MNR, proponent agree to upgrade requirements for Fisher Harbour project

by Neil Zacharjewicz

NORTHEASTERN MANITOULIN and the ISLANDS - The Ministry of Natural Resources has upgraded the Fisher Harbour project from a 'B' Category MNR Class Environmental Assessment project to a 'C' category project.

This fact was confirmed by Ministry of Natural Resources (MNR) Acting Area Supervisor Brian Riche, who indicated that the decision was made after discussion with the MNR's own environmental assessment advisors as well as Alexander Centre Industries Ltd., the company which owns and operates Fisher Harbour.

"We have decided to step it up to a Class 'C,'" Mr. Riche stated. "The company had basically suggested it too."

He pointed out that the Fisher Harbour project, which would see nickel and copper concentrate shipped from Voisey's Bay, through the port, en route to INCO's refinery in Copper Cliff, generated close to 50 letters of comment from the general public.

"In this area, that is a lot," he said.

With the project upgraded to Class 'C,' Mr. Riche noted, the project effectively starts all over at square one, with the company submitting a draft Environmental Study Report. Once this report has been received, the MNR will make it available for review, and a 30 day comment period will begin. Once those comments have been garnered and considered, a final report will be generated by the company and, once again, submitted to the MNR. The final report will then be made available to the public, and another 30 day comment period will begin. Once more, this comment period will be advertised in the media. Mr. Riche indicated public meetings may be considered by the MNR during the comment period, although they are only a possibility.

Once the final report has been submitted and the comment period ended, two things could happen, Mr. Riche said. First, the MNR could require the project be upgraded once again to a Class 'D' project, the highest possible project rating, or the ministry could allow the proponent to proceed with the project. He noted that the project cannot proceed until the project has gone through both comment periods. By suggesting the project be upgraded to a Class 'C' category, Mr. Riche pointed out, Alexander Centre Industries Ltd. has agreed to subject the project to more public comment than it would have had it remained a Class 'B' project.

Mr. Riche indicated it will be at least 90 days before a final decision on the Fisher Harbour project takes place.

Meanwhile, the United Chiefs and Councils of Manitoulin (UCCM) have expressed concern with a decision by council for the Town of Northeastern Manitoulin and the Islands (NEMI) to amend a zoning by-law in order to allow Alexander Centre Industries Ltd. to construct a building over 100 feet in height at Fisher Harbour in order to store the nickel and copper concentrate from Voisey's Bay. UCCM has expressed support for the Whitefish River First Nation, one of the organization's member First Nations.

UCCM pointed out that Canadian courts have stated that "corporations must also engage in consultation with indigenous peoples in respect of any developments that may impact or infringe our Aboriginal Treaty Rights."

"It is interesting to note that (NEMI) is not acknowledging the rights of the Whitefish River First Nation when debating the proposed expansion of Alexander Centre Industries Ltd. The First Nation had presented their concerns regarding the threats that this industrial development and nickel and copper concentrate ore, known carcinogens to human and animals, will bring to their territory and surrounding areas," UCCM stated. The organization further suggested that the concerns raised by the Whitefish River First Nation were the same issues brought forward at the Seventh Conference of the Parties of the Convention on Biological Diversity, held in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia.

"These concerns are being recognized world-wide, but not in NEMI," UCCM suggested.

No one to run against Armstrong for Conservative nod

by Neil Zacharjewicz

MANITOULIN - Being named the candidate for the Conservative Party of Canada in the upcoming federal election is all but a formality for Blaine Armstrong.

According to Terry McCutcheon, president of the Algoma - Manitoulin - Kapuskasing Conservative Party of Canada Electoral District Association, no other candidates have come forward to run for the nomination. He indicated the deadline to submit applications to run for the position has now passed.

"(Mr. Armstrong) was the only application that we received," he stated. "I am very pleased about (Mr. Armstrong's) decision to seek the candidacy and I am confident he will do well in the upcoming federal election."

