Thursday Oct 2nd

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

(00:22):
Paddy Daily.

Speaker 2 (00:23):
Well, all right and good morning to you. Thank you
very much for tuning into the program. It's Thursday, October
the second. This is Open Line. I'm your host Patty Daily.
David Williams, he's produced the program. You will be speak
with David when you pick up the phone to give
us a shout in the queue on the air. If
you're in the same time's metro region. The number of
dialas seven zero nine two seven three five two one

(00:44):
one elsewhere a total free long distance one eight eight
eight five ninety VOCEM, which is eighty six twenty six.
So I guess the Trumpo Blue Jays will have to
wait one more day to see who they faced in
the Division Series championship. So the yank Is tied it
up with the Red Sox last night in the best
of three. I don't even know as a Jays fan.
I'm not even sure who I prefer to face, between
Boston with their fantastic bullpen or the Yankees with their

(01:07):
terrible defense. Really don't know anyway, just a couple of
interesting pitching numbers. This year, for the first time in
two decades, will be zero no hitters in the majors.
It's the six times since division play began in nineteen
sixty nine no hitter, joining twenty two, thousand and five,
ninety two, eighty two, seventy four, and sixty nine. And
I love dropping a few stats when we talk about
some of the legends of the game. Sandy Kofax Sandy

(01:29):
Kofax from nineteen sixty three to nineteen sixty six. He
went ninety seven and twenty seven with a one point
eighty six era, struck out twelve hundred and twenty twenty
eight batters and eleven hundred and ninety two innings. Ninety
are part of me eighty nine complete games, thirty one shoutouts,
included four no hitters. The last no hitter was a
perfect game. And we don't see guys even going nine
innings anymore. All right, So, municipal election day today right

(01:51):
around the province except for the City of Saint John's.
It's predictable when we get some emails saying things like,
you know, tired of hearing from the politicians the candidates.
I get it. I do as someone who sits in
this chair. I understand. On the municipal front, though, it
really feels like an important part of the show to
give municipal candidates a crack at reaching out to the voters.
I mean, they don't have the money like we talked

(02:13):
about in provincial politics or federal politics. So we won't
hear from any municipal candidates today outside of the City
of Saint John's. And please do get out and vote
if you're so inclined. Also been told and asked. I
suppose to keep it on the front burner, the rebuild
out in Conception Bay North in particular. I mean, we've
all seen the visuals the scarred black forest. Whether we

(02:36):
talk about replanting and rebuilding, there's still so much worry
out there. I hear from some of these families a lot.
They talked about what happens when a mercy relief funding
runs out for accommodations or what have you. You know,
where are the federal government down the disaster relief funding
money that we were told is coming to pass. We've
hit the threshold that makes us eligible for that type
of funding. So yes, happy to keep that out there

(02:58):
because I can only imagine what must feel like to
know that your home and everything they're in and all
the memories that were created there is gone and gone forever.
So we can absolutely talk about the wildfire issues from
top to bottom. All Right, some pretty discouraging numbers coming
out two organizations, the Jimmy Pratt Foundation and Choices for You.

(03:19):
They teamed up to conduct a study looking at the
number of children in this province living in poverty. Oh boy,
twenty five percent of children under the age of six
and the province lived in poverty, the highest recorded in Canada.
That's four points higher than the twenty one percent reported
last year. Racialized children experienced poverty at thirty one percent,
that's double the national average. So people point to housing, food, insecurity.

(03:42):
There may be some hope on the horizon. When you
talk about the reintroduction of an actual poverty reduction strategy,
which we once had, which was the envy of the
country and it just went by the wayside. Then you
talk about it and this is the crime shame when
you think about it, you know, expanding school launch services.
To know that so many children rely on the grab
and go kids eat smart breakfast and or a hot

(04:03):
school lunch for them to have a fighting chance of
having a meal throughout the course of the day is
unbelievable when you think about it out loud. But those
child poverty numbers absolutely heartbreaking, unbelievable. Then I'm going to
go back to a story from a couple of years ago,
because I think we can all agree that social assistance
income support is broken. It doesn't work for a variety
of reasons, whether we talk about the amount of money,

(04:25):
and yes, not to be mean spirited, but who is
on income support? I think that's a fair question to
be asked. And then it was the hope to try
to get people from relying on income support into the workforce,
and so the profit slaunch of pilot program back in
twenty twenty three called the Employment Stability Program. It looked
like it was a very good idea at the time.
There was about one hundred and seventy people participating in

(04:47):
the pilot began in January and come November, forty of
them were no longer needing income support. I've called this
good news, or at least the move in the right direction,
just to be told, well, it's not really that good. Well,
it's encouraging. So when the it looked like it had
some success, the thought was to expand it around the province.
So where are we exactly what's going on here? Can
we have an updated numbers how many people participated and

(05:09):
how many people found themselves back into the workforce or
entering the workforce for the first time, no longer needing
income support. Here's how it worked. Participants to begin a
new job or continue working, we'll get a government payment
of two hundred and fifty dollars after six months, five
hundred dollars after year, and one thousand dollars after two years,
so the incentive. Then they were talking about a new
earnings exemption formula. We don't even have an exact percentage

(05:31):
about what that looks like. Then it's just trying to
get into the job force. They talked about a job
started allowance from one hundred and twenty five dollars jumped
up to two hundred and fifty dollars. So whether that
be by particular clothing or steal to al work boots
or whatever the case may be. So if we've expanded
a province wide an update on that front to measure
whether or not it actually has a fighting chance to
be successful, it'd be nice to hear from the province

(05:53):
on that one. Okay, Then I saw Dan Mead's here
in the studio speak with Jerylyn Macky this morning about
a story that came out about the Emergency Women's shelters.
So the crux of the matter here is that when
government negotiates with the unionized employees working in the shelters,
they got to bump and pay, but the funding was
not increased for the operations at the shelters. So we've

(06:14):
even mentioned Gray Spark's house out in Mary'stown miss Payroll
a couple of times. So it's a very blunt question
being asked by Dan. Not to try to put words
in his mouth, but basically what he said is are
you government for different parodies, Are you going to commit
to increasing the funding commensurate with the increase in pay
or are you going to see beds close. It's all
sad enough that the demand Onmercy shelters is where it is,

(06:37):
but that's a very fair question from Dan Meads. Are
you going to increase the funding or you're going to
close the beds? And if you want to talk about it,
let's go all right. As you've heard me say, you know,
not going to dig into every campaign pledge made on
the hustings, but a couple of ones of note the
stories we've heard about couples entering into long term long

(06:59):
term care with different level of care needs and consequently
being separated. There's one story that I recall that's kind
of haunting. One of the it was either a matter
of woman, I can't remember who, but it was one
of them, was in the early stages of dementia and
when their partner, who they've been together with for over
sixty years, was moved to another facility, the person did

(07:21):
they leave me? I mean, can you imagine being part
of a family where mom or dad have different levels
of need and have been separated after decades together. So
Jim Dinn and the NDP yesterday pledging to bring forward
legislation to keep couples together. Now, it's not going to
be fundamentally simple. I mean they're doing it in Nova Scotia.
It will all be depending on whether or not a
bed opens up. But if we're going to build more

(07:44):
long term care into the future, you know, add that
to the conversation about aging in place. Can we not
build with this in mind? It might not see people
and couples be able to remain very close to their
own community, but together at a long term care facility
is infinitely than being separated. So there are some details
that need to be worked out there, but that sounds

(08:04):
like something that makes sense to me. In addition to that,
it'd be also nice to hear from the leaders in
particular about the status of recommendations that should be implemented
as put forward by the Auditor General Denise Hanran regarding
personal care homes when it came out, it was outrageous.
I mean, we're talking about different levels of abuse, whether
it be verbal, sexual, physical abuse. Then we talked about

(08:29):
the inappropriate administration of medicine, talk about feces on the wall.
Personal care home operation standards have not been updated since
two thousand and seven, and in the inappropriate or incorrect
administration medicine, one person died. So then we take it
a step further about compliance issues, you know, to be
recognized to be publicly disclosed and a public checklist as

(08:49):
to when, how and what cost compliance issues were rectified,
because they can go from the fairly innocent like a
loose door handle, to all the way up to inner
appropriate administration of medicine. So where are we. This impacts
at least sixty five hundred families in the province, so
be nice to hear something on that front. And then

(09:10):
an interesting story and I'm really pleased to know that
the Crown prosecutors are speaking out and that comes from
mister Shawn Patten, who's the president of the Newfland Labrador
Crown Attorneys Association. This one is hired to understand. So
we've heard the parties talking about hiring more police officers,
both with the RNC and the RCMP, different numbers from
the different parties, but hire more police. Okay, then it's

(09:32):
the concept of we need to hire more crown attorneys.
A Premier Hogan doesn't seem to think that. Apparently that's
a requirement. But more police inevitably is going to lead
to more charges, which leads to more people in the system.
So is that not an important conversation? You know, we
have heard from the Liberals that the plan was to
hire eighteen more or additional Crown prosecutors over the course

(09:52):
of three years, so six per year. Apparently there's been
five hired since, but apparently war hired since, but at
the exact same time, there's been five that have left
the Crown Prosecutor's offers no longer crown attorneys. So on
top of that, there's been an edition of seven hundred,
approximately seven hundred more criminal files just in the Eastern district.

(10:14):
So without question, more police, very likely more charges, more
people in the system, are heavier case load for Crown prosecutors,
but there's not a real rush to hire them now.
I guess it's a double edged sword too. When we
paint the picture of just how overwhelming the workload is
and the traumatic type of cases that the Crown is
taking on, it doesn't paint the picture where I think

(10:36):
a whole lot of attorneys are going to want to
take the job. But we need them, and we need
them badly. So more police adherence to public safety and
mister Patten's not saying that cases are sliding, are going
by the wayside, are being incorrectly handled because of workload.
But it can't be easy, so with the concerns of
public safety. Mister Patton is one hundred percent correct here.
You need more Crown prosecutors if you we're going to

(10:57):
hire more police officers. And then of course talk about
the root of crime. Of course, some of the obvious
contributing factors to the amount of crime that we see,
and most of it is within the criminal element themselves,
as opposed to random acts of violence. But it's poverty,
it's addictions, it's some mental health concerns. And not to

(11:19):
say that every poor person, everyone with an addiction, everyone
with a mental illness, is going to commit a crime,
but these are obviously contributing factors. We've heard from the
sheriff's officers at the different courts that some eighty percent
of people coming through are dealing with mental illness and
or an addiction and very likely living in poverty. So
where's the attention to these very specific concerns, you know,

(11:40):
expanding rehab, expanding detox, ensuring that every bed, for every
person that wants to help is given the help. Yes,
it could be once again a revolving door. You know,
the potential relapse is very real, but the potential relapse
is heightened when there's a significant gap between detox and rehab.
So let's here from folks on that front, and most

(12:03):
pardon me, a lot of this can indeed be dealt
with if we do our level best in the education system,
both from pre K to twelve and yes, in the
post secondary world. There was a scheduled and hopeful leaders
debate to be held by the NLTA and only Jim
didn't committed to it, and the other two I don't
think the Liberals said they would do with period and

(12:25):
mister Waken they had a scheduling issue. As far as
I can tell, as far as I'm told, we don't
hear a whole whole lot from either of the parties
on education, which is mind boggling to me. I've said
this countless times. The better we do in the school system,
the better off we are on a variety of factors
in fronts, whether that be poverty related issues, whether it

(12:47):
be healthcare, whether it be jobs and taxes, whether it
be natural resources exploration, production, creation of wealth, expansion of
the GDP, expanding the tax space. You get it right,
in the schools, you probably do better on all these fronts. Okay,
a couple more, all right, I'm not sick of talk
about the Upper CHURCHILLMU because it's just too important. That said,

(13:11):
you know, I know plenty of smart people. It's way
smarter than me. And when we try to have conversations
about the Upper Churchill Memorandum of understanding, confusion reigns supreme.
It really does, and the exaggerations and the omissions on
either side of the coin are really not helping. Now
joining the course of folks looking for an independent review

(13:32):
is newfound Labrador Conservative Senator David Wells. A lot of
his concern lies with granting Quebec forty percent ownership of
the Upper Churchill to develop goll Island. I assume that
a lot of the associated equity stake is also directly
associated with the risk that hydro Quebec is taking. But
he does go on to say that, see if I

(13:53):
can get his exact quote anyway, it's saying that pretty
much people are confused. That's a one hundred percent correct
as far as I can tell sitting in this chair.
There is a lot of confusion out there, and I
get some people telling me that this is the prime
issue in this selection. Well, the people I speak to
on this program, the people I speak to at the

(14:14):
grocery store or my buddies. Costs of living and healthcare
and public safety seem to be a bit more tip
of tongue front of mind than the upper Church, of
which we'll have consequences in this province for fifty sixty years.
So we can talk about let me restart that what
would be helpful as it means we all know that

(14:37):
the LeBlanc inquiring muskrat Falls had a very clear recommendation
about independent review in any capital project in excess of
fifty million dollars. What's missing in some fronts and in
some commentary is exactly what we're asking an independent body
to do. Is it a clear and well defined definition

(14:57):
and explanation of Is it about the potential for exit
clause of which there are one in twenty fifty one
to twenty six. So that's way down the road. So
can we or should we not include all the variables
that may change the landscape of electricity demand and price
price elasticity. What happens if there's an East West energy corridor,

(15:22):
What happens if the federal government gets involved with any
direct investment, whether it be in the province of Quebec
or at the Upper Churchill or at Goal because that
does change things, So it would be a really helpful exercise.
Michael Wilson has been very helpful to me in sending
along his analysis and a lot of it is extremely complex,
but it's important. So whoever out there is in vehement

(15:43):
opposition to it and fair enough put forward. I suggested
terms of reference for said independent review exactly what we're
asking someone to look at, because I don't think this
is unfair to say that simply saying to pick an
out lit boil the road back of Canada, TD Gone, Sachs,
JP Mortgage Jays. Is this a good deal? Did we

(16:03):
get did we maximize the potential financially speaking for this province?
I don't think there's an answer to that, but give
us very specific questions where they can be addressed. And
I don't think that's a whole whole lot to ask.
In fact, to me, that sounds like step one in
the exercise. But anyway, mister Wells's putting it out there.
But is that the be all and end all for
the voters here in the province. For me, it's very

(16:24):
close to the very top of the list, but the
people think about it when they go to the grocery store.
And a lot of the pleasures of promises being made
do include moneies. We don't have yet, whether it be
because of big tobacco or whether it be because of
potential for moneys on the average of a billion dollars
of a year over the next sixteen seventeen years coming
into the conference to be spent on whatever. In addition

(16:47):
to that, the promises that are being made about reduction
in taxes, whether it be small business or for individuals,
whatever the case may be. Additional spending is not being
coupled with exactly what that means for the potential and
the need to borrow into the future. I know this
is debbie down or kind of stuff, but to ignore

(17:08):
the fact is going to be to our collective detriment.
Debt is out of control deficit. Also, I mean, what
are we posting a six hundred and twenty nine million
dollar TEPSIT this year which includes all the big tobacco
money at the exact same time boring four point one
billion dollars. We need to hear more on that front.
And it's not about the Future's Fund and any rationale
for putting money into a futures fund while we are

(17:29):
actually servicing the debt to the tune of about one
point one billion dollars per year. So if you want
to take it on, we can do it very last
one on the federal front. And this is an important
story that I think really does split what might people
Some people might consider splitting a hair. But if we're
on the path this year to finally hit two percent
of GDP to be spent on defense spending, so that's

(17:51):
an additional almost nine billion dollars this year, we're on
the committed pathway to five percent of GDP, which adds
up to about one hundred and fifty billionllion dollars a year. Currently,
seventy five cents out of every dollar we spent on
defense procurement is spent in the United States. So this
article is about splitting the dish, the issue between defense

(18:11):
procurement and defense production. Defense production at this moment in time,
this country basically leans in on the shipbuilding. So we've
got the national ship building strategy, Arctic offshore patrol ships,
and new River class destroyers. We're entering into a strategic
defense and security partnership with the European Union called whearm Europe.
That's one point two five trillion dollars worth of spend.

