Friday August 15th

Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:00):
This is VOCM Open Line Call seven oh nine two seven,
three fifty two eleven or one triple eight five ninety
eight six two six of viewsing opinions of this programmer
not necessarily those of this station. The biggest conversation in
Newfoundland and Labrador starts now. Here's VOCM Open Line host

(00:23):
Paddy Daily.

Speaker 2 (00:23):
Well, all right and good morning to you. Thank you
very much for tuning into the program. It's Friday, August
the fifteenth. This is open Line. I'm your host, Patty Daily,
David Williams. He's producing the command with an edition of
the show. So if you're in the Saint John's metro region,
the number to dialogue in the Q and on the
air is seven zero nine two seven three five two
one one elsewhere A total free long distance one a

(00:45):
day eight five ninety VOCM, which is eighty six twenty six.
Hold on it so I could have been apple peel
on my tongue. That was annoying, all right, A little
quick Canada Games round up. Quite a day in the
pool for Team BC and Team Ontario six gold medals
each year. Yesterday to wrap up the swimming event. Pretty
amazing stuff. So men's basketball team Ontario have been dominating

(01:06):
the Canas Summer Games for a long time. They're looking
for their fifth straight gold medal. They burnt stormed into
the finals by beating New Brunswick one five sixty two
in the semi so they set up a final rematch
with BC, who got there by beating Manitoba in there semi.
On the women's side, there's a defending champions Alberta going
up Nova Scotia. Ontario takes on B seed today. All right,

(01:26):
baseball back in Saint Pat's Ballpark. Who's undefeated in men's
baseball PI five and zero. Pretty impressive stuff for such
a small populated province. And let's see here the baseball
be a medal. They take a B seed tonight in
semi final action and the other semi final teams the
Sketchwan taking on Team Quebec and so there you go.
They're now swimming Rotary Sunshine Park. Are going to be

(01:47):
some interruptions in and around that area today, so you
know the deal. So you want to talk a little
games and coming up to the end of week one
successful so far, a couple of medals for Team NL.
But there you go. Luck to all hands who are
trying out the first ever training camp in franchise history
for the New Fland Regiment of course, going to be
playing in the Quebec Maritime Major Junior Hockey League this

(02:09):
coming fall. There's sixty two players been invited at the camp,
including eight players from this province, so good luck to them.
And of course they're doing it in Frederickton for the
first part of the training camp because they didn't have facilities.
They can avail up here because of the obvious Okay,
wildfire update at ten fifteen this morning, and of course
we will carry it live. There's still plenty of confusion

(02:31):
and questions being asked of me on a variety of
front so's taking a couple of them. Number one, and
probably one of the most important is exactly how decisions
are made on the ground about how many firefighters will
be fighting which fire at wat time. Same thing about
decisions made insofar as when aircraft, whether it be helicopters
or water bombers, can do their job. The short answer

(02:53):
is I don't know. I really don't. I don't know
this specific criteria that would allow a helicopter or a
water bomber to fight one fire or another, Whether it
be wind or smoke, what have you. I don't really
know exactly what the criteria is for moving firefighters on
the ground in out of one area or another. So
I hear a lot of concerns about how come there's
no firefighting happening here or there. I really don't know.

(03:15):
You can only hope and think that decisions are based
on real, strict understood criteria by the fire duty managers,
the captains are chiefs whoever that may be on the
ground or working on air resources. I get the concerns
of people saying, how come I'm not getting this? How
come we're not getting that? I don't know. Number two

(03:36):
is questions continue to pour into me about many bugs
and dirt bikes, the side by sides ATV squads or drikes,
whatever the case may be. And maybe we can get
from elected officials, and I'm with you, it would be
good to have actual fire fighting officials as part of
these press briefings. But things like very fundamental questions, can
I drive my quad down the road in Deer Park

(03:58):
and the like cabin country As of now, my understanding
is no. And of course, now there's been a sixteen
year old ticketed by operating the ATV in the woods,
and there's people are calling tip lines for a variety
of reasons, including what they see that the dean might
be suspicious. And of course some people are taking the
time to call the tip line to beret public servants
who they know that's just shooting the messenger. They didn't

(04:21):
make the decision, They have no say, they're simply answering
the phone. And we hear those stories, of course we do,
all right. We're also going to get it back to school.
Update regarding Conception Bay North. Apparently a school may have
been damaged or lost. We know the reports coming from
the mess of Kingston fire is that maybe someone hundred
structures have been lost. Terrible for those impacted, whether they

(04:43):
be someone who lost a home and or simply evacuated.
I shouldn't say simply, because that's a big deal for
anybody's life. And then it's the evacuation alert versus the
evacuation order. These are fair questions that concerns people have. Okay,
so let's just take for an example, Paradise. So an
evacuation alert in place for some paradise and you have

(05:04):
to leave to go to work in Saint John's and
you've got a couple of teenagers who remain at home
and or pets, whatever the case may be. I guess
the only way to approach this is to put contingency
plans into places. Of course, the pack the goal bags,
not the fundamentals that we've been told repeatedly, but things
like if your teens are left behind and while you're
at work, the alert becomes an order and you can't

(05:25):
go back in emergency service personnel will indeed get your
teens for you. And if it's things like your pets,
I guess the only way to really make sure this
is handled is for family or friends or a neighbor
who's still in the alert now on order zone to
help you. So these are fair questions, and look, people
are frazzled for the obvious reasons. It is unsettling, to

(05:50):
say the very least, regardless of where you live, where
my home is in these say of Saint John's. I
am not in peril at this moment in time, knocking
on wood. But I see the stories. I see the
vulta or firefighters. I hear from people who have been displaced.
I hear from people who are worried about eventually possibly
being displaced, evacuated, and it's a terrible time, absolutely terrible times.
A couple of interesting things that people pointed out, So

(06:12):
it's not just having a backyard fire that's banned, or
a mug up along the river, whatever the case may be.
Charcoal barbecues are apparently not allowed to be used either.
But here's what's happening. So people are familiar with these
propane fueled backyard fire pits or tables. So I've had
a couple of people sending emails saying, lo and beholds

(06:32):
sitting in the backyard and what do you know coming
around the corner or through the fence gate is the cops?
Why because someone called and reported them having a fire,
when in fact what they you have is a propane fire.
So I'm not going to tell you that you shouldn't
turn it on, because you can do whatever you see
fit and you're allowed to use them. But I guess
it's important for people to know what they're actually reporting,
and it does indeed chip away at trust amongst ourselves

(06:57):
and whether it be trust of government or business or whoever,
when you know things that are completely innocent and pose
no risk are being called in and the cops and
resources are being stretched in regardless of what we're talking about.
But for the police to show up to see that
someone's using the propane fire pit or for propane fire table,

(07:20):
people are busy, and I know you're stressed out, but
it's probably a good idea for us to know exactly
what we see and whether or not it merit's an
actual report, so that the cops will be diverted from
doing something else that they should be doing. But anyway,
we'll see if we can get a bit more information
at ten fifteen. And any questions you think are important
that you'd like to hear approached by the media when
they get a chance to ask questions today, If you

(07:41):
send them to me, I'll forward them along to the newsroom.
I have no say over or no authority over telling
anyone the newsroom about to ask, but if you want
to share them with me, I'll be happy to pass
them along on your behalf. And unsurprisingly, given the focus
that the media and the general population has about the wildfires,
is some things that are going unattended to. Like I've

(08:04):
got a bunch of people send me message saying did
the wildfire concerns prevent the public hearings from taking place
regarding the Travel Agency nurses. And the answer is no,
it happened. I spoke to it a couple of times
here in this program with the contract with so called
Agency A that we no longer have in place, and
apparently we're going to get a look at some of
the contracts by the end of this week, and a
forensic god which is critically important, by the end of September.

(08:27):
So yes, that did happen. If it's something you want
to take on a little deeper here this morning, let's
do it. Iron C investigating a shooting and rope walk
lane around the Burger King. There was a forty year
old man that they found who doesn't have apparently life
threatening injuries, but looks like he was shot. So anyone
in and around ropewalk lane that has any information, whether

(08:49):
it be dashcam or something to stop your eyeballs, and
you want to take bring that to the R and
C please do exactly that, all right. A couple of
different topics. It was a story last week regarding the
comfort in Horizons one oh six. I think Tony Wakem
mightn't want to put words in his mouth, but I
think he's asking for the Age the Auditor General to

(09:09):
take a look at what's going on there. The number
one problem that people are looking at is I guess
number one or two or three. You know, for folks
in the area, if you've seen a greater police presence
and consequently some of the issues you were seeing with
crime being committed in and around Airport Heights, please feel
free to join us on the program for the good
or the bad. But then it's the big one. It's

(09:32):
it's the fact that the province chose to lease it
for three years, the company that owned it sold it,
and now the governments had to go out to tender
to see if they can find a new partner. It's
long been a problem, even just considering no not buying
the old costco as opposed to now leasing it for
a huge money paying for the renovation. To not buy
the comfort in versus lease it to the tune of

(09:54):
just twenty one million dollars and that's just for the lease,
that's not the overall cost. Then I don't know where
this is thought comes from. But when we talk about
homelesses and the policies and strategies that are employed here
or other places in the country. It's one emailer saying,
you know, just like they're doing in Washington, d C.
We just just round them up and do whatever with them.

(10:15):
If you move someone who's homeless from one shelter to another,
from one tense city to another, the fact of the
matter is you're just shuffling people around. It does absolutely
and literally nothing to address the issue. Nothing. So being
homeless is not a crime. Now, if you commit a
crime as a homeless person, you're a criminal. But the

(10:36):
whole conceptations round them up and do x y ors
that with them does nothing to deal with the issue
regarding homelesses. But I hear that all the time, all right.
I don't know if you have travel plans with their
Canada that may indeed be compromised starting tomorrow unless something
dramatic happens at the eleventh hour. It looks like they're
going to be on strike. So some ten thousand plus
flight attendants who are not paid for some work they

(10:58):
do prior to boarding and after peace people plane, which
is patently unfair, and air candidates offered them fifty percent
of their wage to take on those duties, and of
course QP and the flight attenants one one hundred percent
of their wage, the flight attendants. I don't know how
many people knew this, but until the aircraft moves, they're
not getting paid, which is absolutely ridiculous. Secondly, and this

(11:20):
is what we call another casualty of Parliament being prorogued,
there was a mendments of the Labor Standards Act that
would have avoided this situation and the possibility for one
hundred and thirty thousand passengers impacted daily if and when
the air Candi flights are grounded. The amendment was clear,
if you're at work and on the clock, you're getting paid.
But of course, until a piece of legislation makes it

(11:42):
through the House of Commons, all the different readings, the
debate and potential amendments and gets voted through, passed on
to the Senate for the final ratification to eventually get
royal ascent. Unless that happened, every single piece of legislation
that was on the white paper went right back to
square one, which is a majorly problem for the business
of the people to be done effectively as opposed to

(12:05):
the bloody partisan politics and whether it be political advantage
or to duck or dodge a confidence vote or whatever
the case may be. We've got to figure out a
way for their governor General to be much more stern
in evaluating requests to a prorogue. Parlerm because we could
avoided this air candis strike, whether you get locked out
or they're going strike, whatever the case would be, it
could have been avoided had Parliament done its job. You

(12:28):
want to take it on, let's go. And someone said
that we've dropped the ball regarding the conversations. I'm marine
Atlantic now. We've talked about an a fair bit here
and happy to do so. Someone really quite crossed with
me in saying that, boy, nothing's good enough for you.
And I think that's in reference the comments I made
about what the Prime Minister had done on the campaign trail.
Talked about cutting fees and half, all right, and then

(12:51):
follows through, but only cut the fees and half for
passenger traffic as opposed to commercial traffic, where ye possibly,
maybe hopefully would have seen so decrease in costs, even
though I think that's highly suspicious to think they pass
along only savings to us the customer. But the comment
I made that really has me in hot water with
this person is that it might make an already tricky

(13:12):
situation possibly worse. The reason I say it is because
bookings this year are up seven thousand over last year,
running out capacity even though they sail sometimes without every
single square inch of the bay being full. And that's
what I mean with vehicles trucks, ander requires or vans
or whatever. So if the bookings are way up, the

(13:34):
problem is, even if you're going to save some money,
which is a good thing, obviously, it doesn't make it
any easier for anyone to get off the island and
to give back in any sort of reasonable time frame.
So the questions would be can there be some consideration
and conversation regarding priority bookings. There's already some in place,
but for everyday new Foilanders and Laboradorians who want to

(13:55):
use marine at Lanton to get to the other side
and to get home. If your booking passage to leave
next Wednesday, which you can't get back for fourteen days,
when you need to be back to work five days
from then, it's a problem. You know, how do you
balance that with tourist traffic, which is really important for
many people. It's haymaking time when the tourists are in
town and whatever town or region of the problems that

(14:16):
might be, so we're happy to keep them. Marina led
to conversation going, all right, please out there from ple
pl e as from Saint Duane Street at the FFAW
and now the opposition parties chiming in on the macro fishery.
We haven't heard much in the way from DFO and
or Minister Thompson about specific numbers as to why macro

(14:39):
remains simply a bait fishery. I'm not a professional harvester,
but the folks that deal with that, I deal with
that email and send me pictures of what have you.
You know, unlike other species where you really do need
to compile data scientifically speaking, in conjunction with anecdotal evidence,
you know, because you can't see the fish, but macrol
you can. They're teaming at the surface of the water

(15:00):
and folks who are out on the water report that
to me all the time. So I don't understand why
the macro fishery remains in the state that it is
as simply a bait fishery. And yes, we can take
on the MoU, we can take on whatever you want
to talk about, all right. I'm going to give you
a quote. See if you can tell me who said
this or wrote this. I guess initially it's all right.

