Wednesday August 6th

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

(00:22):
Host Paddy Daily.

Speaker 2 (00:23):
Well, all right and good morning to you. Thank you
so much for tuning into the program. It's Wednesday, August
the sixth. This is open Line. I'm your host, Patty Daily.
David Williams, he's the producer of the program. You'll be
speaking with David when you pick up the phone and
give us a shout to get into que and on
the air. If you're in the same time as Metro region.
The number of dials seven zero nine two seven three
five two one one elsewhere toll free long distance one

(00:46):
eight day eight five ninety VOCM, which is eighty six
twenty six. So here we are in the throes of
the hot summer. We'll get into some of the heat
related matters. Not a moment, so it's perfect time for
a little hockey update. Hockey New flannl Laborator is pleased
to announce Team nl Ross for the Quebec Maritime Junior
Hockey League Cup, so basically a showcase for the under
sixteens to show their talents off to the scouts for

(01:09):
the upcoming draft into the Quebec Major Junior Hockey League
or Guest Quebec Maritime Junior Hockey League. They'll be playing
in deep New BRUNSWI from the ninth October through the twelfth.
Congratulations too, everyone who's been selected to play in one
special shout out to my nephew Henry Collingwood who's a
member of that team. Go get him tank and good
luck to all hands and records have been set in

(01:30):
Newfoundland Labrador ball hockey for their first time on history.
Every Newfouland and Labrador team coming home from the Nationals
with medals. So we won silver and the U fifteen girls,
U seventeen boys, you nineteen boys, Brons, and the U
fifteen boys, U seventeen girls and the U nineteen girls.
Tremendous accomplishment. Congratulations all right, And for tennis fans tonight
it's tonight's see eighteen year old Toronto native Vicki Emboco

(01:53):
playing in the semis at the National Bank Open this
is a big deal. So WTA one thousand level event
tonight she gets Rabkina, who's a former Wimbledon champion. So
the eighteen year old looking to make her mark. Okay,
let's get into it again. The pictures were seeing of
the wildfires that are peppering the entire province. We've had
like one hundred and ninety two wildfires this year already

(02:16):
last year of the entire season fifty eight. People will
talk about the amount of land lost and what have you,
but the fact of the matter, it stresses resources dramatically
across the country. Someone in the neighborhood of seven hundred
and fifty wildfires burning right now. Yesterday, thankfully there was
the reinstating of the province wide fireband. Look, everybody likes

(02:37):
to have a backyard fire, bonfire, a mug up, whatever
the case may be, but recognized in these stretch thin resources,
recognizing just what the place is so dry, it's a tinderbox.
Even yesterday after the announcement of the fireban, even just
here in Metro that the fire department was dispatched to
put out some three bonfires. So yeah, it's fun to

(02:57):
have a bit of a fire for what reason, but
please do everybody favor and just resist. Don't do it.
It's way too dangerous, it's way too dry, and just
look at the resources that are absolutely being stretched to
the max right across the province. So let's kind of
watch our bober on that front. Please. I was flipping

(03:18):
childs yesterday afternoon when I was doing the dishes and
come across Tim Houston, the premium of Nova Scotia, talking
about their fireban, and they've taken it a long way
down the road. It feels heavy handed, but when we
know what we know about the extent of the fires,
they're keeping people out of the woods. As of four
pm yesterday, hiking, camping, fishing, and the use of vehicles
in the woods not permitted. Trail systems through the woods

(03:40):
are off limits. Camping is only allowed in campgrounds. Let's
try to avoid the next layer of potential restrictions here,
so please please just do not have a fire until
we know it's safer to do so. The band's going
to remain in place until the seventh of September then
to be reviewed, So there you go. There may be
air quality concern in certain places of the province this morning,

(04:02):
and there are some ways to mitigate risk if you
are at risk. We'll say, you know, doctor Janis Fitzgerald
talking about it yesterday, all right, water bombers. So I
think to a man to a woman, we know full
well that the province dropped the ball back in twenty
eighteen when the fifth water bomber was damaged. The humming
in the hall about whether or not we'd go through insurance,

(04:23):
and then of course the deductible was really quite expensive.
Whether we try to repair it, whether we try to
sell it, whether we should have ordered a new water
bomber at the time. Hindsight is twenty twenty. But I've
seen a couple of social media posts saying, is there
anybody running who's talking about adding fire suppression services, whether
that be to hire more water bomber pilots, whether it
be to add a bomber or two to the roster

(04:45):
of four that we have three from new bruns. We
have now been dispatched to this problems to give us
a hand. The problem with ordering water bombers is that
the backlog is extraordinarily long. The problems of Anatoba put
an eighty million dollars down payment on three new water
bombers early this Calenary year. They're not going to get
the bombers until the twenty thirty one and thirty two
fire seasons. So even if we get in the queue,

(05:07):
this is a problem. Bombardier used to hold the patent
for one of the most popular water bombers or Scoopers.
Now it's owned by de Habland, at the very top
of the queue at that company, who's built a big
facility outside of Calgary, but they can't keep up with it.
So European countries are going to be satisfied first because
they had their orders in first. Now, with the Hablin
and Bombardier and their history of relying on government support

(05:30):
to keep the doors open and the plane is being built,
people are making the argument that maybe, just maybe it's
a priority for Canadian provinces to get their ordered water
bombers built first. I'll leave it up to you as
to whether or not you think that's a good idea.
But yeah, we can have people run on, you know,
adding capacity, but that's not easy, as it's easier said

(05:50):
than done. I mean, twenty thirty two is a long
term to wait, even if your down payment has been made,
as such as the Province of Manitoba did so. Anyway,
that's one on the wildfires. And if you would like
to call talk about what you've seen in the information
you had on hand, you know, prior to an evacuation
alert or an evacuation order, we're happy to have you on.
Here's some people complaining about the lack of information order

(06:13):
the disjointed areas where they find said information. When the
power is caught, it really does limit your opportunity to
get information without the power, no modem, no internet, doesn't
matter what website is featuring what so, yes, all star
wars like radio will be the go too. I know
the folks in the Viocim newsroom doing their level best
to keep all the information tip a tongue for the
newscast and on our website we'll also do our best

(06:36):
her on this program. But if you'd like to talk
about disseminating the information, because time is of the essence here.
If there's an evacuation order coming, people need to be prepared.
So when the alert is offered and people you know,
pack their bags to prepare for the potential for an
evacuation order, information sharing is obviously crucial if you want
to take it on, we can do it a little more.

(06:58):
While I was going to say pleasant but maybe for
some seeing lots of pictures once again on my social
media feed about some pretty gigantic cod being hauled out
of the water in the recreational food fishery, which is
encouraging DFO being asked about it, talking about obviously a
fish that big has to have lived quite a long time.
D da da da da. But there's also that feature
of the tags, the tag program. If you do indeed

(07:20):
catch a cod that is tagged just below the dorsal fin,
there are various colors. All the contact information is there.
DFO really wants that tag back, you know at the
caapala data, which is important, and there's even a i'll
call it a reward so or they're worth ten bucks,
twenty bucks, even as much as one hundred bucks. So
if you catch a cod with the tag, please take
the opportunity to contact the email address that's right at

(07:43):
the bottom. I think there's actually a phone number there
as well, so we can get those tags back. Okay,
stick it with water. So yesterday, just speaking to a
story in the news media, and it's important that these
disclosures are made about mass mortality events in the world
of aguaculture, and there was two last month. So when
we spoke to it, or I guess I spoke to it,

(08:06):
is got some pretty severe emails from folks on or
I guess, in communities that have for all intentsive purposes,
been saved economically speaking because of aguaculture coming to town.
I understand that the question that was being posed as
opposed to what the emailers are saying is that I'm
churning for the demise or the death of the industry
and consequently the loss of all those jobs. All right,

(08:30):
that's not what I said, number one. But when the
industry itself and spokespersons for the companies that were impacted
by these mass mortality events say the two primary causes
were warm water and sea lice, my comment was, there's
no way to think that water is going to cool
into the future. The trends are clear for warming waters.

(08:50):
So if that's a contributing factor to mass mortality and
to sea lace, we can put all the lumpfish we
want inside these open pens. But those two trends are
they'refore all to see. So what I asked out loud
for your input is, if that's the case, what does
the future hold for open pen fis fish farming, because

(09:11):
it's only going to get quote unquote worse into the future.
So does it mean any future operations have to be
brought on land even for the company's viability. I'll ask
the questions of them. They're the people who are running
their own business. These mortality events obviously come with some
sort of cost to the company. Whether they have some
insurance to cover off some of their liabilities. I guess

(09:31):
it's probably a floating target. But if it does indeed
pose a risk in the future, what does that mean
for their operations? That's all I said, not that everything
should go by the wayside, even though there's plenty people
listening to this program this morning, whether it be the
interaction with escaped farmfish into the wild species and what
that means for the hybrids or whatever the frankin fish

(09:52):
that people will refer to. But that's what I said,
And if we want to take it on, we can
do it all right. Sticking with the water, all right. Well,
there was a report released this week from the United
States Coastguard Marine Board. The investigation into the circumstances surrounding
the implosion and the death of by people on the
titan submersible, not a whole lot that we didn't know about,

(10:15):
all the red flags that should have been acted upon,
and the in house turmoil at this particular company, ocean Gate.
The question would be, I think into the future, is
how can there not be a final inspection of something
like the titan before they allow people to pay oodles
of money to try to visit the Titanic, never to
be heard from or seen again. So that number one.

(10:37):
Number two, and I've said this in the past, and
I have been told it's really quite a cold thing
to say, but I'm going to say it again, is
if this type of adventure tourism is launched from say,
for instance, this province, whether it be trying to make
your way across the Atlantic inner rowboat, or to have
a trip down to the Titanic, or any such adventure
that comes with distinct risk, should there not be some

(10:59):
insurance in place, paid for by the folks who are
entertaining these particular adventures. The reason I say it is
because how often have there head to be Coastguard resources
dispatched to save someone midstream in the North Atlantic or
in this case, a recovery mission when all lives lost
above the Titan, which costs tens millions of dollars. And

(11:19):
I know that that is no or as important as
the lives lost, But at the end of the day,
there's still a bill to be paid. And I do
think that these adventure tourists should, prior to leaving on
their journey, should take care of some of that. What
do you think we can talk about them? All right?
Loves me a bit of talk about the fixed Link.

(11:41):
These are numbers we're just going to offer based in
the most recent numbers. We have to consider. This is
not a thumbs up, thumbs down thumb sideway as to
whether or not the Fixed Link will ever get built.
We do know whether or not you have a firm
definition in your mind as to what constitutes a nation
building project. Fact of the matter is the federal government
talks like that. So whether it be some of the

(12:03):
conversations associated with Bill C five, whether that be Beten Order,
the Upper Churchill, which we'll get into a little further
later this morning, but the Fixed Link, the federal Liberal
government has said it's a nation building project. It was
in successive mandate letters to the ministers responsible. It's in
the hands of the candidate Infrastructure Bank. This province joined
forces with the Infrastructure Bank to the tune of a

(12:24):
half a million dollars for further evaluation. But here's some numbers.
There was a two thousand and four study into it. Look,
the fixed link goes back all the way to Joey Smallwood.
So we've been talking about this for seventy six years.
In two thousand and four they did a study and
number one, it can be built. I mean, there's no
reason to believe that people who have built tunnels in

(12:45):
other parts of the world can't build a tunnel under
the straight bill. Also, i can two thousand and four
study was updated in twenty eighteen by Hatch. At that
time they said it would be an expected cost of
one point sixty seven billion dollars. The next report from
ARUP said even with inflation would have increased the price dramatically,
but they put the final price tag at four point

(13:06):
eight million dollars, and this is a couple of years ago,
so it's even more than that now. Then there was
the forecasted volume of traffic, which is of course a
key issue because the volume of traffic would help understand
what the toll would be. Hatch said it would be
really quite rowbust. Air Up not so much. Arup estimated

(13:27):
the tunnel would require about twenty million dollars an annual
operating cost. It said it would only generate nine million
and estimated revenues, so a million dollars ten million dollars
lost per year, says Arup, just offering the numbers so
that we can get into a deeper conversation on it.
Hatch estimated the tunnel would serve one hundred and sixty
two thousand pastor vehicles per year and two hundred and
forty four thousand commercial vehicles per year. Airp not so much.