(18:33):
But how do we ensure that, you know, not only
the procurement strategy, but the defense production strategy to ensure
that some of those one hundred and fifty billion dollars
is spent here and we have a bit more of
control and grasp of national defense based on spending money,
creating jobs and be a bit more in control of
our strategy as opposed to seventy five cents of every

(18:55):
single dollar we spent in the United States. So I
thought that was an interesting article. Do you think we're
on Twitter or vishim? Up line follows there, email addresses,
open lineafiosim dot com, and we come back. Let's have
a great show that can only happen if you're in
the queue to talk about whatever's on in your mind.
Don't go away, Welcome back to the show. Let's begin
this morning on line number four. Craig, you're on the air.

Speaker 3 (19:16):
Hello, Hello, hello, hello.

Speaker 2 (19:20):
Good morning.

Speaker 4 (19:22):
How are you today?

Speaker 2 (19:23):
I'm not too bad?

Speaker 5 (19:23):
Thank you?

Speaker 2 (19:23):
How about you?

Speaker 3 (19:25):
We're not bad? I hear your parameter talking about the
debt and what the problems I'm just you know, you know,
he is concerned and whatnot, and work a man with
everyone else. See my money being wasted. But who do
we owe the money to?

Speaker 5 (19:38):
Do?

Speaker 3 (19:39):
You know, we're borrowing this money? Who are we borrowing
it off?

Speaker 2 (19:42):
It's an excellent question, And the only reason I focus
in on it so much, Craig, is because if we're
spending over a billion dollars a year just simply to
service the debt, we're not chipping away at it. We're
just servicing it. To be able to spend that money
on other facets of life would be to all of
our benefit. But your question is a really good one. Basically,
I mean I started to say, basically we're talking about

(20:03):
billions of dollars. But basically, when the province issues a bond,
it creates its own debt, because that's what we do, right,
We go to the bond market, which we've simply expanded
to Europe in the recent past. So when we issue
a bond, we have to be able to cover it
because the investors take the bond, and so then we
owe on it. Then also like we owe the federal government,
uh for example, then we've got unfunded pension liabilities which

(20:25):
we have to borrow money for to cover it. So
it's a pretty broad answer. But number one and primarily
is the issuing of bonds. Then we borrow from the
federal government, including at Muscraft Falls. Then we've got other
financial institutions that we've borrowed money from, and that includes
some of the big players TD, Goldman, Sachs and the like.
But those three areas are the basics of where we
have found ourselves in this level of debt.

Speaker 3 (20:47):
Right, So what happens when just is going to happen?
You know, players mud you know, like when well it
can only go so far and you don't give sparkably
millions of dollars speaking these days and their election promises,
which I think draw making fools of themselves, is you know,
like you know where they going to get the money?

(21:09):
Where already really going to get the money money that
they're fanticizing and dreaming of. But you know, like what
happens when they don't got the money to pay these people?

Speaker 2 (21:20):
Another good question?

Speaker 3 (21:22):
You know, you know what happens to all stin well,
the independent problems that we hope to be.

Speaker 2 (21:29):
The concept of going bankrupt is not really a distinct
worry that I have considering the fact that we are
part of a confederation and it's not in the country's
best interest for any province to be in solvent. We
have the highest per capita debt load in the country,
around sixty eight thousand dollars per person. Second coming in
second on that front is Ontario, I believe, and then

(21:51):
Quebec has the Alberta has the lowest per capital it's
about forty thousand dollars. So the basics are we just
have to borrow, which is becoming unsustainable. We still have
a pretty solid credit rating in this province, it needs
to be said, but to cover the servicing of debt,
Like this year we're borrowing over four billion dollars and
some of that is simply to service debt. In addition

(22:12):
to cover all of the other expenditures. We have a
you know, we don't really have a revenue side problem.
We have a spending side problem here in this province.
That's just my personal opinion. So yeah, the basic question is,
or remember when Dwight Ball was the premier, we were
told at one point that the province wasn't going to
be able to make payroll. We weren't going to be
able to get any long term loans, which turned out

(22:32):
to not be necessari one hundred percent accurate. But the
basics are, if we keep spending the way we do,
that we just have to keep on borrowing, which just
keeps on heaping onto the debt, which just keeps on
increasing the amount of money per year that we have
to service the debt with, which is just paying interest,
it's not chipping away at it. So it becomes a
perfect storm. So some of the moneys that different parties

(22:53):
are relying on is the hopes of a beta ord Is,
the hopes of critical mineral expansion in is, the hopes
of the Upper Churchill MoU and the revenues associated with it,
all of which is very aspirational. But it's only an
if these things come to pass. So it's an excellent
question and nextcellent questions that you're asking this morning.

Speaker 3 (23:15):
No, it's just something that you know, I wish I
was a braver and whatnot. I be into publics myself,
but that's not going to happen now at the State's game.
But I tell you, it's awful frustrating listening to these
people and they all inherit the ship that they're trying
to run. So you got to put up with what
we got. And you know, well, it's makes some plans

(23:39):
is actually going to work for the people. You know,
our healthcare is a mess. We can't afford to I
can't afford to really go to work, I can't afford
to stay home.

Speaker 6 (23:48):
It's ridiculous.

Speaker 3 (23:50):
It's just everything's gone ridiculous. And which these people with
the power would really understand whether people of these problems
are going through and how to crucifying my paycheck every
week just for the sake of their wins, because I
don't see nothing really done from my life. They went
and done a little bit of padwork on transgendenty in

(24:10):
Wood and Saint John's. This is a couple of weeks ago.
They haven't done two kilometers outer. This morning was raining
hard on the highway. We had two rivers run half
of that highway this morning. And it's just wrong, you know,
like my god, it's just wrong. And I wish these
people would really wake up and understand what the regular

(24:32):
Joe is going through in this world and stop wasting money.

Speaker 2 (24:37):
And Craig, that's where I think my mind is on
what's important to people during this election. You know, we
can be told that it's the upper churchle we can
be told that it's healthcare, and all of those things
are very very real. But I think primarily people generally speaking,
they've lt with their pocketbooks right cost of living issues,
specifically groceries, which I don't know if the provincial government

(25:01):
has any real levers to pull regarding the price of groceries.
Maybe you know the concept of peppering the landscape with
hydropotic greenhouses to help people not have to travel for
even leafy greens or other things that could be produced
close by where they live. But other than that, cost
of living is going to really dominate the conversation as
far as I could help.

Speaker 3 (25:20):
Oh, yes, the most certainly is is you're not getting
to save money anymore. You can't save anything. And you know,
like you talking about this church of Bolvings, you know,
and I hope they're doing right, you know, because you know,
it seems like things are proceeding the way Quebec wants toute,
not the way I don't think that we wanted to.
Is the way Quebec is dictated to the piece of

(25:42):
paper that he got. You can say, anybody want here
a new plan, but this is a Quebec at green
and you know, I hope these guys are going to
sign off of that don't be remembered like the mistake
that was gone fifty years ago, because your name is
going in their history books throughout time, whether you want
it to be good or bad. They got the opportunity

(26:03):
to make it good. And I wish things would be
more upfront. I don't understand whole issues. I listen to
your show, and I listen to other people's views and whatnot.
I don't know where these people are professional enough being
who they are to make such economic decisions for our problems.

(26:25):
They are not the best of the best people, and
they've got to realize that get after a high horse,
that they are not the best of the best beeple
doing these kinds of deals. I are a lot of
good businessmen and some for and some against talking on
your show. If I had to be on one scale
to the other, the guys is talking against it is

(26:48):
outweighing the few that is speaking for it by far.
So I hope that they're going to do it right.

Speaker 2 (26:57):
I think we all share that hope. You know, sometimes
the supportive voices really don't want to put their neck
in the noose. And in so far as if we
have the best people writing, Look, there's plenty good people
in politics. We had good people representing us negotiating with Hydroklebec.
But even like, it's probably worth our while to break
down cost of living a little more because people leaning

(27:17):
on groceries because we all eat. It doesn't matter who
you're going to vote for, everyone's got to go to
the grocery store. But insurance premiums, the cost of fuel.
Just imagine if the eighth sense that was taken off
the provincial fuel tax was put back on. I mean,
there's lots of things. Cell phone bills will come back
to worth a little bit, but my insurance premiums are up,
the cost heat my home is up, the cursion groceries
are up, costs of pharmaceuticals are up. So depends on

(27:40):
who you are in your lot in life. Go into
your pocket book every day, Like I went to the
grocery store yesterday, like I do most every day. It's
just part of my routine. I came out of Sobey's
yesterday with not very much in that bag, but I
was seventy dollars later and not very much in that bag.
I can guarantee you that.

Speaker 3 (27:57):
Yeah, that's true. When I used to see these white
bags back years back, when they had to wait chopping bags,
they're ten dollars a bag first from the wife there
were coming at the store. Didn't even to twenty. Now
they're my cheesy issue. Put one hundred and fifty if
you want VI the meat in a bag. And people
can't do it. You know, I my check every week,
I'm seeing six hundred dollars almost gone out of my check.

(28:20):
You know, I make it a little bit of money,
but but they're not doing no good with it. You know,
that's six hundred dollars. I can make such a big
difference in my life and probably someone else's life around me,
my kids or whatever. And these people got everybody paying them,
and they're not doing the right things with the money.
It's not you know, go go to the bank with

(28:43):
this track record. And besides that, what the banks knows
that he got all these people paying them, So I
guess they'll always give them credit. It must be a
wonderful thing.

Speaker 2 (28:54):
Yeah, I mean, everybody's different, right, So I don't pretend
to be able to speak for everybody's needs or wants,
but everybody needs or want something, and whether or not
you're hearing what you need or want from the different parities,
which is also part of the campaign promises. You know,
this is not a critique of any individual politician, but
putting your finger in your mouth to wet it to
see which way the wind is blowing and then make

(29:14):
a pledge on that front is really not that helpful.
You know, long term plans, big strategies, things we can
measure against. You know, just some of that stuff is missing.
I think we're on the right track with ten year
plans in health and education, not necessarily that every detail
in both of those accords is one hundred percent something
that I would agree with, But it's a strategy. It's

(29:34):
something we need to apply that to debt and deficit
as well.

Speaker 7 (29:37):
We just do.

Speaker 2 (29:38):
We don't do it currently, but we certainly do need to.
In my own personal opinion, Greg, I enjoyed the conversation.
I'm glad you called.

Speaker 3 (29:45):
Yes anyway, cheers brother, you go and deal with some
other people.

Speaker 2 (29:48):
I do my best, Thanks man, bye, Greg. And being
asked for email, how come I didn't bring up the
newly proposed pipeline from Alberta to the BC coast. Well,
we can talk about it, but at this time it's
simply a taxpayer funded proposed pipeline with no private sector
investment to carry oil that isn't even produced. Considering the

(30:12):
fact that the twinning of the Trans Mountain Pipeline is
still not operating at full capacity. Some of that has
to do with costs and what have you, tariffs and fees.
But anyway, if you wanted to talk about the proposed pipeline,
which is simply a taxpayer pipeline, we can do it,
all right, just take a break. When we come back,
we're going to say good morning to the Mayorport of
bask as Brian Button on his very last day in office.
We'll see what mister Button has to say, and then
we'll speak with you. Don't go away, welcome back to

(30:36):
the show. Let's go to line number two. Take it
on to the Mayorport of bask that's Brian Button. Good morning,
Bear Button around the air. Good morning, Patty. How are
you very well? How about you?

Speaker 5 (30:46):
Not too bad?

Speaker 8 (30:47):
It's a beautiful sunny day out here in Port of
bask Here, you so can't be bad when it's sunny
like that. But I guess finishing up. As you said
there before, we went to break my last days as mayor.
After today now I'll be finished up. We'll have a
new mayor in the community. But there is one pressing
issue I did want to talk about this morning before

(31:09):
I did leave office.

Speaker 6 (31:10):
Okay, what is it?

