Island farmer turns animalfat into fuel

Biodiesel fuel for tractors and family home heating

by Alicia McCutcheon

ICE LAKE-If you're driving by the Burt Farm one harvesting afternoon and you happen to catch a whiff of barbecue, chances are it's the tractor.

Max Burt has always been conscious of the amount of energy used when producing food, which is one of the reasons he chose to try and produce local food-food sold to the people of Manitoulin.

The amount of pork and beef fat that littered his cutting room floor continued to bother the farmer and so he devised a plan to make the waste product into a useable source for the farm. Mr. Burt began to research the making of biodiesel fuel from animal fat.

He spoke of learning the process of making biodiesel, as well as putting the proper controls in place as he was working with chemicals.

"I gathered the information from people who were willing to pass it on," he said.

First, the fat is rendered to a liquid state, which is used as the "feed stock" or triglyceride to be used in the biodiesel.

"I wish I had paid more attention in organic chemistry," he said.

Next, the glycerine molecule has to be broken out of the chain and replaced with an alcohol molecule. "If you get a single fatty acid, it flows better," he explained.

Mr. Burt uses potassium hydroxide for his base catalyst as it leaves a more "environmentally suitable byproduct."

This summer, the farmer ran his biodiesel in his tractors and harvested this year's entire crop with it too. Although, he admitted, the constant smell of barbecue can make a guy hungry when he's working hard. The tractor engine needs absolutely no modifications to run the diesel and it can be blended, as it is so close to petrol diesel.

"The product is non-toxic and it makes a great solvent," he said. "You can wash your hands in it."

The tractor is even smokeless and the headache or burning eyes that some farmers get when doing chores in the barn with the tractor is gone.

Until recently, Mr. Burt was making each batch manually but he recently acquired a 50-gallon processor from California-the first of its kind in Ontario. Some assistance from the Northern Ontario Heritage Fund internal energy program helped him to purchase the new equipment.

"Animal fat is a bit more of a challenge because of the higher gel point," he explained, but he is currently planning to use the biodiesel to heat his processing plant this winter, despite the cold temperatures.

"There is a cost savings as opposed to buying diesel," he said, noting that his new diesel costs around 30 cents per litre plus the costs of feedstock and labour costs, as well as the costs of alcohol and the catalyst.

"But hey," he said, "I don't have to go over to Iraq and fight for some oil."

He said his carbon dioxide emissions have been reduced by 80 percent and he hopes to offset 80 percent of the fuel that he purchases.

Mr. Burt recently spoke to the attendees of an economic partners meeting in Little Current about his project as one of many farm innovations happening throughout Manitoulin.

Landowners still baffled and vexed by desecration of 200+ birch trees

by Jim Moodie

MINDEMOYA-Over 200 white birches growing on private bush lots in the Mindemoya area were stripped of pieces of bark this summer, and while the culprit has not yet been identified, the trees still bear the glaring scars of the illegal act.

More than 100 trees were disfigured on a 222-acre hunting lot belonging to Bert Cooper off the Hill Road in Central Manitoulin, with sections of bark peeled off in three-foot and six-foot lengths. Many more were similarly denuded on properties belonging to David Kains and the Van Horn family near Big Lake.

In each case, a snowmobile trail maintained by the Snowdusters organization runs through a portion of the land, and the assumption is that the bark thief made use of these trails to reach the birch stands. In the instance of the Van Horn and Kains properties, the individual (or individuals) likely first gained access via a road allowance that connects with the snowmobile route.

Mr. Cooper insisted that he doesn't hold the Snowdusters accountable in any regard for the incident, and will continue to allow the winter route to cross his property. But he remains perplexed and miffed by the violation. "It's trespassing, and stealing along with it," he told the Recorder earlier this fall.

For their part, the Snowdusters have since erected gates where the trail enters and exits Mr. Cooper's land to prevent ingress in the summer months.

"It is so frustrating to see people abusing someone's private property like this," said Betty Heis of the Snowdusters in a conversation with the Recorder. "If whoever had done this had gone to Bert and asked him if they could take some birch bark, that would be one thing, but to not ask, trespass and do damage to this extent is just wrong."

Mr. Cooper initially figured the number of damaged trees to be about 90, but a subsequent survey suggested many more had been stripped. Ms. Heis said that when she and her husband inspected the property, "we saw at least 100 and weren't anywhere near to seeing all of them."

Mr. Kains, whose land accommodates the Gibraltar cross-country ski trails as well as a stretch of snowmobile trail, told the Expositor that he hasn't "done a specific count" of damaged trees on his property, but judging by a quick stroll through this area last week, it appears that at least 70 trees have been plundered for their parchment-like covering.

