Tuesday Aug 5th

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Episode Transcript

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

(00:22):
host 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 Tuesday, August
the fifth. This is Open Line. I'm your host Patty Daily,
David Williams, He's produced the program. Let's get it going.
If you're in the Saint John's metro region. The number
of dollars get in the queue and on the air
seven zero nine two seven three five two one one
elsewhere toll free long distance one eight eight eight five

(00:46):
ninety VOCM, which is eighty six twenty six, so right
off the bat, obviously, big thanks to Anthony Germain for
sitting in for me last week while I took a
little bit of a breather. I'm totally did great and
no surprise there seasoned professional broadcaster that Anthony is. So
appreciate him sitting in and thank you very much for
joining us. This morning. I'm not sure where Anthony would
have started, but of course, you know me a little

(01:07):
touchdown on some of these sporting related matters of the
day as we lead into the Canada Summer Games opening
ceremonies coming up on the eighth Friday. You know full
well some of the swimmers, especially I would suggest maybe
the female swimmers watch the World Aquatic Championships looking at
Canadian phenom Summer McIntosh. I don't know if Anthony touched
down on it, but she won five individual medals at

(01:30):
the Worlds, only the third swimmer in history to do
so so, four gold and one bronze. She was disappointed
with the bronze, a championship record in the four hundred
im that rounded out the five medals. The other two
swimmers with five individual medals at the World Michael Phelps
and Sarah Soostrom. Phelps is the only swimmer to win
five individual goals. Socialmoni won one gold when she won
five individuals. But Summer McIntosh man oh Man eighteen years

(01:53):
of age, and some of the young tennis players might
be looking at the National Bank Open right now happening
in Toronto, Montreal. Eighteen year old Toronto native Vicki and
Bacca beat Coco Goff, the number one seed, of course,
major champion. She's off to the semifinals tomorrow night against
Alina Rubikina, who of course is a Wimbledon champion. So
she's dusting off the seeds on her way. And last

(02:15):
night in the quarters against the Spaniard named Jessica buzas Manero,
absolutely blew the doors after after a bit of a
sluggish start in the second set, which I watched. So
Mboco off to the semis. Just for context, So this
is a huge event. It's a one thousand level event,
and what that means is either the most prestigious tournaments
other than the Grand Slams. So Mboco is the first
Canadian to reach a w TWA one thousand events semi

(02:37):
finals since Bianco Andrescue's title run in twenty nineteen. Also
the youngest woman to reach the semi since Belinda Beni
Bencic in twenty fifteen, and she won in Toronto. Amazing stuff.
Go get him, Vicki all right, last one on sports.
This is fantastic and very interesting. Abby Nook Saint John's native,
of course Boston College graduate. She's drafted by the Boston

(02:57):
Fleet to play in the Professional Women's Hockey League night
at Fenway Park as the Red Sox host the Kansas
City Royals. Abby, you know who gets to throw out
the first pitch, which is a really cool thing to
get to do. Piece of advice, Aby, don't do it
from the mount stand in front of the mount because
thrown off the bump is difficult stuff. All right, Just
get down to some more important matters. Devastating images whether it

(03:18):
be videos or stills from all the wildfires, and you
don't need me to get into all the different areas
with the wildfires, but it is brutal power cut off
between Kingston and Adams Cove. We know the evacuation orders
in state of mergers that are in place out and
concepts your Bay North, the pictures around Holyrood absolutely unbelievable,
some mornings that are out there based on historical incidents.

(03:40):
Is I know it's tempting to put your drone in
the air to get some of those images from the sky,
but don't do it. You can't do it. The fine
can be up to fifteen thousand dollars if you're cartooning it,
and of course it can compromise firefighting efforts. There was
a collision I believe between a drawne and a playing
in California, maybe earlier this year, maybe late last year,
So please don't do that. Then they talk about some

(04:03):
of the as people in the area, including the mayor,
out around Adam's Cove, talking about the suspicious timing and
nature of these fires. Investigations are underway. I don't know
what's going on, but if you do and you have
heard or you know that someone is purposely setting fires
and or even simply reckless. With the fireban, whether or

(04:24):
not it's lifted, we all need to be keenly aware
of the fire risk alert where you are. So the
maps are online now the dashboard is not exactly extremely helpful,
and we're trying to deduce the size of said fires.
But it's pretty dry out there, so can we please
all do what we can. And if you know that
someone has purposely set a fire, which I don't know

(04:45):
if it is the case or not, but the stories
are being reported even from the mirror, and people in
the area, do the right thing. On top of that,
I've told the folks in Adam's Cove, which lost a
bunch of houses, some twelve twelve houses lost of the
fire that hit the community in May and the evacuation
that took place. We're still waiting to find out what
access to, whether it be the federal Disaster Relief Fund

(05:06):
and or compensation some sort of financial support from the
province that the problem said would be forthcoming. It'd be
nice to have an update. Here. We are at the
fifth of August and have fire took place in May,
so let's put that out there and if you want
to take it on and give us an update about
what you see, because even here in the East Den
of Saint John's last evening, you could clearly see and
smell the smoke. So congratulations and go get him, bravo.

(05:28):
And thank you to the folks working on the ground
or in the air and a helicopter or water bomber
to do their level best. Incredible professionals. So and for
folks who are opening up their doors and communities are
opening up public spaces for folks who've been evacuated, thanks
for what you're doing as well. Okay, let's keep going.
So while I was away, a couple of things happened, obviously,

(05:51):
and the Prime Minister followed through on a campaign promise
to deal with the fees at Marine Atlantic now not
the same way dealt with other ferry services in Atlantic
Canada and Quebec, where both commercial and passenger rates were slashed.
Marine Atlantic not the same. So yes, it's going to
cut the fees and half for regular passenger vehicle traffic, okay,

(06:13):
but not doing the same for commercial or truckers. So
it feels like a campaign promise fulfilled. But this only
goes halfway and in fact could make things even worse. Now.
It was always dubious to believe that even if commercial
rates were slashed in half that we would see some
relief at the Saint for instance, the grocery store, which

(06:34):
I never thought was going to be the case. It
was hopeful, but doubtful. Okay. So the province can talk
about things like being less competitive than another parts of
Atlantic Canada based on commercial rates being slashed. At the
same time, the province won't sign on to interprovincial trade agreements.
You know, we got some MOUs in place which are
really not much to hang your hat on at this

(06:55):
moment in time. But could this actually make things worse?
So yes, be a boost for folks who want you
to visit the province and take their vehicle and travel
across Marine Atlantic. So that's a good thing. And for
folks from this province who would like to make their
way to the mainland in their passenger vehicle, it's a
good thing. But the Fairies already booked solid seven thousand

(07:16):
more bookings this year compared to last year. Will this
possibly make a problem for commercial traffic insofar as if
more people in their own car would like to take
the ferry? Feels good, but I'm not so sure it
gets us where we need to be here the real hope. Look,
I get it, if you're someone who travels by car
and use the Marine in Atlantic, you're gonna save money,

(07:38):
and that's an excellent thing. But that commercial freeze is
not what we need it to be. And how can
it be different for other Atlantic Canadian Fairies versus or
an Quebec versus this province. So it's a promise that's
half kept. And does it make things better for the
general public here if you travel, sure? If you don't,

(08:01):
not so sure. We've done a whole whole lot here
with the Marina Atlantic business, and if you want to
talk about it, we can do it all right? Sticking
with the water this time aquaculture. So someone sent me
an email that I've only read out of the corner
of my eye. It's about crop insurance, and I'll get
into it now in a secondary of fred when I
get a chance. But two major mass mortality events last month,

(08:22):
and we can get into this particular sites call Ocean
Salmon and the out of CoV sit out in Hermitage Bay,
and then one so Mali, Canada that the also had
a mass mortality event. They're pointing the finger of concern
or I'll call a blame or cause at warm water,
at sea lice, Okay, few things. So if that's the case,

(08:44):
and I have no reason to believe it's not, But
into the future, it's seemingly highly unlikely that the water
is going to get cooler or the sea les problem
is going to be controlled that it doesn't need to
mass mortality, which begs the question what does the future
look like for aquaculture. Look, if you're down in Hermitage,
or you're in Burgie, or you're in some community where
that has been an economic savior, I understand where you're

(09:06):
coming from completely and entirely. But if the mass mortality
events are to be blamed on sea lice and warm water.
Those are going to persist into the future. There's no
trend backwards to cooling waters off the coast of this province.
The trend is clear with warming. So does that mean
that for a viable environmentally sound future for the aquaculture industry,

(09:28):
we have to take another serious look at having these
operations conducted online where they can do things they control
the temperature, which they cannot do in the ocean. So
I get aquaculture as an economic boon to one community
or another. We all understand that. But if those trends
are what they are, how are we not going to
see more of these events? If the blame is sea

(09:50):
lice in warm water. Anyway you want to take it on,
we could do it. Aquaculture used to get a lot
of conversation, not so much in the recent past, but
let's take it on all right. Also, we know Memorial
University is in a bad spot in so far as
infrastructure and maintenance stafficits into the tune of hundreds of
millions of dollars. It's is regarding the doubling of tuitions
and all the rest. So yes, there was going to

(10:13):
be the need to find savings. People justifiably and understandably
look at the cost of administration. We've even seen the
outor general talk about parts of the campus that are
not utilized in full but yet the lights on, the
heats on, and all that kind of stuff. So savings.
One place where they decide to try to reign in
some spending is the Horror Center. So the core operational

(10:36):
funding is gone. Apparently they can still apply for research
specific funding, but the core operational funding is gone. This
is a problem. I mean, the overall economic future of
this problems not solely has to hang its side of
Memorial University, but an educated populace is going to be
the key. The Horror Center gave us a chance to

(10:57):
reflect on ourselves, to research our selves past and present.
Even if you just look at a body of work
known as the Vital Science Report, which is produced annually,
extremely helpful information. So the mandate of the university is
pretty clear, and some of that has to include how
we view ourselves, how we research ourselves, how we understand

(11:17):
our past, our history, how it's molded us into the
present and into the future. So this is a problem.
I've seen some people opene and offer the same concerns
that I share about the HIRER centers are just a
curious place for something to lose its core funding. It
will eventually beg the question about what role the problems

(11:38):
has to play the provincial government. Look, they talk about
just how much money is given to the university compared
to say, for instance, Nova Scotia and what have you.
Those comparatives can be helpful for context, but for the
overall success of the problems into the future, all post
secondary institutions and now the entirely de caated twelve system

(11:59):
is going to be the lynchpin, the absolute key. But
the Horror Center was not anything frivolous. It was critical.
So this seems to be a funny place to start
in so far as trying to achieve savings. And I
get it. If you're talking about looking at the cost
of administration, the number of senior positions that have been
created over the past decade, it is a good place

(12:19):
to start because you can't just be keenly focused on
one facet of the operations or another. It's a full, complex,
comprehensive view of a more universities funding spending, whether it
be through the lens of the Auditor General, or things
like what the horror Center means to the province and
for the university's actual mandate. And I'm hoping that someone's
going to be interested in taking that on. Get through

(12:42):
another few before we get to you. Let's have a
busy show here today and whatever you want to talk
about them into it all right now. Contrast to some
questionable decisions, this one is an excellent decision. The province
is now said, through the Health Minister that the people
who will indeed occupy a bed a VI NOVA recovery
will be paid for by MCP, so adding twenty four

(13:05):
beds by the end of this year, fifty four beds
when the center is fully functional. This is a good thing.

Speaker 1 (13:10):
You know.

Speaker 2 (13:10):
We cannot have finances down between someone who wants help
to get help, So go down the government for doing this,
which offers another couple of questions. So they have a
different approach than what the province does. You know, if
we're talking about wait times, there's been a fifty percent
spike in demand for reh have beds in the last
five years. There's three apartment me six hundred and sixty

(13:32):
three referrals last year. If wait times is a concern,
which it is, meeting wait times at the end of
each fiscal year climb from thirty six days in twenty
twenty twenty one to sixty nine days in twenty four
to twenty five. At diviter nova recovery, you're going to
get into detox, and then you're going to get into rehab,
and then you're going to get into transitional housing, all
one after the other with no delay in between. If

(13:56):
you get in detox and you come out and you
have to wait any significant lenk the time to get
into rehab, the likelihood of falling back into your spiral
of addiction is the likelihood has increased. If the province
recognizes that this important, and it is whether we talk
about public safety, health care, cause, criminal justice, whatever the

(14:16):
case may be, and even people's personal lives and the
destruction of family. If the province recognizes the good work
and the excellent approach they are taking a vited and
over recovery, then how can they not follow this up
with an announcement that says we will build and operate
and staff more detox beds, more rehab spots, and transitional

(14:38):
housing will reduce the meeting wag times all the way
down to what we hope will be the outcomes that
viten over recovery. Because if they think it's a good
idea for them and MCP will pay for it, that
basically says the quiet part out loud that they recognize
we need to do more. It's not only an individual
parasite for folks suffering and the destruction of family and

(14:59):
the communit these safety. It's a big deal. We are
in an actual drug crisis in this country. So any
angle you want to take at it, we're happy enough
to do it here this morning. But this is good
news and good luck and go get them provided over.
You're still recruiting staff and hopefully they can staff up
because as we know throughout the entire gamut of healthcare,

(15:21):
we can buy the machines, but we need the staff.
A couple more quickies the city Saint John's I'm not
going to put words in the mayor's mouth throwning member
of council, but it does kind of feel like we're
kind of reacting well after the fact here in so
far as boosting security in public spaces, including on walking trails.
Now good that we're going to do it. There's been

(15:41):
three separate incidents in the very recent past where people
have been assaulted, including one allegation of sexual assault. And
what does this enhance security look like? A lot of
this goes back to the drug problem, not all of it,
but certainly a fair amount of it goes back to
the drug issue in this city and around the problems
of suggest when polled. One of the key features being

(16:03):
brought back to Council by the tax paying citizens is
public safety. So to that end, whatever role the province
has to pay play here, to ensure that we have
a full complement of law enforcement officers on the ground,
on the job, in the squad car, on patrol, doing

(16:23):
the investigations, making the arrest, seeing it through the court system.
We need to make sure every spot that the iron
C or the RCNP need to adequately forget, adequately to
the best of their ability, execute their jobs. Let's get
at it now. I know some money has been brought
forward to what have you? But yeah, all right. Tony Humby,

(16:46):
So his trial apparently is going to see witnesses called
beginning on the twenty seventh of this month. He's facing
what is it like ninety charges of sexual assault, including
seven ar ey charges of human trafficking. So there's none
be some concern regarding Jordan. And that's the Supreme Court
ruling based on the timeliness of getting your day in
court eighteen months from charge to get through provincial court

