Thursday Dec 4th

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 abusing 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

(00:22):
Paddy Daily, Well, all right and.

Speaker 2 (00:24):
Good morning to you. Thank you very much for tuning
into the program. It's Thursday, December the fourth. This is
open Line. I'm your host, Patty Daily, David Williams, he's
the producer. Let's get it go on. If you're in
the same John's metro region. The number of dialogue in
the Q and on the air is seven zero nine
two seven three five two one one. Elsewhere toll free
long distance one eight eight eight five ninety VOCM, which

(00:46):
is eighty six twenty six. So for baseball fans, specifically
Blue Jays fans watching the game with the absolute brilliant
trio broadcasters Dan Schulman, Buck Martinez and Hazel May. Hazel
May yesterday was told she's the winner the Canadian Baseball
Hall of Fame and Museums twenty twenty five. Jack Graney
Ward to recognize member of the media who's made significant

(01:06):
contributions to baseball in Canada throughout their life's work. Hazel's terrific,
she really is with the on field interviews and commentary,
then some of the interviews that she does with the
players and managers, what have you. So she joins some
pretty illustrious lists of broadcasters. Let's go back and have
a look at some of these. Dave Van Horn, Tom Cheek,
Ernie Harwell, what else I got here? Joey Howarth, Jeff Blair,

(01:27):
Dan Schulman, Buck Martinez and now Hazel make congratulations. I
love Hazel. Have to say it all right? And the
new Flann rogues familiar face as the new bench boss.
Doug Partridge got hired by the Ropes to be their
head coach. He's been involved at basketball at various levels
for about forty years. Longest stint as the head coach
of a More university's women's basketball team. He was there

(01:47):
for twenty three years. Left the university with the leader
in victories, over four hundred and fifty wins, seven AUS titles,
a national bronze medal back in two thousand and seven,
five time AUS Coach of the Year two times for
Leannel Provincial Coach of the Year, twenty thirteen Canadian inter
University Sport National Coach of the Year, and now behind
the bench for the Rogues. That's an interesting hire, to
say the very least. Oh. In a quick hockey note,

(02:10):
as we're bouncing around here, it was on this date,
December the fourth, nineteen oh nine, the Montreal Canadians were founded,
So the team is the allest surviving professional hockey franchise
in the world at that time. Became a charter member
of the National Hockey Association that the later joined the
NHL in its inaugural season in nineteen seventeen. The ABS
founded on this date, nineteen oh nine. All right, so yesterday,

(02:33):
certainly in this neck of the woods, the first real
snowfall with any kind of accumulation, and boy, oh boy,
are people already jumping on the snow clearing his terrible bandwagon.
I mean, I only traveled the out Ring Road and
the little buddy the east tend to get home, come
to work, and go home. I didn't go anywhere else yesterday,
so I don't really know what it was like elsewhere,
but it was pretty tricky places where I was Kelsey

(02:55):
Drive was a mess when I left her yesterday to
go home. So if you want to chime in on it,
And of course those who are left on the outside
looking in on the twenty four to seven snow clearing,
they're pretty active in my email inbox and they're welcome
to join us lab on the program. So I keep
getting asked as to why the fourteen roots chosen were
the ones that were chosen, and I mean, I can't

(03:15):
justify it. I don't have any say in those types
of decisions, but were told that they were the most
traveled routes that are going to see this initial twenty
four to seven snow clear Has it come to pass
yet not, according to a caller we had yesterday. And
in addition to that, I did hear Minister Pettena with
the news team talk about the fact that one of
the worries with this expanded winter maintenance program was trying

(03:37):
to hire fifty operators, twenty five part time, twenty five
full time. Apparently the Minister says they've been pretty they're
pretty positive by and encouraged with the response to the
posting at this point. So it's a good thing. But
if you want to bring forward your concerns on that front,
and of course you have many in addition to that. Look,
I know buying winter tires can be expensive, you know,

(04:00):
like in the province of Beeck, for instance, it's mandatory
to have winter tires on your vehicle, and around here
it's not mandatory, of course, and people will have the
discussion about regular winter tires or studded tires, which is
a relatively interesting conversation. But is it time to mandate
snow tires? Look, I can't be talking with any real
authority here because my snow tires are not on the
vehicle yet. I had to wait for an appointment. It's

(04:22):
not till next week. But boy, oh boy, a vehicle
with a front wheel drive Tucson coming out of the
North Atlantic parking lot to try to get on Kelsey
yesterday with obviously all seasons on, and Nolack couldn't get
up that little, tiny little hill to get out of
that gas station. So is it time to have that conversation?
In addition to that, someone sent me a picture and

(04:45):
some thoughts are concerns about a commercial delivery van at
Costco yesterday where he got close enough and spoke to
the driver took a picture of the tires and they're
absolutely bald, one hundred percent baloney skins, regardless if they
were winter or all seasons, going nowhere in a hurry,
spinning their wheels. Yes, the driver way out with the
ball tires on, and the driver told them that, Well,

(05:07):
the boss said, either get in the vehicle or you're fired.
What I mean for commercial delivery van and it's one
of those big cube vans, so pretty important for that
to have some positive traction here in the winter conditions.
But the tires were absolutely bald, not a tread to BC.
And I'll throw out the mandatory vehicle inspection as well
because there's plenty of you know, watts out all right.

(05:29):
Did have a call yesterday about the rules of the road,
specifically on the Outer Ring Road, and I won't get
into the nitty gridio the call, but no man did
it ever result in a flood of emails and a
few people took painstakingly detailed approach to the highway traffic
deck and what it actually says regarding the Outer Ring Road,

(05:50):
which is, yes, the highway. The whole thought was about
whether or not you belong in the right hand lane
and only in the left hand lane to either exit
or to pass, and it's you know, keep right unless
you're passing. And that's absolutely the Roles rules apply to
the Outer Ring Road, as I thought, and the caller
disagreed with me, which is perfectly fine and acceptable in
my mind that you don't agree with what a high

(06:11):
thinkers say. But this person broke it down all the
way into the nitty gritty. So if you're on the
Outer Ring Road beginning at Loggi Bay Road, you're on
the highway, stay right unless you're passing, all right. So
we're still looking for some updated information. Apparently this afternoon
at two pm, Helen Conway Ottenheimer, the Minister of Justice
the Public Safety, will give us an update as to

(06:33):
what's going on with some of the suspended cor proceedings.
It doesn't include criminal court, which is a good thing,
but civil hearings, traffic hearings, Contraventions Act adjourned definitely in
Saint John's, Grandfalls, Windsor and Stephenville. The quote is court
operations will be monitored to ensure optimal service during during
these challenging times. Channel Port of ass Circus suspended after

(06:55):
December fifth. All those matters moving to Stephnville Provincial Court,
Baborte Circuit course, spend it cases moving to Grandfather's Windsor
Provincial Court, the Mental Health Court in Saint John's an
intimate partner of Violence Prevention Court in steam Mill, and
Grandfather's Windsor will move to buy weekly schedules. Here's some
lawyers being quoted in with some of the news stories.
I've seen their gobsmack and talking about it's frankly difficult

(07:16):
to imagine a more extreme measures that the courts could take.
That comes from Lynn Moore, of course, a partner at
Morse Moore Law Firm and formal Crown attorney. It's a
pretty important conversation. We did have a call yesterday by
someone wondering what they need to do to have whether
they're their case adjudicated. It's an excellent question. You have
to think it's probably something to do with staffing, but

(07:38):
I guess we'll have a detailed explanation from a Minister
Conway Altenheimer at two o'clock this afternoon. We'll bring you
the information when we get it. And in the world
of patently obvious, the new flowd Labador Medical Association also
in the news talking about staffing. This from doctor Cynthias Slade,
the president at the NLMA, talk about wait times, staff shortages,

(07:59):
the number of people that are moving to emergency rooms
for care because they don't have access to primary care.
It all sounds like the blatantly obvious stuff. But some
of the things, like when we see wait times and
we talk about surgeries being postponed and those types of things,
it always feels to me that, for instance, if we
get it right in long term care, it will go

(08:20):
a long way to helping hospital operations because I don't
know how many people, but plenty of people in a
hospital bed that belong in a long term care bed,
and then you think, you know, people are told well
there's not a bed upstairs. There's probably a bed, a
physical bed, but not the staff to accommodate the patients
to be in that bed. So it all felt like

(08:41):
pretty obvious stuff to me. But of course emergency wait
times are going to be through the roof when people
can't get access to a primary care physician and or
a nurse practitioner for instance. And of course, the reminder
of the story that was out last week, five hundred
thousand Canadians left emergency rooms after lengthy weights without even
seeing the doctor firsenal, so they're back in the news.

(09:02):
There was a conversation between former presidents at the NLMA,
doctor Stephen Major and Russell Bowers this morning about the
use of artificial intelligence when you visit your doctor, so
basically just transcribing your voice into note form for the
doctor to save some administrative time. That doctors spent an
awful lot of time doing exactly that as opposed to

(09:22):
seeing patients. People have privacy concerns, so I only kind
heard the conversation as I was getting prepared for this show.
But since that interview took place this morning on the
morning show, got plenty of people talk about privacy. Don't
like the thought of having a microphone in the room
taping their conversation with their doctor about some obviously very

(09:43):
private stuff. But if that's concern, you share, and I
don't know how big a deal it might be, but
I haven't experienced it yet, But privacy concerns when it
comes to our medical information is obvious. All right, let's
go down Under Australia. As of December tenth, there will
be a formal legal ban for Australia's youth to be
using social media and it is wide sweeping. Here are

(10:06):
some of the social media platforms on the government's initialists
and this for users under the age of sixteen Instagram, Facebook, threads, YouTube, TikTok, snapchat, Twitch, Twitter, Reddit,
kick and tapping AI to verify. So this is all
about trying to go down the path to keep young
people from the online harms, cyber bowling and otherwise, child

(10:30):
sex pictures, child sex loreing. There's a variety of issues
that youth are absolutely falling prey to. So is that
a good idea? Does that constitute government to overreach or
is this a step in the right direction In the
long term, Will this proved to be beneficial for Australia's youth.
There's plenty of fun and enjoyment to be had online
on social media platforms, but there's plenty of terrible things

(10:52):
out there. Is this a good idea? It is going
to be a potential disaster when you talk about trying
to verify age because what they're going to do is
require things like snapshots of your driver's license, a picture
of your face to be analyzed by artificial intelligence and
compared in contrast to government records what have you. So
it might open up Pandora's box on the other side.

(11:13):
But man, oh man, you know, I read a story
from one of the American broadcasters last week that talked
about the rates of anxiety and depression for you to
have a smartphone before the age of twelve. So there's
a lot of things here to really carefully consider. Yeah,
I'm sure there's plenty of fun to be had on
many of these platforms. I only personally use Facebook and Twitter.
I don't use Instagram or threads. I sometimes have a

(11:36):
peek at YouTube, I suppose, But are they on the
right track? I mean, the research is becoming pretty clear
about the negative impact that some of these social media
sites are having on youth. I mean, looked out further
than increased rates of anxiety and depression if your child
has a smartphone before the age of twelve. And I
know it's tough when your mom or dad and your

(11:59):
child these phones because why because everyone else has them.
So there's a legitimate bit of peer pressure here and
parental pressure. And yes, there's some connectivity concerns that it'd
be nice to know your kid if they find themselves
in trouble, have a phone in their hand to call
for help, call you, call nine to one one, call whatever.
But Australia and the band which comes next week December

(12:21):
the tenth. For all of those aforementioned platforms on social media.
I tend to think throw on the right track. What
do you think? And we wonder when the government's going
to revisit some of the issues regarding the Online Harms
Act that was proposed here in the country build C
sixty three. There is a mode to come of overreach
feel to it as well, But some of the harmful

(12:43):
content that is being a huge problem for adults and children.
I like, but just think about the bullying that you
experienced when you were growing up, where it would be
face to face. Maybe a bit of mob mentality kicks in.
One bully turns into three or four because they want
to get in on the action. The concept of cyberbullying
is unbelievable. And then it's some of these non consensual

(13:06):
intimate images and deep fakes things. Is the content that
formates are four minutes hatred incites violence. Some of this
is probably a really good idea, even though Bill Ce's
sixty three felt like it went too far on some fronts,
but the whole world of online how we protect ourselves
is something else. On on that front, another scam got

(13:26):
to make you wear feel like it's income with onus
to share them when we see them. This morning comes
in the form of a text message. It says it's
from the New Flank government informing you that your vehicle
was reached at going forty three kilometers an hour in
the school zone. You can pay the fine by clicking
the link below. It's a scam, it didn't happen. Don't

(13:46):
worry about it. Don't click any of those links, whether
it be Service and L sending you a link that
you have no idea what it's about, or CIRA or
Canada posts. And now the government saying that your vehicles
cut speeding forty three kilometers now in the school zone
is yet another. So please do not fall forward because
who knows what's behind that particular link. All right, how
we doing not today? Let's get going? All right? I

(14:08):
saw this and sometimes I scroll through the old crack
book and have a look, and there was a post
there from a resident of the North Shore CBN and
this is about recovering from the wildfire obviously, but it's
not only about moneies that were promised by different levels
of government, but it's about the money that was fund
raised from the general public. So apparently through all the

(14:31):
different efforts and concerts and the individuals simply going to
the Red Cross site to make a donation, there's been
millions of dollars raised, and so the question being asked
is where's the money. It's a pretty fair question. I mean,
wildfire season is thankfully in the rare mirror for the
most part, but all that money. It's one thing for
government to move slowly, but quite another when individuals saw

(14:52):
the disaster, saw the devastation, reached into their pocket, made
a donation. People like musicians took to the stage with
their own talents and efforts and time and all this
money raised millions of dollars and people are wondering where's
the money. It's not unfair. And I know some of
these charities, including the Red Cross, have done exemporary work

(15:13):
and they're right there every time there's these types of disasters,
natural or otherwise. But folks up to the north Shore
are asking the question out loud, where is the money?
And we're happy to ask it alongside all of those
folks who are still reeling. I mean, just think about it.
Over two hundred structures lost, including X number of homes.
A school is gone, and so that money that was raised,

(15:36):
it'd be nice to know exactly where that money is.
And I share your concern. Oh, so yesterday it was
the International Day of Persons with Disabilities, and we had
a couple of good conversations. But people are asking me
to get an update on the status of the Registered
Disability Savings Program which was supposed to begin in January

(15:56):
of this year for those who qualify, and that's twelve
hundred dollars which comes and triggers some matching federal funds.
I know that the four hundred dollars per month for
disabilities is flowing because people have told me that they've
received it. But has the Registered Disability Savings for grime
kicked in? Is the money being deposited? I really don't
know because I don't qualify, so I don't have intimate

(16:19):
knowledge of but I'm told that the money has not
flowed for those who are indeed eligible. So if you
want to tell me about your experience, we can do it.
And what experience we all share going to the grocery store.
So the annual forecast about what food prices might look
like into twenty twenty six is out. It's the research

(16:39):
from some ten different universities across the country talk about
the price of groceries to increase between four and six
percent next year, mostly driven by the price of meat.
Beef expected to get more expensive, potentially rising seven percent.
Cattle sizes are shrinking and those markets, of course susceptible
to tariffs, so more ranchers are leaving the industry, and

(17:00):
so the pressure's on. This comes in Kindada's food price report. Okay,
also people move into chicken. Chicken prices are also on
the rise. And you talk about the middle of the
grocery store, you know, things like canned goods, what have you.
They're not going to be left out on the outside either,
because generally they've been pretty stagnant. Those prices they're forecasted

(17:22):
to go up. So no relief inside as far as
we can tell regarding going to the grocery store. And
none of this is surprising. It's like most everything else.
When the prices go up, and as rapidly as they've
gone up in this country, it's hard to vision or
envision a time when they're going to come back to worth.
I mean, even just the concept of a five dollars

(17:43):
item that was five hundred grams is now six dollars
on his four hundred grams. That thing alone just drives
them around the bend. But that's the forecast of prices
in the grocery stores for next year. And that research
has proven to be pretty accurate over the years, because
we talk about it every year when this forecast comes out,
and it's been pretty spot on. So there you go.