The landowner's hunch is that the raid must have occurred in June, since it was shortly after that time that he encountered the destruction. "It wasn't a pleasant sight to see," he said.

Mr. Cooper also feels the pillaging likely occurred in June, as nothing had seemed amiss during a visit on the long weekend in May. The landowner alerted police and the Ministry of Natural Resources after finding the stripped trees, but noted, "there is not much that can be done unless we see someone doing the mischief."

Bark is occasionally harvested on Manitoulin for traditional craft purposes, such as the construction of quill baskets. But as one First Nation artist pointed out, it would be premature to conclude the act was carried out by a Native person, as a non-Native individual might just as easily have taken the bark to sell to artisans.

A birch stripped of bark will generally survive, provided "the innermost layer is not broken," according to botanist Judith Jones. This darker layer within the papery outer bark, technically known as the cambium, is the part of a plant that creates new cells.

Mr. Kains said that there is a patch of birch trees in a wetland area near the Gibraltar Road where "bark was stripped years ago, and it appears that this hasn't killed the trees. The foliage still looks as strong as it did five years ago."

But while many trees can endure a superficial flaying, the bark that is removed will never grow back, pointed out Ms. Jones. And given that birch trees are already susceptible to pests and blights, removing parts of their protective sheath can add extra stress and vulnerability.

"They're very susceptible to disease," noted Sharon McMullan of JD's Garden Centre, "and there's been a lot of die-back in recent years."

As for dealing with trunk damage, Ms. McMullan said that "among nursery people, there's always the debate of whether to leave the tree to heal itself, or use what we call 'tar' or tree patch."

Of the trees on Mr. Kains' property that were purloined for their pelts, some "had both a high piece and a low piece taken off," he noted. Others pieces were abandoned in mid-removal and left hanging on the trunks like cardboard tabs on advent calendars. "It looks to me that selection was made for clear pieces with no knot holes," said Mr. Kains.

The Van Horn family, whose adjacent land incurred similar damage, has since erected a gate "at their end of the road allowance," said Mr. Kains, and he is considering doing the same at his end of the corridor to prevent another incident of this nature.

Coroner investigating death at Wikwemikong Nursing Home

WIKWEMIKONG-A third tragic nursing home death, this time at the long-term care facility in Wikwemikong, has prompted a joint criminal and coroner investigation.

Mary Wemigwans, 86, passed away on October 22, following an injury sustained the previous day at the Wikwemikong Nursing Home, where she was a resident. The senior reportedly struck her head after toppling a wheel chair in which she was restrained.

Wikwemikong police chief Gary Reid said that the incident occurred at 10:30 am on October 21. Ms. Wemigwans was transported to the Manitoulin Health Centre, where she died the following day.

The incident is currently being investigated by members of the Wikwemikong Tribal Police as well as the office of the Chief Coroner. "The Ministry of Health is looking into it as well, because the home is funded by the ministry," said Chief Reid.

As to whether an inquest might be ordered, Mr. Reid said that "will be up to the coroner."

Local coroner Dr. Shelagh MacRae could not specify the official cause of death, noting that, "unlike CSI, our investigations take a while to complete."

Dr. MacRae allowed that "there was a post-mortem," but said that a final determination as to cause of death pends an analysis of samples and a pathology report. "We can't release that report until it comes back from the pathologist," she explained.

Ms. Wemigwans, whose husband John died in 1992, is survived by 12 children and numerous grandchildren, as well as eight siblings. The funeral was held on October 25 at the Buzwah Church.

Fatalities at both the Manitoulin Lodge in Gore Bay and Little Current's Centennial Manor earlier this year also resulted in investigations by police and the coroner's office.

Toy Library moving to new home

Signature red bus could be taken off the road

by Alicia McCutcheon

MINDEMOYA-Parents in the Mindemoya area met last week with the executive director of Manitoulin Family Resources (MFR) and staff of the children's services program to air concerns about a relocation of the Toy Library.

Today (Wednesday) is the final day that the programs offered through children's services will be found in the big orange Shaw Farm Supply building on Highway 542, just outside of Mindemoya's town centre.

Elizabeth Patrick, executive director of MFR, explained to the parents that the toy library is one of many MFR programs which are overseen by its voluntary board of directors.

The Manitoulin-Sudbury District Social Services Administration Board (DSSAB) funds the toy bus, outreach program and toy library, as well as the Magic Rainbow Daycare located at the Little Current Public School and the in-home child-care program.

"This program (the toy library/resource centre) has been in a deficit for a number of years but in past years there have been other programs under the DSSAB umbrella with some leftover money that could be funnelled into this program," she explained. "Now all three are in a deficit."

