Vol. 10 No. 15
YOUR COMMUNITY NEWSPAPER COVERING NORTH DURHAM
THURSDAY, APRIL 10, 2014
Wheels see page 10-12
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No objections to pot project in Uxbridge DARRYL KNIGHT The Standard
UXBRIDGE: Councillors provided a letter of no objection to a group seeking to bring a medical marijuana production facility to the township this week, allowing the application to move forward through the stringent application process mandated by Health Canada regulations. Prior to council granting a letter of no objection, a meeting between the proponents of the site and area residents was held in Zephyr on Wednesday, April 2. During the meeting, the group seeking to bring the facility to a farm on Durham Rd. 30 answered several questions and concerns from local residents regarding security measures at the site, which would include a fence around the perimeter of the barn, as well as 24-hour monitoring of the site. “This isn’t a facility that people will come to, this is a facility where it will be grown and then shipped out in a secure vehicle,” said Kandavel Palanivel, the pharmacist who is also the proponent of the project, adding that the marijuana would be stored in a vault within the fortified barn. According to Health Canada, the amount of medical marijuana users in Canada is expected to increase nearly ten-fold over the next decade, from just over 50,000 users currently to almost 500,000 by 2024. Under the proposal, only a barn on the site would be used for the production of medical marijuana, with the remaining 100 acres continuing to be used for growing crops of corn and soybeans. The group has also been in talks to place trees or a berm around the site to provide added privacy to nearby residents. As well, a pharmaceutical-grade charcoal filter would be used to mitigate any odours from the facility. At council’s meeting on the morning of Monday, April 7, Ward 2 Councillor Pat Molloy commented that the public meeting alleviated many of the concerns of nearby residents, but with medical marijuana being a relatively new industry, the process will continue to evolve over time. “Generally speaking, I feel that residents were comforted by the presentation. It’s not a perfect world and everybody isn’t always happy,” commented Councillor Molloy. “It’s a different industry and there’s a lot of questions, but I think most of them have been answered. But, I still don’t know if I’d want it next door to me.” TURN TO PAGE 7
BOWL FOR KID’S SAKE: Scugog Township councillors were out in full force on Saturday, April 5 at Parish Lanes in Uxbridge, to play in the Big Brother’s Big Sister’s North Durham fundraising tournament. Pictured (from left) are Larry Corrigan, Howard Danson, Cheryl Holmes (Programs Manager for BBBSND), Wilma Wotten, Bobbie Drew, and John Hancock. The event drew 26 teams BENJAMIN PRIEBE The Standard to the lanes, and raised over $6,000 for BBBS projects in North Durham.
Scugog fine tuning solar contract BENJAMIN PRIEBE The Standard
SCUGOG: The hotly debated development of the Illumination LP Solar project on Regional Rd. 19 will continue moving forward, and could net the township $225,000 in exchange for prime farm lands. Scugog Township councillors agreed to a tentative contract with Canadian Solar Solutions Inc. (formerly known as Skypower) at a Council meeting on Monday, April 10. In an effort to avoid a compromising situation in the future, Scugog Township has created an agreement which outlines the need for projected monetary compensation for the township, landscaping and grading reports, schedules of trucks, and reimbursement for fire department training, township staff usage, and resources.
“This particular project is virtually ready to start, we are just approving some final landscaping and grading plans,” said Don Gordon, Scugog’s Director of Community Services. “Canadian Solar has their financing lined up and will be ready to go in short order - I fully expect that this project will be started this spring.” In order to reduce the initial cost to the township, Canadian Solar has offered to provide $70,000 worth of solar panel hardware for the site, which will generate an estimated 30 megawatts of solar energy. The installation cost of the hardware is estimated to be $50,000 to Scugog - but feeding into the grid will earn a profit of approximately $11,250 per year, or $225,000 over the next 20 years. TURN TO PAGE 9
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