(15:21):
While you're exploring, you get used to rotten meat, frozen fingers,
lice and dirt. The hard time's come when you get back.
That's legendary Newfounlander Captain Bob Barlett born one hundred and
fifty years ago. Today, when you see and read the
stories of Bob Bartlett and Perry and others regarding their exploration,
their adventures truly remarkable times. So, of course, he skippered

(15:44):
some of the most famous and dangerous and controversial explanatory
expeditions to the Arctic. He traveled further north than almost
any other person on the planet at the time. He
shipwrecked at least twelve times, survived for months in the Arctic,
journeyed hundreds of miles by dogs, la the rich civilization.
But despite all of that, every time Captain Bob Bartlett

(16:05):
had a chance to go back to the Arctic, he
did so a team. The film reels and the photographs,
the scientific data that was compiled by Bartlett and others
really greatly contributed to the understanding of the North at
that time, So Captain Bob Bartlett born one hundred and
fifty years ago. Today, we're on Twitter, reviosim up online,
follow us there. Email address is open on a few

(16:26):
sim dot com. When we come back, let's have a
great show. That means you're in the queue to talk
about whatever's on your mind. Mix's gonna kick it off
talking about heavy equipment and wild fires and the finance.
Don't go away, Welcome back to the program. Let's begin
this morning on the top of the board, line number one.
Good morning, Mike around the air.

Speaker 3 (16:40):
Hey, good morning, Patty, Good morning Paddy. Patty.

Speaker 4 (16:42):
First, I'm going to start.

Speaker 3 (16:43):
I'm going to paint a little picture first, and then
I live up sem in her line about twelve kilamers.
I wasn't going to make this phone call because I
was weaking for the powers to be to get back
to me. But I live up Save in her line
by twelve kilaminers in and sort of a lot of
other people live up Here's a lot of liviers and
deer pers. But where we live to up here, because
there hasn't been any forestry management. We are surrounded by

(17:06):
old growth and timber and wind falls. It's a you
know it's it's a real tinder box up here. To
add that, we've had no brush cutting down the roads,
and we have we have a narrow road that comes
in here. And if we had a fire up here,
first go two places, the Holy World forty part of
which I'm sure matched out and tired right now. But

(17:28):
and because the road is so narrow, and it wouldn't
take long for a fire to skip across the road.
But that's over two up here. And anyway, about three
days ago and the ed my partners in the house
with two touts packed and a knapsack packed. And she's
been packed now for almost four weeks, so tensions are

(17:49):
running con high.

Speaker 4 (17:51):
So about three or four days.

Speaker 3 (17:52):
Ago, I'm out in the yard and here heavy equipment
go across the road and I live basically across the
road from all the meadals, and that they're from the
prison camp. So I said, who's over there? What are
they doing? So I went over and I couldn't catch
up with detractors at the time, but they're over there,
two or three pieces of heavy equipment and they were

(18:13):
caught in. Hey, now, these fields, I want to tell you,
these fields are these are strips of fields. These are
not one big huge metal. These are very narrow fields
one hundred and fifty two hundred feet wide, and then
they're long. They might be seven or eight hundred feet,
but they're narrow and they they are nestled in amongst

(18:36):
this dry timber. So I made a few phone calls
up there, and I said, who's who's cotting Hay up?
So anyway, I found out who it was, and I
won't mention no names. And I found that man's gentleman's number.

Speaker 5 (18:48):
And now this is world.

Speaker 3 (18:49):
We got a fire from Patty's boond Western Bay, Barton Lake.
Everything everything has been shut down, equipment ATVs. So I
called this gentleman one night. I tried to stay pretty cool,
even though it's fairly upset. I said, do you think
this is really a good idea to be cut? And

(19:10):
Hay said, one of your rakers hits a rock. You
got your exhaust from the diesel engines, just a phenometer.

Speaker 6 (19:17):
List of stuff.

Speaker 3 (19:18):
So I'll just get to it. And I said, you know,
there's not good judgment, and he proceeded, Oh yeah. He
proceeded to give me his business objective about getting Hay
off the field, and it was more of a safety thing,
I said, but we got we got more up here,
and hay, I hadn't heard the equipment, And so that

(19:38):
conversation pretty much never went nowhere, and it was a
lengthy conversation followed up by a number of out phone calls.
So I proceeded. Then I said, well, I must go
over now and just see what director. So I found
the boys and there was one tractor. There was oil
leaking out of it, wires hanging off of it. It
was a really old tractor. And what I could see

(20:01):
what they're prepared if they ignited at fire. It was
probably the smallest fire e STINGI sure you could find
in Canadian tire and dad insult the injury. It was
top taped under the frame attractor. So I had my
words with them, gentlemen, and they had assured me they'd
be off the field in half an hour and give

(20:22):
it up. Well, let's know what happened. They stayed there
at nine o'clock and they went back again the next day. So,
being the person that have had a couple of lengthy
phone calls about this, I asked them to email me
what division, what governing body allowed him to be up
there when we're in these extreme traditions across the island,

(20:44):
and he assured me he would. Well, of course it
never came, and I won't get in more of the story,
but I just want to let the people in their
park know what's going on and the threat that we
got up here. We don't need fire up there in
samonear Line because this where we was, this road. We
need air support for firefighting earth. You've got to come

(21:04):
into Whitburn, coming into Whitness pay line, you know, and
now here now no doubt. I'm mad at this gentleman,
but I'm more mad at the people that I called
and there's been no action taking, and they assured me.
I called them, made a report with their CMP. I
sent them the pictures, I sent them the layout of

(21:25):
the land. I sent them some regulations that they're supposed
to be a thousand feet away from from motored areas,
especially in the extreme conditions. My partner dug up regulations
and stuff, and I sent all that to the RCP
to get a response. I contacted Fire Regulations Enforcement. They
assured me that someone will be up yesterday. I never

(21:47):
got a call back. I never I never heard back
from first and least I contacted Dave Hamlin, the Minister's
assistants of Forestreet, Fishery and Agricultural, So I don't my
due diligence. I've done my due diligence. I don't know
if they're over there today. I'm almost afraid to go

(22:08):
over there and see that they're still back at it.
But where does his loy to and where do I go?
And maybe one of your reporters can bring it up
at the meeting at ten o'clock if possible.

Speaker 2 (22:23):
They're listening to the program this morning, so hopefully they're
jotting down that particular concern. And again I have no
authority or any say in the newsroom period, but you know,
even specific questions like what you just posed, and I
get this one repeatedly, is what can I use my
ATV on a road like in Jarry Park or Ocean
Pond or cabin country wherever. So hopefully we can get

(22:45):
some very specific scenarios painted, so we get very specific
answers back, and I'm happy to put that in their
air and see what we can do.

Speaker 3 (22:52):
Yeah, and Betty, you know, you know I was just
I said, can you annot wait till we get a
drop of rain, like we're caughting, Hey here, this is
this is not this is not the end of the world,
and can we not delay this for two weeks and
we get to drop of rain and stuff, And I'm
hoping someone is out there and even in the Premier's
office and the fire chief and stuff, that these questions

(23:16):
are answered because their God, I don't I don't want
all of you, all the hard work and there firefighters,
I don't. I don't want anything else put on them.
I don't want to lose my home. I don't want
We got a prevailing win up here of south Southerly
in southwest where this was located to was right on
the track of Deer Park, and what they were prepared

(23:38):
for if a fire had ignited time. We got the
fire department up there from Holywood and their manner hotspots
there in Holy Root. So I don't know what their
equipments do, I don't know what their men is to,
but they're at best, at best probably an hour away,
probably an hour away.

Speaker 6 (23:53):
You know.

Speaker 3 (23:54):
So this is a very very serious matter. It's a
life straightening matter. And I hope and I'm going to
hear back someone's going to give me some solid answers
from the our CMP and from four three and Agriculture
the administered from there or the other parties that I contacted.

Speaker 2 (24:12):
Yeah, we'll see if we can't get you an answer, Mike,
and I appreciate your time this morning.

Speaker 3 (24:16):
Thanks for doing it, and thanks for your time to Patty.

Speaker 2 (24:19):
Well problem buddy, all the best man.

Speaker 3 (24:20):
May I finish off all the people that are out
there involved in these first fantastic fantastic They're all heroes.

Speaker 2 (24:27):
Appreciate this, Mike, thanks for doing it. Okay, bye, welcome,
bye bye. Just a couple of quick notes before we go,
And Salmonar is one part of the province that I'm
pretty familiar with, and as another listener points out Tony,
it's overwhelmed with old growth and windfall. It really truly is.
So you know, that's one of those conversations about the
actual strategy insofar as dealing with the pockets of the

(24:49):
problems such as the Salminar line area and things like
old growth and wind fall in particular, you know, the
dead fall. Just a couple of very quick ones. So
disregarding the Air Canada disruption that's going to happen this
week and by all accounts. There's some pretty important notes
that people need to be aware of. So for starators,
if the question is did Air Canada cancel your flight

(25:14):
ahead of the job action this weekend? If so, all
of these preemptive cancelations are completely at one hundred percent
within the carrier's control this case Air Canada. As a result,
as is part of the air Passenger Bill of Rights,
Air Canada must not only rebook you, but they also
have to provide meals, accommodations and pay compensation up to

(25:35):
one thousand dollars per passenger. So make sure if you
are have been inconvenienced because of Air Canda's preemptive decisions,
they owe you that much. Also, when it comes to
Air Canada rebooking you, if they can get you a
cheaper flight on whatever carrier as opposed to something that

(25:57):
gets you back home quicker, whether it be like a
two day difference regarding flying Jazz or flying west Jet,
making booky WestJet, that's part of your rights as well,
so make sure you do that. Pauls in the queue
to talk about central Health. It's a tricky conversation where
we're going to have it right after this break, So
I'll put this out there. When the four regional health
authorities were amalgamated into one entity, becoming NL Health Services,

(26:20):
we were told as for streamlining of operations and to
identify redundancies those types of things, and consequently savings would
be reinvested back into the system. Has any of that
been achieved? The same argument was made for the school
district to be taken in by the Department of Education
for the same reason efficiencies and redundancies and the like,

(26:41):
and reinvest in savings back into the system, specifically into
student experience. Has any of that happened? I don't know.
Let's take a break. Pauls in the queue to talk
about central Health. Then we're going to talk about wildfires,
and Charlie wants to pick up on Bob Bartlett's comments
that I made earlier took away welcome back to the show.
Just before we get to Paul. Just for the purpose
of accuracy, and if I make a mistake or give

(27:05):
out incorrect information and you set me straight, i' will
correct myself live on air, which I'm going to do
right now. It's regarding barbecues, the use of gas, kerosene, alcohol,
propane or charcoal, burning units is permitted only if the
units are not used within three point five meters of
any trees, brush, or other flammable material. There you go,
Let's keep going. Let's go to line number two, Paul

(27:26):
around the Air.

Speaker 5 (27:28):
Yes, good morning to you.

Speaker 2 (27:30):
Welcome to the show, sir. What's on your mind?

Speaker 7 (27:32):
Okay?

Speaker 2 (27:39):
Oh do we have a bad phone line there, Dave?
Is that what we're dealing with? Okay, let's go to
line number three. Charlie around the Air.

Speaker 8 (27:45):
Oh you got me off? Care then? Please? I'd like
to thank you first for bringing up the the general report,
keeping that up out front there, you know, it's it's
to me. It's in the case of fraud, and I'm
anticipating a lot of people are the churches will be.

Speaker 2 (28:04):
Laid there right If you look at the numbers, you know,
even just in electric vehicles, there was inaccurate invoice to
submitted to the tune of over five hundred and fifty
thousand dollars, so not insignificant monies. So there's a question
about the invoices that were submitted. I think there's also
questions about how the invoices were evaluated for veracity in
accuracy before the texts were cut.

Speaker 8 (28:27):
Yes, Patty on the Barbertlett, I was thinking, I've read,
I probably dozens of books on exploring the Antarctic as
well as the Artic Some of them have included bar
Burtlett and nothing but going back time after time and
in spite of almost not surviving in the hardships and

(28:47):
everything that they go through. And it seems the thread
there is when people go to an adventure or an
experience like that, when they come home, they're bored, silly,
they don't know what to do with themselves, and the
feeling of being alive that they had because it's a
survival mode. In very often it's almost like resigning, for

(29:13):
go going back to Afghanistan for two terms after. I
don't know if you want to comment there, but that's
psychologically they're hooked, you know.

Speaker 2 (29:21):
Well, I think that's probably the same sentiment associated with
a variety of different adventurers or explorers or athletes or
whatever the case we be. It's in the blood. You
know how many times we hear a story about a
retired athlete and all of a sudden they just don't
know what to do with themselves anymore. Same thing I
would imagine for people like Bob Barlas. So you're right,
even coming back when one of your cohorts in this

(29:41):
case Perry loses eight toes to the frostbite, and was
then a chance to go back off they go.

Speaker 8 (29:47):
That's right, Patty. Watching the fires and especially the Kingston thing,
now it's a heartbreaking to see those families. We were
sitting down talking about it with a couple of people
and going to imagine coming back to your home just
seeing ashes. A couple of years in renting or whatever,

(30:08):
and the loss of all those things that you value.
It really really is heartbreaking, and I think we need
to remember that next week, next month, next year, it
could be us. This is the new norm, whether we
like it or not, and we should do all we
can to help these people and have sympathy too for
the firefighters and other people who are doing what they're doing.