(13:50):
They said about only one hundred and eighteen thousand pastor
vehicles and just over twenty seven thousand commercial vehicles, which
is nowhere near the two hundred and forty four Okay.
In so far as time, travelers to this province from
Quebec City would shave two hours off their trip using
the tunnel. Travelers for Winnipeg will save an hour, but
anyone traveling for saying, for instance, Halifax or Boston, it

(14:13):
would be a slightly longer trip to use the tunnel
compared with the existing ferry. Then it's some of the
roadwork that needs to be done. And I'm only offering
this for the purpose conversation. Hope people will pick up
on it all right. Highway one thirty eight Quebec. The estimate,
the estimate coming from ARAP and from the government of
Quebec itself, that completed project were costing the neighbor to

(14:37):
three billion dollars, which begs the question as to whether
or not Quebec they have been working on one thirty
eight is if they have the appetite for the full
completion to the tune of about three billion dollars? Does
this mean when we talk nation building and you can
have whatever definition in your mind if the Liberals say it.
I wonder a couple of things. The Premier Hogan in

(14:58):
the most recent Council of the Federation broach this particular
topic with the Prime Minister. Is it on the table?
Will it come to pass with say, for instance, Federal
Government Involvement Assistant financially speaking for me, the obvious next
step is to go out to find the tunnel building
companies for them to chime in here. It's one thing

(15:20):
for estimates to be provided by engineering companies like Hatch
and ARAP, but in the tunnel building world, to get
further down to brass tax about actual costs, who would
be involved, whether it be a P three or the
federal government has an equity stake, whatever it is. At
this point, we're just dealing with numbers as almost twenty
twenty three that probably need a little bit of TLC

(15:41):
if we're actually going to see any pragmatic approach to
this ever getting built, Whether or not you think that's
a good idea, we can take it on and talk
about some of the moving parts that we understand based
on the numbers we have add to it, regardless of
traffic volume, whether you follow hatches numbers or Arab's numbers,
not only one thirty eight in Quebec, but also the
highway network on the Great Northern Peninsula would need a

(16:02):
significant upgrade. Anyone who's driven on the GNP would know
exactly that. So I think it's a big topic and
remarkably getting along a lot of conversation. I think probably
spurred last week with the Marine Atlantic News and the
slash of pastor vehicle fees versus commercial fees, which have
not been caught and we can get into that if
you're so inclined, or a couple of randoms, how we

(16:24):
do it on the phone day, just a couple of
quickies before we get to so the cabinet severance issue,
which has been rescinded by the premiere, and there's lots
to discuss and to understand on that front. We do
know that one retiring cabinet minister has received the said payout,
and that's Andrew Persons. What we don't know is to
as I don't know anyway as to whether or not

(16:46):
he's been told to repaid or has repaid it, but
he should no matter what right, it should have never
happened in the first place. And things that have never
should have happened in the first place need to be addressed,
not only with presinding the potential for a transitional allowance,
but any money's out the door need to come back
in the door. I will put that out there. And

(17:06):
when we talked about Marine Atlantic, which is still an
excellent conversation to be had, what we don't hear, insofar
as I'll call it demands from the province is for
the federal government to offer coast Guard resources to Labrador
that somehow has gotten lost in the shuffle here. It's
a big deal. There's virtually non existent Coast Guard resources
in Labrador. And just think about the work that has

(17:28):
been done in the past, the rescue missions that have
been executed, There are recovery missions that have been executed.
Why has that not been back on the radar? You know,
we can talk about defense spending, whether it be with
Nora ad and Arctic sovereignty and opportunities for five wing Googles,
all important, but Coastguard has kind of gotten lost in
the shuffle. I'll put it back out there. In addition

(17:48):
to that, got some staunch defenders of artificial intelligence in
my email and social media, okay, which is fine. We
talk about the province of Quebec and their need for
more or whether it be for industrial applications, commercial applications,
whether that includes data centers of course, which would house
artificial intelligence. Very likely, it can be helpful, it could

(18:10):
be problematic. We give examples, like in the financial industry,
AI has made some of these things like you know,
a voice message to be left to transfer money in
your bank. AI can absolutely mimic that banks should not
even allowed any longer. We talk about the cognitive issues
regarding critical thinking and these large language models like chat GPT.
But here's what doesn't get discussed a whole lot is

(18:32):
the power consumption by artificial intelligence. It can be extraordinary.
A traditional data center consumes maybe ten megawatts, sum up
to one hundred megawatts. There's large facilities in this world
that consume three to five gigawatts of power. Five gigawats
of power is enough annual electricity consumption to power hundreds

(18:54):
of thousands of homes. So yes, it could be helpful
for the quick dissemination of data. The compilation of data
can be helpful in the healthcare arena. It's going to
replace jobs into the future, no question. But the amount
of power required really does beg the question as to
whether or not we really truly need as much artificial intelligence,
which is already a big part of our lives, whether

(19:15):
or not you realize it or see it and can
detect when you are looking at it. But the power
required is madness. I mean, one large facility can consume
enough powers to generate electricity for hundreds of thousands of homes.
I'll leave it up to you. We're on Twitter or
VOSM upline follows there, email addresses open LINEAFOSM dot com.

(19:35):
When we come back, we're talking to education. That's right
the summer months or a break for the students and
the teachers and administrators and staff, but this is when
their hard work has to get done so that we're
absolutely prepared for September and so that hopefully the system
gets improved, whether it be relations with the education accurt
or dealing with some of the systemic issues regarding the
downward trend and academic outcomes since two thousand and three,

(19:58):
violence in schools, chronic aps and teaism, whatever the case
may be. We're going to talk with the new president
at the NLTA. That's Dale Lamb. And then tons of
the shoulder for you don't go away, welcome back to
the show. Let's go to lie number two. Sign more
to the new president at the NLTA. That's Dale Lamb.
Good morning, Dale, you're on the air.

Speaker 3 (20:14):
Good morning Patty.

Speaker 4 (20:14):
How are you today?

Speaker 2 (20:15):
Couldn't be better? How about you?

Speaker 5 (20:17):
Very good?

Speaker 3 (20:18):
First off, I just want to say a special word
of thought to those that are battling the fires here
in the province. CBN Holy Rood CBS Central. As of
last night, the emergency responders, the firefighters who are involved
are mostly volunteers, so us here at the Association are
definitely thinking of you and our teachers.

Speaker 2 (20:42):
You're here Dale. Before we get into next steps for
the new incoming president, what's your background in the education system.

Speaker 3 (20:50):
I've got an extensive background education. I've had twenty seven
years in the system, classroom teacher first, then I moved
into administration, so i was voice principal for several years,
and I've been a principal since twenty thirteen. So I've
got lots of experience in advocating for students and most importantly,

(21:11):
advocating for teachers, because teachers, of course, if they're looked after,
then our provinces of students are looked after. So I've
been very passionate about my line of work, and that's
the background that I hope will serve me well for
the next couple of years.

Speaker 2 (21:27):
It's interesting how you spoke to advocacy there, you know,
for me, I try to think about that rationally. For me,
advocating for students is and possible for advocating for teachers,
is it? Because you know, the best we do for students,
the better. The outcomes are more resources for students, being easier,
not easier, but a more manageable workload for teachers. Am
I thinking about it in the right way? Or is

(21:48):
there a distinct difference between navocating for one or the other?

Speaker 5 (21:50):
No?

Speaker 3 (21:51):
I No, You're definitely on the right page, Patty. And
that's the philosophy that I got into advocacy all lungs
that when you support your teachers by creating positive work conditions,
then you're able to meet the needs of the children
in front of you. And teachers who are well cared
for translates to students who are well cared for.

Speaker 5 (22:09):
So my goal over.

Speaker 3 (22:11):
The next two years to continue to work on the
association in working very hard to improve those work conditions
and to build upon the build upon the improvements that
we've already experienced.

Speaker 2 (22:24):
I'm not even sure we're to start here this morning,
because I try to bring education up frequently and hopefully
more people take it on because I look, I used
to say to Trent Langdon and presidents before him, you
know when the elector or a polled around election time,
what are the matters most important to you? Healthcare and
crime and the environment and all the jobs and taxes.
If we had education at number one, the other things

(22:44):
would for the most part, you know, not to oversimplify,
things would take care of themselves a little easier than
they do today. So where would you like to start?
Because I talked about chronic aps andeism and violence and
academic outcomes and the education the court. So you pick
a starting point and I'll follow along.

Speaker 3 (22:59):
Well, mentioned like one of the top priorities to build
on the gains the Association has made when it comes
to improving working conditions, But we really do need to
be looking at retention and recruitment of our teachers. There
was a recent announcement and the last budget of four
hundred new positions in the system, so you know, we
need to make sure that those positions are filled and

(23:21):
my priority now is to look at how those are
deployed and how they're best going to serve our teachers
in the system. So, like retention, recruitment is very big.
I've already addressed the work conditions and you've hit on
a couple of points there. You know, school attendance a
very very important issue. As an administrator, I know that
a lot of work is being done by our school

(23:42):
administrators on trying to maintain student connection to the school system.
So as a result of that, you know, experience that
will hopefully serve me well as I advocate for students
to attend, because if students aren't attending, makes it difficult
for teachers to do the work. You're going to end
up with students who are not in the system, as
you just alluded to, that are going to be contributing

(24:05):
to more negative part of our society. So you know,
I will start with work conditions, but work conditions and
retaintion recruitment are certainly part and parisil of one another.

Speaker 2 (24:15):
Yeah, they're handling glove for me and chronic aps teas
and people might roll their eyes when I talk about
it as much as I do, but the stats are clear.
If you're chronically absent from school in grade six, seventy
five percent of those kids never graduate high school, which
is a problem in the modern world. Not to say
that everyone's going to go to university after in the
aftermath of the K to twelve system, but that creates
a huge problem. Let's talk about recruiting and retention because

(24:38):
it's very similar to the healthcare conversation because it's not
a one size fits all. Every single year we talk
about trouble to recruit teachers, say for instance, in Labrador
or more remote world. Parts of the problems for a
couple of things, access to amenities, travel, housing. So how
do you craft a model for recruiting and retention here
because it's really more complic just the two hours.

Speaker 3 (25:02):
Yeah, and it really does come down to some things
that are already coming out, you know, partnerships with the
Memorial University here in the province, uh, you know, rural cohorts,
making sure that you know, if you do have talent
in your community as a rural rural school, that you
try to secure those people and make sure that they're

(25:22):
recruited right away so that they can stay connected to
their school community. So there's a there's a lot of
effort that needs to be made. But one thing that
you know that has come up is the importance of mentorships.
And mentorships are very important to keep people in the
positions that they attain. And there's a lot of you know,

(25:42):
the majority of teachers are passionate about their work. They
want to do extremely well. So as a result of that,
you know, connect the younger teachers who are just coming
into the profession with those mentors, to keep them connected
to as I said, already the community and also to
the profession.

Speaker 2 (26:01):
Fair enough, just a couple of quick, maybe random ones
before we were out of time, and that I'll let
you have the floor, is you know, talk about the administrators,
what the work they're doing with kids who are not
in school, And one day or another, for me, it's
always been, you know, a question of why are you
not in school? And I'm not so sure we have
a real good understanding of why every kid missed the school. Look,
I mean, you might have the sniffles, your folks who
might take you to Disney, you might be at a

(26:21):
hockey throne, whatever the case may be. But for other
underbelly issues like violence at home and transportation or poverty
or whatever it might be, that requires departments outside the
Department of Education do also play an active role as
opposed to the silos that government operates in.

Speaker 3 (26:37):
And Patty, you're absolutely right when you say that. Like
anybody who's worked with me, they've heard me talk about
the puzzle, and the puzzle needs to come together for
the youth of our problems and that means justice, health, education.
We all need to come together in order to address
those needs. School attendance has gone down since COVID, and

(26:57):
you know, people have been prioritizing on things over education.
Before called education was paramount. It was you had to
go to school. So you know, when it comes to
making sure that things are looked after in society, the
puzzle does need to come together, and education is just
one piece. Everyone needs to be on the same page.

Speaker 2 (27:17):
Absolutely, Educational Court. You know, like the ten year roadmap
for the healthcare system, there were not entertaining one for
the education system. Some of the initial reports have been
out there. Your initial takeaways because for me, I'm not
a teacher, but we're talking about really tailoring the curriculum
to individual students, which sounds like a lot of work.
I understand the background of why that could be very beneficial.

(27:40):
But your initial takeaways on the Education Court and your
relationship pro doctor is Burke and good now.

Speaker 3 (27:45):
And you know I was a part of the Education
Accord in meetings president the past President Langdon offered that
opportunity to do me as vice president, and anytime you
have an opportunity to contribute to something, that's groundbreaking or
that's going to change things. You need to make sure
that your voice is there. My initial take on the accord,

(28:06):
you know, once the cord is finalized, i'll offer that,
But what I will say is that it's not going
to work on lest all parties are on the same page.
And the other thing is is that the professional learning
needs to be offered for province's teachers. So if you're
talking about groundbreaking changes in curriculum, about individualized instruction, then

(28:27):
the teachers need to be trained for that, and they
need to be able to, you know, adequately meet the
needs of the learners based on the on the recommendations
of that group.

Speaker 2 (28:39):
Yeah, fair enough. I'm really interested, and we've had both
of the good doctors on and we'll get them back
just prior to September to see where we are. Final
thoughts to you, Dale, anything else you'd like to add.

Speaker 3 (28:49):
I guess Patty, I really appreciate this opportunity and I
do listen often, if not regularly all the time. But
you have been a very big advocate for education, and
I've listen to the contents of what you've shared. I
will say, class size and complexity, it's a very significant
issue for our teachers right now, which are contributing to
working conditions. When it comes to you know, the needs

(29:13):
of students today, they're fire graded than when I entered
professional twenty seven years ago. So when you know efforts
are being made to lower class sizes, that needs to
be celebrated.

Speaker 5 (29:23):
But we as an.

Speaker 3 (29:24):
Association need to continue that pushing that strive towards excellence
for our teachers, which, as I said, will be excellence
for our students.

Speaker 2 (29:32):
I said, I was going to let you go that
was a lot. Class size and class composition are two
really different matters there. Inclusive education makes all the sense
in the world. But if we're simply just putting all
the children under the one roof does not equal inclusive education.
The model does not work. Where should we go specifically
with it?

Speaker 3 (29:50):
And Patty, you know, as I go into my term,
you'll hear more about my thoughts on that. What I
will say is that inclusive education, you know, it fundamentally
very very principally sound, you know, looking after needs of
all students, but that needs to be adequately resourced as well.

Speaker 5 (30:07):
In order for it to work.

Speaker 3 (30:09):
So when it comes to you know, my thoughts on
inclusive education. I'm all about, you know, especially as a principal,
all about inclusion of all students, but it needs to
be adequately resourced with human resources in order for it
to work.

Speaker 2 (30:22):
Really appreciate your time, Dale, good luck as you're in
your two year tenure as the president. You're always welcome
on the show.

Speaker 3 (30:28):
Excellent, Thank you very much, Patty, have a great day.

Speaker 2 (30:30):
The same to you. Bye bye, bye bye. Haste Lam
the new president at the NLTA. When we come back,
we're talking about the wildfire, some of the restictioners that
are in place in this province and some of the
measures been taken around the country. Don't go away, welcome
back to the show. Just quick travel advisory. So we've
been told that there's two dead moose just east of
Ronolds covet So if you're heading in the same John's

(30:51):
heading towards Ronald coll Now there's one dead moose on
the left side of the highway, one dead moose on
the right side of the highway, so it could be
a snaril and like always take your time, keep your people.
Two dead most just east of Arnold's Cove on the highway.
Let's go to line number three, Cory around the air.
Good morning, Patty, good warning.

