Assiginack opts for temporary levy to finance costs of new water plants

Manitowaning, Sunsite homeowners will all pay $271 additional this year while other solutions are sought

by Alicia McCutcheon

ASSIGINACK-During the last meeting of Assiginack council, a resolution was passed that will see an equal raise in water rates between the water users in Sunsite Estates and Manitowaning.

After a delegation from the Sunsite Estates Water Committee at the June 3 council meeting where it was stated that the split in water costs between the two communities was unfair, council did some number crunching and came up with an equal number for this year.

Councillor Brenda Reid announced that all water treatment plant users in Assiginack will now pay an equal $270.93 for this year only-this number was reached by dividing the Ontario Safe Water Assistance Program equally among the users.

Yet another large Sunsite delegation in attendance that evening seemed to breathe a sigh of relief as the new number was a far cry from the increase of over $400 they were expected to pay.

A resolution was also passed that an ad hoc committee be created, consisting of two water users from both Sunsite Estates and Manitowaning as well as two councillors. The purpose of this committee is to "explore the potential of developing a single water use rate for users of both systems, setting a timeline to harmonize the rates if so recommended and any other aspect of the water and wastewater operation funding."

The committee will be asked to submit a draft report of their finding before the end of 2008 with a final draft no later than March 15, 2009.

During the June 3 meeting, the Sunsite group had also asked council and staff to look toward forming partnerships with First Nations communities on Manitoulin, which speaker Mark Gibeault had described as the forerunners in the water treatment field.

In a memorandum sent to council, and discussed during the June 17 meeting, clerk-treasurer Alton Hobbs explained that the municipality should be wary of forming partnerships with any of the First Nations communities as the rules governing water treatment plants are not the same as municipalities. Although the workers are trained up to standard, he worried there may be liability issues as First Nations "are not governed or required to answer to Ontario or the Ministry of the Environment," nor must they worry about licensing or the Safe Drinking Water Act.

"There are plans to move the First Nations to a standard, but that standard is not yet known," Mr. Hobbs said. "I'm not disparaging anybody, I just think we should look to the municipalities from a risk management position."

Jim Griffin, chair of the Sunsite Estates Owners Association, thanked the council for taking their issue "so seriously" and said he appreciated the two motions and their intentions.

There is plenty  going on this Canada Day Weekend

all across Manitoulin Island

A roundup of events

MANITOULIN-Looking for something to do this Canada Day weekend? Well look no further than Manitoulin as communities throughout the Island are putting on a plethora of activities for people of all ages.

The annual Central Manitoulin Lions Club Homecoming Weekend is set to take place this weekend with plenty of events to keep you busy.

Dances for kids and teens will be held on Friday, June 27 while the elimination dinner and dance is on for Saturday evening.

The mixed fastball tournament will be taking place all weekend long so cheer on your favourite team!

Be sure to line up along the parade route to watch the floats and classic cars pass by, and then make your way up to the Old School Park for the classic car display.

On Sunday morning athletes from across Manitoulin and beyond will participate in the Mindemoya Classic run, canoe and bike triathlon. Following the cold plate buffet supper at the Mindemoya Community Centre, stake your place for the fireworks at the ball field starting at 10 pm.

This Saturday is also Family Heritage Day at the Little Schoolhouse and Museum in South Baymouth starting at 10 am. Enjoy a bake table, silent auction, barbecue lunch, parade and a fish supper.

Don't miss the Centennial Museum of Sheguiandah's annual barbecue on Sunday happening from 4:30-6 pm, rain or shine, with great local entertainers.

The fun just doesn't end in South Baymouth, as the skies will light on Canada Day when the Little Schoolhouse and Museum will be putting on a fireworks display starting at 10:15 pm.

The annual Ice Lake picnic will also be taking place on Canada Day at the picnic grounds. All are invited to enjoy a potluck lunch and supper, bazaar, auction, fishpond, horseshoe tournament and games for all ages.

In Little Current, the Business Improvement Association will be serving their annual Canada Day cake downtown at 12 pm on Canada Day. Better hurry down as it's first come first served!

Gore Bay will be shutting down the main street in honour of the holiday and the merchants providing fun Canada Day events for all. Don't miss the fireworks on the waterfront at dark.

Providence Bay is also hosting its annual Canada Day Celebration on Tuesday at the Harbour View Interpretive Centre. From 1-4 pm, kiddies will enjoy a host of games and activities and from 7-9 pm, revelers can enjoy local entertainment, cake and refreshments. Finish off the day with a bang with fireworks at the beach at 10 pm.