(18:03):
All right, a couple of very quick ones before we
get to you. The NDPR back to the news asking
for the Government of Newfoundland to either sign on to
the National Farmer Care Act or at least tell us
why we happened. It's an excellent question. It'd be simple
enough if the government simply said, Okay, here's why we're
not doing it at this moment of time. But currently
we have no worthy idea. And it's an important question.

(18:25):
You talk about cost of living pressures. For somewhere between
thirty three and thirty five percent of the province has
diabetes or pre diabetic and supplies are expensive. So where
are we a national farmcare. We're already paying into it,
so why aren't we able to avail of it. So
on top of that, let's reopen the house with simbly
get some of these questions asked. Let's have more information

(18:45):
about the Upper Churchill MoU and whatever this independent review
is going to look like. So let's get the house reopened.
We were told when all the Mahas were finally sworn in,
the house would be reopened. The calendar, Sir, at this
moment of time simply says March the second. We can't
wait till then. There's a lot to be discussed, a
lot of answers that we need on our variety topics.
Last one promise today is the deadline to get in

(19:07):
on the action of Vosumcares annual fifty to fifty draw.
Not only the fifty to fifty today, but there's a
one year lease of a CRV hybrid from the Steel Honda.
There's also a shopping stay at the Capitol Hotel and
at the Avalon Ball valued about twelve hundred dollars. The
jackpot at this moment, Oh there you go, eighty eight,
three hundred and thirty dollars. Historically it goes up dramatically

(19:29):
in the final day, So today is the day to
help Viosumcres do the great work they do in the community.
Go to the website Vosumcares dot Ca. Hit on the
fifty to fifty take you to the raffle Box where
you'll get an update on the jackpot and a chance
to buy a ticket. Tickets ten bucks each, but you
get three for twenty ten for fifty twenty five four
hundred bucks. So today is the last day. Two purchase

(19:50):
R on Twitter or VSM. Open line follows sir email
addresses open line at vosm dot com. My favorite is
when you join us live on the program. Just like Jack,
who is going to kick it off, talk about education.
Don't go awaylo about the show. Let's go to. Line
number two is SA, good morning the Jack Runballs A
great nine student at Manahatt High School. Good morning Jack
here on the air.

Speaker 3 (20:06):
Hey Patty, how's it going today?

Speaker 2 (20:08):
Really well today? How about you?

Speaker 4 (20:10):
I'm doing pretty good. I'm just calling to talk about
how excited I am and how happy I am that
we got but we finally got a music program in
my school.

Speaker 2 (20:21):
It just makes me so happy.

Speaker 5 (20:23):
So because last.

Speaker 4 (20:24):
Year we never had we never had any music program
for juniors. We only had one for seniors. But this year,
all the administration were so amazing and they got everything
up and running. So she makes me really happy to
hear that. What what makes you happy about it because
a lot of a lot of teenagers they need music,

(20:45):
and it's good for everyone's mental health.

Speaker 5 (20:48):
And it's just good for everyone because music is it's
a big part.

Speaker 6 (20:57):
Of everyone's life.

Speaker 5 (20:58):
So it may everyone really happy that we fondly got
something to look.

Speaker 4 (21:03):
Forward to in school.

Speaker 2 (21:06):
I think it's great. You know, people will talk about
reading and writing and arithmetic and just the basic core
subject matter in school and the importance of but music's
important too. I mean, if you look at the research
across the board, students who excel in music also have
improved academic performance in other courses. There's lots to be
said about mental well being, as you pointed out, memory focus, creativity,

(21:28):
problem solving that comes with music. So I think it's
hugely beneficial offering in school.

Speaker 4 (21:33):
Yes, of course, I'd like to give a huge thank
you to all the teachers and all the staff and
administrations for everything that's happened so far with music and
the big show that happened last night at the ore
A Culture Center.

Speaker 2 (21:49):
It was it was amazing.

Speaker 4 (21:50):
All the students went, two kids from j RS went
as well, and it was an amazing show.

Speaker 6 (21:56):
It it was really great.

Speaker 2 (21:57):
I'm glad to hear it. Jack. So what's involved in
music program? Are there bands like jazz bands and classical
bands and choir? So what what is actually part of
your program?

Speaker 4 (22:06):
Yeah, so we got a band program this year. It's
like a it's an orchestra concert band and uh there
we're going to be traveling to house acts in April.
So it's it's pretty big and it's it's amazing for school.

Speaker 2 (22:24):
What's happening in health it's.

Speaker 7 (22:27):
A I'm pretty sure it's a festival.

Speaker 5 (22:31):
I'm not too sure about it, but.

Speaker 2 (22:33):
It's a it's a festival.

Speaker 4 (22:34):
It's happening in halls acts and a lot of orchestras
are going. It's and I'm I'm.

Speaker 5 (22:39):
A huge part of that, play percussion, and it makes
it really happy.

Speaker 4 (22:44):
Just to get to play in music in school, something
to look forward to.

Speaker 2 (22:47):
Yeah, And it just pops my mind, you know, when
you're part of a band or an orchestra or a choir.
There's also that concept of teamwork. You know, it's good
social skills stuff too. When you talk about being a
member of an orchestra or a band or whatever the
case may be.

Speaker 4 (23:00):
You play percussion by percussion, it's really it's really a
matter of what song I just get put on their bass, drum, snare,
drum mallets, whatever. I can play whatever you need me
to do pretty much.

Speaker 2 (23:15):
So what about access to instruments?

Speaker 8 (23:18):
Oh, we got.

Speaker 2 (23:22):
Last year before the.

Speaker 4 (23:23):
School year started, they did a huge instrument drive and
got a lot of instruments, so I have to say
there's a really great access instrument.

Speaker 5 (23:31):
And they were all donated from the community, so it
was really great.

Speaker 2 (23:34):
Yeah, good for you guys. I'm pleased to hear this.
Oh who's the music teacher, Miss Kerry McPhee and Jack Brennan.
Lovely Jack. I'm glad you're enjoyed and glad music has
been reborn at Menaheak High School. Anything I just want
to talk about this morning, We'll we have you.

Speaker 6 (23:52):
No, that should be it.

Speaker 4 (23:53):
I'm just really thankful that this is has coming about
for our school because it makes a lot of kids
happy and it makes me really happy.

Speaker 2 (24:01):
Good for you. So, how you doing another courses at school?

Speaker 4 (24:06):
I'm doing just fun, if I have to say to myself.

Speaker 2 (24:08):
So, and this is not necessarily about school, but while
I have a Grade nine student on the line here
this morning, I was talking earlier about social media and
youth and in Australia they're going to ban social media
for youth under the age of sixteen. Is social media
are positive or negative in your world?

Speaker 4 (24:28):
It be? It can be either or honestly.

Speaker 5 (24:32):
Because it's it's good to connect.

Speaker 4 (24:34):
It's good socially because you don't have to always be
around someone to talk to them. But for me, honestly,
it's been more.

Speaker 5 (24:44):
Negative than positive because I've had a.

Speaker 4 (24:47):
Lot of like online like cyberbullying situations and.

Speaker 5 (24:54):
Just a lot of not the greatest experiences of social media.

Speaker 4 (24:59):
But it's a lot of people's life easier. But I'm
not saying that it makes a lot of use life better.
It makes life easier, but not better.

Speaker 2 (25:08):
Good to have you on the show, Jack, appreciate your
time and congratulations on the music program.

Speaker 4 (25:12):
Yeah, thank you, thanks for your time.

Speaker 2 (25:13):
Daddie, my pleasure. Take good care you too. Okay, bye bye.
That was a pretty good conversation Grade nine student Jack
rumbold manhack. Hi, all right, and I just mentioned what
percussion and I saw an email float in the corner.
Why it's a drum. I know what percussion is, but
there's lots of different things that fall into percussion. And

(25:34):
there's lots of different drums, between a snare and a
bass and the timpani symbols, a xylophone is percussion. What
else pops in my mind? There? The bongos, bells, tambourines, marimbas.
That's all percussion, right. That's why I asked, all right,
just get a break in right on the right down
time at nine thirty when we come back topic up

(25:55):
to you, don't go away, Welcome back to the show.
Let's go line number two. Standing around the air, Hi, Betty,
Hi there.

Speaker 9 (26:08):
I'm talking abou the road conditions to Saint John yesterday, okay,
and I think you had somebody on from Saint John's
I think was yesterday and you're talking about to him
about the equipment and he says, all geared up, got
people hired since October. Well, I'm talking to people that
came up from the Cosco building. All Eastern help taking
over now and you've never seen a plow in the

(26:29):
road for the florider.

Speaker 2 (26:31):
That was ten o'clock in the morning. Yeah, my travel
is they're all gared go ahead.

Speaker 9 (26:38):
I said, they were all geared up. Where was the equipment.

Speaker 2 (26:39):
To good question?

Speaker 9 (26:43):
Yeah, I don't know if there's any more complaints about
Sat John's yesterday. I wasn't very fire. I want to
come out tops of road fires Dart City, but I
think that's mym Poriari there and that wasn't.

Speaker 10 (26:51):
The best either.

Speaker 9 (26:53):
And uh, you know you've got all of that stuff
in it in the middle of the road there, it's
almost like a slush and that's person And then for this.

Speaker 2 (27:00):
All absolutely it's the slippery stuff too.

Speaker 9 (27:02):
Due they didn't show up anyway.

Speaker 2 (27:04):
Well, like I said earlier, my travels were pretty limited.
Came out road was pretty good, but Kelsey Drive was terrible.
I mean at the intersection that was right by the
North Atlantic to try to make it left to go
continue down Kelsey, it was nothing but slush and it
was slick. Out of Ring road was pretty good. I
was down to our Bay Road wasn't bad. But my little,
my little city neighborhood wasn't touched I didn't see a

(27:26):
plow on my street until maybe around four thirty.

Speaker 9 (27:30):
Yeah, I don't order all geared up all right, but
I don't know where they showed up to. They didn't
show U where they should have. Yeah, well, well that's
my little beef for this morning. But do you know,
I just want to people pass down to complain to me.
That enough for me to phone. They just taught me
what the conditions they went through. I didn't have to
go through it very much yesterday, but it was enough
at top the road. But they're out in Saint John's
and you know they well we know Saint John's don't

(27:52):
clear snow's good as long purd.

Speaker 2 (27:56):
We hear that all the time and it's probably true.
But now, in fairness, it must be a lot easier
to clear snow Mount Pearl than it is in Saint John's,
given how flat pearls and why the roads are and
versus the city. The city must be a nightmare for
snowplow operators.

Speaker 9 (28:12):
Oh yeah, I know. I but like you said, when
if someone gets on, I wouldn't say of blowing her
own horn, but getting on to saying that overall gear
it opened up people hearts in October and you're the
first bit of snow we get. We never got thirty centimeters. Yeah,
where we would be too today. Yeah, say, wait, my dear,
that's why I complain for today.

Speaker 2 (28:30):
Appreciate your time, Stan, All right, thank you, bye bye. Yeah.
I mean, for the most part, I didn't think it
was too bad where I went, and I admit I
didn't go too far yesterday, but I thought Kelsey was terrible.
The rest of the best kind as far as I
could tell. But snow clearing in the city of Saint John's, Yeah,
we hear the Mount Pearl comparison all the time, but
the I mean, just think about the inner city of

(28:50):
Saint John's and the hills and these tight little neighborhoods.
It's got to be a lot trickier to clear this
city than it would be Mount Pearl itself, right, Yeah,
I think. So let's keep going. Lin number three Linda
around the air.

Speaker 11 (29:03):
Hello, Hi, I'm just gonna take you out a speaker.
I'm just calling out what accessibility for like wheelchairs going
to a venue where, like some places I can go there,
it'll be twenty or thirty seats because you can bring
a wheelchair and the attendant gets in for free. Now,
I was just made aware of and I checked it

(29:23):
out the last couple of days to make sure I
have my factories. There's a place in Saint John's and
I won't mention the name. They have one, and it's
a new building.

Speaker 2 (29:33):
You can mention it. I've seen it all over social media.
So you're talking about the jack Soundhouse.

Speaker 3 (29:38):
Yes, okay, I wasn't gonna mention it.

Speaker 2 (29:40):
Yeah, and that's okay, but it's a public venue and
you know, we don't need to avoid it. Look, I
was a little surprised because this was a concert last
I'm Mother Earth, I think was the concert that people
went to where I saw the posting on social media.
It got shared fire and wide, so I'm sure they've
been made aware of it, and I was surprised. So
just for context, I've been to the Jackson how beautiful venue,

(30:01):
absolutely brilliant stuff.

Speaker 11 (30:03):
We've been there as well, but we went to a
like to the ground floor where he sat in needs wheelchair.
I wasn't aware there's only one spot.