Speaker 8 (31:12):
Well, Patty back, take it back a little while ago.
Over the last couple of years while we're in office.
You know, we had a bunch of homes that was
in the community. The RCMP used to have a lot
of their members lived in to them, but we had
a surplus of these homes that were here in the community.
So they were going up and we're going to be

(31:34):
let go and probably sold off or used in other divisions,
whether it be provincially or municipalities. The province at the
time was asked was the first persons that would have
had the opportunity to get the homes, and then the
municipalities were also involved, and we were trying at that
time to see if we could get one of the
homes that we wanted to use for health care purposes.

(31:56):
One of the biggest problems we have in rural Newfouland is,
you know, trying to bring healthcare professionals such as doctors
into the communities and having housing for them. We had
worked with the local Health Authority here and we were
trying and looking at a plan where we could get
these RCMP homes or at least one of them, and
to be able to have if we were to have

(32:19):
a doctor that was coming to the area, or some
of our learners, some of the doctors that are actually
going through the system and going to university, and we
get a lot of those in the area, we would
have a place for them to live. We had worked
on that and then we had started working with the
federal government because this is a federal government issue, and
we started working with the local MP and we started

(32:41):
trying to get the homes in. First, when we tried
to get them, there was a price that was put
on the homes, which was something that we, as a
municipality at the time, could not afford, and we wanted
to take any monies we were going to put into it,
invest in the homes and have the homes you developed
in a way where they were suitable for physicians and

(33:02):
whoever to live in the community.

Speaker 2 (33:05):
How many homes have we talked about with mer Budden?

Speaker 6 (33:08):
What's that?

Speaker 2 (33:08):
How many of these homes are we talking about?

Speaker 8 (33:10):
Well, there was at least two to three homes that
they were looking at moving out, but we were really
only interested in getting one. If we could get one,
and whatever else would happen with the other homes, whether
they got sold off to residents in the community or
they got used elsewhere, that was fine. But if we
could have gotten one, that is what we were looking for. Again,
at the time when they put it out, it just

(33:31):
wasn't affordable for us. But working with the former MP,
and we had worked with MP Goody Utchings at the time,
and we had continued for a couple of years to
work on something where we could hopefully be able to
get the homes for a dollar and then be able
to take any monies we had reinvest in the homes.
It took quite a bit of work on quite a

(33:53):
bit of lobbying and back and forth, and we were
able last year in January Zember month, we were able
to strike a deal and we were able to strike
a deal where we would be able to get one
of these homes. At the time they were going to
disperse two of the homes to us, but later said
that they would have to use one of the other

(34:15):
homes for our CMP reasons again, so we were.

Speaker 5 (34:19):
Getting one home.

Speaker 8 (34:21):
The deal got struck, A contract got put together by
the vendor, which was the federal government, and the contract
was then sent to us for review. We had our
lawyers review the contract. In the contract, it stated that
the home would be turned over to us for a
dollar and we would have to use the homes for
at least five years for health care purposes before we

(34:43):
were allowed to do anything else with the homes, which
we agreed with that. We had our lawyers look at it,
take a look at it, and I was able to
sign it on behalf of the community and send back
At that time, as we know, government the federal government
had a shutdown in February and shut down the government
at that time, and we were unable to get the

(35:04):
deal finalized and pushed to the finish line, and then
a federal election was called. And after the federal election
and things started to get back, we started to inquire
if we wanted to get this finished up at least
our council wanted to get it finished up before we
left office. And be able to have this deal done
for the local health authority. Long behold. We get a

(35:28):
call back and it says that this deal is no
longer going to be put on the table and if
we want the home, the home was then valued then
at two hundred thousand dollars and the town would have
to pay that and we had until a Friday to
do so. That kind of upset us. You know, we
had a deal done, The deal was done. The contract

(35:49):
was sent to us by the vendor. Because that's one
of the things I had them say to me when
I reached out, was well, the vendor didn't sign the contract,
I said, but the vendor prepared the contract. The vendor
prepared the contract, send it out to us, We had
our lawyers review it, and we signed it in good
faith to have this deal done and to be used

(36:10):
for healthcare purposes. Once I got that, I did reach
out to the former MP because I knew she was involved,
and see if she could get the ear of you know,
our local, our Minister responsible for Newfoundland Labrador MP, jo
Anne Thompson, to try to see if we could get
this deal figured out and get this straightened away as
it was put in place beforehand, you know, and it

(36:34):
was all the information was sent as I'm as far
as I know to Miss Thompson, haven't heard a word
from the MP. Hasn't reached out to me or the
council to say, you know, what was going on with
the deal. I tried to wait right up until the
last days. We were still trying to work this out.
Yesterday it didn't get done and we hadn't heard from anybody.

(36:58):
But this is a deal that it was very important
and is very important to the community when it comes
to healthcare delivery. It was a deal that was worked
on for a couple of years, and then to see
it pulled it only makes me believe one thing, Patty,
and the only thing that I can narrow it down to.
We had the deal done when the community was carrying

(37:19):
the red banner, and after the election the district changed
and it moved over to a conservative banner, and we
had the deal pulled out from under us from the
federal government. And I find that very sad. It's very
sad for the community. It's a deal that was done
in good faith. It was something that was worked on

(37:39):
for a long time. Our local health authority was hoping
to have this to be able to entice and encourage
health physicians to the area and have a place for
them to stay and live. And now we see that
the deal has been pulled off the table. And again
it's a deal in which they were the ones that

(38:00):
had the contract that it wasn't a contract that we
sent to them hoping they would sign. It was a
contract that was sent to us.

Speaker 2 (38:08):
Yeah, it's simply bad faith. You know, politicians, regardless of stripe,
you would only hope that working in the people's best interests,
and in this case the toow to report a basque
best interest, just follow through in good faith on the
contract they provided. It's just outrageous and I mean, I'm
not sure where to go with it. I'm sure there
will be a legal challenge in the offing, but once again,

(38:29):
it's unnecessary, it's time consuming, it's expensive. They should simply
live up to their side of the bargain here. I mean,
just pathetic story.

Speaker 8 (38:38):
It's just you know, it's just been terrible that the
fact that you know, it went through after like you say,
after the government shutdown and after the election, we were
just going back to make sure then that we were
going to get this deal done. To have it done,
it should have been done sometime in the summer. We
should have had this done. We would have had our
people working on the home, whereas we would have been
able to turn this over to the health Authority and

(39:00):
have them being able to utilize this this home for
the purposes in which we tried to negotiate the deal.
But not having it done and having it pulled out
and saying we no longer have this deal, it's it's
you know, it's kind of discouraging. And it was a
deal that was done even before the federal election. So
I'm you know, I'm outraged. I was hoping that we

(39:21):
could have fixed this up before we finished. It didn't happen,
and that's what made me, you know, pick up the
phone to call you today because it is very upsetting
and very upsetting that the MP Joanne Thompson, you know,
she hasn't the minister responsible for the province hasn't even
reached out after we've been trying to get this bardered
and looked after over the last little while.

Speaker 2 (39:42):
I'm really sorry to hear this completely unnecessary and congratulations
on your time in office, and nothing's easy, but I
suppose reflecting field, it's hard to see anything that overshadows
Fiona and the recovery in the aftermath and the death
that was suffered quickly before we let you go, mayor Button,
you know, are you willing or interested in giving us

(40:03):
a bit of a report card provincial and federal reaction
and support and the timeliness of inspections and finances flowing
and all those things, because we're going through something very
similar now with the wildfires, especially the devastation CVN. Would
you like the past comment on that.

Speaker 8 (40:17):
You know, we've talked about this quite a bit, Patty,
you know, you and I and different programs and stuff,
and you know, it was a non precedent event that
happened in our area, and it's something that's happening more
often throughout our province, whether it's you know, whether it's
floods or whether it's hurricanes or it's wildfires, and it's
something that we have to make sure that we are

(40:40):
better prepared. Was everything perfect that went through our area.

Speaker 5 (40:44):
Well, absolutely not.

Speaker 8 (40:45):
Otherwise we wouldn't have had to be on your shows
and reaching out and all the things that wors happening.
There's been a lot of things that we need to
learn from it. You know, I've always offered myself to
sit down with officials to say, you know, what do
we what was what did go right and what went
wrong and be able to put that out from a
municipal side and to say that, you know, there are

(41:08):
things we needed to learn and things we needed to
do better. I think some of the changes need to
happen with how the you know, how the transfers of
money go. We have two levels of government that are involved,
one dispersing the money down to the province and the
province dispersing it out and so on and so far,
and there seems to be a little bit of a
pool on that sometimes. But you know, overall, you know,

(41:29):
I had a good working relationship with the groups that
were involved of trying to make it happen. There was
a lot of things going on and a lot of
things that happen in these type of things. And I
know they're going through it now with the wildfires, and
hopefully some lessons were learned from our situation and they're
able to utilize it in those situations. And we just

(41:52):
you know, for me, Fiona was probably the biggest part
of our tender over the last four years. It's unfortunate
that it was because there were a lot of other
things that we wanted to do. But you know, these
are the type of things when you step up and
get it to these positions, you don't know what you're
going to face from a daily basis, and no one
thought that we would ever face what we did. And

(42:12):
I'm glad that you had mentioned. You know, the biggest
part about Fiona was all the lives that it did affect.
I did say the other night in our last council meeting.
You know, we took a minute, a moment of silence
just for the you know, we had a loss of
life during our during Fiona, and I've always said that
the biggest thing I want to recognize in that is
for the family that was affected by that. And you know,

(42:35):
we just have had quite a bit to endure over
this term, and you know, I sit back and reflect
on it in there are days or you wonder even
how you got through it all.

Speaker 2 (42:45):
I appre share your times warning Mayre Button.

Speaker 8 (42:46):
Thank you sir, and I thank you Patty for all
your time and for all your listeners support.

Speaker 2 (42:51):
Appreciate it, Stay in touch, good luck, to you. Thank you, welcome,
bye bye, last day for Brian Buttons the mayor Channel
portabask Let's take a break thunk away, Welcome back to
the show. Let's go to ne number five to get
on to the director of Communications and Advocate Advocacy. I
mean it's a valley's new Folanta Labrador. That's Alexis Foster.
Good morning, Alexis around the air. Good morning Patty, Welcome

(43:12):
to the program. Well, today's the big day for most
of the province anyway, it is.

Speaker 9 (43:17):
We're so excited it's finally here.

Speaker 2 (43:20):
The City of Saint John's is an unfortunate exemption to
the October deadline for the votes to be tallied. But
what's the message here this morning, Alexis, Well, the.

Speaker 10 (43:30):
Message this morning is really just get out and vote,
and this is your opportunity to choose who makes those
important decisions for your community. Municipal elections have a direct
impact on your daily life, so they impact the road
you drive, on, the trails you walk, the quality of
our water and the infrastructure that keeps your community running.
So we really encourage you to go out make sure

(43:52):
that your voice is heard. You help shape the priorities
in your neighborhoods, so your voice really really matters question.

Speaker 2 (44:00):
I agree without one hundred percent. You know, for people
to go out and vote also requires municipalities and maybe
with some aid coming from m LANDER or the province.
But the voter list question is also very important. I mean,
like here in the city of Saint John's, it's kind
of a mess. What kind of guidance can em ANDEL give?
Because if I live in a home where there's only
me and the wife living, the kids have moved out.
I've been living there for ten years, but all of

(44:21):
a sudden, I have seven ballots show up. You know,
these things need to be tidied up because faith in
the integrity of elections is going to be paramount. And
I'm not saying it's compromised necessarily, but optics do rule
people's thoughts on things like this. So what's m Andel's
role to make sure voteralists are accurate in every community,
including Saint John's.

Speaker 10 (44:40):
Well, so that would certainly fall to the Department of
the Municipal Affairs and Community Engagement more so than m ANDL.
But we want to ensure that our members have all
the information that they need when it comes to the
election period, so we will help support however we can. Today,
we want to encourage people know the correct voting information,
So where can you vote and how do you find

(45:02):
that out if you don't easily know that, So we
are encouraging people to check your different municipalities, their websites,
their Facebook pages to see if you can find it
your voting locations and if your town has an email
or a text messing messaging service, you can actually find
that information there. And if you are unable to find

(45:23):
the information on where to vote, we hope that you
can always call your town office and ask.

Speaker 11 (45:29):
Them for that as well.

Speaker 2 (45:30):
Let's get your reaction to the make your Mark campaign.
Try to encourage people to step forward to run for
positions on council, whether it be counselors, war counselors, deput
mayors and mayors. Give us a report card about how
you think it went this go around.

Speaker 6 (45:45):
Well, we're really.

Speaker 10 (45:46):
Really happy with the campaign this year. The campaign was
about making your market. That is the tagline of the
campaign throughout previous elections, but this year we focused on
you for counsel. So we encourage people to look at
what traits and what experiences that you might have which
would be transferable to a council position. So overall, what

(46:08):
we've been seeing is some great numbers actually show up.
We are seeing some municipalities with three times amount of
candidates and a number of seats that they have to fill.
So this is really heartening to see. When actually was
speaking to a town manager a couple of weeks ago
and she told me that it was the first time
that they were having an election in over twelve years,

(46:30):
so that to me was just a phenomenal thing to hear.
And from what we have been hearing from a lot
of different people as well as.

Speaker 9 (46:38):
Some people who have called it on your show as.

Speaker 10 (46:40):
Well, is that the campaign is actually what encouraged them
to run this year. So we're very very happy.

Speaker 2 (46:45):
With that, and I want to congratulate everyone who put
their name in the hat running for various positions in
communities right across the province, because, as we rightfully point
out time and time again, a lot of the day
to day affairs that people are conned with our operated
at under the authority of municipalities, so pretty important stuff.
Our final thoughts to you, alexis before we get to

(47:06):
the news, no, I just have to agree with you.

Speaker 10 (47:09):
Congratulations to everyone who puts their name forward. It is
certainly a big undertaking. We want to thank everyone who's
volunteered in any way during this campaign session, the election
campaigns for any candidates. We want to thank the municipal
staff who's been working so hard to prepare for that.
So good luck to everyone today and please get out

(47:30):
and vote.