(17:09):
thirty months in Supreme Court. The application apparently is going
to be considered while the trial is ongoing, and we'll
see where that lands, and there might be a need
for the country to go back to the drawing board
about this. Look, you need to get your day in
court in Tomey fashion, and there's lots of reasons why
trials get delayed. So the judge is going to consider
all the moving parts as to why the delays have

(17:29):
taken place and add to it, Bruce Esquett, Tony Humby's
criminal pal evil person has in a great statement of
facts you know that led to his thirteen year sentence
in prison. You know, he said what was alleged has
happened and he pled guilty to it. So we'll see
where it lands. And I still think there's a need

(17:51):
for an inquiry. I don't you know every time a
minister does something wrong, off with her or his head.
You know, like people talk. I try not to be
like that, but and you know, we don't need the
public inquiring into every single thing but the protection of
youth and the protection of the most vulnerable youth and
where the ball was dropped obviously in this case, and
are allegations mister Humbies yet to have his day in court,

(18:14):
whether it be the Department of Child Youth or Family Services,
whether it be the Child and Youth Advocate's role, and
certainly the role of the police force the errant see
in this case. So I know that's a big one,
but let's talk about it. And the last one on healthcare,
Can someone have the problems explain to me why we
have not signed down to the National Pharmacare Program. I
know it's you know, they're going to bring it out

(18:34):
in phases and right now it's covering diabetic medications, not
every single thing, but diabetes and contraceptive contraceptives. Why aren't
we on it, Like as taxpayer, I'm already paying like
I'm paying money right now for something that there might
be a reason why we haven't signed on, but not
one that I understand. But if you want to take
that on, we can do it last one. I know

(18:55):
this is a lot of American politics, which is actually
there's a lot going on. And so also while I
was away, thirty five percent tariff, all right, lots of
confusion out there as to what we actually have to
achieve here. You know, we can't just get on bended
knee here and roll over to the incoherent ramblings of

(19:16):
a madman. But the whole bit about what's compliant under
the COSMA, the Kenady West Mexico Trade Agreement. I hear
people talk about things like, well, it's no big deal
because nineteen percent of what we trade with the United
States is compliant with COUSMA, and so no tariffs will
be applied. But that's actually not what's happening here. Even
if you just read a paper that came out from RBC,

(19:37):
if you say eighty six percent of trade is excluded,
it's kind of true and kinder not true. At the
same time, it's a complicated issue. Last year, less than
forty percent of trade actually happened under CHRISMA. It involves
significant rules of country of origin compliance, which is extraordinarily complicated.
Here's something captured right from the RBC paper. However, only

(19:59):
about thirty per percent of US imports from Canada we're
traded under customer provisions in twenty twenty four. We believe
this low percentage was largely due to the administrative burden
of meeting its rules of origin requirements when a large
share of US general tariff freights were already zero outside
the North American Free Trade Agreement. Then they talk about,
you know, some of the sectoral tariff center in place,

(20:20):
steel and an aluminum problem for the country, energy and
potash problem for US, copper and other less finished medals, automobiles,
autoparts and the like. So companies are throttling back output
and investment, reducing cross border trade. And yes, we can
talk about diversification, which is ongoing and thankfully so. But
anything on the federal front, whether it be you know,

(20:41):
the home building program and or Bill C five and
nation building projects. And I understand there was lots of
fixed link conversation here last week, Is that true, Dave,
lots of fixed link stuff. I'm happy to talk about
that tour. Whatever you want to talk about. Hi, We're
on Twitter, We're Viosimo plane. Follow us there. Email addresses
open ONFOSM dot com. When we come back. Let's have
a great show to kick off the week. That can
only happen if you're in the queue to talk about

(21:01):
whatever's on your mind. Don't go aheat. Welcome back to
the program that's beginning this morning on line number four.
Good morning, Louise, you're on the air.

Speaker 3 (21:10):
It's Louis, but I can accept Louise.

Speaker 2 (21:12):
Yes, Lewis, pardon me, sir, Haw's Louise on my screen,
but I'll take the blame for that one. Welcome to
the show, Lewis. What's on your mind?

Speaker 3 (21:19):
Well, I'm just going to say if you put in
a knee on the end of that name, but cout
Broddie could be Louise anyway, Patty anyway. Yeah, I'm calling
Marine Atlantic to try and get a crossing to go
to the mainland. Yesterday again she told me in the
month September fourth would be the earliest stake and get

(21:40):
me on a boat to cross. Patty to me, this
is horly unacceptable. There's like it's it don't even make
sense for Marine Atlantic to have us hostage here when
we can't get out of this island for a month
at a time. Two weeks ago I first call, I said, Okay,

(22:02):
well maybe we'll fly. Well, we could get reservations to
fly over, but we needed to rent a vehicle in
Nova Scotia and in the Nord Sydney. Nowhere in that area.
If you rent a vehicle, everything is book solid. So
I put it. We put it on hold for a
couple of weeks. I called back yesterday. I figured it

(22:22):
might have changed a bit. But now we have to
cross and they're telling me it's going to be another month.
At least September fourth was the date she give me
before there would.

Speaker 2 (22:33):
Be any opening.

Speaker 3 (22:35):
Now, she said, if you want us to, they're not
even really taking names for a standby list. If you
want to just show up, I guess some way around,
which again to me, is very unacceptable.

Speaker 2 (22:49):
No question. It's the double edged sword, isn't it, Lewis.
It's the good news that the various bookings are way
up and people are coming here to spend their harder morning.
The downside on the other edge of that knife is
that people like yourself, you can't get off the island
if you want to take your vehicle, and we've even
had stories of people who have got to be somewhere
on the mainland by a certain date they book passage over,

(23:11):
but they have to wait like five weeks to get back.
So there's something to be said for a hierarchy, you know,
our priority list. I don't know how it would work.
But if that ferry is our constitutional highway, does that
not say that we prioritize people from this province and
then commercial traffic. And at the exact same time, someone
yelling at the radio working in the hospitality sector would say,

(23:33):
well what about the people who want to come and
spend out of province money. So I don't know what
the solution is, but what you're experiencing is an all
too common story, Patty.

Speaker 3 (23:42):
There's quite a few different solutions. If Marine Atlantic wanted
to sit down and discuss it, I mean Marine Atlantic,
it's a federal like this was federal. It's not a
provincial problem. It's federal now. I crofsed on that boat
eleven twelve years ago. Back then I'm crossing was five
hours and fifteen minutes, and like you know, it was

(24:04):
rather fast. The next time I crossed, it was almost
eight hours. And I went up and I spoke to
one of the people working on the boat, and I asked,
why is it taking so long this trip because they
had announced before we're leaving it would be probably eight
hours from short of Shirt and they said there was
a problem. Marine Atlantic got together and okay, the people

(24:26):
were saying there the castain said, there are people wasn't
paying enough attention to what they were tired. They hit
maybe I think they might have hit the hit the
wharf when they got on one side or the other.
I think it was North Sydney. So the captain said
they were working too many hours, so they cut everybody
back eight hours. So this is what they told me.
They said, now if they're taking the eight hour trip, now,

(24:50):
this is one option Marine Atlantic has got in the summer.
They could speed those boats up. They could also take
there's fifteen twenty lanes of traffic when you get to
the they can't know when you get in the lineup
in North sedd Nearport a Bass. They could have so
many it is those lanes designated for people from this
island because it is our only highway. It's fair of

(25:14):
our highway system. There's a lot of things Marie Atlantic
could do, like like Patty, like they had just told
you this, It don't even make sense. I'm sure if
Mark Kearney wanted to come to this island. There was
an election in August and he wanted to come here
in July the campaign and he didn't have a flight

(25:34):
and they told him no, you called back in a month,
will get your reservation. I wonder if Mark Kearney would
accept that. Luckily not so why wouldn't nour premier get
he's got he should have the prime minister's here, especially
at this time of year. Why wouldn't Why couldn't the

(25:55):
premier here talk to the Prime Minister and do something,
not next week or next month, do it immediately, like
this is a way to whack here because something in
every system is wrong.

Speaker 2 (26:09):
Yeah, flip a switch during the peak season is probably
going to be highly problematic. But planning into the future
and give us an idea as to whether or not
either the province enter of the FEDS actually understand the
concerns and what they're going to do about it, because
status quo is obviously not working. Yes, we can talk
about cutting the pasture fares, but if you can't get
on the boat, it doesn't matter how much it costs.

Speaker 3 (26:32):
Well, Patty, why couldn't they and for these months Why
couldn't they add an extra boat or two if they
head to for a couple of months in the summer
when the traffic is heavy, Because these boats take between
five and seven hundred vehicles. There's one of them. I
think it was maybe closer to eight hundred, like you know,
if it's not tractor trailers, like these boats take a

(26:53):
kN aful lot of vehicles. I think Division takes five
hundred and thirty. The Blue Patise takes five seventy. Why
couldn't they add an extra boat on, like you know,
I'm sure Marine Atlantic can afford, our government can't afford
they put an extra boat on in the summer here
to like you know, to try and solve the problem

(27:14):
for us.

Speaker 2 (27:16):
Whatever the solution is, one needs to be found. I
don't know how easy it is to put a boat
conducive to the run and the dock on the schedule
this summer, Like I really don't even know how that works.
But exactly what's happening. There's a lot of feel good
Like last year they did away with the sixty five
percent cost recovery model. This year we see the slash
of passenger vehicle fees. But your issue, as you describe.

(27:39):
It doesn't get satisfied with fever cuts right, it doesn't
impact it whatsoever. So where we go from here is
an excellent question. Like I said off the top of
the show, it feels like a promise half kept here.
And what happens if people are further enticed to travel
via Marine Atlantic and do the early bookings and then
all of a sudden we've got backlogs and commercial traffic

(28:01):
and pastor vehicle traffic, and the weather's always going to
have some interruptions here. So it feels like a half
hearted kept promise to me at best.

Speaker 3 (28:10):
Well, Patty, they in all reality, I can see Marine
Atlantic church and tourists, but to me, there should be
no church whatsoever for the people in Newpunland. The Cross said,
both because this is fair to every highway. If you
live in Ontario and you wanted to go to British Columbia,
you don't have to go and pay three four hundred
dollars to go from one province to another. Why do

(28:31):
we have to pay it here? There should be no
fee whatsoever for the people in Newkland. They use that
very boat.

Speaker 4 (28:37):
Well that's just a.

Speaker 3 (28:39):
Good stories, but there should be no fee whatsoever.

Speaker 2 (28:42):
I mean, even if there was a nominal fee like
the cross the Confederation Bridge, for instance. You know, I
don't even know if fee I have to pay the call.
IM really not surely answered that question, but I completely
understand your concerns. We've invited Marine Atlantic on the program
when I was away for a week. I don't think
they joined us, but will reinvite them today see if
we can put these scenarios to them and maybe have

(29:04):
a conversation about potential solutions.

Speaker 3 (29:06):
I'll call it, okay, Patty. I'm hoping that somebody in
the Premier's office is listening where he'll do something with
this today. And if he don't, is there any way
we've got to have an omendsman in this country. Could
you find out who it is? It used to be

(29:27):
Kathy Tomlinson at one point. Now I'm not sure if
she still does this, but I would definitely love to
go public where this wood get to the Prime Minister
here rather quick. And if I don't give a heck
or hell or high water, what I got to do.
If you can get any information who the commendsman is,

(29:51):
if anybody listening knows, give them my number. They can
give me a call, cause if I can get any information,
I will definitely. I'll meet them anywhere. If I got
to drive break down from where I live here they
try to see them go, I'll drive down to Quora
best to meet them. I don't care. I want to
get out of this island a lot.

Speaker 2 (30:12):
So did in a month's time understood. The problem with
the on Budsman question is that there's so many of them.
I mean, there's Taxpayer Privacy Commissioner, Official Languages, Mental Health,
our CMP Radio Canada, so there's I don't know if
there's a one size fits all on Budsman office. It's
been broken down to all sorts and that includes the
banking industry and all the rest of it. But I'll

(30:34):
try to find the appropriate home for your concern, and
if you send me an email, I will try to
react with the link to the most appropriate commissioner or
on Budsmen.

Speaker 3 (30:44):
Patty, I would, but I'm computer reliterate, man, I am
totally computer reliterate. Other than that, I would do this.
But if any of your listeners is listening, if they
would know which omen for a problem like this that
I could call, I'd appreciate it, he would call me.
I'll gladly give my number oude and I'll wait to
hear back from anybody.

Speaker 2 (31:06):
Sure Dave has your number, so if someone calls us,
we can have Dave relayer number, and if I find it,
I'll speak to it live on the program so that
everybody has the info.

Speaker 3 (31:14):
Thank you very much, Patty. I appreciate I appreciate your
time and have a good show.

Speaker 2 (31:18):
Same to you, Louise. Thank you, sir, Bye bye. All right,
there you go. Let's keep going line number one, Walter
around the Air. Oh, let's put Walter on hoe. I
thought we were going to Walter next, but that's right
after the break. Walter's there, and then we're going to
talk about the fairy once again. Leean want to chime
in on the drug epidemic, and then an awareness walk
across the country by who about what will find out? Talkaway.

(31:42):
Welcome back to the program. Let's go to line number one,
Walter around the Air.

Speaker 5 (31:45):
Thank you so much, Patty, welcome back, and I hope
you had a good vacation with your family.

Speaker 2 (31:49):
Sir, I did, Thank you very much, and good to
be back one of us.

Speaker 3 (31:52):
To said Patty.

Speaker 5 (31:53):
Before I get to my very quick topic. I heard
your preamble that miss Abby Knwook was going to be
throwing out the first pitch at Fenway Park. I spent
twenty five years playing junior and senior ball here in town.
I can't imagine the excitement. Just feeling that that is very,
very cool. And I know how highly you speak of
both Alexander Abby so and how proud you are of them.
So I just wanted to send sincere congratulations for that.

(32:15):
That's pretty cool.

Speaker 2 (32:17):
It really is like, if you're not into baseball, then
I get it's probably meaningless, but first pitch honors are
reserved for some pretty important people behind large over the
course of a Major League baseball season, and to get
to do it at Fenway as a young hockey player,
I think it is brilliant.

