Meeting will address commuter service

More than 8,000 people who live in Lanark County drive to Ottawa to work. Part of their daily commute includes crowded highways, traffic gridlock and frazzled nerves.

Lanark Community Transit, a not-for-profit public-transit system, is planning to provide an alternative to that daily grind by offering an efficient and reliable commuter bus service to Ottawa. It hopes to integrate its service with Ottawa’s public transit system, which would allow Lanark Community Transit’s buses to access OC Transpo’s Hwy. 417 bus lanes, as well as allowing riders to transfer onto city buses at no extra charge.

A public meeting is scheduled for Thursday, Aug. 16 to provide information on Lanark Community Transit’s plans to offer this new service to residents of Lanark County and Smiths Falls. The meeting will be held at the Carleton Place arena at 7 p.m.

The plan is to provide bus service to residents of Lanark Highlands, Mississippi Mills, Drummond/North Elmsley, Perth, Tay Valley, Carleton Place, Montague, Beckwith and Smiths Falls, where the need is shown to exist. During the public meeting, the consultant’s feasibility study will be presented, with discussion to follow.

Cliff Neudorf, president of Lanark Community Transit, says the next step will be to request support from the area councils, which will have to pass a bylaw to regulate community transit within their jurisdictions. Once the bylaws are passed, Lanark Community Transit will move to the request for proposal stage and identify a service provider. The result will be lower commuter costs, less environmental impact with fewer cars on the roads, and possible economic benefits to this region as a result of its improved transportation infrastructure.

Lanark Community Transit has obtained financial support from Valley Heartland Community Futures Development Corporation and the Town of Carleton Place. This has enabled it to hire an Ottawa firm to conduct a feasibility study and to draft a business plan for the self-sustaining commuter service. The study will also consider an option to offer student tickets so young people could continue to live in Lanark County while attending college or university in Ottawa. Lanark Community Transit hopes to start operating by November of this year.

Members of the public are encouraged to attend the meeting, as it affects the future development of the community.

Urgent: Stop The $50 Billion Nuclear Ripoff

Hi everybody!

The following bulletin I received via the myspace network. I'd like to add that this describes the situation in the United States, however, for Ontario alone there are 30 new nuclear plants projected, according to the Ontario Power Authority. In a CBC Radio One report I heard that the safe deposit of the nuclear waste is a federal competence. However, there are no plans in place where to bury that radioactive material once no longer in use.

Where is all that nuclear waste going to go, Mr. Harper? And:

When will you stop selling out Canadian resources against the protest of those who have to live with the waste and whose water is already too radioactive to drink it now?

AN URGENT CALL TO STOP THE $50 BILLION NUKE POWER GIVE-AWAY

From Bonnie Raitt, Jackson Browne, Graham Nash and Harvey Wasserman:
Musicians United for Safe Energy (MUSE)

As early as this Friday, Congress may approve legislation allowing the Department of Energy to approve $50 billion and more in federal loan guarantees to build new nuclear power plants.

Take Action!

The nuclear industry itself has made it clear that this astonishing taxpayer give-away is the only way new atomic reactors will be built in this country. After fifty years of proven failure, neither Wall Street nor the utility industry wants to finance new atomic construction without your taxpayer dollars to guarantee their investments. You might think that after half a century, technology once sold on the promise of being "too cheap to meter" would be able to raise its own funding. But it can't.

By contrast, no federal guarantees are needed for the billions of dollars being invested in building new wind farms all over the world. Now the reactor industry falsely claims that it can help solve the global warming problem, even though nukes cause major CO2 emissions in the mining, milling and enriching of nuclear fuel, in the reactor construction and decommissioning process, and in the long-term management of spent radioactive fuel, for which there is no real solution.

No New Nukes!

A single dollar spent on increased efficiency saves as much energy as ten dollars spent on nuclear power can produce. But under a phony "green" guise, the industry wants to exploit a single-sentence loophole in the Energy Bill passed by the U.S. Senate to cash in on virtually limitless federal loan guarantees. The sentence was slipped into the law without open debate.

It is essential that we stop this gargantuan nuclear rip-off from happening. This is just the first major battle in what will be a long, hard fight to stop atomic energy from once again derailing the necessary transition to a global economy based on the efficient, equitable use of natural energies provided by our Mother Earth.

Thanks and No Nukes!
Bonnie, Jackson, Graham & Harvey

Please Grab The Code For This Bulletin
And Repost As Bulletin Or Blog

Saying no to uranium mining

Editorial The Perth Courier Aug 1st 2007

By now, most people in the Perth area are aware of the efforts of area native and non-native residents to prevent uranium from being mined in the Snow Road-Robertsville-Elphin area, northwest of Perth.

In the past, we have discussed the frighteningly uncivilized nature of the Mining Act, legislation that allows mining companies to march onto the private properties of rural residents and begin digging for minerals. If landowners don't own the mineral rights, only the surface rights of their properties, this is perfectly legal.

We have published stories about one man's efforts to bring attention to the act by publicizing what happened to his property in Tay Valley Township. Large ditches were dug on his property and when he expressed concern about the open holes and potential danger they posed, he was told that it was illegal for him to fill in these holes. Think about it: someone came onto his property, dug trenches, left them exposed and held outdated mining regulations over his head if he attempted to make his property somewhat safe again.

Out of the threat of such incidents recurring throughout the township, the Citizens' Mining Advisory Group, or CMAG, was formed. Through the efforts of many, a number of mining claims against properties in the rich residential and cottage area surrounding Perth were abandoned. (This group will hold its annual meeting on Aug. 11 at 10 a.m. at the North Burgess Hall on Narrows Lock Road. The public is welcome and will likely find area candidates for this fall's provincial election in attendance.)

Mining has again taken centre stage in this area, and this time, has received national attention. While the threat is not as much toward private properties in this case, it involves a sought-after end product that poses a potential greater risk to the health of those throughout the Ottawa Valley. It's not about gaping holes on private property, but potentially deadly uranium.

Everyone seems to have an opinion on the matter, and now that the price being offered for uranium has rebounded, chances are those who see nothing but dollar signs will put up a strong fight against those who oppose such mining.

Uranium mining companies claim such operations are safe if they are carried out properly. But what happens if an accident happens? Do we simply say "oops" and try not to cry over a little spilled salt? We're not mining salt here. "Oops" is not something anyone wants to hear.

A simple Internet search brings up far too many cases of how such mining has harmed Canadian communities.

Six stories have appeared in the Courier since April about the quest for uranium in the Crotch Lake area and those who are leading the charge to ensure this quest fails. Only the sixth and latest story offered the opinions of someone who came forward in favour of such mining.

Provincial governments on Canada's east and west coasts have imposed moratoriums on uranium mining. When will Ontario and the rest of the provinces follow their lead?

If no such freeze on this type of mining is introduced in Ontario, mining might proceed in the Crotch Lake area, and possibly without incident. But is that a gamble we're all willing to take? This area is all upstream of the City of Ottawa.

If something does happen, who is left to live in the shadow of a mistake?


Added by Maren:
The following links provide more information:

Canadian Coalition for Nuclear Responsibility