(30:32):
You know, the nineteen and twentieth century, they're all about
growth and jobs, and in the twenty first century that's
still the case in the main. And I think what
we've got to remember is there's a need for a
balance between a sustainable world what we can do and

(30:53):
what we should do in terms of reaping the resource
for jobs and so on. We haven't struck that balance,
and each election reminds us that people are more concerned
about the nineteen twentieth turentury jobs and growth, which is natural.
But if we don't strike that balance between living with

(31:14):
nature and treating it like we should, this is gonna
get worse. And I just want to comment on that,
And again my heart goes out to the families there, you.

Speaker 2 (31:25):
Know, Yeah, I mean when I hear the stories of
people have lost their homes and in essence lost everything
beyond their goal bag and the clothes on their back. Obviously,
it's devastating and I feel awful for anybody who experiences that,
and it might be me or you into the future.
You're not wrong there. But what I also find completely
amazing is sometimes the stiff upper lip that some of

(31:47):
these people bring when they talk about well, myself my
family are all okay, we'll just replace what we lost
in the fire. I hope that that's ever something that
comes to rust with me my family. I hope I
can challenge my brain to think and feel that way
as opposed to the utter devastation that I think I
probably would feel.

Speaker 8 (32:06):
Yeah, so often wondered what my reaction would be as well.

Speaker 5 (32:10):
Well.

Speaker 2 (32:10):
Of course, ultimately the most important just so people look
get confused, obviously, the primary the priority is the safety
of myself and mostly my family, so obviously, but losing
your home would be life changing and absolutely devastating.

Speaker 8 (32:26):
The other thing that's not mentioned. A lot, a lot
of people have dropped insurance from what I've heard, I
don't know how accurate that is. The reason they've dropped
it is because it's so expensive. The reason is so
expensive because there's a loop there. It's because of fires
and drought and floods and everything else.

Speaker 2 (32:42):
Right, Yeah, we're all in the same actuarial pool. Right,
So insurance payouts for things involving natural disasters, i'll call it,
are at all time record highs year over year for
the last number of years consecutively. So yeah, you're right.
Same thing with my auto insurance. I don't have a
blemish on my record in the last death GAID plus
or whatever it is, but my freedoms go up. Why

(33:02):
because of them in same actual actual areial pool with
others who do have blemishes and or collisions or whatever
the kids may be.

Speaker 8 (33:08):
Yeah. The last one I want to mention is reach
something on Jeffrey Hinton, he's known as the godfather of AI. Right,
I just want to just short little quote. He left
Google and basically went on a trip or a journey
of trying to warn people of what the future might be.

(33:31):
Said in the future, AI systems might be able to
control humans just as easily as an adult can bribe
a three year old with candy. This year has already
seen AI systems willing to deceit, cheat, and steal to
achieve their goals and as an example, for example, to

(33:54):
avoid being replaced one AI model this would blew me away.
One AI model tried to blackmail an engineer about an
a fear it learned in an email. If they can
do that, if it's that well up on things, what
the future roles is hard to believe. And he said

(34:15):
this to end off. He said, instead of focusing AI
to submit to humans, he said, we should be building
maternal instincts in the way my AI models, so they
really care about people. He even wants to take behavior
becomes more powerful and sometimes than the humans. So I
thought that was a very interesting thing as well as

(34:36):
a little bit scary.

Speaker 2 (34:36):
You know, absolutely, Look, there's going to be lots of
positive applications of artificial intelligence, but there's going to be
plenty of negative consequences. So I try to talk about
it every now and then. Some people say, look, what
do I care about artificial intelligence? Well, because a lot
of what you see and feel and read these days
is generated by AI, so it's worth understanding as best

(34:57):
possible as to what's happening. Here's another interesting quote from
Jeffrey computers will understand sarcas before Americans do another one.
I think the way we're doing computer vision is just wrong.
And if he thinks that he has some level or
regret about you know, he's not the only person been
involved in the evolution of artificial intelligence, but he's one
of the more significant contributors here. If he has regret

(35:18):
about what's going on, then I think we should probably
take a little bit more time individually to understand what
we're doing here. Like here's just one fundamental So banks
are trying to be very helpful to the customers. I
will say in things like you take a picture of
a check and you send it to the email address,
and all of a sudden it gets the positive. You
don't have to go to the bank any longer. Then
you can have a voice queue allow you to transfer

(35:39):
moneys in and out of a bank account. Artificial intelligence
can use your voice against you. I mean, so you know,
things like banks and governments please do adeed understand the
risks and don't even allow people to do it. The
bank is a regulated industry. They should not be allowed
to have customers just call with a voice memo and
transfer moneys out because AI might do it on your
behalf scan your money. So some of the protections just

(36:02):
need to be in place, you know. I hate to
say protect us from ourselves, but in some case we
might need this.

Speaker 8 (36:09):
It's a new world coming there. I got one. I
got a question for you now, as a dog owner,
if you tried your dog with veggie burgers, No.

Speaker 2 (36:19):
But try him with he does eat vegetables.

Speaker 8 (36:22):
Okay, that's interesting.

Speaker 6 (36:24):
No.

Speaker 8 (36:24):
I was looking at some report that they had a
ranking of what we can do as humans in helping
with cut down our carbon footprints, and they were talking
about recycling, which they were very very low on the list. Anyway,
they got to talking about eating meat as a species

(36:45):
and talking about owning dogs and so on, and that's
one of the things came up was not only should
people go to more vegetarian stuff for dogs and then
pets as well. Anyway, leave you with that.

Speaker 2 (36:59):
One cautionary note on why you feed your dog This
from Dave Williams because I don't pretend to be all
that knowledgeable because I'm pretty new back at the dog business.
Is veggie burgers or otherwise, you have to be pretty
painfully you wear the sodium content when you're trying to
feed something to your dog. Dexter likes peas and carrots.
He loves a bit of banana, loves a bit of honey,
Chris Apple.

Speaker 8 (37:18):
Yeah, now I didn't. I didn't know the dogs would
eat vegetarian stuff. That's that's pretty neat. Okay, Patty, thank you.

Speaker 2 (37:26):
Frozen peas he goes out of like a mad man.

Speaker 8 (37:29):
Yeah, okay, you'll have to start growing them for him though, right.

Speaker 2 (37:32):
Yeah maybe so. Thanks Charlie. All the best, Bye bye.
I'll just get a break on time, Paul. Hopefully we
have a clear line to speak with Paul Shay right
after this. Don't go away. Welcome back to the show.
Let's go to line number five. Good morning, Paul, you're
on the air.

Speaker 5 (37:44):
Hi, all right, Patty, can you hear me Apparently I'm
having a bit of problem on my phone.

Speaker 2 (37:48):
I can hear you a lot and clear right now, Paul,
welcome to the show.

Speaker 5 (37:51):
Okay, thank you, thank you. So, so I want to
make it quick clear that this is comments I'm going
to make has no reflection on the working people off
Central Health. The one's suspendive letters and the one because
they're doing their job on time and kind of thing, right,

(38:14):
So this is common is not directed to them. So
here's a little bit of the next story. In December,
my wife almost fifty years lost her bazzled with cancer.

Speaker 2 (38:32):
I'm sorry to hear that.

Speaker 5 (38:34):
Yes, thank you, thank you. And so it's it's been difficult,
there's no doubt about that. So about two weeks ago
I went to the mailbox to kick of course the
mail and there was a letter there addressed to my
life and I opened the letter and this is a

(38:57):
letter from Central Health instructing my wife Ray to show
off at Central Health in September for a mammogram. So
I was having a pretty good day that day and
then it just all comes to rushing back. Now, she
didn't pass the breast cancer. She passed with chlororectal cancer

(39:22):
and the days of like we're in the computer range
of obviously, and there's no reason in my mind the
MCP charts we're all santin that helps, the death certificates
were all issued and everything with that. Why why are

(39:44):
the surviving people of a loved one receiving letters from
Central Health after they've passed to come in for extans.

Speaker 2 (39:55):
It's a fair question, I suppose, because the systems are
just basically automated, so like when someone passes, that would
be reflected in the actual government recordings and data as well.
So to not be able to reconcile lists for appointments
with people who have actually passed on it should be
something that should be able to do. And I mean

(40:16):
it's you know, when you're already dealing with the grief
of losing a loved one, to then have that shop
in the mailbox doesn't make things any easier.

Speaker 5 (40:24):
And I'm sorry it happened, Yes, thank you so much,
which I mean the the Government of loose Land, Government
of luth Land certainly know it's she passed away because
you know, everything that was coming from them, including you know,
the medical corearchs and stuff that was all caresols almost immediately,

(40:48):
so they should do that. They should be able to
some kind of rit flag on saying that say, okay,
this particular person and she pH had numbers such and
such should be ammotated, saying do not addressed them anymore
because they've passed away. You know, I had amount of
family member that received a letter from the Department of

(41:10):
Transportation saying and maybe a driver slations medical and they
passed ray but a month before they get that leather. Now,
I can understand that they a time lapse, but my
wife have been passed almost eight months when we get
the letter. You know.

Speaker 2 (41:27):
Yeah, there's got to be some way inside government operations
for whether it be lists for medical appointments or driver's
license renewals or whatever the case may be, to be reconciled,
you know, when we know that someone has passed on,
because the record of the death is with the province.
So there's got to be some set of a way
to ensure this doesn't happen in the future. And I
don't know exactly how that would look or what it

(41:49):
would take, but you got to think it's something that
could be done.

Speaker 5 (41:53):
Yeah, I agree, I agree, Paul.

Speaker 2 (41:57):
How long is it since your wife passed.

Speaker 5 (42:00):
She died on the twelfth of December, which happened to
be your birthday.

Speaker 2 (42:04):
And how old was she that day? Sixty eight, sixty
eight years of age, Mike and Donalds is in your family?
What was your wife's name?

Speaker 5 (42:12):
Marie Shay?

Speaker 2 (42:13):
Marie Shay and you were married almost fifty years? You
say we've been we.

Speaker 5 (42:17):
Were together almost fifty years.

Speaker 2 (42:20):
Yeah, terrific. Where are you from originally, Paul chom Saals false? Yeah,
where was Marie from?

Speaker 5 (42:29):
Grandpa's Windsor? But Windsor and when I met her, she
was in Windsor.

Speaker 2 (42:32):
Yeah, very good. Just for the sake of a conversation,
can you remember and tell us about the time you
first met.

Speaker 5 (42:41):
Yeah, we were high school sweethearts and yeah, and we
met and it was it was twenty eighth of December actually,
and we went to went to a little Christmas party
orner for friends houses and yeah, love blossom after that.

Speaker 2 (43:03):
Did you have any children?

Speaker 5 (43:07):
Yeah, we had two. My daughter's in Cowery and she
has she has one child. And there's not not the
inory of September the eleventh, but September the eleventh, eleven
years ago. For me, we lost our son to cancer.

Speaker 2 (43:26):
I'm so sorry to uh hear that as well. You know,
as they say, you should never outlive your children when
the heart will break and be shattered in pieces as
mine would be. Paul, I'm going to try to find
out how the process can work a little bit better
at the government level so that people like yourself don't
get those letters. And I'm really glad you called the
program this morning. I hope you're doing well.

Speaker 5 (43:48):
One day at the time, Patty good Man.

Speaker 2 (43:50):
One foot in front of the other. So as they say, yeah,
take your care you too, Bye bye bye, Paul. Sure
what to do here? Where do you want me to
go here? Dave? We'll evaluate. Okay, So we're itching up
against the news, so let's do exactly that, so we
we don't want to short change those who are in

(44:12):
the queue. So I'll just make another couple of mentions
of some of the issues regarding the Air Canada related
matters right now. Okay, So you may indeed get a
note from Air Canada that says this, We're very sorry,
but after searching for flights on over one hundred and
twenty airlines for three days before and after your cancel,
flight we've been unable to rebook, you visit a website

(44:33):
or check your email for refund options. It says, learn
more about your rights during disruptions. If you get that message.
The recommendation for folks who are involved with the air
Passenger Bill of Rights is they suggest do not take
a refund. Instead search for alternative flights on your own
and buy a new flight without accepting refund. Then make
Air Canada pay for the cost of your new flight

(44:55):
as part of the provisions there for your protection. So
at times like this, you know well talk about things
and some of the things airlines do, for instance by
not posting all of your rights in an understandable fashion
for all of their customers, so you let you know
where you stand. And then of course it's the issues
regarding the backlog complaints at the Canadian Transportation Agency. Last

(45:17):
time I heard, we were in and around seventy eighty thousand.
Now the last report I saw on that front too
is some were in and around fifty percent of the
complaints are one by the passenger, by the traveler. So
again the issue regarding refunds, and this happens all the
time the airline. It doesn't matter what we're talking about.
They will offer you a refund, but the refund would

(45:38):
be pennies on the dollar. It might be frustrating and
time consuming to put forward a formal complaint to the regulator,
but it might be worth your while. I mean, if
you can recoup twelve hundred dollars versus two hundred dollars,
then waiting it out, even though it's frustrating and even
though people would like to have money in their pocket today,
there might be a victory available for a full refund.

(45:58):
Let's check it on the Twitter box. Before we get
to the news, we're a VOSM open line. You know
what to do. You can follow us here. Email address
is open line at VIOSM dot com. Let's go and
take a break for the news. When we come back,
we're going to take a couple of calls, then we're
going to take a break for the press conference coming
up a ten to fifteen and then plenty show left
for you. Don't go away, Welcome back. Just a programming update.

(46:20):
We're going to take a break at ten past ten
this morning. Then after the break, we're just going to
roll a buffer into the press conference that we're going
to cover live around vocm and then we're back to
your calls. Let's go to lin number three and take
it on to the mayor of Beta Vert. That's Gerald Murphy.
Mayor Murphy, you're on the air.