Speaker 5 (32:32):
Good for her, Yeah, I do too, Patty, very quickly,
my friend, we have hundreds and hundreds and hundreds of
visitors coming to our city, our beautiful city, for the
Canada Games starting on Friday, and I did send an
email a little while back to members of council and
also to a little message on Facebook. I don't have

(32:53):
many followers on the Facebook thing, but I wanted to
put it out there to just give a thought in
consideration to leaving your signs in until the Canada Games
have concluded before the end of this month. It still
leaves Patty well over a month for politicians and candidates
to have their signs all throughout the city. And with

(33:14):
the athletes and their parents and guardians and teammates. I mean,
they're going to be taking videos and pictures all over
this region and sending it across the country to their
family members and maybe across the world. So it's a
wonderful opportunity for us to showcase the brilliance and beauty
that is the capital city of Saint John's And would
I'd love to be able to have people come here

(33:36):
enjoy our city and not have to climb over signs
and put a sign out of a picture and in
a picture and all that kind of stuff. Let him
enjoy our beautiful city, park the plastic until until the
end of the Games, and it still gives over a
month for people to have their signs out. It was
just a thought on my part. I don't know if
people agree or disagree, but I think I think it'd

(33:57):
go a long way for people to enjoy what is
one of the most beautiful cities.

Speaker 2 (34:01):
In the world it can be, you know, I think
that's an excellent idea to keep the campaign signs out
of the line of sight for the entirety of the games,
but even just the state of the city. Look, I
love Saint John's and there's a reason I moved back here.
I had a good thing going, a good life going
and Alberta. But here we are, and every single time

(34:21):
someone talks about, you know, how beautiful the place is,
the first thing that pops in I had every single
time is picking up my buddies at the airport. We
weren't all the way down to the holiday inn before
someone said, man, it's pretty dirty around here. I'm like,
oh god, So let's hope that's not one of the takeaways,
you know.

Speaker 5 (34:38):
And I'm not being negative or anything, but you know,
picking up litter and being a good community citizen is
more than just a month or two before an election.
People who get elected sometimes, you know, perhaps it's not
a sexy topic to be doing. I will never ever
apologize for, you know, spending thirty years picking up other
people's trash. Our circle of friends have. We love our

(35:00):
city and there's nothing wrong with going up and picking
some someone else's litter. But yeah, I would hope that
our new council now coming up maybe focus a bit
more on litter control and a good way to show
that you are putting your city before yourself, even before
the votes are counted on Octobers, leave the signs in
until the end of the games and that'll make mahar
City look absolutely beautiful without them.

Speaker 2 (35:22):
Last one on litter before I let you go is
even the provincial government is talking about some sort of
structured community service if you don't pay your outstanding fines.
I just saw a headline maybe this morning about twelve
thousand dollars someone has an outstanding fines. If you can't
won't pay it, We'll put you to work, whether be
cleaning up the graffiti or picking up the litter or whatever.
It's a better idea than just letting millions of dollars
unpaid fines just sit there.

Speaker 3 (35:44):
Patty.

Speaker 5 (35:45):
I that was twenty years ago. I first brought that up,
and you know, with my explanation to the folks in
charge was that you're going this is not like picking
up litter is not punishment, It's an opportunity to be
with like minded individuals and do something good for your city.
The individuals who you know us the money or may
have gone south of the law. They may have never
been around a circle of friends of people who just

(36:06):
do it because they love where they live and they
want nothing in return, and they might be like, Wow,
this is pretty cool. I've never never really understood that
you give in not wanting anything in return. I think
that's a wonderful idea. And I think that that is
a learned behavior. You see so many people throwing trash down.
Young people trash down. It's because they learned it from
someone either you know, either family or someone older than them.

(36:27):
So at the same time that being a litterbug is
a learned behavior, also being a little bug hero is
also a learned behavior. To teach people to pick it up,
and it'll be natural just to not throw it down.

Speaker 2 (36:37):
Hopefully, So appreciate the time, Walter, Thank you, Thank you, Pattie.

Speaker 5 (36:40):
You have a great daya you.

Speaker 2 (36:41):
Too, Bye bye, David. I might take another one here.
Am I going to start off on the right foot
and get to break sometime? Okay, listener sends across. I'm
interested in comments on Walter stought to leave down election
signs until the games have come and gone. And this
person is not wrong in so far as name recognition
is a pretty key component to being successful as a candidate.
Now we know the incumbents already have a pretty significant

(37:04):
leg up regarding name recognition. Now, being an incumbent can
be quite harmful if you have been a useless politician,
regardless of what level of government we're talking about. But
so that's a fair point that, you know, look, there's
a science behind election campaign science. You know, whether you
look at size, location, caller, font, there's actually research that's
been done which is unbelievable to say out loud about

(37:25):
how science work. And you know, matching up science, location
and color and fountain all the rest to success. There's
something to it. So name recognition is a fair point.
I totally get that. Let's take a break when we
go back, we're walking across the country. We at least
we're talking about it. Don't go away. Welcome back to
the show. Let's go to LNE number three. Good morning,
Rie Haggerty, you're on the air.

Speaker 6 (37:45):
Good morning, Good morning.

Speaker 7 (37:47):
I'm here in Chapel arm actually is where I'm calling
you from. But I've officially made it on the highway
to the one hundred kilometer mark. So I'm one hundred
kilometers outside the city and should be reaching Saint John's.
I'm walking through Saint John's on August.

Speaker 2 (38:04):
Eight, So you've made it from Victoria, BC to Chapel
R Nope.

Speaker 6 (38:09):
From Vancouver.

Speaker 7 (38:10):
I started in downtown Vancouver on April second of twenty
twenty four. I did have to take a hiatus. However,
in December, when I was walking through mont Magni, Quebec,
I got a call. I was dreading my brother call
to say they're been to change my mom's health.

Speaker 4 (38:26):
And so.

Speaker 7 (38:28):
I had told him before I left that if anything
should happen and I was needed at home, that I
would would stop the walk and head home. And I
did just said. On December fourth, I got to spend
one last lovely week with my mom before passing. I
did take the remainder of December off. When I made
that call to leave the road in December, I knew

(38:50):
that that meant I had to change my plan. I
had wanted to walk from Vancouver to Saint John's without
any any store, but State would have it. There was
a few few injuries along the way and some slowdowns,
But when I left the road in December, I knew

(39:11):
that that meant I could no longer continue and finish
everything all at once because my husband has been my
support team since well since just before crossing the BC border.
Before that, my son and his partner, Allison, and my
grandson traveled with me throughout BC get me safely on
and off the road. At the end of the day,

(39:34):
my husband then took over and has been with me
ever since. So he's actually crossed every border with me,
and we didn't want to do Newfoundland without each other
because we've never been here. It's our first visit. Actually,
I took Terry Fox's advice and that's why I started
in Vancouver. Actually, when I planned this whole thing, it

(39:54):
was following a motor vehicle accident that left me with
short term memory loss. At the time of the accident,
I was applying to go back to university. I just
graduated a COVID grad of twenty twenty. I was applying
to go back into the social work program. I was
writing to our police Commissioner's office about the homicide investigation

(40:16):
into my sister's two.

Speaker 6 (40:17):
Thousand and eight death.

Speaker 7 (40:20):
But the accident caused such severe short term memory loss,
her nation my spine in three areas. I had trouble
speaking sometimes, a lot of different problems. I have a
problem with my vision still which causes vertigo and balance
issues from time to time. But walking is very therapeutic
for all that. So it was at that time, following

(40:42):
the accident that I came up with the idea that
I wanted to walk across Canada. I could hardly walk
a city block at the time, but I think I
felt like my life had kind of been taken from me. Definitely,
my mental health had taken another hit, and I needed
something to work towards. So when my occupational therapists suggested
that I resume some of my normal hobbies, one of

(41:04):
the things that was most important for me to be
able to take back was reading. Reading became very difficult
with the migraines and vision issues still is difficult to do.
Can do it, but it takes me a lot longer now.
So when she told me to resume activities, one of

(41:25):
the first things I wanted to do was read, so
I took out. I didn't who opts to turn into
for advice, so I took out Terry Fox's biography and
reread that I hadn't read it since I was a kid,
and he told me to really key pieces of advice.
One is, if you walk west east, the winds more

(41:45):
often at your back, and when you're doing a walk
this long, it's that's definitely important. The second thing that
he told me was the reason why he started here.
And I don't know if you know why Terry Fox
chose to start News and Land, but his reason was
that he wanted to feel like he was walking home.
And so for an East Coast girl like me, from

(42:05):
Frederick to New Brunswick, I thought that sounds really, really good,
so I decided to start out west. The third was
a more personal reason. After the accident, so much had
been taken from me. I just wanted to feel capable again,
and I thought, you know what, if I can get
through those mountains, I can get through anything Canada ast
off or so. So we started in Vancouver and I

(42:30):
finished in Halifax in March of this year. Then, because
I was supposed to finish before March, all along, my
eldest daughter actually planned her second pregnancy around the walk.
So when I left the road, my husband was back
at work his busy season as a financial planner. We

(42:53):
took I planned my help to plan my mom's celebration
of life. We had that in May. Then I flew
out to Alberta following that for the birth of my
third grandchild, and then stayed there for a month to
help my daughter with her two little ones. Flew home
at the end of June to celebrate my grandson's third birthday,

(43:15):
and it gave me approximately three weeks to get ready
for Newfoundland where and I started here on July fourth
and hope to finish on augusty eighth.

Speaker 2 (43:27):
First off, most importantly, I'm sorry to hear about the
loss of your mother, So Mike, condolence is to you
and your family.

Speaker 6 (43:33):
Thank you.

Speaker 2 (43:33):
Secondly, welcome to Newfoundland. We're glad to have you. Thank
you so much, and good on you for taking this on.
And just so we know exactly what we're talking about here,
why are you walking to raise awareness for what? In particular.

Speaker 7 (43:49):
For intimate partner violence and domestic violence. I'm hoping to
raise money for two charities that I see as essential
for ending domestic violence, and that is can Mental Health
Association in Women's Shelters Canada. I see the shelter system
as a necessary for people to have a support system

(44:10):
in place when they're ready to leave. But I also
see Canadian mental health as essential to end it. Because
for me, my just walk away message, I like to
tell people that message is not actually for people who
are being abused. I don't believe it's that simple. In fact,
my brother came up with that title that I was

(44:31):
a little appalled by it because I thought, I said
right away, I'm like, you can't just walk away, Corey,
It's not that simple, and it's not. In fact, I
think it's easier for me, as a non athletic grandmother
to have walked across this country, mainly on the Trans
Canada Highway. I think it was easier for me to
have done this than it is for a lot of

(44:52):
people to escape safely escape their abusers. And you know,
I think that. So for me, the message that I
want them to receive is I want them to see
what I'm doing and I want them to find their
own courage and determination to do what they think is impossible.
Because I thought this is impossible. For sure, if you

(45:12):
had told me that I was going to attempt to
walk across Canada. At any point in time up until
the day I went to my husband and said, I
have this crazy idea. I would have thought you're completely mad.
It's not something that was ever on my radar ever.
But I want to inspire people to tell their stories.

(45:33):
I think that's by sharing. By other victims sharing their stories,
it gives hope to those the living in those suations.
I also think by telling our stories, it helps to
end it. When we bring things out to the light,
it helps to end things. My message of just walk away,

(45:55):
that's actually for the abuser. And that's why mental health
care is so important written to me because I think
if we don't treat and help both sides of the equation,
that abuse just continues into next relationship.

Speaker 2 (46:08):
Sure, and we can't be afraid to talk to our
children about this either, because you know, that's where we
plant the seeds of respect and self respect. What's acceptable,
what is not, what is the norm, and a healthy
relationship what is not. So I know some of these
traumatic conversations we all struggle as parents as to when
to entertain them with our children. But before long, I mean,
they see the evils of the world in the palm

(46:30):
of their hand. We can't be afraid to be honest
and have these conversations with each other as adults and
with our children. So I'll get that one out there
and they just walk away. I'm so glad that you
said that's aimed at the abuser, because when people say, well,
if you're on the receiving end of intimate partner violence,
then just leave, it's just true. It's oversimplifying a very
complex issue. It could be about the children, It could
be about the pets, It could be about finances, it

(46:52):
could be about the shame, it could be about anything.
So you know, walking across Cantona is not on my radar,
but intimate partner violence is. We have a call every
single month from a lady called from Miles for Smiles.
Connie Pike is or and I'm sure works with more
Davis to talk about just how many cases of domestic
violence are on the court pocket and the numbers are
shocking and they're not getting better. So I think what

(47:14):
you're doing is critically important. I wish we had a
bit more time to delve a little further into it,
But if people want to follow along with your journey
across from Vancouver, to Saint John's. Is there a website
or a place where we can track and contribute or
whatever the case may be.

Speaker 7 (47:28):
Absolutely. The website is called just Walkwaycanada dot com. I
also try to post daily on Facebook and on TikTok
under just walk Away Canada as well. Yeah, and I'm
encouraging people to donate to either of the two charities.
I'm asking Canadians just to donate a dollar. I think
if every Canadian donated a dollar to each of those charities,

(47:50):
we'd make some real change. There's a real crisis right
now in our shelter system because we don't have affordable
second stage as for people to move into. They're getting
stuck in the shelter system, and that ties up beds
for people that are trying to leave the situation that

(48:10):
they're in. Like, I've talked to women across the country,
some of whom have been in the shelters for well
over a year. One woman had been there for nearly
two years, still hoping to find housing for her and
her two children and living in a shelter system. We
need those shelters, but it's less than ideal to make

(48:31):
that a long term thing.

Speaker 2 (48:33):
So yeah, there should be for emergencies. We need transitional
housing on a variety of fronts, including this one. I'm
unfortunately for my newscast, but Laurie's nice to meet you
this morning. Congratulations on what you're doing. Welcome to the province,
and safe travels on your route to Saint John's Well.

Speaker 7 (48:48):
And if anyone out there wants to come join me
on the eighth, I should be walking through the city then,
and yeah, come show your support or come out walk
with me. I'd love to meet some more people. So
thank you so much for this opportunity.

Speaker 2 (49:01):
Thank you, LORI be careful. All right, there we go,
Lrie Haggerty walking across the country raising awareness for the
shelter system, mental health and of course domestic partner violence.
A tricky conversation, but all the tricky ones are the
ones that are most important to have. Let's get to
the break. I want to get back Rolanda and Tom
and Dana and Lim. You stay right there and then
we'll speak with you. Don't go away, pluck it back.

(49:23):
Let's go to line number six Segomarny, Liam, we are
on the air.

Speaker 8 (49:28):
Good morning, Patty, how.

Speaker 2 (49:29):
Are you excellent today?

Speaker 4 (49:30):
Thanks?

Speaker 2 (49:30):
How about you?