Junior A league expands to Michigan, P.Q.

by Randy Russon

LITTLE CURRENT-A membership increase of two will boost the number of teams in the Northern Ontario Jr. Hockey League to eight with the official approval of the Ontario Hockey Federation and Hockey Canada a mere formality.

At its Annual General Meeting in the port of Little Current on Manitoulin Island, NOJHL governors on the weekend voted to expand to Sault Ste. Marie, Mich. and Temiscaming, Que.

The Ontario Hockey Federation also held its AGM on the weekend and president Joe Drago told the Manitoulin Expositor that once "necessary documentation" is received from Hockey Quebec for the Temiscaming Royals and from USA Hockey for the Soo (Mich.) Eagles, "we will recommend to Hockey Canada" that the two teams be allowed entry into the NOJHL.

Thus, with the imminent additions of the Soo Eagles and Temiscaming Royals, the NOJHL will become a two division league for the '08-09 season.

Under the new set-up, Temiscaming, the Abitibi Eskimos, North Bay Skyhawks and Sudbury Jr. Wolves will comprise the East Division. The West Division will be made up of the Blind River Beavers, Manitoulin Islanders, Soo Thunderbirds and Soo Eagles.

Temiscaming, which spent the '07-08 season in the non-sanctioned Greater Metro Jr. Hockey League, will continue to be coached and managed by former Ontario Hockey League defenceman Steve McCharles as part of the NOJHL. McCharles skated for the Sudbury Wolves during the early 1980s.

The well-travelled Paul Theriault will coach the Soo Eagles. Theriault has been an OHL head coach with the Soo Greyhounds, Oshawa Generals and Erie Otters. He also spent one season as an assistant coach in the National Hockey League with the Buffalo Sabres and has coached extensively in Germany, Italy and Japan.

Meantime, at its weekend meeting, the NOJHL drew up a tentative '08-09 schedule that included both Temiscaming and the Soo Eagles. All teams will play an unbalanced 50-game regular season with more games within their own division.

It was also decided that interim commissioner Hector Seguin will continue in his post at least until NOJHL governors get together for a regular monthly meeting in July.

And the Showcase Tournament will this coming season feature all eight NOJHL teams.

Going Green

            Part one of a series

New Mindemoya info booth utilizes energy-saving tech

EDITOR'S NOTE: This article begins a series on efforts being made by Manitoulin Island individuals, municipalities, businesses and First Nations to bring about a greener tomorrow.

by Jan McQuay

When the Welcome Centre in Mindemoya is finished, Manitoulin will have a public building that showcases conservation and renewable energy technologies. According to the Central Manitoulin Economic Development Officer, Rob Maguire, the idea was to build in energy efficiency with a combination of technologies. 

Some of the technologies, such as the solar panels, are innovative. But there is nothing really innovative about the most important energy conservation feature of the building. It's just batts of fibreglass insulation, rigid foam sheets, and spray foam. Lots and lots of insulation.

The Ontario Building Code calls for an R-value for wall insulation of only R-15 in commercial buildings. The walls of the Welcome Centre will have R-34. When you double the R-value, you cut the amount of heat loss in half. Only half as much heat will escape through the walls of the Welcome Centre as in a regular commercial building.

The Ontario Building Code calls for an R-value for ceilings of R-22. The Welcome Centre will have R-50, so only half as much heat will escape through the ceiling as in a regular building.

Merdick McFarlane, the building supervisor, brings some great experience to this type of construction. He has built lots of R-2000 homes on the First Nations, and taught building technologies at Cambrian College for seven years.  He also built the interpretive centre at Misery Bay Provincial Park and Nature Reserve. Rob Maguire praised Mr. McFarlane for doing a great job and providing excellent recommendations for the Welcome Centre.

I asked Mr. McFarlane about building with so much insulation.  In the walls, the studs are 2" x 6" instead of the usual 2" x 4", with two inches of rigid styrofoam on the outside. To achieve R-50, the ceiling insulation is 14 inches thick. Plastic sheeting covers the insulation and all the joints are sealed so no moisture can get into the wall cavity. The black acoustic sealant remains pliable so if the building shifts slightly, the seal will still hold. That's important, because if moisture gets into the walls, they will deteriorate over time.