Speaker 2 (30:10):
Yeah, and so that's in the concert hall itself, which
all is about sixteen hundred people. And yeah, so I
was really surprised. But it's like, it's interesting, Linda, because
I've been there many times and I never noticed the
accessibility issue. But that just goes to the fact that
if unless you have a disability, you probably don't recognize
some of the hurls people's face.

Speaker 11 (30:30):
So exactly because we went to we went to the
Conto and the other excess and a friend of mine
was in the wheelchair. My husband wasn't with me, but
she had the seat in the aisle next to us,
So I'd say that the accessibility woman's already so old.

Speaker 2 (30:47):
Yeah, we'll invite someone from JAGAN to talk about it
and what they're going to do about it, because we're
talking about a significant percentage of the population that may
indeed not be able to go to the venue for
just that one reason alone. I do know some of
the other accessibility issues because I read the very lengthy
post where the person was to yeah, and they were
talking about things like the bathrooms in the hallways and

(31:10):
maybe the carpet was tricky to navigate in the wheelchair,
those types of things, but it was the concert hall
itself was the prime concern.

Speaker 11 (31:16):
Yeah, yeah, yeah, but even the bathroom shits couldn't even
turn our wheelchair around.

Speaker 12 (31:20):
Yeah, so in term, like I mean, I.

Speaker 11 (31:23):
Figured all this has to be passed by the city
for codes and whatever. But how did that, How did
that get passed?

Speaker 2 (31:30):
I don't know, and I don't know what the code
might be either for the number of spaces at a
concert thingue wherever we're talking about, from Holy Heart to
Mary Brown's to the Agricultural Center.

Speaker 11 (31:41):
Mary Brown's got about thirty. You never ever have a
problem getting the ticket? Yeah, okay, so they have dirty
because I actually looked into it to see how many
people had before I said I was going to call in.

Speaker 10 (31:52):
Yeah.

Speaker 2 (31:53):
Yeah, the radios on in the background.

Speaker 11 (31:55):
That's okay, Yeah, I doubt you brought Yeah, no, no,
I just want they're not just saying I want to
put the rector. And I know it's been all over
the media because I've seen it myself, but it's disgusting.

Speaker 2 (32:07):
So it's not good enough. I agree with you. We'll
follow up and see if there's going to be any
changes made to accommodate more spaces. No problem there, Okay.

Speaker 11 (32:15):
I appreciate that.

Speaker 12 (32:16):
Thank you very much.

Speaker 2 (32:17):
I appreciate your timelin to thank you Christmas.

Speaker 3 (32:19):
Thank you.

Speaker 2 (32:22):
Yeah, you know, just for clarification. Sometimes when there are
issues regarding one company or another where we might not
have all of the facts in hand, then that's why
I think we protect you as the caller and the
company as well, this company as well, because if things

(32:44):
are defamatory and they prove not to be true, that
could be a problem, especially for the caller. So that's
why we kind of hold some names out. But when
something is well understood and it's not in the air
of unfairness and there's no defamation associated with it, then
we try to be as open and as transparent as

(33:05):
we can. But there are some limitations that are legal concerns,
and that is also for the listener. So when we
don't have all the details, we don't have, say the
so called other side of the story, then that's where
I think we should all be careful with putting company
names out there or individual names out there. That's sort
of the background of that stuff. Let's sort of line
number two caller, you're on the air, high line number two.

Speaker 3 (33:29):
Call it Hello, Hi there, Yes, how are you doing today?

Speaker 2 (33:34):
That's kind how about you?

Speaker 8 (33:37):
Pat?

Speaker 3 (33:37):
I just got a couple of comments on the snow
clearing UH in Saint John's. My My thing about it
all is that I think just the people are expecting
too much. We only had a couple of inches of
snow down. There's more traffic on the road than it
ever was. There's there's subdivisions here with UH, with too

(33:59):
many cares. The way the city got it all lined
up for the parking, the bicycle lanes, character sticking out
of the driveway, he's got garbage buckets on the street.
And the traffic. Everybody ever each time tacking Harry, he
got a car only seventeen years old, and they're driving
around the three and four cars to a household and
they're going bump for the bumper. And when they're on

(34:22):
the road. We got the big flowers, the wing flowers.
We got it all. Did do the snow clearing. But
if you can't get around, you can't go out on
long and work. So I don't know what people are
expecting it all. And the a couple of days ago,
you had a council around, a councilor. And I worked
at snow clearing for thirty years and I was pretty

(34:42):
good at it, I'll tell you the truth. And there's
lots of good guys around some guys that are just
no good. But he had a councilor and trying to
explain the city's a chance explain what snow clearing is.
So he was probably driving TEXI or something before that,
but he he didn't know what. He didn't know what
he was talking about.

Speaker 2 (35:02):
The counselor himself didn't know. He's a lawyer, don't know
he's actually a lawyer by trade.

Speaker 3 (35:09):
That makes it worth the gain. But I just I
just don't see these guys. You've got fellows that's.

Speaker 10 (35:16):
Snow clearer in the foreman.

Speaker 3 (35:17):
Now the former can't get on and hand.

Speaker 9 (35:19):
That got golf off.

Speaker 3 (35:21):
That what he was talking about taking about which way
to do it and how we've got many framed and
we got so that's so so Fairest is not even funny.
The only hired the guy to put him on. They
do the best job. They can nothing against the council themselves.
But when you've got a councilor and talking about something
he knows nothing about. The men know it. And there's

(35:44):
some men that they're not good. So you know, I
just think that the residents themselves are respecting too much.
You and came out heres. I mean there's more cares
out there. It's like the village made or or you
have mile back on out of there. You can't get around,

(36:04):
you know. So I mean, I don't know what to
expect them. But that's all, that's the only the only
thing I'm thinking about, right.

Speaker 2 (36:10):
I get that it's all personal perspective, right, So I
don't generally speaking, have a big problem with the approach
that the city takes the snow clearing. But you make
an interesting point is some people wanted to be perfect
exactly when they leave the house, and is that expectation realistic.
I'll leave it up to the individual, but it's an
interesting point that you know, people want what they want

(36:33):
when they want it. There's a little air of petulance
amongst the tax paying public here. I suppose I include myself.

Speaker 3 (36:39):
That, Yeah, that's that's right. I mean, it's impossible to
be out as soon as they're shown there's snow all blown.
There's not only got snowblowers are blown all out in
the streets. Just as you go by, the council going
back and pushes it back in again. So what do
you do? And the biggest thing came out to her us,
I said, oh my god, they've got the bicycle lanes.

(37:01):
I don't see any bicycles anybody on the bicycles using
the lanes at all. And now people got to park
the car halfway out in the street. They leave the
sidewalk open because the inspectors are going around or homever
given tickets for parking on the street. And there's no
bicycles in the wintertime. And ir regardless, with the bicycle
lanes is great in a great world that you know

(37:24):
that you just run in somewhere in some big open
piece of land and you decide to build five hundred
houses and you can have voice of lanes. You got
the houses that if there's fifty feet back out the street,
well they've got a parking lot. It works fine, but
I mean you're going you've got to go in and
out around every turn, Nick and Cuddie trying to get around,
and then you've got snowplows in the wintertime trying to

(37:46):
push the snow back. And in one driveway they got
four cars, the next one four cars, next form four cars.
And they got apartments everywhere, which is a great thing,
but there's not enough for parking. For those departments. But
regards to the councilors getting on people know nothing about it.
It's like harding. It's like getting the plumber to explain

(38:07):
what the electrician does. You know. So, I mean, it
don't make sense. It don't make sense at all. Anyway,
That's that's my ramble for the day.

Speaker 2 (38:16):
Right, So you were equipment operator for thirty years working
for the city or is.

Speaker 3 (38:22):
That I worked around? Yeah, so work I worked for
the city. So yeah, for a long while, and we
had some great, great, great men. But now you know,
it's and they got better machines. I know that now.
But machines are bigger. Which there's more traffic, the more
buses more. I mean, you take school buses here, but
there's three hundred school buses on the street. I mean

(38:42):
driving around, you know that.

Speaker 6 (38:43):
So and you got to.

Speaker 3 (38:45):
Hunting pairs going around. So I just don't see it.
I you know, I just can't see that. A few
people are expecting too much. They're expecting too much. I
mean I was driving to day, they're I was driving
around todays or there's people more people on their cell phones,
snow clearing. You know, I don't get I don't see

(39:07):
how how how did the police miss this? I don't know,
but every second person is down the cell phone and
we got snow clearing on the goal. And then the
guys are trying to get in around. They call the
sex and as you go up there, sure there's a
load of cars and you know, so that's that's that's
my my take on the law. But actually the city

(39:28):
people are expecting too much. And then and the radio themselves,
the people that are calling in about snow clearer, trying
to explain it like that if that guy was a lawyer,
I won't get him as a lawyer, you know, I
just don't see it.

Speaker 2 (39:43):
Appreciate the times. Thanks for calling Sweat all the best.
Good yea, thanks man by bye. I look, one thing
for sure, regardless of what we're talking about, this city
is not designed for the vehicle flow that's out there.
The traffic volume is simply not design for the many,
because you see on the roads that's for absolute shore.

(40:04):
All right, let's get a break in. Let me come back.
We're speaking with you. Don't go away, Weloco. Back to
the show. Let's go Line number two. Kathy are on
the air.

Speaker 13 (40:14):
Good morning, Patty, Hi, Hi, I'd just like to throw
out a bouquet to the snowplow operators. My brother happened
to be a snowplow operator. He's not with us anymore,
but I know exactly what they have to go through,
you know nowadays, and well he's not here now, but

(40:36):
we lived through as his family. And you know, they
spend a lot of time during the most special time
of the year away from your family. I know they
signed up for it, like firefighters and you know, nurses, doctors,
whatever it's profession, but they don't get enough recognition. And

(40:58):
your last caller, you know, he knows what he's talking about.
I don't know who he is, but yeah, I like
people complaining too much, don't I know it.

Speaker 2 (41:10):
Look, I mean I had a neighbor I don't know, say,
twenty years ago before I moved to the house I'm
in now that this person was constantly either throwing snow
at or giving the finger to 're yelling at and
cursing at the snowflower operators because of course they finished shoveling.
And then you know, the timing is everything here comes
to plow and the wing roll gets into the driveway.

(41:31):
It's just a natural card. So I think we all
expect that to be happening. But he used to give
it to the snowplower operator. I couldn't understand it. I mean,
buddy in this case was a fellow. He's simply doing
his job, got the blade down, trying to clear the snow.
So do the best.

Speaker 13 (41:44):
Yeah, And I mean you take it like Shay Heights
and different places like you say, Kim out Road, all
these places. They're pretty tricky, you know. And I'd just
like to just say, buys, keep up the good work,
fair enough. Don't let everybody get you down. You know,

(42:04):
it's that time of the year and right, so yeah,
I'd just like to say that, Yeah, keep up the
good work.

Speaker 2 (42:14):
I appreciate your time, Kathy, and I'm sure the snowplow
operators appreciate it too.

Speaker 13 (42:18):
Okay, bye bye, Patty, and Merry Christmas to you and everyone.

Speaker 2 (42:21):
At Leaves TM the very same to you, thank you, okay,
bye bye bye bye uh And just quickly, so I
was mentioned different types of percussion or different instruments in
the arena of percussion, and first reminds me the baron
is also because of course it is, and lots of
people really enjoyed hearing from Jack Rumble this morning, you know,
with the positive experience and the kudos to the teachers

(42:43):
and administrators to get the music program back in action.
So I enjoyed it as well. To be honest, it's
good a line everyone, Patty you're on the air. Hey,
not bad at all.

Speaker 10 (42:52):
You've been listening about the.

Speaker 8 (42:53):
Guys are on.

Speaker 10 (42:55):
Remained and whatever and never spend a lot of time
with them. Imagine or he's managed to spending injury. There
is there a solution where do you.

Speaker 2 (43:04):
Think, well, you have to build a bigger door prison.

Speaker 10 (43:08):
Well, how's about having a night court?

Speaker 2 (43:14):
Why would that settle or solve?

Speaker 10 (43:17):
Well, cost more, get more cases through the court.

Speaker 2 (43:20):
Night courts are generally speaking, just for summary offenses in
traffic and violation of the municipal by laws and that
kind of stuff. I know there's very few jurisdictions in
Canada that actually have a night court. I know Halifax
does have one, but we don't have one here. Sure
just look now further in fact that we've suspended court
operations in different parts of the province for reasons unknown

(43:41):
at this point. So if it's a staffing issue, I
don't know how we could have a night court in
addition to the day operations.

Speaker 10 (43:48):
Okause some of them are spending so much time and rehead.
I never heard of anybody getting out on Jordan at
Jordan rule.

Speaker 2 (43:54):
There's been a couple of cases dropp chair of regarding
the Jordan application.

Speaker 10 (43:57):
Yeah, I haven't heard of it though, but yeah, okay, Well
I just wondered that, like, you know, because maybe I
thought it would help get more cases through the court
and in the helles facts get one. What can we
have one?

Speaker 2 (44:10):
Yeah, I don't really know. I suppose it's a cost
and staffing issue. But generally speaking, night courts aren't for
any sort of serious criminal matters though, you know, summer offenses,
municipal by laws, that kind of stuff.

Speaker 10 (44:23):
I think the Minister of Justice should be one look
at something like that.

Speaker 2 (44:27):
Well, I guess we're going to hear not on this
program at least, but Helen Conwa Attenheimer, the Minister of
Justice and Public Safety, is going to be giving us
a detail update, we hope about the court operations that
have been suspended in different parts of the province. That
happens this afternoon. Anything else want to say while we
got your patty.

Speaker 10 (44:44):
Yeah, can you brief around that and see if she
can have an answer for it?

Speaker 2 (44:47):
Yeah, I can see what I can find out why
you can.

Speaker 10 (44:49):
Answer, ask her about it and see is we're all
or whatever? Yeah, because I know there's a lot of
guys under that penitentiary league waiting a long time to
go to court.

Speaker 2 (44:59):
Yeah, but the people that are on remand they wouldn't
appear in front of a night court judge. So anyway,
because my understanding of it is, it's not for criminal offenses.
It's like liquor control, acting motor Vehicle Act and breaking
the municipal by law. Those types of things like people
who are bank robbers or convicted or charge of breaking
enter or murder or rape or extortion or those types

(45:21):
of serious crimes. They wouldn't appear in front of a
night court judge anyway. That's not how they're necessarily designed.
But anyway, I'll ask the minister why not.