"At the end of the day, if there is a deficit, there's nowhere for money to come from and the board has to be responsible," Ms. Patrick continued. "We have to be fiscally responsible."

These financial woes have forced the children's services program to move from their big orange home, as they can no longer afford the rent. For the time being similar services will still be offered, but there will be some changes. As of press time Monday, MFR was not able to confirm its new home for toy library/resource centre, but options included use of municipal space as well as the public school in Mindemoya.

"The decision had to be made-continue to pay the rent or lay off staff," she said. "We weren't going to lay off staff."

Moving the resource centre and toy library is not a new idea as plans are still in place to create a hub centre in Little Current where the children's services program would all be found.

In light of these new changes coming to the toy library, staff of the Superior Children's Centre in Wawa were invited to Mindemoya to discuss their programming and help them "look to the future," said Ms. Patrick.

"The toy library is a thing of the past in other jurisdictions," she explained, noting, "only Mindemoya has had the benefit of this facility."

Ms. Patrick told the parents that they would no longer be able to drop in whenever they chose; rather, drop-in times would be scheduled. The fate of the bus, meanwhile, has yet to be determined. Programming would still come to each community, but it will likely be different.

"The bus costs are huge," she explained.

She said that the toys also create personnel problems as some of the bags of toys weigh upwards of 40 pounds, which, she said, is "unacceptable."

One of the parents in attendance, Sarah Hutchinson, raised concerns about what she termed "rushed decisions."

"From a parent's perspective, we stand to lose a lot," she said. "I hope it is seen that this place is ideal for so many reasons."

"It's not the bulkiness of the toys that provides the programming," noted Fawn Bridgeman, another concerned parent.

In a later conversation with Ms. Hutchinson, she expressed her sadness at losing the Mindemoya site as well as the proposed changes to the toy bus program.

"The toy bus is all about the toys," she said.

She spoke of the other benefits of the toy bus program such as the time spent with other mothers and resources shared while the children sit and play.

"If we're going to be doing crafts with 20 children, then you need 20 parents and that other aspect is lost," she mourned.

"We were in a really difficult position and it was either lay off one staff or move," said Ms. Patrick. "The owner of this building is no less than wonderful to deal with but there is no money."

EDITORIAL

Contributions of exemplary leaders appreciated

Two prominent provincial political faces were in the news this past week, each one in the wake of the provincial election just past.

John Tory, a businessman turned politician, ran successfully for the leadership of Ontario's Progressive Conservative party two years ago and has managed the party, through its house leader, from beyond his party's front bench.

While his party did not fare nearly as well as he would have wished on election day, Mr. Tory himself suffered personal defeat to a well-known Liberal candidate in the Willowdale riding in Toronto from which he chose to make his entree into the Ontario legislature.

Last week, he received a vote of confidence from his caucus, but he will still have to survive a wider leadership review, likely sometime before next summer. In the meantime, he will have to continue to sit as an ordinary citizen in the public gallery and watch his caucus go through the motions of the Official Opposition to the governing Liberals.

On the other side of the Legislature, veteran politician and sometime businessman Greg Sorbara announced on the weekend that he had asked Premier McGuinty not to ask him back into cabinet, citing personal family reasons.

Mr. Sorbara is quite clearly a talented man and his four-year stint as Ontario's treasurer certainly underscored this.

He'll continue to represent his north-of-Toronto riding as a self-imposed back-bench MPP, he says, but that's all.

Both Mr. Sorbara and Mr. Tory are lawyers. Mr. Sorbara has also had a career as a land developer and presided over his family firm.

Mr. Tory once ran the Rogers empire and before that served for several years as commissioner of the Canadian Football League. His other accomplishments, as a citizen volunteer, are legion.

Mr. Sorbara and Mr. Tory are precisely the kind of clever and experienced people that we need as professional politicians: people who have been successful in a variety of other fields and bring the skills they've mastered in the private sector to bear in public service.

Both of these individuals represent these ideals, from their own particular spaces on the political spectrum.

Hopefully, a safer PC seat will open up for Mr. Tory and allow him access to the Ontario Legislature where he can lead by more than example.

For Mr. Sorbara, reputedly Premier McGuinty's closest friend and advisor in government, taking a back-bench position is clearly a decision he would not have taken lightly, however much of a surprise his decision is to political observers.

We hope that Mr. Tory's and Mr. Sorbara's styles and attitudes of "politics for the sake of the people" are observed by other talented luminaries from worlds outside the realm of elections and that they serve as role models, encouraging others to consider contributing a part of their working lives to the public good.