Besides sealing the interior, Mr. McFarlane emphasized moisture control.  "An air-tight building is like a fish bowl," he said. "The moisture stays inside so there have to be systems to move moisture out and bring in fresh air." Since the Welcome Centre has electric baseboard heating without heating ducts, there will be no heat exchanger, but there will be two units that are combination air-conditioners and dehumidifiers, one on each floor.  In addition, the solar heating system on the top floor will draw fresh air from outside.

Moisture control and air quality control are important in any building, but in the Welcome Centre, which will house the Central Manitoulin Historical Society, moisture control is also important for the preservation of the historical artefacts and documents.

There are many reasons to build "green", but one of the reasons is simply to save on heating bills.  Since the Welcome Centre has electric baseboard heating, I checked my recent hydro bills. When all the extra charges and taxes are added in, electricity now costs about 12 cents per kilowatt-hour.

Before oil prices started their spectacular rise in the last couple of years, oil heating was cheaper than electric. A litre of oil contains the same energy as 10.7 kilowatt-hours. Last March I paid $1.16 per litre of oil, which is like buying electricity at 10.8 cents per kilowatt-hour.  So oil still sounds like a bargain until you realize that an old ordinary furnace like mine can only convert 60% of that energy into home heating. Yikes, it's like paying 18 cents per kilowatt-hour for my heating!

Not that electric heating at 12 cents is cheap, it's just cheaper than oil heating at the moment, until electricity costs also rise. To avoid being stung by increases in the prices of oil or electricity, people can either reduce the amount of heating needed or generate their own.  At the Welcome Centre, the municipality is doing both, with more than twice the insulation of a regular commercial building, plus some solar heating.

The Building Code for new residential home construction is more stringent than for commercial buildings, requiring R-50 in the ceiling and R-29 in the walls. That's almost the same as at the Welcome Centre.

Older homes like mine weren't built anywhere close to these standards and so fuel price increases are hitting us hard. Last Fall I decided to literally insulate my home from rising prices by signing up for the ecoEnergy retrofit rebate program offered jointly by the federal and Ontario governments, and had an energy efficiency evaluation done.

My house turns out to be average for its age. According to the evaluation, increasing the attic insulation from R-12 to R-50, would save about 10% in heating. So last December, lots of extra insulation went into the ceiling. Now it looks like a puffy sea of pink.  During the winter, despite the hike in oil prices, I paid about the same as the previous winter, so I figure it did some good.  My rebate for the attic insulation will be $1200.

Most of heating loss in my house is through the uninsulated basement walls and basement header area.  I had never heard of a basement header before, but it turns out that's the area between the basement wall and the house wall and mine wasn't insulated.  Insulating the whole basement and header would save more than 20% in heating, but parts of the basement walls have water seepage in the spring. Where there's a water problem, insulation just gives mould a place to grow. For insulating the header area alone, the ecoEnergy rebate is $200. Fully insulating the basement walls would qualify for a $1200 rebate but the seepage needs to be addressed first.

For each recommended improvement in energy efficiency, the program provides a specific rebate.  That includes window and door replacement, exterior walls, high efficiency furnaces and other items. The idea is that, with the energy efficiency report, homeowners can make informed choices about the improvements they wish to make, and get government help to do it. The program even provides a rebate for installing a heat recovery air exchanger to make sure that fresh air is fed into the house and moisture-laden stale air is vented out.

I'd like to shout it from the rooftop. For anyone with an older, poorly insulated home, "It's time to let the government work for you!" To sign up for the ecoEnergy program, the first step is to contact one of the companies that do the efficiency evaluations.  Currently the two closest companies to Manitoulin are in Sudbury. You can reach CanSpec Inspection Services at 1-877-672-3242 or Building System Solutions at 1-866-927-5565.

It seems fitting that the Welcome Centre, which will house the Pioneer Museum, is ushering in a new era in building construction. The technology has changed, but the pioneer spirit of addressing challenges with innovation lives on.

EDITORIAL

Dion's Green Shift sets agenda for national debate

Liberal leader Stephane Dion has finally entered the political lists-and it is undoubtably none to soon for the Liberal legions who have been forced to stand stoically by while suffering gibes and barbs from the Harper conservatives.

For the first time since the election, the Conservative government is no longer setting the agenda for political debate.

True Mr. Dion has a tough battle ahead-it is always easier to fling one-liners and catch phrases at an idea than to engage in meaningful debate-talk of new taxes always makes for an easy target.