Speaker 5 (49:31):
Oh?

Speaker 9 (49:32):
Good headed to a rehearsal there now rehearsaling for an opera,
But I wanted to talk about what's going on in
the province and in the country, about what's going on
with the drug problem and addictions, like it's mental and
like I understand that, like there's yes, there's more housing
being being developed, Yeah, there's more money being put into

(49:55):
the police or whatnot.

Speaker 8 (49:56):
But that just seems like band.

Speaker 9 (49:58):
Aids to me, Like it's not the drugs problem, or
it's not the alcohol's problem.

Speaker 8 (50:04):
It's just like singing.

Speaker 9 (50:05):
It's not the note's fault. It's the singer's fault for
not setting up the right to prepare for the right note.
You got to start from the beginning. Nobody put a
gun to anybody's said, especially somebody like myself who's dealing
with addiction.

Speaker 8 (50:18):
Nobody puts a gun to your head.

Speaker 9 (50:19):
And says, drink this smoke bitter read smoke bowl, cracks
or whatnot.

Speaker 8 (50:26):
It starts, it starts at starts at the beginning, Like
is the problems doing anything you.

Speaker 10 (50:31):
Know regards to mental health education, like early on drug
education or early early on, Like what what are they
doing for that front? Because if you just keep on.
You know, band aid, band aid, Then what's the point?

Speaker 8 (50:45):
What do you think so well?

Speaker 2 (50:47):
I mean, like everything else in this world, complicated matters
require complicated solutions. So yes, you start at the beginning
with the like DARE program in schools, which can be helpful. Also,
people can fall prey to an addiction very quickly. I mean,
that's what kind of gets overlooked her. Sometimes it's not
a socioeconomic thing. It's not all just people who are
making bad decisions, who are struggling, or they're poor or

(51:10):
the what have you. It can happen from a doctor's
prescription pad. It can happen at a priority It can
happen in the street, in the corner, in the shadows,
in the lane ways. So I don't think there's a
you know, we could just say just say no, because
you know, let's just look at history, just say no,
which was of course the Nancy Reagan bit done in
the United States. It didn't make any difference at all period.

(51:31):
So just you know, the same thing, we talk about
sexual abstinence before you're married. Things like that don't work.
They're aspirational and they sound like the be all and
end all, but they've never worked, so personal responsibility. I know, good, look,
I've lost the buddy who's not dead, but he's just
walking around a bag of bones. And he was smart

(51:51):
and had a family and educated, a good job and
the next thing, you know, gone and not a guy
that was a bad decision maker overall, based on my
knowledge of him Andy's behavior over the years. So I
think just say no is helpful, but really probably doesn't
make much of a difference.

Speaker 10 (52:08):
Well, I think you're going to look at like other
places rather than just in North America as well, Like
my partners from Brazil and they have a like her generation,
they have a huge, huge, you know, anti drug program
and like anti drinking and driving, like the reduction that
you see in Brazil for drinking and driving and drugs

(52:30):
related accidents our.

Speaker 8 (52:32):
Way down, our way down.

Speaker 10 (52:34):
Like like Brazilian Brazilions of like twenty six to this age,
they're not really drinkers because they're they're they're they're they're
taught how how bad it is. So I mean, I
think you really do have to start at the beg,
at the beginning, at the beginning, and and I understand,
like I was where your buddy was at, Like you.

Speaker 9 (52:54):
Know I was, I was going to you know, groups
and stuff like that.

Speaker 8 (52:59):
You know, and and I'm and I'm an actor. I
come from good family. I would never do anything terrible. Yes,
it can happen to anybody. But still they're going, they're
going to be something more, something more there.

Speaker 10 (53:12):
Because I don't feel like I got it. I just
feel like with the deer program, yeah it was in
grade six. Done slapped over that and call it today.

Speaker 8 (53:20):
There was nothing else. There's nothing else.

Speaker 2 (53:24):
We can do everything to preach, uh, you know, avoiding
falling prey to any addiction, whether it be cigarettes or drugs,
or alcohol or gambling or a food disorder, whatever the
case may be. Obviously, and to not incorporate that would
be a terrible mistake. But it's everything included all the
way from offended you fall prey to an addiction. Deadwinter.

(53:46):
So yes, education, But then the Denwock question hasn't been
satisfied quite yet either.

Speaker 8 (53:53):
Well, you know it is.

Speaker 9 (53:54):
It is a whole It is a whole thing. But
you know, there's you got to come at a different
different angle. There's different departments for different things. So if
you can all work together to a common.

Speaker 10 (54:03):
Thing and have multiple things happening at it one time,
then then it should be.

Speaker 8 (54:08):
It just takes a bit of organization.

Speaker 9 (54:09):
It's not hard to project, manage, to manage something, and
to slowly be able to implement things.

Speaker 8 (54:15):
It's not an overnight fix. It's not one and done.

Speaker 9 (54:18):
This is a generational thing that has to be done.

Speaker 8 (54:23):
But that's it.

Speaker 9 (54:24):
I won't take up any more of your time today,
and thank you for always having me on and I
look forward to hearing more of the show.

Speaker 2 (54:31):
I appreciate your time, Liam, thank you, take care you too,
Bye bye bye bye. Yeah, it's I mean. Addictions are ugly, right,
especially when they spiral out of control. Is that word spiral,
because that's exactly what it is.

Speaker 11 (54:46):
You know.

Speaker 2 (54:46):
The first dabble someone might have with whatever the aforementioned
potential addictions in this world, some of it can be
quite I'll call it innocuous or innocent, or maybe made
under duress or maybe made through no faulty recovering from
some serious incident or accidents and surgery. And next thing
you know are good people that were making good decisions

(55:09):
with their life. Now all of a sudden they can't
find a good decision if it was right there in
front of them and you place your hand on it.
All right, let's see here. Let's take a break. When
we come back, Rolando's going to kick off the next segment.
Talk about it as a proposal here in the city Saint
John's'll find out exactly what she thinks that deserves more consideration,
for instance, like a town hall, and then we'll get
reaction to her concerns from war forecast for Tom Davis.

(55:31):
He's also got sub mission to he wants to talk about.
And then we'll speak with you. Don't go away, Welcome
back to the show. Let's go to line number one. Rolando,
you're on the air.

Speaker 6 (55:39):
Good morning, Patty. Is nice to speak with you again.

Speaker 2 (55:41):
Happy to have you on.

Speaker 6 (55:43):
Thank you, Patty. The reason I'm calling today is about
a letter that myself and my partner George received in
the mail. Basically, it's a proposal for two twenty two
of the Merchant Road, which was formerly Extended Day and
is now Eastern Health Accommodations. Are you familiar with that
it's next to like Christine's Pub and just steps away
from Saint Clair's Hospital. Are you familiar with that property?

Speaker 2 (56:06):
Yes?

Speaker 6 (56:06):
I am, okay, So the letter says that basically there's
a proposal layer to develop that into ninety nine new
dwelling units with units on all floors, and then the
letter goes on to say the city's also advertising discretionary
use of dwelling units first story for approximately twenty two

(56:27):
dwelling units for that story. So I'm not quite sure
if it's going to be two hundred and twenty two
dwelling units or if it's going to be one hundred
at or it's going to sorry ninety nine dwelling units,
is what I mean. Say, it's not sure it's going
to be ninety nine dwelling units or one hundred and
twenty one dwelling units. It's not really clear. But my
point in kind of calling about this is that so

(56:49):
last year, well it was late twenty twenty four, I
got a letter in my mailbox, and everybody in the
neighborhood got a letter in their mailbox, and it was
from a concerned citizen in the area. There was a
development happening on Alexander Street. Nobody in our neighborhood was
invited to that meeting. There was going to be a
meeting at the fore End Room about the development on

(57:09):
Alexander Street. Somebody in the neighborhood took went through great
lengths to determine how many shelter beds have been built
in the area over a period from twenty twenty to
twenty twenty four, how many shelter beds for people who
were housing in secure, etc. There was two hundred and
thirty five shelter beds within less than a two kilometers
square radius radius that were built between the years twenty

(57:33):
twenty and twenty twenty four. Now, if you spoke with
anybody in this area, you would quickly learn that crime
has increased significantly over the last well especially more so
and then more rapid pace since the pandemic. I know
our home has been broken into twice. Once it was
on a Christmas morning at three forty am. Our car
has been broken into three times. We've had over five

(57:55):
thousand dollars down the damage to our car. We regularly
pick up needles and syringes around our homes. Spoke to
lots of neighbors who are really concerned about the situation
in the area. So now I get this proposal. And
oh and when I went to that meeting I did,
which was about Alexander street, I did stand up because
we weren't given a letter about that proposal. So I

(58:15):
posed the question on the floor about how come some
people got these letters and other people did not get
these letters, such as us. Ron Elsworth was attending the meeting,
and he stood up to respond to my query, and
he said, you are in a mixed residential zone. We
do not have to notify you of any developments in
your area. So anybody near my house or anywhere close

(58:37):
to me didn't get these letters so didn't have the
opportunity to attend. So, realizing that I now have this
letter that came in the mail, it's not dated. I
don't remember when I got I was out of town
and then I came home and it was there, so
I don't know if it was like three days ago,
five days ago, seven days ago. I'm not sure when
this came. But in any event, I now have this letter,

(58:58):
so I actually want to know what these dwelling units
are because it doesn't give you any information. Is this
for people who are housing or house or housing? And secure?
Are these other shelter bits? I mean, you're changing what
was basically at one point a hotel and which is
now like still the same rooms.

Speaker 7 (59:17):
You're changing it from the.

Speaker 6 (59:18):
Current ninety two to either ninety nine or one hundred
and twenty one, so it's not going to be big rooms.
It doesn't actually sound to me like these are going
to be housing units. It sounds to me like these
are going to be converted rooms, because there's no indication
on this letter that they're going to be building anything.
They're going to quote unquote convert the existing building into

(59:39):
fully residential building. So I'm suspecting there's going to be
very small units, and I'm wondering why people or families
are going to live in it because there's nothing explained.
So last night myself and my partner took it up
on ourselves. I did up a letter requesting a meeting.
I did send emails to the counselors and to the city,
and then I thought, we need a meeting so we
can ask questions to get more information. Otherwise this is

(01:00:01):
going to go through with no feedback from anybody in
the area. So myself and my partner did up a
little request form for people to sign if they would
like a meeting. We started at the top of Patrick
Street and we managed to get down to where it
intersex with Pleasant Street. We were out for a couple
of hours, but we didn't get any further than that,
and we got signatures of all but one person we

(01:00:23):
spoke to. We got their signature. The person who didn't
sign was in the middle of an emergency and couldn't Simon.
We knocked on her door and she was in the crisis,
so obviously we let her be and didn't take her
time up. Everybody was interested in this, and with the
exception of that woman, nobody else had heard about. Well
she hadn't heard about, but only one other person in

(01:00:44):
this entire neighborhood that we spoke to from the top
of Patrick to the intersection of Pleasants, only one other
person had gotten this letter in the mail besides us.

Speaker 7 (01:00:52):
So the city is not getting feedback from the people
who are it like minutes away from this, you know,
from this building. We literally are like less than five
minutes walk from the building. But the people in the
area aren't getting these notifications because quote unquote we're in
mixed residential so they don't have to tell us.

Speaker 6 (01:01:10):
So I think, in keeping with what the person just
prior to me was talking about, with the mental health
and addictions going on the city seems to be really
top heavy. I'm not sure how many shelter beds existed
before that meeting in twenty twenty four, but two hundred
and thirty five in a four year period being developed
is significant. We walk out our doors. There's drug paraphernalia.

Speaker 9 (01:01:31):
We walk out our doors.

Speaker 6 (01:01:32):
We've seen people, you know, smoking crack pips. We see
people injecting in their veins, in their arms, between their toes.
We have garbage needles, syringes. We have people constantly like
we see people sleeping on doorsteps and on bus stops.
And I'm not nimby, you know that. Like I worked
in the prison, I dealt with people with addictions. I

(01:01:54):
own the clinic. I take care of and give good
care to people who suffer from mental health and addictions.
But he chose to be an addict. We're all one
good care accident and beat up away from becoming that.
If you know, we get in a care accident, you
get addicted to the drugs they prescribe. I have no judgment.
I have nothing but empathy and compassion for people suffering
from addictions. But the city, I believe owes its residents

(01:02:16):
at least a meeting to tell us what they're going
to put there. We all know we're in an area
where there's a lot of shelter beds. We see it
on a daily basis. But if they're going to put
more shelter beds over there, and then they're going to
develop the Grace Hospital into mental health, addictions, psychosis, psychiatric center,
then our whole area of the city is going to

(01:02:38):
have more than its fair share of people suffering from
mental health and addictions. And I don't feel it's.

Speaker 7 (01:02:43):
Fair to us.

Speaker 6 (01:02:43):
But I also don't feel it's fair to the people
who are actually suffering, because when you're all put into
the one area, the likelihood of having quick and easy
access to the jobs, the likelihood of been influenced by
those around you, the likelihood of trying to get clean
while everybody around you still suffering from addiction. I feel
like the city needs to really take a look at

(01:03:05):
the planning because we pay taxes, we pay high taxes.
We want to live in this area, but it's become
so dangerous and such a scary place to live. And
I don't think, you know, I don't think they're going
to put you know, shelter beds in Barly Halley Estates,
or down on water for Bridge Road, or in King
William of States. It seems like they're putting them all

(01:03:27):
in the same area of the city. But those of
us who live here are suffering from too much vandalism,
from crime, from harassment. I just feel as though the city,
at least at the very very very minimum they owe
us to let us know what's being built in our area.
I said to Ron Elsworth the night of the prior meeting.

(01:03:49):
I said, Ron, I bought my house in twenty two
thousand and five. I paid two hundred thousand dollars for it.
I have almost that much invested again in trying to
repair a hundred twenty four year old house. I said.
If I tried to sell my house tomorrow, I would
be very, very lucky to get back to two hundred
thousand dollars I paid for. Because once people learn about

(01:04:10):
this area of the city and what's happening in the area,
and they look around, and they walk the streets and
see the drug paraphernalia and see cars being broken into,
and every night all you have to do is watch
out your window. People are going up and down the street,
checking every door handle on every car, and I just
feel like the city should try.

Speaker 7 (01:04:27):
And be a bit more fear in where they.