Speaker 10 (45:30):
Maybe you're just time to change it.

Speaker 2 (45:32):
Maybe you're welcome all the best, Bye bye, Yeah, night
court generally speaking, is you know, for the less than
serious criminal offenses to be heard by a judge. And
was also a very good show. Sure Dave is going
to give us some sort of jingle into the news.
Let's check it on the Twitter box before we get

(45:54):
to said news break. Tony said, snow clearing is an
ungrateful occupation. Streets and roads got to be plowed if
they're not people complaining, and if operators push snow back,
if it's in your driveway, people complain that you're absolutely right,
and that one neighbor boy. I was always confused because
it was a pretty pleasant fella until it came to
the snowplow operator. I don't know if you had some
sort of negative interaction with the snowplow. You know, I

(46:16):
came to him being bit by a dog when you're
o Kaid and you hate dogs all your life, but
he flip out every time the plow went up and
down the street. He's checking on the email address. It's
open on a feosm dot com. Really appreciating people's positive
feedback regarding the call from grade nine student Jack Brumbolt.
Kick off the program. All right, so let's get to
the news break. Well we come back. There's always been
concerned about foreign ownership, generally speaking, people talk about foreign

(46:38):
ownership inside the fishery, the processing sector. Specifically, Rod wants
to talk about foreign ownership inside the mining industry. That
and then you right after this, don't go away, welcome
back to the show. Let's go to light number three.
Good morning, Rod, you're on the air.

Speaker 9 (46:54):
Good morning, sir.

Speaker 3 (46:55):
How are you going today?

Speaker 2 (46:55):
I'm great today. How about you?

Speaker 10 (46:57):
Oh number one?

Speaker 3 (46:58):
Good bye one, Patty.

Speaker 14 (47:01):
The reason why I'm calling this morning is that the
mining sector, the mineral industry has been you know, into
pretty good times lately. Prices for a number of commodities
and products our gold in particular silver, lots of the
rear minerals, others that are considered critical or strategic in

(47:26):
that you know, language that they use now to describe
some of the commodities that the mining industry produces. And
there used to be a mine out in glen By,
Glenwood called the Beaverbook Antimony mine. Antimony is one of
those minerals that is deemed to be critical because of
its applications. Things that it's used in like high temperature electronics,

(47:50):
used as a flame retardant. It has a lot of
military applications. When the mine was closed in twenty twenty three,
the chanel given at the time was that market conditions
and of course that happens in my it's a commodity of.

Speaker 8 (48:07):
What have you.

Speaker 14 (48:07):
Prices rise, prices fall. But I'm wondering if if it's
going to reopen again or what's holding it up. I
haven't heard any talk of, you know, the owners looking
to reopen.

Speaker 2 (48:22):
I think the antimony is the key ingredient to solder
as well, if I'm not mistaken.

Speaker 14 (48:27):
Yeah, yeah, exactly, that's high temperature electronics.

Speaker 2 (48:30):
Okay.

Speaker 14 (48:31):
So when the mine closed in twenty three, Animony prices
were fluctuating somewhere around five six dollars a pound. Guess
what they are today, what they have been and rising
to this past eighteen months or so.

Speaker 2 (48:47):
I have no idea.

Speaker 14 (48:48):
Twenty to twenty five dollars a pound. In other words,
you know, four to five times the price that it
was when it was in twenty twenty three. They gets
out of prices now that we've never seen, never seen
in the last twenty years. So my mind goes to
work and say, well, who owns it? And given that
it's a critical mineral, I understand that a corporation called

(49:14):
China min Metals owns the antimony mind, and I know
that in last six to six months to twenty four months,
we've heard an awful lot of discussion about, you know,
Chinese companies acting on behalf of China, finding and taking

(49:38):
ownership of a lot of these mineral entities, the ones
that are deemed like rares, critical, strategic, what have you.
They've been acquiring them, and so my mind goes to say,
what The question that I asked is that, well, why
aren't they opening it up or why aren't they selling it?
It's of no use to them. Why I sit on it?

Speaker 2 (49:58):
It's an interesting question, though, I really don't know. I
know some big Chinese mining companies have been forced to
divest because of federal legislation. There's a Foreign Investment Act,
so things like uranium, lithium, those types of rare earths
China has been forced out of. I'm forced to divest
in some of those minds in different parts of the country,
But foreign ownership in mining is wide spread. This in

(50:19):
this province, absolutely, one hundred percent, Absolutely absolutely.

Speaker 14 (50:22):
And I don't usually care. You know what it means,
long stay by by the regulations and our labor laws,
and they give workers a good deal and so on
and so forth. Then I'm fine with that. I'm okay
with that, but I am I am strongly against someone
owning it and sitting on it because it suited some
strategic purpose halfway around the world. I mean, when this

(50:45):
mine was in operation, it was anywhere from one hundred
to two hundred workers, depending on the stages and phases
that it was at, And that would be a very
big shot in the arm for Central Newfouland, for you know,
for World newth Land time that you can have something
of significance like that operating in private hands and generating

(51:05):
employment and driving off activity for suppliers and other people
and stuff like that. It should be in operation if
the market conditions are suitable, and I believe that they
are more than suitable at this point in time. And
I'd like to know why they're sitting on it and
not doing anything.

Speaker 2 (51:23):
Can you get it in?

Speaker 8 (51:24):
I would, yeah, go ahead.

Speaker 2 (51:25):
I was just gonna say, can you give me the
name of the mine again so I.

Speaker 14 (51:28):
Can follow China China Men Metals Corporation, And what's.

Speaker 2 (51:33):
The name of the mind proper here that got shut down?
The Antimony mine.

Speaker 14 (51:38):
Well, it used to be known as the beaver Brook
Antimony Mine. Okay, now you know like you can ask
I mean you could, you could certainly ask somebody in charge,
somebody who's over overseas, you know, the mineral industry and
this problems, and ask them maybe they've maybe they've seen,
maybe they've received some kind of indication or notification that

(52:00):
they're going to reopen. And that's the case.

Speaker 6 (52:02):
Great.

Speaker 14 (52:02):
I'm a cheerleader for anything that drives employment and run Finland.
But if they're sitting on it and the market conditions
are obviously saying that they should be in production, then
I don't I don't agree with that something should be
done and maybe a foul field tax something like, you know, like,
I don't know, I don't know what the answer is,

(52:23):
but I do not like the idea that there's an
economical entity there that couldn't be driving employment, but it's
instead being used for an ulterior purpose in this wider
strategic game of you know, world domination and all the.

Speaker 8 (52:36):
Rest of it.

Speaker 2 (52:37):
Yeah, And I think there's a difference in foreign ownership
depending on whether or not the country is a friendly
and in this case, China most certainly is not. And
you know, I mean just think about some of the
big mining operations there. Valet is a Brazilian company, right,
I'll see Rio Tinto. Rio Tinto is not a Canadian company, obviously.
I believe they had their origins in the UK. Maybe Australia.

(53:00):
Quora is not a local company or other that's a
Dutch company, whatever. Ta Tata Steel, that's an Indian company.
So there's lots of foreign ownership, and I guess the
difference would be whether or not a country is an
actual friendly versus not like a Russian company or Chinese
or whatever the case may be. That's an interesting question, Roda.

(53:20):
I am going to chase that a little bit and
see what's going on, because if it was a business
model problem at you know now the price that five
times what it was when they laid off all those
folks back in twenty twenty three. It's a very interesting question.
I think the same type of question can be asked
of some offshore parcels of land that the bidder comes
in through the CNLOPB and then has the opportunity to

(53:41):
sit on it for in perpetuity in some cases, as
long as they renew and paid little tiny fees. So
that's a very good question. Rout I had not thought
of that, but I will give that a little chase.

Speaker 3 (53:51):
Okay, buddy, you have yourself a good day.

Speaker 2 (53:53):
Very same too, Thanks a lot, take care, Hey, by bye.
Good question. You know, we understand the concerns in the
processing sector in the fishery, but you just picked some
of the big minds. There's plenty of junior players around
here that have opened up some minds out of the
island or in Labrador. Tata does work in the Labrador Trough,
and that is absolutely an Indian company. I mean, maybe

(54:14):
as much as eighty percent held by India, I believe
IOC that's you know, we call Rio Tinto as the owners,
but there's a bunch of players, including Mitsubishi and others
that are involved with a pretty heavy equity stake in
those companies. But that's an interesting one. We'll give that
a little chase and see what becomes of it. And
on that front, you know, with the global conversations and

(54:38):
the critical minerals and rare Earth and all the rest,
I am a little surprised. And I suppose it all
boils back down to access to power to generate mind
expansion or to open up new minds. So I guess
that's what holds back most and Takora who operates Scully there.
I'm pretty sure they're a Dutch company, right anyway, let's

(54:59):
see here what am I looking at? Okay, if you're
in and around town, the number to call to get
in the queue seven zero nine two seven three five
two one one elsewhere are total free long distance one
eight eight eight five ninety VOCM, which is eighty six
twenty six. Taking a break, and then we're coming back.
Welcome back to the program. Thanks to a couple of
listeners sent in some additional information about the antimony mine

(55:21):
out around Glenbrook. The beaver Brook Antimony mine, yes, owned
by a Chinese company, apparently remains in care maintenance mode,
so for regulatory issues and for safety what have you.
And also the reports of that they're actually exploring for
new deposits to feed the mill. When they shuddered in
twenty twenty three after only reopening in twenty twenty one,
they were talking about things like inflation and supply chain

(55:43):
interruptions and the cost of fuel. Apparently there's a high
quality of fuel required for their operations. They didn't budget
for the high prices of fuels, so I guess that's
what led to it. But as Rod pointed out, if
the prices now are four or five times higher than
they were, or when they close in twenty twenty three,
you would imagine there's a business model available to them.

(56:05):
So maybe into the future we'll see that reopen. Apparently
that it's peak employed some one hundred and ten people,
so not an insignificant operation. Just a quick reference to
the story that we talked about earlier about Australia. Come
to the tenth of December, legislation is going to see
social media band for youth under the age of sixteen.
You know, the emails when something like this is why

(56:26):
am I encouraging more government interaction, more government telling me
what I can and cannot too? As it pertains to youth,
we already do that. You know, there's a certain age
before you can vote, There's a certain age before you
can drive a car legally. There's certain age before you
can buy booze legally or marijuana legally. So I think
it's different when you talk about things that are supposed
to be protections for youth, and I do think this

(56:48):
is just another layer of protection. I asked Jack Rumbold,
a Grade nine student, about his own personal experience with
social media, he says overall and net negative. And I
think if we ask youth across the board, it's a
very common sentiment that yes, you can have plenty of
fund and post your phone videos on TikTok, But the
negative for most, I think outweighs the positive. So I

(57:09):
don't know if it's you know, more government telling me
what I can and cannot do. Because if we see
the research about even just the heights of anxiety and
depression and other disorders, and the type of cyber bullying,
and the child sex extortion rackets that are going on
out there, the non consensual sharing of intimate images, the
deep fakes. I mean, these things are really difficult enough

(57:32):
if you're an adult, but as a young person with
going through different stages of life and still formative brain
and going through puberty and all the public pressures, I
don't think they're necessarily on the wrong track. I think
for most people, if we're being honest, social media has
proven to be a problem, and especially so for young people.
Like remember when you got bullied, If you did indeed

(57:54):
get bullied, or you certainly saw instances of bullying, you
know it was at school, down by the rock. It
was things like in the playground. But when you got
out of the school setting, for the most part, the
bullings went away because you were halled, you were in
your own neighborhood, you choose to spend time with your
actual friends. But now it never goes away. It's never ending.

(58:15):
And the ability or the willingness for people to pile
on in the world of cyber bullying is very, very real.
You know, even as an adult, I've been on the
receiving end a few times. It's less than pleasant. So
just imagine how it must impact someone who's twelve years old.
All right, just keep going here. Let's go to line
number one. Audrey around the air.

Speaker 15 (58:34):
Good morning, Patty, morning. I just wanted to call back in.
I know I was talking to you earlier the week
about the whole situation around regulated childcare, but I really
wanted to sort of highlight a few other things this morning.
On a veteran ECE been in a field for thirty
five years, I have to say that we don't make

(58:56):
these decisions lightly. When we investor time, commitment, our family,
our communities. You know, when we make decisions to step
forward consider opening a regulated childcare service in our homes,
that those are really big life decisions, and I sort

(59:16):
of since last week, I guess, have really been in
a position of limbo. Now, I'm sure I'm not the
only one. I know I'm not the only one. So
I just want to really highlight for government that these
are huge life decisions that people are making in order
to invest in a service. And now we're left literally

(59:36):
in limbo.

Speaker 2 (59:38):
Yeah, I mean the story gets even worse when you
talk about the fact that government understands this, they recognize this,
and they say, well, the money to support the inspections
on the opening and the renovations things that need to
happen to open up a childcare whether it be in
home or other facility, is the money's gone. I mean,
governments can do something about it, and they can do

(59:59):
something by today, Like if they keep telling us about
they understand the need for accessible, affordable childcare and talk
about the numbers of spaces that have been created, they
say this year fourteen hundred and seventy, but there's still
one hundreds, if not thousands, of people looking for childcare.
If it's simply a matter of money, replenish the pot
and let's.

Speaker 15 (01:00:17):
Keep going, and I agree with you wholehearted week. I mean,
you know, when you start out in this process, it's
very rigorous, like it's you know, step by step phases,
there's inspections, there's all kinds of pieces and parts that
bring you to the actual day when you can open
and it's lengthy, and especially in rural Newfouland, it's probably

(01:00:39):
even more lengthy because we're outside of you know, catchment
areas for some things and it takes longer. And you know,
that's always been sort of in the back of my mind.
So again when I'm sure that somebody somewhere knew that
we were headed in this direction. So why were folks
able to get three and four months into a process

(01:01:00):
when we thought this was going to be, you know,
the thing, the next step where our careers would take us,
where families in our areas would be able to evail
of childcare services, and then all of a sudden, like
you know, the acts comes down and it's nothing, literally nothing,
so you know, it just goes. I want folks to know,
I want government to know that this is not just

(01:01:21):
you know, something that you conjure up and then you're like, okay, well,
let's move forward and in a couple of weeks it's
all said and done. It's absolutely not like that.