Mr. Armstrong grew up on a farm in the Gore Bay area, and served the community as a lawyer for 25 years. Prior to the formation of Conservative Party of Canada, Mr. Armstrong was a member of the Reform Party of Canada, and was past president of the Reform Party's riding association.

While he has not yet officially been acclaimed as the party's nominee, Mr. McCutcheon indicated that will take place at the riding association's nomination meeting, which has been scheduled for March 6 at the Masonic Hall in Elliot Lake, beginning at 2 pm.

Mr. McCutcheon is encouraging party members and non-members to attend the meeting to meet the candidate and hear more information about the Conservative Party of Canada and the leadership campaign that is still underway.

"We have invited all three leadership candidates, Stephen Harper, Tony Clement and Belinda Stronach, to speak at our nomination meeting or send their representatives to speak on their behalf," said McCutcheon.  The leadership campaign is becoming a heated race with the vote to take place on March 20, 2004.

Algoma-Manitoulin-Kapuskasing has been designated as a remote riding by the Conservative Party of Canada and members who purchased their membership by February 29, 2004 will vote in the leadership by a secure FAX-back method.

"This will make it easier for many of our members who would have to travel long distances in the winter in order to get to a polling station to cast their vote," Mr. McCutcheon said. The FAX-back ballot must be sent to the party before 12:00 noon on March 17, 2004. Members who are in good standing by February 29, 2004 will receive their voting kit in the mail.

"We are using a preferential ballot for the leadership voting," said Mr. McCutcheon. A preferential ballot allows each member to rank their choice of candidate. The first count of the ballots will only count the first choices of the members who vote. If one candidate does not receive 50 percent plus one on the first count, the third place candidate will be dropped from the contest and the ballots will be recounted. On the second count, the ballots that were marked as a first choice for the candidate that was dropped will be recounted using the second choice. Since there are only three candidates, a winner will be determined after the second count.

"It is a very exciting time for the newly created Conservative Party of Canada with the national leadership campaign following the recent amalgamation process," said Mr. McCutcheon. The Canadian Reform Alliance Party and the Progressive Conservative Party of Canada merged to form the Conservative Party of Canada in December 2003.

CDC closes its doors

by Neil Zacharjewicz

NORTHEASTERN MANITOULIN and the ISLANDS - Residents of the Little Current area should not anticipate the 'Sorry! We're Closed' sign in the front window of the Northeastern Manitoulin and the Islands Community Development Corporation office to be flipped over any time soon.

"As of February 27, the board of directors has turned over management (of the office) to the town," stated Stan Ferguson, chair of the Northeastern Manitoulin and the Islands Community Development Corporation (CDC), on Monday. He indicated he did not want to discuss the issue further.

Mayor Joe Chapman has suggested that the reason the CDC has chosen to turn the office over to the town is because council had refused to approve more money for the organization. He said in January, council had received a request for the same amount of funding it had received in 2003 from the town. Instead, council chose to give the organization $5,000 to operate for another month. It had also requested the organization curtail any major expenses until the town had reviewed the future of economic development within the community. When those initial funds ran out, the CDC asked for more funding, however the town's Finance and Administration Committee recommended that council not provide them with further funding, and that a new more cost effective system of economic development be implemented.

"Essentially what has happened is that they have run out of money to operate," Mayor Chapman said. He indicated council will consider the recommendation with regard to the future of economic development in Northeastern Manitoulin and the Islands (NEMI) at its March 3 meeting of council.

"The town will not be managing the CDC. The CDC is an arm's length not-for-profit corporation that never has been under the control of council. They have always wanted to be independent of council. This was made abundantly clear when the CDC passed a motion in favour of the Streetwise Development hotel proposal for Low Island - in direct contradiction to the position of council," Mayor Chapman indicated. "Council is concerned that the CDC was spending too much on hiring staff and renting buildings. Council was also concerned that the town had no control over what the CDC was doing. I think there was a feeling that the $63,000 that was given in grant to the CDC was simply more than the community could afford."

Mayor Chapman said the prior mayor and council has to accept some of the blame for the current state of affairs, as they had never given the group any specific direction and had never set any economic priorities for the town.