Speaker 6 (01:04:29):
Put all of these shelter beds and let people know.
And like all of these people I spoke to last night,
one person had a letter. Nobody else even had a voice,
And I would have hundreds of signatures if I had
time to walk around this entire area. But people wanted
to talk about this. Every single doorway knock down. People
took our time. They wanted to talk about their concerns,

(01:04:51):
and I don't. And the reason I'm reaching out to you, Patty,
is because I don't want my letter to the city
to get lost. I don't want it to be ignored.
I want the public to know that we, as residents
in Center City down Concourse, we deserve the right to
be told what's happening in our rated city. Sure, just
because when it's residential does not take away our right
to know what they're doing.

Speaker 2 (01:05:12):
Well, the basics of not even knowing what is being
proposed is important, and a bed is only a place
to lay your head. The supports you need have to
be part of the conversation. What they include, I have
no idea. But lucky for us, and I know it's
not Tom Davis's actual ward, but as a member of council,
he should be able to speak to your concerns at
least in a general form. So I get where you're

(01:05:33):
coming from, Landa, and you know some of the arguments.
You'll hear about where some of these proposals take place
and what parts of the city is. We hear constantly
that they're being proposed in areas close as to supports,
community supports, and otherwise. You know, the same place why
the argument was made for why the gathering place belongs there,
the same reason why we see influx of people moving
to the city, and it's specifically city center because that's

(01:05:54):
where the supports are. You know that the same moragrum
was made about the comfort in why way out there,
because all of a sudden, the people who need supports
have to get to them downtown or in the city center.
So I know where you're coming from, and maybe Counselor
Davis can respond to it right after your call. How's
that perfect?

Speaker 6 (01:06:11):
Thank you, Patty. I appreciate your time.

Speaker 2 (01:06:13):
I appreciate yours, Orlanda, stay in touch, take care, okay, seero,
bye bye. All right, let's take that break. Tom Davis
is there to respond to Orlando and then whatever he
wants to talk about, and then we're speaking with you.
That includes Chris wants to talk fixed link, fantastic, don't
go away, welcome back. Let's go to nine number two.
Take it more to the word for counselor here in
the city of Saint John's. That's Tom Davis counselor around

(01:06:34):
the air.

Speaker 12 (01:06:35):
Good morning, Patty morning. So hello's your plus.

Speaker 2 (01:06:47):
Don't you hear me? Not really? You're breaking in and out?

Speaker 12 (01:06:50):
Can you hear me now?

Speaker 2 (01:06:51):
I can hear you now? So before we get into
whatever you wanted to call about, can you respond to
tax paying citizen Orlando Ryan about her concerns on Lamartin Road.

Speaker 12 (01:07:00):
Well, I mean, first of all, it's good to hear
residents getting involved in the process, going door to door,
engaging with their you know, their neighbors, just just to
have their voice heard.

Speaker 4 (01:07:09):
So, I mean, the first.

Speaker 12 (01:07:11):
Thing is that the extended day are being converted into apartments.
You know, we really don't control necessarily the tenets that.

Speaker 4 (01:07:19):
Go into an apartment.

Speaker 12 (01:07:19):
I mean a developer comes to us and says, I
want to do this. You know, we don't have a
say as to who goes into the into those spaces.

Speaker 4 (01:07:30):
So that's the.

Speaker 12 (01:07:30):
First thing, and that is going to be apartments, you know,
and that's really what we are circulating the information around.

Speaker 2 (01:07:37):
As far as the.

Speaker 12 (01:07:40):
You know, who has to be notified and who doesn't
have to be notified, it is within one hundred and
fifty meters all a development. I will say though that
if people subscribe to our notification services, they'll find out
all these notices when they go out as well. So
that's another way, you know, if you're concerned to have
you know, is in the neighborhood. Reaching out to all

(01:08:02):
of us is really an important process. I know that
sometimes can be frustrating.

Speaker 11 (01:08:07):
You know.

Speaker 12 (01:08:07):
Right now we're just starting an electional process, so it's
very timely for residents to be to have concerns to
bring it forward. As far as concentration of challenging tenants
in an area, there's no debate that the downtown area,
you know, along all through there, you know, there's definitely concentration.

(01:08:31):
You know, you've got the gathering place in different supportive
places and it's really again not something that the city
dictates and as well, when the province is involved, they
can override us, like ie with the Great Hospital. They
basically most people may or may not be aware of it,
but that the municipality is the lowest rung in the

(01:08:52):
government level, so the province can basically do what it
wants to do, ie when they put the mental health
facility on a floodplain even though we were dead say
against it. So you know, there's the city, you know,
has an important role to play. However, you know, we're
just one piece in the puzzle. I don't if that
answers anything.

Speaker 2 (01:09:11):
I think so, But she has some very specific questions,
like even something as fundamental as how many units is
a good place to start. So I'm not going to
regurgitate everything we're Alunda said, but you know, even with
some basic information that is left out of a update
letter from the city really does beg the question as to,
you know, where do they go for that next level
of information? Is there going to be a town hall

(01:09:33):
so they can collectively offer their questions or concerns to
a body, whether it be committee members and or council members,
whoever may indeed host the town hall. I guess that's
the basics of what she was talking about.

Speaker 12 (01:09:45):
Yeah, and usually when a developer developed something, they're the
ones who notified as a rule, and their contact information
should be on there and questions should go to the
developer if you if those answers are not forthcoming, or
you don't like the answers, then well and you could
also at the same time contact council because obviously we

(01:10:05):
vote to approve things, and in the case of the
zoning change then the province actually has a rubber stampatue.
So it's a fairly long process. So I mean, I
you know, what I would recommend she do is continue
doing what she's doing. Ford all that information to us
her ward counselor use Ophelia councilor Ravencroft. You know, that
would be something to go through and or they at

(01:10:28):
large councilors and or the deputy mayor and the mayor.
You know, they're the voice for all the residents. If
they don't, if the war counselor doesn't, you know, respond
to them in a timely manner, you know.

Speaker 4 (01:10:40):
But again it's it.

Speaker 12 (01:10:42):
They need to have their voices her because you know,
as she indicated, there was real challenges in their area,
and I just can't imagine. My daughter lived in the
area and I was worried, I was I was relieved
when she moved out of that area. To be perfect Gods.
So it's it's not lost on us or me the
real challenges that the residents of the downtown face every

(01:11:06):
morning when they go out to their car and or
look out to their windows. So it's real and it's
and you just can't brush it off. You just can't say, oh,
it's not my as your stiction, it's not whatever. It's
all our problems. We talk about it, We talk about
it constantly, we're acting on it constantly. But when you
look around at the decline in society, it's you know,

(01:11:28):
we're all heavy part of the solution, but obviously all
selective officials, we have a greater burden. So you know,
reach out to us, reach out to me, make your
set us pictures, make it as real as you possibly can,
because we need that motivation every day.

Speaker 2 (01:11:42):
Fair enough, And I'm sure Rolana is listening to you
right now, so I know you called on a couple
of different topics that I'll let you get to before
we say goodbye.

Speaker 4 (01:11:50):
Tom Perfect.

Speaker 12 (01:11:52):
So the first thing is that a senior reached out
to me, not in my ward, but adjacent. And she
is in her eighties and an incredible woman who reaches
out every once in a while, and she sits on
her deck and she watches the traffic on her road,
and she's a keen observer, and she's fairly close to

(01:12:13):
a school, and she really has concerns with people racing
up and down her road. And her observation was, it
seems like it's the pickup trucks that are in a
big hurry. So I just want to reach out to
all pickup truck drivers now. And I know a lot
of times that's contractor is racing around trying to get around. Again,
you're driving a massive piece of machine, and if you

(01:12:33):
meet human flesh, it's a very bad day for the
human flesh or the biker. So I just just please
please flee that. We can't say this enough. Please pay attention,
Please put the phone down, Please keep your foot off
the pedal, for the sake of everybody.

Speaker 2 (01:12:49):
Just a quick comment on that. Look, people can buy
whatever they want with their own money. You can drive
whatever you want. But I used to have a truck.
Some of the new trucks there are so tall in
the front that, as someone who owns one, maybe just
consider that when you get behind the wheel again, it's
your money. You can buy whatever you want, whether or
not you ever put anything in the box. There's nothing

(01:13:10):
to do with me, but some of those vehicles. I
don't know how you can see anything that isn't equally
as high, because I mean, I sat in one the
passer seat of one of my buddy's brand new trucks.
I leave to make them out at it, but it's
a huge vehicle, really tall in the front. If there
was a kid on a bike and you didn't see
them from fifty yards, you're not going to see them

(01:13:31):
up close. They're just so massive that those sight lines
are seriously compromised. So especially if you're driving something big
where the site lines are not what they used to
be when you were driving like a four door sedan,
be mindful of that, because I was driving around that
vehicle thinking, holy smokes man, I can't see anything, you know,

(01:13:51):
regard to say with there, for instance, how I can
see out the windshield of my vehicle is just wild.
How big they are and how tall they are.

Speaker 12 (01:13:59):
Yeah, remind people there are speed cameras in this province
right now issuing tickets. I know that there's going to
be a way of them because I can only imagine,
and there'll be more coming online as well. I know
you weren't you you were well maybe you were aware
of it, but yeah, the school buses school arms in September,
he's going to Thes going to be four buses with

(01:14:20):
with cameras that will be giving really terrible tickets, really
and and well deserved tickets, uh in September. Trying to
protect our young ones. But just anyway, I want to also,
you know Bod Walter for his call on signage. It's
something we spoke about in council and you know, we

(01:14:42):
had some difficult conversations. Deepan said, it's my ward is
a lot of the Canady game stuff and I'm going
to hold off. As an in comment, it's probably a
little I might have a bit of advantage maybe, but
you know, he's reached me. And then one another one
of the counselors also pretty strong advocate in favor of

(01:15:04):
not putting the signs. I'm going to hold off and
see if I can get through to the end of
the that's just tweets around. This will be a personal decision.
Like one of your people who weighed in on you,
I think you got to go. You know, it's a
personal decision, it's democracy, it's brand name recognition. But you know,
I've made that decision and I'm going to just kind

(01:15:26):
of take it week by week.

Speaker 4 (01:15:27):
You know.

Speaker 12 (01:15:27):
Obviously, if the sign play filled up with signs, then
maybe I'll change my mind. But right now, you know,
I just want to encourage people, if anything, keep it
light and keep them tidy, and make sure they're well fastened.
If you're going to put them in the ground or
put them on something, make sure they're very well fastened
so they're not up blown down so they're not a hazard.

Speaker 2 (01:15:44):
Yeah, and now there's a difference in well, let's say
not all campaign signs are created equal. There's a difference
between someone putting that one on their front lawn and
a residential neighborhood versus at the intersection at Logi Bay
Road McDonald Drive. So there's different things, you know. So
for ins, if my next neighbor puts one up, it's
highly unlikely a visitor for the kind of the summer
games or any tourists is going to see that and say, oh,

(01:16:06):
I must send that back on my Instagram account. It's
the big notable intersections and along the Parkway and things
like that. I think that's really a different conversation than
a neighborhood based on on someone's front.

Speaker 12 (01:16:17):
Long agreed, Yeah, I think it's a personal choice. I mean,
it's not the city's job, you know. I think we
may look at it after this whether two months is
too long for signage, because it is a long time
and signs blow around and they up in the waterways
and all this stuff. But for now, tweets Yourna, I'm
going to make that decision for now to take it
week by week and see where we go from that.

(01:16:39):
I want to quickly throw in on the forest fires
and the wildfires, and our heart goes out to different
communities around the province. I mean, it's really hard to
wrap your head around being evacuated from your home, you know.
And there's a lot of new filants labraries now who've
experienced it or have loved ones of experienced it is.

Speaker 2 (01:16:56):
Really really real.

Speaker 12 (01:16:58):
And you know, when I drove I was around Bay
and I drove in last night, I'm over looking at
the smoke over Paradise in Mount Pearl and Portugal of
Saint Phillips and CBS. I mean, it is really really
sobering to see that and and to realize we only
have so many resources and the men and women who
with their their lives at risk trying to fight these

(01:17:19):
these fires. You know, we need And I have heard
from a pretty good source that there is some questions
about what went on out in the Small Point, and
I do think that, you know, whether it's carelessness or deliberateness.
You know, humans are a big cause of all these wildfires,
and they're just with our boreal force. In this Flanta laboratory,

(01:17:39):
it's just like gasoline, especially when it's dry. We really
really I mean and people I hear people firsthand, people
close to me, or like, why is there a fireban on?
You know, I just want to be able to have
a fire roast few marshmallows where from, you know, and
you know, perhaps the really responsible people. But the problem
is that we just don't know what can happen so quickly,
and you know, I just call people. I mean, I

(01:18:01):
was thinking how these water bombers in these helicopters, helicopters
in particular, they're all rented and massive cost to have
a helicopters going working all day long. That's coming right
out of taxpayers pockets, slash, boring off future generations.

Speaker 4 (01:18:14):
And I was kind of doing a little bit of math.

Speaker 12 (01:18:17):
They're mostly using salt water on these fires. So in
three days, three water bombers will drop three point twenty
four million liters of salt water on our force potentially
impacting you know, regrowth because salt brine is not the
best thing in the world, potentially getting into our waterways,
potentially getting into people's surf as well as potentially getting

(01:18:38):
into reservoirs. You know, that's just three days. I mean,
we just think about the water bombers have been drop
dropping salt water on New Found and Laborratory all summer
pretty well.

Speaker 4 (01:18:47):
So I just call on people that you.

Speaker 12 (01:18:50):
Know, really really realize a A that we need to
prevent these force fires and b we really have to
have a moment to see the climate changing and really
figure out how what place we can play in whatever
small part we can play in this process. But you know,
it really needs to be, you know, a wake up call.
I'd like to hear politicians talk about it, provincial politicians
talking about this election and not just paying lip service

(01:19:12):
to it. And again, our hearts, our prayers go out
to the people who are you know, living in real,
real peerial as well as smoke. Unfortunately, wildfire smoke is
really harmful to people who gets in your long skits,
in your bloodstream.

Speaker 2 (01:19:25):
And so you know, we got to do what we
can fair enough. Appreciate the time, text time, take care
of YouTube and by yeah, someone sent me an email
this morning about the smoke and stuff, and it was
addressed to me, but it was about something that apparently
I said last week, but I wasn't here last week,
and I don't even know what conversation this person referring to.