Speaker 2 (47:31):
You're here put shing your time. Alexis, thank you, take care.
Bye bye, So Alexis Foster, Director of Communications and Advocacy Advocacy.
That word has long troubled me. All right, Couik checking
in on the Twitter box. We're a VOSM op alone.

Speaker 5 (47:43):
You know what to do.

Speaker 2 (47:44):
Email addresses open onnafosm dot com. My favorite when you
join us live on the program, just like PJ. We're
going to finish up our chat that we had a
little bit of yesterday regarding the upper Churchill MoU. We're
talking party politics. We're going up to Happy Valley, Goose Bay,
whatever you want to talk about, don't away. Welcome back
to the show. Let's go line. Everyone say more to
the interdependent candidate running out and Habermain. That's Clem, Will Clem,

(48:07):
You're on the air.

Speaker 4 (48:09):
Thank you and good morning, Patty.

Speaker 6 (48:10):
How are you doing?

Speaker 2 (48:11):
That's kind?

Speaker 6 (48:11):
How about you being wealthy this morning?

Speaker 4 (48:14):
Patty said, probably for a little bit of a difficult
story to share with you this morning. And I was
hoping to go do this publicly too, on so many
other news outs, but haven't been able to do that. Yeah, anyway,
you know, as you know, the main one of the
main reasons I'm known and used to bring awareness and
attention to the fact of how I believe that we

(48:36):
need to change our system from the current system that
we're under, the parliamentary system, to something that would work
much better. And this morning, Patty, like you know, I
know you heard stories there about people talking about problems
and issues you know, in home care and those those
kinds of things, and to share a story that mine

(48:57):
personally was, you know, a part of them whatever. Back
a few years ago. I'm also a volunteer worker with
pastoral care, you know, with Eastern Health, and most of
my volunteer work was at the Maryford Hospital. And while
I was there and witnessed, you know, some things that

(49:21):
were not very nice and not very you know, I
hope you know, issues of neglect and different types of
abuse and so on and so, and I was so
serious that I tried to.

Speaker 5 (49:38):
Talk to the.

Speaker 4 (49:41):
Minister's office at the time, and I even tried to
talk to somebody in the in the Premier's office. I
never did get to I never did get to speak
to the Minister of Health at the time, and I
was speaking to someone in his office, but I never
did get to speak to him. And I was trying
to let him the importance and significance of what I

(50:02):
was sharing. And anyways, the route that he put me
to was to make, you know, to go through the
Eastern Health and make an appointment with you know, the
head of Eastern Health, the CEO, which eventually I said,
if that's the only route I had, well then that's
what I would do. And so I made that appointment,

(50:23):
and on the advoice of a family member, you know,
they said to me not to do that alone, to
have somebody with me at least as a witness or whatever,
which I did, and it ended up being a friend
who was a lawyer. Anyway, Patty He the person who
was the CEO, didn't show up or didn't make it
to the appointment, and there was two subordinates. I guess

(50:45):
he showed up forty appointment and anyway, I told in
my concerns, very serious concerns. To the point I said
to him at the time, I said, in my opinion,
I said that, you know, some people's lives are even
at risk, you know, and so on, and I gave
it to them in writing and uh and so on,

(51:06):
and after I left, I didn't hear anything back. And
at the same time, Patty, you know, I was getting
uh for a lot of years actually, uh you know,
I was getting help get therapy for trauma myself and
and was later found out to be dealing with complex
post traumatic stress and so on. And so after lodging

(51:31):
these concerns, you know, where I did and so on,
And when I went back for my next appointment with
my own doctor, who was, like I said, I was
in different kinds of therapy and so on. Who this
doctor was a psychiatrist. And when I walked in from
my appointment, uh, you know, that doctor asked me what
was what was what was up about me speaking to

(51:52):
the government about you know, concerns and so on at
the hospital and so on. I was kind of taken back,
you know that uh, that somebody from the someone from
some government office had contacted my doctor, and they were
but they were contacted because obviously I must have mentioned

(52:12):
it then, you know, when I was trying to deal
with them, of course that you know I myself, you know,
I was dealing with certain things, and and so they uh,
like I said, you know, it was kind of taken
back that uh. And so I asked, you know, my doctor,
I said, well, look what were the asking And I said, well,
he said, well you were asking you know what condition
you were in. So and I said, well what was

(52:33):
your response and he said, well I told him that,
you know, mister whit was in quite a stable condition,
and so on and so Petty. The sad part. The
sadder part about that, even though I feel that what
was done there was totally inappropriate, uh, was that these
concerns are four weeks after I think it was about
four weeks, Patty, or six weeks you might remember, to

(52:55):
most people of ill bed, four to six weeks after
I bought those concerns to them, the next young man
took his own life at the Waterford hospital. And those
were I had that written in the things that I
had there. You know that people who weren't being watched properly,
were being neglected in certain areas you know that their

(53:16):
lives were in danger. And my opinion, it's just just
my opinion that that had people you know, took it
serious and you know, there's a possible and I'm not
saying I'm sure, but that man that was supposed to
be checked down every few minutes, you know, was not
checked down, and he was left over what if it
was forty five minutes or something to an hour and

(53:38):
long enough to you know, take his own life. And
these are to me, like, you know, the kind of
and I at the time even I also tried to
contact the opposition party at Simon, and again I heard
back from nobody, and I never heard from when I
brought those things in writing, I didn't hear back from anybody.

(54:00):
And these I don't know why. I just I don't
have an answer, Patty to why, uh, you know, somebody
you know wouldn't take something so serious and and look
in look into it and the possibility that you know
that that person's life may not have been lost, you know,
And that was a difficult. I gotta be honest with you.

(54:21):
I I even felt gifted that I didn't do enough, Patty,
at the time that uh, you know that that man,
that man died and that I didn't do enough. That's
how I felt that designed.

Speaker 2 (54:31):
Okay, not to be cuous because obviously a very important
issue that you're talking about, but how does that dovetail
with your concern with party politics?

Speaker 4 (54:40):
Well, how to me, Patty, what I've seen so many
times people talking about the morning is that sometimes to me,
people don't you know, even in certain governments, are elected,
but they don't want to, uh perhaps deal with certain
issues because they may feel that you know, for some reason,
it may impact then in a negative way, like you know,

(55:03):
and and that it will make you know, uh them
look bad, you know, just like I have other friends
just recently who in the postercure system and just horrible
abuse and and you know they did, after some of
the years get a settlement, but you know that the
government of the day didn't want that to be public,
so they didn't want it to go to court, so

(55:25):
they paid them, you know, out of court, and that
like you know, and just that I guess, Patty, it
seems like so many things get get passed off and nobody,
not that nobody, I don't want to be sound through
black and white, but that people don't want to sometimes.
And in my case, like I said, uh, you know,

(55:46):
people who said to you know, I should have done
something legally about the fact that uh, you know, people
inquiring you know, say from you know, my doctor about
getting information or whatever about me. But that wasn't the
most important thing to me. The most important thing to
me was the people who are I was trying to
speak up for. And I just feel that sometimes that

(56:06):
certain you know, one, there are certain parodies, certain governments whatever,
you know, just don't want to deal with certain issues,
and it just gets pasted. Things get people are there
for Peter him, then it just gets passed on to
the to the next group, and then sometimes it still
doesn't get dealt with it, you know.

Speaker 2 (56:26):
And fair enough, uh party politics and well democracies mes see.
And this is kind of the best form of it available.
How we improve it, you know, there's plenty of reforms
required to how we approached democratic issues here in the province,
right across the country. But I appreciate your time and
good luck out on the campaign trail.

Speaker 5 (56:43):
Clem.

Speaker 2 (56:44):
Yeah, okay, thank you, Patty, you too, Bye bye. Just
very quickly, so all those asses recently is yesterday as
to why there hasn't been any provincial politics polling, and
at that time there hadn't been any release. But since
then there is one poll that has indeed been released.
I was accused yesterday of sitting on the polls because

(57:05):
they didn't like the numbers. I've said countless times that
I only put so much stock in a poll anyway,
because it is the epitome of a snapshot in time,
and okay, so not sitting on it. Here's the poll
results from Narrative Research, and that's the only one that
I've seen, and they're talking about what they are saying.
The Liberals hole a commanding lead. Sixty six percent of
responder said they were satisfied with the Liberal government, up

(57:26):
nine points from a year earlier. Twenty six percent said
they were dissatisfied. Voting attentions, fifty nine percent decided of
decided voter said they would support the Liberals, up from
forty three percent, PCs down from thirty five, or thirty
percent for the PCs down from thirty five the NDP
nine percent. That's not from nineteen percent. Okay, so again
I don't put a whole hole lot of stock in this.

(57:46):
But it's also important to note that this poll was
done back in August, when, of course the premiere was
curly in the media a lot talking about wildfires and
suppression and rebuilding and the like. So yeah, there's the
polling numbers. Know what we've seen. If you want to
give your thoughts on it, you can do it right
after this. Don't go away, welcome back to the program.
Let's go LNE number one. Janu're on the air.

Speaker 5 (58:08):
Hey, thanks very much for having me.

Speaker 12 (58:09):
I just wanted a quick comment about the poll that
you're talking about that went out from Narrative. Yep, the
sample size is only three hundred and fifty people back
in August.

Speaker 2 (58:18):
That's right, conductor.

Speaker 12 (58:19):
It's important for people to understand it's not quite the
commanding lead that deliberals might want people to think.

Speaker 2 (58:25):
Oh and I mean, which is why, just about every
single time, and for the vast majority of my time
in this chair, I don't even talk about poles. I
just don't. But when everyone's been clamoring for just one pole,
and you're right. Methodology for this the re's also part
of Narrative Research, Atlantic quarter Independent Quarterley telephone survey Atlantic
Canadians drawn from a sample of three hundred and fifty
dollars residents in the province survey conductor between April partent

(58:48):
me August the seventh to the twenty ninth. And they
talk about accuracy within five point two percentage points, which
is not exactly the most accurate thing in the world either.
But you're right, it's a very small sample size. It's
a snapshot in time. It was conducted during the wildfires.
And that's why I added those caveats when I mentioned
the numbers.

Speaker 6 (59:04):
Yeah, No, I appreciate that.

Speaker 12 (59:05):
No, I I said, the only pull the matters is
election day, get out and vote.

Speaker 2 (59:09):
You got that right, Appreciate that, Jan much. You're welcome,
you too, budd problem. Let's go to have you about
the Goose Bay. Good morning, Sime, and you're on the
air follow Good morning, Good morning to you.

Speaker 11 (59:21):
Uh, Patty, I guess I wanted to briefly mentioned the
theis I will help b Blah Hospital in Gooseberry. I've
been complaining about sistance for a longest time and I'm
on medication and I have a I have a reflux
the release and.

Speaker 6 (59:41):
A couple uh. When I was to go on gathering.

Speaker 13 (59:44):
I started coughing blood and a lot of blood and finally, uh,
my wife called the the Anblis and Happy Valley, Goose Bay.
And I find it very very frustrating, very disappointing shop
what what I experience within the hospital.

Speaker 6 (01:00:01):
And I was in the hospital by the nurses and
by the doctor, and one of the nurse grabbed me
so hard.

Speaker 11 (01:00:09):
You know, I was in about opinion when he tried
to uh take my blood fisher, I felt something wasn't
right because he was grabbing. He was disappointed. He was
I mean, I know, I realized it worked very hard,
long hours, and the game frustrated when they're busy. And
then and we had the patients as you know, you
know people, we felt there's something wrong because I wasn't

(01:00:33):
I wasn't given the medical attension what I needed.

Speaker 6 (01:00:37):
I was just rester.

Speaker 11 (01:00:38):
I mostly urinate my chiens because I was I couldn't move,
I couldn't walk, So I called up the nurse and
nobody heard me. I was so lucky that my wife
came in right to the door when I was about
to urinate myself on the bed, and I was shocked
and I tried to tell the doctor, try to talk

(01:01:00):
to adopted what I was, what I was feeling. Again,
he didn't listen. He didn't listen. He does walk out
on me. She was he wasn't really bit upset.

Speaker 6 (01:01:09):
I think I don't know why, because.

Speaker 11 (01:01:11):
They emerged was so busily I underspend the over works.
But I think I think I've been calling about our
fair treatures for the force as you people, because most
people might our people.

Speaker 7 (01:01:27):
As you know.

Speaker 11 (01:01:27):
People felt that there is about a discrimination and there's
about racism, and I believe the A few doctors said
we had a meeting. I had a meeting with CEO
one time when I was a Deaby Grand chief and
they admitted, yes, they could see.

Speaker 6 (01:01:47):
One of the doctors is the.

Speaker 11 (01:01:48):
Colde racism and discrimination against the NU patients and he
admitted to that. And right now it's still happening. There
was a couple years ago they were going to do
something about a data healthcare for evil people. But it's
not happening. But you know, something needs to happen because

(01:02:11):
about it. I seen and witness how when I was
at the hospital. I go back and forth and I
see some I people how they'd been talked to how
they'd be treated. And one of the girls of she
had she told me singing, can you help me out?
Because I was I was so treated, really bad, she said.

(01:02:33):
I said okay, and I translated with her.

Speaker 5 (01:02:36):
Yes.

Speaker 11 (01:02:37):
I could see the I could hear the tone of voice.

Speaker 6 (01:02:41):
And the way she was treated.

Speaker 11 (01:02:43):
And I felt so bad, and I couldn't do anything
because if I felt something, I know that the securities
would probably escorted me out the hospital. Well that's why
we can't speak in the hospital, because you're going to
be escorted out by securities.

Speaker 6 (01:03:03):
O call audio.

Speaker 11 (01:03:04):
I said, peace. And that's what usually happens. And I
think there are two elections. I realized that there's potential
election and there's also and I send you know, bank
counsel having the election. But I will talk to one
of the candidates today if I can't, and I'm gonna
be I'm gonna I'm gonna remind them this is going

(01:03:26):
to stop. We need to treat people equally. It doesn't matter.

Speaker 6 (01:03:31):
Who you are.

