
April 6, 2017 · 1 Comments
By Peter Richardson
At its meeting Tuesday of last week, Mono Council was brought up to date of the performance of its current investment portfolio, managed by CIBC Wood Gundy.
The town saw a return of 3.2% last year, with a 3.8% return over the previous three years. Overall, the Town’s investments have a similar return to that of a five-year GIC, while maturing, on average, in only 3.5 years. The Town’s investment strategy is to receive the highest rate of return, while maintaining maximum security and preservation of capital. Liquidity sufficient to meet daily cash flow requirements and the statutes of the Ontario Municipal Act of 2001 is a priority.
Fred Simpson presented Council with an overview of the Solar Photovoltaic system installed on the roof of the Public Works garage. The system is performing up to standards and to date, since installation in December 2014, has brought the Town $140,000 in revenue. In 2016, the total generated, was $72,271.00, which comes in the form of payments for electricity generated , from Hydro One, at the rate of 54.8 cents per kilowatt hour (kwh). There are 414 285-watt, solar panels on the roof, which generates a nominal 100 kilowatts, by means of 10 inverters. The solar panels will decrease in generation efficiency by approximately 2% annually. Last year, the array actually surpassed the projected production figures. Over the life of the system, the array is expected to bring the Town coffers a total of $1,363,330. By the year 2021, the projected return on investment for the system should reach half a million dollars.
Council voted to approve the site plan for the property on the southeast corner of the junction of Highways 89 and 10. The site, part of lot 32, Conc. 2 WHS, is currently the location of the recently closed Pete’s Donuts and shares the corner with a Subway location. The present owners are planning to build a gas station and convenience store on the property. The intersection currently hosts two burger restaurants and a Petro Canada station.
In the ongoing discussions, regarding Highway 89 access for the Violet Hill Gravel Pit proposed by Greenwood Aggregates, the proponents have presented a revised haul route that would see trucks accessing the pit site via 30 Sideroad and the along 3rd Line to Highway 89. At this writing, the MTO has expressed reservations regarding this proposal, as it will require changes to the 3rd Line access to the highway, for safety concerns.
Council announced that the Town Hall meeting, at Mono Centre, on March 25th was a great success. Some 60 residents attended and heard presentations on drinking water quality and radon gas given by Mono’s Director of Public Works, Michael Dunmore, and Bo Cheyne from the Wellington-Dufferin-Guelph Public Health, respectively. Mono resident John Ito described his and his wife’s experience with radon gas in their home. Mrs. Ito contracted Stage-4 lung cancer attributed to radon in their home.
In other matters, Council approved financial donations to three applicants on Tuesday. Mono will give $500 to the Shelburne Agricultural Society, a second $500 to Crime Stoppers and $325 to The Royal Canadian Legion for their Recognition Book program.
In the controversy over the use of noise cannons, also referred to as bird bangers, by the Adamo Winery, it was announced, via a press release that this practice will no longer be utilized at the winery. Shannon Smith, Director of Marketing at Adamo Estate Winery said a multi-faceted abatement technology will be used instead. The Town congratulated the winery for their decision. The previous use of the devices had led to a major conflagration with nearby residents over the noise and disruption of their peace and quite.
The tentative date for the next Town Hall Meeting was set as Saturday, October 28, in the Town Council Chambers.
While I applaud Mono Council’s thriftiness making $140,000 (I assume before the yearly amortized capital cost expense) from a Solar Photovoltaic system, there is an issue here of greater social responsibility. Selling electricity into the grid for 54.8 cents and re-selling it for 3 cents is the exact reason why the United Way is now helping thousands of our citizens with their Winter Warmth Program hydro subsidies and 60,000 Ontarian’s were disconnected from their electric utilities last year. Also it’s directly and indirectly why Ontario, pop 13.6 Million, has a $320 Billion dollar debt (for comparison Canadian Gov debt is $600B for 36.2M people and California, considered a debt basket case has a population of 39M, has $450B in debt).
I write this while reading the Sunshine List and noticing there’s a janitor at Ontario Power making $105,000 per year. (need I tell my son to go to university or be one of the chosen to get employment at Hydro?) The ideology of Ontario saving, by itself, 0.1 degree of global warming in 100 years while the USA is going in the opposite direction, is bankrupting our province and is a main cause of energy poverty amongst our citizens. It is also an opaque political excuse to wash over many other fiscal mistakes of the current government. The excuse is, the Liberals know what’s right for us and it’s for our children’s future. What about their economic future in Ontario?
When are the Municipalities, businesses and citizens of this province going to realize that, just because the Liberal government says you can waste Ontarian’s money on incredibly unprofitable green energy projects, it doesn’t mean we should. We each have a personal responsibility to care for each other, even if our government and their hydro boondoggles wont.