(01:19:48):
But it's about chronic illness and youth and what air
quality may mean. Because as far as I know, the number,
what are the leading chronic illness suffered by youth is asthma,
isn't it? I think it is. So someone brought me
note saying I don't know what I'm talking about. Jeez,
I probably don't know what I'm talking about, but I
knew what I was talking about last week when I
was talking about baseball, so I didn't I'm really not

(01:20:10):
exactly sure what that email is about, but yes, air
quality is a concern, and some cities in the country
are amongst the world's worst for air quality these days,
which is a mouthful. And we do know what the
wildfires mean for air quality close by where the fires
are burning. So if I'm wrong on the number one
chronic illness for the country's youth is asthma, I'm pretty

(01:20:30):
sure it is. Last time I had to look, it
was exactly that. Let's take a break. When we come back,
Chris is there to talk about the fixed link? Never
speaking with you, don't go away. Welcome back to the show.
Let's go to line number four. Good morning, Chris, you're
on the air.

Speaker 13 (01:20:41):
Yes, good morning, Patty. How are you today?

Speaker 2 (01:20:43):
Great today? Thanks? How about you?

Speaker 3 (01:20:45):
Good?

Speaker 13 (01:20:45):
Good No, last week I was the one that kicked
off about the fixed link. Okay, from a Yankee point
to port in anyway, I don't know which show one
as which are yes, from Yankee point to point armor
laborator and yeah, And basically, like what I'm saying, like

(01:21:14):
a solution to a lot of the challenges death in
Newfoundland is goes back to putting a subsea tunnel from
Yankee Point across the Point Armor. I mean, like, I'm
just going to say this when I get up in

(01:21:34):
the morning, Like I like to have a nice glass
of cool orange juice. The other day I went to
one of the grocery stores and I think it's thirteen
dollars and fifty four cents for a joke a juice
to have a you know, in the morning. I mean, like,
you know, I think what I'm trying to get at

(01:21:57):
is how do we explain, explain the options and sell
the benefits. Because I know that it's going to take
a village, it's going to take all Newfoundlanders to put
the energy in this to make to make it happen,

(01:22:18):
all right, and okay before before we okay, So what
I'm trying to say is get the energy behind Newfoundlanders
to get the message to Mark Parenty about the nation's
huge projects. We're being included into those five areas.

Speaker 2 (01:22:44):
The Liberal government has already declared a fixed link as
a nation building project. Don't take it from me, take
it from then Prime Minister Trudeau and his mandate letter
to then Infrastructure Minister Katherine McKenna then passed off to
Dominic clublanc It was rate it in their mandate letter
several times. So that's one thing. And so they now
can't say it's not a nation building project because they've

(01:23:06):
already said it is. So I'll put that out there.
The price of orange juice. My thoughts on that would
be the same questions I have about Marina and Latinic.
If they had to cut the commercial fares in half,
would that actually see a reduction of price in the
grocery store. I'll be surprised, because once the prices are
set and customers and consumers get used to it and
their sales are not falling off, retailers are going to

(01:23:28):
be pretty hesitant to cut prices, even if it's cheaper
to get the product here, whether it be an avocado
or some orange juice or a head of lettuce. So
I think that's a big question that really doesn't have
a very clear answer. What do you think of that
one percent?

Speaker 13 (01:23:44):
One hundred percent? Once you get the price up on
something and people get used to it, they they got
the damage done done. Yeah, Okay, so Marine Atlantic, Okay,
I don't want to see everybody in Port of bat
lose their jobs, But I mean it's time to move on.
Now it's one hundred or one hundred and fifty years

(01:24:06):
or whatever trying to do something with Marine Atlantic in
order to make the picture bigger in Newfoundland and Larbrador.
I mean, just look at how she's done sideways over
there now with people trying to get to the province
of Newcundland for the for the summer games. Like, do

(01:24:29):
you think that that will ever change?

Speaker 4 (01:24:31):
Is the question?

Speaker 2 (01:24:33):
No matter if there's a big one, it.

Speaker 4 (01:24:34):
Is go ahead.

Speaker 2 (01:24:36):
No matter if there's a tunnel built, there's always going
to be Marine Atlantic. It's constitutionally guaranteed. So no one's
losing their job. Half Port of Basketwart North saidity based
on a Marine Atlantic services there's you know, regardless of
whether or not people think it's a good idea. The
next steps, because it's already in the hands of the
Conna's Infrastructure Bank, the next step is to go to

(01:24:57):
the market, you know, whether it be in a par
to see if the tunnel building crowd in the world
are interested in doing it can bring forward some new
updated costs. Then we can translate that thing to things
like the toll you know, to apply it the same logic.
It is to travel across the Confederation Bridge, because this
is very likely going to be in the world of
a P three right, Hey, what ever happens, it's going

(01:25:18):
to be some sort of public private partnership, which I
think is inevitable. I mean, if we're building hospitals and
prisons and long term care facilities in P three's, you
know full well if this ever happens, is going to
be that as well. The updated numbers are not encouraging.
There was a two thousand and four study done, and
then Hatch came in twenty eighteen and did another study.
Arap came in last year or twenty twenty three and

(01:25:40):
did another study into the cost and some of the
forecasts of traffic flow. Right now it's at least doubled
what it was when Hatched to the report in eighteen.
Then the forecast of how busy it would be has
been far decreased based on Arap's work. I don't know
if it either one is right or wrong, but that's
just the most recent numbers that we had to get
cons Then here's one that never gets part of the

(01:26:03):
part of this conversation for starators. Quebec is going to
have to finish what is it one thirty five to
even get the Labrador. And secondly, let's just say Hatch
were right and the volume of traffic would be exorbitant,
it would be huge. Imagine the work that's got to
be done on the highway in the Great Northern Peninsula.
I mean, if the most optimistic out there, I'll include you,

(01:26:24):
Danny Doomresk Save for instance, and others. I mean, we've
got to factor that in because we'd be talking hundreds
of millions of dollars just to prepare the highway on
the GNP, to prepare for that type of traffic, wouldn't we.

Speaker 13 (01:26:38):
What's to Patty? The thing is that it's going to happen.
Whoever came out with the studies or whatever, and the
amount of money that's involved getting a build, it's gonna happen.
I mean, Newfoundland is becoming the oil capital of Canada

(01:26:58):
and people and you know what, the influx of people
that's coming in, there's no turning back. There's no turning back.
People are conditioned. This conditioning has to be demolished and

(01:27:18):
it's happening because it's to happen, and there's and there's
no turning back because the floodgate is open. And you know,
and that's I got a friend that owns a tractor
trailer and he stops bringing stuff like he picks up

(01:27:40):
whether he's in Coburg and he picks up stuff for
people and brings it in Newfoundland December to fifteenth or
the December to twenty, he stops, he stops. We're conditioned,
but you put the fixed link in and then you
can get stuff back and forth all the time. Food insecurity,

(01:28:03):
Like nobody here can come out and say that they
can go to they're leaving the gold and New runs
with tomorrow tomorrow and they're going to get there. You
can't say it because of the weak link in the chain.
You know this, it's going to happen. So it's just

(01:28:23):
well to get on board with it now. It's the
new way.

Speaker 2 (01:28:28):
It would take somewhere between ten and fourteen years to build.
And I'm not going to hang my hat in full
on either Hatch or Arabs work on this front because
I think the only logical next step, whether we talk
about being conditioned or whatever the case maybe is we
need to see what the tunnel bridge builder world looks like.
You know, let's go out and if there are Norwegian

(01:28:49):
companies who've done a lot of these tunnels in the
recent pass over the last couple of decades, whether it
be a Canadian company or an American company or whoever,
let's let them come forward because they're we're only going
to do an analysis based on whether or not they
can make any money at it. And so let's put
those numbers on the table, because unless we do that,
then we're all just opining. We're guessing that it might

(01:29:10):
be good, or it might be bad, or Arap is
right or hatches right, when in fact, we need the
tunnel building world to tell us the numbers. That's really
what we need here. So let's just say, if someone
comes forward and says it's going to cost six point
five billion dollars, it's going to take us thirteen years
to build, here's the likelihood of a you know, give
us a variance of cost over runs of ten percent.
Translate that into thirty five years worth of tolls. How much?

(01:29:32):
Because until we know that, I mean, for instance, if
the toll to drive or to take, whether be on
the rail or otherwise in that tunnel, if it's the
same as Marine Atlantic or close by and it takes
longer to get to there, then people aren't going to
use it. So unless we have the numbers, we're all
just hoping that it's a good idea, or maybe it's
a good idea, or possibly it's a nation building project.

(01:29:52):
But now that you mentioned that, the premiere, when talking
about these things, has talked about Beta Nord, has talked
about Marine Atlantic. Has that been part of the conversation
the fixed Link as a nation building project? The Liberals
themselves have deemed it to be exactly that in successive
mandate letters to successive Cabinet ministers and for the Canadian
Infrastructure Bank. So it's an excellent question and conversation. I

(01:30:14):
like talking fixed Link to be honest.

Speaker 13 (01:30:17):
You know, it's at the end of the day, it's
how it affects, how it makes puts money in your pocket,
Like Howard affect What are the benefits of a subsea
tunnel going to be to a business, whether it's in
Portabasque or Ernold's Cove or Saint John's. Until you can

(01:30:41):
see the benefits, that's when the deal will be sold.

Speaker 8 (01:30:46):
You know, whether we can.

Speaker 13 (01:30:48):
Do it, I mean we just like I said, just
put a Concrete Island two hundred miles off on the
Grand Banks.

Speaker 2 (01:30:55):
Right.

Speaker 13 (01:30:56):
I'm just we have we had the skill and to
do to work with. But I do believe that, all right,
we don't have the experience like what Norway has not done.
Like you said, there's no no.

Speaker 2 (01:31:13):
I do have to Chris. I hate to interrupt because
I'm late for the news that I appreciate the time,
and you're welcome back to discuss the fixed link at
your convenience. Okay, thanks Chris, you sir, Bye bye. Tom
Dames to talking about salt water from the water bombers.
I was thinking to myself, is that really true, because
I've seen water bombers pick up water from freshwater lakes

(01:31:34):
many many times. So and then someone just robbing letter
said no, the bombers are picking up water from fresh
water lakes, which I always thought was the case. I
didn't want to correct them, thinking that maybe I'm wrong.
But I've seen water bombers pick up water at of lakes,
so that's a helpful clarification, and I'll absolutely get it
from the crowd who are actually operating the bombers. Let's

(01:31:56):
take a break, well, wecome back. Bernice you're next. Don't
go away.

Speaker 1 (01:32:00):
You were listening to a rebroadcast VOCM open line. Have
your say by calling seven oh nine two seven, three
fifty two eleven or one triple eight five ninety eight
six two six and listen live weekday mornings at nine am.

Speaker 2 (01:32:17):
Welcome back to the show. Well, I just stepped outside
for a bit of fresh air, and man, can you
ever smell the smoke right here on Communt Road. Hopefully
they're making some headway with that fire this or the
fires today, but boy, it's really thick out through this morning.
Let's go to line number three, Bernice around.

Speaker 14 (01:32:31):
The Air's morning day.

Speaker 2 (01:32:33):
How are you prescon how about you?

Speaker 15 (01:32:35):
Thank you, thank you.

Speaker 16 (01:32:38):
I have a major problem.

Speaker 14 (01:32:40):
I'm living in a history leaving the letter you will
call it and excuse me everyone here, it's it's called
confort around and around twenty every month. I have received
aging in January.

Speaker 15 (01:33:02):
Not a cent.

Speaker 14 (01:33:05):
I have to go to my family.

Speaker 15 (01:33:07):
You had me with my toiler frees.

Speaker 14 (01:33:09):
I never had to do that, and I always had
a dollar. Now they're not to me any any reason
why I shouldn't be hit my money. All they say
is we're waiting on word from the office through the.

Speaker 15 (01:33:24):
Head off.

Speaker 14 (01:33:26):
And I haven't got crow that.

Speaker 15 (01:33:27):
Toping he does.

Speaker 2 (01:33:29):
So no one's been able to give you a reason
as to why no fund since January?

Speaker 14 (01:33:33):
No funds is January. All they say is that the
there's only enough money coming in to cover your rents.
And I was listening, a lot of money was coming
here to cover my rents, and I was still getting
three or.

Speaker 15 (01:33:47):
Four dollars a month.

Speaker 16 (01:33:49):
And my rent was covered.

Speaker 14 (01:33:50):
I'm not gonna getting now. So I don't know where
to turn because it's so frustrated you're not It's just
run year round. So I thought I gotta do something else.
Call and she got pay to say, but if you
got any listeners, I hope you have me.

Speaker 2 (01:34:07):
You know, I know someone in the departments now. They're
at a mid level, but they might be able to
shed some light on what the hold up is. You know,
every now and then when I hear someone's you know,
missing a support payment for a couple of weeks or whatever,
I get that government is not efficient. But since January,

(01:34:28):
so how much money are we talking about that you
had to go to your family for for all these months?

Speaker 14 (01:34:33):
My family pay for my choes frees. Some clothes, you know,
from the shampoo, body lost things like that. And she's
my sister and she've been doing it now for five months.

Speaker 15 (01:34:45):
Have I never had her? I wouldn't know what I do.

Speaker 14 (01:34:49):
Yeah, I mean a woman needs you know, charge, you
know shampoo, everyone needs that.

Speaker 15 (01:34:57):
Sure, I have no money advice.

Speaker 2 (01:35:02):
Yeah, let me see if I can find out any
information for you. Okay, Yeah, I'll zip a note off
to the person who I do know, who works inside
the department responsible if they give me any idea about
what is actually going on here. Bernice. We've got your
phone number. We'll get back to you.

Speaker 14 (01:35:19):
Okay, thank you, you're welcome.

Speaker 2 (01:35:21):
Good luck, keep me in the loop.

Speaker 16 (01:35:22):
I will thank you.

Speaker 2 (01:35:23):
You're welcome. Bye bye. All right, Dave, I don't know
where am I going here? Line number five five it is.
Let's go Danil you around the air. We've got a
poor connection on that one, so let's leave it there.
Let's go to line number two. Roger you around the air.

Speaker 15 (01:35:45):
Good morning, sir. I just want to say about to
think fex flengk dur.

Speaker 16 (01:35:52):
Are you sure there?

Speaker 2 (01:35:53):
I'm listening?

Speaker 15 (01:35:54):
Oh, fixt length. If I didn't got to be built
to tonnel. The rest of it. Well, come, what does
that mean, man, Well, cut down so much aggivation for
Newfulanders or anybody who visit Newfland back and forth and
the truckers sitting on the wharf trying to get back
and they turn around, they got to spend more money

(01:36:15):
on ferries and everything, and all the pollution of ferries
are making. I think you will cut down on a
lot of different things, and it'd be a lot better
for loop Landers. No, I won't live long enough to
see it go through, but I hope the gout to
put you one through and helps people out in loose
Land and around the world to visit New for Land.