Speaker 6 (46:34):
Good morning, sir. How are you this morning?

Speaker 2 (46:36):
That's a bad to tulser, how about you good?

Speaker 6 (46:39):
Just for sake of correction, it is direct.

Speaker 2 (46:42):
Oh it's Gerrard. My apology, sir, welcome to the show.

Speaker 6 (46:45):
Thank you. I feel obligated this morning to speak regarding
the wildfire that's on the north Shore. It has been
referred to as the Kingston fire Works. This wildfire now
has spread throughout nine communities. It has devastated nine communities

(47:08):
coming down the north Shore, and this morning I am
calling on the Premier Minister Crocker, our local MHA Minister Hagge.
It is time to deploy whatever aerial assets that are
available to stop the progress of this wildfire. The volunteers

(47:31):
on the ground are exhausted physically and mentally. They have
done an awesome job, all of these volunteer fire departments.
We have all of these people displace the anguish and
stress that they're going through. But in the end, the

(47:53):
fire must be stopped. I realize there are fires all
over the province. However, with this particular wildfire, people's homes
are being destroyed. And I use the word home. I'm
not using the word house. People have lost their homes,

(48:15):
which of course is a treasury of memories, and many
of these people will be left to try and pick
up the pieces after this is over. Whenever it is over.

Speaker 2 (48:31):
Yeah, I mean, I can only imagine, and my heart
goes out to everyone impacted throughout all nine communities. And
I take your point about the fire just been called
the Kingston fire, and I guess that's just how people
put a label too. But I'm glad you pointed out
the fact that there are nine communities that are devastated here.
The fire is enormous and we'll see what the update
brings this morning, whether it be for fire suppression services

(48:53):
and or any update on the status of the fire.

Speaker 6 (48:56):
And I can't stress enough this is a critical time.
I realize logistics underground, I realize incident command they're making
decisions and so on. However, the time has come to
bring this to an end. Those people have suffered enough.

(49:23):
I have spent thirty years of my professional career in
that area, and I can only imagine the devastation that has.

Speaker 2 (49:34):
Occurred the same here, sir. And so we don't take
the question and answer prayer at the press conferences, but
as usual I will pass this along the specific questions
that you're hoping to see you address in the press
conference to our newsroom this morning.

Speaker 6 (49:47):
For you, I thank you for your time.

Speaker 2 (49:50):
And I appreciate yours. You're always welcome, sir.

Speaker 6 (49:52):
Thank you, Take care.

Speaker 2 (49:53):
Bye bye. As creative Birdmir Gerard Murphy, let's see here.
So we're going to try to take things right out
of time this morning. We will take a break, but
when we come back, we're going to play the press
conference all of the comments coming from those who are
present at the press conference, and then we're coming back
to take your calls. The topic entirely up to you.
Don't go away, and.

Speaker 9 (50:10):
Thanks for being here again today, Minister Dempster and Minister
hag You should be online with us and joining us
virtually and continue to thank both of them for their
leadership and great work leading to the departments that are
doing tremendous works during this emergency situation. Also today, as
we discussed yesterday, Minister Davis, Minister of Education and Early
Childhood Development, and we also welcome back Chief Superintendent Pamela

(50:35):
Robinson our CNPP division.

Speaker 2 (50:38):
As well.

Speaker 9 (50:38):
We have our Director of wild Fire Management, Craig Cody,
who will provide some more information today. I know there've
been a lot of questions about from the media and
from residents throughout the province about how decisions are made
in terms of air assets and firefighting allocations and firefighters,
how those decisions are made. Of course he can provide

(50:58):
some detailed information about that, but also, as I'll say
today a little bit later that keep in mind that
things do change very quickly, and decisions that are made
maybe this morning are not what we actually are what
they end up doing throughout the day. So weather conditions change,
fire behavior changes, and Craig can certainly provide some more
detail about that this morning. People in Conception Bay North

(51:21):
area are starting to receive word from their municipalities and
the RCNP about structure losses, specific specific structure losses that
are impacting their communities. So to those who have received
that terrible, unfortunate news, who have lost their homes, our
thoughts are with you all, and of course those individuals
are still waiting word. We continue to think about you

(51:42):
as well in this very difficult time. We do have
a lot of ground to cover this morning, so I'll
move right into the fires. The Kingston fire this morning
is now nine and twenty seven hectors. The forecast is
calling for cooler temperatures today, lower winds and a chance
of showers between two and ten millimeters. Winds are expected
to shift toward the south today and if that happens,

(52:04):
the fire strategy, as I note it, will shift as well.
A shift in the wind toward the south will turn
the fire and smoke away from the northern flank, which
could potentially allow crews on the northern edge to help
with further structure protection. The incident command center has now
moved to Salmon's Cove Salmon Cove and they'll work there
with the firefighters on the ground to work on a

(52:26):
plan for structure protection in that part of the fire.
On the ground in Kingston, they're eighty Canadian armed forced firefighters,
twenty Ontario firefighters and some Newfoundland and Labrador firefighters as well.
The plan for air today in the Kingston fire, and
again that can change based on whether smoke and fire
conditions is to have the heavy capacity helicopter in the air,

(52:47):
as well as six water bombers who will work a
series of steady missions. As I said, of course, weather
conditions dictate what we can do, and this is the
first day we've had low ceilings. There's low ceiling right now,
so as of this moment, the air assets are unable
to get to the Kingston fire and they can't fly,
but we will continue to monitor that throughout the day
and hopefully that will lift and the air assets can

(53:09):
get to that fire. There are though crews on the
northern flank working on structure protection and putting out hotspots
as well. As I said, work is continuing with the
AIRCNP and the towns on structure loss and doing assessments
when it's safe to do so. Yesterday there was an
evacuation alert issued for the unincorporated area of Jobs Cove

(53:30):
and residents are asked of course to be ready to
evacuate on short notice. Myself and the Deputy Minister yesterday
evening around five thirty six o'clock we're able to take
a Canadian Coast Guard helicopter to try and see some
of the Kingston fire and some of the area that
has been affected. I can just tell you that it

(53:52):
is obviously a very large area. It was difficult. The
pilot was unable to get to certain parts of the fire.
We couldn't do the whole perimeter because of the extreme
and it is very thick smoke.

Speaker 2 (54:02):
I mean, you cannot.

Speaker 9 (54:03):
See your hand in front of your face if you
were in that smoke.

Speaker 6 (54:10):
You know.

Speaker 9 (54:11):
What I can say is that there are areas that
are just completely burned and black. So it is understandable
that you can't determine if structures are in there and
lost or not, but I will say that there are.
The good news is there are numerous and a number
of structures that are still standing and still safe. And
as I said earlier, I think this week when I
visited Adams Cove after the May fire, it was unbelievable

(54:31):
to see the fire move throughout the community and throughout
the houses, and some were lost and some weren't. And
you could see yesterday some there have been burnt areas
right up to a community, but the community still remains.
So you know, we're talking yesterday about hope and optimism,
so let's continue to be optimistic about saving structures. And
it's clear that that effort has worked in some parts

(54:53):
of those communities, so I'm thankful for the firefighters for
that very important and very successful work. To date, no
change in size the Paddy's Pond fire. It's still approximately
three hundred and six hectors. Continues to be a lot
of smoke and hot spots as well. Weather conditions are
improving today with forecast at lower temperatures and five millimeters

(55:13):
of rain. It's not a lot of rain, but as
everybody knows, we haven't seen any rain for a long time,
so every little bit has helped them or help them,
We're thankful for it. Helicopters are continuing bucketing this morning,
and fire guard construction is going well and some areas
have been completed, with work continuing today with help from
our Canadian Armed Forces. There's thirty ground crew in Patty's Pond,

(55:34):
and of course people continue to wonder when they can
go back to their homes and when the evacuation alerts
will end in this area, but it is still an
out of control fire. So we continue to hope for
progress today and will continue those conversations, but at this moment,
it is not safe to return to the evacuated areas.
The Martin Lake fire size is still approximately twenty one

(55:54):
and sixty hectors, so no growth overnight. It continues to
burn mostly along the perimeter and moving east west, north
or south. Weather conditions are improving forecasts at lower temperatures
and lighter winds there and it does look like potentially
five to ten millimeters of rain, but up to twenty
five millimeters in thunder cells. Northerly winds are forecasted for

(56:15):
mid afternoon, which will be helpful in pushing the fire
back on itself, but smoke and excessive heat in the
area make it difficult for ground crews. Yesterday, cabins in
the area were sprayed down and we continue to assess
the impact on the Rushy Pond cabins. There's four helicopters,
a bird dog and two two fifteen's planning to work
on the fire today with thirty ground crew and Route

(56:37):
three sixty remains closed until further notice and will continue
to be monitored. Just a fine update. There was an
illegal fire in Gander Bay yesterday, so another fine has
been issued for fifty thousand dollars. We have forty more
firefighters on the way from British Columbia and British Columbia
will also be sending ten support staff to help in
incident management. So now I'll try turned over to Craig

(57:02):
for his.

Speaker 10 (57:04):
Thank you. Premier.

Speaker 11 (57:06):
As the Premier ministers, I have pointed out many times
over the course of this crisis, they rely on the
very experienced fire behavior specialists and operations experts on our
incident management teams to make the best decisions possible when
fighting these wildfires.

Speaker 10 (57:21):
The into management.

Speaker 11 (57:22):
Team follows a single overriding principle above all else, protect life.

Speaker 10 (57:26):
And the safety of people.

Speaker 11 (57:28):
This includes not only the people of the province, but
the lives of our ground crews are pilots that are
doing these very dangerous jobs. After securing life and safety,
the next priority is protecting property and infrastructure.

Speaker 10 (57:42):
So the first question we have to ask.

Speaker 11 (57:44):
Ourselves when planning our operations each day, are we putting
our first responders or our citizens at undue risk? This
can mean at direct risk from fire or smoke, or
from related events like a rapid unplanned evacuation. I like
to talk about where and how water bombers or bucketing
aircraft can be effective. There are two things that are

(58:06):
air attack officers and our operations chiefs consider when working
on a fire, and those two things are safety and effectiveness.

Speaker 10 (58:16):
Number one, can it be done safely?

Speaker 11 (58:18):
Our water bomber pilots rely on visual references to fly.
They need to be able to see each other and
the terrain at all times. Over the years, there are
times when we have had nearly a dozen aircraft on
a single fire, often with a mixture of both fixed
wing to water bombers and rotary aircraft helicopters, and these
are all operating in a relatively small airspace. The safe

(58:42):
management of that airspace is crucial and complex. If the
smoke is too heavy or the clouds are too low
in an area, the air attack officer, the operation section chief,
or the pilots themselves will make the call with respect
to the aircraft and flight safety, often having to move
to another air of the fire where they can work safely.

(59:03):
The second consideration is effectiveness. You may have heard references
in the media to the ranking system used for fires.
Ranks one to four can effectively effectively be fought using
aerial suppression. However, at rank five and ranked six, fires
no longer respond to aerial suppression. Control is extremely difficult

(59:25):
and direct attack is rarely possible given the intensity levels.
The characteristics commonly associated with the extreme fire behavior are
things such as rapid spread rates, crown fire development, medium
and long range spotting, fire worlds, and massive convection columns,
as well as great walls of flames.

Speaker 10 (59:47):
These conditions are a certainty at rank five and six.

Speaker 11 (59:53):
These fires present serious control problems as they are virtually
impossible to contain until the burning can do lessen greatly.
Direct attack is rarely possible given the fire's probable ferocity
except immediately after ignition, and should only be attempted with
the utmost caution. A runaway or escaped fire should be

(01:00:14):
considered as a distinct possibility. The only safe and effective
control action that can be taken until the fire run
expires is that the rear and the flanks of the fire.
The extreme fire weather conditions we all experience this past
week or so allowed the conception being north fire to
reach Frank five and six multiple times.

Speaker 10 (01:00:36):
At that point, not only is.

Speaker 11 (01:00:38):
It unsafe, but the water bombers become ineffective on the
front of the fire. When this occurs, the focus of
the aerial tack then becomes protection of values that may
be at risk on other parts of the fire, as
I said, including the flanks and the rear of the fire.
One of the most common questions we hear is why
don't the bottom bombers.

Speaker 10 (01:00:58):
Start at daylight or at least very early in the morning.

Speaker 11 (01:01:02):
Several factors had to be taken into consideration when scheduling
water bombers. These include pilot duty time, anticipated fire behavior
and maintaining of initial attack capabilities for unexpected fire occurrences
and fire behavior.

Speaker 12 (01:01:16):
In the day.

Speaker 11 (01:01:17):
Each day, a plan is formulated to maximize the coverage
and time on the fire while taking into account pilot
fatigue and safety. Even with the best plans, we have
to be flexible as weather conditions and fire behavior change,
sometimes from minute to menace. Decisions have to be made quickly, calmly,
and rationally. They must be grounded in science and based

(01:01:40):
on the fire conditions at the time. Unfortunately, this morning,
we are currently experiencing a low ceiling in the Saint
John's area, which will delay the water bomber departure this morning.
The reason we start them later in the morning is
to maximize the amount of suppression we can do during
the active burn period in the afternoon and evening. Each

(01:02:01):
water bomb or crew can fly two separate four hour missions,
so a total of eight hours of duty time each day.
These duty hours are incredibly valuable and must be used
strategically as possible. Of course, the increased numbers with increased
numbers of available water bommers, such as additional assets from
our friends in Quebec and Ontario, we can extend that

(01:02:22):
coverage period. Again, keep in mind that we must strive
to ensure that we maintain aerial suppression capabilities throughout the
afternoon and into the evening, which is what we refer
to as the peak burn periods. This is the most
critical and dangerous time for increased fire behavior. There's a
huge amount of detail that goes into planning these operations

(01:02:46):
that I won't get into here, but I hope that
this helps people understand how we use the finite resources
that we have and know that we are fighting with
everything we have every day to make sure no one
loses their life and that we can save as many
homes as possible in this extreme fire season.

