BACK BY POPULAR DEMAND AND IN THE SPIRIT OF CHRISTMAS

Original Post: Friday, October 9, 2009

How the Grinch (Almost) Stole our Farmland

The Melancthon people liked farming a lot
But Lowndes, an outsider, really did not

Lowndes hated farming!
All the farming seasons!

Now, please don't ask why.
We ALL know the reasons.

Staring down from his office with a John Lowndsey sneer
"Surely the end of Melancthon is finally near!"

He thought all the hicks in Melancthon would bite
And were too busy farming to put up a fight

"They are busy planting and digging!" he snarled with a sneer.
"While my open pit mine, is practically here!"

Then he growled, with his Lowndsey fingers nervously drumming,
"I MUST find a way to keep the mine coming!"

And he thought and he thought...In his small Lowndsey brain...
And that old John Lowndes, thought he was ever so wise
thinking the local hicks wouldn't see their coming demise

He thought the locals would think they were unable to win
And that they would move from their farms and take all their kin

But to his surprise they started to object
So Lowndes thought by golly I am not finished yet

Now the more Lowndes thought of his devilish plan
The more Lowndes did think: “I must own ALL the land!”

“Why I practically own all of Melancthon now!
To own all the rest would be my greatest cash cow!

Then he got an idea, a brilliant idea!
LOWNDES GOT A WONDERFUL, EVIL IDEA!

And he cackled with glee “What a great Lowndsey trick!
With my money and talent, I’ll bamboozle these hicks!

But to his stupendous surprise the hicks all fought back
With a grassroots organization that they called NDACT

“No!” Lowndes cried out, in a murderous rage
As tears of frustration ran down his smug face

His minion called Mikey had stood up for his boss
Working to keep residents from realizing their loss

But now Lowndes gave Mikey a clear ultimatum
"Decimate NDACT, or you’ll see what I’m made of!”

Lowndes sent wee Mikey out into the world
Armed with clipboard and binder And oh, did he toil!

He went to each meeting and sat with those hicks
Who would not fall for his lies or his devilish tricks

At the end of the day, little Mikey returned
With a book full of notes and facts that he’d learned

He informed master Lowndes of his final call:
“Have mercy, kind master, they’ve outsmarted us all!

We’re finished we’re done, we just can’t dig a mine!"
And all the locals and yokels thought that that was just fine.

Everyone finally knew that Lowndes was a fink

And 1 million Ontarians had water to drink

NDACT went back to their farms, children and wives

And continued to live their meaningful lives.

BREAKING NEWS

I had to read it to believe it and I still find it unbelievable....

Our Mayor and Deputy Mayor actually spoke out against an important issue. Sure, it wasn't about 2,400 acre 200 foot open pit mine in Melancthon, but something equally important-the loss of Shelburne hospital. Here is what they had to say:

"Fawcett noted over the years the services have been gradually stripped from the north campus and sent to Orangeville until “the writing was on the wall.”

Melancthon Deputy Mayor Bill Hill echoed those statements.
“It’s been a picking away of every single service that was available at that site,” Hill said, noting he was part of a group 12 years ago that fundraised to keep programs in Shelburne, which were subsequently shipped to Orangeville before “the cheque was dry.”"

For the full article, see this link:

http://www.orangevillebanner.com/news/article/82723

Clearly there was no danger this issue could be taken to the Ontario Municipal Board (OMB) or else they would have been as silent as mouse-just like they were the night there was discussion at the County Council meeting about the illegal cutting of thousands and thousands of trees by Highland Companies.

Well to be fair, it wasn't so much as Deputy Dog Hill didn't speak up that night, it was more that he was COMPLETELY absent from the meeting.

HERE KITTY KITTY KITTY

Here is another fall out from Lowndes seek and destroy rural blockbusting policy. When you tear down barn after barn after barn, where do you think the cats go that used to reside there?

About 6 weeks ago I started noticing at least 3 sets of kittens living on the sides of the road in various places in Melancthon. It was warm and they were frolicking and playing and looked well fed. I thought it was odd to see so many kittens at that time of the year in the wild and then I realized, they had no place to live, thanks to Lowndes/Highlands/Wilson/Downey Farms "farming" practices...you know the one, where they don't actually need any outbuilding, barns or houses to farm so they bulldoze and burn.

Where are the kittens now? They aren't on the side of the road anymore, I know that. After 6 weeks of living outside because their previous home was bulldozed and burnt, these kittens have either starved, been eaten by coyotes, run over by cars or froze to death.

You can thank Lowndes/Highland Companies, but equally the Council of the Township of Melancthon. They had the power to pass a bylaw under Section 33 of the Planning Act, which would have meant Highlands could only obtain a demolition permit for structures if they had obtained a building permit to replace whatever they were destroying.