Letters to the Editor

Liberal party offered nothing new in provincial campaign

We'll be nuclear dust if we don't change economic system

To the Expositor:

The October 17 Expositor editorial, "Liberals benefit from blasZ voters, Tory misstep" was somewhat correct in implying 48 percent of the electorate is bored through familiarity with the party's same old pitch, albeit the party is now the Green-Cons-Lib.-NDP party.

Fellow Toronto mayoralty candidate John Tory's attempt to turn the clock backwards to the marriage of church and state with a view to Muslim and other religious capitalist votes backfired.

The party offered nothing new. For example, fellow Toronto mayoralty candidate, David Miller, another Bob Rae in the NDP faction of the party, said I made the best speech in 2003 when I called for the university education of every Toronto youth, ending the police budget. No such promise was made by the party.

The fact the party is selling ours mines, steel industry, etc. to capitalists of other lands wasn't even mentioned.

As for capitalist history repeating itself, that's its chief characteristic: cheap labour, kill the cheap labour for cheaper labour, 1914-1919; 1933-1945. The film "The Corporation" is a repetition of the film "The Grapes of Wrath" some 65 years earlier. The NDP, by way of liberal capitalist Bob Rae, turned the clock backwards to the marriage of church and state by inserting Jewish and Muslim capitalist law into the Arbitration Act.

Bette Stephenson is somewhat regretting her 1985 support of funding Roman Catholic religious schooling, while Peel's board of education (i.e. capitalist propaganda) is pushing its "faith forward" texts.

As for conflicts selling advertising sheets, the film "Bowling for Columbine" makes it clear advertising sheets elevate little people and Gulliver-style put-down giants.

Public ownership candidates were blacked out, while capitalist candidates were front-page featured, albeit keyed not to mention their C02 and nuclearization of planet Earth.

According to the Toronto Star, the Angus Reid poll asked several questions; education was not one of them.

Locally, liberal capitalists have been standing an undertaker as an MLA; you know, typically, well dressed standing at the door of the funeral parlour, quite, quite dead. So dead one asks, "is the undertaker dead or the poor victim in the coffin?"

And when a miracle takes place, a loaded school bus with inspired students wanting to learn about Canada and the world stops to obtain a university education by reading Canada's history on the hero's monument on Highway 540 near Little Current area, I'll be able to say, "I've helped a few people to see our repetitive economy system and that if we don't change it to a public ownership level of development it will surely change us to nuclear dust, while drying our Arctic ponds."

Captain D.K. Campbell

Honora Bay and Toronto

Writer expands on Haw frustrations

Nearly all of those in neighbourhood were irked by party

To the Expositor:

Thank you for printing a letter in my name ("The title 'Haweater' has lost its significant historical value to many") in the September 19 issue of the Expositor.

The reason for this letter is to point out that the names of 13 of my neighbours, representing all but two households-one of which was the residence that held the unacceptable "party" during Haweater Weekend-were not included with the letter. My point is that all but two people who were not at the "party" refused to sign that letter and this is a significant telling point for the complaint.

Norris Valiquette

Little Current

Michelle Proulx

Island Pantry,

Gore Bay

I'm your neighbour

"I'm Your Neighbour" is not just a slogan for Michelle Proulx and her family. As a former employee and now proprietor of Island Pantry on Dawson Street in Gore Bay, Ms. Proulx makes a point of patronizing Manitoulin shops. "In a small community you greet everyone on the street and you consider everyone your neighbour," she said as her infant daughter Gabrielle cooed contentedly in the background. "We shop locally ourselves, for our own family."

Ms. Proulx received nine years of hands-on training with former owner Klaus Bach and then took a year-long course in phytotherapy before buying the business in June, 2005. She keeps up-to-date research texts at the store and is constantly researching new products. "I enjoy helping people and giving them options for dietary changes," she said.

In her view, shopping off the Island is not as beneficial as some people have been led to believe. "It's a misconception to think you can get everything on your list in Sudbury," she said. "And think of all the money you are spending on gas."

The Island Pantry offers wheat- and gluten-free products, organic flour, sugar-free jams, Manitoulin honey and a worldwide range of imported goods, she pointed out. In addition, customers can find a variety of beauty and baby products and over 75 different spices. Many people appreciate the freshly ground free-trade coffee as well. And the store is a popular spot to buy all the supplies needed for holiday baking.

Since she was raised on Manitoulin, Ms. Proulx believes in supporting local enterprises. "If you spend a dollar in one store it circulates throughout the community because we in turn spend our money in other local stores. If you travel across the bridge to shop, you are not helping Manitoulin people."

Patronizing businesses like Island Pantry provides a livelihood for people like Michelle Proulx.