United Counties Of Stormont, Dundas, & Glengarry, Ontario

PREFERRED VENDOR n St. Lawrence Testing & Inspection Co. Ltd. www.stlawrencetesting.com •Soil investigations •Foundation inspections •Compaction control and laboratory testing •Structural and failure investigations •Chemical investigations •Building inspection and condition surveys •Technical testimony for litigation •Testing and inspection of soil, aggregates, concrete, reinforcing steel, masonry, asphalt, insulation, moisture barriers and more •Structural steel inspection •Testing and evaluation of dimension stone and wall systems GEOTECHNICAL SERVICES ADDITIONAL SERVICES ENVIRONMENTAL SERVICES QUALITY CONTROL •Phase 1 & 2 environmental site assessments •Site cleanup and decommissioning Proud to be a vendor to the people of South Stormont! Professional Quality Control & Engineering since 1975 St. Lawrence Testing & Inspection Co. Ltd. offers complete in-house testing and inspection services for building and civil engineering construction in all the services listed below: PH: 613.938.252•FAX: 613.938.7395 Email: slt@ontarioeast.net UNITED COUNTIES OF STORMONT, DUNDAS, & GLENGARRY, ONTARIO live here but do business as well.” In essence, The United Counties of Stormont, Dundas, & Glengarry are all about that sought-af- ter feeling of community, knowing your neighbors, a sense of belonging. Macleod expands on that, “We want everyone to understand the history. Our tagline for the counties is ”Where Ontario Began” and we’re very proud of the fact that many of our forefathers of Ontario and Canada came from this corner of eastern Ontario.We’re open for business; we have small urban and a great mix with the agricultural community, great recreation facilities, bike paths, waterways, and some of the best mu- sicians in the world here. All the ingredients for a great lifestyle.” want their children on a bus for an hour to and from school. “They want something local,” says McLeod, adding, “in our area we have four school boards, so you’re dividing the pie. That’s certainly an issue. Another issue we’ve been working on, unsuccessfully so far, is natural gas distribution in rural Ontario. There’s certainly a need– it’s almost an economic driver –because it heats houses for $1500 or $2000 less than current energy sources. And that money’s going right back into the econ- omy. It’s a product that we have a surplus of in Canada, we’re wasting it, and yet we can’t get it to rural Ontario.” Currently, the fuel of choice is either oil, or propane, or electricity, and the price of electricity in Ontario is the highest in the country. Lobbying for natural gas has gone on for a number of years. The SDG region grows a lot of corn and those farmers are paying thousands of dollars per year more in propane than if natural gas was avail- able. “That cuts down profitability and access to market share because of the extra cost to dry our corn,” says Bancroft. “We’re an agricultural area and the natural gas issue alone would generate significant new dollars for growth in the pockets of our farmers. Having been a farmer myself, I can tell you, when they have extra cash they spend it. They put it back into the economy.” In terms of infrastructure, Simpson says the key goal is “to maintain the level of that billion dol- lar asset we have here. Council, over the last few years, has done a great job and a very concerted effort at putting the dollars required into that asset to maintain the longevity and the life cycle.We have a robust repair and replacement program for roads and bridges.Those are our main arteries, and as a municipal corporation,we have to maintain these to the highest standards, so people not only want to