Speaker 11 (01:03:32):
If you into it a white person or Innu or
fielatine or whatever, you know, everybody that'll be treated right.
Because I felt so bad and my health is very
declined and and I was, I was so mad and uh,

(01:03:55):
and we were talk My my wife was there with
me because I got a hard hearing, and they said something.
The nurse says something to my wife and I didn't
really like it. And I said, if my wife, I'm
going to walk out too, because I was I was
so sick because I was coughing blah blah blah and uh,

(01:04:17):
and I was very disappointed. And you know the way
the way people are being marginalized, uh, discriminated. And I
know there's a marginization within Health Babrador Clair system. I
know that there's about a document people have been writing
there's a beryous healthcare for the you know people in Barbador,

(01:04:38):
and I think that's got to stop. That's got to change.

Speaker 6 (01:04:40):
And I hope.

Speaker 11 (01:04:41):
I'm hoping to talk with CEO and and and talk
to the head of the doctor and I'm going to
talk to she whoever is a candidate in Natoshish and
trying to advocate for us as you know people as
patients within Health Bablah the way we've been treated. And

(01:05:02):
I haven't heard from the Grand Chief or the Grand
Chief fighting for for us, but it's not happening. But
I really hope whoever gets in in uh in the
band counsel and not what she used to allocate these
things to how we experience because we are humans, we

(01:05:25):
are not animals, and we are we need to be
treated with with with a parent and the professionals have
to be professionals rather it become a racist professionals. And
that's what I see, and I've seen that so many
many years, and I've been in the hospital. When I

(01:05:48):
was diagnosed with cancer, I didn't get the proper here.
And finally the priest from she had came to my
house and told my wife, you got to take me
into Saint John's and get the help that he needs.
And when I was in Saint John's, I was treated
by a human and the doctor told me, he said,

(01:06:11):
if you were if you have two more days stating
in Avado, your life would end. Your soberky. You came
and he right away, he admitted to the hospital. Within
a couple of days, I had surgery. And that's the
kind of the service that I see in Saint John's
because it's not Saint John's is very different. People are

(01:06:34):
very different. They respect you. We're in here in Iodo Health.
They don't they don't treat you. But that's why I
went to UH, to Saint John's Hospital that treated me
respect They treated me human and they said to me,
you don't want to look after you. That's the first
time I ever heard professional saying that we're in here,

(01:06:57):
it's not happening. Why I don't know the candidate age
of provincial candidate. They need to look into this to
this and the reason why I said that. And I
want to point out my uncle uh he died in
local clinic. He went five times in the clinics and

(01:07:18):
they keep sending him home. The fifth time he went
within the same day. He died in the clinics. And
my sisters, my younger sister, the son, he was sick
for one month. One month, he keep taking his son
to through the clinic and the baby was so sick.

(01:07:42):
And finally finally they called me at night and said
see me and you got to come to the clinics.
And then my bills meshe died in the hospital. Why
is it takes so long? I mean, if I was professional,
I would probably send out the baby and probably send

(01:08:04):
up to the January hospital.

Speaker 14 (01:08:06):
And that boy would have lived if he was given
a proper chair and given the opportunity to see professional
and that's.

Speaker 2 (01:08:19):
And that's fat understood that I'm sorry to hear that
was the treatment that anybody would get in any health
care facility, clinical hospital or otherwise. And I hope you're
doing okay. So I mean I have to get to
the news break on time, but thank you for yours.
I hope you're doing well.

Speaker 11 (01:08:32):
Yeah, thank you much.

Speaker 2 (01:08:33):
Status, You're welcome, Bye bye, all right, let's get a
break down time and when we come back, Dabi tell
me where we're going.

Speaker 5 (01:08:38):
Don't go away.

Speaker 2 (01:08:42):
Welcome back to the show. Let's go to lane number six.

Speaker 6 (01:08:44):
Pj Or on the air, Well, good morning, Patty, thanks
for taking my call. Wanted to just talk about a
game that I think would be is on how to
Go Back's website, but it would be useful to your
listeners and for young and all students or adults. And
I think it provides two opportunities for people to see

(01:09:07):
and get informed on the current clean energy options, which
there are seven of them according to this game. And
it also comes to provide really what are the options
Quebec has. And I think from my point of view,
it will surprise you what their options are. They're very

(01:09:29):
limited options. So I just want to describe the game.

Speaker 15 (01:09:33):
The game is.

Speaker 6 (01:09:34):
Called the Energy Mix Game Mission twenty five. So your
mission is to play this.

Speaker 4 (01:09:42):
You have to select.

Speaker 6 (01:09:44):
Between the seven options of energy. Nine thousand megawaks doesn't
sound like a lot, but that's really about twice what
Churchill Falls number one produces today. And even after all
of the addition, you know, Go Island and Churchill Falls
number two and et cetera, and the retrofit, they're only

(01:10:06):
going to be about seventy two hundred megawatsae in Labrador
for the Churchill side and versus nine thousand. So long
story short, it's a lot of electricity and that's what
the hydro Quebec wants out for the next ten years.
The options are this, solar, wind, renewable gas, hydro power.

(01:10:27):
Of course it's conservation which is cut back on energy
use in the province of correct natural gas and nuclear.
So those are the seven you Once you pick those
your mix what you think is the ideal mix. It
will educate you. It will tell you you know how
they do about greenhouse gas, how they are a cost

(01:10:50):
and more importantly, how they are in reliability. It's an
eye opener. Bottom line is this. Once you do that,
it gets submitted and it will come back and then
it will compare you to what hydro Quebec says is
the ideal mix. Very important step here because what it
comes back to, and I'm going to spoil it a bit,

(01:11:11):
but bear with me, is that the ideal mix equating
the hydro Quebec is fifty percent of that nine thousand
should come from hydro power source. Bingo, how much do
you think should come from nuclear? I will tell you
they say zero. That's a surprise and the others win.

(01:11:34):
So they're dipping their toe in it. That's all I
call how I put it. They're very reliant on this
hydro power source and the zero percent of nuclear provided
an opportunity to investigate that a bit. And this is
what I found is when Michael Sapier took over as
the CEO in hydro Quebec in two thousand and three,

(01:11:56):
he immediately launched a study on the recommission of the
nuclear facility.

Speaker 5 (01:12:01):
They have in Quebec.

Speaker 6 (01:12:02):
Yes, they have one there. They decommissioned it in twenty twelve,
took it offline. Because it had to be retrofitted and
there wasn't a stomach in Quebec to do with or
were deal with the cost as well. They're still sitting there,
but in July August of twenty twenty three it was
determined and in Quebec it was not socially acceptable to

(01:12:23):
go down that avenue. There you go, So they don't
have a nuclear option in Quebec. And then when the
game will it will also tell you is that the
game says natural gas. Natural gas is not an option.
They don't see that in their mix either, because it's
you know, it's generating greenhouse gas. That brings it down

(01:12:44):
to three four things, wind solar that they're dipping their
toe in, hydro power that they're fully reliant on, and
conservation message.

Speaker 2 (01:12:55):
Yeah, just a couple of quick notes. Social license is
a little of a thumb on the scale business because
Hydrocobec wants what Hydrocopec wants and they want more hydro
than anything else. And I played the energy mix game
that's been on their website since sometime mid last year,
so I've had a look at it a couple of times,
not a really a whole lot of updating of numbers

(01:13:16):
provided by this Energy mix Game on their website and
so social licenses. I think it almost feels like they're
rigging the game a little bit here. So that's my
initial thoughts on the energy mix game and nuclear. Look,
it comes with enormous upfront costs, but in the long
term play on the cost of producing power with small
nuclear reactors, there's certainly an argument to be made for

(01:13:38):
that to be a go to for juris siictioners that
want to get into increasing energy capacity.

Speaker 6 (01:13:45):
Yes, possibly, but I think the output the megawats is
surprisingly low on these things. A big nuclear plant eight
hundred personnel to operate it six hundred megawats. You know,
a project like a lot and producer four times that.
So these these options of nuclear not not as a

(01:14:05):
rosie that appears, Patty. I just want to move on
and let you go. Federal government issued their Clean Electricity
Strategy in August of twenty twenty five, just a little
short time ago. In there very interesting themes. I'm trying
to develop cooperation between provinces, the federal government, et cetera.

(01:14:26):
And you know, the goal being that we have to
get off fossil fuels by twenty fifty and get electrification
and go green. Bottom line. One of the actions of
this in twenty twenty five, so you know it has
to happen within the next couple of months, let's say,
is this release of a discussion paper on into jurisdictional

(01:14:47):
what they call chirities. Bottom line is big word, but
all it means is cooperation, sharing the transmission lines going
through different territories. This is very interesting coming out this document,
this fifty nine page document. They don't have hardly anything
about it, but there it is put out by the
federal government, Brands, Banking, new and it talks about cooperation.

(01:15:11):
And here we are in Newfouland basically with this MoU
being handcuffed to Quebec for the next fifty to sixty
five years. You have to ask yourself, who is really
pushing this MoU to get this thing signed in such
a hurry when the spirit and themes out there are
anything but cooperation. And it just seems to me that

(01:15:33):
Newfalland is going to miss out an opportunity to really
shine and to become wealthy. Over what's going to happen
now with this MoU and Quebec's going to get wealthy
and prosperous and New Foland's going to stay in the
same position they are. That's quite a shame.

Speaker 2 (01:15:49):
So, you know, how can you say that, how can
you say that we're going to stay in the same position.

Speaker 6 (01:15:57):
Well, relatively speaking, Quebec is going to enjoy the growth
of the cost of electricity and the market share that
they have and being able to generate wealth, all kinds
of sorts of things regarding how they when they have
access to put that energy to the market, they're paying
very little for it for New Zoudland, and relatively speaking,

(01:16:20):
is what we're talking about. Sure, it's better than the
current state of churchill False original agreement, but it still
has it's such a gap. Quebec is going to take
the line's share of the wealth and New Plan is
not going to be able to participate because you're in
the exact same dilemma. So that's the problem that's faced

(01:16:41):
with the principles that are in this current MoU and
they're not about change in any defendantive agreement. So it's
very problematic.

Speaker 2 (01:16:50):
The predicament. I think what you're referring to is, you know,
we have if we went to act alone or we
went to act with a partner, say just for instance,
Force Island, it's still a stranded asset until there's some
way to get the power out of there, which is
why I carefully include the potential for if it ever
comes to pass and this whole East West Energy Quarter,
it changes literally everything it truly does. So how that

(01:17:14):
cannot be incorporated into an eventual definitive agreement is beyond me.
Same thing when I talk about every single time, if
there's direct federal government involvement with transmission into province of
Quebec that will be used to flow power from the
Upper Angal into various markets, whether it be in Ontario,
Quebec or into the northeastern United States, that changes things.
So those are two of my primary concerns about what

(01:17:35):
may or may not be continually negotiated here. Let's say
for we go at goal twenty two and twenty five
megawatts and Fortes as our partner, that transmission cost to
get out of Labrador into a market is extraordinary. I mean,
Muskrat is as much a transmission project as it is
a hydro electric dam. So I mean just think about

(01:17:56):
one point five billion dollars for the maritime link to
carry five hundred megawatts in twenty twenties eighteen or nineteen dollars.
Imagine trying to flow two and twenty five megawats down
the long Range mountains over a newly created maritime link
to carry two thousand megawats to get it to market.
I mean, I speak to people much smarter than me,
and some senior people in the energy business, and they say,

(01:18:17):
that's not anything that anybody's going to support. The business
model doesn't make any sense. So Quebeca is the logical
and geographical partner. Whether it boils back down to all
the protections are there, price elasticity, inflation, replacement, cost risk,
all of those things, I'm not so sure the general public,
including me, have a full grasp on all of those
concepts inside of something that we're talking about half a

(01:18:39):
trillion dollars worth of value over the course of sixty years.

Speaker 6 (01:18:43):
No, you're absolutely right on many of those points. The government,
the liberal government, has not informed the public. That's quite
a shame. You planned Hidro hasn't informed the public. That's
quite a shame. Nobody, I think is opposing that Quebec
could be a better partner in this arrangement. That's all
this is about, is it the best deal? Could Could
more money be awarded to Newfoundland as part of this thing?

(01:19:04):
I think when you look at the Quebec's options, I
believe that could be very much the case. And that's
what this is all about. Nobody's saying we have to
go through another means to string wires down to all
the other places. That's not what it's about. It's about
getting the best deal for Newfoudland at MU doesn't doesn't
show that. But I think this cooperation, that this strategy

(01:19:27):
clean energy strategy that the FEDS have come out with
now starts to lay the groundwork for this thing, cooperation
to work together. As you know, Federation, we have people,
have resources, not just in the line of cannad but
across the country. We had to start working together for
our best interests of the country. And this presides an
opportunity for Newfoundland that I think didn't exist before. But

(01:19:49):
if we handk up ourselves to Quebec in this agreement
which the government your government is so eager to sign,
and with the election around the corner, I think that
this is so come to such a forefront right now
to get about April next year, we're talking now, it's
a level to get elected. They seem to have to
go ahead to sign off with this MoU carte blanche,

(01:20:12):
and that's very problematic. And they put newfuland public in
this position. Let's let's be clear about that. They had
an opportunity to study this, They had an opportunity to
call an election before this, but no, they put it
in at the last minute. And now and here we
are trying to with an uninformed public, is what I
would say. Because they didn't provide public with a reasonable,

(01:20:33):
legitimate and a document that people could read. This is terrible,
a terrible thing for your leaders who have done to you.
And I sit back and look at it. I've gone
through the paragraph so I can dissect it. But I
have the background in this stuff, and I'm looking at it.
There's no way that those principles should be the starting
point of this discussion yet.

Speaker 11 (01:20:54):
Where there's where you have it.

Speaker 6 (01:20:56):
So I mean people have to really take note that
if they if they are not informed on this, then
you have to ask yourself why was that? Why were
the government not informed or of citizens? And to ask
yourself what is the what is that they're hiding? And
I can tell you there's numerous problems in there, and
just one that I will leave with John this quickly.