Speaker 2 (01:03:05):
Welcome back. Just a point to clarification, So the fee
that we were receiving regarding the press conference, I was
being held by the province. It was buffering to the
point where we just couldn't get it back apparently, So
that's why we chose to just go to the break
and come back. Now, any information that we missed here,
certainly the good folks in the news were most put
it all together for us, So we apologize for the

(01:03:28):
technical difficulties, but that was as much on there and
as it was on our end. We just had a
lot of that air. We couldn't get it back, So
that's what happened there. That's got a line number two
and SA good morning to one of the candidates running
in ward two here in the city of Saint John's
in the upcoming municipal election. That's Brenda Haley. Good morning
Brenda around the.

Speaker 13 (01:03:43):
Air, Hi, Patty, It's Brenda Hall.

Speaker 2 (01:03:46):
Just for clarification, I actually know better.

Speaker 14 (01:03:48):
That's okay, I know.

Speaker 5 (01:03:50):
That's okay.

Speaker 7 (01:03:51):
Thanks for taking my call, Patty. How devastating what we
you know for the province. You know, the fear and
anxiety for folks out at you know, nine communities in
the North Shore. Many friends of mine is out there.
I also have family that have structures out their houses homes.
I just wanted to call in today, Patty, to talk

(01:04:14):
about you know, today and the weeks and months to come,
just to have people check in with family and friends
and their neighbors right across anyone that you know, just
to check in to make sure you know, people are
doing okay. And I especially wanted to talk about youth, Patty.
I have three, you know, young kids, and even as

(01:04:34):
we were packed our bags earlier the week, you know,
just in case bag to pack, they were, they were
nervous and they had a lot of questions. So just
sort of to remind folks that there are ways to
talk about kids otherwise, you know, they fill in the
blanks if we don't, if we don't explain to younger
kids what's happening. And so I just wanted to throw

(01:04:57):
that out today, you know, to I came with our
neighbors and each other.

Speaker 5 (01:05:02):
You know, yeah, absolutely illastating.

Speaker 2 (01:05:04):
Sure, And you know that's a tricky one about speaking
with your kids about these types of affairs. I suppose
it's probably good idea for step Jehaneen and hubbed Back
on the program because there's some school of thought that
says you want to protect our shield your child from
any potentially hard to understand or decipher news like the
wildfires that are playing in so many parts of the province.

(01:05:24):
But I don't think we're really necessarily doing our children
a good service by doing that. You know, you can't
bubble wrap them forever. And the way to understand, to
be compassionate and empathetic and have an understanding of how
what's happening in the world is probably very beneficial. It's
all in the message. You don't have to go to
them and scare the Bejesus out of them by, you know,
talk about all the homes that are lost, what have you,

(01:05:45):
just what's going on and what we all have to
think about into the future regard to these things. You know,
just have a real conversation because they'll if they if
you don't, they'll get it somewhere else. And it's better
coming from Aberdad than it is from wherever else.

Speaker 7 (01:05:58):
Absolutely, I had those conversations with my three children earlier
this week.

Speaker 5 (01:06:02):
We did pack our bags.

Speaker 7 (01:06:04):
Because that was the advisory, but you know, we had
a calm discussion to say, this is just in case,
we're probably likely very fine. And then you know, those
kids worried about people that they knew in the communities
of you know, the devastation out around you know, Small
Point and broad Cove and places like that. Kids do

(01:06:25):
fill in the blanks, Patty, and so I think that
we can be very cognizant to give them just the
basics and have conversations. And you know, there are places
that can help kids, like the Kids Helpline and Jane
Way and Bridge the Gap, you know, and so they
can help adults as well have the conversations.

Speaker 13 (01:06:45):
With children, you know, Patty.

Speaker 7 (01:06:47):
The other thing I wanted to mention, which is a
little different, the First Responder Helpline, which is seven O
nine two three seven four one eight zero, and you've
probably thrown that number out this morning many times, but
that that First Responders line is run by first responders,
so it's a peer support.

Speaker 5 (01:07:07):
Opportunity.

Speaker 7 (01:07:08):
So that's really powerful because these are folks that have
been out and fought fires over the years and you know,
risk their lives to keep us safe. So so for
the first responders, who you know are really probably struggling
and exhausted and worried themselves, you know, that's the number
that they can call and get support with their peers.

(01:07:29):
I think that's really powerful. It's sort of a newer,
newer program. So those are the things that I wanted
to mention. You know, I've actually taken a break from
active campaigning in the last few days to just check
in with my neighbors, people I know that live out
there in any other ways that I can help.

Speaker 2 (01:07:48):
I appreciate that. I appreciate this and the time this morning.
Thank you, Brenda. Thanks Patty, You're welcome to take care.

Speaker 4 (01:07:54):
Great day too.

Speaker 2 (01:07:56):
Yeah, inevitably, you know I'll get emails that's say. Something
along these lines is that at a certain age, children
need to be protected from all the eels and evils
of the world. I get that. But the fact of
the matter is the information that you might have a
conversation with your children about is already in the palm
of their hand. I mean, they'll hear it on the radio,
they'll see it on TV, they'll hear it from their bodies.

(01:08:17):
They'll eavesdrop parents talking amongst themselves, that kind of stuff.
So you do what you see fit. I mean, there's
no handbook or rule book or textbook about how to
parent and how to talk to your own children. You
know your child better than anybody else, But they will
get the informations anywhere, you know, and I think that
costs for everything the birds and the bees. I mean,
if we don't talk to our kids about it, they'll
hear about it from their bodies, so you don't know

(01:08:38):
what they're talking about down by the Rocket Rennie's River.
Same thing with drugs and alcohol and other potential plays
they could fall prey to. I mean, if we don't
talk about it with them, they'll get it somewhere else.
We're from their bodies down by the Rocket Rennie's River,
and they don't know what they're talking about. Let's keep
your own hair and let's go to the line number three.
Warn't he Peter, you're on the air.

Speaker 6 (01:08:57):
Let's good morning, Good morning to you.

Speaker 4 (01:09:00):
I just like to say how they thank you to
all the firefighters and anybody in this disaster who's helped
them anyway, if it dispolice people or whatever. You know,
Like there's a lot of hard work, in my opinion,

(01:09:20):
and there's a lot of stress, whether you're at fire department,
you're aaty your home, or if you're a government that's
trying to make this better for the people. But I
guess when I get right down to it. We have
to work under the direction of the fire chiefs and

(01:09:42):
do the best it possibly can. And so far, you know,
like listen to the news and news conference things like that.
You know, like they're fighting a big battle. It's a
total disaster. It's almost like Fort Beet Murray all over again.

(01:10:02):
And so anyway, my head comes off to thank you,
and like I said, distress goal of but with this,
you know, and and that's mentally that's mentally hurting, you know,
lots of cases.

Speaker 2 (01:10:21):
No doubt. I mean, I can't imagine what a day
is like for someone who's fighting these fires on the
ground or in the air, and how their families feel
about them leaving every day to go to work. It's
just unbelievable the omens have ever been put forward in Bravo.

Speaker 4 (01:10:34):
Yeah, well, when I hit all like, I had four
grandchildren in the paradise, and you know, kids keep pretty
upset too. So anyway, I just wanted to mention that
and thanks again, and I really mean it, and keep
up the good work and hopefully we'll we'll win this
pretty soon. Another thing I wanted to mention her. I

(01:10:58):
suppose it's the right time to mention it. Anyway, it
is the resignation of our ffa W Secretary Treasurer Jason Spingle,
you know, like the stiles, you know, like it's deafening.
I know the media is pretty wrapped up with other things,
but when other people resigning, like Greg Pretty or Keith

(01:11:23):
Sullivan or any of those, you know, like he was
all over the media for days weeks. I mean, you know,
but this is a like I said, the styles is deafening.
And we'd like to the members, the ones that I've
been hating to, they like to know, you know, at

(01:11:46):
least an interview saying why you resigned somebody ever. Everybody
have a reason for resigning, I guess at some point
in time, and they're entitled to do that. But you know,
really the secretary treasurer the fa W, it's the same
as the chief mate of a ship. You know, if
there's no chief made to ship or sail. You know
a lot of people probably don't know that. But we

(01:12:06):
don't know there's anybody filling in form now or he's
waiting out the time until he's resigned. Like I said,
the first I heard of this with us to Wander
and your.

Speaker 2 (01:12:17):
Program, and.

Speaker 4 (01:12:22):
I haven't said that, you know, like I have somebody
in mind that I would like to nominate, but we've
been in we've been in contact back and forth, but
he hasn't had his mind fully made up yet. And
so probably next week I'll give you a call again,

(01:12:44):
I'll let you know who that is. But you know,
like this is not the time for the fit to
slide somebody in under the door. It's a full blown
election and so it should be the same with Duane
Street and the last presidential election. And I think in
all the members are going to have the vote for

(01:13:05):
the right person and and make the union better again.
Like when the union was at as worse, I didn't
want to be a part of it. Now it seems
like it's rebounding and I'm a member again and I
have an interest in it again. And if we had
a full slate of good kendidate or a good executive

(01:13:29):
paid executive.

Speaker 15 (01:13:30):
You know, like the.

Speaker 4 (01:13:32):
Maybe we'll be all proud members again, you know, another
year or so, I'll tell that for sure, you know.
Right now, I think it's on the rebound. But we
need to put a we need to put a good
secretary treasure. Not saying anything negative about Jason Spingle. That's

(01:13:52):
that's what the purpose of car is. What the purpose
of call is that now the members of the FAW,
regardless of his industrial or we were fish plants or
what have you, we have a chance to put the
best possible person there to do their job for members.

Speaker 2 (01:14:12):
Yeah, and they'll have an election and an opportunity to
vote for whoever they think is the best candidate for
the job. Just out a cure, like, there's no sense
to me asking Duan or anybody else why somebody else
decided to resign unless there's something that went on that
was inappropriate or any sort of mouthfeasts that. I don't
know if we're going to hear or find out anything
about that. But the only person to ask is Jason Spingle.
So if he'd liked to offer his thoughts on his

(01:14:35):
time at the union and as to why he decided
to resign at this time pretty shortly after the election
went through and he was acclaimed, I' pretty sure I
don't think anyone ran against Jason. So yeah, but we're
told that there's an election forthcoming and then that position
will be refilled.

Speaker 4 (01:14:51):
Yeah, that's right. Nobody can speak for Jason on himself
and you know, like I saying nothing negative about the
Marine lad that you know, and the people must have
won them. There is the last time around, or at
least you would think not he would know an in
by acclamation. But this time around, now we have a

(01:15:11):
chance to the members have a chance to vote, you know,
instead the just Inshore Council or that you know, the
whole whole, the whole membership has a chance to vote
to put in the right person there. You need a
person that's going to be good in the negotiation room.
You need a person who can speak in public, and

(01:15:32):
you need a person that when they do speak, that
carries authority in the voices. And you know, and when
you wrap up, you know you're after making another statement
and there's so much more, you know, like with the
financial part of it, how to deal with that. And
it's a very big position. It's a very big position.

(01:15:55):
And you know, I think the last time that position
was fill in my opinion as a member, and that's
been around the union for some time, was Ray Jeannesy.
And Ray Jeannesy had the respect of the membership and
a fire certainly, I know the late Rag Jason, he

(01:16:17):
did a great job, you know, not because he did,
but when he was working with the f So anyway,
I just wanted to bring that to your attention this morning.
Other callers and members have the right to call in
and view their opinion. But if the things that's just
it's just a position, it's not just a position. It's

(01:16:38):
the same next to the president, and that person is
going to carry authority and guidance for his membership. And
thanks for taking me a time, Patty, and the OCM
is doing a really good job of covered disastrous fires
across Nukeland, Labrador and the smoker this morning. Now in

(01:17:04):
the central the air quality is notwithstanding, but I know,
you know it's not enough to kill you by no means.
But and we did have a good shower array under
that time that lasts for about probably fifteen minutes. That
was well the news and we're close to the market.

(01:17:24):
Martin laid pier or debated spirit right, And you know,
I think it's around sixteen kilamors or something like that.
I hear people say from from grandfather's But the prevailing wins,
I don't think it's really given us our a hard
time now, but it only takes it only takes win

(01:17:44):
the shift direction and then that changes everything.

Speaker 15 (01:17:47):
You know.

Speaker 2 (01:17:48):
I do know, Peter. I got to get to the break,
but I appreciate your.

Speaker 4 (01:17:51):
Time and thank you so much.

Speaker 2 (01:17:52):
And you have a good day, you too, Thank you
you too. Bye bye. All right, let's go and get
that break and don't go away. Welcome back to the show.
Go to line number two. Say you're wret to the
Liberal member for Harbor Graves Portograph. She's the Minister of
Economic Development and Labor and I believe also responsible for
workplace and all that's pant persons, persons around the air.