"As a result, we had a great group of volunteers, with the best of intentions, but no definite projects to work on," he stated. "The present council recognizes the important role that volunteers can play in economic development and hopes that the CDC volunteers will continue to assist with the town's development. To this end, council will be asking these volunteers if they wish to participate in three very specific economic development initiatives that council plans to undertake over the course of the next three years."

It is important the town continue some of the good work the CDC has done, Mayor Chapman continued. He noted the town is supportive of the Northern Ontario Aquaculture Association (NOAA), as well as the local aquaculture industry.

BSE continues to affect farmers

by Jim Moodie

MANITOULIN--As disciples of high-protein diets blithely stuff their grocery carts full of pricey beef--a strip loin steak from a Manitoulin store cost this author $22.43 cents per kilogram last week--Manitoulin beef and dairy farmers are wondering if they can afford to put any sort of food on the table, let alone feed their herds.

Last year was a disastrous one for the beef industry, with Canada's first case of bovine spongiform encephalopathy (BSE)--often, to the dismay of farmers, called "mad cow"--being detected in May. The US, Canada's biggest export market, promptly closed its border; prices plummeted and farmers found themselves with cattle they couldn't move. Then, just as prices started to rebound in the fall, and optimism was high that the border would reopen early in 2004, a second case of BSE was found on December 23 in the US. The cow in question would turn out to have originated in Canada.

Farmers could not have asked for a worse Christmas present. The border now remains firmly closed to live cattle and most beef products, with no sign of the trade ban being lifted any day soon.

"It's like a lottery. Pick a day and gamble on when it will happen," says Jim Martin, a Western Manitoulin cow-calf operator and Northern Ontario director for the Ontario Cattlemen's Association. Larry Moggy, who, along with his father Ralph, operates one of the largest cattle farms in the area, fears it could be "five or six years before cows are let out of the country."

Most of the trade Canada does with the U.S. is in live cattle--older cows or "cull cows," as well as younger choice steers and heifers, which are sent south to be slaughtered and packed. "Past history is that seven out of 10 mature cows have gone to the US to be processed," says Mr. Martin. While he doesn't have an exact figure for young cattle, he assumes "it would be close to half of them that go south, because we produce twice as much as we consume."

The current trade ban prohibits all live cattle, and the only meat allowed to cross the border is boneless beef from cattle aged 30 months or less.

The restriction has taken its toll. Recent figures released by Statistics Canada indicate that cattle receipts fell by more than a third nationwide in 2003, from $7 billion to $4.6 billion. The pinch, however, may be felt more in 2004 for area farmers. Mr. Martin says that Ontario farmers are currently "losing $5 million a week." Prices at the fall Co-op sale were relatively good, but "ever since October they have tailed off, and after December 23 (when the second BSE case was detected), they really nose-dived," notes Mr. Martin.

Many local farmers gambled on the border reopening in the new year, and now they're stuck with cattle they can't sell. "What a lot of cow-calf guys tried to do was background them (feeding a weaned calf until it reaches a weight of 1,000  to 1,200 pounds), but they got caught with the second case of BSE," notes Mr. Moggy. Those cattle are getting heftier by the day, but prices are falling rather than rising.

As an example of just how far prices have plummeted, Mr. Moggy points out that "I just shipped a bull last week that weighed a ton, and I got $480 for it. At the same time last year, I would have got $1,500. It's just unbelievable."

But that price for Mr. Moggy's bull--a mere third of what it would ordinarily fetch--is actually better than the prices farmers are getting for the older cull cows that go for hamburger. Tehkummah dairy farmer Jim Anstice says that a friend of his recently sold "a cull cow for $65. Normally you'd be looking at $600."

Other farmers he knows have driven all the way to Calgary to try to unload cows. Dairy farmers are particularly affected right now, says Mr. Anstice, because their cull rates are higher than beef operations. "Some years 20 per cent of the herd will go to culling," he notes.

