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North Dumfries • Blandford-Blenheim • Brant • East Zorra-Tavistock • Wilmot
Vol. 119 — No. 13
AYR, ONTARIO, WEDNESDAY, MARCH 30th, 2016
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North Dumfries Township now says residents should call MNRF for help with sick raccoons
FOUR SEASONS IN ONE WEEKEND - The Easter weekend was full of surprises when residents went from cleaning up from an ice storm on Friday to searching for Easter Eggs wearing a t-shirt on Sunday. Below, North Dumfries Director of Public Works Mark Smuck and Recreation Director Frank Prospero survey the damage as tree limbs came down in the ice storm and took down part of the fence surrounding the tennis courts at Victoria Park in Ayr. Smuck said North Dumfries had almost 30 trees come down between Thursday night and Friday afternoon and road crews worked until past midnight on Thursday to clear branches from the roadways. They were back early Friday morning and worked until Friday afternoon to finish the job. Smuck said the cleanup continued on Tuesday and it will take a couple weeks before it is completed from all road allowances and parks. Above, Ayr Optimist member Chris Pompeo leads children on an Easter Egg hunt in the sunshine at Schmidt Park on Sunday afternoon. Over 300 people attended.
North Dumfries Township is now telling residents to contact the Ministry of Natural Resources and Forestry (MNRF) if they see a wild animal that appears diseased or is acting like it has rabies. Residents have received varied information from the township in the last month as to what they should do if they are concerned about a sick wild animal, particularly raccoons, on their property. North Dumfries Township had Hillside Kennels pick up some sick raccoons on private property this spring, two weeks ago told residents to call Hillside and pay for it themselves, and last week posted information on its website saying residents should call the MNRF for help. For many years, North Dumfries Township has directed Hillside Kennels, who handles its animal control, to pick up sick raccoons that are reported by township residents. This spring, Hillside continued to pick up sick raccoons after they said they received permission from a member of North Dumfries staff to do so. With the increased concern about rabies this year, Hillside picked up a higher number of animals. When they submitted an invoice for about $2,000, they were told by North Dumfries Township that they were not to pick up any more diseased raccoons. Bylaw and public works reports to North Dumfries Council that were published in the Ayr News in the last five years include reports that the township had instructed Hillside to pick up sick raccoons on numerous occasions. Many locals can recount stories of the township assisting them when they had a sick or diseased wild animal on their property. On March 17, North Dumfries CAO Andrew McNeely told the Ayr News that the township has never been responsible for picking up sick or diseased wildlife on private property, and he suggested residents call Hillside themselves if they encounter a sick raccoon on their property
and pay Hillside to pick it up. McNeely said the township is only responsible for picking up stray or aggressive dogs. However, it does not appear that he shared this information with North Dumfries Council before its March 21st meeting. At last Monday’s meeting, Councillor Neil Ritchie said that residents in Branchton have approached him concerned about the spread of rabies into the east side of the township. He said residents are concerned about the spread of rabies through raccoons, and also skunks and stray cats that appear to have higher numbers in Branchton this year. CAO McNeely told Councillor Ritchie that North Dumfries is not in the primary rabies control zone that was established by the MNRF last December. He said that North Dumfries is about 20-kilometres outside the zone and that in April, the MNRF will expand a bait trapping area to about 50-kilometres outside the zone. When asked about bait trapping in North Dumfries, MNRF spokesperson Jolanta Kowalski said the ministry does distribute bait with a vaccine to inoculate animals against rabies. When asked whether North Dumfries would be included in spring baiting plans, Kowalski said “We have not yet finalized our baiting plans for 2016-17.” No one told Councillor Ritchie during the meeting that the township no longer picks up diseased animals. After the Ayr News came out the following day with the story that the township has stopped this service, the Ayr News contacted Ritchie for a comment. “I would like to discuss our policy and procedures regarding rabid animals and their collection,” said Ritchie. “If something has changed in our policy, I would like to discuss who initiated this change (e.g., picking up of animals on public and/or private property) as it was not directed by council. In the past, I have had no issues having these animals being removed from ...continued on page 2
Hydro One announces new farm rapid response team to deal with stray current
Hydro One has announced the creation of the Farm Rapid Response Team that is expected to go live this summer. This is a new centralized approach, which will help identify, assess and mitigate on-farm electrical issues. Developed in partnership with the Ontario Federation of Agriculture (OFA), the Farm Rapid Response Team will provide farming customers access to a specialized team who will manage onfarm electrical issues throughout the province. This streamlined and simplified approach provides Hydro One’s farming customers a single point of contact to manage their concerns. Hydro One has 13,000 farming customers in Ontario. This is really good news,” said County of Brant Mayor Ron Eddy. “It’s terrific to see cooperation between Hydro One and the farmers.” “I am hopeful that this action will help the farming community,” said North Dumfries Mayor Sue Foxton. “I would like to see the plan of action and how it is to be implemented. I would also like to thank the farming community for making their representatives aware of the situation. Working together, we can assist positive change.” Recently, representatives of North Dumfries
and the County of Brant met with Energy Minister Bob Chiarelli over the issue of stray current, which Hydro One refers to as an on-farm electrical issue. The representatives were given two 15-minute meetings with Chiarelli and Hydro One staff to express their concerns about stray current. The County of Brant representatives included Mayor Eddy and Councillors John Wheat, Brian Coleman, Robert Chambers, Willem Bouma and three members of Brant staff, Paul Emerson, Michael Bradley, and Robin Hewitt. The North Dumfries representatives included North Dumfries Mayor Foxton. CAO Andrew McNeely and Rick Nicholls, MPP of Chatham-Kent also attended. Early in March, Nicholls introduced Bill 161, an Act To Prohibit Harmful Electrical Ground Current, which passed unanimously at Queen’s Park. Stray current has been proven to lower livestock production and negatively affect humans. The problem arises when power lines are grounded into the earth instead of using return lines to the power stations. The partnership with the Ontario Federation of Agriculture, the leading advocate for the farm-
ing community in Ontario, and Hydro One was established in 2013. The first priority in working together was to improve the handling of stray voltage and ground current issues. “We are pleased to have developed a new working relationship with Hydro One to address the issues that are most important to our agricultural industry,” said Brent Royce, Chair of the OFA’s working group. “Addressing on-farm electrical issues is our collective priority, as it affects famers across the province. Hydro One’s new approach will help address these issues in a consistent and timely manner.” The Rapid Response Team will initially consist of 10 Hydro One employees. There will be one engineer performing a centralized role, coordinating technical audits and helping prioritize investigations and work of the team. The other nine team members are local technicians so one will be located in each of our nine provincial zones. “Familiarity with the community and aspects of the local system will be valuable, rather than centralizing all members in one place,” said Rosa. Hydro One Limited is Ontario’s largest electricity transmission and distribution company with approximately $24.3-billion in assets and
2015 revenues of over $6.5-billion.