Speaker 13 (01:18:12):
Good morning, Patty, and thanks for taking my call, and
good morning to all your listeners. I just I simply
wanted to call in him to say a huge thank you,
to echo what a lot of people have been saying
here today and on all weeks for the past two
weeks or more. We all know the efforts made by
our volunteer firefighters. I know in my district of Harbor
Grace Portograve, we have Harbord Grais Department, Upper Island, Cove Spaniards,

(01:18:36):
Babe Baye Roberts, all constantly working on the fires happening
down on the north shore here just in the neighboring
district of Carvin Air Trinity Ladebird. Also the Salvation Armies
and a number of volunteer organizations and businesses are also
making huge donations to help everybody, you know, as much
as possible. So my sentiments and my heart goes out
to the people who've lost their homes, the structures. I mean,

(01:18:57):
just the other night in my in my town on
where I'm living in Bay Roberts, I was outside actually
removing some solar lights because apparently the batteries in those
can post a fire threat in the in the extreme
hot conditions, and I could hear the fire at the sirens,
and I looked and sure enough I saw the fire
truck coming up, rushing up my streets, and I know

(01:19:18):
how that felt. Thank God, that was a false alarm.
It was smoke that someone had called in, but it
happened to be a cloud. But it was very frightening.
And as you know, neighboring Spaniards Bay, which is also
in the district of Trevor Graves forty grades, there was
a brush fire happened there on Miltree Hill in the
area of Brown's Road, and I just want to think
you know, think those those first responders, the early response team,

(01:19:39):
you know, the Spaniards Bay the Department of course were
the first to respond, and thank god they were. They
managed to get that out very quickly. It could have
been a very very bad situation. The situation of that
fire where it was centered and Rectory Avenue there just
behind Holy Redeemer Church, that could have been very bad
for a lot of people in a quick matter of time.
So my I just can't you know, we've this is

(01:20:01):
the first and I know, Patty, you've lived out with in
the country, so wildfires are something that that those residents
are used to, but this is this is unprecedented here
in Newfoundland and Labrador and truck Unfortunately, it looks like
it's become reality of what we're going to be having
to deal with in our summer seasons. But thank god
for our first responders and everyone, absolutely everyone who was

(01:20:21):
helping everybody in need at this time and those on
the front lines.

Speaker 2 (01:20:25):
Fair enough, and I think we all echo those sentiments.
What exactly happened where you heard of the fire trucks coming?
Can you just give be a bit.

Speaker 13 (01:20:31):
More information in the information now, that was a couple
of minutes ago. I was actually in my yard and
I could hear sirens, I could hear a fire truck,
and where I'm located, I could actually see dance of
the town and I could see the truck and I said,
oh my gosh, that's that's coming up my street. And
it certainly it came up and it rushed around. But

(01:20:52):
it was a false alarm, thank god. I mean, it
was as smoke clouds that people called in, and I
mean a number of messages circulated the community about that,
but it happened to be a false alarm. But it
just goes to show I mean, how nerve wrecking this is.
No one is safe. I mean, this is happening on
all ends. We know, holy Rood just went through. I
have a lot of family, My parents live in holy Rood,
So I mean we've been we've been dealing with that

(01:21:15):
and how that feels for those reasons there CBS, we
know what's happening in Patty's pond. I mean, just nobody's safe,
you know what you know, what I mean is that
no one is exempt from this. You know, we all
have to be on guard. But it's it's a feeling
like no other, like we've felt before, but I can't
say enough for those people. I spoke with a fire
chief actually yesterday from one of my detachments, and he said,

(01:21:38):
you know, he was pretty emotionally. He said, you know,
every time we take go on that call, he's ultimately
were willing to die. And they are. I mean, they
are the most courageous volunteers in the world. I've said that,
you know, when everybody's rushing away to seek shelter, it's
these men and women who are running into the danger
for everyone else. So thank God for them. And I
can't say enough to thank them for the work that
they're doing.

Speaker 2 (01:21:58):
They're here. I don't want to be insensitive because I know,
fighting the fires and protecting structures and people's life and
limb of course number one priority today. But we've also
heard from the province from Premier Hogan talk about requesting
on Autowa to expedut EI benefits for those impacted. Then
there's going to be a conversation, maybe it's already begun
amongst you and your cabinet colleagues about for operations business

(01:22:21):
wise that have been shut down, whether it be like
in the bush itself and or small businesses working and
living under evacuation alerts and orders? Is that compensatory conversation
has it begun?

Speaker 13 (01:22:33):
Well? These current as you know right now, these are
unprecedented times. As you know, the Premier is busy and
along with the ministers that are involved. But as the
Premier has said, there, you know, he's all. The request
has been put to Ottawa as we know, for financial compensation.
We know EI is one of those are one of
those topics, and again those conversations are ongoing. But I

(01:22:54):
do know the commitment is there. The Premier has made
it very clear, and of course he has the support
of all of our caucus included that you know, people
have to be people have to be looked after. These
people are being displaced, you know, for out of their
own control, for conditions beyond their control. As we know.
So we've seen this kind of disaster before. Just not
that long ago, we almost lost quarterback as you remember,

(01:23:16):
in the flooding and the hurricane. So these weather patterns
that we're seeing are unprecedented and we're going to have
to respond to them. But I am very confident that
the commitment is there to do what we can. As
the new from lenders and levivillions.

Speaker 2 (01:23:27):
Appreciate the time for any minister, Thank you, thank you,
stay safe you too, Bye bye, as Pen Parsons and
Minister Prises the Liberal member for Harbor or Grace Port Grave.
So now we know, and it's been confirmed that Capital
Academy amongst the structures lost in the CB and fire.
What that's going to mean for back to school for
those I think there's got to be some of the

(01:23:48):
neighborhood of what sixty seventy students go to that particular school,
so how they get reallocated? Big questions looming. Let's take
a break for the news. When we come back, we're
talking accessibility that we're talking telecom and whatever you want
to talk about. Don't away.

Speaker 1 (01:24:02):
You were listening to a rebroadcast VOCM Open Line. Have
your say by calling seven oh nine, two seven, three
fifty two eleven or one triple eight five ninety eight
six two six and listen live weekday mornings at nine am.

Speaker 2 (01:24:20):
Welcome back to the show. Let's go to Lee number
six and say good morning to one of the candidates
running for an at large council position here in the
City of Saint John's. That's Miles Russell, and good morning
miles around the You're.

Speaker 14 (01:24:29):
On the air well, good morning, Patty.

Speaker 15 (01:24:31):
Wanted to mirror what several other people were saying today,
which is banking the large number of fire support services,
whether air, ground volunteer or ground mainline. I think the
work they've been doing has been absolutely stellar, putting a
lot of people at ease. I think seeing the level
of control around the Patty's Pond fire, even though it'sut
of control still, I think it's a really commendable On

(01:24:55):
that note, I ended up working with a couple of
my team members at Streets over People. We made an
online tool to combine the current Patties Pond evacuation orders
and alerts as well with the existing NASA firms data.
We've been updating that every about eight hours or so.
You can find that on the Streets for People website.

(01:25:16):
But yeah, but that's.

Speaker 4 (01:25:17):
Not what I'm calling with today.

Speaker 10 (01:25:18):
Today.

Speaker 15 (01:25:18):
I want to talk about physical accessibility on our streets
and sidewalks in Saint John's Let's do it. So I'll
start with something a little, something, a little interesting that
a lot of people might not know.

Speaker 14 (01:25:31):
So technically, in.

Speaker 15 (01:25:33):
The Service n L and Accessibility Act, concrete sidewalks are
not accessible. What I mean to say is the way
we construct them with curb cuts for sidewalks or for
driveway crossings, the instantaneous grade exceeds what's allowed as a
maximum like quite a lot. So and this sounds a
bit silly because you know, no one's going to really say, oh,

(01:25:55):
a sidewalk is obviously we put it in. It must
be accessible.

Speaker 14 (01:25:58):
But they are not.

Speaker 15 (01:25:59):
They do not meet what would require for physical accessibility.
Their concrete often creates trip hazards from frost heaving and
fracturing the curb cuffs themselves, or trip hazard for low visibility.
They are issues to do with mobility devices themselves, whether
it's something like a wheelchair or a mobility scooter, and
these are the things that are really looked at. We've

(01:26:21):
been using the same type of regulation for seventy something
years and we just keep using it, and that really
has to change.

Speaker 3 (01:26:28):
Now.

Speaker 15 (01:26:29):
I say, this is not like what this doesn't impact
me directly. I'm able bodied, but I work with a
lot of advocates in the accessibility community. They're the ones
who are working with me to talk with these kinds
of issues because we need to look at this from
an engineering perspective on how the city is built because
the city, as many people call in regularly on the show,

(01:26:50):
in winter, a lot of people in our city get trapped.
They don't have a way to get around. And I
want to talk about some solutions we can have to that.

Speaker 2 (01:26:57):
Yeah, that's where hoping we're going to go. Because we
can identify problems. Well, we really need to bring forward
some proposed solutions. Yeah.

Speaker 15 (01:27:04):
So one of the first things we can do is
Saint John's already on a good note. They've expanded minimum
sidewalks to one point from one point two meters up
to one point five. So they used to be only
four feet wide, now they're five. However, if we go
on extra foot wire one point eight meters or six feet,
we can now pave them with ashphalt. The reason I

(01:27:24):
want to I would prefer to use ashphalt is it
is a better surface in the winter for slip trips
and falls. It has better traction ahveion. It also will
be smoother by nature and generally doesn't have the same
issues with cracking and fracturing. I mean, how many times
have we many people called in and give myself including
probably yourself too, walked around a sidewalk, not.

Speaker 14 (01:27:44):
Paying attention a little bit and just.

Speaker 15 (01:27:46):
Hit a chunk of concrete that's missing, or a piece
of sidewalk that's even off. Just a couple of centimeters
is enough to really could mess up your day, you know.
So that's one thing I think the city should do
is we should expand out the sidewalks a little bit
wider on new roads and make them at an asphalt
That really would improve a large amount of accessibility in
the city.

Speaker 2 (01:28:06):
Yeah, and so are all new roads being built to
certain parameters or is there just a difference base on
topography or geography, because I really don't know, because I
can go down one street in this city and barely
be able to pass the car going in the other direction.
Where I can go down on this avenue you can
have five trucks wide.

Speaker 15 (01:28:25):
Yeah, So good point. So we can talk about very
quickly about new construction. Does incorporate in on major roads,
shared youth paths on one side that's three meters to
ashphalt minimum, and the other side will still be concrete.

Speaker 14 (01:28:38):
Okay, Well, the problem with these new roads.

Speaker 15 (01:28:40):
Patty, is they're ten meters wider. They're almost seventy percent
wider than what roads were just a few years ago.
And the problem with that is that's into a housing
discussion about the fact that we're reducing the amount of
space that's actually available for housing. But more importantly, it's
still putting on street parking is the main factor. So
we can still build on street parking. Well, we can

(01:29:00):
still build streets that have some on street parking and
have accessible sidewalks, but still contain that much smaller. We
just don't have the extra wide lanes. We don't have
the on street parking on both sides of the road.
So that's on the new side, but on the existing
You're right, you go down circular road chunks of the
merchant all over the city. You know, we have utility

(01:29:21):
poles in the sidewalks. Basically none of those sidewalks can
ever be street cleared by a sidewalk snow clearing cloud,
and basically none of them are acceptable. So the minimum
threshold is it's eleven hundred millimeters one point one meters
for accessibility. There's a lot of sidewalks are mollelarithms that
at these utility pole chokes. There's nothing we can do
about that except for the space right next to it.

(01:29:43):
On the road could be converted into shared youth paths
and wide year round snow clearing. So one of the
things that in my platform talking about graphic safety and
why my main motto is, I guess streets of people.
First city is on street safety. Downtown and a lot
lot of parts of our city are dedicated so much
to vehicle space, and we used to do one way

(01:30:06):
road networks like in Georgetown and parts of Rabid Town
of that we still be using that a lot more,
and especially in the winter.

Speaker 14 (01:30:12):
The city can.

Speaker 15 (01:30:12):
Rapidly implement a whole bunch of really safe spaces on
the streets by making we don't have to lose the
on street parking.

Speaker 14 (01:30:19):
We can just make some of these roads one way.
That would alleviate a.

Speaker 15 (01:30:22):
Lot of issue and provide year round accessible spaces that
don't rely on the sidewalks that again, as mentioned earlier,
technically are not accessible.

Speaker 2 (01:30:31):
Can you give me some examples of some roads that
could be made into one way, because the conversation four
years in this city has been Water Street and on
Harborfront Drive. You know, one way, this way, one way
the other way. I mean, there are other examples that
you can think of. So I could put my mind's
eye to work.

Speaker 15 (01:30:47):
Yeah, so we can talk about roads like, for example,
parts of Military Road have on street parking on one side,
so or on some spots of on street parking on
both sides. Say, for example, right next to the rooms,
there's a lot of these spaces here. Like chunks of
that road are relatively narrow. They go down a two
lanes basically by right where the rooms on the east side,

(01:31:07):
where it connecting to the Bono Venture. But there's a
several like that's an easy one where we could convert
a large chunk of the street to a safe space.
You can think of large parts of the margin road.
The sidewalk is protected behind a boulevard. But again that
boulevard is not bad that one. I'd suggest we just
tear out the sidewalk and replaced with asphalt, make it
a little wider. Lots of roads in across the city.

(01:31:28):
We could take Bonaventure itself, or maybe Mayer Avenue as
we get a little more north. There's a lot of streets.
So at the end of the day, Patty, when when
I started all this advocacy work, when we started looking
at street with we have some lanes in Saint John's
that are three times wider than the maximum that the
Canadian Transport Authority recommends for a city. Three times wider,

(01:31:48):
we have some lanes that are nine meters wide. By
virtue of the poor road design, we got lots of space.
And the thing I like to express the people as
a good example is you're familiar there on we're both
on the stand here torbe road right next to the
irving gas station that has the fast food restaurant.

