great photographs over the past few years. Your December 19 photo of two deer ("Neck and Neck," page 17) was just delightful. Wouldn't it be great if everyone carried a camera into the woods rather than a gun?

Happy New Year,

J. Dumas

Sudbury and Bay Estates

Fans enjoy baseball regardless of 'legal' doping

Let them play ball!

To the Expositor:

It would seem that baseball is trying to self-destruct.

Whatever happened to "being the best you can be?"

Why do fans enjoy the game? They enjoy top-notch play and players who can provide it, regardless of what they eat for breakfast, what their fitness programs consist of, or what (readily available to all) "legal" medication they require to enable them to perform at an acceptable level and come as close as possible to earning the ridiculously high amounts of money they are paid.

This money is directly or indirectly provided in large part by those of us who love the game.

Change is a fact of life. So let's give our heads a shake and get on with it. Play ball!

C.H. Abbott

Mindemoya

Lisa Pitawanakwat

Mnis IDA_Pharmacy

Wikwemikong

I'm your neighbour

Lisa Pitawanakwat is a familiar face at the Mnis IDA in Wiky-she's worked there, off and on, since it opened its doors in 1995, and is currently the pharmacy assistant.

"I receive prescriptions, enter them into the computer and get them ready for the pharmacist," she said. "I also work the cash and do orders for the dispensary, the store, as well as special orders."

Originally from Wiky, Lisa graduated from the Ontario Business College in 1991 and continued her education by studying for an undergraduate degree from Laurentian University in liberal science. She said she still likes to continue to learn and picks up courses "here and there." Just this spring, Lisa took a bookkeeping course from the Wikwemikong Development Corporation.

During the summer months, Lisa said she hits the powwow trail and tries to get to as many powwows on and around Manitoulin as she can. A jingle dress dancer, she also makes her own regalia and spends winters beading and sewing in anticipation for a busy summer of dancing.

This mother of four teens sits as a board member on Wiky's Community Living Association. Lisa explained that her sister is handicapped and so, by helping to oversee services that help her sister, she hopes she is doing her part.

She said she is hoping for more snow this winter as she has a love of cross-country skiing and will often venture out in the woods behind her father's house.

Lisa describes herself as "a hippy" who enjoys meditating and doing yoga, especially in the morning before she heads off to work. She quit smoking three weeks ago and hopes to steer clear of cigarettes in the New Year as part of a commitment to a healthier lifestyle.

"I enjoy serving the community, especially the Elders," she said. "The Elders make my day."

Shopping in local stores like Mnis IDA_Pharmacy creates lasting employment for people like Lisa Pitawanakwat.