Speaker 6 (31:10):
I just wanted to get the conversation started with the
band that Nova Scotia came down with. I'm one of
the residents of the evacuated town, a small point broad
Cost Blackhead, Adams Cove. If we don't keep people out
of the woods, this is going to happen again. In
our community. There's a strong feeling collectively that these have
been set on purpose. But without going into that conversation

(31:32):
too much, even if they're not being set out purpose,
just being up there can create a situation where it
could possibly happen again completely by accident. We'ld asked that
someone from our government reach out perhaps to this program,
to speak to Newfoundland is considering a one thousand dollars
fine for starting with fires is not deterring a twenty

(31:53):
five thousand dollars fine just for being caught in the woods.
That might wait people up, even if we did it
by district rather than the entire province or just the island,
just the CBN area. But I just want to get
that conversation started. Everyone in my community is erified, and
we even if we do get to go back home
and still have a home. We know this is going

(32:14):
to happen again. We've had nine since May. The RCMP
advice yesterday. They're not even aware of the numbers, so
they're asking us to call it in no matter how
small it is. Yeah, that's it.

Speaker 2 (32:26):
Let's just go down through what they've done in Nova Scotia.
So basically, hiking, camping, fishing, and the use of vehicles
in the woods not permitted. Trail systems through the woods
off limits, camping only allowed in campgrounds. Okay, a couple
of things for starters. How you actually enforce this is
a very tricky question because there's a lot of woods

(32:46):
and trails in this problems at in Nova Scotia. I
would suggest secondly, like if I'm walking down the trail
with my dog with no lighters, no intention on having
a fire, really no capacity for me to start a fire.
Things like that is where people will say, well, what
are we really doing here? If we're trying to investigate

(33:06):
folks who maybe purposefully set these wildfires, of course law
enforcement has to investigate and hopefully catch them and prosecute
them and imprison them. So how about just those very
innocuous recreational activities down the trail to pict some berries
down the trail with the dog. How do you how
do you navigate or balance those types of activities with
other potentially dangerous activities.

Speaker 6 (33:29):
Yeah, and I was speaking with my family the last
couple of days and thought to myself, you know what,
as soon as we have a fireban, we should have
an ATV ban. Just thinking about you know, you got
spark wrestlers not working properly. You've got a you know,
three hundred and four hundred degree muffler going through high
high grass that's brown. But I think what Nova Scotia
did is just you know what, this is getting out

(33:52):
of hand. Everyone's lawn is crunchy, the moss and the
woods is crunchy. Let's just keep everyone out of there
for now. They're going all the way to October again.
I'm not saying to follow one hundred percent suit. I
don't know about berry pickers, but if there's no one
in there, we're mitigating a risk. And a lot of
my friends have lost their houses, their homes. Thankfully, as

(34:16):
of the last time I heard, no one has been
hurt yet. You know the old saying you play with
fire long enough, someone is going to.

Speaker 5 (34:23):
Get hurt or worse.

Speaker 6 (34:24):
This is not going to stop, and I just want
to get the conversation started. I understand. I listen, we
have an ATV. I don't spend a whole lot of
time on it, but we're always in the woods. We're
avid trouders, we're always on bicycles, we're always hiking, we're
very pickers, we're always always on those trails. But so what,
it's just too it's just too hot. There's too many

(34:46):
of these, and you know, it's not going to be
the popular decision. It's a big boy decision. None of
them are nice to make. Like I said, you know, people,
I'm walking my dog all the time. If I had
to walk my dog just around the community and not
in the trails, and so be it, I'm willing to
do that. You know, it's annoying to have to brush

(35:06):
your teeth. It's annoying to have to wear a mask
that we had to do for years. It's annoying to
have to wear a seatbelt. But so what, we're mitigating
the risk. You know, maybe if.

Speaker 7 (35:16):
It's just ATVs.

Speaker 6 (35:18):
Side by science, what have you. But then if these
are being purposely set, who's to stop someone from grabbing
a basket saying, Oh, I'm just going up to pick
a few berries and then we got another fire.

Speaker 2 (35:27):
I understand.

Speaker 4 (35:27):
I know if everyone the hell out of the woods.

Speaker 2 (35:29):
I only ask the questions based on your wanting to
provoke the conversation. That's kind of where my mind is.
And for folks I don't have the radio about government
to overreach and all the rest of it, Maybe just
maybe put yourself in the shoes or the circumstance for
someone who's living with these fires, repeated fires in their backyard,
people who have lost their homes. There is a real
extreme risk here. So I'm not suggesting one thing or another,

(35:50):
but we can and we should understand the risk. And
everybody listened to the program. Even if you love getting
on the quad and getting into a certain spot in
the woods, you know full will that you is the
most conscientious ATV operator in Canada. But that spark coming
from your tailpipe is really nothing you can control necessarily,
And you're right, the crunch on your foot is just

(36:11):
very apparent. All have to do is walk across anybody's
lawn unless they've got one of these lush, green lawns,
which I don't know how they accomplish. That is, it's
dry out there, folks, So we all owe to each
other and just think about the folks on the ground
and in the air trying to combat these fires, and
what they're doing, and what the communities are feeling like,
and how the suffering has been pretty widespread this year
right across Canada, maybe more so than the years past. Corey,

(36:33):
I'll give you the final thoughts sir before we say goodbye.

Speaker 6 (36:36):
Okay, my final thought on it is, while the police
are doing a great job, there is a very low
police presence. It's a reactive presence more than proactive. And
that's just just because of the resources that are available.
They can't have people just sitting up in the woods
waiting for everybody. So there is a real concern in
our community of the possibility of vigilanteism, which is a

(36:58):
horrible thought, but people are on it. As you said,
people are emotions are at an all time high. So
I'm just hoping that we can all get the conversations
started and agree to really implement some effective decisions. Thank
you very much for your time.

Speaker 2 (37:12):
I appreciate yours. Corey, be well you too, Thank you. Bye. Bye. Yeah. Look,
I even included those remarks about what's happening in Nova
Scochh off the top of the program. And again, like Corey,
like me is provoking the conversation about just what we
have to do for our own personal responsibility to make
sure nothing that I do our purpose are otherwise or

(37:34):
inadvertently leads to one of these fires. It's just too devastating.
It's easy enough if, like, for instance, thankfully for now,
knock on wood, there's no wildfire burning clothes by where
I live. That puts me in my home and my
family and jeopardy, thankfully and hopefully never does come to pass.
But for folks who are live in it, that's the
reality today. Obviously their minds would be going in different

(37:54):
directions than others who are not living around these fires
or have been evacuated from the home that could be
lost to wildfire. So what we need to do, Let's
just hope that we don't find ourselves in a place
where government does intervene any further. I mean, that's one
thing we can do in so far as the envelope
of personal responsibility goes, the better we think about it,

(38:18):
the more risk averse we are individually hopefully lessons or
decreases the possibility for the government to take further action
on this front. So let's all just do our level best.
Let's see here, let's take a break, don't go away. Welcome
back to the show. Let's go to line number one.
Sacod more to the gentleman's seeking the precrisi of Conservative
nomination in the voting district of Mount SiO. That's Wayne

(38:39):
Tips morning. Wayne, you're on the air.

Speaker 7 (38:41):
Good morning, Patty.

Speaker 2 (38:42):
How are you this morning? Very well? Thank you for asking.
How about you?

Speaker 5 (38:46):
I'm good busy.

Speaker 7 (38:47):
Of course, before I do that, you're announce what I'm doing.
I'm trying for the Mount Sire nomination for the PC party.
But it was yours today while I was on my
campaign that got called to help evacuate some of the
people who hold Hollywood and you were talking about the fires,
and I tell you something that is really really hard.

(39:08):
When those people got to be evacuated, there's people that
were crying from their homes to the place they had
to go, and nobody wants to see that. So we
all pay attention to what we're doing to them. We
should be able to protect everybody.

Speaker 2 (39:20):
Like that fair ball. I've got a friend who's displaced
right now, evacuated, and they're scared, and I understand why.

Speaker 7 (39:29):
Yes, and they are scared. And when you see it's
heartbreaking when you see that those people that are that
have lived in homes for years and years and years
and now and when they might have to go back
to nothing. You know, hopefully that doesn't happen to any
one of us, and if it does happen, I hope
the present present government will jump in and help as
much as they can. Anyway, getting back to my nomination,

(39:49):
I'm taking nomination for us from outside district and I
think I'm unnew to politics, so a fresh face, I
think is always good to have.

Speaker 2 (40:00):
You've got a.

Speaker 7 (40:01):
Lot of new ideas and the things that you'd like
to like to see happened. So I just let everybody
know that I'm out there looking for their nomination, and
that's going to take place on Tuesday next week at
four to eight at the tabernavill on Camut Road.

Speaker 2 (40:20):
Is there anybody else chasing the nomination for the PC's
a Mountsile.

Speaker 7 (40:23):
Yes, there is. There's a fellowman named Darryl. He's out
there trying.

Speaker 4 (40:28):
To So that's just two of us.

Speaker 7 (40:31):
So that's why we need to.

Speaker 2 (40:32):
Have a vote. I guess absolutely, so, I guess that's
Daryl Hines. I did see that float by, Yes.

Speaker 7 (40:36):
Yes, yes, Darryl Hines. Yes, sorry, And so that's that's
what we're doing, both out campaigning and I'm going knocking
on doors and after I get off the phone with
you and see if I can't thrum up some of.

Speaker 2 (40:50):
My support, where are your priorities in Mount Sisleway, Well.

Speaker 7 (40:54):
There's a there's an awful lot of things in Mount
Side that needs help with. Of course, we got the
health carry up there that we got to hostle in
that district, and I think we're going to get the
new hospital will probably be going up from that district's
going to replace the players, So that's always good. The
other thing too, you can't touch enough to find of crime,

(41:15):
I mean crime in that in districts Now is taking
over and we've got to pay attention to all that.
Matter of fact, four o'clock this morning, someone came to
my property and that might I do have cameras somewe
at home and that's the stourage, but they were going around.
So I reported that to the air and see and
hope hopefully they got out and they nabbed the fellars

(41:37):
that was trying to breaking occurs.

Speaker 2 (41:40):
Yeah, they're working our neighborhood. Feels like every single night
on that front. You know, when we talk about public
safety and when people are pulled in the city and
around the province, public safety and feeling less safe is
a pretty popular sentiment. So is it as fundamental as
hiring more police officers or what are the other layers?
Because I think it's it's a bit more complicated and
simply hire more cops.

Speaker 7 (42:00):
I think so too, Patty. I think that we should
have a lot more neighborhood groups that are watching our
neighbors properties and stuff like that. And someone late this
morning now when someone came up on my camera, I've
reported to the police. So that should happen with everybody.
Because if you stop them from breaking into one care,
you're doing something and scouraging them from coming into next time,

(42:22):
because I mean that they always come back. I mean
they don't, you know, they get a slap on the
hand for doing stuff and then their back again. But
is the more you catch them the more it's going
to determine.

Speaker 2 (42:32):
Yeah, absolutely, one hundred percent, and you know that's the
issue regarding some of that's really kind of federal conversation
about the type of punishment for whatever type of crime.
Waiting anything else you'd like to talk about this morning.

Speaker 7 (42:44):
Well, going back to the fires again, Patty, I think
this province needs to really step forward individually and make
sure that they don't cause any of those fires. You know,
tourism here in Newfland is a big business. Is one
point four billion dollars I think brings in annually, and
you know, there's so much you can lose if we
destroy our problems with just negligence. So I'm hoping everybody

(43:08):
who's going to get out and vote for me if
they have any information there. I do have a Facebook
account now no, in fact, I'm I'm new to social
media to Penny, So I'm doing my best to get
out there.

Speaker 2 (43:22):
Well, I'm not going to say that you're better off
without it, because of course you need it when you're
trying to connect with people as a potential candidate. So
I wish good luck on the campaign trail leaning into
the nomination vote next week. Thank you, Wayne, Thank you
very much. Dy my pleasure, Bye bye. That's way. He's
looking for the vc NOD to represent the party and
the upcoming election, whether it be honor before the fourteenth

(43:43):
of October of this year. Let's keep going. Let's go
to line number two. Charlie, you're on the air.

Speaker 8 (43:48):
Yeah, good morning, Patty, Good morning to you. I'll try
not too to ramble on this first thought. I was
out picking berrys this morning, six six o'clock, raspberries in
a back garden, and the smoke was pretty bad. I
guess from southerly wind that would drive them from the avalon. Anyway,
I got to thinking. I remember Shirley McClain one time.

(44:11):
I was reading one of her books, and she said,
when I go to a party, I try to find
one person that I can talk to, because parties bored
a hell over me. And if I can find one
person to talk to, I have a pretty good night.
And I guess they got me reflecting on how we

(44:33):
live our day to day lives. You can, of course
talk to talk to people who always doomsayers. This guy
is falling kind of thing. I guess the majority that
we talked to would be a small talk daily health
problems and whatever. But I was kind of reflecting this summer,

(44:55):
I was seeing fires, floods, and you name it, and
and you even got some nuclear saber rattling with Russia
and the United States. And I think it seems like
it has to hit a home. I mean, people who
are losing their homes with fire this year or being

(45:15):
evacuated and so on. Last election, these problems, environmental problems
didn't even rank in the top five. And it's like
in the summer we finally realized how fragile everything is,
with dryness and forest fires and hurricanes and so on.

(45:40):
I don't know if you if you want to comment
on this, but sometimes I think we're a very strange
species and I've often said we live in a bubble.
I don't know if you want to comment or not.