Speaker 2 (01:01:31):
No, Obviously, now we've heard several stories from people who
were proposing a childcare operation, whether it be here in
town or out on the West Coast and Conroy Valley,
and the stories were starting to pile up. And when
you mentioned getting into this exercise, you're in it for two, three,
four months, and then you're told that, all of a sudden,
now the funding's gone. Certainly someone who's in charge of
administrating the funding could have foreseen how quickly the funds

(01:01:54):
are being depleted and acted on before all of a
sudden people are told, oh, sorry, we're out of luck.
We'll see next April.

Speaker 15 (01:02:01):
Absolutely yeah, I think that that's where you know, if
they can replent if the pot that's one thing, But
I think going forward, I just want all the you know, stakeholders,
key stakeholders involved to know how much of a life
changing decision this is for folks. Like I said, I'm
a veteran ECE. I've worked in many capacities within the

(01:02:23):
childcare sector, and when you make a decision to open
your home for a regulated service, it's a huge investment
of your time, of your dollars, of your family commitments,
of everything, and you know when it comes down. I
never foresaw that this would be not able to happen

(01:02:44):
for me or for the families that I was in
constant contact with. I never thought. Did I think it
would happen in the six months time frame? Absolutely? But
if it didn't, then I you know, obviously, you know
there's recommendations made from inspections and you know where you're
going and all of those sorts of things. It's not
like you're just left without any information, you know. So

(01:03:05):
to get to this point now where it's like I'm
starting over from scratch all over again, I just really
want folks to know what that means for all of
us caught in this or a whin.

Speaker 2 (01:03:18):
Of no fund then yeah, and how many potential operators
hearing this story was a not even a waste of
time with it or B They'll say two to three
months into the process and think, well, April's a long
way away. I'm just going to change my tune. I'm
going to move on to some other endeavor with their time,
their energy, and their money, and consequently, some spaces that

(01:03:39):
could have been created might not get created simply because
of this issue, which doesn't make any sense to me.
I have to say, a lot of government stuff doesn't
make any sense to me, but this one makes zero sense.

Speaker 15 (01:03:48):
And that's exactly the fact. I was in correspondence with
all of the key stakeholders and you know, the powers
that be for at least a month, maybe longer before
we got to this point, and one of the things
that I had highlighted to them is that when families
are in transition of moving from a maternity weave, paternity
weave into employment. If that doesn't happen, especially for me

(01:04:13):
out here in Saint Mary's Bay, I don't know of
anybody else in my area right now that's even invested
or interested in doing regulated childcare, and I'm pretty much
in the know. So if that doesn't happen now, it
likely won't happen for quite some time. So these families
are left to go seek out whatever it is they
can find for child care. But for example, again, because

(01:04:38):
it's just I'm speaking from my own perspective right now,
if it's me and I go back to an employment
situation elsewhere, it's gone. The dream is dead.

Speaker 2 (01:04:48):
Yeah, And that's a shame, and it needn't be that way.
Anything else you look to at while we have you, Audrey, No,
I think that's everything. You know.

Speaker 15 (01:04:56):
I've just been sitting on it since all this came
to be and surfaced in the me and I just
really wanted to highlight for folks this is a big deal.
Like it's a big deal not to be able to
move forward, but it's a really big deal when you're
so far into it and so invested that you actually
don't get to proceed. It has huge implications and consequences

(01:05:17):
for not just the person, communities, families, everything, and if
a sector we're hurt of. ECE has always been a
sector that has been on the back burner for lack
of a better word. We have made huge strides over
the years, There's been lots of investments made, but I
feel like we're going backwards now. I can see the

(01:05:38):
hurt inside the sector from this very announcement.

Speaker 2 (01:05:41):
How many children were you going to be able to
take care of in your operation?

Speaker 15 (01:05:46):
When you're regulated, you can take six children. Unregulated, you
can only take four. And there's other pieces of that
whole program, like the ten dollars a day piece is
what stands out to me. Without the regulated service, the
parents can't act has that, so they have to pay
out of pocket full price. And you know there's other
things as a regulated level to certified ECE that you

(01:06:08):
get to partake in, and there's you know, there's layers
to the program and the agreement. But so for right now,
you know, and you're always taking a gamble to do
it unregulated because families are obviously going to stay on
regulated wait lists. Why would they not, So when the
children get older, potential is that they'll move on. So
there's no sustainability factor, especially in rural areas, because you

(01:06:31):
only have a certain number of families looking for telecare.
So there's all kinds of little pieces that really factor
into this.

Speaker 2 (01:06:39):
Appreciate your times running, Audrey, thanks for doing it.

Speaker 15 (01:06:43):
You're welcome, Patti, thank you, you're welcome.

Speaker 2 (01:06:45):
Bye bye. Yeah, it's just one of those head scratchers, right,
Just quick on air answer to an email is the
writer is saying, where am I plucking these numbers of
the air about the projection for food prices next year.
I'm not plucking them out of the air. There's an

(01:07:05):
annual report, there's researchers from ten different universities. They compile
the data, they do the forecast, they look at the
supply chains, and it's called the Canada's Food Price Report.
So I didn't make it up. I didn't just pluck
the numbers out of the air. I'm going by exactly
what the report states. And as I mentioned earlier, the
report and their forecasts have been pretty close, I have
to say, over the course of the last number of years,

(01:07:28):
and you know, we'll see the politicians chime in on
it and inevitably governments get blamed for everything, and some
of it's absolutely justifiable, the price of groceries. I think
if you ask the agriculture industry, it's not only things
like competition and competition inside the distribution chains, but it's

(01:07:48):
fires and floods and droughts and insects that has been
the real interruption. You know, for sure, input costs and
one of fertilizer an industrial cametas factor those in. But
the real interruptions are in some of these natural disasters.
Then that's the agriculture sector saying it not me. But
so yeah, no, these are not made up numbers by yours, truly,

(01:08:11):
these are numbers I read in the Canada's food price report.
All right, just get a break in when we come back.
The topic entirely up to you don't go away, welcome
back to the show. Just to pick up on Audrey's
call about the funding has run out for the startups
in the world of childcare, and someone said, well, you know,
government just can't pluck money out of thin air or
print money, or whatever the case may be. But they can.

(01:08:33):
There's a contingency fund. I mean, just think back last
year they actually access I think it was somewhere around
fifteen million dollars from the contingency fund why to cover
unforeseen expenses in the world of children in provincial care.
So we've done it repeatedly over the years, and that
particular expense has drawn money from a contingency fund at
least a half a dozen times. So yes, there is

(01:08:54):
money there. Add to it, it's that whole future's fund.
So we can't pretend that there's no way to replenish
pots of money until you have a formal budgets produced.
In this case, we're talking about next April before that
pot of money gets refueled. But there is money. It's
as simple as that. So, yes, we can go to
a contingency fund, yet you can borrow against that future fund.
And still for the left, we don't necessarily understand the

(01:09:16):
futures fund concept. I mean, if we're servicing a massive
deficit and a massive debt and massive borrowing all the
while putting the money aside, it doesn't make a whole
lot of economic sense to me. But yes, there's contingency
fund moneies out there. We've used them in the past,
as recently as last year for children in care. Let's
go to line number one. Andy are on the air. Yes,

(01:09:36):
Patty Worning, Okay, how about.

Speaker 6 (01:09:38):
You not doing too bad?

Speaker 8 (01:09:43):
Just trying to get a few things sorted out with
the town of Mirrorstown.

Speaker 2 (01:09:49):
What's going on, Patty?

Speaker 8 (01:09:52):
Back in twenty twenty two, my grandmother passed away. As
she left me a property in the municipality of mirrors Town,
there was fifteen thousand dollars in back taxes. Old let
me pulled Old grandmother and grandfather. The struggled and anyway,

(01:10:12):
when I took over the property in twenty seventeen, I
was a power of attorney. From that until the point
where my grandmother passed. I've been trying to get the
property changed over into my name. I went to the
Registry of Deeds. I registered the property with the Government
of Newfoundland. It's all in my name with the government.

(01:10:36):
I've been forever bringing in paperwork to the Town of Marystown.
They requested the copy of the will. They requested the
copy of the deed, like you know, the survey. I
brought everything up to him and somebody else took over
this job position and I went in in all the

(01:10:58):
touch base. See at the end anything done for me,
all the paperwork I brought in, they couldn't find it.
There was no record of anything. But still now they
took my money. I paid the fifteen thousand in back
Texas and I owed him zero dollars. And I owned

(01:11:22):
the property according to the Government of Newfouland. But the
Town of Marystown. I won't get into any details with
the people that's there working, or any names or anything.
But the town manager this morning, this paperwork was supposed
to be like every week I go in, they'll tell
me come back after the council meeting on Tuesday. And

(01:11:45):
this has been going on since July. Just so happened
back in July that who's now our mayor, was there
trying to get something straightened up. And he was there,
you know when I was requesting this back in July,
and since he been elected, even trying to help me out.

(01:12:06):
But I went in this morning, sat down with the
town manager and you know, I requested this paperwork. He
told me they were going to have a last Thursday.
I give him a few extra days. I came in
this morning. He said, nope, we didn't do it for you,
and I got to go before the next council meeting.
Next time. I said, well, you told me December two

(01:12:27):
this was all when we looked after it. Yeah, we
missed it. And I said, well, I'll tell you what now.
I'm going to sit here and wait until you and
get me the paperwork. And he jumped up out of
his disk. Patty, he came at me. He told me
to get the f out of his office right now
before he threw me out. And I needed to get

(01:12:49):
a hold of somebody with municipal affairs or something to
deal with this person, because I got lots of business
to do at the Town of Mary'stown and I got
thrown out of there tom for requesting paperwork that I've
been requesting for months and months and months, and I
didn't say in any out of the way to anyone

(01:13:09):
ordering the fact that I was going to sit and
wait for the paperwork, and he got totally irate with
me and pretty well threw me out of the town
council office.

Speaker 2 (01:13:21):
Yikes. For starters, you should indeed go to municipal affairs,
but i'd also get some guidance from municipalities New flanda
Labrador MNL. They might put you onto the right track
for exactly how you should deal with this issue, because
I wouldn't know the specific process. But I bet you
someone at EM and L can help you out.

Speaker 8 (01:13:38):
In well, okay, yeah, Patty Lake, I don't know what
to be doing because, like I'm trying to I'm trying
to purchase a parcel of land also from the town,
and I got like I got a few things going

(01:13:58):
here regarding to upcoming housing and development and stuff like that,
and for whatever reason, I don't know what you got
against me up there or whatever, but I cannot get
anything done. And it seems like when I comes in there,
they hate to see me comme, but they will not

(01:14:20):
they will not.

Speaker 10 (01:14:21):
Give me the paperwork that I'm requesting, and.

Speaker 8 (01:14:23):
I mean I paid. They took me money, Paddy, they
got fifteen thousands bucks out of me. I paid it
off so that I could purchase this other personal and
conjoining on to it. Right.

Speaker 2 (01:14:37):
Yeah, even if someone has some sort of personal beef
with a residence or a taxpayer, whatever, the administration of
the municipality, administration of provincial affairs, that's your responsibility. We
all have to just sort of shelve our personal beefs
we'll call it, and you know, put those aside and
get the business attended to. Period. Is as simple as that.

(01:14:58):
And I mean professional to should be expected and demanded
when you deal with someone who's being paid by the
public purse in particular now also I would include the
private sector there, but especially when you're being paid by
the public purse, that level of decorum should be across
the board. You shouldn't have to hope for the best.
So I just like I don't. There's not a dispute
resolution mechanism at MNL, but they're definitely going to be

(01:15:22):
equipped to point you in the right direction about who
you should speak to.

Speaker 8 (01:15:27):
Well, I'd appreciate the Paddy because it seems like I
when I goes in there, it's you know, we're going
to do this. We're going to do that for you.
And when you leave the office, yeah, forget about him typeting.
And I mean, it's not as if I'm trying to
do anything in skull doggery or anything like that. I've

(01:15:49):
just paid them fifteen thousand dollars. I brought the registry
in needs saying the Government of New Fland says I
own the property. What I can't understand and wait, there's
no iphoned Troy at m A and explained to him
what was going on. He told me that there's no

(01:16:12):
reason why the town cannot change this over into your
name was there, stating that it got to go to
m AA first. And he told me that the town
is the one that notifies them of the name change.
And he actually got on the horn and spoke to
him and asked him, I think the process you're explaining

(01:16:33):
to mister Hillier backwards. And when I spoke to him
after he told me no, no, he said, she's she's well.

Speaker 6 (01:16:40):
Aware of that.

Speaker 8 (01:16:43):
They got to make the name change first. And like
I said, Patty, I went in there to get that paper.
This morning and sat down to his office, wasn't near
the more than one minute, and he got totally irate
christmaswearing at me. And I mean anybody else in that
type of position. I've been a general forman, I've been,

(01:17:04):
you know, forming on big jobs. And anybody conducts yourselves
in that manner towards anybody, personnel or anything of the such,
they're gone.

Speaker 2 (01:17:16):
That's probably the right place for him to be is gone.
And you appreciate the time. Listen to me favor if
you figure out through EM and L or the department
in minitial affairs about what the process might be to
address the situation, let me know, will you.

Speaker 8 (01:17:28):
Yes, Yeah, And I'd appreciate that anybody hired than the
town manager from the town of Marystown would give me
a call back so I could put in a complaint,
because apparently he's the highest in command there, so I'd
like to definitely put in a formal complaint.

Speaker 2 (01:17:46):
Yeah, I don't blame him. Keep me in the look,
let me know how this all shakes out.

Speaker 6 (01:17:50):
All right, Thank you, Patty, appreciate your time anytime.

Speaker 2 (01:17:53):
Andy, thank you, thank you, bye bye. Yeah. I mean,
the frustrations bubble over. People get am and yes, if
you're dealing with someone in the private sector, they owe
you cartious professional addressing your concern. But it makes me
feel like it's even more incumbent ond someone working off
the public farce to shelve your emotions. Do your job.

(01:18:17):
Let's get a break in, don't go away, welcome back
to the show. Let's go to line number one.

Speaker 8 (01:18:21):
Collar.

Speaker 2 (01:18:22):
You're on the air.

Speaker 16 (01:18:24):
Good morning, Patty.

Speaker 8 (01:18:25):
How are you today?

Speaker 2 (01:18:26):
Okay, thank you? How about you?