Speaker 2 (01:36:34):
Yeah. Like I said to Chris when we talked to
Fixed Link there a little while ago, you know, we've
got all sorts of conflicting numbers out there, and like
I mentioned to Chris, we just really need someone who's
in the business of building these things to tell us
what it looks like. You know, we can opine and
we can guess. We're never going to have firm numbers
about just how many vehicles commercial or otherwise would utilize

(01:36:55):
the tunnel. You know, people make the point that, well, look,
how many people travel the Confederation Bridge. The Confederation Bridge
on the mainland is in close proximity to some four
million people that point to point them ore in Labrador,
it's not the same case, so I don't know what
the numbers would be. But even just to build it,
I like something in the tunnel building business to tell
me what they actually think.

Speaker 15 (01:37:17):
Uh yeah, you got a point there. But meanwhile they're
going to do it someday and every day the costs
is going to go up. Well, he just stared at
it now and get it done, and I think everybody
will benefit from it. That's what I think now. Like
I said, I won't be around to see it, but

(01:37:39):
I hope they get it done someday. Yeah, yeah, that's around.
But all I got to say, time for somebody to
walk up, wake up and say, okay, you's going across
the money for that. You won't need all that again.
You still could have a shift there if you want
to go that way, but mean will I think you
will find that tunnel will be alpha busy because I

(01:38:00):
traveled that way all the time. And go across on
the Perier going out and you got a job and
get across even Mount a periou there at times they're booth.
But it is a good idea if you've only done it.
But it's not for me to think about it. I
suppose it's already to think about it, but nothing I
could do about it. But just but my two cents start.

Speaker 2 (01:38:22):
And I'm glad you shared him this morning. Roger, thanks
a lot.

Speaker 15 (01:38:25):
You're welcome, sir. You have a good day of God
bless you and your family and everybody's listening.

Speaker 2 (01:38:29):
Thank you in the same to you, Roger. Okay, all right,
bye bye.

Speaker 3 (01:38:33):
Yeah.

Speaker 2 (01:38:34):
You know I've mentioned Hatchanara a couple of times, and
I suppose off the top of the show somewhere tomorrow
we'll break it down bite sized morsels. Number one being
nation building and it's not me saying, and it's the
Federal government. And it made its way through Parliament pretty quick.
There were some amendments at the Parliament at the House
Commons level regarding Bill C five the whole but's in
the best interest of the country type project stuff, so

(01:38:57):
we'll get that one out there, and the Liberals themselves
we have called the fixed Link a nation building project, right.
It was in successive mandate letters to various Cabinet ministers
all the way back to Catherine McKenna and then the
Dominic LeBlanc. It's in the hands of the Canada Infrastructure Bank.
So I wonder what kind of conversation, if any, took
place between Premier Hogan and the Prime Minister when they

(01:39:18):
last met at the Council of the Federation. We know
they talked baden Ord, and we know they talked to
Marine Atlantic, but the whole fixed link thing, and we'll
put the numbers out there, and it's not in an
effort to sway opinion because people will have their own
built in opinions on that and everything else under the sun.
But then we'll see if we can't get an update
from the eighth floor about whether or not this was
even broached, because if we're going to use the Liberal

(01:39:39):
government's own words of nation building project, they've already told
us it is. You know, I think the same thing
pertains to things like the Upper Churchill and the possibility
for a nation building project like an East West energy
cord or all part of this. Let's go and take
a break. When we come back, plenty show left for you.
Don't away, Welcome back to the show. And as per
some emails, and I think these people are right, is

(01:40:00):
water bombers would be proximity to the closest bit of
water to try to put out the firest like for instance,
they made the points and Muscrave Harbor, the closes like
big enough for the water bomber to dip into was
too far away, so they were using seawater. And I
think the same thing they were dipping water out of
Hollywood or Harbor Grace just yesterday as well. So that
makes sense to me. Close proximity is part of the calculation. Obviously.

(01:40:24):
Let's go to line number four. Day know you're around
the air.

Speaker 16 (01:40:28):
Good morning, good morning. Yeah, I was wondering, Patty. There
are places in Saint John's other places as well where
you can get used furniture. Like people, you know, they
get new furniture and they don't really want to get
rid of what they had. But so there are people

(01:40:51):
in the city who have I think there are three
or four locations where people bring their furniture that they
you know, they replaced it with newer and better things,
and rightly so if you know, rightly so, if you
can afford it.

Speaker 2 (01:41:04):
I have a few off the top of my head,
there's the Home Again Furniture Bank. There is Habitat for Humanity,
they have a restore. There's a place called Again and Again,
which is very close by here. Hero. So yeah, those
places are out there.

Speaker 16 (01:41:17):
Yeah, it's a it's a it's a wonderful service. I
mean people, you know, you know, hats off to those
people who put all that in place. And you know,
thankfully there are people who get new furniture right, and
I'm telling you that some of the furniture is beautiful
and right. And but the thing about it was what

(01:41:37):
I was thinking about was pregnant women. Like I know,
I know two women who are basically street people who
are really good, decent people, right, and they were pregnant.
And at the gathering place is all restricted seating, as
like going to the hospital is restricted seating. You're just

(01:41:59):
sitting there and you're not and there's no comfortable seating.
It's all like going to a doctor's waiting room. It's
all restricted seating, and there is absolutely nothing that's comfortable
for a woman who's pregnant. So I think Paul Davis should,
you know, I think Paul Davis should reconsider his option

(01:42:23):
of seating for people because that's a gathering place, that's
where we all go, and there's no comfortable seating. So
I think mister Davis should consider the option of going
to these places and getting these comfortable seating units for
the people at the gathering place.

Speaker 2 (01:42:39):
Known as chairs.

Speaker 16 (01:42:40):
Yeah, and I think that would be a very conducive
for Paul Davis in his efforts to make progress in
his life. And you know, more and more power to it.

Speaker 2 (01:42:51):
Fair enough, I don't know if the Furniture Bank would
necessarily have a fleet of those uber comfortable chairs, Like,
for instance, we're trying to accommodate some one who's, for instance,
a pregnant lady. Is I think you've already mentioned.

Speaker 16 (01:43:03):
I mean Amy, Amy is the most recent one. Amy,
Amy and Danny had they had a baby four months ago.
Danny and Amy are really good, decent people.

Speaker 2 (01:43:14):
Yeah, I'm not sure who they may be, but they
just had a baby. Is that.

Speaker 16 (01:43:18):
Yeah, Amy had a baby, and it's really you know,
they're they're they're struggling to survive on the street and
I don't know where there's too now. I mean, we
people like us on the street, we see each other
all the time, but we never planned to meet up.
Sometimes we have really good dogs together, especially when the
weather is good. Right, and the weather has been good.

(01:43:39):
This is this has been a phenomenal summer for street people.

Speaker 2 (01:43:43):
Yeah, it's been.

Speaker 16 (01:43:45):
Doing really well. And yeah, that was the first order
of that was I was also about the salmon fishery,
not only in Newfoundland, but Canada. Have an option, a
possible option to uh, you know, fill all the salmon
rivers in Canada. Team may have them teeming with salmon.

Speaker 15 (01:44:06):
Uh uh.

Speaker 16 (01:44:08):
It's an idea that I came up with because of
what someone else said one time. It sort of sparked
it in my mind. It's just that came from really
from nowhere. It was just something I heard and it
sparked in my mind. Then I thought about the problem.
You know, what about refrigeration, Like what if we went
down the boom siding down at the end of Dear

(01:44:30):
Lake and install the cold water stream of water with
refrigeration because we could do it. We could We could
form a pathway of cold water right up through the
edge of the lake, or you could put it out
in the middle of the lake a couple and cool
the water. It would work. I think it would work
because we have a refrigeration, we have hydraulics, we have electricity,

(01:44:54):
so we could possibly, you know, revolutionize the salmon fish
in Canada. All the major salmon rivers. All we got
to do is give them a cold stream and they'll
go right to their spining grounds. It seems reasonable to me.

Speaker 2 (01:45:10):
I'm not sure if it's actually manageable. And the trick is returns,
that's where we get ourselves into a problem with the
actual salmon return numbers.

Speaker 16 (01:45:18):
Yeah, you know, I mean just think about it. We
could go back to being able to take six fish
a day, right, I mean you think of the potential
of it. I mean it doesn't seem there's nothing sticky
about it or spiny. It seems smooth and streamlined like
it would work.

Speaker 2 (01:45:36):
Yeah, I don't know if that's actually manageable given the
flow of a river.

Speaker 16 (01:45:42):
Well, it's my patent idea, right is my is my
patent idea? So I should benefit from that, shoodn't I? Patty?
Yeah idea? Do you have just got to come up
with the money among street people to buy the patent
and we're going to hone it. So that's the way
it's going to be. Okay, Okay, And then there's aqua fishery.

Speaker 2 (01:46:03):
Agriculture culture.

Speaker 16 (01:46:05):
You could do the same with refrigeration. Potentially with aqua aquaculture,
you could cool the water around the fishing in the
area where the water is too, you could cool it.

Speaker 2 (01:46:16):
You can't really know, you can't actually do that. Why well,
because of just the natural flow of any current. I mean,
how could you actually cool water that's perpetually moving because
you cool one drop of water and it's replaced by
another drop of water before the other one got cool.
So the water is flowing through those pins. And so look,

(01:46:40):
I mean my comments on aguaculture and the point of
blame being sea license, warm water temperatures. Look, those things
aren't going to change. The water's not going to get
cooler all of a sudden, So which begs the question
the future of aquaculture in the base And it's not
me using those words. That's exactly what representatives of the
company I've said, warmer water time. I mean, that's a problem.

Speaker 16 (01:46:59):
It's almost it's almostly sometimes, Like I say, where it
came from, I'm not exactly sure, but someone said something
to me one time a long time ago, and I
thought about it, and then it sort of sparked in
my mind that it just took over and you set
me on fire. Or it was like I was really,
you know, really excited about the idea. It was like

(01:47:19):
it seemed like a streamline. It seemed like it might work.
I think it would it might think I got a patent, idea.

Speaker 2 (01:47:26):
There, go for.

Speaker 16 (01:47:27):
It, okay, And then yeah, well that's it. The gathering
place is salmon fishery and aquaculture. Thank you, Patty, no problem,
Thanks Dan, I'll call you next week.

Speaker 2 (01:47:36):
All right, buddy, all right, buye there we go. Let's
see you're almost up to the break. We are on
the Twitter box, some interesting stuff flowing in there. One
comment to was if indeed you wanted to take Marine Atlantic,
I don't think the Marina land conversation is over by
a long shot. Is if you wanted to take your
vehicle to the mainland but you couldn't get a booking
at your convenience on Marine Atlantic, the concept was, well,

(01:47:59):
get a drop by ocean next. Sounds like an awful
lot to have to go through. And plus you would
then have to fly to Halifax as opposed to just
fly to Halifax in the first place, as opposed to
a line on Marine Atlantic because they don't drop ship
anything in North Sydney as far as I know, so
they need either be fly to Halifax and or be
a walk on on Marine Atlantic and then have to

(01:48:19):
find your way from Sydney to the Halifax. So I
don't think that's an ideal solution to watch. It be
a better, more efficient for people from this province. Service
of VA Marine Atlantic. Let's take a break. When we
come back after the newscasts, plenty of show left for you.

Speaker 1 (01:48:32):
Don't go away the Tim Powers show during the Conversation
weekday afternoons at four pm on your VOCM.

Speaker 2 (01:48:40):
Welcome back to the show. Let's go to line number four.
Darius here on the air.

Speaker 11 (01:48:44):
Oh, Patty, listen, I just listened to with that link.
You know that's the But you know I'm getting old,
so I'm just listening to your show. But I'm trying
to keep it short. I'm just thinking, like you know,
building tunnels and bridges to the gross land. There's a
lot of complications. There's a lot of things that you know,
it sounds good, but they're an awful lot of things.

(01:49:07):
All you got to do is look at the bell
all and mindes that might give you a hint. You know,
the going on under the ocean is not always a
good idea. But and the peries, you know, the bridge,
well we say that's probably out too, but you know
they got one between Po and nov Scotia. But I
was thinking, and this is just a dot like the

(01:49:32):
boats that they take, I call them boats that you
know they got to bring back and forth. Uh, why
couldn't we build I know sounds ridiculous, but why not
have nuclear powered theories? It would you know, I know,
the the the cost at first would be uh you know,
uh large, but no, no bigger than muskrat falls. And

(01:49:57):
you know that that would cut out the fuel costs.
I mean, a nuclear powered machine will last off a
long time. We'll get the I think Voarder one and
the Warder two they're still gone.

Speaker 2 (01:50:10):
So yeah, you know Confederation Bridge Lands in New Brunswick.
But point taking, you can absolutely have a nuclear power
fair I mean, we have nuclear power submarines, we have
nuclear powered all kinds of stuff. So it's a thing.
It can be done. And you know, building under the
seafloor is absolutely can be done. I mean obviously something
has to be deep enough that you don't get the

(01:50:31):
iceberg scrape and stuff, which is why you can't have
a bridge over the water. So yeah, it can be done.

Speaker 11 (01:50:39):
The thing with tunnels, you got to remember too, if
there's a fire in that tunnel, that's a long way.

Speaker 4 (01:50:45):
Yeah.

Speaker 2 (01:50:45):
I mean things like hazardous goods. There would have to
be obviously some obviously well thought through plans, and you know,
you only have hazardous goods in the tunnel by themselves.
It couldn't be alongside Tony Powers transport truck or my
wife's car. Obviously, you're one hundred percent right, same reason,
the same way that we transport hazardous goes, whether it
be few or otherwise, on the ferry services themselves.

Speaker 11 (01:51:08):
Yeah, because I think they're they're over in Europe. They
had a tunnel, I know, there's a car accident or something.

Speaker 5 (01:51:14):
There was a.

Speaker 11 (01:51:15):
Tunnel fire and you know a lot of people do
it because it was in a tunnel and there was
just you know, it was just no way to get
out of it, you know. So I mean, if they're
going to build something like that, which is I agree
it's possible, you know, but I was just thinking this
nuclear power thing or even uh you know, I know

(01:51:37):
open up, set up some kind of the air service,
you know, just between up and land and and and
you know where it is because I know we like
you said, you mentioned about quebected. They have to finish
that hardway too.

Speaker 15 (01:51:52):
You know.