Speaker 2 (45:51):
Well, I think a lot of people operate and I
hate often generalizations, but I'll give a shout here. A
lot of people operate in a three foot window right
unless it has a direct impact on their lives, then
they maybe don't give it much in the way of consideration,
which is I guess, in the busy world and the
pressures that we're all facing and the other moving parts

(46:13):
in their complex life. I get where that comes from.
But if we're talking about things like shared responsibility, if
we're talking about broad strokes of government policy, it might
not impact you directly today, but it might tomorrow. So
give them some thought to some of these big, complicated
world issues is not a waste of time. Even if
it hasn't going to interrupt your what you have or

(46:35):
what time you eat supper tonight or what time you
get up toward morning, they all indirectly do have an
impact no matter what we're talking about. Like really, truly,
it's a very small world. So it might feel like
it's not something that you need to worry about, but
it may deed complicate other tangents in your life, which
you may or may not realize it. But those big
life issues are having an impact. So it's just I

(47:00):
hate being, you know, fashion people's character because you know,
people listening have different worries and thoughts and goals in
this world. But the world is so small that no
matter what we're talking about, it has some impact on you,
whether you realize it or not.

Speaker 8 (47:14):
Well, I like the way you explain that. I was thinking,
all you need is a guy like Putin to say
I better strike first there push a button because he's
crazy or he's in the mood and we're all gone.
But anyway, thanks, thanks for that, Patty, and that makes
me feel a little better.

Speaker 2 (47:35):
Just one second, Charlie, because I'm trying to put a
new good foot forward here. Let me take a break
for the news. I'll put you on how we'll come
back and you can speak to agriculture, which I think
is what you called about.

Speaker 8 (47:45):
Yes, okay, let's do that.

Speaker 2 (47:47):
Let's take a break for the news. I'll go back.
Charlie's in the queue and then lots of time for you.
Don't go away back to the show. Let's go to
line number two and rejoin Charlie. Charlie, you're back on
the air.

Speaker 8 (47:58):
Okay. Just a quick note our premium see you have
a nickname Joanne John.

Speaker 2 (48:10):
I don't know.

Speaker 8 (48:12):
On CPC this morning Early Morning show talked about the
fires on it in ninety two in newphon Land and
it said premier Yoann. I had to look twice John.
He made the comment that it was his story proportions
or something right. Where would they get Yoann? I wonder?

Speaker 2 (48:32):
I don't know. It's either someone just putting some a
mistyped word into the scroll that the newsreader was just
referring to. But that's a strange thing to say.

Speaker 8 (48:43):
Yeah, that's not very close to John Hogan, is it.

Speaker 5 (48:45):
No, it is not, Patty.

Speaker 8 (48:49):
I was listening to your conversation regarding firm, Sam, and
I've always had mixed feelings on it because I can
see both both sides, right me too.

Speaker 2 (48:57):
Look, I mean it's part of the foods chain in
this world. People need protein. I understand all of that stuff.
And it's funny how it look. And I know I've
been doing this long time. People kind of hear what
they want here sometimes. I basically just said that, with
the well documented trends of warming waters, if that's been
one of the causes for the mass mortality, I wonder
what the future of the industry looks like. That's all.

Speaker 8 (49:17):
Yeah, I thought that was a good comment. I got
into reading a little bit about what was happening out
in BC and they talked about sea lice out there.
Apparently they treat the fish with a substance I thought
it was hydrogen peroxide or it was close to it,
and they give them a bathe them down in that
and of course that stresses the fish and they probably

(49:39):
die sometimes and then it's dumped into the ocean. And
I thought, I wonder if they'd use the same practice
in Newfoundland to get rid of sea lice. You wouldn't know,
would you.

Speaker 2 (49:49):
Well, I don't know if they use hydrogen peroxide specifically.
I do know about the use of antibiotics. I do
know that they're trying to introduce more lumpfish to combat
the sea life in these fin farm fin fish farm operations.
But hydrogen peroxide, basically, what I know about that is
people can use it for their dental health by switching

(50:10):
it in their mouth. We also used to use it
before we went to the Florida to blank our hair blant.

Speaker 8 (50:15):
Yeah, I just comment on the South coast rivers. I
know the Calm rivers come up a lot because of
the almost North salmon going up there, But some of
the rivers I know of down there are still healthy
and there seemed to be no effect over the years
of farm salmon on the use. That's more on the
Southwest Coast than talking about anyway. Just just want to

(50:38):
make comment on that. The last thing I want to
say was on go Lil. I don't know if people
been reading up on this but the MoU. I hope
it's going to be a real election issue, and I
hope that that that that the PCs are going to
really look into this and and force some kind of

(50:59):
deeper discussion on it. It's Patty, I'll say again, it's
a bad, bad deal. And it took me a while
to to come around to that. But the more I
studied it, the more I realized, this is, this is
not a good deal for New for Man overall.

Speaker 2 (51:14):
You know, give us a couple of reasons as to why,
I'm sorry, give us a couple of reasons as to
why it's not a good deal, just for conversation.

Speaker 8 (51:23):
There's there's, there's a number. I didn't list them down,
But the overall thing with who was getting the most
out of it in terms of the dollar benefit to
me greatly benefits Cook Quebec, the same as the sixty
nine deal, like not quite as bad as that. What
Danny was talking about rates being fixed and so on,

(51:45):
I thought he was off base, But in essence that's
that's what happens. And then New for Man I drove
and a New Forlan government going to be left with
a huge debt for the This is these transmission lines
that they have to build, and then there's the environment
assessment that they need to do that seems like they're skipping.

(52:05):
So that's just some of them, but overall it seems
like Quebec is benefiting way more than Newfoundlanders, which reminds
me again of the nineteen sixty nine deal, you know.

Speaker 2 (52:16):
Yeah, now, the whole fixed price thing, you know, So
for market elasticity, that is something that we absolutely need
to consider. On the path of these definitive agreements. There
is escalator clauses. The power will be getting more and
more expensive for hydro Quebec over the course of this term,
whether or not the term is too long that we
can talk about that as well. And overall benefits like

(52:37):
for instance, debt on transmission lines. Suppose we were going
this alone. Let's just use hypotheticals, because that's all we
really have to go with. If we were going this
alone aka muskrat Falls, we were always going to go
into debt to build anything, So that point being made,
and it's made repeatedly. I understand why. But if anything
is going to get built, then we don't have any

(52:58):
money in everything. We were gonna have to borrow, so
The debt is predictable regardless if hydro Qubec has involved
or hydro Manitoba, or would they go with a loan
or we getting better before this, like whatever the case
would be, there's always going to be a debt incurred.
The one point that people make all the time that
I really don't know what role it could even play
in negotiations is how much we pay for power today?

(53:18):
For how much they pay in Quebec. So what are
we like fourteen point twenty five cents per killoot our
Quebec on average, because they have rolling numbers on average
about eight cents. How does that even get incorporated into
that negotiation because we brought our own problem to the table,
no doubt in my mind, Hydro Quebec or the Province
of Qubec is not going to say, oh, well, let's
lower your rates because they don't have anything to do
with my rates. So at that point, I don't really

(53:40):
get what people where people are coming from.

Speaker 8 (53:42):
But how about you, I don't don't. I don't buy
that point at all. I think that's a totally different,
different discussion. But I'd like to see that the projects separated.
As Gay pointed out, this is a real finanswer with
the prison Churchill Falls and upgrade there, we should be
looking at at at Goal Island some of some of

(54:05):
the other stuff they've talked about. Totally separate from that
because it's a cash cow, and I don't think we're
we're we're we're getting our share of that cash talk.

Speaker 2 (54:17):
I appreciate the time, Charlie, thanks for doing it.

Speaker 8 (54:19):
Okay, thank you, so welcome, bye bye.

Speaker 2 (54:21):
We're going to take a break early because when we
come back from the break, we are going to take
some of the news conference being held by Premier Hogan
regarding the wildfires. Don't go away, Welcome back to the program. Well,
we're anticipating taking remarks from Premier Hogan this morning regarding
the wildfires. We don't know what he's going to announce,
but we'll soon find out. Like most government press conferences,
they're delayed. So this one was scheduled for ten fifteen
has not yet started. So Tony's in the queue to

(54:43):
talk about the fixed link. Go looking forward to speak
with Tony Power. He's a trucker who listens to the show.
I communicate with Tony on social media all the time,
so you hang tough Tony while we wait for Premier
Hogan and we'll see what we hear about the wildfires
here this morning. So a couple of quick shout out.
So we talked about folks on the ground who are
professional firefighters, you know, and then the volunteer firefighters and
the folks who are operating the helicopters and the water

(55:06):
bombers as pilots, and we talk about the good work
they are doing and keep it up and be careful.
Then we talk about, you know, communities who are opening
their arms to welcome those who've been evacuated, Organizations like
the Red Cross who are doing what they can, Salvation Army,
we're doing what they can. But let's give it also
a special shout out to those who are working for
Avalon Ground Search and Rescue in Holywood. They're working the fire.

(55:27):
So a lot of people offered to helping disasters happen.
But of course folks like Avalon Ground Search and Rescue
offer that kind of support, whether we're talking about looking
for a lost hiker or berry picker, and in this
case the wildfires. So I'll go through a couple of
messages coming directly from the group. If you want to
support your local search and Rescue team. Please consider donating

(55:48):
to the team. This helps with extra training and equipment,
which makes things run smoother during emiergency situations. To have
adequate training and equipment makes these incidents run like clockwork.
It's hard to talk about using volunteers to help an
emerge because they're not trained, they're not covered by inshorance
or workplace in l Instead, they have to take their
own chances, assess their own risks, and proceed as they

(56:09):
see fit. Everyone as they say. This has been a
very common rally phrase, especially during the pandemic. Everyone's in
this together, so please obey and respect directions given by
search and rescue volunteers who are doing the door knocks
and or the roadblocks. And of course they are just
the messengers. And as the old saying goes, don't shoot
the messenger. So they're volunteering. They're bringing forward messages that

(56:29):
were given to them by folks like the Saint John's
Regional Fire Department and the department responsible at the provincial level.
So big thanks to everyone who's involved for Street RCNP,
the r and C, Newfland Labor Health Service, Essential avalon
Ground Search and Rescue, River Search and Rescue Canada, Red
Cross Salvation, I we Town of Holywood, Talent, CBS and others.
So they've also been asking people, if you don't live

(56:51):
in CBS, please stay away from CBS for all the
reasons imaginable. Do we have any idea based on the
visuals whether or not the premier is there? All right,
haven't even got the screen yet, so they're always late,
so we'll have to wait on them. Let's go to
line number three. Good morning, Tony, you're on the air.

Speaker 4 (57:08):
Good morning, Katy.

Speaker 5 (57:09):
How are you?

Speaker 2 (57:10):
That's kind about you, Tony?

Speaker 4 (57:11):
Oh, we're hanging in there, good man.

Speaker 2 (57:13):
Listen quick, heads up. If the premier jumps in while
we're still talking, I'm going to have to cut this off,
put you on hold, will come back. How's that sounds
good to me?

Speaker 5 (57:20):
Sir?

Speaker 2 (57:20):
Okay, buddy, where do you want to start?

Speaker 9 (57:22):
Well, everybody's talking about the fix clinked. I guess there
yesterday in well, probably older the past few days now.
I guess since Marina Atlantigas announced cutting the fees for
passenger traffic, there's more to it than I guess. Putting
a tunnel across the Gulf, you still got across the
Saint Lawrence no matter where you want to go, either
in Tata'zac on the Quebec sode to get up the

(57:43):
north shore Quebec to one thirty eighth or you got
across from Bay Home across the Saint Lawrence back to
Maten if you want to go to to Brunswick.

Speaker 4 (57:51):
Right, So this will add time to a trip. Like
to travel by truck, it would add pretty.

Speaker 9 (58:00):
Well twenty four to thirty six hours because we're limited
on what we can drive to cross that with us
heavy loads.

Speaker 4 (58:07):
Like there's hills if if you're.

Speaker 9 (58:08):
Heading out of Quebec and want to come down that
way once you get the Saint Andrew bro Prey, like
there's hills in there. Man, you can solve three cigarettes
from top to bottom. They're you so obviously they'll reduce
our time. The facilities is one thing on both sides,
like the New Fland side and Quebec side. In guards
to the tunnel, I'd like to see the tunnel for
the people of the Labrador. They wouldn't be less tossage.

(58:32):
You'd be like the Confederation Breeche the po they could
leave at any time.

Speaker 2 (58:38):
Yeah. So one of the big questions and you're a
man who's on the road. You're a truck driver. If
you are like I don't know where you go. I
see you post from different areas where you're doing drops
and doing pickups all over the place. But the concept
of driving that additional distance to catch the tunnel versus
even having to wait at the ferry tunin US and
then to wait as you cross the strait, is that

(58:59):
based on your understanding of what you would do, and
your fellow truck drivers would more and more take the
opportunity to drive up and take that link if indeed
one thirty eight was complete, if indeed the great Northern
plaints of the highway network was where it needs to be.
So that's the basic question. Would you do it?

Speaker 9 (59:13):
Some probably would to avoid Marine Atlantic because the some
people out there just got a pure heat for a
lack of a better term. Personally, I would not take
it unless there was you know, Dollar straits, because I'll
be burning extra fuel for the hill train to train
in there. Then you got to look at the springtime
of the era on the southern Labrador, when you get

(59:34):
to freezing fog with the snow and everything, the roads
are shut down. You get the windy conditions, the slat
of open country. There's no difference. Like we're on and island.
We got water and tree sots. Qubecca's on the other
we don't have a lot of options to get on
or off and like to travel that in a truck.

Speaker 4 (59:52):
To me, it will be my last resort.

