A Fable For Our Time.......

It's the summer of 2011. Ottawans have lived for a year now with a 25 per cent increase in hydro rates which was introduced in the summer of 2010. Interesting things have been happening as the citizenry struggles to make ends meet, having also been burdened with a huge water rate increase, property tax hikes in excess of inflation and a new provincial HST which has added an additional cost to just about everything they purchase, including funerals -- the latter having caused a near-stampede at funeral homes by senior citizens trying to make their "arrangements" prior to the new tax coming into effect.
In an effort to effect economies, lights and electricity-consuming devices have been turned off all over the place.
Canadian Tire can't keep up with the demand for hurricane lanterns, kerosene lamps, lamp oil and candles.
COSTCO outlets are mobbed when gas generators are on sale -- Joe and Jane Lunchpail having learned that it's cheaper to run certain appliances off a gas generator than it is to use hydro.
More people are doing the bulk of their cooking outdoors -- on barbecues, hibachis, turkey fryers and two-burner camp stoves. The smell of propane and charcoal hangs in the air.
The clothesline has made a comeback.
The freezer has become a repository where electricity-sucking X-Boxes, WIIs, PS3's, Game-Boys, computers etc. are stored under lock and key -- only to be brought out on special occasions.
Teenagers no longer hang out at malls. They're needed at home to hang out the laundry which they've washed by hand after they've washed the family's dishes by hand.
In winter, thermostats are turned way down and Stanfield's one-piecers are the latest fashion accessory. People learn to live with sweltering summer temperatures -- movie theatres are packed for every showing because they have air conditioning.
Folks shop for perishable foods and dairy products on a daily basis, having converted from the 15-cubic foot fridge to the bar-sized model which sucks far less juice.
City council no longer frets about cow statues on fromagerie roofs. The problem of unsightly clotheslines in Kanata and Rockcliffe, not to mention the increasing number of rooftop and backyard electricity-generating windmills has their collective knickers in a twist.
Senior citizens are now in demand to give advice and guidance -- especially depression babies who remember what it was like to live with the icebox, the daily shopping, the outdoor clothesline and the hand-cranked radio.............
The premier of Ontario and the mayor of Ottawa congratulate the citizenry for their efforts to conserve electricity. The comes the bad news. Efforts have been so successful that Ottawa Hydro is no longer generating sufficient revenue to meet its operating costs ! Ottawa Hydro must increase its base rate !
Think it can't happen ? Well it just did-- with Ottawa's water/sewer rates. Bad enough that taxpayers are hit with a nine per cent increase in these rates, but now we're going to have to pay a higher base rate because we've taken water conservation to heart and are using less of it in our daily lives.
Citizen Ellie always believed conservation should be rewarded. Silly me ! Apparently this is not the view held by elected officials in the city of Ottawa -- where conserving is deserving of a penalty in the form of an additional hike in water/sewer rates.

Urban Chicken Update

Popular Montreal chef and TV personality Ricardo Lavallee (Ricardo & Friends, 7.00 p.m. Mon.-Fri., The Food Channel) has come out in support of the urban chicken movement.

In the most recent edition of his glossy magazine (Ricardo -- which is found everywhere French-language magazines are sold) he writes of his love for his "poules" (hens), his childhood memories of his sisters feeding the hens his father had introduced to their Quebec backyard and how he hopes to see Montreal and Chambly follow cities such as New York and Vancouver in allowing residents to keep small flocks of hens. Nothing better than stepping out the backdoor into the garden henhouse and gathering some nice fresh eggs for breakfast. If it happened here, in Citizen Ellie's neighborhood we'd have to figure out a way to keep the urban raccoons from getting to the eggs first.

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