MPP Rick Nicholls still has concerns
“It is nice to see that Hydro One recognizes that stray current is an issue on Ontario farms,” said Nicholls. “However I am concerned that they are not listening to what forensic electrical engineers are saying, and to what Thomas Edison always said, ‘never put current in the ground.’ I have reservations as to what the OFA along with Hydro One will actually be measuring. We must remember voltage does not kill but current does. Execution through electrocution is what is happening to farm animals and over a longer period of time and ground current can have a harmful effect on human health.” “Hydro One must ensure they are measuring current and not voltage, plus look at the facts that farmers are losing their livelihood due to stray current,” Nicholls continued. “How does this ‘rapid response team’ differ from what they are currently doing? The OFA along with all other farming organizations must put pressure on this government to get Bill 161 into committee for discussion and then passed in third reading for it to be granted ‘royal assent’ in order to become law.”
Gregor Hagey fostered his love of photography while attending Paris High School
First foray into comedy garners Canadian Screen Awards for Paris native – By Chelsea Alphonso – Paris native Gregor Hagey has some advice for young film enthusiasts – prepare an acceptance speech for any nomination, no matter what you believe your chances are to win. Hagey recently made a stop at the Canadian Screen Awards where he was recognized for his work on Sunnyside, a Canadian sketch comedy television series. He won the award for Best Photography in a Variety or Performing Arts or Sketch Comedy Program or Series. “Everyone is reacting and I’m not reacting because I was in shock,” Hagey recalls. “At the best of times I can’t wing a speech, but when you’re kind of in a bit of shock and they’re all people in the industry that you didn’t want to look like an idiot in front of. I recommend if you’re nominated for anything, whatever it is and whatever your chances are – get your speech ready.”
Despite the win for the series, Sunnyside was cancelled. But Hagey wasted no time starting on two new projects: My 90-Year Old Roommate, a web series for CBC, which will be online by the end of summer; and Bruno & Boots: Go Jump in the Pool, which airs on YTV on Friday, April 1st. The long-time film fanatic said that his award was extremely special because of the risk he took to make, what he calls, a “conceptually unique show”. “It was the first show that I ever shot that was sketch comedy,” said Hagey said of Sunnyside. “I wasn’t too sure what to think about it because sometimes sketch comedy can be really rough looking. I wanted to do something that was stylish and had a nice design to it.” Type Sunnyside into your YouTube browser and you won’t be disappointed at the quirky characters, but also in the way
Gregor Hagey’s family joined him at the Canadian Screen Awards where he won the award for Best Photography in a Variety or Performing Arts or Sketch Comedy Program or Series. From left: Hilary Coleman, Gregor Hagey, and his parents Nancy and Donald Hagey. Hagey created a feeling of being in the scene - not just observing it happen. His lack of experience worked in his favor, as
his creativity and fresh outlook won him the award. The road leading up to this particular award has been
long and decorated with other awards along the way, and it all began in high school. Hagey attended Paris District High School in the 1980s. It was during those years he fostered his love of film. In high school, Hagey enjoyed English, Fine Arts and remembers taking a media literacy class that really opened his eyes to the technicalities of movies. The impact of the media literacy class played a role, but what really solidified the dream for the young cinematographer was his English class. “I would con my teachers into letting me make a film instead of writing an essay. So I had some very supportive English teachers that let me do things like that.” His rural upbringing is quite different than the life he is living currently. He looks back fondly on living out in the country; in the community that he remembers being as small as
3,500 people when he was growing up. Gregor currently lives in the downtown Toronto area with his wife Hilary Coleman and two young children. Between his family responsibilities and work, Hagey is often very busy, but he does find time to visit his parents in Brantford and see his old stomping grounds on the way. His parents also travelled to Toronto to attend the Canadian Screen Awards. *** About Chelsea Alponso Chelsea Alphonso is a 23 year-old third year Humber College journalism student. Born and raised in Orangeville, journalism has always been her dream job. She enjoys reading, working on documentaries, and anything involving physical activity. When she is finished school, Chelsea hopes to make a living writing and eventually create her own documentary series.
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