Speaker 14 (01:32:06):
And further thing yep. So you probably noticed a.

Speaker 15 (01:32:10):
Lot and a lot of residents, but have noticed they
basically replaced a piece of sidewalk and narrowed the road down.

Speaker 14 (01:32:16):
All of the.

Speaker 15 (01:32:17):
Lanes in that section are still at the maximum width.
They could be narrowed down further and it still wouldn't
impact things like snow clearing heavy traffic. So we have
an immense amount of road capacity, and if we want
to be real with ourselves, the only thing we have
to make sure we have space for is the fire trucks.
So the reason I bring this up is again when
I'm doing engineering design work with engineers and other technologists,

(01:32:39):
and that when we try to ask questions about accessibility,
it's it's not our like, it ends up being well,
that's not our job, so let's not do it. And
part of my frustration with my kind of career that
you know, the environment I'm in, is there's not enough
questioning these things. Like up in Steve Anger Drive, Patty,
there's like one hundred and seventy businesses on all the

(01:32:59):
area of White Rows and all that there's only five
businesses connect their business to the actual sidewalk, which is
absolutely wild.

Speaker 2 (01:33:07):
And you know, now, go ahead, finish your stot. I'm sorry, Oh.

Speaker 15 (01:33:12):
Yeah, no, it's just you look at this and like
Saint John's doesn't have a policy to connect businesses to
sidewalks for existing buildings.

Speaker 14 (01:33:20):
They do it for.

Speaker 15 (01:33:21):
New buildings now, but that becomes a rat you know,
a rat race where okay, well, great, the next ten
years we fix it. But there's still you know, eight
or nine thousands businesses in the city that don't you know,
that aren't connected or you know, may not be in
a certain way. So yeah, like, and the reason I
bring this up is again, like we've had good advocates
talk with these things, but I've found that advocates who

(01:33:43):
have uh want to know the engineering reason and engineers
don't want to talk to them. Engineering and planners don't.
They're just going, We're going to follow rules. These rules
are what need to change, and that's obviously why I'm running.

Speaker 14 (01:33:54):
But yeah, excessively. These such a critical item, especially in
the winter.

Speaker 2 (01:33:59):
Fair Ball. I'm you have to get the break. But
you mentioned that area right there on Turvy Road in
front of that irving man. That road work took forever,
and they pieced me look they were at and then
they left, and they came back, and then they left
and then they came back. It took forever. Myles, I
appreciate the time. I wish you good luck out there
on the Hustings.

Speaker 14 (01:34:18):
Thanks much.

Speaker 2 (01:34:18):
You know what.

Speaker 14 (01:34:18):
We'll talk about broke construction next week. Look forward to it.

Speaker 2 (01:34:21):
Okay, Miles, Bye bye. Miles Russell would like to be
in that large councilor in the city Saint John's. Let's
take a break, don't go ahead, welcome back to the show.
Let's go to light number three. Marie around the air.

Speaker 12 (01:34:33):
Hi, good morning, Patrick. Now I wonder I was at
the A and W restaurant this morning and big guy
got out of his truck and as he walked for
toughty cigarette behind him. Wonder if you could put a
little gentle reminder that that is really really serious thing

(01:34:55):
to do, given the situation out there, and right next
to where he tasked it was a grassy hay like spot.
So I'd like to put a little gentle reminder and
it will probably reach him an open line. Maybe he
won't do it anymore.

Speaker 2 (01:35:12):
Yeah, let's just put them out when you're done with it.
Put them out, make sure they are fully extinguished. Why not?
And here's a good one. I saw a fellow who
I guess inadvertently kind of forgot where he was what
he was doing. He was two steps into the foyer
that's always the other day, taking his last drag off
of smoke. I'm like, man, buddy, you know we haven't
been allowed to smoke inside like that for a long

(01:35:34):
while time.

Speaker 12 (01:35:36):
It is worrisome. I got off from my table and
walked out there and walked down the cigarette, which was
still smoking. I'm glad you did it at gentle reminder,
and he won't do that anymore, hopefully, because you know,
we're all worried about the fires, people losing their lives

(01:35:56):
and homes and all of that, and and there the
efforts those they're fighting the fire. So a little gentle
reminder hopefully will help.

Speaker 2 (01:36:06):
I appreciate it. Mariie, thanks a lot.

Speaker 12 (01:36:08):
Thank you, Patty, You're welcome.

Speaker 2 (01:36:10):
You too, Bye bye bye. Yeah, buddy walk in Sophies
and I mean he was two full strides in taking
the last draw, and I'm about ten fifty feet on.
I'm like, what are you doing? And then he kind
of remembers where he is and what he's doing, and
he walked i'd say, six inches outside the door, still
blowing the smoke out of his mouth and put it

(01:36:32):
out right in the middle of the doorway about six
inches outside the threshold. Like, man, what are you doing?
Let's keep going line number one collar. You're on the air.

Speaker 16 (01:36:44):
Hell, Hi there, Yes, I'm calling from Port Bed. Yes man,
excuse me being caught Ie. I'm nervous. This is my
first time calling.

Speaker 2 (01:36:55):
You take your time, and.

Speaker 16 (01:36:57):
I'm calling about bail allion. We're into a new apartment
building with seven apartments and the building was done for
the people that lost their home through FONA and it's
all seniors and we got our keys the last gym.

(01:37:19):
We don't have no TV, we don't have no phone,
and we don't have no internet, and we can't get
any satisfaction from Bellalliant.

Speaker 2 (01:37:30):
So what do you mean they won't schedule an appointment
for you or what does no satisfaction?

Speaker 16 (01:37:35):
They schedules the appartment, but they don't turn off gods.
They have to do something on the pole for a
fiber up. Now, there's a lady here, she's ninety one,
her husband is eighty eight. No phone, no TV. There's
another lady here, eighty four, she got no phone, no

(01:37:55):
cell phone. I do have my cell phone, but I
think it's utterly ridiculous.

Speaker 2 (01:38:02):
Yeah, so how long has this been going on?

Speaker 16 (01:38:06):
Since the last June? We got our keys and.

Speaker 2 (01:38:10):
Moved in Since the last of June.

Speaker 16 (01:38:13):
Yeah, and everybody's been calling, and every time you call,
you've been a different person. And then you've got to
explain yourself again. Then they'll say, well, such a person
alignsman will be there at such a time. Stay home
all that day, you stay all nobody turns out what's
been going on since the last June?

Speaker 2 (01:38:35):
Yeah? Not good enough. And that's initie. I think many
people have with some service providers. Got it's what we're
telling talking about, you know, you have a problem, you call,
you tell them what you need. They make an appointment,
but then they say you need to be home between
the hours of twelve and five. I mean, there's got
to be a way to boil it's out a little further.

Speaker 16 (01:38:53):
They tells us eight to five, eight to five.

Speaker 2 (01:38:56):
Well there he goes, full day.

Speaker 16 (01:38:57):
Go on, Well, we don't all what else to do
or where else to turn? To town. They've been calling them,
sending messages, calling them and then following them because the
town owns the apartments, and so are.

Speaker 2 (01:39:11):
The town being of any help at all?

Speaker 17 (01:39:13):
Oh?

Speaker 16 (01:39:14):
Yes, after them too, But I can't get a hid
with nothing. Yeah, there's only three of us in the
apartment building because no one else won't come until they
gets their TV and their phone.

Speaker 2 (01:39:30):
I understand your concern and full and for these big
companies who kind of got us where they want us. Uh,
you know a little bit more attention to customer service
goes a long way if you schedule an appointment, whether
it be in this apartment building or so just someone
who lives by themselves in a single detached home in
the middle of who knows where. If you make an
appoyment unt the.

Speaker 10 (01:39:48):
Appointment, that's right.

Speaker 16 (01:39:51):
They don't to send up their bills though, yeah them regardless,
that's they do get out of open line. And if
that would smarten them up when.

Speaker 2 (01:40:03):
I did it, well, let's see if they if someone
who's involved with scheduling in that area, this caller and
the other tenants in that seven unit building, they sure
appreciate an appointment to be made, an appointment to be kept.
And let's hope that that's what happens. Keep me in
the loop, let me know, yes.

Speaker 16 (01:40:20):
I certainly. Well, I had a call from Bill Alliant
in Manitoba, okay, you know, and he set me up
with a date for when they were going to call.
I'm still waiting. It's not very good. But no phone,
it's bad enough. No, but when you got no phone,

(01:40:42):
it's not very not very nice.

Speaker 5 (01:40:44):
I don't think for the business.

Speaker 2 (01:40:46):
No, I think people understand, you know, the need to
be able to make a call when you need to
make a call, because who knows what we want right
around the corner. So I appreciate your concern and hopefully
you get this attendant to asap.

Speaker 16 (01:40:58):
I hope.

Speaker 2 (01:40:59):
So thank you for it's my pleasure. Take care, good
dayly bye boy. Yeah, I mean, I know there's going
to be a floating target about when your appointment will
be satisfied because who knows what the technician might run
into and the appointment prior to you. So I don't
expect them to be able to say, Okay, your appointment
is at two fifteen on Friday afternoon. But if you're

(01:41:21):
told between eight and five, it's an awful long day
a waiting, especially when the appointment might not be honored period,
which is not good enough no matter what we're talking about.
All right, So those of you in the qu stay
right there because we're thirty seconds from the news. But Tammy,
it's Roll Perlkin. She liked to talk about the wildfires.
Then we're also going to have our first conversation with
the newly elected Conservative Party member for the Federal district

(01:41:45):
or federal riding. Part of me of tearing over the peninsulas.
That's Jonathan Rowe's checking out on the Twitter before we
get to the news where VSM open line you can
follow us there emailed addresses open na vocem dot com.
And of course after those two calls, maybe an opportunity
for you if you're in and around town seven zero
nine two seven three five two one one elsewhere toll
free long distance one eight eight eight five ninety VOCM,

(01:42:07):
which is eighty six twenty six. We're taking a break
in then we're coming back the Tim Power Show.

Speaker 1 (01:42:13):
Joing the conversation weekday afternoons at four pm on your VOCM.

Speaker 2 (01:42:18):
Welcome back to the show. Just a quick psa on
behalf of Corona Brofare and the Celtic Fiddlers. Due to
the wildfires of Celtic Fiddler assaulted, the earth tour is canceled.
Thank you to the Beaches Heritage Center of the Barbara Premacist,
Hillcrest Manor and the Saint Joseph's Church in Gander for
their understanding and support. So you will indeed get your
tickets refunded through event Bright and so there we go.
Let's go to line number two. Tammy, you're on the air.

Speaker 18 (01:42:42):
Good morning, Patty. This is Sammy Coleix mo olperl Agan.

Speaker 2 (01:42:45):
Welcome a very.

Speaker 18 (01:42:46):
Concerned resident here of our town for all our neighboring
communities and people that have been displaced. First of all,
I really like to thank all our for photos that
has been underground and in the air as well as
our first responders that have been standing them in case
of need. I feel that they have done everything they
can in this terrible disaster here on the North Shore,

(01:43:07):
as they call the Kingston Ballfire, but now has reached
into Northern Bay, which is a neighboring community in which
I grew up. But right now I'm pleading for a
provincial and federal government to start thinking about the North
Shore residence a little bit more than they have been.
We need more equipment right now to stop this beast,
as we so have called it. They need to act

(01:43:27):
immediately to try to satisfire from spreading any further than
it has every day. I feel that there's promises, promises
that are always broken. You have families displaced everywhere, Seniors
displaced not seeing their families, placing in long term care facilities,
are firemen, They feel defeated. They are under grounds waiting
for the houses to drop. Everything they accomplished in the

(01:43:49):
past week is now done. I would like to thank
anyone that has taken any of those displaced families into
their homes. My heart really feels throughout those people keep
moving along with the kind is shown by surrounding communities
bekind to each other. The firemen that I actually watched
and had to fighting these fires have done their best

(01:44:09):
to save structures, but unfortunately they were stabbed to the
safety issues. I'm not sure if you're allowed back in
your today, but I just want to thank everyone under
front lines fighting this fire. And I just wanted to
want to think about that the government get getting the
fire out before we think about like disaster relief and
stuff like. You know, this fire is over nine thousand hectors.

(01:44:31):
It's way too large for our area. And I think
they need to look at a provincial emergency plan to
be in place, as in the timeframe of when to
contact federal government to access equipment from other provinces. I
feel the COW was a bit too late.

Speaker 2 (01:44:46):
Well. I think some of the delay in equipment coming
from other provinces was one they needed for their own wildfires. Two,
there were some weather related matters. We're getting things, particularly
from Ontario, and you know, I think O the Rovins
and we've done this in the past with other provinces
wildfires as well, like Nova Scotia last summer comes to mind.
The other provinces seem to be pretty collegial and willing

(01:45:08):
to help and share equipment when and if possible. I
don't know about the timing of requests for assistance, whether
it be with water bombers or helicopters or whatever the
case may be. But did you hear the press conference
by chance here at ten to fifteen this morning?

Speaker 18 (01:45:21):
I know, and I can get a chance to listen
to with Jervis morning.

Speaker 2 (01:45:24):
It was probably the most helpful one so far this
week because they didn't just give updates about the size
of the fire, what have you. They actually had someone
belonging to fire operations that walked us through the decision
making about how they deploy boots on the ground, how
they deploy air resources, and the timeliness with which they react.
So it kind of gave me a better understanding about

(01:45:45):
some of the different criteria used for how and when
they fight one fire or another, and you know, the
approach they take to things like the Kingston fire, which
is absolutely massive. So I don't know if we have
that audio available, but I think you'll be able to
find it on YouTube today if you're so inclined or interested,
because it's the first real breakdown we had about fire
operations as opposed to just politicians giving us their updates,

(01:46:08):
which I found very helpful, and you might as well.