(01:21:17):
It's to me the control, the control of those two
megaprojects in laborage work is a huge mistake. I see
Quebec taking many of many of the higher paid jobs.
For example, all of the engineering it's already designed. Who's
going to do the engineering and outfit in Quebec owned
by Hydro Quebec, and all of that there is going

(01:21:38):
to be all that business is going to be conducted
in French, friend the French. How is nufland going to
be able to interject into those level of positions not
going to happen. All that wealth those individuals or spouses
or children going to be paid into the Quebec treasury
versus Newfland treasury and.

Speaker 2 (01:21:56):
Some of that we actually don't know yet, which is
also a.

Speaker 6 (01:21:59):
Problem, also a problem, but knew what people I think.
The last point I want to people know in nufhlan
Lavador is Quebec has full control over this. Don't pitch yourself, Lufleland.
Hydro has no responsibility in the decision making of those
two megaprojects. For the next fifteen years up to thirty

(01:22:19):
billion dollars worth of expenses, and at the end of
the day, Newfoundland is responsible for sixty percent of it.
It makes zero sense that you will go down this avenue.

Speaker 2 (01:22:29):
Well, that lumped in statement includes two transmission projects, an
expansion at the Upper and the production or the construction
at Gaul, which all have different levels of risk, different
levels of equity stake, different levels of borrowing. So that's
where I think some of the confusion does indeed lie.
I mean, it's not for projects too, because you're not

(01:22:49):
going to build a dam or expanded down without building
the transmission to accommodate additional power. So that's where I
think a bulk of the confusion lives. To be honest
with you, it's all rolled into one. If this was
if we add them as standalone deals, which I don't
even know if it was ever even possible. Because Quebec
came looking for golf, that's it. We wanted more money
at the Upper Churchial and some sort of protection at

(01:23:10):
Gaull Island insofar as risk goes. So to start with
that as the starting point of conversation becomes very very muddy.
When all of a sudden. Both of those conversations have
to happen at the exact same time, because it just
makes it extremely complicated. PJ. I got to get going
to the break, but I appreciate the follow up. Today
sounds have a good day you too, Bye bye. I
just get a break in took away, welcome back. Let's

(01:23:31):
go to len number two. Taking more to the PC
candidate running Virginia Waters pleasant Field. That's Patrick Condon and
good morning Patrick. You're on the air.

Speaker 6 (01:23:39):
Hey, good morning, mister Daily. Thanks for having me on.

Speaker 2 (01:23:42):
Happy to do it.

Speaker 5 (01:23:43):
Yes, I just had to clarify it's G. Patrick. I
want people going it. Yes, my gosh, it's caused such
great confusion at the doors. I wish I had just
stuck with Patrick, but it now it's G. Patrick Condon.

Speaker 2 (01:23:57):
Okay, fair enough.

Speaker 5 (01:24:00):
I wanted to talk about my experience, I guess at
the due wars. I got the nomination back in January,
and it was related to me that the you know,
for somebody that has had no past political experience, the
only way to do this was not so I don't

(01:24:20):
know if you've ever had a experience in canvassing, but
it can be pretty gusting. But it's also been incredibly
enlightening the district of Virginia Waters and Pleasant build there's
a vast difference of wealth and class, and there seems

(01:24:42):
to be a lot of commonalities between what people are
concerned about, and a lot of it has to do with,
you know, the pillars that all the political parties have
about this, which is, uh, stafer communities.

Speaker 6 (01:24:57):
But I sort of want to get in you have touched.

Speaker 5 (01:25:04):
Patrick communities.

Speaker 2 (01:25:05):
Patrick, the connection is terrible. Maybe you shuffle around a
little bit, see we can clear it up. Sure, that's
a little better. Go ahead now.

Speaker 5 (01:25:14):
Sorry, So how much of my ranted you guys?

Speaker 2 (01:25:18):
No, just the last few seconds just got a bit crackedly,
that's all.

Speaker 5 (01:25:23):
So basically, where do safer communities come from?

Speaker 6 (01:25:27):
It?

Speaker 5 (01:25:27):
Like you touched upon at.

Speaker 6 (01:25:28):
The beginning of the show, it is a matter of
poverty and.

Speaker 5 (01:25:32):
Addictions and mental health issues. And what I've been seeing
is the mass increase in areas in the district, neighborhoods
where people have said they've lived there for thirty four years.
They said it was always known as a rough area,

(01:25:55):
but particularly in the last five years, gone to all
and there's do things you know that there's any gun
violence in New from the land is a very new
and troubling thing actually, And so then the question becomes
where does the addiction start. And you know, again from

(01:26:19):
conversations I've had with parents, it seems to be something
that happens a lot in when kids are turned thirteen
fourteen years old, they start to like everybody around that age,
you start to develop anxiety, and you start to develop
maybe anger issues and depression. And then if your parents

(01:26:42):
are able to pick up on this change and they
want to get you into counseling, a lot of the
times it can take a year or two years.

Speaker 6 (01:26:51):
Before you can get in to see anybody, and a.

Speaker 5 (01:26:54):
Lot of the times kids will start to self medicate.

Speaker 6 (01:26:57):
And then once those kids go down that path, it's
very hard to get them.

Speaker 5 (01:27:03):
Off of it again. Once somebody becomes addicted to you know,
drugs or alcohol, you can ever get them back. It's
a miracle. You know, they talk a lot in AA
and an At about God and miracles, because it is
a miracle when somebody is able to buy recovery. So

(01:27:27):
the best way that I know about getting anybody free
from addiction is rehab programs. And one of the one
of the things that I've heard about is that we
had a bill that was passed five or ten years ago,

(01:27:49):
Bill fifty five, that would allow parents to involuntarily admit
their kids into rehab programs. But you know, the policy
of the current government is that that would be a
human rights violation against a child, and so really takes

(01:28:10):
the power out of the parent's hands to be able
to help their kids.

Speaker 2 (01:28:17):
It's that's a Bill fifty five is proposed legislation in Alberta.

Speaker 5 (01:28:24):
No, no, so I could be mistaken.

Speaker 6 (01:28:27):
I'm not gonna deny that.

Speaker 5 (01:28:29):
But there's a Bill fifty five that was debated I
think it was like twenty nineteen or twenty sixteen that
was passed and then shelves that was about It was
about secure care. I think it was called.

Speaker 2 (01:28:49):
Yeah, Bill fifty five is well, it was an aproposed
amendment to the Health Statues Act in Alberta. It was
called i think the Compassionate Intervention Act. So that was
an Alberta, a provincial piece of legislation, not a federal
piece of legislation.

Speaker 6 (01:29:06):
Okay, well, I'm I don't know, I'm looking at it now,
but my mistake.

Speaker 2 (01:29:12):
Anyways, it's even build fifty five or fifty three. They
are all proposed at the exact same time, but they
all deal with addictions and substance abuse and treatments and stuff. Yes,
that's absolutely right.

Speaker 5 (01:29:25):
Yeah yeah. Nevertheless, the point being is that is that
this is one of the major things that I think
we should really take a look at at enforcing. And
I think when it comes down to what the issues
is in the in the election, it's really like a
political philosophy. And in some cases the thought is that

(01:29:51):
you know, things like safe injection sites, clean needles, that
this is what we do to show empathy and sympathy
for people that are in addictions. My take on it
is those types of programs don't really get anybody off
of any drugs. It sort of belongs without any solution.

(01:30:12):
And again, from my understanding and from my opinion, I
think if you're going to try and get people off
of drugs and alcohol, the only way to do it,
the most success you'll get is through rehab programs.

Speaker 2 (01:30:28):
Yeah, I mean, we've got to expand detox and rehab
short in the timeline between detox and rehab, no question
about it. Later for The News, Star g petro Connon
but I appreciate your time. I wish you good luck
out there. Thanks sir, You're welcome. Bye bye. All right,
let's get to that news break talk away.

Speaker 1 (01:30:45):
You were listening to a rebroadcast of VOCM Open Line.
Have your say by calling seven h nine two seven,
three fifty two eleven or one triple eight five ninety
eight six two six and listen live weekday mornings at
nine am.

Speaker 2 (01:31:02):
Welcome back to the show. Let's go line number five. So,
good morning to one of the candidates running for deputy
mayor here in town. That's Bianclono Bianca. You're on the air.

Speaker 9 (01:31:10):
Good morning, Patty. How are you doing this morning?

Speaker 2 (01:31:13):
How about you?

Speaker 9 (01:31:14):
Oh, you know, I was well, you know, it's a
day I just want I did want to take a
quick second to just thank you and Dave for everything
that you do to make sure that you get the
communication and the word out across the province. I think
it's amazing what you do and I just wanted to
give you a bit of kudos there this morning. But
what I really wanted to talk about, as a candidate
and someone living in this city and clearly new to politics,

(01:31:37):
I'm a little bit concerned about what's happening with the
municipal election. As you know, the City of Saint John's
has changed the election date October eighth, and that is.

Speaker 6 (01:31:45):
The only municipal municipality.

Speaker 9 (01:31:47):
Across the province, and it's because of the postal strike.
And I'm a little bit surprised that they didn't have
somewhat of a contingency plan in place. It's not the
first time we've had a postal strike, but I mean,
if we were in the winter time and we had
a snow, another snow will get in, we would have
to have a contingency plan in place. And it feels
like it was a little bit of a scramble. And
as you mentioned earlier this morning with municipal NL, those

(01:32:10):
provincial ends are still running saying that the election is
on the second. I'm getting messages from people and also
other candidates reaching out because people are confused about the
actual date, and I don't know, it's the confusing at
its best, but it's it's worth It kind of feels
like it could be like a little bit I hate
to say this word, but a little bit of voter suppression,
because you know, voters show up on the wrong day

(01:32:30):
and they were given, don't They don't know what's going on,
and it kind of undermines the entire process. And then
you look at word two. They just announced now we've
got another new location. So we had the nights of
the Columbus and we were going to the First Light
Community Center and now we've got that new added the
new voting center at the Poolhouse on Bannonman Street, which

(01:32:53):
was really the last minute scramble after residents raised alarms.
It's because of the construction and accessibility, and really accessibility
should never be an afterthought. I think everyone does an
equal chance to pass the ballot.

Speaker 2 (01:33:06):
Just very quickly. Where exactly is the confusion because when
you move around POLU stations that can be confusing. My
go to when people are asking me questions is the
goal right to Saint John's votes dot ca and or
access Saint John's with the updated information available there. So
polling stations moving around is one thing, But what is
another example of confusion?

Speaker 5 (01:33:23):
Bianca for you of what you're hearing, gave you an example.

Speaker 9 (01:33:26):
So my uncle, for example, he doesn't use the internet,
so he went down to the city Hall yesterday to
go get that information and to find out if his
ballot had in fact and registered. But not everyone's using
the internet, right, I mean, I know we rely a
lot on social media and making sure of that, but
that's not always the best way. I mean, I think
I'm sure you can attest to this. A lot of
people listen to go open line to find out what's

(01:33:47):
going on, so I don't think that that is necessarily
it can be the only form of communication to get
that message out there. I'm actually going to pop by
the Knights of Columbus later on to find out if
there's been anyone. I know that they did put up
signage there, but the last minute changes have made it
a little bit tricky. And then and even for candidates,
our agents are a big part of the process keeping

(01:34:08):
this process transparent. I mean, I can speak for myself.
My particular agent book tur vacation to around the election,
and now we'll not be able to be here for
election day. And I mean, I know that these things happen,
but again, it's all been very last minute. We literally
just got the email to give people time, you know,
to let them know what the agent process and how
to get their passes if they want to attend the

(01:34:32):
day of voting, So it's just it becomes a little
bit it's been a little bit of a last minute scramble,
and I feel a lot of the pressure has been
put on candidates to get the message out there, to
make sure that everyone is getting that message. And so
back to those ads that are running that have mixed
states on it. I mean, we're the only municipality in
the province that has a postponement. Actually there was one

(01:34:52):
more and that was due to the wildfires. I mean,
Alberta's got a municipal election going on right now. Everything
is standards as quo and at the end of the day,
elections is really about participating, a participation, you know, so
between the city and municipal and l I think it
should be made a little bit easier for people to vote,
not harder. And right now the mixed messages and the

(01:35:13):
late fixes, those are just creating some barriers to access
and I just think that it just adds up to
a very can be a very dangerous picture, you know,
because we have fewer people voting or less confidence in
democracy and voices are not being heard and that's to me,
that's not acceptable.

Speaker 2 (01:35:30):
Yeah, I mean, anytime that there's an interruption in the
normal flow of campaigns and election day for some, it
does indeed present a barrier potentially and or add to
the confusion. I think that was inevitable, especially when there
was such a close overlap between municipal elections and the
provincial election. That wasn't helpful either.

Speaker 9 (01:35:49):
No, I agree. Actually that's a good point that you
just put that out there, because if anyone's listening today,
is that it's the deadline to request a special ballot
from the provincial election aka mail in ballot. So if
anyone is weren't wondering about that, today is the deadline
to do that. And again that's another thing that people
had to do online. And so I've been trying to
help my uncle make sure that he gets, you know,

(01:36:10):
his special ballot because he prefers to do a mail in.
But now, you know, we're kind of, you know, wondering
what's going to happen with that. I mean, we don't
know where the cann of post strike is going to
end up between now and you know, what's well two
weeks from now, right, So it's just I don't know.
I struggle with this. I'm an old fashion voter. I
don't know about you, but I like to go into
the pole. It's part of I think ever since I

(01:36:32):
was able to vote, that was something I looked forward to,
was going into the pole. And maybe that might encourage
people to maybe want to shift and maybe move away
from what mail in ballots and wanting to actually basically
go into the pole. But at the same time, you
need lots to notice and it needs to be really
clear about where those are located and how to access that.

Speaker 2 (01:36:51):
Yeah, I personally, I think the addition of mail into
in person actually broadze access for voters. Like I'm going
to mail in my ballot for the City of Saint John's.
It's actually my car to drop off at the Paul
Rentals Center later today, So I kind of don't mind
that additional feature. When it comes to provincial election federal elections,
I go to the polling station. I always do. That's

(01:37:11):
just my preferred choice, you know, whether it be advanced
polling opportunities or election day proper. That's kind of how
I handle and that's just me and how I do
my personal business when it comes to voting, and I
always take the opportunity to vote when I'm given the
opportunity to do so, of course we.