Seriously, Highlands must think this is like taking candy from a baby, only babies usually know when someone is taking their candy.

This Council, on the other hand, appears to be so out of their element, they have no FREAKING idea what to do. If the Mayor can't run a question period at a Council meeting according to the procedure bylaw that they set the rules for, how in the hell can she lead her constituents in fighting an issue such as a 2,400 acre, 200 foot open pit mine?

Unless of course, she has a reason not to????

Baupost Group

To make it easy for people who might want to email this very successful company, who plans to mine 2,400 acres of prime agricultural land to a depth of 200 in Melancthon, here is their address:

client@baupost.com

And you might want to cc it to the biggest newspapers in Boston:

The Boston GlobeP.O. Box 2378Boston, MA 02107-2378E-mail letter@globe.com

Boston HeraldOne Herald SquareBoston, MA 02118
letterstoeditor@bostonherald.com

Suggested wording: how about environment, a right to clean tap water, local food sources?

A PICTURE SAYS A THOUSAND WORDS-SO ENOUGH SAID

JUST PEACHY

I am writing this as we are in our third day of blinding white outs and freezing temperatures as per usual in Melancthon in the winter.

I am also writing this with a straight face.

One of Lowndes highly paid guru's, at his July public meeting, stated that once they were finished raping the land, I mean farming the aggregate or whatever nice little spin they were putting on it, "someone" (and they made it clear it wouldn't be them) could farm....get this.....TENDER FRUIT TREES at the bottom of the big hole.

It would be funny if it weren't so serious.

Everything is just peachy in Lowndes world, kind of sucks for the rest of us.

Baupost Group-Read all About it

The Highland Companies is funded by a Boston hedgefund called the Baupost Group.

Who/What/Where??

THE BAUPOST GROUP
10 St. James Avenue - Suite 1700Boston, MA 02116617.210.8300

Click the links to find out more:
http://www.scribd.com/doc/12266447/What-is-The-Baupost-Group
http://www.linkedin.com/companies/the-baupost-group
http://vinvesting.com/tags/baupost-group

For more, just google Baupost Group.

Names and addresses are here-write them and tell them what you think about what they are doing to the environment. Many of them are associated with Harvard-wonder what their position on this would be?

RUBBISH!!

If the thought of a 2,400 acre, 200 foot deep open pit mine taking out 7,000 acres of prime agricultural land and threatening your water doesn't get you motivated to stand up and be heard, think about this.

Once you have this massive hole in the ground, you can fill it with two things-water or.....

Rubbish you say? Well think about it. At Highlands open house they stated when they are done mining, the only way to keep the water out of the hole would be for "someone" (and they were clear it wasn't going to be them) to operate the massive pumps forever to the end of time.

Who can afford that? Certainly not Melancthon Council. They can't even afford to have their planner attend Council meetings, but I digress.

By the time Lowndes is done digging his hole, Toronto will have filled the landfill just outside of London. The province, in their quest to always help Toronto the good since clearly it is the centre of the universe, is going to look around for somewhere close to Toronto to in order to dump garbage. Quite frankly I believe they have already looked at this proposal, just hasn't hit the light of day yet.

Rubbish you say? Well, what do they need to ship the garbage here?

And Lowndes is touting the rail line for the economic benefits it will bring....to him...and the other thing it will bring will be Toronto garbage.

So just think. Highlands bought the land for $8,000/acre, they will mine it for $18 million an acre and when they are done the province will pay an arm and a leg for the big dump, I mean the big hole.

If this mine proceeds, there will be very little argument to be made to stop a landfill-agricultural will be gone, the water quality will be questionable at best and there will be no people left.

Please stand up now and fight the mine-to stop the dump, to save our water, our environment and local food sources.

TORONTO STAR ARTICLE

Required reading.....

http://www.thestar.com/news/ontario/article/734969--rock-potato-schism?bn=1

Your Tax $$ at Work

Think about this:

You pay provincial taxes to elect politicians who hire policy specialitists who are paid by your tax $$ and who are lobbied by the aggregate industry to pass aggregate legislation that is favourable to the aggregate industry.

THEN when the open pit mine proponents want to put a 2,400 acre 200 foot open pit mine in your community that will take prime agricultural land out of commission and threaten your water, you are asked for financial donations to assist grass roots organizations to fight government policy, which you paid for in the first place.

Jeez. Like flushing money down the toilet...

How to fight this?

Writing letters to the government is great, it helps raise the profile. Writing letters to the opposition is great, it gives them a platform on which to run. All of the contact information is available in the internet.

What really changes government policy, however, is pressure through publicity. Think of Site 41, a "done deal" so to speak until the press had a field day with it.

If you have ANY contacts in the media, particularly the Toronto media, please utilize them in this battle. The government HATES bad press.