Speaker 2 (59:56):
Yeah, I mean, and that's not a trip that I
would make very off in my entire lifetime. And I
haven't driven off of the island since I drove onto
the island in two thousand, So I'm not speaking from
a whole lot of personal spirits here, which is why
I'm glad you are calling. So, like I read some
of the numbers earlier about you could indeed save time

(01:00:16):
if you were coming from Winnipeg or Quebec City, but
not if you're coming from Halifax or from what does
they say, Boston? So what's your message to folks out
there who are thinking about and talking about it? I
think it's worthy of discussion because we've been kicking this
around for seventy years, So what's your message out there?
How should we be thinking about this?

Speaker 9 (01:00:35):
In your opinion, Tony, I think it should be shoting
that should be looked at and seriously looked at, not
babble about your election times or election promises or feasibility studies.
You know, take the visibility study money and put it
into sophomor Wall. Yes, it would benefit, like I said,
especially for the people of Labrador.

Speaker 4 (01:00:52):
They can leave there, come to the all in part.
They come here now they have to fly with outrageous charges.
You know. For medical autonomous they can leave jumping their vehicle.
Within a day. They can be here.

Speaker 2 (01:01:04):
Tony, just one second, I'm going to have to put
you on whole quickly. We're going to take the premier.
I'll come back with you. Okay, buddy, there we go.
Tony's on hold.

Speaker 10 (01:01:11):
So first I'll start this morning again by just sending
their extreme thanks and gratitude to everyone who's involved in
the emergency response throughout the province right now. Volunteers, humanitarian
support organizations or aircraft pilots, officials in the Department of Forestry,
all the local fire departments who've stepped up. The's a

(01:01:32):
career and volunteer firefighters from communities across the province, as
well as the firefighting equipment that they're using and stepping
up offering help across the province right now. It's a
tremendous benefit that we have all these individuals who are
willing to step up at this very difficult time and
dangerous time, and it's very difficult work. So I do
want to thank everybody for their continued efforts. Also a

(01:01:53):
huge thank you to New Brunswick. As I said yesterday,
they provided a bird dog and they will be sending
today three more aircrafts to our province and they're called
air Tractor eight zero twos, so that will certainly help
with suppression efforts across the island when they arrive. Just
when we're talking about assets from across the province, So
everybody across the country, I should say, so everybody is

(01:02:15):
aware there's almost eight hundred fires burning across the country
right now and that's six point eight million hectares have
been burned to date. So it is a testament to
how busy the season is, not only in Newfouland and
Labrador but across the country. And of course, as I
said yesterday, it is all hands on deck and there
has been a tremendous effort by government departments and our

(01:02:36):
community partners, but individuals, again I will stress across the
province have a role to play throughout the remainder of
this fire season. Last night here in Saint John's our
local fire department had to respond to three reports of
bonfires last night. This is on the same day that
Minister Dempster announced the provincial fireban. So I can't stress
enough how important it is for everybody to pay attention

(01:02:58):
to the rules in place firebans right now. We also
have looked at our legislation and our regulations regarding fines
in the event that someone does violate a fireban, and
in my opinion, those fines are way too low. They
can be as low as seventy five dollars for a fine,
so we will be immediately looking at increase in the

(01:03:19):
amounts to serious numbers in the event, serious dollar numbers
in the event anyone has found to breach a fireban
during the remainder of the summer and into the future.
Just other things to take note for individuals. Please make
sure that in areas where these fires are that recreational
watercrafts are not in the area where water bombers are

(01:03:39):
using water to fight the fires. Of course they'll get
in the way, it'll be dangerous. We need to make
sure that those areas are clear so that people flying
the water bombers can do their work and it can
Please maintain vigilance with regards to anything you're doing near
wooded areas. Just want to remind people or talk about
the provincial wide fireban, because we had some questions on

(01:04:01):
that yesterday. So while the Minister has put the fire
band black and back in place province wide, it does
not mean that there were not firebands throughout the province regionally,
and particularly in the area where the.

Speaker 2 (01:04:13):
Adams Co fire happened.

Speaker 10 (01:04:14):
There was actually a fireband in place at the time
that this started. So it just goes to show really
how vigilant we need to continue to be. I'll just
provide an update now on the fires. The three fires
now that we were looking at across the province. The
first one in the Adams Cove area. It is now
up to fourteen and thirty two hectors, so that is
now doubled in size since we were here yesterday morning.

(01:04:38):
But the good news is that the fire has grown
inland which is away from the communities, and we have
no reports as of this morning of any further homes
lost in that area. But again, please keep in mind
it is very smoky, so we you know, it's going
to take some time to get that confirmation, but there
is potentially some lost cabins in the Broad Cove Pond area.

(01:05:00):
With the good news though, the southern flank, which will
be moving towards communities in that part of the province
is in good shape and light winds today, so there
are favorable weather conditions today for continued suppression efforts on
the southern flank. This also allows us to set up
a base I guess a command trailer in the Salmon

(01:05:20):
Cove area. So you may have seen that Salmon Cove
is on alert for potential evacuation, but we feel confident
enough that we're able to send our own teams in
there to set up a base close to the fire,
close to the situation, a staging area which will allow
for food to be delivered, for firefighters to be right
there on the ground, and for helicopters to fly in
and out of that area. So that will help tremendously

(01:05:41):
and hopefully give some comfort to people in that area
that we feel comfortable going into Salmon Cove, but still
to make sure that they pay attention in case things change.
That it could obviously turn into an evacuation order. There
are three water bombers that will be fighting this fire
in this part of the province today, three bucketed helicopters
and twenty ground crew, with ten additional ground crew to

(01:06:03):
come tomorrow.

Speaker 2 (01:06:04):
As for the.

Speaker 10 (01:06:05):
Holy Root fire, there was only marginal growth last night,
so it's still about twenty two hectors, which it was yesterday.
There was some concern last night that it was going
to jump the highway Route sixty, but the team I
mean did tremendous work and managed to hold a fire
to twenty two hectors, so that's good news there. Today
we'll have one helicopter and ten ground crew and local

(01:06:27):
fire departments in that part of the province in the
holy Rood area, and again low winds there, so those
are favorable weather conditions. And the new fire to talk about,
which we didn't talk about yesterday, it started at some
point yesterday afternoon. I think it's just off the Beta
Spare Highway, so it's about two point eight kilometers from

(01:06:47):
the highway and about thirty six kilometers down from the
Trans Canada Highway. As the crow flies, that will be
about twenty kilometers from Grandfalls Windsor, but there are favorable
winds there as well today be blowing it away from
Grandfall's Windsor. But we do anticipate lots of smoke in
that area. Of course, we've been through a fire in
this area not in the two distant past, so I

(01:07:10):
know individuals on the Kannagara Peninsula will be concerned their
isolation in the event that the highway has to close,
and we certainly have contingency plans to deal with that
in the event that it does happen. No structure loss
reported in that part of the province, and we'll have
one water bomber, three helicopters and the three sets from
the Brunswick will be going to that part of the

(01:07:30):
province today. So that's an update on the fires today
this morning, I should say, because as we know, things
can change. I'll ask Minister Haggi for some comments and
then Minister Dempster.

Speaker 11 (01:07:43):
Thank you very much.

Speaker 2 (01:07:44):
Premier.

Speaker 11 (01:07:44):
I'll start as I did yesterday by saying thank you
to the cruise both in the air which we see
and on the ground who get buried in the smoke
and have a dirty job. But they did a wonderful
job yesterday. Particularly around Holy Rude and that southern flank
near adam Call. I think it's fair to say the
province is a tinderbox at the moment. I think people

(01:08:08):
really need to be extremely careful with how they behave
and what they do, particularly smokers. We have had speculation
and social media is rife with it.

Speaker 2 (01:08:20):
But I would.

Speaker 11 (01:08:20):
Encourage people to contact the RCMP if they see anything
unusual and the example of three bonfires in Metro yesterday
is not given the circumstances. Quite frankly, they can report
anonymously if they would prefer, and the RCMP.

Speaker 1 (01:08:40):
Will take those seriously.

Speaker 11 (01:08:42):
The other comments have been around assistance from elsewhere, and
the Premius touched on some of that. I think it's
useful for our residents to know that Public Safety Canada
have a physical presence on our Emergency Operations Committee who
has direct links to Ottawa. And similarly we have someone

(01:09:04):
from Canadian Forces who has direct links into the military system,
so there is a direct line to the federal government.
I spoke with the Federal minister, Minister Olszewsky yesterday and
the country is in a difficult situation. As the Premier said,

(01:09:26):
I don't think there's much more I can add there,
except we really need to be careful individually and collectively.
If you see something, report it.

Speaker 12 (01:09:36):
Thanks very much, Premier, Thank you, Minister, Thank you Premier.
I think i'll just start with something that I'm getting
an increasing number of emails on is around the fine piece,
and a couple of things I want to say on
that is right now. The Act allows that if somebody
is confirmed to have started a fire, they can be

(01:10:00):
liable for the entire cost if the court's determined, and
that could be up to a multimillion dollar fine. People
are asking increasingly what we are doing as a government,
and I want to say that we are continuously monitoring
the situation right now. We're doing a very deep dive
into what other jurisdictions are doing, and we're keeping all

(01:10:23):
options on the table because our primary concern is the
safety of our people and communities. And it's been said
by our Premier and Minister Hagey, and I will say
it a third time. It needs to be said over
and over. People do need to exercise good judgment right
now when it comes to outdoor activities. I think we've
spoken each time we've done a media avail around drones.

(01:10:46):
When they're in the sky, we can't fly. Kind of
a newer recreational hobby. I guess that's come to our
attention the last few days is around the boats and
they are hindering progress of our bombers in bodies of
water where the bombers are scooping down. So we certainly
want to remind people if you see activity in the area,

(01:11:07):
just avoid that area and do your recreational boating somewhere else.
I think my final comic will be to thank both
our team in forestry. There is incredible, beautiful stories that's
coming out of this really challenging time. One of our
guys yesterday set to go on vacation with his family.
He's been carrying a heavy left since we started, canceled flights,

(01:11:30):
canceled tickets, postponed because the commitment is here. Sat with
a guy last night coming back from a rotational work
in Labrador and he was landing and going straight out
to do his volunteer fire work. We flew over Parry's
Cove and you could see where the fire went right
to the edge and started back and throughout the black
there was structures, houses still perfectly intact and that's a

(01:11:55):
credit to the volunteer firefighters. So I just want to
toss a big bouquet. And as the Premier started with
de Vail today, we really appreciate the efforts of so
many and I think considering the challenging times that people
are in, spirits were pretty high last night when we
were out in Victoria moving through that area. Just a
lot of people stepping up to do good work in

(01:12:15):
a difficult time.

Speaker 7 (01:12:16):
Thank you.

Speaker 2 (01:12:17):
Okay, thanks everyone, any questions, welcome back. So there you
got en updates from the Premier, Minister Haggey, Minister Dempster,
and we were talking earlier in the show about where
people are getting their information right, So the emergency alerts
that come out on people's cell phones, for instance, I'm
not sure what's going on here, but there's people in
the office who are getting them and some who are not.

(01:12:39):
So how can that possibly be the case. All of
our numbers are in that data bank, like when they
do the national test and we give you the heads
up that at eleven fifteen there's going to be an interruption. Well,
people are getting these emergency alerts about a writing things
associated to wildfire. I'm not getting any so half the
people that I've seen in the office and ask about it,
they're getting them. The other half haven't gotten one all day.
So I wonder how that works. What's actually going on.

(01:13:02):
Let's see here, let's rejoin Tony Power on line three. Tony,
you're back on the air.

Speaker 4 (01:13:06):
Yes, sir.

Speaker 2 (01:13:08):
So we were talking fixed Lincoln as a truck driver,
whether or not you would utilize and I guess the
basic summary answer was no variety factors, time, fuel, the
healthy conditions, broke conditions in the spring and the like.
Where two from here, Tony.

Speaker 4 (01:13:22):
Well, I guess, like I said, I'm all for the tunnel.

Speaker 9 (01:13:25):
For the people of Labratory yesterday deserve, But like you know,
the Feller or government got to look at the vessels
that they got there, increased crossings, sailings, you know, to
allow for the traffic right now, like they are booked
halfway into next year way upon volume are probably over capacity.
The freaking and Tom from the island Marine Atlantic will

(01:13:48):
be reduced to travel to the Labrador with it or
down the north shore like you're still going to cost
you valuable time. And as you mentioned before, we went
to the conference there to come from Winnipeg like once
they have Quebec City and hit up that north shore,
they still got across in tatasac across the Saint Lawrence
they head on down, So you still got to deal

(01:14:08):
with a body of water if you're traveling that body
of water in the winter. You still got to ease
conditions on the Saint Lawrence, the same as we have
on the streets. So time wise, if you got to
lave the boat, it could balance out. But you know,
do we need it to from sure?

Speaker 4 (01:14:22):
Why not?

Speaker 9 (01:14:23):
You could increase a lot of traffic up that way
for tourism, especially this time of the year. Some people
travel it now because of the scenery, and you know,
anyone need a hunt or fishing. Is beautiful country for.

Speaker 2 (01:14:35):
It, no doubt. And I mean the thought that the
folks on the Great Nord of the Peninsula and or
in Labrador itself deserve easier access to the island. I
totally get that, and look welcome the call from folks
in Labrador. But ultimately this is not going to be
anything that will surprise anybody. This will always boil down
to how much it cost to build, how much it

(01:14:57):
cost to maintain, how much is going to cost to
use it so regardless of who deserves it. And I
don't disagree with your point, but the numbers will dictate
whether or not this gets green lit or not. I'm
Marine Atlantic, Tony. You're on it all the time. So
we hear stories about people can't book passages and get
off the island, and if they do, they can't book
passages come back in the timely fashion. Then we see

(01:15:19):
pictures that are sent to me anyway about the ferry
setting sale without a full load of vehicles, whether it
be trucks and or cars.

Speaker 4 (01:15:26):
What do you see at times?