Speaker 5 (01:37:26):
All want to.

Speaker 15 (01:37:27):
I mean, but you know, I'm sure you've heard too.

Speaker 9 (01:37:28):
And there's a lot of people that have been getting
multiple ballots showing up at their doors. That's a bit
that's scary to me. I'd like to think most people
are going to be honest and they're not going to
submit them or you know, or they turn them in.
But we don't know that, right, I mean, I think
that's just a very that's a conversation for another day.
I think in terms of how that happens and how
often those lists are checked, because I guess for me personally,

(01:37:51):
I was under the impression that, you know, the federal
voting list for municipal provincials they should kind of be
more aligned. I mean, that's why we have Elections Canada
to make sure that you know, those lists are kept
up to date. I mean, I have a friend of
mine that's up in Labrador now and they may not
be able to make it back to be able to
vote and to be able to get in, you know,
to get to their particular falling station because they don't

(01:38:12):
have their special ballot yet because the deadline is today.
So I mean, I think there's just a lot of
layers to this. At the end of the day, I
just think, you know, between the city of municipal and
l and even the provincial you know, for the poincial election,
it would be nice if they corrected the ads. I
think it might be a little well, no, it's not
too late because after today it will be the only
punicipality that has an election on me. But just making

(01:38:34):
sure that every resident knows exactly where and where and
when to vote and not leaving it up to the
candidates to have to do that hustle, because really we're
not the ones managing the election, and just commit to
that commit that accessibility and fairness will be guaranteed and
uplanted every election from now on, because I think people
they don't they don't trust the process, and if the
process doesn't work, then democracy suffers.

Speaker 2 (01:38:56):
I appreciate the time, Bianca, good luck.

Speaker 9 (01:38:58):
Thank you so much, Faddy for your time and yourself
a great rest of your day, you too.

Speaker 5 (01:39:02):
By bye.

Speaker 2 (01:39:03):
Jan Colono run for Deputy Meyrits and John's let's take
a break, don't go away, welcome back to the show.
Let's go to lin uber One Sigamore to former Crown prosecutor.
That's Mike Murray. Mike, you're on the air.

Speaker 16 (01:39:13):
Yeah, good morning, Patty, money to you. Yeah, I wanted
to call in. I wanted to talk about something that
the Premier said yesterday while out on campaign. Sean Patten,
from the head of the Crown Attorneys Association, was in
the media talking about how last year the government promised

(01:39:33):
to hire six new prosecutors. They managed to round up four,
but in the meantime five people quit, so there are
actually one down from where they were last year, with
seven hundred more files, and the premier's talking about hiring
an extra one hundred police officers. So when they asked
them about it yesterday, the Premier did not agree that

(01:39:53):
more cops mean more charges. I mean, that is such
a nonsensical statement. I mean everybody, even people who watch
Hudson and Rex or Law and Order, know that the
police go out to lay charges. I mean, everything that
that the Premier knows about the criminal justice system seems
like it could be written on the on the back

(01:40:15):
of a stamp.

Speaker 5 (01:40:16):
I mean it is. Yeah, it's very poor.

Speaker 16 (01:40:20):
In my opinion, the prosecution service is really really in
a crisis situation.

Speaker 5 (01:40:27):
The people who are leaving.

Speaker 16 (01:40:28):
Are like experienced crown attorneys, people who can do murder trials,
people who can do long term sexual abuse trials, people
who can do home invasions. I mean, I'm not saying
anything about the people that they're that they're picking up,
but I mean, I remember when I started as a
crown having to write down all the questions before I

(01:40:50):
went in the court.

Speaker 5 (01:40:52):
You know what I mean.

Speaker 16 (01:40:53):
It's not like not every not everybody, not every lawyer
has created equal experience makes a big difference, and we're
losing experienced people. And also, I mean not every file
is equal. One file could be a guy who walks
into a liquor stories caught on video putting six bottles

(01:41:13):
of rum in a in one of those recycling bags,
and another.

Speaker 5 (01:41:18):
File is Tony Humby.

Speaker 16 (01:41:20):
I mean, they all just count as a file.

Speaker 2 (01:41:23):
Exactly right. I'll just read a quote from the premiere
yesterday when asked about the need for more prosecutors. Police
officers are not necessarily going to be there only after
crime happens. They're there to make sure people are safe
and that crimes don't happen. That's aspirational stuff, and you know,
maybe we will see some crime deterred because of an
enhanced police presence. Like I say all the time, nothing

(01:41:45):
slows you down on the highway quite like a police cruiser.
But aspirational versus rational are kind of two different things here,
no question in my mind, more cops, more investigations that
come to a conclusion, very likely, more charges laid consequently,
more files on the desk of round prosecutors. And if
we're at a net down one given the fact that
they hired four or five resigned, that's just in the

(01:42:06):
eastern zone. So I don't necessarily I would I agree
with you, And I don't really understand the premier's assertion
here given the fact his own government said they're going
to hire eighteen new Crown prosecutors over the course of
three years, so six per years. So they acknowledged there's
a need. So if there was a need, then why
is there not an enhanced need?

Speaker 6 (01:42:24):
Now? Yeah, I'm you know what.

Speaker 16 (01:42:27):
I want to read a quote too. This is from
Lynn Moore for more crown attorneys. She posted this on Facebook.
So once again John Hogan is demonstrating complete ignorance of
the justice system. More officers means more charges. Everyone knows
this except John Hogan. You know, I mean when you
have people in the system who know what they're talking

(01:42:50):
about telling you that we barely got enough crowns to
handle what's going on now. It's kind of a crisis now.
And if you talk about adding more police and more charges,
I mean, you're not going to improve the situation.

Speaker 2 (01:43:04):
Yeah, I mean that footed mouth about you know, sexual
abuse survivors or victims aren't really traumatizing court. What we
know full well that is absolutely demonstrably not true. Is
it was just I couldn't believe anybody actually said it,
you know, acknowledging shortcomings. This is a political miscalculation that
I think fall too many politicians fall prey too. Even

(01:43:26):
if it's your government, your policy, if and when it
fails or comes up short, public acknowledgment of it and
to try to put things back on the rails is
actually a political victory. Is turning blind eye, deaf fear,
and you know, pretending that the policy is working or
will work when we all know it's not is just
really political. Harry Carrey, like, just acknowledge it and move on.

(01:43:48):
I think the public would actually accept and probably applaud
when politicians have a bit of self awareness and say, Okay,
that was wrong. Here's what we should do, and here's
how we're going to measure it. We got to get
back on track. Okay. I think people can accept that.

Speaker 5 (01:44:01):
Yeah, No, I think so.

Speaker 16 (01:44:03):
I mean it's you can come out and say we're struggling,
but we're trying to move forward, versus oh, everything is great,
you know.

Speaker 2 (01:44:09):
I mean when people know that it's not yeah, and
this is not a John Hogan or Liberal Party of
Newfoundland and Labrador topic. I just think politicians are various stripes, provincially, federally, municipally,
they all fall prey to it. You know. The ability
to admit when you're wrong or have come up short
is something that human nature will accept.

Speaker 5 (01:44:30):
I mean, we just do.

Speaker 8 (01:44:32):
You know.

Speaker 2 (01:44:32):
Some people will reject every single thing comes out of
his mouth or waken his mouth or Din's mouth because
that's their ideological stands. But I think for the vast
majority of us, we're all just trying to get by.
We're all somewhere bumping around in the center of the
political spectrum. But unfortunately, the very loud voices on either
side of the spectrum get all the attention. When I
don't think most people in this province are in this
country kind of think like that or feel like that.

(01:44:54):
We're all just doing our thing, raising our families, going
to work, trying to keep the wolf away from door.
Pretty standard, normal center the political spectrum stuff.

Speaker 6 (01:45:04):
Yeah, no, for sure.

Speaker 16 (01:45:05):
I mean, if somebody breaks into your house and they're
unlucky enough to leave, they go through a window, and
they're unlucky enough to leave blood on the glass, and
two years later the church finally gets late in the
year after that is you know, it went away and
nobody can tell you why. I mean, that's the kind
of things bread and butter, criminal justice issues that really

(01:45:30):
need to be addressed.

Speaker 2 (01:45:32):
I agree, so we will, you know, and I can't.
And I don't speak for individuals with what's important to
them this go around, because it depends on who you are,
where you are, it depends on your lot in life.
I think the vast majority of people will just rely
on pocketbook issues, right. Yes, we can incorporate public safety, yes,
the upper churchill and yes, healthcare and yes everything else
under the sun. But I think a lot of people

(01:45:53):
they just think about their pocketbook normally. Yeah, you know, anyway,
anything else might before we get to the news break,
appreciate your time, no problem, all the best, Bye bye.

Speaker 5 (01:46:04):
Yeah.

Speaker 2 (01:46:04):
I mean, I think it's patently obvious that we need
more Crown prosecutors because he makes an important point there,
of the five that left the office in the Eastern region,
no question whether it's all five or most of the
five will be experience attorneys. And experience is important because
not everyone fresh out of law school and fresh from
articling can take on the Tony homebe case or take

(01:46:26):
on the current Bellmin murder trial. So there's a lot
to what he says. You know, A one hand acknowledging
the fact that the department reparted of me, the Office
of Crown Prosecutors requires at least eighteen new Crown prosecutors
added to the roster over the course of three years.
Sounded like a decent understanding of the concerns being voiced
by Sean Patten and others, and they need to get

(01:46:47):
it right. I mean, an overworked attorney, like an overworked
correctional officer, like an overworked nurse, is bound to not
be able to deliver his or her best day in
and day out. It's just nature, the beast. We're not
all built to have that amount of workload, and it's
such important work heat under our shoulders without some relief
for adding some human resources to the fray right right.

(01:47:08):
Check it out Twitter, we're VOCIM up online. You note
to do follow us there. Comments are welcome, good and bad.
Email addresses open on at FEOCM dot com. You know
me my favorite. Join us live on the air when
we come back. We're gonna have more conversation about the MoU.
There's a lady Colin from Labrador talking about barriers for
disabled people. And I mentioned Lisa Slaney off the top
of the program the last two days. She's the executive

(01:47:29):
director of Grace Sparks House down in Marystown. It's all
about the funding for shelters. That's coming up short those
conversations and you right after this, don't go away the
Tim Powers Show. Joining the conversation weekday afternoons at.

Speaker 1 (01:47:42):
Four pm on your VOCM.

Speaker 2 (01:47:44):
Welcome back to the program. Let's go to line number
two saying more to a gentleman seeking re election in
ward four here in town. That's Tom Davis. Tom, you're
on the air. Good morning, Patty morning.

Speaker 7 (01:47:55):
I wanted to just start with with the election being
moved to say John's just to remind voters that it's
Saint John's dot CAA slash votes or vote sorry is
the website they go to the check and you can
always call three one one or email access at Saint
John's dot CA to find it of received ballots and

(01:48:16):
just let people know. I've spoken to people in my
ward that actually that a husband and wife both dropped
off at the same time. His was received by us
and hers is not received by us. So unfortunately we
really need people if you want to get your vote heard,
which is so important that you do. It's an important election.

(01:48:36):
Every election is important. You know, there's a lot of
new people being elected going to be elected regardless of
the city of Saint John's, So encourage people to go
to that website or call three one one and find
out whether.

Speaker 11 (01:48:47):
We've received your vote.

Speaker 7 (01:48:49):
Up to tuesday, we only had sixteen thousand votes received
between Canada Post and drop boxes, which you would be
half as many as you would normally see in an election,
So really concerned about people getting the votes counted. Of course,
you can actually contact every own one and make arrangements
to pick up a new ballot, which you then can

(01:49:13):
drop off at any of the dropboxes, including in front
of the City Hall up to election day, but then
on election day you have to go in person to
vote at your designated polling station, which again is all online.

Speaker 5 (01:49:26):
I'm not going to listen off.

Speaker 7 (01:49:27):
People won't know, but anybody wants to reach out to me,
they can, and I can regardless of what ward they're in,
I can point them in the right direction. Okay, I'm
taking off the council hat and I want to really
strongly weigh in on them. You've spent a lot of
time trying to absorb, as I know a lot of
your listeners have, and I know you have, trying to

(01:49:48):
absorb all the data, all the information, all the experts
who are weighing in. You know, over the last ten years,
I've spoken to experts who didn't feel comfortable weighing in.
When the muskrat Falls review was happening, Like when we
were trying to decide whether we're going to go ahead
with it, there was a lot of pressure within the

(01:50:10):
community to go along with the government at the time
and news from land Hydro slash Nalcor at the time
pushing forward with the muskrat Falls, and we know that
turned out.

Speaker 5 (01:50:21):
And you know, as more and.

Speaker 7 (01:50:23):
More people from different political stripes or no political stripe
come forward with analysis with data, you know it's becoming
favor and favor to do it. And I just encourage
more and more people to lend their voices on either
side of the equation to the conversation.

Speaker 2 (01:50:41):
For me, when we include muskrat Falls in the conversation
about the UC MoU, I think it just adds further confusion.
I mean they're really vastly different proposals. I mean, for statdays,
muskrat Falls was us and us alone. We inherited, we
had all of the risk. We were the only outside
of the twenty percent that we owe to Nova, Scotial

(01:51:03):
Power or Amerio across the maritimelink. So it was just
all us, all the way, all the risk, the only customer.
That makes a different conversation for me. But when we
people hear muskrat Falls, all they can hear is boondoggle.
So I think we get off on a very slanted
foot when muskrat is incorporated into the UC conversation, what
do you think, Well, I.

Speaker 7 (01:51:23):
Think two of the three parties involved in this negotiation
are still involved and we're still involved in muskrat So
we had the provincial government and the bureaucrats on one side,
plus New Fland Hydro slash now Core also as part
of that process. So I don't think we discount muskrat
falls as much as we should. In that you can

(01:51:46):
see how tunnel vision occurs. You can see how bias
occurs and how you start going down to track as
well as you can see how when you get your
marching orders, as senior bureaucts say it, New Fland Hydro,
let's get this deal done, or Hydro Quebec has come
to us with this opportunity, let's see we can get
a deal done. That people's mindset starts changing and their

(01:52:08):
focus changes. And then deeper and deeper you get into
a process, the more committed you become to it. It
takes an awful strong person to stand up in the
you know, in the boardroom and say, boys like I
don't think this is the best deal anymore. When you're
you know, six months down and your premiers torn up
supposedly performably torn up a contract, you know, it gets
it gets harder and harder to turn the ship around.