Speaker 16 (01:18:28):
Oh, not too bad. Just got a bit of information
for your last caller. Municipality's Newfoundland Labrador is absolutely a
great resource for him to reach out to, but some
basic information. The province has introduced the Towns of Local
Service District Act, which governs how elected officials and staff

(01:18:49):
must conduct themselves. They also have the Code of Conduct
Act and the Code of Ethics Act, which also further
gives us guidelines on how we have to be when
dealing with the public. So your collars should definitely have
a read through those and every community should also have
a mechanism by which they can conduct a formal complaint.

(01:19:13):
It'll go to the town clerk, but then has to
bring it to council's attention. It's a bit of a process.
They have to do an internal investigation and it's up
to Council who makes that decision on whether or not
the complaint is valid.

Speaker 2 (01:19:31):
Can you give us some examples of what the legislation
says in so far as Code of Conduct costs, Well.

Speaker 16 (01:19:37):
You have to maintain that professional demeanor, for example when
dealing with the public. I don't have it here in
front of me, so I can't really get into details.
I don't have it off the top of my head.
I don't want to give the wrong information. But the
Code of Conduct Act is readily available online. He can
download it, cruise it printed, highlight what he needs.

Speaker 2 (01:20:03):
Yeah, and I would imagine it's pretty basic stuff.

Speaker 6 (01:20:08):
Yeah.

Speaker 16 (01:20:09):
Well, you know, conducting yourself professionally, not personal swearing at
the public is pretty basic day to day operations.

Speaker 9 (01:20:16):
Yep.

Speaker 2 (01:20:19):
And I would imagine has things to do with, for instance,
not conducting or being involved with any policy where you
see yourself enriching yourself financially speaking. Those just general terms, right.

Speaker 16 (01:20:31):
Well, yeah, conflict of interest is a big part of
all three pieces of legislation, it really is. And they've
changed the definition a little bit in how you conduct
the or you have to express if you're in confidence
when it comes to any type of business. But the
core principle is still there. You can't be you cannot

(01:20:54):
conduct any business in which you have a personal interest.

Speaker 2 (01:20:58):
As members of staff at the council level, do you
get code of conduct training?

Speaker 16 (01:21:05):
Absolutely, you'd have to get that training every year.

Speaker 2 (01:21:11):
I think that makes all the sense in the world.

Speaker 6 (01:21:14):
Yep.

Speaker 16 (01:21:15):
And there's there's so much that that's accessible through municipal
affairs and other government officers like the a Tip Office
just put off training and is currently doing sessions around
the islands in person, and they're going to be doing
more online.

Speaker 2 (01:21:33):
That's good, it's helpful information. Do you work in that setting?
Just curious?

Speaker 16 (01:21:38):
Yeah, I'm involved in municipal politics.

Speaker 2 (01:21:40):
Okay, I appreciate the information. I guess if I had
to think a little clearer, there would have been absolutely
some reference to a code of conduct when I speak
with Andy. But I guess that's why I put him
on to municipality's New Fland Laborador, because they'd have much
more readily available answers as to process and what he
should expect next and what he should include in a
formal comp. So, yeah, I'm glad you fill in some

(01:22:02):
of those blanks for me this morning.

Speaker 16 (01:22:04):
There's another organization that he might want also want to
reach out to.

Speaker 6 (01:22:08):
Now.

Speaker 16 (01:22:08):
M and L has an incredible staff and are very knowledgeable.
Some of them may actually recognize my voice, but we'll
leave that there. But PMA there's another great organization that
they well they govern municipal administrators, so clerics and CEOs
and town managers.

Speaker 2 (01:22:29):
What's the acronym stand for?

Speaker 16 (01:22:31):
Oh, Professional municip Professional Municipal Administrators.

Speaker 2 (01:22:36):
Okay, I'm don't know if I've ever even heard of
that organization, but I'm glad I can add that to
my mental rawlodecks as well.

Speaker 16 (01:22:44):
They are another great organization with good.

Speaker 2 (01:22:47):
Staff, helpful information caller. I'm glad you made time for
the show. Have a great day, Patty, you too, all
the best. Okay, bye bye, Uh, that was good. I've
never heard of PMA, but I'll put that in my
mental filing cabinet. Let's go to line number two. Bill,
you're on the air.

Speaker 6 (01:23:05):
Yeah, is this me?

Speaker 2 (01:23:06):
That's you?

Speaker 12 (01:23:07):
If you're a Bill, Yeah, that's me. Yeah. Uh, Patty,
I heard your pre amble this morning, Like I called yesterday,
I think about the Yeah, the Outer Ring road, And
I said, there's a there's different rules applied to the
Outer Ring Road than the than the rest of the

(01:23:27):
Transcanas Highway. Yes, I did, and I guess I stand
by that, And I think, uh, the rules I think,
I mean, there's there's a bunch of rules, but the
ultimate rule are the signage on the highway. I think, like,
you know, it tells you how fast to go, and
and then they have like on the on the outer

(01:23:50):
Ring portion, and there's overhead signage that tells you different
lanes and and and tells you where those different lanes go.
And so that's what I mean, like different rules apply
for different sections away. So now we're on the stretch
of the section of the transcan that we call the

(01:24:13):
outer Ring, is there a sign saying that you were
expected to keep right except the pass.

Speaker 13 (01:24:18):
No.

Speaker 2 (01:24:19):
I was trying to even just think in my mind's
eye about how frequently we would see one of those
signs on the highway, say pass the seal cop turn off,
And I think I already kind of recall seeing those
signs when there are new vehicles coming on, so they've
come out of some sort of on ramp and then
you'll see a sign quite likely there. But I don't
even know how many of those signs would be between

(01:24:41):
here and Port of bask To be honest, I don't know,
and I haven't counted the normal down to but yeah, yeah.

Speaker 12 (01:24:45):
They used to be these be around. But you don't
see him any that strike. You don't see him anymore.
But I'm making the point. You don't see him in
the out of ring. But if you go further on
the highway, say west, say pass, say the big clover
leaf that number two except with number one, you know,
the Pitts Memorial or the you know, if you go
past that, then they have signage that says, I think

(01:25:09):
is slower traffic keep right or something like that, you
know something. So it's all relative. It doesn't say keep
right except the past. But they got a new sign
saying slower traffic, keep right, which I think is it's
ambiguous at best, right, But that's the only sign they're
saying that. Now, if you drive on, I don't know
if you've noticed, but if you look at the overhead

(01:25:30):
sign and now, say if you're going east, and if
you if you come to the overhead sign before, say
the Portugal Cove interchange, I think it, or maybe it's
after the Portugal of interchange. But it tells you. It
tells you, say, if you're going to Pleasantville, get in
the left lane. If you're going to UH to Tour

(01:25:52):
I think the Tour Bay exit and get into central lane,
and you know, it tells you. And if you're going west,
there's overhead signage. And this is why I'm saying, these
are the rules of the road or I guess guidelines
or whatever. And if you're going west, the left lane
it's you know, there's an arrow pointing down into the

(01:26:13):
left lane and it says t C H West and
and the and the right lane has an arrow pointing
down and it tells you, you know, maybe Allendale will
turn off or or team goes you highway or something
like that, because you know you should be in the
right lane if you're going to be exiting. So you know,

(01:26:34):
So what prought me to call this morning is in
your preamble. I think you said somebody sent you along
text about you know, the HTA or UH they said
they you know, they did a lot of they sent
you a lot of information and and and I got
I got the impression that you were convinced that key
right exceptive pass applies to the Uttering Road.

Speaker 2 (01:26:57):
Well, so says the Highway Traffic Act, and this one
felt I went through pains taking detail in an extremely
long email about just this topic. And you know, I'll
be honest, I don't even look at the science on
the stretch of the Uttering Road that I use all
the time because I know where I'm going, I know
where my exit is, I know how to get down
and on the goodshoes, So I don't really look at
the science necessarily. But I suppose now into the future

(01:27:19):
I will make a point of acknowledging the science.

Speaker 12 (01:27:22):
Going on, you know, to home today. Just just I
tried to send you an email with the pictures of
the different science. There's not enough storage on my phone
or something like that. I don't know, it wouldn't work,
But I'm just see. It's an urban highway, and once
you get past say the route to interchange, that it

(01:27:45):
becomes I think it is considered a maybe a rural
highway and so. And even if you drive on the
Team Goods You Highway, which is a divided highway, there's
signs declaring which lane you're supposed to be in depending
on where you're going. So and I've heard it, I
said from my son did a driving course with the

(01:28:07):
I think used to be called Safety Council. But you know,
I asked him to ask the instructor, and the instructor
told him that because the highway was in an urban environment,
that those lanes are driving lanes. So like, if I'm
out in the left lane or the lane closest to
the median, and I'm traveling and I'm what I'm required

(01:28:30):
to travel is you know, it tells me I'm supposed
to go no more than a hundred, and I feel
comfortable at a hundred under good conditions, then then I
should I shouldn't be bullied by somebody who's tailgate me,
you know, probably I don't know. I guess they're trying
to get me to move over, or maybe they think
I'm not going fast enough for something like that, And
I think that that's what probably leads to a lot

(01:28:51):
of accidents.

Speaker 2 (01:28:52):
Well, that's all right, Okay, the tailgating is kind of
a standalone issue. I would suggest that's.

Speaker 17 (01:28:58):
Just it's related already. Do I already believe it's related
to it? I think there's a lot of people that
believe that that on the outer ring you've got to
stay right except the pass and they feel that they're
passing me at one hundred and twenty or one hundred
and thirty or something, and they feel that I should
move out.

Speaker 11 (01:29:13):
Of the way.

Speaker 12 (01:29:14):
And I feel that I think most times I will
get out from our own safety. I will get out
of a boot.

Speaker 6 (01:29:19):
What it does and.

Speaker 12 (01:29:20):
Caused congestion in the right hand lane for carents that
are trying to merge or exiting.

Speaker 2 (01:29:25):
Okay, all right, Bill, I got to get to the
news break, but I appreciate your time.

Speaker 12 (01:29:30):
Okay, thanks, Patty.

Speaker 2 (01:29:31):
Stay right on. I'll let your passon.

Speaker 12 (01:29:34):
No, no, I don't agree with you. Okay, Okay, No,
it's not Look it's not it's not true. It's not true.
There don't, I don't it's not right.

Speaker 2 (01:29:42):
No, thanks Bill, Okay, by set your time. Bye bye,
let's get a break for the news. Don't go away.

Speaker 1 (01:29:47):
You were listening to a rebroadcast VOCM Open Line. Have
your say by calling seven oh nine at two seven,
three fifty two eleven or one triple eight five ninety
eight six two six listen live Weekday mornings at nine am.

Speaker 2 (01:30:04):
Welcome back to the shows. As we spoke about at
the top of the program, some of the key operations
of the Provincial Court have now been suspended. Some details
as to why come in this afternoon when the Justice
Minister Helen Conway and fills us in. But right now
join us on liner. But one is Lynn Moore, a
partner at Morris Morris More Law firm. Good morning, Lynn,
you're on the air. Hilyn.

Speaker 18 (01:30:28):
Hi, how are you doing.

Speaker 2 (01:30:29):
Doing okay this morning? How about you?

Speaker 18 (01:30:31):
Thanks?

Speaker 2 (01:30:32):
Now, we'll point out right away that this doesn't necessarily
impact you. You predominantly work in Supreme Court. But when
you heard that these operations were being paused for some
unknown reason your thoughts.

Speaker 18 (01:30:42):
I was very shocked because it's a major step for
the court to take to cease operations in several areas,
because you know, the rule of law requires that people
have a right to access the courts to protect their

(01:31:04):
rights and to ensure that their rights are en trined.
If you can't go to court, then it is a
problem for a functioning democracy. And I heard the minister's
response and her written response, and that she had said, well,

(01:31:25):
you know, it's up to the court, but they do,
and that is true. The court was in the position
where they had to make this decision. But this decision is,
in my view, really a monetary one, and it's the
government that supplies the funds for the courts and they
can only do so much with what they're given. You know,

(01:31:45):
I've been working in the justice system for a long
time now, like more than thirty years, and I have
seen that the justice system really is the poor cousin
of government in terms of how the funding goes. The
criminal justice system, especially the provincial court, does the lion's

(01:32:08):
share of all the criminal work in the province. Only
very small number of those cases go on to Supreme Court.
And in the outer areas they do a lot of
family law as well, and small claims court is an
important thing for people who have been perhaps had shoddy

(01:32:30):
work done in their house, or their car bill was
ridiculous and they didn't agree to pay that amount. That's
where they go to get those disputes resolved. And if
you can't do that and you're already struggling financially, it's
a real blow to not be able to enforce your

(01:32:50):
rights civilly. In the areas where the court has cut
those services, of.

Speaker 2 (01:32:55):
Course, and so to read between the lines when you
talk about funding, because your absolutely right, this just really
feels like a staffing issue, no more, no less.

Speaker 18 (01:33:04):
Well, that's what I believe, is that it's an issue
of not enough shriff's officers and perhaps not enough court
officers behind the scenes. You'll recall that not that long
ago they had to close public access to one part
of the provincial court in Saint John's. They have the
metal detectors and the X ray like they do in

(01:33:25):
the airport to screen people as they go through, and
they had to shut one of those down because they
didn't have enough shriff's officers to staff those entryways. And
you know, this is where the most violent people in
our community end up, and security is a very important
issue for everybody involved in the justice system.

Speaker 2 (01:33:47):
I don't know who this particular emailer was, but pretty
much downplaying the story, saying, well, you'll still have your case,
or you just might have to go to a different community.
But look, access to justice is a pretty key cornerstone
to the system.

Speaker 18 (01:33:59):
It is a really really really important part of a
functioning democracy. And you know, you will not necessarily have
your case heard traffic matters. I heard on the radio
that traffic matters are being put over to twenty twenty seven.
That is not going to comply with the Supreme Court

(01:34:19):
to Canada's ruling on trial within a reasonable time in
the Jordan decision. So if those cases really do not
get heard until twenty twenty seven, those people are going
to have their charges dismissed because people have a right
to trial within a reasonable time and traffic enforcement really
matters for public safety. Like I know myself, when I've

(01:34:41):
gotten a speeding ticket, it changes my behavior for quite
a long time afterwards, because I don't want to get
another one. And if people get in their heads that
there is going to be no enforcement, it's you know,
it's a serious issue. A lot of lives are lost
on our roadways every year.