Speaker 9 (01:15:28):
You see that it depends on the crossing and the time.
I guess the majority of people would prefer a night
crossing versus a day crossing getting off and even especially
on the New Falandzoide with especially with our moose like
you know, so plenty around the roads this time of
the year. At there's times, Yeah, she's block solid, you
can't move. You got a job to get out of.
Tom's a empty space. She could be coming on a

(01:15:50):
passionate restriction for has mats conditions or freeze. She might
be booked more on a look less on a morning
sailing versus a night sailing and you know, I guess
we're in Atlantic still. Only one can really answer that.
You guardte the trucks. It depends on when trucks get there.
For the sailings. You know, we're limited on what we

(01:16:11):
can draw everyday. We are controlled electronically, so you know,
we could be twenty minutes out from that sailing and
round the lot for the next one and there's only
ten trucks on the boat by the time she sail it,
and knowight it could be fifty.

Speaker 2 (01:16:25):
Yeah, that all makes sense to me. And I was
just wondering what you see versus the reasons why. But
I get that. And people do ask these questions about
the training that truck drivers receive and how long they
can drive per day and whether or not they're obliged
to stop when Transport Canada says they are. So you say,
you're electronically monitored. So do you have an input when
you get into the cab and begin to drive about

(01:16:47):
when you're leaving and then automatically you get a warm
as to when you have to stop. Is that how
that works?

Speaker 4 (01:16:51):
Pretty well?

Speaker 9 (01:16:52):
Yeah, it's all controlled electronically. Just a little tablet we
have and it's to the ECM and our truck. You know,
you can match your speed. My truck got a camera
in it which which my office can view everything I'm doing,
like facing forward camera. We're allowed to drive thirteen hours
a day and we've got a sixteen hour window to
do it, and she will show like, you know, when

(01:17:13):
you got to take certain breaks to our today, you've
gotta have a total of ten hours off in the
twenty four hour period. And most systems that I've had
since ELIG came in, they will prompt you like when.

Speaker 4 (01:17:24):
You're all one time, when you've got a park and
et cetera.

Speaker 2 (01:17:28):
Our highway tractor traders governed for speed.

Speaker 4 (01:17:31):
Somewhere a kind of ease off the past few years.

Speaker 9 (01:17:35):
Antario Quebec brought that in I'm going to say around
two thousand and eight, two thousand and nine, and it
forced us. It kind of ease off a little bit
up there now because there's some some issues with a
cows and fires is plugging in the trucks, check them
or whatever they're But the majority of trucks out are
now are government one oh five, especially with your bigger companies.

Speaker 2 (01:17:53):
Right, that's all. I'll let you go, Tony So there's
been a lot of chatter across the country about inter
provision trade. People talk about labor, mobility and beer and
booze and all the rest of it, but some of
it is about trucking regulations. Can you help us understand
what the different regulations look like in different provinces.

Speaker 9 (01:18:10):
It's all the same. It's a federal regulation, it's not
a provincial so.

Speaker 2 (01:18:13):
There's no restrictions on waight differences between provinces or none
of that stuff.

Speaker 9 (01:18:19):
No, we're supposed to be all the same right across Canada.
You might have to have an axle on a certain
trailer in a different position for a certain province. The
only place with different is in the US. We can
only gross eighty thousand pounds down there, where truck share
can gross up to one.

Speaker 4 (01:18:34):
Hundred and twenty.

Speaker 2 (01:18:35):
Interesting stuff. Anything else you want to say this morning, Tony.

Speaker 4 (01:18:38):
Well, not too much.

Speaker 9 (01:18:41):
By Like the best way I can get you to
understand about the fixed link. If you want to leave
Saint John's now and draw up to Clarenfield, you just
go straight out the highway. To add time to it,
You've got the historic Southern shore come back up like
around Trepassy up through Saint Mary's Bay, going out to
Cape Shore, come up with burn, stay in head to Clarenfield.

Speaker 4 (01:19:01):
It'll be the same thing. We'd add two hours or
to a.

Speaker 9 (01:19:05):
Trip, so compare that to that Labrador would add two
days on my side in a truck, you know, passionate
vehicle as you can drive what you want right, I'm
limiteds And this.

Speaker 2 (01:19:15):
Is on a personal note, Tony. You and your family
have been evacuated, have you?

Speaker 4 (01:19:19):
Yes?

Speaker 2 (01:19:20):
Is that it from Holy Roodor? Where are you?

Speaker 4 (01:19:22):
I'm in Holy Rood?

Speaker 5 (01:19:25):
Excuse me.

Speaker 4 (01:19:25):
I left money to go lower and I had to
come back.

Speaker 9 (01:19:28):
I left again yesterday and I came back, so we
had to evacuate yesterday.

Speaker 2 (01:19:33):
I see your cats in the sleeper in your truck. Listen.
I wish we'll be safe on the road, stony, and
hopefully the evacuation order is lifted. Community safe in the
not too distant future.

Speaker 4 (01:19:43):
Perfect hope.

Speaker 9 (01:19:44):
So and like big hats off to the cruise out
barking it because it is hard work here here.

Speaker 2 (01:19:49):
Thanks Tony, stay in touch you too, Okay? Well right
bye bye? All right, there is some truck and info.
Let's take a break when we come back talking about ambulances,
both in the air and on the ground. Okaway, welcome back.
Let's go to line number one day.

Speaker 5 (01:20:01):
If you're on the air, Good morning, Patty.

Speaker 2 (01:20:05):
How are you buddying? Okay? Thanks? How about you?

Speaker 5 (01:20:08):
Great show so far. And before I get to my
main topic, I want to put a serious shout out
for all the fire fighters on the ground and especially
in the air, the ones that are fighting so the
ground workers can work to keep these crazy wildfires at
may from attacking our our communities and I guess and

(01:20:31):
in fact our lives. That's what this has been. This
entire summer has been just a crazy number of these
fires and communities that have been impacted by these fire bands,
you know, are put there for a reason. People aren't
paying attention. Well they should bloody well be fine that

(01:20:52):
that is no question. I won't go into that. That's
just common sense.

Speaker 2 (01:20:56):
Yeah, I mean, just a couple of comments, so of course,
I know, I can almost write the emails before I
get them. It's about, you know, government overreach, and it
reminds people of lockdowns and stuff. To me, look, I
want government to say out of my bedroom. Look everyone else.
But for me, it simply feels like recognizing that conditions
are extremely dangerous insofar as the potential for a wildfire,

(01:21:19):
and try to mitigate the risk as best possible, because
people are being displaced from their homes. People have had
their homes burnt down, We've had communities burned down to
the ground. So it's you know, some slight inconveniences which
are always a pain in the neck, like I don't
want to be told where I can go for a walk.
But when we see the risks down, we see the
pictures and we hear the stories. Just doing what we

(01:21:41):
have to do for our own personal responsibility doesn't feel
like a whole lot to ask.

Speaker 5 (01:21:47):
No, it's not, I mean, in all honesty, if it's
going to be during a period of time where you
know anything from that as was mentioned as a spark
arrested doesn't grab it or hold of sparking and falls
into an area where basically drives the chip, you can
only expect what we're getting. It'll be a short period
of time, it'll rain again. Believe me, this won't last forever.

(01:22:09):
You'll get back in the woods, do them whenever you want,
But you know, in the event and the possibility that
one person does something stupid. Oh, I'll just start a
little campfire here. I'm not gonna let it get too big.
But then an ember gets away, they have no control
where it lands. We're seeing that now, that's obviously common

(01:22:29):
sense that we don't do this. Yeah, brings me to
my next topic, common sense. The whole province has heard
me in the past, and I've gone on about the
air ambulance situation. I'm going to bring that all together
and it also includes now very much so ground ambulance

(01:22:54):
and the integration that was supposed to have taken place
in a new way of doing things. I got a
complain to the Premier first, because not only is his
job as Premier now to deal with it, but he
was also the Minister of Health when the problem was created.

(01:23:15):
We integrated air and ground ambulance, which I thought was
kind of foolish in the first place. There's never been
a condition where somebody made a call from the back
of an ambulance on the ground ambulance ride and said
we needing their ambulance, have one ready, Tom on my way.
These decisions are made in hospitals and the frustrating part

(01:23:35):
of this is this entire situation was created by the bureaucracy.
Now it was gained and given sanctimony by Premier Hogan
when he was Minister of Health and a company was
brought in and all of these changes were supposed to
be put in place in terms of efficiency, security of

(01:23:58):
operation and everything, when in fact it should have been
struck down before it was even started. There's too many
things that are prevalent right now, and it absolutely reeks
of a need to reassess the integration of air and
ground ambulance services.

Speaker 2 (01:24:15):
Just for clarity, just for clarity. So the ground ambulance
is still I mean, the integration of two is. I
don't even know why that was necessarily a thing, but
integrating the ground ambulance operations that makes sense to me.
Maybe we've had sixty different contracts out there and it
was actually cost those paramedics if you couldn't get a
job with the public sector with different coverage, different benefits,

(01:24:36):
different pay, different non call standards. We were getting kind
of hurt on that front. So I understand, you know,
the amalgamation of all those contracts in the ground world
and in the air world. They brought into private company
to manage the system, right, So that's what we're talking
about right day exactly, okay.

Speaker 5 (01:24:54):
And they've failed miserably at everything that you said that
the exact idea and the word of what you would
think would occur has not occurred in this instance. I mean,
we have seen situations where okay, well I can go
into a number of them, but in particular, let's go

(01:25:16):
with air ambulance right now. Okay, when you've got heart
patients that are awaiting transfer from the West Coast and
trauma patients and they're basically being stockpiled in Cornerbrook and
Stephenll Hospital take it sometimes weeks to be moved on
to the next level of care, which we rely upon

(01:25:37):
air ambulance. For this new company that's now managing our
air ambulance is supposed to be responsible for the provision
of the air tech crews, the medical flight crews staffed
and properly located to run this system properly, and they
have failed colossily or maybe it's Premier Home can that fail?

(01:26:01):
And now we got Minister Howell that's going to have
to come in and kind of pick up all of
their mess because basically it's become a total mess ground
ambulance here this past weekend, I could read you, and
I won't a passage from a Facebook thing where a
man's wife was sick had to be rushed to Port

(01:26:25):
Basque hospital. There were no ground ambulances available to do that,
so they got her to Port Bass hospital by sending
a ground ambulance from Stephenville, almost two hours away. When
they got to porta Bass, it was found that okay,
she's not that good, going to have to stay here.
They were going to put her in a closet. There

(01:26:48):
were no rooms in Stephenville, there were none in Corner Brook.
So then the decision was made they were going to
ship her to Burgio from Port of Basque by ground
ambulance the very next day. I don't want to tell
you the result of what happened with that lady, but
I can assure you that there's no common sense and

(01:27:10):
tours aren't hitting the water at the same time, nowhere
within government when it comes to the delivery of these services,
and they've gotten caught in their own bureaucracy. They cannot
see the trees for the forest, or the forest for
the trees. Sorry, the issue of air ambulance, somebody in
Saint John's didn't realize we had an airport that could

(01:27:31):
still be used in stephen Mill. After I started bottling
about it and complaining about it and putting a bit
of egg on the face of the Premier and the
Minister of Health. They used Stephenville Airport, five minutes away
from the hospital. Not a problem, and they could have
been doing it all along. The people that are managing

(01:27:53):
this service for us, it's our lifeline. I don't expect
to have a complete heart system whatever medical crews set
up in every hospital in Newfoundland, but we do need
an efficient mechanism i e. A taxi ride on the
ground and the taxi ride in the air. Exhan. It
should not be that difficult to put this all together

(01:28:15):
to what makes sense and what works. It's an absolute
joke to think that I could require an ambulance out
here like the people in Base Saint George South did
last weekend in cal an ambulance that isn't coming, or
the cal An ambulance that arrives here hours after you

(01:28:36):
called for in the first place. Obviously the system isn't working.
We have an example here in our town, our firefighters
here who are mostly medical trained. My son is one
of them. Respond About ninety percent of their calls now
are medical. The actually instances of fire are minimal. We

(01:28:58):
should have a perfect, please staffed, capable and ready ambulance
system within municipalities, the same as we should have a
doctor's office and all of these type of things. That
the way things were.

Speaker 2 (01:29:12):
Sure, I've got to get to the news, but the
ground messes are one thing. But I'm pretty sure this
is how it works in the air ambulance world. The
private company is simply going to manage day to day operations,
staffing and the equipment and all that that would be
government mandate stuff. Government will give them the tools, they'll
manage as best possible. So I think any questions about

(01:29:34):
blame and staffing and equipment and ambulances and aircraft, that's
a government issue, isn't it.

Speaker 5 (01:29:40):
No, it's not. I read a request for proposal MEDIVI
got this contract. Part of one of the parts of
this contract were to have adequate and staffed medical flight crew.

Speaker 2 (01:29:53):
Well, that's what I'm saying, though. Government, when they craft
an RFP, they are basically whether we're talking about asphalt
or air ambulance, government says this. You respond in kind,
you win, or you don't with the contract. So government
sets the table there. And if they had to say
adequate and have a distinct definition, which if you don't
have one, is kind of idiotic in the first place,
because my idea of adequate might be different than yours,

(01:30:14):
might be different than metavis, might be different than crystalline owels.
So definitions are probably pretty important. I'll give you another
few seconds because I got to get to the news.

Speaker 5 (01:30:23):
I use the word adequate, perfect choice. Our air system
is not adequate when you have two thirds of the
medical air ambulance is located in central where they should be.
They should not be on the Avalan. The avalone doesn't
need the air ambulance service. But yet every single air
ambulance that's required anywhere in the province and in Labrador

(01:30:47):
has to fly first to Saint John's to pick up
medical flight crow and then go perform a mission. Now,
the days that you cannot fly in and knowe of
Saint John's, be it fogg or whatever reason, there are
no fly days, there are many on the Avalon. You're
right out in the middle of the North Atlantic. Those

(01:31:08):
days when we can't even pick up the air crews
in Saint John's the entire system province, Why is paralyzed
because of fog in the city.