(01:52:31):
So so I think I agree with you that that
it does complicate it. But for me, this comes down
to trust in the three parties. It comes down to
watching the long term best interest of our province, of
our children, of our grandchildren, and of us. And also
you know what, you know, how does this, how does

(01:52:51):
this play into where we are and where we're going
to go. So so I just want to break down
each thing. So trust, trust, and the partners. I've already
talked about partners from vincial government and New Flint Hydro,
but to dig a little deeper with Newfoudland Hydro. You know,
Newton Hydro's job is to provide power to the residents
of the province of Newfuland and Labrador at the lowest

(01:53:13):
cost possible, but making sourts.

Speaker 5 (01:53:15):
Reliable like that that that would be their mandate.

Speaker 7 (01:53:18):
And so when you look at how they're behaving, I
will argue with ferential government support over time, we have
within that. Most people may not be aware of this,
but you know, if you're on the island Newthilon, Labrador,
or if you're on the island of newfent Land, or
you're on the on the coast of Labrador, we all
pay the same amount fifteen point two cents and it's
gone up significantly over the last few years. Moscar follows

(01:53:39):
are driving it as well as just inflation and cost
of good soul just to provide services, or if you're
in Labrador in Lave City or a goose or whatever,
you're paying three point one five cents. So a lot
of people don't aren't aware of this. But the residents
of Labrator pays three points three point one five cents
and their costs are not going up. And if the

(01:54:00):
Liberal government follows through on their promise of taking hst off,
it'll come off those people as well. So you know,
people need to sit with the fact that that their
neighbors when the same province, potentially even just just a
small flight away or drive away, are paying one fifth
of what they're paying. So that's not equitable and that's

(01:54:20):
not fair. And Premier Fury said that their rates will
not go up, and I don't understand how you square
that circle. So that's that's the first thing. The new
Folant Hydro is buying from Cornabook public paper power at
twenty seven and a half sense aquiloe hour that also
readly doesn't make a lot of sense. In the big
scheme of things, when you overlay it on how much
we're prepared to sell power out of Upper Churchill as

(01:54:44):
we go forward for power, you know, it's significantly less.
So that's Newflant Hydro. You know that calls into the
equity and fairness and how much we can really trust
New Fialant Hydro and really the governing party who out
for some reason is you know, part of our rates
could be subsidized by people in Labrador paying more money.

(01:55:05):
I don't understand why that's okay. I mean, we have
a lot of hydro on the island during the summertime.
We're pulling hydro from ourselves. We don't need muscart falls.
I mean Beta Spear and cat arm and the various
number of projects that are across the island. Like, I
don't know why residents wouldn't be paying a lot less
if Labrador residents are paying less.

Speaker 6 (01:55:23):
So there's that.

Speaker 7 (01:55:24):
Now we get into hydro Quebec and trust so close person,
A person close to me actually has a job working
for a Quebec company building a hospital in Halifax, and
there's one hundred people on that job and ninety five
of them are from Quebec, and five of them are
from Newfoundland. Well, the only only people who don't get
a living out allowance on that job site are the

(01:55:45):
five new from Landers. That's an interesting statement. Obviously that's
a private company. I was also speaking to an engineering
company the other day, who was, you know, wanted to
go bid on the Dual Island Labrador work and loan. Behold,
they have to register in Quebec. Now, anybody who has
any familiarity with registering a company as an English as
a Newfoudland or an Ontario company or whatever in Quebec.

(01:56:07):
You know, I'm not gonna say it's impossible, but you know,
you're really good luck. And the thing is, if you're
an engineering you want to practice in Quebec, you have
to write their exam. The only problems have to do this.
You can regison any other problems. You have to write
their exam in Quebec. So again, I don't know how
many engineers out there are fluid in Quebec that engineering
tests will be hard enough.

Speaker 6 (01:56:23):
So this is the overlay, you know.

Speaker 7 (01:56:26):
And again Berck Coffee mentioned this. Quebec really still does
not acknowledge the fact that Librador and the headwaters of
the Churchill are even owned by New Flinal Library.

Speaker 6 (01:56:38):
So this is our partner.

Speaker 7 (01:56:39):
This is the person that the group of people and
the entity that we're trying to get in the bed with.
So like for me, you know, getting into how much
we're charging for it. I mean, there's some excellent information
out there about how inexpense of this deal is and
how expensive power is, you know right now Quebec most

(01:56:59):
people rug may just put on an excellent series of videos,
a little technical, but the gist of it is that
Quebec right now is actually buying power from the United
States at times because their main hydro producing reservoirs are
suffering a drought and they have since twenty twenty three,
meaning that Quebec isn't able to produce as much power
as they previously had. So this again makes our bargaining

(01:57:23):
position stronger overlaid on top of the fact that we've
got that, you know, we've got this new nation building
mantra and all this stuff. So yeah, I'll let you comment.

Speaker 2 (01:57:34):
I know, there's lot there, Yeah, there is an Unfortunately
it's eleven forty five and twenty one seconds here, and
I've got a few callers in the queue, so I'll
give you just a couple of seconds wrap it up, Tom,
before we have to go.

Speaker 7 (01:57:44):
What I want to say is that John Hogan and
the Liberals have made a decision to make this election
about the MoU.

Speaker 6 (01:57:50):
Every person who votes, regardless on their.

Speaker 7 (01:57:53):
Political strike, really needs to sit with some with the
things that people like you know, Des Sullivan.

Speaker 6 (01:57:58):
And Dave Verity and Danny Williams, and you can.

Speaker 7 (01:58:01):
Go across the full political spectrum and really realize that
that is the defining factor when you check your ballot.
That is what every news Lander needs to realize that
that is what this election is about. And don't let
yourself get sucked into these promises of money we do
not have to spend. That's going to be more debt
and deaths than your children and grandchildren. That is a
decision people should make when they're at the battle box.

(01:58:24):
And I appreciate everybody to take care and get up vote.

Speaker 2 (01:58:26):
Thanks Tom, all the best. Bye bye, Tom Davis Seeking
re election War four Final Break in the morning, don't
go away, welcome back to the show. It's good to
len the re force. I cant went to the executive
director at Grace Spark's House. That's Lisa Slainey, Lisa around
the air. Hi, Patty, welcome back to the program. So
you and I have had many conversations about demand for
Mercy Shelter for women at the Grace Sparks House and otherwise.

(01:58:47):
But now we get into this operational funding. Hou it's
not keeping up with renegotiates, renegotiated wages. Talk us through this.

Speaker 9 (01:58:55):
Yeah, So.

Speaker 5 (01:58:58):
We are in corporate shelters.

Speaker 17 (01:59:00):
Each shelter is an incorporated body, separate from you know,
from government direct contact of this. Put it that way,
and we receive our core funding of course from government.
So in that regard, the majority of our shelters in
the province are unionized and we don't have any control

(01:59:22):
over what's negotiated.

Speaker 11 (01:59:23):
Government does that. So I guess after you know, so.

Speaker 17 (01:59:27):
Many years and since two thousand and twenty twenty, I
think we've gone through five different ministers when in Newfoundland
and laboratory housing where our money is funneled through from government,
our core funding, and we've you know, we have no say,
we have no control over what benefits are given, but
our budgets have never been adjusted to reflect what's been

(01:59:51):
negotiated and I guess, you know, after again five ministers
and trying to get that message through that, you know,
we felt the need to move forward because you know,
I can speak for our shelter. I mean, last our
last fiscal year, we were unable to make payroll twice
and you know, people donate to the shelters for the

(02:00:15):
women and children, they don't don't don't eat to pay
you know, negotiated salaries by the government. So you know,
I guess again, you know, for five different ministers not
not really understanding what we're saying or the crisis that
we're in, that we decided, you know that we're going
to have to bring this to a larger audience to

(02:00:36):
get more attention because it Yeah, so you know that's
that's where we are. And there's other shelters of course
that are not unable to you know, make payroll or
to pay light bills or whatever it may be. We
all have different challenges, so you know, government can't look
at us as just one entity.

Speaker 11 (02:00:56):
We have to be you know, individually looked at in.

Speaker 17 (02:00:59):
Terms of what our funding requirements are, and of course
that has to be include you know, the negotiated salaries
and benefits that that government does.

Speaker 2 (02:01:11):
Yeah, I mean, not to oversimplify, but could it be
as fundamental as because you have no control inside the
negotiations between the government and the NAPE or QP or
whoever's the representative union, would it just be as fundamental
as whatever the increased operating expenses are based on wagesign benefits,
that the equal commensurate uptick in government funding just come

(02:01:33):
part and parcel.

Speaker 17 (02:01:34):
Yes, absolutely, and you know that needs to happen, but
it hasn't. It hasn't been consistent, you know, like you
have to kind of be at the eleventh hour with
no money before you know, things were passed for work
to us. But again, you know, we're just trying to
get a larger audience to understand how important, you know,

(02:01:54):
our services are, how important they are to be fully funded.
And you know, I hope whoever is is elected to
government next, I mean really sees the need that you
need to sit down with each individual, shelter, each board
and understand what their needs are. Because the needs Inane
are not the same as what they are in Saint John's,

(02:02:15):
nor are they the same you know in Mary's Tennis
they are in Cornerbrook. We all have unique needs based
on our services and you know, cost of living, all
those different things. You don't have to be tied into them,
and we can't take you know, what I call operational monies,
which would be you know, you're like bill, phone, bill,
snow clearing, all those kind of things, insurances. We can't

(02:02:37):
use that money to go towards salaries. But that's you know,
that's basically what's been happening. So you know, again, I
hope now that we've you know, we've put it out
there in a broader audience that you know, will the
women and children will get, you know, the services that
they deserve.

Speaker 2 (02:02:56):
That needs was our with Jerlin MACKI of course well
known advocates in this arena, and he said, the basic
question is for the different political parties either increase the
funding or close the beds, pick one or the other.
Is it as fundamental as that It is?

Speaker 17 (02:03:10):
Absolutely? Yeah, yeah, because if you have to if you
have to budget out for you know, your salaries, which
if you don't have staff, you don't have a service.
So if you have to budget out your salaries to
ensure you have enough money to get to the end
of March, well then you know, you're you're going to
have to serve less people, so you're buying less groceries,
you're having a smaller light bill, those kind of things.

Speaker 2 (02:03:33):
It's unbelievable. I mean, for starters. The prevalence of domestic
violence and the need for emergency shelters to the extent
that we do in this province is is where we
should be folks in the conversation. There should be no
need for and I'm not going to say that you're
doing this, but there should be no need for an
operator or an employee at a emergency shelter for women
and children to have to grovel and put this into

(02:03:56):
the media for government to understand the issue.

Speaker 17 (02:03:58):
Yeah, yeah, Well, hopefully we've been heard, and you know,
we've looked forward to a positive response from whoever's is elected.

Speaker 2 (02:04:09):
And you don't need to react to this if you
don't want to. But you know, this issue is just
so dire and prevalent and emotional and violent that the
exact same time is an interesting news story in the
media today and someone sent me a link from Amazon Canada,
I don't know, a couple of days ago or one
day last week, and it was about those tight fitting
sleeveless men's undershirts that you know, it was made famous

(02:04:32):
by Brando in a street card named Desire, and people
refer to them colloquially on the street as a wife beater,
and Amazon hasn't tagged as exactly. That talk about trivializing
or downplaying the severity of domestic violence unbelievable. Did you
see that story?

Speaker 11 (02:04:47):
Well no, I didn't.

Speaker 17 (02:04:48):
Oh my god, Wow, that's that's that's crazy, like this
day and age, that's absolutely crazy. Absolutely, we talk about
and we talked about where the messages come from, you know,
and how we're it continues like I started this journey
twenty five years ago just with Gracepark's house, and can
I say that it's gotten better? Absolutely, not like in

(02:05:11):
twenty five years. I mean I can remember us starting
and it'll be twenty five years Thanksgiving that we opened
their doors, and I can remember our their board Saint
Us at the time. You know, you're really here to
work yourself out of a job, and sadly twenty five
years you know we're still here.

Speaker 2 (02:05:31):
I appreciate your time, Lisa, thank you very much.

Speaker 11 (02:05:33):
Thanks Patty, have a great day.

Speaker 2 (02:05:34):
You too, Bye bye. Final work goes to line five. Joane,
you're on the air.

Speaker 15 (02:05:39):
Oh excuse me, Hi, Patty. I'm just going to make
it short. My husband laught is hearing aid at Monday
Pine when he went for a walk. Now, I know
it's like looking for a needle in a haystack, but
I'm just wondering if someone did pick it up, or
maybe they did and didn't. You know, they don't know

(02:06:01):
who owns it. If they can call seven zero nine
seven three nine zero three two seven. Now it was
last between the it's been last between the word the dog.
They go and exercise their dog. So it's in that area.

(02:06:21):
So we went over with a metal detector, but we
didn't find it. But it could have popped into the
grass or somewhere when he was taking off his coat
and lost the hearing eight. So anyway, it's a chance.
I figured i'd call in anyway.

Speaker 2 (02:06:36):
Well, fingers crossed. So if you're taking a walk in
that area, put your eyes down to the ground every
now and then see if we can't spot Jones husband's
hearing it. And if you do find it, please give
them a call at seven zero nine seven three nine
zero three two seven.

Speaker 15 (02:06:52):
Thank you so much. Patty, You're a godsend to everybody.

Speaker 2 (02:06:55):
Fingers crossed you get it back. Thank you, Joan, thank you,
Bye now bye bye. Jones did indeed have the last four,
but you know the deal. We will indeed pick up
this conversation again tomorrow morning, right here around VOCM and
Big Land of FM's Open Line on behalf 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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