Speaker 2 (01:34:56):
Yeah, it's absolutely a mindset, there's no doubt about it.
Just quickly on to pick your brain on the whole
Jordan issue. I mean, we understand the implications and access
to timely justice. So eighteen months of provincial court, thirty
months in Supreme Court, it's changed everything. It's even changed
how law enforcement operates. You know, they'll make an arrest,
but they'll take their time before they swear the evidence,
which starts the clock ticking. So with staffing issues with

(01:35:19):
some parts of the country, would judge a shortage of judges.
I mean, there's a lot of moving parts on the
justice system. Do you think this is going to have
to be revisited because we can't see a future where
people who may indeed be guilty just run out of
time and consequently they walk scott free. So do you
think we're on the right track or do you think
this will have to be revisited in the future.

Speaker 18 (01:35:39):
Well, that's a really good question. And I can tell
you that former Chief Justice McLaughlin gave a public speech
after the Jordan decision was had been in effect for
a while, and she said that they did not imagine
that the government would try to proceed on the same

(01:36:01):
a lot with the same allotment of resources that they
had prior to Jordan. They thought the system would be
infused with more judges, more courtrooms, more prosecutors, more legal
aid lawyers, and that would be the only way the
system would cope. And when they saw charges being withdrawn
or not prosecuted, or impair driving in British Columbia, has
gone to a ticket offense since in some instances they

(01:36:23):
were completely shocked. So you know, back in the early
nineties there was a similar decision on it was called
askof and the ceiling there was eight months and the
court did reverse itself after that when numerous charges were
withdrawn then because they couldn't meet that ceiling. But they
seemed pretty certain in this decision, and they have. There

(01:36:48):
have been appeals since where the Crown has argued that,
you know, we really need to revisit this, and the
court has stuck to their guns. So we're either going
to have to prosecute a lot less people, or we're
going to have to have a lot more prosecutors and
courtrooms and judges and defense layers.

Speaker 2 (01:37:06):
And seemingly that's not where we're at realistically speaking in
this problence, or I would suggest the rest of the country.
I'll let anything else on any of these fronts before
we say goodbye this morning. Good to have you on,
appreciate your time. Thank you so much, Len Moore, your
partner at more and more our law firm. So, of course,
if the Supreme Court has you know, rejected or denied

(01:37:26):
appeals based on the Jordan ruling. You hope it's not
a matter of just standing their ground, a matter as
the principle, because if we're unable to with the shortage
of officers and other court employees or court staff, prosecutors,
league late attorneys and otherwise, then you know, principle will
be damned. If we're talking about potential criminals walking free

(01:37:46):
because of delays in the criminal justice system. Anyway, I
don't know. Let's get a break in. Don't go away,
welcome back. Let's go to line number three. Walter you
around the air.

Speaker 19 (01:37:55):
Good morning, Patty in a very merry Christmas, sir, to
you and your family and your listeners and and coal workers. Okay,
have a great Christmas.

Speaker 2 (01:38:01):
Thank you very much, I'm saying to you, Patny.

Speaker 19 (01:38:04):
I wanted to speak just on the MEWS Center just
for ten seconds or so. Do I have one more second,
just to mention one thing before I get to that.

Speaker 3 (01:38:10):
Yeah, go ahead, God love you.

Speaker 19 (01:38:13):
Snow playing here in the city is Saint John's. So
it's good, it's bad, it's indifferent. It's just just the
way it is. We have the most beautiful city in
the world, and we have the worst winter weather you
could ever imagine. Because we always get that, you know, snow,
then the freezing rain, and then the rain, and then
back to the freezing rain, back to snow, et cetera.
The majority of the larger municipalities here in the province

(01:38:33):
implement the December first parking band. I know there's one
municipality that implements the November first, which might be a
little bit early, but I hear in the city we
wait until the first week of January to you know,
put the official one in and say if we get snow,
we might put a van on. We may not put
a van on. It's just so it's so confusing. And

(01:38:55):
here in the city, I mean Cowpass that we turned
into two roads. It's important that when we do get snow,
like we did yesterday downtown it was hardly anything where
we are here on the Cornwall Avenue area, we got
twenty centimeters of snow, if not more because the rain
started to padd it town, so it would have been great.
I think it's great for the operators, less stress on

(01:39:16):
them to just be able to clear a clean street.
Even better for people who have a vehicle and they
come home. If people are parked on the road, they
have twenty two feet of street that have declared before
they get into there into their driveway, not to mention,
I don't know, I have no numbers on it, but
I can't imagine that we haven't clipped a few vehicles
over the years to cause damage that are parked on

(01:39:38):
the roads that we had to pay for. So I
don't know why the city is so reluctant to just
put in the December first parking ban across the board.

Speaker 3 (01:39:46):
That's it.

Speaker 19 (01:39:46):
You know, you've got to find a place to park
in a month anyway, So I don't know why they
won't put in the Decembra van. The December first bands
makes sense to me, makes economic sense to me, and
I just wanted to throw that out. I know folk
want to go visit in Christmas and all that kind
of stuff, but everybody in the province wants to visit
and they have a band December first, So it's all
about what's best for most people, not what's best for

(01:40:08):
just a few.

Speaker 2 (01:40:09):
Yeah, that was long. The thought is that delay the
fall on parking band until after the holiday season. Whether
or not that's the right thing or the wrong thing,
I don't know, but that's generative been the sentiment and
the rationalalyist wyb wait till the third of January.

Speaker 19 (01:40:22):
Yes, you're right, absolutely, I would say December first. I mean,
I wouldn't mind at all being able to come home
and have a clean street. Again, people have to, you know,
if you want to go and have a parody during Christmas.
There's uber was never around. We have a lot of
taxis on the road, so folks have a lot of
ways to get around during the Christmas season, and of
course the Christmas season is three or four days in

(01:40:43):
December's you know, for the thirty one days. But that
was just my thought to just make it easier for
the operators, and especially when we get all that darn rain,
it'd be nice for the plows to be able to
push that snow back to clear out the storm drains,
because a lot of the reasons why we get so
much flooding is because the snow wasn't being able to
be pushed back. So push the small vack you rid
of the water and just have clear streets. But that

(01:41:03):
was just my thought, That's all, sure, Patty. Just very quickly.
The Mew Center had some youth programs that will go
on and I think until the thirteenth on a Saturday
and the seventh of December on a Sunday. At first
the city had said it was eighteen plus, but they
changed that thankfully. And a lot of the youth that
you got off the streets and got off their phones

(01:41:26):
and were welcomed into the Mews Center for two bucks
to go in and kick the ball around and throw
the basketball around. It's been an absolute amazing success. And
a couple of parents and a guardian called me and said,
is it possibly just go on and speak to Patty
and hope that the city will extend it or make
it a permanent thing. So I said, absolutely, I'd love
to do that because it is a great idea. And

(01:41:47):
sometimes we wonder why our youth go off the rail
sometimes give them something to do. They're in there, you know,
having exercise and they sleep better and then not on
their phones. At twelve o'clock in the night, they're looking
at the inside of the eyelands because they're exhausted from
the exercise they got. And I'll tell you one quick
little thing, and I don't want to I don't want

(01:42:08):
to poke a sleeping dog. But one guardian said, you know,
my son was having a problem with another individual, and
they were always giving each other the stink guy in
school and long and behold they went both there to
the meuse throwing the ball around and volleyball and bat
They're best buddies now they you know, they had no
idea why they were beefing with each other, and now

(01:42:30):
you know, what are you doing. I'm going to the mews.
Let's go to the mews. They're very close together. So
I think that the city should implement it and put
it as a as a permanent thing. Anything we can
do to assist their youth, especially in these days. I
think it's a good.

Speaker 8 (01:42:43):
Thing, Patty.

Speaker 2 (01:42:44):
Absolutely. I mean, you know what they say about idle hands, right,
So yeah, I'm glad that you put that forward here
this morning. I don't know how that's going to land
at the city council level or at the city level period,
but I'm glad you brought a call this morning. Anything
else want to say, well, we have you, Walter.

Speaker 19 (01:43:00):
No, sir, just have a safe merry Christmas and let's
have a wonderful.

Speaker 2 (01:43:05):
New year, looking forward to it.

Speaker 11 (01:43:06):
Thank you, Thank you, Patty.

Speaker 2 (01:43:08):
Welcome, bye bye. Just before we get to the news
and This is an American story, but I think it
captivated a lot of news followers. So you know, the
whole pipe bomb pipe bomber from January sixth put these
explosive devices outside both the DNC and RNC headquarters in Washington.
Apparently they've made an arrest, so all these years later,

(01:43:32):
amazing that they were unable to go through. Now the
story reads pretty vague at this moment time because the
rest was just made today. Is they just simply re
examined the evidence they've already had in hand and came
up with an identification. Some Virginia guy has been arrested
for planting those two pipe bombs. The reason why this
is an actual story for me is when it takes

(01:43:54):
so long for something so serious to be figured out
and the rest to be made and yet to go
through the courts to be pre actually guilty here. But
it came with endless theories, endless conspiracy theories about who
did it and the political motivation and up and down
the line. So I guess if you want to tackle
it a little bit later on with some sort of
cable news update or my choices to read about it

(01:44:18):
is apparently there's been a restu mate, so pretty serious stuff.
Let's check in on the Twitter box. We're VOSIM openline,
you know what to do. Email addresses Openlina FOSM dot com.
When we come back after the newscast, we're going to
check in with the good folks out at Marble Mountain.
They have indeed put pretty deep discounts on their seasons passes,
largely because the three lifts are now down to one
lift at Marble. And then whatever else we can figure

(01:44:39):
out to talk about with that crowd with and then
whatever you want to talk about right after this, don't
go ahead.

Speaker 1 (01:44:44):
The Tim Power Show joing the conversation weekday afternoons at
four pm on your VOCM.

Speaker 2 (01:44:50):
Welcome back to the show. Let's go to line number three.

Speaker 8 (01:44:52):
Collar.

Speaker 2 (01:44:52):
You're on the air.

Speaker 6 (01:44:56):
How you doing?

Speaker 2 (01:44:57):
Okay? How about you?

Speaker 6 (01:44:59):
That's ad just under child about the overhead signs on
the higher.

Speaker 2 (01:45:05):
Okay, ok.

Speaker 6 (01:45:10):
I worked with the department for eighteen here now play
and the road main and putting up times. But the
signs are meant for we'll say navigational assistance. Take I'll
take the example of Team Gazoo. You come on Team

(01:45:30):
Gazoo the first ramp to exit is Kelsey. The other
two lanes are identified both. It's come out road. I'm
gonna send Every exit to a to a ramp is
identified in the fire right. The right lane itself, what

(01:45:53):
we'll call the slow lane, is identifying the next exit.
Left lane is always identifying waste or the end of
the road, depending how highway on. It's not to tell
you where to go, it's to assist you and navigating.

(01:46:14):
If you're going to jump on you got a ring
off logger day road and you're going to port of bat,
are you going to stay in the left lane the
hallway to port of that? You know, common sense gotta
jump in there somewhere or grow you know, under the
Highway Traffic Act, if you want a very interesting read,
you'll find the information on all that kind of stuff.

(01:46:39):
But you can't be fine for impeding traffic. And if
that's you know, if you're going to stay in the
left lane do a hundred kilometers and I'm going to
be in the right lane doing a hundred klometers, as
you know, you're impeding traffic as simple as that. So

(01:46:59):
I would gate. I've been tail gabD. They're not making
any friends if you're hogging the left lane. That where from?

Speaker 2 (01:47:09):
Yeah, I mean, I think the popular consensus out there
is that keep right except to pass, and the overhead
science as you poured out, they really feel like as
much about navigating as opposed to telling me what I
have to do on the road. So that that all
makes sense to me.

Speaker 6 (01:47:25):
Yeah, it's the purpose of me. People have their own
thoughts and then it becomes a reality. Because that coller
a few calls back, I think the same guys yesterday
was saying, it's telling me I think to stay I'm
going with so I say, so, it's his thoughts. It's

(01:47:47):
become his reality, but isn't in fact reality, which for
that caller and others like that. Rach Ravigat explains it all.
But I would like to make a suggestion in regards
to all the other teams on the highways, on the
roadways as you refer to. It'd be great to get

(01:48:10):
like the voice from the new Plant Safety Council or
something like that. If you mean to get a show arm,
get them on for an hour or so. The tation
involves and reach a long ways and cleant up a
lot of a lot of answers. I'd suggest.

Speaker 2 (01:48:25):
Yeah. Absolutely. We have invited law enforcement to come on
and set the record straight once and for all, because
this should not be complicated, they should not be confusing.

Speaker 6 (01:48:36):
Now and it's you know, newer and newer, more and
more people coming out on the road. We got a
lot of more people from different countries and why not
moving into the province and stuff, and they all got
different rules and how they're used to driving, if they're
used to driving, you know. So it's all beneficial information,

(01:48:59):
accurate information, some education.

Speaker 2 (01:49:01):
We absolutely imagine. Made time for the show.

Speaker 6 (01:49:05):
Thanks for the call, no problem, probably go on you
two pou bye bye.

Speaker 2 (01:49:09):
All right, let's keep proble and going to line number one,
taking more to the general manager out of Marble Mountain.
That's Richard Cormier. Good morning, Richard, you're on the air morning, Patty.

Speaker 7 (01:49:17):
How are you doing this morning?

Speaker 2 (01:49:18):
Doing okay? How about you?

Speaker 7 (01:49:20):
Oh fantastic. We've got some fresh down snow down. Everything
looks good.

Speaker 2 (01:49:24):
Yeah, there's one group that loves a bit of snow,
the skiers of snowboarders, caedures and snowshoers or whatever the case.
We'd be Richard. So you're down from three lifts to
one what's the reason for the other two lifts not
being operable this year? Is it about costs or is
about being able to source replacement parts because of the age?
What is it?

Speaker 7 (01:49:41):
Yeah, it's a it's a little bit of a lot
of both, I guess, Patty. The lists are you know,
they've they kind of reached started the end of their
life expectancy. One of the lifts. You know, they haven't
made parts for that list in almost twenty years, so
we're you know, we're struggling to get in those parts
and in place to get it operable.

Speaker 2 (01:50:00):
So as a result, some pretty deep discounts for season passes.
How are they selling?

Speaker 7 (01:50:06):
Seeing the past tales right now? I have been fantastic.
You know, we're picking up all kinds of new members.

Speaker 8 (01:50:10):
You know, people are bypasses every day.

Speaker 7 (01:50:12):
Snow really helps. I know, the discounts in the passes
were as much about getting people back to love in
the organization as they're about the you know, the being
down to a single list, and it's really about getting
kids and families out enjoying the winter again.

