Dear Editor,
For the first time in history, rural dwellers in Pakenham
and Ramsay will have to pay to have their septage treated.
At a public meeting in February, Mississippi Mills Mayor Al
Lunney said council had decided the town would build a septage treatment
facility and the only decision left to make was how the town would make us
rural folk pay for it.
If rural residents must soon pay to have their sewage
treated, they should be given the same financial assistance as the residents of
Almonte ward.
Since amalgamation in 1998, all money the town raises
through producing and transmitting electricity is used to offset the water and
sewage charges of Almonte residents. I believe it is only fair that our pending
septage charges should be offset by an equal percentage, especially since the
new hydro plant will produce twice as much power and revenue.
When I suggested sharing hydro revenues at the public
meeting, Mayor Lunney said he is prevented from doing that because of the terms
of the amalgamation agreement.
The mayor is incorrect.
The amalgamation of Mississippi Mills was codified in law
under the Municipal Act by an Order-in-Council in June of 1997. Nowhere in that
Order are the hydro revenues assigned solely to Almonte Ward.
The Order makes no mention of hydro revenues but does say
the former assets of Almonte’s public utility commission (old Almonte hydro)
are transferred to the new town at amalgamation.
Also, the written agreement between Ramsay, Pakenham, and
Almonte—the restructuring proposal, dated February 1997—on which the Order is
based, does not mention hydro revenues.
In short, the hydro revenues belong to everyone in
Mississippi Mills. Saying otherwise is complete fiction.