CAW blowing it over a wind turbine

My family has a history with the CAW dating back generations. My wife was also once a card carrying member of the union and in 2005 we attended a family education session at the CAW Family Education Centre in Port Elgin, Ontario.

To say we believe in much of what the union stands for would be fair. It's done a lot of good for a lot of people throughout the years.

But what we saw from the CAW in Port Elgin last week gave us pause for thought. Erected in the parking lot of the CAW centre was a giant, green wind turbine. It's not that wind turbines are unheard of in Port Elgin, they're not. In fact they're scattered all over farmers' fields throughout Saugeen Shores. The winds coming off Lake Huron make it an ideal area for wind generated power.

Given the CAW's environmental policies a wind turbine fits in with the union's beliefs. However, their own wind turbine has one fatal flaw -- it's located in a highly populated neighbourhood, the closest house being 150 metres from the turbine and the CAW centre itself even closer. Even the Province's own safety conditions as set out under the Green Energy Act state turbines should be a minimum distance of 550 metres from the closest house. Why is the CAW turbine not set back further, you might be asking yourselves? Approval for this project came before the Green Energy rules were enacted.

Saugeen council has enacted its own bylaw measuring the minimum distance between homes and wind turbines at 2,500 metres citing health concerns. The CAW maintains its own studies indicate no harm can come from a wind turbine but there are countless other studies that contradict that claim. CAW President Ken Lewenza though has gone on record saying the union has spent too much money now to turn back. The wind turbine cost about $2 million and Lewenza said stopping the project mid-way would be like halting the build of a multi-million dollar house. The difference though is a house isn't required to be 550 metres from other homes and most, if not all, don't pose potential health and safety risks to its neighbours.

I believe there are cleaner ways to produce energy other than using coal fired plants and nuclear reactors. Wind turbines and solar power are good alternatives. Everything has its place though and if the residents, council, MPP and MP asked me to reconsider erecting a wind turbine or a bank of solar panels on my property I'd find another way to accomplish my energy savings. It's easier to work with your community than to spurn it.

The CAW has a social conscience and has always attempted to better the world around it. But not in this case. It's turned its back on its neighbours all for the benefit of powering its own facilities. Seems pretty selfish to me and I believe it's a decision that will come back to haunt the CAW.

The sobering question about where to sell booze

I live in a province that operates the Liquor Control Board of Ontario (LCBO). You either buy your booze from them or you don't buy booze at all.

The Ontario Convenience Stores Association presented the government with a petition of 112,500 names gathered at more than 220 locations across the province earlier this year but Premier Dalton McGuinty's response was firm -- "No booze for you!"

I understand why corner stores would want into the business of selling liquor. Every year sales at the LCBO increase. Net income last year was $1.56 billion, an 8.8 per cent increase over the previous year. If you've ever been to the liquor store on a summer weekend the place is abuzz with customers. Who wouldn't want a piece of that action?

I sympathize with convenience store owners because I remember the days when those businesses  dominated the Ontario landscape. Those were the days when pop (soda to my American friends) was sold in bottles and those bottles had to be returned for a refund, milk was sold in jugs that also had to be returned for a refund and you could buy most grocery or drug store items you needed. Big box stores were no threat because they didn't exist.

When cola manufacturers figured out they could make more money putting their products in plastic bottles that was the beginning of the end for many convenience stores. Soon nobody needed to return their bottles for refund because we could just toss them in those new things coined blue boxes. Same went for milk. Plastic took over the world and soon grocery stores began to expand and carry everything. All of a sudden the Becker's and Checker's variety stores began to close. I had a first-hand view of the carnage as I worked as a bottle boy at my local Becker's Store earning $2 an hour. That was a fortune to a kid in the early 80s.

These days I bet there aren't half as many people who use variety stores as there were in the late 70s, early 80s. There's a small store around the corner from my house I take the kids to for slushies on hot, summer days. It's never crowded but you could still purchase a lot of grocery items there if you wanted to. I don't think a lot of people do given the dust on most of the canned products on the shelves.

The addition of stalking wine, beer and liquor on the shelves would open up customer traffic in these stores and you'd probably see a lot more of them open up across the province. It's okay to sell lottery tickets and cigarettes in convenience stores, what more could it hurt if customers could buy wine or beer there as well?

It's a political issue I know and involves more than sympathy for the little guy running his small family business. But it would definitely affirm the 'convenience' aspect of these stores when it comes to shopping.

I wish we lived in simpler times

The Internet is everywhere and it's everything these days, especially if you're like me and work in the media.

At the start of this year there was an online contest at my office. Reporters and editors alike were asked to come up with ideas that would draw more people to our website, http://www.durhamregion.com. We had to submit our ideas to our online manager and if approved, bring the idea to life and see how many 'hits' it got. The idea getting the most hits on our website would win $300.

My idea was the Daily Smile. I asked readers to send in photos of themselves or members of their families that made them smile. Simple. For doing this a random Daily Smile would be selected at the end of the month and that person would get a $50 gift card.

The response to the Daily Smile was tremendous and submissions came flooding in. I won the prize and was asked to continue the project throughout the course of the year. It's only July now but I've got Daily Smiles uploaded to the end of October. It's been a lot of work for the measly $300 I got but I enjoy the interaction with the people who send me their photos. I find myself smiling a lot as I process them and the reactions from the monthly winners is awesome. People love winning prizes.

This week a reader called our newsroom to complain the Daily Smile was nothing more than a forum for pedophiles. I'm happy he didn't call me directly but rather called our news editor who listened to him ramble on about the evils of the world. I wouldn't have been the most objective person to speak to regarding the Daily Smile. The whole intent of the project was to brighten readers' days with something as simple as a silly grin. To accuse me of creating a forum for pedophiles wouldn't have gone over well. I realize you have to have a thick skin to work in media but that would have come close to crossing the line for me.

If you've viewed the Daily Smile you will notice there are a lot of photographs of kids. The majority of the submissions come from proud moms, dads and grandparents. It's not the only place on the Internet you'll find photographs of kids. Check your own Facebook pages. Chances are if you have kids you've posted pictures of them online. Why? Because you love them and you're proud of them.

I understand there are sick individuals in the world who do unthinkable things to children. As far as I'm concerned there's no place for these people in this world. Long gone are the simpler days when kids could be kids and parents didn't have to worry about them getting abducted walking home from school. But let's not fool ourselves, pedophiles have been around since the beginning of time. They didn't just appear around 1995 when the Internet was in its infancy.

The guy who called our newsroom did so out of concern for children. I get that. What he could have done though was phrase his concern a little better and not accuse my Daily Smile of being something it is not.