Prices for cows are so low, said Mr. Martin, that "there are instances where what you get won't even pay for the freight." A few farmers have, indeed, ended up in the hole on a cow transaction. Howland farmer Ken Ferguson says that "some operators on the Island recently shipped cows to market in southern Ontario, and just got a bill back in return."

Given the potential to actually lose money on a mature cow, Mr. Moggy says "you almost feel like just taking them out and putting a bullet in their head." Farmers are loathe to take such actions, he stresses, but frustrations are building, particularly since prices in the grocery store haven't budged appreciably through this crisis. "Why let the slaughter houses make the money while you take a hit?" Mr. Moggy asks.

The Bidwell farmer isn't the only one to have raised eyebrows at the continuing high price of beef in the stores at a time when beef producers are struggling. According to a recent CBC news story, farmers are pressuring Ottawa to look into the situation, arguing that middlemen are making a profit at their expense. Meat packers and grocery retailers plead innocence, but Mr. Moggy insists that "somebody must be making money."

Farmers also suspect a hidden agenda in the continuing US ban on Canadian beef. "It's pretty political right now," says Mr. Martin. "They (the US) are eliminating a lot of competition for their farmers--all the markets we used to have, they've picked up."

The OCA director notes that the US has traditionally "exported 10 per cent of their beef, and what came in from Canada has been about 10 per cent," so there is no real crisis south of the border. "By blocking our beef, they can just eat their way out of the problem, whereas Canada (which exports 60 per cent of its beef) can't."

The threat to human health is being overstated, according to farmers. Ruminant meat and bone meal in feed--understood to be the cause of BSE in cows--has been banned in Canada since 1997. And even if a cow was old enough to have been infected by contaminated feed, the illness could only be passed on to humans (as occurred in Britain, in the form of the brain-wasting Creutzfeldt-Jakob disease) if spine or brain matter was ingested, and these materials are now routinely removed in Canada, says Mr. Martin. "If you remove the spine and brain, you basically eliminate all risk of infection," he says, adding that this procedure is far more foolproof than allowing spines and brains to be processed and subjecting each cow to tests. "There is a better chance of human error in a lab test than just banning the risk material."

That the BSE-infected cow found in the US could be traced back to Canada should be reassuring, rather than distressing, according to Mr. Martin, because it proves that the system of tagging cattle and screening them for BSE is working.

The argument has been made--indeed, it's a key recommendation of a recent industry report in Alberta--that cows old enough to have been possibly contaminated by feed containing animal parts should be euthanized in a mass cull, but farmers fear a consumer backlash should that plan go ahead. Scenes like those from Britain in the 1990s, when cattle were destroyed en masse, could turn the stomachs of consumers and turn them permanently off the product.

At present, Canadians are still buying beef at an impressive rate, given the spotlight on so-called mad cow. "We're the first country where BSE was found and we didn't lose consumer confidence or demand for beef," notes Mr. Martin. "Other countries have been devastated, but here demand actually increased. The public recognized that this cow in Canada never did make it into the food chain."

That's one positive for cattle farmers to cling to through these trying times. There are others, too. Federal Minister of Agriculture Bob Speller hinted last week that an emergency aid package will be announced within days, and there are signs that a slaughterhouse will open soon in southern Ontario to process culled cows, according to Mr. Moggy. Local farmers can also feel relatively lucky compared to counterparts in Western Canada, which has been doubly hit by recent droughts.

A truly revived industry, for both Manitoulin and the rest of the country, however, depends on the border being reopened, and while that seemed a good bet before Christmas, it's anyone's guess now when it will occur. Meanwhile, local cattle farmers have to tough it out, saving costs where they can. In Mr. Moggy's case, this means repairing the equipment he has, rather than investing in new machines, as he would normally do each year. For George Peltier, a Wikwemikong cow-calf operator, it means holding onto the herd he has and hoping for better times ahead. "We didn't make anything this year because we kept our calves," he says.

Farmers certainly can't expect an income boost from mature or bred cows. "I used to joke with my wife that if we get into trouble we can always sell the bred cows," notes Mr. Moggy. "Now nobody wants them--they're worth nothing."