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Back to Home Letters - December 8, 2011 Letters: Dec 8

Re: NF Council gives New Energy program cold shoulder, Wolfe Erlichman

Re: Property Standards, Lynn Shwadchuck

Re: NF Council gives New Energy program cold shoulder

(NF Council, December 1, 2011) For North Frontenac Councilor Lonnie Watkins, a little knowledge is bad news for North Frontenac Township ratepayers. At a recent council meeting, as reported in the Frontenac News, he asked the following question about the province's Micro-FIT program: How can a system that pays 80¢ to a producer for power that sells at 7¢ be a sustainable project? Mr. Watkins had two years to educate himself if he were really interested in serving his constituents and finding the answer to that question. If he had done his job properly, he would have discovered that the Micro-FIT program could be very beneficial for North Frontenac Township.

The Micro-FIT program encourages the building of non-polluting renewable sources of energy which can be fed into our electrical grid. It does so through public-private partnerships with the private sector. This means that the province does not have to pay for capital costs up front but private investors have to pay around $80,000 for a full 10 KWH system and they do not receive any revenue until their installation is approved and is putting power into the grid. This is in contrast, for example, to nuclear power where the province has to borrow the money and take all the risks if there are cost over-runs.

In order to get this program going, the first investors are offered a better return on their investment. However, the rate paid will go down as the program progresses and the green energy industry develops. Eventually, this rate will be competitive with other forms of energy. It is important to note that the amounts paid to the initial producers, while high on a per KWH basis, are negligible in the larger scheme of things and have no effect on hydro rates. By the time the green energy program is producing significant amounts of electricity, the lowered rate will be competitive with any other source of energy.

So the question Mr. Watkins asked leads to another question: Why is Mr. Watkins not encouraging North Frontenac Council to take advantage of the introductory Micro-FIT rate in order to generate income for North Frontenac and create local jobs by putting solar panels on North Frontenac property?

Wolfe Erlichman

Re: Property Standards ( CF Council, Dec 1/11)

As a Central Frontenac voter I totally disapprove of the idea of a property standards bylaw that is chiefly concerned with beleaguering poorer residents about the appearance of their property. Out in the country people are ingenious with cobbling together practical solutions from used materials – solutions that would be unacceptable on suburban crescents and boulevards, but which are the very nature of country life. As long as the vehicles being stored for parts are not leaking fluids into the aquifer, then I'm not interested in hounding my neighbours. 

As a resident of a busy dirt road that is often riddled with huge potholes, I really question whether such a small population needs to invest time and money in enforcing a bylaw that covers frivolous issues not covered by safety and environmental rules and lake stewardship associations. The township receives a couple of phone complaints a month. This by-law would be gross overkill to provide direction to staff fielding complaints about the conditions of neighbours' properties. In cities that have these by-laws, enforcement means ordering repairs and improvements, going ahead and doing them when residents fail to comply, and then billing the residents via their taxes. Ultimately homes can be lost. In these economically shaky times, do we want to be policing beauty and bankrupting those less fortunate?

I really think a complaint-based standards policy goes in the opposite direction rural people need, which is a spirit of mutual support, cooperation and acceptance of individual freedoms and self-reliance. I hope township council will hear from residents who agree that this is an ill-conceived idea for a small and diffuse population. 

Lynn Shwadchuck