COUNCIL EXERCISES (CAUTION) IN THE YMCA

At the December 3 meeting of Council, the Town of Shelburne requested that Melancthon enter into a memorandum of understanding regarding the YMCA. They thoughtfully even sent a nice little template of the resolution for Council to sign.

To Council's credit they said they were hestitant and wanted concrete costs before proceeding.

On behalf of battle weary electors in Melancthon, I salute you.

FILING FOR AN AGGREGATE LICENSE IS VERY CLOSE

Highlands will be filing for an aggregate license very very soon.

How do I know?

Signs must be posted in order for Highlands to comply with the legislation for their much needed Official Plan Amendment, Zoning Bylaw Amendment and Aggregate License applications.

The huge frames for the signs have now been erected on Highlands properties and he is bulldozing and burning houses like there is no tomorrow.

Once the application is filed it is imperative that people move quickly and get their objections filed with the proper agencies and Ministries.

Why is that important? Because there are prescribed times frames in which the objections must be filed or else you lose your right to object.

I will give clear step by step directions for this process, although I would expect that NDACT will have this on their site. If that is the case, I will be sure to post a link on this site. Having said this, I want to be clear that neither myself or this blog are in any way associated with NDACT, supported or endorsed by them. Just two very different methods in trying to achieve the same goal. At least one of us (NDACT) has taken the high road.

I would expect he will file it right before the Xmas holiday, when people are away. Why? Because the municipal and government offices are closed and people are busy and the clock starts ticking from the day he files a complete application. If he can get in ten days without people much noticing he is 10 days closer to his goal.

It will be interesting to see if I am wrong about when he files. I hope so, but .....

COME BACK...YOU MISSED ONE

Hey Johnny, you missed a tree....wouldn't want it to interfer with your 2,400 acre 200 foot open pit mine.

After you cut it down you can throw it in the same drainage ditch where you have been dumping the other illegally cut trees and all the garbage from the houses you have bulldozed and burned.

Highlands Bows Out

Orangeville Banner, November 23, 2009

"The Highland Companies, which operates potato farms in the area, announced it has stepped back from spearheading the YMCA effort"

Read the entire article:

http://www.orangevillebanner.com/orangeville/article/81105

Y DON'T LOCAL COUNCILS PAY FOR A Y??

A telephone study was just completed which showed an 89% support rate for the YMCA in six partner municipalities. What you need to know is:

Total population in the six municipalities: 29,400 (Source: Stats Canada)
Total phone calls made in the survey: 2,500
Total people who actually answered the phone and took part in the survey: 428
(Source: Steve Boone, YMCA)

That means 1.4% of the population was surveyed and 89% of those overwhelmingly supported a YMCA.

There has been a significant decrease in taxable assessment in Melancthon due to the Highland Companies bulldozing and burning century and heritage houses and outbuildings on 12 properties. They have permits for seven more. To date the combined assessed value on these 12 properties exceeds $2.9 million. When questioned at the October 16, 2009 meeting of Melancthon County Mayor Fawcett confirmed that any loss in taxation from these demolitions will be “shared” by all taxpayers (meaning those of us left).

If these six municipalities felt that a YMCA was needed, why don’t they pursue it themselves? The phone survey was $28,000.00. (Source: Steve Boone, YMCA) Split six ways does not seem out the realm of financial ability of any of the municipalities. If they can’t afford the $4,000 per municipality to do the study, they had better take a cold hard look at what the capital and operating costs of the YMCA itself will be, unless of course Highlands is paying.

If Highlands is in fact paying the whole shot, the next question is: if these municipalities are “partnering” and accepting this kind of cash from Highlands, to benefit their electorate in an election year (or any year for that matter) does that create a pecuniary interest in voting pertaining to Highlands at both the local and County level? One only has to look to Orangeville Council over the rail issue to see how that worked for them. Very, very costly indeed and that is just the legal fees fighting the pecuniary interest in court, both with their tax dollars at the local level AND County level. In effect, Orangeville ratepayers are paying twice (on both sides of the dog fight so to speak).

IF a YMCA is needed, then local Councils need to stand up, justify it to their ratepayers, budget for it and pay for it themselves. Kudos to the one lone Councillor who realized this early on, but who was clearly silenced, I mean outvoted by more “seasoned” politicians.

BULLDOZE BURN AND BLAST

BULLDOZE, BURN AND BLAST Melancthon off the Face of the Earth

From the Highland Companies website:
“What do we mean by a self-sufficient, sustainable community? It's one that achieves the right mix of economic activity, local government services and quality of life - without having to increase taxes.”

Lets address these statements shall we?

Firstly their statement “without having to increase taxes”

To date they have bulldozed and burnt all structures on 12 properties of which the assessed values is in excess of $2.9 million. They have another 7 permits to burn on properties on which the assessed value is more than $1.4 million for a total of assessment on demolished properties of $4.3 million.