Speaker 11 (01:51:53):
And and uh uh, you know, I think we need
to be connected definitely, but you know, which ways is
a good question. I was thinking, you know, so many wealthy, smart,
intelligent people out there, and you know that the nuclear
power things seem like a good idea, you know. And

(01:52:14):
then you know, I was going to say something about
solar powered. I won't even get into that. I mean,
you could probably build ships now that are evy ships.
You can't get evy. We got ev vehicles. You can't
have an evy ear playing for obvious reasons. But you
can't have an ev ship.

Speaker 2 (01:52:33):
You'll always have somewhere in the neighborhood of hybrid attempts
to things like commercial marine traffic. Nothing's going to be
like solely sol or what have You could be solely nuclear,
no question, But if you're using some backup battery storage
that's generated by solar panels or whatever, I'm sure that
could be proud of it. I'm not smart enough to

(01:52:54):
know the answer to that question.

Speaker 11 (01:52:57):
I'll give you a hit. My wife, she passed away
a few years. But we used to go picking. And
you know, I bought the trolling we we went from
gas power to trolling motor, electric trolling motor. But then
the problem was the battery used to die. So I bought.
I bought solar pounds that these foldable solar poals and
have been anyway, it was twenty years ago. Now, I'm

(01:53:18):
sure I got solar pounds. Now you had a ship
that was solar powers, for example, you you've been put
to the whole top of that ship. It doesn't have
to have you know, anybody on top there. You got
to the ship is a big damn thing, you know,
fear fury, I should say, uh, you know these things
that bring everybody across, you know, in the boat and
and a lot of our supplies. You know, that's that's

(01:53:39):
a big solar panel. And the way I did it,
you know, and uh and the only fortune unfortunately here
on the ocean that salt water salt here. And we've
seen that salt towarm years ago, so you can imagine
what that's going to do with solar pounds.

Speaker 2 (01:53:54):
Yeah, not everywhere's ideal for any one specific type of energy.
I think we can all understand that the world is
going to see a blend of energy like it already has,
and it will be extended more and more into renewables.
Not because I say so, because that's the actual global trend.
The price has come way back to Earth so there's
always well for the foresee of the future, there's going
to be a continued reliance on fossil fuels. The amount

(01:54:16):
of solar and wind and nuclear being installed in the
world is outpacing the actual appetite or the trend in
the appetite, the annual uptic and appetite for fossil fuels.
It's just what the numbers say. So what that means
for this province, I'm not sure, but I'll give you
the final word before I have to take another call.

Speaker 11 (01:54:33):
Yeah, yeah, well now is it? You know? The only
thing one thing about the fossil fuels. Without those, we
won't have plastic, we won't have contact lenders, and we
won't have like we'll be going back to glass the ringes.
And my father was dic that I can use the
glass the ring of stainless steel. Legal you don't want
to go there, and you know what we do. We
don't need to use it for our cares and some

(01:54:54):
other things that that you know.

Speaker 2 (01:54:57):
Changes her. But change is the only constant, and things
are changing, and the world is changing energy and otherwise, Darius,
I appreciate your call this morning.

Speaker 11 (01:55:05):
Yeah, well, thanks, Patty, anytime you're doing a fantastic job. Boy.
The way I always listen to your show, there's a
you know, you're a smart guy for sure.

Speaker 2 (01:55:15):
Sometimes sometimes not appreciate this, Starius, Thank you, thank you,
You're welcome. Bye bye. All right, just go to line
number five, SA good morning to the word five councilor
here in the City of Saint John's. That's Carl originally
Carl around the air.

Speaker 17 (01:55:28):
Good morning, Patty.

Speaker 2 (01:55:29):
How that's kind you good, good good.

Speaker 17 (01:55:33):
The last comment that Carler has made. I understand that
fully believe me. I mean this election coming up in
October second, and I'm just I'm in an announcing a
couple of weeks ago, and I'm just reiterating it on
your show that I will be seeking re election four
or five briefly about six or seven months ago. I
can't template it going at large, and I spoke to

(01:55:56):
three or four people about it, and the rumors out
there that I'm running learned. But I just want everybody
to know that I am one hundred percent running for
the Ward five councilor to represent the residence of Ward
five with the city again.

Speaker 2 (01:56:08):
Fair enough, and I wish you good luck on that front.
One of the issues that your constituents are going to
be speaking about is water, whether that being killed Broad
in the additional expenses, whether it be the dried up wells.
Is there any Ford momentum on any of those files?

Speaker 17 (01:56:23):
So this, this particular file is taking up a lot
of autonomically, Yes, we we are, like we are talking
about it. I mean daily contact and I'm that that's
not an exaggeration, daily contact with the residents that are
affected in the Killbroad region that because of the league

(01:56:44):
or potentially because of the league. But like right now,
with this drought and the weather that we're having, I
got people on Ryan's Road, I got people down Pitty
Harbor Road, Like, there's people all over my ward that
don't have water right now. So it is an issue.
I am trying to.

Speaker 4 (01:57:03):
Deal with it.

Speaker 17 (01:57:04):
The city's policy going back, I think it's like eighteen
or nineteen years ago that the city stopped the liver
and water. But you know, times are changing and conditions
are changing. So you know, I'm advocating for the residents
and you know, hopefully I can get some sort of
resolution that will alleviate some of their concerns.

Speaker 2 (01:57:26):
Right now, and I'm sure they'll be looking for them
sooner than later. And you know, people keep telling me, well,
it's just a dry summer, but the fact of the
matter is we've had dry summer to the point where
the city council here in Saint John's ive told me
I can't water my lawn, I can't watch my car,
and the wels didn't go dry then. So I think
they've got an argument out there as to construction and
the impact that it's had.

Speaker 17 (01:57:47):
Oh, there's no doub Listen, there's no doubt. You're preaching
to the converted here. I hear the residence, and I'm
hoping and you know that there will be some sort
of resolute and that everybody is satisfied with within the
next especially for those eleven residents in Kilbrod, within the
next twenty four to forty eight hours.

Speaker 2 (01:58:08):
Appreciate the updates this morning, good luck on the Hustin's Carl.

Speaker 13 (01:58:11):
Yeah, but you know, so.

Speaker 17 (01:58:12):
I just want to say one more thing, Patty, just
to bri the light, like Ward five is a very
unique ward. You know, you've got Ward one, two, three,
and four. They are condensed areas of the city, but
Ward five is so large and like you know, I'm
dealing with you know, six communities, separate communities. And when

(01:58:32):
you look at south Lands or Brookfield Planes, they're like
they're like their own little communities when you have they
got different issues than than what the Google's got or
what got book Field or say shay Heights, Blackhead or
Southside Road. So you know it, it is a unique,
unique ward. And you know I've made myself available and
will continue to do that. And you know I said

(01:58:54):
it on your show before, and I'll say the game
is anybody caught my office number five seven, six two
three three two for any issues in the city. You know,
I'm available to bring to my cell phone and if
I'm not, if I don't answer, man another lane and
we'll get back in.

Speaker 2 (01:59:09):
And I appreciate your time this for and Carl, thanks
a lot.

Speaker 17 (01:59:11):
Any Thanks Betty, you welcome.

Speaker 2 (01:59:12):
Bye bye Kyle originally Ward five counselor running again. Let's
take our final break of the morning. Don't away, welcome
back to the program. Let us go to lend number two. Zach,
you're on the air. How's it going, Patty not pad?
I suppose how about you?

Speaker 4 (01:59:26):
Not too bad?

Speaker 2 (01:59:28):
What's on your mind? What can we do for you?

Speaker 4 (01:59:30):
Ah?

Speaker 18 (01:59:31):
Not too much by I'm on a trip now with
my wife and daughter. Were going around the All Island
on a boat for the rest of the summer.

Speaker 4 (01:59:43):
I got a.

Speaker 2 (01:59:44):
Lend of a boat.

Speaker 18 (01:59:45):
Actually I was going to look at a I don't know.
I don't even know where to start all this. Actually,
first follow me back it up.

Speaker 2 (01:59:54):
Through. Two years ago.

Speaker 18 (01:59:55):
I got diagnosed with cancer, and I went up to
Toronto and Franstance Margaret and had treatment and basically they
don't all they could do for me out there after
a ton of bunch of chemoted, a bunch of radiation,
but the tumor I had was still too big or
whatever to take out, and the show signs I have
spread the other parts of my body. So they sent

(02:00:15):
me home last April basically and said there was nothing
else they could do for me, and to go get
my affairs in order and then enjoy my time. Basically, so,
me and the wife now girlfriend at the time, or
common law or whatever, got married last summer, and.

Speaker 4 (02:00:40):
This year we decided to do this.

Speaker 18 (02:00:42):
Trip around the Hotland and boat and we were planning
it for a while, and I was looking at boats
and this and that, and I was supposed to trade
one of the smaller boats that I had for a
bigger boat, and I went and looked at it a
couple of times, and I was joking around with the
guy that had the vote, saying that he could buy
it back off me in a year or two, or

(02:01:04):
off the wife or whatever whenever we're done with a
type deal. And when it came time to do the
deal and actually trade my vote for his, he said no.
I said, I don't want to do the deal now,
he said, I'm on trade votes. He said, but you
can come grab the boat and use her for as
long as you like, and when you're done with it,
I'll take her back.

Speaker 2 (02:01:24):
I'm sorry to hear of your struggles and your health concerns.
And so, just so I got this straight, whoever owns
this boat has just said to you you can take
it and use it for as long as you like,
no charge.

Speaker 18 (02:01:37):
Yeah, yeah, basically I took well, there was one condition
I had to well, I was bringing the boat from
Southern Harbor to Trading to do some work on it
before we went out to see the summer in it
or whatever, and he said he wanted to do the
trip to Trading with me, So that was perfect because
I had no tidy to go with me.

Speaker 19 (02:01:57):
Anyways, do you have a background on the water, because
it sounds fundamental to simply take a boat and cruise
or steam around the island or sail around the island,
But it's not as fundamental as it sounds.

Speaker 18 (02:02:10):
No, yeah, a nice fort a background on the water,
not from grandfather's windsor My grandfather was a fisherman most
of his life, but I never fished with him or
done anything like commercially.

Speaker 2 (02:02:21):
Okay.

Speaker 18 (02:02:22):
I always took part in like the food fishery and
tur hunting and that type of thing. And of course
I grew up on the Exploits River and had boats
and stuff in my whole life, but I never had
anything so big as the boat that I got off
Carle was actually a sixty.

Speaker 2 (02:02:36):
Five foot boat.

Speaker 18 (02:02:37):
It was as old BFO patrol boat from the sixty
five when it was built, So it's quite a bit
different than what I had. But things are going good.

Speaker 2 (02:02:49):
I'm glad to here it now. It's once it's easy
enough for pardon me. It's great that you were able
to get a loan of a boat, but you mentioned
repairs and you also got to put some fuel to
get where you're going. So are you trying to crowdsource
money for that's act because based on what you've told
me about your health, you probably can't go back to work.
So where are we?

Speaker 6 (02:03:11):
Yeah?

Speaker 18 (02:03:11):
So last winter, well, I was a power line technician
for ten or twelve years or whatever, so I worked
away mostly I've done the different parts of the muskrat
Falls project or whatever, the line or whatever over to Stephenville,
and I worked a lot of the way. But this
past spring I went up to I managed to go

(02:03:34):
away for a couple of weeks for a storm last
fall for its a hurricane down in Florida. And in
the winter I went up to Ontario for a week
maybe for an ice storm. But that was all the
work I've done for the year. Basically it was three weeks.
So I got to GoFundMe account I started basically after

(02:03:56):
I got the boat back to Triton, then realize how
much it was going to cost me to do and
really sat sunk in. Then I probably couldn't afford it.
But yeah, everybody's helped me out so much since since
I got this time to go, Like even the I.

Speaker 4 (02:04:16):
Had it over at the Mid Island.

Speaker 18 (02:04:18):
Fabrication and Triton and he pretty much done everything for
cost or less than cost. I'm pretty sure he didn't
charge me very much. I had the boat on dry
dock for six or eight weeks painting and fiberglass and
doing all sorts of work to it, and yeah, he
done whatever he could for me, that's for sure.

Speaker 4 (02:04:39):
That was Peter.

Speaker 18 (02:04:40):
Windsor over there with the Mid Island. Can't say enough
put about them, No good for them. But everybody, honestly
that I've met along the way have been helping me out.

Speaker 4 (02:04:52):
And I had a gofu ond me page.

Speaker 18 (02:04:57):
Started when I started working on the boat and then
freezed over for twelve thousand dollars or something today. So
that's in a big hell obviously, because you know sixty
five the boat definitely burns a little bit of fuel
and it takes a little bit of money too, if
we're going everywhere and food and everything else.

Speaker 2 (02:05:20):
Very quickly before I let you go, and you can
give out to go fund the address before we say
goodbye this morning. So I didn't even know how to
ask this. It feels like the final trip with the family,
so like, who's on the boat with you.

Speaker 11 (02:05:35):
Right now?

Speaker 18 (02:05:35):
It's just my wife and daughter and dog. But I
had a friend with me for a week there, and
I got some more friends coming next week. And I've
been meeting up with different people along the way and
coming with me and whatever.

Speaker 2 (02:05:52):
I'm glad you're getting to do that.

Speaker 18 (02:05:54):
I also got a I've been putting lots of it
on Facebook or whatever, but there's a a platform called
see People. I got to share it on my Facebook page,
but that's it's got a live tracker basically on the
boat and the tracks where I go with a speed
I'm at and I'll document all the the stuff and
take pictures or whatever, and your shows where everything is
or it was really cool.

Speaker 2 (02:06:17):
Yeah, look, I'm really glad that you're getting the opportunity
to share this journey with your wife and daughter and
dog and your friends along the way, do you want
to give out your full name so that people can
find you on Facebook and track along with your adventure
this summer.

Speaker 18 (02:06:33):
Go ahead, Zach Stroud so z A st r Oued.

Speaker 2 (02:06:40):
I wish you good luck and fair within Zach, take
good care of yourself right down. Thanks as you're welcome. Zach,
all the best, Bye bye. And part of me is
happy they're getting to do that, and of course, certainly
part of me is sad to know that it's maybe
the last opportunity they get to share this kind of
experience together. Oh boy, all right, good show today, big

(02:07:04):
thanks to all hands to support the program, all the callers, listeners, emailers, tweeters.
You're all right. We will indeed pick up this conversation
again tomorrow morning right here on v OCM in Big
nfm's open line. Sarah Strickland, stop mocking me. We will
indeed pick up this conversation again to mour morning right
here on Vio CM and Big lenfms up in line.

(02:07:24):
I'm happy to producer David Williams. I'm your host, Patty Daily.
Have yourself a safe, fun, happy day. We'll talk in
the morning. Bye bye,