Speaker 2 (01:31:19):
Yeah, that's a fair point as well. I am nate
for the news day, but I appreciate the time. Thank you.

Speaker 5 (01:31:24):
Not a problem, Sir and Minister Howell and Premier Hogan.
I'm not giving up on this. Fix it.

Speaker 2 (01:31:32):
Thank you, Thank you, Bunny see Dave, all right, just
think a break for the news. Le'll make it back.
An interesting reflection back to the nineteen seventy seven kind
of the summer games. Zut were health here in town.
Brend's next don't go away.

Speaker 1 (01:31:42):
You were listening to a rebroadcast of 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 (01:31:59):
Welcome back to the show. Let's go to line number two. Morning, Brennon,
you're on the air.

Speaker 13 (01:32:04):
Well morning, petty Paddy. I'm back in living in Newfoland again.
And when I came back, there was a little blurb
on CBC of from the nineteen seventy seven Canada Games.
And due to that, Mayor bringing gave me a call
and Danny asked me to come down to his office

(01:32:27):
and go over some things that happened in nineteen seventy
seven with the run across Canada and promoting the Games.
And I made a promise to and then that I would,
you know, would like to be part of the games
that are here in twenty twenty five and support Team
an L and all the different provinces that will come here.

(01:32:53):
I spent twenty odd years away from Newfoundland and just
let people know that the Games are a big part
of my life and the lives of many New Flanders
over the years, and it's great to see him back
after forty eight years.

Speaker 2 (01:33:11):
I'm with you, Hi, Welcome the Games. It's going to
be pretty busy around town and for folks who have
normal commutes, you're probably going to have to adjust accordingly.
But just as a sports person, I'm all for it
and help to be able to take in some of
the action.

Speaker 13 (01:33:28):
Yeah, and you know the people that we have passed
away since with Mayor Whittet and all the efforts of
the city to get the games here and have them here,
and then you know, over the years, it gives me
an outlet to support different things. I had a very
good friend in the airline business, Pat White in Florence Way,

(01:33:52):
that passed away and made an objective of myself to
support organ dozation because when people pass away waiting for donations,
it's a hard way to lose a friend. When you
have the opportunity to give, It's the same way we're
giving blood. You know, you have it in you to give,

(01:34:15):
and it's good to do that. But you know, so
things like that are very important in my life right
now because I'm retired after thirty eight years in education
and I see some of your callers today who are
talking about education and no better way than sports and
to have a school that has school spirit and evolved

(01:34:39):
around sports and family. We have to fix our family
sometimes too now in this generation, after seeing so many
single parent families, we need to support the family and
the concept of the family. And that doesn't happen in
schools enough where we we look after the mental health

(01:35:01):
of students and you will see improvement in academics if
you have a one stop shopping especially with community schools,
and it's not just about throwing money at the system
or or more teachers in the system is given the

(01:35:22):
teachers the tools to do their job and to be
able to have low class numbers, you know, and to
have mental health services right at the building. You know,
when it comes to breakfast for learning or attendant, you
will see improvements if the school has a community outlook

(01:35:46):
towards education.

Speaker 2 (01:35:48):
Yeah, fair enough.

Speaker 13 (01:35:50):
Yeah.

Speaker 2 (01:35:51):
A couple of quick questions about you. Yeah, so what
was your involvement in these nineteen seventy seven Games.

Speaker 13 (01:36:00):
In nineteen seventy seven August it was the opening ceremonies.
Twenty thousand people came out to the Canada Games Track
at Memorial University and for the opening of the Games
on April the sixth, nineteen seventy seven, myself and Max

(01:36:23):
Slaller started out in Victoria, BC, and we ran across
I ran across Canada, took one hundred and twenty days
and cumminating in coming into Saint John's on August the sixth.
Along the way, we stopped and had news conferences encouraging

(01:36:46):
people to support the Canada Games and their concept and
to come to Newfoundland because we were very proud of
the fact that we had the Canada Games here. It
was the first time we had an all weather track
for back and field. I was involved for years in
track and field, especially Telegram ten Mihile for friendial marathon

(01:37:09):
champions and so on, so I had a background in
track and field. Mayor White and mister Crowby and a
few more people at the time, and Saint john said,
what's the best way for me to take part because
the age of them had changed, and to take part

(01:37:31):
in the Canada Games. And I was too old to
take part at twenty two. So they asked me to
do you think you could run across Canada? So they
got me some time off work and then away I went,
and each province we met people were Rennie Levec, the

(01:37:52):
Premier of Ontario, mister Davis and so on, and presented
them with a pair of running shoes, like to commemorate
the Canada Games in Saint Johnson nineteen seventy seven and
encouraging people to come here.

Speaker 2 (01:38:09):
Yeah, I was just a kid, obviously, but one of
my good friends, Nicky Vinicum, his father Noel, was part
of the organized committee. So we all had Canada Games
shirts and kick bags and stuff. I remember that quite clearly,
and looking forward to this going around, I have to say,
and you said you were talking to Mayor Breen about
being involved in these games. What involvement do you have
this go around.

Speaker 13 (01:38:28):
Well, it's incredible when you say, mister Vindighan, because I
have a Canada Games flag that's signed by mister Vindigan,
Mayor Whet and so on, and they're going to be
on display. I'm at Canada Games House on the twentieth
of August from one to two and some of those

(01:38:52):
items will be there, the first T shirt that a
wore and the first pair of shoes that wore at
the start and at the end into the games. And
these items are all going to the rooms after this
Summer Games, you know. So it's it's an event that
helped to poorize people to be excited about the Canada Games. Here.

(01:39:17):
One of the things that I'm really somewhat taken back
by the fact that only five thousand people can fit
in tomorrow one when there was over twenty thousand people
along the streets and at the Canada Games in nineteen
seventy seven and a lot lower cost to get in,

(01:39:38):
you know, at this game. Besides being at canad of
Game's House, I'm going to be going to some different
events and scheduled to give out some of the medals
at different events, championships.

Speaker 2 (01:39:52):
Fantastic. I really appreciate making time for the show this morning,
A little walked home Memory Lane. Thanks for doing it.

Speaker 13 (01:39:58):
Okay, before I'd like to say thank you for VOCM too,
because I was employed with VOM in early years when
John Murphy and George McLaren and Paul Rains and Beth
Jameson and Ron Pumphrey we had VOCEM was very committed

(01:40:19):
to community and we had the VOS in five nineties
with Paul Rains and it was it was travel of
the province, playing hockey and raising money for different organizations.
I just like to say, too, befre Ago, a big
shout out to the firefighters. You know we need to
be careful. I lived in the Yukon and we had

(01:40:42):
fire breaks around all new subdivisions that were being built
around the houses. Also, we have to get away from
building so many houses close to wooded areas. You know
we live in I know we live in new Land,
but we had to be aware of fire breaks, what
we can do to protect ourselves because the environment is changing.

Speaker 2 (01:41:06):
That it is. I appreciate our times for me, Brent,
thanks a lot all of us you too, well, bye bye,
all right, And every time I think about the seventy
seven games, it was the first visit to the province
by one of the legendary Canadians, Terry Fox. He was
here playing wheelchair basketball. I always love that story. Let's
take a break, don't go away, welcome back to the program.

(01:41:27):
Let's go to line umber three. You say you went
to the Deputy mayor of the City of Saint John's.
That's Shila o'l, Deputy Mayor Olaria A on the air.

Speaker 14 (01:41:34):
Hi, good morning, Patty, thanks for taking my call.

Speaker 2 (01:41:36):
Happy to do it. Did you hear Rolando Ryan yesterday?

Speaker 6 (01:41:39):
Call?

Speaker 15 (01:41:40):
What's that?

Speaker 2 (01:41:41):
Did you hear Lando Ryan called yesterday about the Market's
place development?

Speaker 14 (01:41:46):
Well, no, actually I did not, and that's exactly why
I'm calling today. So I'm sorry i did not hear
it yesterday. So I'm very interested in putting this forward.
But yeah, Well, first of all, obviously, I just want
to say my heart and prayers go out to the
people who are dealing with the fires, Patty and CBN CBS,
and gratitude to the firefighters because this is actually the

(01:42:07):
issue that I'm talking about, is actually dealing with fire issues.
But anyway, I just wanted to put that out there
to our friends and neighbors. You know, as municipal leaders,
we all try to work together. So anyway, just you know,
sending prayers to everybody who's being impacted there. But no,
I didn't hear your call yesterday, Patty, And that's exactly

(01:42:27):
why I'm calling. I wanted to call to speak to
you and your listeners about kind of a contentious development concern.

Speaker 6 (01:42:33):
That's happening in the city of Saint John's right in.

Speaker 14 (01:42:35):
The Rabbit Town George'stown area, on Margaret's Place, and so
local residents have been very, very concerned. So I'm not
sure if your call or actually that was what was
being talked about.

Speaker 2 (01:42:49):
No, Actually I have to apologize because I'm conflating two
different proposals. She was talking about something on Lamart Road
and we'll talking about the other one. Okay, my apologies.

Speaker 14 (01:42:59):
Yeah, So, just so you know, Margaret's Place, just to
put it in context, is really an unprecedented length of
a cul de sac. It's housed right in between Brother
Rice Junior High and Holy Heart of Mary High School.
It was, of course the former Sister of Mercy's land

(01:43:19):
that was sold in the late nineteen nineties to the
private market. It's got a very long and complex development history,
and like I said, it's an unprecedented cul de sac.
We've never really seen anything like it. So there's a
lot of development that has happened over the years in
that particular area. It is a beautiful, beautiful area, no doubt,
but there's a lot of concerns coming forward from the

(01:43:43):
residents about a number of different issues over the years,
but more recently. The one that is on the table
right now is the Belvedere lame Way.

Speaker 4 (01:43:52):
And I really wanted to.

Speaker 14 (01:43:54):
Call you because I wanted to make sure that people,
especially in the Rabbit Town, Georgiastown area, are well where
that there will be some changes coming to.

Speaker 4 (01:44:02):
That lame way.

Speaker 14 (01:44:04):
And it's because of fire safety issues. So if you, Patty,
you might recall Velvet or lame way. I walked through
it regularly. It's a it's a public lanmeway right on
the steps there of Holy Heart and Mary on the
side of Kingsgate Condominium and it leads from the end
of the bulb of Margaret's Place right on the Bonaventure Revenue.

Speaker 4 (01:44:25):
Lots of kids use it.

Speaker 14 (01:44:26):
Of course, we have thousands of kids in that area,
and so the issue is there's been development happening, you know,
you know, over a period of time. I've certainly been
very proactive on a number of issues that have happened
over the years. But now we we've basically got the

(01:44:46):
heard word from our city engineers that the lameway has
to be expanded. So the bulb on the bottom of
that enters onto Margaret's place has to be expanded, which
means that some trees are.

Speaker 6 (01:44:56):
Going to come down.

Speaker 14 (01:44:57):
These are older heritage trees and basically they've engaged the
fire chief and the city or our burst And of
course nobody's happy about this because it's really an area
that people love to use as a pedestrian lameway. Obviously
lots of kids in the area. But when it comes

(01:45:19):
down to it nuts and bolts, is that life safety
issues are the first and foremost. We have to make
sure that we can get fire trucks in there. So
many months ago I tabled a petition on behalf of
the residents and the war councilor Ravencroft has been very
proactive in response to the residents as well, and we've

(01:45:40):
been trying to represent the residents because they didn't know
anything about this happening. They were very they organized, they
were very articulate in their presentation, which they still haven't
heard back from to date. But the work is imminent,
so it's happening this week or next week, and I

(01:46:00):
just wanted to make sure that the public were aware
that this is going to be happening, because there's been
I can't tell you how many emails and calls have
received on it, and I've certainly been trying to address
each and every one of the issues that people have
around that.

Speaker 2 (01:46:16):
So yeah, so that's.

Speaker 14 (01:46:18):
Why I wanted to call you, because of course, you know,
we're in a housing crunch. We know that development is
first and foremost on the table, but there's also the
potential for overdevelopment in areas, and as I mentioned, this
particular cul de Sac is very unprecedented in its length
and its density. There's more development that's potentially on the

(01:46:40):
docket for that particular area, and of course, you know,
it begs the question about number one, the public engagement
process that has happened to date in that particular area.
The residents certainly have made it clear to me that
they felt that they have not been engaged properly, especially
regarding the Vidre lameway issue that's happening.

Speaker 7 (01:47:02):
There's going to be.

Speaker 14 (01:47:02):
Probably more to come in the future. But you know
the concern of course around the schools, the thousands of
students that are basically using it there lack of green space,
They're down at the bottom of the cul de Sac
playing soccer and.

Speaker 4 (01:47:18):
I have nowhere to go other than that.

Speaker 14 (01:47:20):
So there's a myriad of issues that are on Margaret's
Place that I really can't get into. As I mentioned,
it's a beautiful area, lots of great residents there, but
the concern on the table right now is that that
Belvidere Lameway is going to be opened up for fire
access in the very near future.

Speaker 2 (01:47:39):
So that was the only option.

Speaker 14 (01:47:43):
That was the only option, and trust me, we have
been going through it all and look, kudos to the residents.
I've never seen anything more organized then the residents. They
have a committee that has been struck between the residents
of McKees Grove, Kingsgate Condominium and the townhouses on Margaret's Place,
and very articulate. We're not talking about people just slapping

(01:48:05):
together a petition. They have gone through all the issues
including snow clearing access. Is this going to be something
where there's going to be ongoing traffic going through or
is it a public lame way that it will have bollards. Well,
our engineers thankfully responded to the residents on all the
key points that they brought forward, and there is a

(01:48:27):
requirement to have two means of regress. But Patty, what
begs the question that is here?

Speaker 13 (01:48:34):
Now?