The Township needs a “sustainable” (to use a buzzword) level of funding. Any decrease in that level through reduced taxes due to property now being vacant will be borne by all taxpayers. This was confirmed by Mayor Fawcett at the October 16 meeting of Council, when questioned,

Next statement, “right mix....and quality of life”.
What quality of life is there with blasting, trucking, noise, dust a railway several times a day and no citizens left with which to form a community? Just asking.

Sustainability-how is pumping water until the end of time to keep a massive 2,400 acre 200 foot deep hole in the ground, devoid of soil and rock “SUSTAINABLE”.

Any politician who cannot see through this self serving mantra and does not immediately stand up and voice their concerns against this initiative should be ashamed of themselves and do the right thing and resign.

Aggregate and Arrogance go hand in hand

An article from the Collingwood Connection reports that, “A staff report from the Niagara Escarpment Commission (NEC) says that Walker Industries should not be allowed to expand its quarry near Duntroon.”

See the entire article:
http://www.collingwoodconnection.com/collingwoodconnection/article/150006

The story further states that: “Ken Lucyshyn, a vice-president and general manager with Walker Industries, was not impressed with the report. I’m disappointed but I’m not surprised given their past record with aggregate applications,” he said. “I don’t think they took into consideration all of our findings [technical data that was submitted] or the fact we’re proposing to do a lot of good things with the site – things like tree planting and so forth.”

Wow. What is wrong with the NEC, I mean honestly. This massive aggregate proposal will be offset by planting some trees (and so forth).

Lets see: Walker Industries wants to open a new, 170-acre quarry across the road from its present 116-acre pit and mine below the water table and don’t forget build an asphalt plant at the new site. Surely planting a few (KATRILLION) trees WILL offset the carbon footprint.

And of course in order to reassure their opponents (and gullible politicians) we come to the oft quoted position of ALL aggregate companies who mine below the water table:

REHABILITATION

This company is of course planning to rehabilitate the land with.....wait for it......a GIANT LAKE!!

Dejavu all over again? Sound familiar???

2500 equals 428, but somehow that equals 89% of 29,000

Hold on to your hat and see if you can follow the math (I know I am lost)

The Citizen, with its usual stellar reporting, clearly favouring a 2,400 acre 200 foot open pit mine, published the attached article today:

YMCA support strong in North Dufferin

link: http://www.citizen.on.ca/news/2009/1119/front_page/004.html

The unidentified reporter, who I would suspect is Wes the Crypt Keeper Keller, states in the article:

"More than 2,500 telephone calls were made on a random basis across the region to achieve the required sample and the desired level of confidence in the results.

...which found that 89 per cent of area ¡residents support the location of YMCA programs and services in the region."

Makes you think that 2,225 people were in favour of a YMCA (which would be 89% of 2,500).

But hold yer (trojan) horses partners....

What is not mentioned is that while 2,500 calls were made, ONLY 428 people were actually surveyed. The rest were probably not home, trying to avoid the smoke from the demolished and burning houses in Melancthon. (source: Steve Boone, YMCA email dated November 19, 2009).

Stats Canada shows that the population in the six municipalities who are supposedly wet with excitement about this YMCA have a combined population of 29,450 people.

And the YMCA feels that surveying 428 of them is representative of support for a YMCA in the area. I calculate that 428 people is just OVER 1% of the population of the eligible voters.

In a few days I will post, in a very simple short way, why it is important that Highlands NOT be involved in any YMCA proposal for our community. You will be surprised at the linkages and ramifications for local politicians and councils.

Find Your Own Truth

I want to bring to your attention other organizations who are fighting the good fight. It comes with a proviso, however.

None of these organizations in any way support or are part of this blog. By listing them here, I do not want anyone to associate my politics and method of informing the public with any of these organizations. I have found these listings on the internet and am providing them here for your information/public service only.

Gravel Watch Ontario is an absolute invaluable resource for any organization battling a mine/quarry or pit:

Gravel Watch
http://www.gravelwatch.org/

The Caledon CCC is at the OMB now:

The Coalition of Concerned Citizens
http://www.coalitioncaledon.com/

These people near Hamilton are fighting the brother of good old Johnny Lowndes:

Friends of Rural Communities and the Environment
http://www.stopthequarry.ca/

This is the group fighting for us here in Dufferin:

North Dufferin Agricultural and Community Taskforce
http://www.ndact.com/

This group is battling a 300 acre quarry in Mulmur:

Conserve our Rural Environment
http://www.corecares.ca/

Comprehensive list all of organizations:
http://www.gravelwatch.org/coalitions.htm

Everyone has to mine for their own truth-hopefully this blog will help you find yours.

Required Reading

Click on the link:

http://torontoist.com/2009/11/forget_paving_paradise_lets_just_dig_a_giant_hole_in_it.php