Speaker 18 (01:46:11):
Perfect I'll have to listen to shortly. But yeah, like
I mean, you know, I most of all, like you know,
I want to thank everybody that's involved in this, Like
I mean, from like I said, from people taking people
that have been displaced, kids, pets, families, moms, dads, NaNs, paps,
everybody into their homes, and to like I said, to
the firefighters, frontline workers that have been standing next to

(01:46:32):
the firefighters, I mean, are's in police, to ems, you know, enforcement, everybody.
It's I know that they're doing what they what they can.
It's it's an excellent job. But you know, I'm just thinking,
like you know, as being really concerned like everybody else's.
I feel that we hope and we need and pray
to get more equipment.

Speaker 2 (01:46:53):
Here, and I hope whatever is needed gets dispatched exactly
where where it's most needed at whatever time. Look he
read this. His name was Craig. I didn't know if
I count his last name first or last, But even
talk about priority, about what needs to be protected first first,
the life and safety of the firefighters and the folks
in the region, then they talked about infrastructure, then they

(01:47:13):
talked about people's own personal homes and all the way
down the line. And of course I'm not telling you
what to do, but it might be a helpful breakdown
because I thought it was beneficial to me because we
hadn't heard that this week. We just basically got, you know,
bare bones updates about status of fire and whatnot, which
is helpful, but it's not all the information that we need,
so tammy fingers crossed that you know, whether it be

(01:47:34):
a drop of rain or a go downpour, pardon me,
and whatever else is required to get these fires under
control and extinguished, whatever takes. I hope what happens right away,
because it's been a very very stressful week.

Speaker 18 (01:47:47):
Anyway, that's funny.

Speaker 2 (01:47:48):
I appreciate your time, my pleasure. A good day you too,
Bye bye. And since, like, for instance, had the mayor
debta Verde on this morning, DRYD Murphy and he was
talking about the need to have MORESS dispatched to the
fire in and around his community. They call it the
Kingston fire, but of course nine communities have been impacted.
Then got some emails by saying people have to stop
being so selfish. Look You can only imagine if where

(01:48:12):
you live is on fire, then you'd like to see
as many resources possible, you know, fighting that fire. It's
human nature, and I would think that Mayor Murphy. I
can't speak for the man, I've never met him, but
I would imagine the vast majority of people of the
province are just hoping for a swift, positive outcome for
all of the fires, whether it be with more resources

(01:48:32):
from matter province, whether it be with some hopeful rain.
Some rain is falling today in different parts of the province,
which is obviously extremely helpful. So to me, it doesn't
really sound selfish if someone living in and around a
fire would like to see that fire put out. That's
about all. Let's go to line number five and say
good morning to the Conservative member of Parliament for tearing
over the peninsulas after a long drawn out recount. Jonathan

(01:48:56):
Rowe came out on top of the joints. That's on five.
Jonathan around the air, good morning or yeah, good morning,
Patty morning.

Speaker 19 (01:49:03):
Still it's a yeah, it's a it's morning, but sometimes
not a good one for everyone, as you know, and
in our district it's it's tough times for everybody. And
I'm a Conservative, a member of parliament and my district
is everything north of Salmon Cove up to Beta Urt
and down the other side of the shore, and I
mean it's it's tough times in that neighborhood. And I've

(01:49:25):
been I've been on the ground a few times in
carbon Air and Victoria and it's it's heartbreaking, it's stressful
for it's real, you know, for for everyone involved, and
it's it's heartbreaking. But I just wanted to get on
and give a big shout out to all the volunteers.
The evacuation center in carabon Air. I mean I've been
there and I was in the Victoria one when when
people were evacuating there in Carboneir and it's just people

(01:49:46):
are really putting their heart and soul and as I
was even talking to one volunteer who's given up a
vacation to Italy to to stay and support the people
and deal, you know, and help everyone eat with whether
it's a seniors, young people, families, people with complex needs.
It's just it's quite the quite the place you've got,
you know, lots of volunteers, Salvation Armies there as well,

(01:50:07):
offering physical and spiritual help, which is obviously needed in
these difficult times. So it's I just want to give
a huge shout out to them, and you know, into
firefighters as well, and all the emergency responders and rescue
crew out there. It's really good to see that, seeing
neighbors helping neighbors, and even you know, people affected by

(01:50:27):
these fires, people that lost their homes still out volunteering
and helping other people in the community. I mean, it's
just it's a true testament to new Flannel labadors hospitality
and making sure that that we pulled together. And I
just want to give a huge shout out and thank you,
a mandom applause to all the people contributing to that,
and and all the people also, you know, like Riley

(01:50:48):
Balsoom and Jeremy Howell who've been keeping me informed on
days that I haven't been there, and I'm looking forward
to to getting it there soon.

Speaker 2 (01:50:54):
Jonathan. Just look, I think everyone that goes your sentiments
lots of good people out there. No question, I've heard
members of your party criticizing the federal government's response to
things like wildfires in different parts of the country. I'm
not entirely sure I've really fully understood the criticism. I mean,
the opposition party plays a critical role, no doubt about it,
asking questions, holding government account we needed. But in so

(01:51:15):
far as wildfires go, and we know provincial jurisdiction and
most conservative members don't want federal overreach into provincial authority.
So what exactly do you think the federal government is
not doing versus what they should be doing on wildfires.

Speaker 19 (01:51:31):
The thing about it, Patty, is that you know I'm
calling and I'm trying to avoid the politics. I'm calling
in to give my thanks to them, but send you
brought up I will answer. I mean, you've got a
You've got a problem, a reoccurring problem every year across
the country with wildfires, and us as humans are always
fighting nature, and we are always trying to come up

(01:51:52):
with better solutions and better ways to fill these needs
and to fight fires or fight any natural resource at
any natural disaster they may happen. And we've got a
lot of resources. And I think what us as a
consertive party of doing is doing exactly what he said.
I'll saying, hey, look, how can we improve what we're doing?
We feel it's not enough and we want to make

(01:52:13):
sure that we're helping the current government go towards having
long term solutions and more resources to ail to fight
these fires in the future.

Speaker 2 (01:52:21):
Yeah, and I'm curious what that's going to look like too,
because what we're seeing is going to be the same
or worse every suwheer into the future. It just certainly
feels that way given a variety of factors. And I
don't know if anyone has a real strategic plan to
manage three hundred and seventy million hectores of boreal force
in Canada. And you know what strategies might be with suppression,

(01:52:41):
whether it be water bombers or otherwise. But I guess
we'll wait for the fires to be put out and
get this in our rear view before we dig too
fire into it. I appreciate the time this morning, Jonathan.
We'll have you back on on the heels of this
to talk about some other matters.

Speaker 19 (01:52:54):
All right, thanks for having me on today.

Speaker 2 (01:52:55):
You're welcome. Bye bye, Jonath throw the CPC member for
tearing over the peninsulas. Final break in the morning and
the week, don't go away. Welcome back to the show.
Let us go Line number one, Brenda around the.

Speaker 20 (01:53:07):
Air YEP I'm here.

Speaker 2 (01:53:09):
Good, go right ahead.

Speaker 20 (01:53:12):
Yes, I'll call you with the lady import askue Bell Alliant.
She was worried about not getting her service. Now, I'm
retired from Bell Alliant as a regional manager, and I

(01:53:32):
can't believe she's going through that experience. However, I will
reach out to my colleagues. I'm retired, but I'll reach out.
There's a lot goes in fiber optics. I was in

(01:53:53):
charge of putting fiber optics across the province, and there's
a lot that goes into a network. It's the network,
not just the lines across and the lines into your house.
There's a lot more to it. So I really don't

(01:54:15):
know what's going on there. But in Port of Asks,
I would think there's a lot more network going on
than there is fiber optics across the lines. Uh, and
not just into your house. So port of Ask is suffering.

Speaker 15 (01:54:35):
Yes, I get it.

Speaker 20 (01:54:37):
However, people have to realize that we have technicians. We
have them in the field, we have them on the poles,
we have them in a network capacity. We have them yeah,
in dispatch. And when she's calling, she's getting people who

(01:55:03):
are just giving her whatever they tell her that dude.

Speaker 1 (01:55:06):
It is.

Speaker 2 (01:55:09):
Yeah, I think the primary concern and I can't speak
for the lady, but you know, it's the fact that
you know, not only been dragging out since the end
of June, but appointments that have been made and no
one shows up. You know, sometimes we realize that it
might take a while to get one thing or another done.
But if a big telecom company or any other company

(01:55:29):
sets an appointment with you, tells you to stay home
from eight to five on one day or another, they
do exactly that and nobody shows up. That's the biggest
part of the problem. I believe.

Speaker 20 (01:55:39):
Oh, it is a huge problem. It's a huge problem,
and I think that that poor lady, I can't believe
that that whole. So she's calling in and she's getting
these different people who are looking out and telling her,
oh that that's the day, that's the day. But at

(01:56:02):
the end of the day, someone in authority needs to
step in, and that lady is not being self served properly.

Speaker 15 (01:56:12):
Yeah.

Speaker 20 (01:56:13):
So I know what takes what it takes to get
service to a community, to a house, to a building,
but that is not right. And she calls in and
she gets told all these different dates it's not right
that poor lady needs reserve justice.

Speaker 2 (01:56:36):
Yeah, I mean, like she said, she's got a cell phone,
so she has the opportunity to connect with the outside world.
But some of the other tenants in the building don't.
They've got no services. They don't have any WiFi, they
don't have any they don't have a landline, they don't
have the internet or what else was I going to say?
They have no way to connect with anybody. She's lucky
she does, but you can imagine the worry or the

(01:56:58):
trepidation of a senior living in a new apartment with
no way to contact anybody.

Speaker 5 (01:57:04):
Absolutely not acceptable.

Speaker 20 (01:57:08):
Not acceptable, And yeah, like I'm want to reach out
to whoever's out there now because I'm retired.

Speaker 2 (01:57:20):
Good for you.

Speaker 20 (01:57:20):
But I can tell you what I lift nope in
line every day at work and see what was you know,
what was on the go? But that poor lady, they
need service. So I know there's a lot goes into
providing service. I know that it's not just the fiber
in line, it's the network piece that connects it. It's

(01:57:44):
the line to the building. Like I know it, I
know it well, I worked it.

Speaker 2 (01:57:54):
It's not acceptable, No, I agree, Brenda. I just had
a career curiosity and feel for you not to answer,
what are you doing to occupy your time while retired?
Pick up any new hobbies or what are yet?

Speaker 20 (01:58:07):
Fitness instructor?

Speaker 2 (01:58:08):
Good for you?

Speaker 20 (01:58:11):
Yeah, fitness instructor, City of Saint John's and and and
the well, the works. But now it's all flows down.

Speaker 2 (01:58:22):
Yeah, fair enough.

Speaker 20 (01:58:24):
I started. I started in twenty ten. I got certified
with the I guess certified as a fitness instructor in
twenty ten Canadian Fitness Professionals. So then I was doing

(01:58:47):
that in twenty ten while I was still working, but
I was still involved with Clee occasions.

Speaker 2 (01:58:55):
Yeah, well, good for you, and I appreciate you making
time for this show this morning. Thank you, thank you,
Bye bye. All right, fine, word for the morning and
week goes a line number two. Vince are on the.

Speaker 17 (01:59:07):
Air, Good morning, Patty. How are you?

Speaker 2 (01:59:09):
That's kind you?

Speaker 17 (01:59:11):
Don Tom listener first song caller obviously, Patty. I I
had to call him because I just recently changed my
service from Bell to Rogers. And the technician was at
my house this morning, and he was amazing actually, and

(01:59:32):
I mean I'm very very pleased with the access to
it to the call, you know, to the service I got.
But I mean I was on the phone yesterday for
three hours actually trying to cancel my Bell account. It's

(01:59:53):
it's totally ridiculous. They don't make it easy for you
to change your account, for sure. But to God that
was here this morning, cleaned up untill mess that had left,
he was fantastic.

Speaker 2 (02:00:06):
Well that's the good news. When we get good service,
we applaud good service. And I'm glad that's what happened
for you, Vincent. Just because of the time on the clock,
we just have another few seconds. If you'd like to
say anything else.

Speaker 17 (02:00:16):
I understand, Paddy, and listen to every day. Thanks for
your time.

Speaker 2 (02:00:23):
I appreciate yours. Have a nice weekend to thank you.
Bye bye. All Right, there you go. Maybe just maybe
a little bit too much across company promotion here, that's
not what we're in the business of. All right. Final
check in on the Twitter box for the week, just
for adly reminder over the course of the weekend. Sometimes
I want to come back on Monday. I get notes

(02:00:44):
saying I wish I had to reply. I'll admit freely,
I do not log onto my work email on the
weekend never So unless you hear from me today before
twelve o'clock, you probably won't hear from me till Monday
because I just give myself a little break and I
do not check my work email over the course of
the weekend. I don't even do a whole lot of
social media interaction over the weekend. But if you do

(02:01:07):
send me something, I'll try my level best to get
back to you. All right, good show today and all
week big thanks to all hats and we will indeed
pick up this conversation again on Monday morning right here
on VOCM and big landfm's Open Line on behalf of
the producer David Williams. I'm your host, Patty Daily. Have
yourself a safe, fun happy weekend talk Monday. Bye bye.

Speaker 1 (02:01:24):
This is the VOCM Radio network Stingray radio stations heard
around the province and around the world at VOCM dot
com and through the Stingray Music app. This is your
VOCM news as it happens on VOCM, VOCM dot com
and

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