Speaker 2 (01:50:26):
We love going to Marble. So it's a bit of
a double edged sword though all the same, isn't there, Richard,
because more passes, maybe more skiers if the weather cooperates.
We'll get into the weather here now in a second.
But at the same time, down to one lift main
indeed present day problem for folks at the hill, skiers, snowboarders,
at management alike.

Speaker 7 (01:50:44):
What do you think, No, I really don't think that
list can move, you know, well over twenty one hundred
people an hour, so it's certainly more incapable of moving
through our demand. Anybody who's ever been away and you know,
skid at larger resorts, I mean you could, you could
wait forty forty five fifty men. It's at the base
of a hill trying to get a bout the lists
on our busiest day. People are still want to wait
four or five six minutes.

Speaker 2 (01:51:05):
Yeah, I mean it is one of the pleasures of
skiing at Marvel because we lived out west and if
we went to Sunshine or all the way to Whisper,
what have you. They've got a huge operation of lifts
and you can wait a long long time. So let's
get into weather. About how much snow do you have
at this moment of time.

Speaker 7 (01:51:22):
You know, on on the base of lodge, we've you know,
we've got ten or fifteen, twenty centimeters in the last
couple of days were ten or fifteen Coming on the
top of the hill, we know we were close to
two feet of snow.

Speaker 9 (01:51:32):
I couldn't get to pick up truck over the top
of the hill.

Speaker 8 (01:51:34):
You still live getting stuck.

Speaker 2 (01:51:35):
So what do you need for base to open reasonably?

Speaker 7 (01:51:41):
It really depends on whether we're using natural snow or
snow making snower. It's more about getting a complete coverage
from top to bottom. But you know we'll with you know,
twenty five or thirty centimeters to.

Speaker 10 (01:51:52):
A couple of feet. That's usually where our circle was.

Speaker 2 (01:51:56):
I don't want to get too far into your own
business model necessarily, but it's in a rough couple of years.
Regarding weather and weather is everything weather, you know, the
nice weather conditions, but it's obviously snow. Is there a
number of operational days? You need to have meaningful operations
to be able to keep the wolf away from the door,
pay the bills?

Speaker 7 (01:52:16):
Yeah, I mean obviously the longer we're open, the better
off we are.

Speaker 6 (01:52:19):
For sure.

Speaker 7 (01:52:21):
You know what we are here in this of the
valley is we're really sort of an economic engine for
the winter tourism.

Speaker 8 (01:52:27):
You know, for every.

Speaker 7 (01:52:28):
Dollar that's spent here at the ski hill, there's somewhere
between six eight nine dollars left in the community.

Speaker 3 (01:52:33):
So you know what we do is.

Speaker 7 (01:52:35):
We put you know, seven eight nine, ten million dollars
back into the local economy here on the West Coast.
So obviously the longer we're open the better, and the
more support we had within the community the better. But
you know, we really can't control the weather.

Speaker 2 (01:52:47):
No, of course not. You know, I hear plenty of
people making the argument, and obviously these people don't live
on the West Coast in and around Steady Brook. Is
it's time for the government to get out of the
ski hill business, especially given some of the sketchy seasons
we've had in the recent past. But you've made the
case right there. Every dollar spent at Marble results in
more money being spelt elsewhere in the community. So it
is an economic driver. Far too many people just don't

(01:53:09):
latch onto that.

Speaker 7 (01:53:10):
Oh yeah, absolutely, listen, we're even more than economic driver.
We're the reason that doctors and nurses decide to move
to the West Coast. I mean, it's part of the
lifestyle aus and the local skip the cross country ski parks.
I mean, it's it's really the lifestyle that people are
looking for and us there's one of the things we
can help provide.

Speaker 2 (01:53:28):
Yeah, no doubt about it. So in so far as
the future goes, we've know that the government's tried to
offload there are operations at Marble Mountain, even though it's
a standalone corporation that operates Marble, but any communication with
the government about that process, because there has been really
very limited uptake on the RFPs. So how does that
conversation somend between yourselves and government these days?

Speaker 7 (01:53:50):
Well, I mean we're the obviously with the change in
the provincial government, there's some more conversations that we'll be had,
I guess whenever one gets straightened away and tail out
as they would say, and you know, we're we're going
to continue here to operate, you know, from a community
standpoint and get people out enjoying the winter and loving
the outdoors and getting kids some physical fitness and some

(01:54:10):
recreation and if if we can, you know, if someone's
interested in owning a great ski resort, I'm sure the
government will be an interesting time coming.

Speaker 2 (01:54:20):
Richard, do you do formal tracking of visitors from outside
the province because it's probably the best selling led to Canada.

Speaker 7 (01:54:27):
Yeah, well, we you know, we we do look at
different numbers and different metrics for groups that are coming in.
I wouldn't know, I wouldn't have any of those numbers.
But you know, historically there was always a great group
that used to come from Toronto and you know in
the Humber Valley resort days, we would have planes coming
from across across the ocean. In Europe, we have a
big portion of people come from Halifax every year.

Speaker 2 (01:54:48):
So well, Europeans must love it because if anyone's ever
skiing in Europe, the hills are tight and they are packed,
not like the big wide runs you have at Marble.

Speaker 7 (01:54:59):
Absolutely, and listen, the gym of this place is that
we're uh, you know, we we've got lots of room
and lots of space and it's a big resort for
Atlantic Canada. You know, it's it's just it's a it's
a beautiful little gym here on the West coast that
we need people to remember us here.

Speaker 2 (01:55:15):
You know, you talk about the skiers and snowboarders and
the need for snow and the weather to cooperate. Let's
talk a little bit about what's been done in the
recent past to broaden the seasons, the shoulder seasons, more
offerings into the summer, for instance. So that is not
just relying on good snow.

Speaker 7 (01:55:31):
Yeah, I mean, listen to anybody who's ever been in
in this massive, beautiful building we have here.

Speaker 10 (01:55:37):
I mean we we are probably.

Speaker 7 (01:55:38):
One wedding events were on the island, so persons that
the conference weddings, they really are important piece to our
our longevity here at Yeah, no doubt.

Speaker 2 (01:55:55):
I mean we used to SKay at Marmot Basin and
you talk about the chalet there versus Marble. Marble's like
going to going to Colorado versus going to the Rocky
Mountains right there, Marms and Jaspar.

Speaker 7 (01:56:08):
Yeah, I mean, we have a beautiful facility. It's a
massive it's and it was really modeled, you know when
it was built thirty years ago. It was really modeled
after some of those resupports down through states. I mean
is it's a beautiful, constructive building.

Speaker 2 (01:56:23):
It's very similar to the main Challett Beaver Creek.

Speaker 9 (01:56:27):
Yeah.

Speaker 7 (01:56:28):
And if I'm not mistaken, either creek might have been
one of the resorts they actually to visit it in
the in the late eighties early nineties, looking.

Speaker 10 (01:56:35):
For some ideas.

Speaker 2 (01:56:36):
Cool. Last question at full compliment at the height of
the season, how many people work at Marble.

Speaker 7 (01:56:43):
Oh, you know, we're somewhere between, you know, like one
hundred and ten to one hundred and twenty one hundred
and thirty people at times. That includes some of our
part time and temporary casual column staff. So yeah, we're
a big employer here on in the West coast.

Speaker 2 (01:56:57):
Fingers crossed for a great season. We'll see it sometime
in February.

Speaker 7 (01:57:00):
Fantastic. Can't wait to have you out and we'll do
it again. We'll let you know when things are on the.

Speaker 2 (01:57:06):
Move, look forward to it. Appreciate your time.

Speaker 9 (01:57:08):
Thanks for doing it all right, Thanks Betty.

Speaker 2 (01:57:10):
Youre welcome by Bie Richard Cormier, their general manager at Marble.
He just painted out the economics case for government to
not be too quick to walk away because in the
big scheme of things, in an eleven billion dollar budget,
that one million dollars is you know, not insignificant money,
but nor is it breaking the back. Let's get her
find a break in the morning, and when we come back,
still a segment left for you don't go away, welcome

(01:57:31):
back to the show. While David sorting of that caller
emails ask him questions about plowing cull to sacks. I
don't live on the color of sack, so not entirely sure.
But it's the approach taking to make sure that as
much now as possible ends up in the middle of
the caul of sack versus ends up in your driveway.
So the thought is maybe it's a counter clockwise move required.
I don't know, but if you live in a cul

(01:57:52):
de sack you want to share your experience, you're welcome
to do it. Let's got a line number one.

Speaker 12 (01:57:55):
Rod.

Speaker 3 (01:57:56):
You're on the air, Hi, Betty, you know anything about
the also striking in my end zone?

Speaker 2 (01:58:02):
Well, they're back to rotating work. So the mail is flowing.

Speaker 8 (01:58:08):
Oh it's flowing, isn't it.

Speaker 2 (01:58:09):
Yeah, apparently I got mail delivered yesterday.

Speaker 8 (01:58:13):
Because I'm waiting for stuff for motor registration and stuff.

Speaker 7 (01:58:17):
I'm waiting out a Gest Chicks since October.

Speaker 6 (01:58:21):
But anyway, it's good.

Speaker 3 (01:58:24):
To hear that that has flown.

Speaker 8 (01:58:25):
Okay, thanks for thefo.

Speaker 2 (01:58:28):
Yeah, the mail is indeed flowing, whether or not they're
back to full capacity. I really don't know what the
rotating strike I think is well how they refer to
it as working. But yeah, the mail is flowing, Okay,
thanks buddy, no problem, Tell bye bye. Which does bring
in the unpredictability and how quick letters and parcels are

(01:58:49):
being delivered. I'm really not sure. Parcels are always going
to be a snag and people talk about the black
hole that is dep where so much gets held up.
So I don't know how quick things are moving, but
they are indeed moving. Mail has been arriving at our
super mail box. You really do wonder about the future
of Canada Post. The current way it structured is unsustainable. Obviously,
they've already lost a billion dollars this year. So for

(01:59:12):
the longest while they used to stand on their own
two feet. They didn't need any government intervention until a
couple of years ago, where they absolutely needed a billion
dollars plus. So into the future, whether it means some
of the rural post offices closing, whether there's a complete
stop to door to door delivery, I don't know, but
those are the recommendations made at the federal government level,
and I don't think anybody in the country is really

(01:59:35):
has the appetite. Well, let me restart that one. For
folks who rely on Canada Post in full, because the
courier simply will not go that distance what they call
the last mile of service. Those people are crossing their
fingers hoping for a long term, successful, viable Canada Post.
I would imagine the bulk of the rest of the
country just doesn't want it to come out of taxpayers

(01:59:57):
and pockets. You know, even when Canada Posts has not
been given the authority to set stamp prices, what do
you think is going to happen all of a sudden
The price is sending a letter or a parcel through
a Canada Post is going to be way out of
whack because there's only so many revenue streams that they
can take advantage of or avail of, and one of
them was stamp prices. It used to be required government

(02:00:18):
to approve for that, but that's not the case into the future.
So good question about Canada Posts and how predictable it's
going to be during the holiday season. A couple of
quick ones. So I was asked this morning why we
didn't mention the fact that Abby new Hook has qored
her second professional goal. Well, I supposed we could mention
every time she scores, but yeah, she sniped her second
last night, and there's some excitement brewing, even though I

(02:00:40):
think it might be premature, is that there's an entrepreneur
in the city of Montreal who's doing what exploring a
bid to bring the Expos back. Now they're actually looking
for your input, I guess, just to gauge public interest,
public support, But that's a long long way from being
anything close to real. Number one, I don't even know

(02:01:01):
what the appetite of Major League Baseball itself is to
return to the city of Montreal, even though there was
a pretty proud history of the Expost. But they're actually
exploring it, and of course that comes with the need
for a ballpark, which they do not have one of
two current MLB standards. But yeah, there's a few people
sent me the email and the Google document looking for

(02:01:22):
feedback about the possibility for the Montreal Exposed to be
a thing again into the future. It was a real
shame when they left period to go to Washington. They're
now the Washington Nationals. And remember they had their eyes
firmly set on a pennant when the major leagues went
on strike. Back in ninety ninety four. They really had
the team for too. They had the record going into

(02:01:43):
that portion of the season when unfortunately got interrupted by
a strike. So yeah, there you go. And one more
thing on the rules of the road business. Look, it's
a real shame that there's any confusion out there or
contradictions out there about the appropriate way to approach operating

(02:02:03):
your vehicle on any section of the highway, including the
Outer Ring Road. So I'm not the authority on the
Highway Traffic Act, but the people who have broken it
down pretty concisely. For me, it seems to be to
me that there's no such thing as an urban highway
versus the highway anywhere else, and that if you get
on the Outer Ring Road at Loggi Bay Road and
you make your way to Porta Bass, the same rules

(02:02:23):
apply throughout. So, in an effort to clear up any
confusion which may indeed lead to some collisions on the highway,
and that's probably very very true, we'll get someone from
law enforcement to come on and set the record straight
once and for all. And hopefully at that point, regardless
of how I think about it or how anyone else
thinks about it, who may differ with me, Maybe, just

(02:02:44):
maybe when someone with authority and full understanding of the
rules can just set it straight, because this should not
be a thing. We should be able to figure out
stuff like that. And since I brought it up, maybe
it was yesterday day before my own personal pet peeves
of driving around town. Again. You never know what's going
to peak the interest of emailers in this case, but

(02:03:05):
we are bombarded with them, everything from how people operate
in parking lots and how merge lanes work and not
using your indicator and all the obvious classic ones you
can think of. One of the most popular since I
mentioned it was, is people parking in the fire lanes.
Like I've never stopped and made an issue out of
it with anyone parking a fireland, And I don't have
the brain capacity and or the patients for doing anything

(02:03:29):
like that, even though you've see it. Every now and then,
people you know will walk past a yellow Honda Civic
parked in the fire in the fireland to be told,
you know, that's a pretty cool fire truck you got there,
when it's just the wise crack all right, final check
in of the Twitter box where vosm open line, you know,
what to do? Email addresses open on a vocm dot com.
But my favorite is when you jon us live on

(02:03:49):
the program. When we willing need to pick up this
conversation again tomorrow morning, right here a on VOCM and
Big Land of FM's open line ambout half of the
producer David Williams. I'm your host, Patty Daily. Have yourself
a safe, fun, happy day. We'll talk in the morning.
Bye bye,

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