But the clear difference between the Liberals and the Conservatives has now been laid before the public, and for those who follow such things, the summer promises to be an interesting one. Mr. Harper has not been able to set the country on fire with his agenda, and it will be very dangerous for him to continue to allow the Baird-attack-dog style to be his government's only response over the long-term.

The Conservatives will be forced, whether they like it or not, to respond at least somewhat in kind, to the Green Shift. They must bring their own vision for this country's reaction to the environmental crisis in front of the people so they may choose.

Mr. Dion's plan is to place the cost of pollution onto the polluters-for most Canadians that means their neighbour far more than it does themselves.

The Conservatives are aware that most Canadians are all for helping the environment, if it doesn't cost them anything-or better yet if they can make money at it. So they will have to convince Canadians that the Green Shift is a tax grab-and for many well-to-do corporations and high-income earners that may even be true-but for the rest of the country the idea of moving the tax burden onto the polluters may well prove popular. the question is will they believe it. The Liberal-tax mantra has been so repeated over the years that too many people believe it-balanced budgets and the Mulroney years notwithstanding.

What is devilishly clever in the Liberal plan is that it will work. It will work because it enlists the most powerful corporate force known to the capitalist system-greed--in the battle to save the environment. Mr. Dion's advisors are right. Selling a carbon-trading program from the start would be too big a step. By making it in the best interests of the bottom line of the country's largest polluters to find ways to reduce their carbon footprints as fast as possible ensures the plan's success.

Mr. Harper has tried in the past to convince the rest of the country that the problem wasn't there, ala George Bush, but those strategies will no longer work. He is hampered by having to pander to his western powerbase and big oil-with razor-thin polling numbers he cannot afford to alienate the continent's largest polluters-placing him for most of the country's environmentally conscious squarely in the wrong corner.

It will be interesting to see what the Conservatives can stack up against the Green Shift. If it is more Liberal-bashing, name-calling, gutter language and snappy backroom-written one-liners, well, you can only fool all of the people some of the time.

The clock is now ticking for the Conservative agenda-Mr. Harper's time is running out.

Letters to the Editor

Little Current waterfront docks need ladders

Current design makes accessibility difficult

To the Expositor:

The new docks in Little Current need ladders, at least at the end of each one, as you cannot get up on them. I have tried and so have others. It is an accident waiting to happen. The water is cold and you could die of hypothermia before you ever get to the main dock to get out.

I have been complaining ever since they were built, but get no response. Perhaps they are waiting for someone to drown before they do something.

Considering the price they paid to out-of-town contractors to build the docks, perhaps they can afford to pay local people to build ladders out of a couple of two by fours. Plus, there aren't any life rings.

Jim McQuarrie

Little Current

Little Current Legion members continue generosity

Donations to help build food bank

To the Expositor:

The Royal Canadian Legion members have a long history of generosity to their communities and Branch 177 of Little Current is no exception. When the Manitoulin Help Centre announced a fundraising drive for a permanent food bank building, the Legionnaires immediately sent in a  generous donation and we thank them very much.

Also, even though my sisters and brother do not live or camp on the Island, they too rushed to send in their donations when I told them about our drive. Our heartfelt thanks to Louise Bardswich of Mississauga, Earl and Joan Bardswich of Mississauga, Miriam Bardswich of Burlington, Pam and Nick Ballin of Welland, and Pat and Allan Taylor of Sudbury.

Betty Bardswich

Fundraising Chair

Manitoulin Help Centre

Bill Foster

Pat Noble Lumber

Gore Bay

I'm your neighbour

Bill Foster is a known fixture around Pat Noble Lumber and Building Supplies located on Highway 540, just outside of Gore Bay.

The shy 'jack-of-all-trades' has been a part of the Noble team for 15 years and enjoys every minute of it. If he's not delivering lumber or mixing paint you can bet Bill is doing any other number of things around the store and lumber yard and that's what he says he enjoys about the job.

"I like the variety of jobs I get to do," he says. "There's always something different going on."

Bill said he feels fortunate that he is able to work on Manitoulin, especially in the community he calls home.

During his off-time, Bill said he likes to "mess around on the computer," hunt, and just generally be outside.

Summer, though, is his favourite time of year and he says he cannot wait for the days to grow hotter-swimming is one of Bill's favourite pastimes. Sitting by the beach with a good book or crossword puzzle, too, he says, is also a good way to while away the time during those lazy, hazy days of summer.

Supporting local businesses like Pat Noble Lumber in Gore Bay provides lasting employment for people like Bill Foster.