Speaker 14 (01:48:34):
Now this has to happen, and I mean the reality
is nobody is going to take their life safety into
their hands. They know that they have to be able
to get a fire truck in there. So they're going
to implement a system where they'll actually have bollards or
gates that can open for the fire access, but it
will remain closed. It's not going to become a street.

(01:48:56):
But it's this chipping away kind of process that has
and so over a period of time that certainly has
been a point of concern for residents. They've come directly
to me and to the ward counselor raven Croft as
I mentioned, and you know, I've been trying to bring
these issues forward on their behalf. So now we find
this is what we have to deal with trees coming

(01:49:18):
down that are heritage trees, A lame way expanded in
an area that's right smack dab in between schools. So
I have concerns. The residents certainly have made their concerns
loud and clear to me. This is going to happen,
and it has to happen.

Speaker 7 (01:49:33):
For life safety.

Speaker 14 (01:49:34):
But I think it's a cautionary note about where we
go from here in terms of further development that is
going to be impacting that particular area. So I just
wanted to call in to make sure that people were
aware that this was on the docket, because there aren't
public notices.

Speaker 7 (01:49:51):
That go out.

Speaker 14 (01:49:53):
We wanted to make sure that the residents in the
area were fully apprized because a lot.

Speaker 6 (01:49:57):
Of people use that particular lameway.

Speaker 2 (01:49:59):
Oh absolutely really quite popular. Had a shame to lose
just because of the time on the clock we have
to leave with there this morning, Sheila.

Speaker 14 (01:50:07):
Okay, well listen, I just wanted to bring forward. Thanks
and it's wonderful to talk to you. And one last thing.
Nineteen seventy seven Canada Summer Games. I was twelve years
old and I had to go in between the innings
of the ball games and sweep off the plates for
my dad. I was mortified, but it is a memory
lodged in my brain. So congratulations to all the Canada
Summer Games athletes and volunteers.

Speaker 2 (01:50:30):
Mister Celtic himself and as Worth mentioned, never talk of baseball.
Your brother Mike was.

Speaker 6 (01:50:35):
Some player, yes, Mike when you got into Triple A.

Speaker 14 (01:50:39):
And of course my dad had to try out with
the Brooklyn Dodgers.

Speaker 4 (01:50:41):
So yeah, baseball.

Speaker 14 (01:50:43):
I lived and breathed it growing.

Speaker 6 (01:50:44):
Up, for sure.

Speaker 2 (01:50:45):
Appreciate the time, Shila, thanks a lot.

Speaker 14 (01:50:47):
Okay, take care of pattill the.

Speaker 2 (01:50:49):
Best, Sheila, Larry tepping a Maria town. Let's take a
break for the news. Don't call it the Tim Power Show.

Speaker 1 (01:50:56):
During the conversation weekday afternoons at four pm on your VOCM.

Speaker 2 (01:51:01):
Welcome back to the show. Let us go line number one.
Good morning, pat around the air, Yes.

Speaker 15 (01:51:06):
Patty, just trying to get updated fire information if I can,
because hoping ones like that started yesterday don't get out
of control, because if they do, we are really, really
in a bad situation, then in an extreme situation, because

(01:51:31):
it's we don't have the resources and it's taxing resources.
So we need to get ahead of these fires, like
in Martin's Lake really really quickly before they become like
Kingston had well well out of control. Anyway, there was
two fires yesterday, Patty.

Speaker 16 (01:51:52):
One.

Speaker 15 (01:51:52):
I'm not hearing nothing on it this morning, so it
must not have developed into anything. Did you hear the
fire run out the West Coastway Tucker's Ponds?

Speaker 2 (01:52:04):
I haven't heard it mentioned in the fire updates, so
I don't know if it's developed into an out of
control fire.

Speaker 15 (01:52:09):
I really don't know, Pat Okay, there was fire anyway,
Tucker's Pond. I'm helping, and you know, if people don't
know what that is, they're going to have to look
it up around Saint Peyton's area. The other one, have
you heard of the size and what the size is
this morning? For Martinslake fire?

Speaker 2 (01:52:30):
Yeah, they did make mention of it in the news conference.
Is that the one they said that had triple in
size or was that the one on Holyrood? I don't know.
I'll have to confirm with the newsroom to be honest
with Because.

Speaker 15 (01:52:42):
Holy Road stable, Patty. When the start was about ten,
it went down that evening to about twenty in size.
It's stable and from what I'm hearing from firefighters or
people friends that are volunteers and we're fire out in
that area that they are hoping to get a ground
crew in today. So it's basically, you know, it's perimeters

(01:53:06):
as been maintained and they're try and work on hotspots.

Speaker 2 (01:53:11):
Okay, I'm just looking that one.

Speaker 15 (01:53:13):
Has looked in pretty good, pretty good as long as
saying something, don't you know, Flaire, op.

Speaker 2 (01:53:17):
Was your question about the Kingston fire?

Speaker 15 (01:53:20):
No, my question was about the one that started yesterday
out Beta Spare Highway, Martin's Lake, Martin's Lake, a great.

Speaker 4 (01:53:32):
River.

Speaker 2 (01:53:34):
I'm looking for the information now as par size, and
it's not listening.

Speaker 15 (01:53:40):
I'm hearing. I'm hearing different reports. I'm hearing that it
was at sixty last night, but that's gone up now
to over a heart and fifty. I'm hearing, No, it's
still stable as what it was last night. I'm so
I'm just curious myself.

Speaker 2 (01:53:54):
Yeah, me too. I don't have an answer, but I'll
try to get one and I'll speak to it right
here on the air as soon as I get it.
How's that that's good?

Speaker 15 (01:54:02):
Because that fire recording Daddy is the same as the
Kingston fire that fire is burning hot for anyone who
knows what that means, and that means that that fire
can expand really really quickly, and we can I mean,
we're bringing in fire equipment out from New Brunswick. We

(01:54:23):
cannot afford this to get this fire to get like Kingston,
to get out of hand, to get like Ragged Harbrid
which is over fifteen hundred kilometers that we're trying to
deal with right now. This this will quickly if that
gets out of hand, this will quickly overwhelm, overwhelm resources

(01:54:47):
that that even we can bring in if we bring
in more from Nova Scotia somewhere in Atlantic Canada wouldn't
have the resources to supply to us to deal. So
this is and I'm shocked that mister Hogan has left
it this long, even to bring in the rest for
help yesterday evening, that's what he's saying. He did. He

(01:55:09):
said he's responsible for these three extra planes coming in.
But I'm surprised he's left it this law, this line,
because this was a bad situation that he's left till
it became a possibly dire situation before handling it population.

Speaker 2 (01:55:27):
I don't know when the what the timing was for
requesting assistance from New Brunswick or anywhere else.

Speaker 15 (01:55:33):
To be honest with you, well, it's it's interestingly mentioned
the assistancing because the minute this happened in Holy Road,
and like I said, perimeter has maintained and da da
da didn't cross it over the highway or anything that evening,
So it's pretty much a fire that needed, you know,

(01:55:54):
a serious situation. Definitely, people evacuated, but it was it
was perimler being maintained, but all the same day, which
would allow them provincial resources of some nature. I don't
know what. I don't work in polities provincially federally. I
don't know how that works. But declaring a state of

(01:56:15):
emergency and now labels you things that not declaring it doesn't.
So the minute that it became okay we need evacuation
of this area, da da da, they declared in Hollywood
a state of emergency to be able to get access
to certain resources. So yes, it's funny how that works,

(01:56:39):
and how to some provincially or to or communities go
that route and then others like the provincial or whatever. Yeah,
it takes forever to suddenly realize, guys, we need to
declare you know a provincial emergency we need.

Speaker 2 (01:56:57):
Help, yeah, and request to go out. It's not like
premiers are calling and asking do you need anything? Or
I don't think they're anyway, because they all have their
own concerns.

Speaker 15 (01:57:05):
No, I believe, I believe Brunswick did reach out to us.
That's well, I'm having pattic but I'm hearing that it
was also based on an initial request through whatever the
federal agent, federal route would be, you know, going to
the federal governments. And then and after that request was
made and Brunswick was made aware of this new Brunswick

(01:57:28):
then reached out to offer their assistance.

Speaker 2 (01:57:31):
Fair enough, Pat appreciate the time. Just the center we
all share is hopefully we can get a handle on
these fires. It's a real shame there's no rain in
the forecast because that's what we really need on top
of favorable weather and wind conditions.

Speaker 15 (01:57:43):
So boil boy, monitro one thing out there, one quick
manth petic, I have one one thing, Please please federal,
the provincial government, federal whoever can do this, you know,
especially if there's any volunteer firefighters out to an hour

(01:58:04):
or kind enough to be giving up their jobs or
fishermen or something giving up fishing income, giving up income
and anty fashion to volt to you know, extend their
volunteer fire activity to help out. Please consider some way
of rec of reimbursing these people, especially anyone who's lost

(01:58:24):
income or lost other expenses volunteering to help fight these bias.
Please please consider if we can do something or set
up something provincially to compensate these people.

Speaker 2 (01:58:39):
Fair enough, Thank you, pat I got to get to.

Speaker 15 (01:58:41):
The break exactly, Pattick, appreciate my pleasure.

Speaker 2 (01:58:44):
Bye bye. All right, just quick update and might not
be the biggest deal, but it will be for some
is so that the Challenge Cop semifinals that were scheduled
tonight to take place out on topsle Field, they're going
to be relocated to King George. So the game times
and all the other match arrangements were main unchange. Just
relocating the semi finals for the Challenge Cup from Topslefield

(01:59:05):
to King George. This evening. Let's take our final break
in the morning, took Away, Welcome back to the show.
Let's go to light number two. Good morning, Everett, you're
on the air.

Speaker 16 (01:59:12):
Good morning, Patty. I really appreciate the opportunity to have
a discussion with you today. Problem Patty, My topic and
concern for today is a deplorable state of many of
the provincial roads and road shoulders in our region, the
southern portion of the Bejord Peninsula Patty. Certain sections of

(01:59:36):
our region's provincial roads will be paved. However, many other
problem areas will not be paved, and those areas Patty
now are my main concern. A tender was called on
May the thirtieth and it closed on June to sixteenth, Patty.

(01:59:58):
In my opinion, the should have been published earlier, so
the preparation work required before the pavement can be laid
could have been completed earlier. On August the sixteenth, two
months will have passed and not a spoonful of pavement

(02:00:19):
has been laid to date. In the meantime, Patty vehicles
continue to be damaged, the potholes are getting deeper, and
the road shoulders are becoming more dangers every day. And unfortunately,
in my opinion, the Department of Transportation and Infrastructure in

(02:00:39):
our region is doing very little when it comes to
preventive maintenance and Patty. This lack of preventive maintenance is resulting,
as I said earlier and costly repairs to vehicles and
a continuing danger to the public. And the longer those
problems here remain in the state of disrepair, the more

(02:01:04):
costly they will be too fixed. Last year, the Department
of Transportation and Infrastructure did pave sections of highway between
Frenchman's Coals and Grand Bank and did an outstanding job. Patty,
I can't understand why the same can't be done in

(02:01:24):
other problem areas in our region, and indeed the province.
Instead of filling the potholes with coal patch what I
cause band aid repairs. As an example, Route two two two,
also known as the Salt Pone Winterland Road, will have
approximately four kilometers paved, leaving approximately six kilometers in the

(02:01:49):
state of disrepair. It is now, as far as I'm concerned,
the Department of Transportation and Infrastructure needs to step up
to the plate and repair that six kilometers of highway
and other problem areas, both the potholes and the road shoulders.
I don't know if you like to comment on it
or not.

Speaker 2 (02:02:08):
Well, I mean, I'm familiar with the issue. We've spoken
many times on this front, and I hear from people
in every nook and cranny of the province. Talking about
road conditions and road shoulders. Well, sometimes we just stick
with the black top, but the condition of the shoulder
of the road is also a huge factor, whether it
be for maintaining the stability of the asphalt itself and
just for general safety concerns. You never know when you're

(02:02:28):
going to need a piece of shoulder.

Speaker 16 (02:02:31):
You're exactly right, You're exactly right. So I don't know
if you want say anything else. So I didn't have
anything else to say on this particular topic. I don't
know if I got time left for another quick topic.

Speaker 2 (02:02:46):
You have time for a quick one, go ahead.

Speaker 16 (02:02:48):
Well, just recently, in fact, a couple of nights ago,
I had the pleasure of participating in a round table
discussion organized by our MP, Jonson Row, the MP for
Tearing Over the Peninsulas, and the Conservative Party Paddy The
focus was on tourism in our region and there was

(02:03:09):
a good turnout and two our discussion and I just
stood like to list four of the topics that was
discussion relation to tourism. Number one, how do we feel the
tourism sector is now compared two years ago? The consensus
was that more tourists are visiting our province and region

(02:03:30):
than in the past. Number two, the costs for tours
to visit our province using Marine Atlantic was seen to
be a major concern. If the cost was equal to
what the same distance by road would cost, many more
tours would vacationion on and in our province and in

(02:03:51):
our region. Number three, if our region was to look
at tourism as a regional industry, the chance of the
more tours visiting our region would improve. And lastly, although
tourism is important in our region, we must have other
industries if we are to grow and prosper Would you

(02:04:13):
like to comment on that.

Speaker 2 (02:04:14):
No, I don't think there's any arguing that access, whether
it be getting here and getting around here, is always
going to be the key to growing tourism. You know,
I guess there's lots of moving parts. There's you know,
regtal car fleets and basically understanding of what people can
or cannot do when they arrive. So yeah, no argument.
I think those that all makes sense to me.

Speaker 16 (02:04:34):
Well, sir, thank you for your time today. I really
appreciate it.

Speaker 2 (02:04:37):
I appreciate yours ever, thanks a lot. Bye bye, okay,
bye bye. All right, very likely the final word goes
to lender with three segamore to the mayor Avondale. That's
Don Lewis. Good morning, Mayor Lewis around the.

Speaker 17 (02:04:48):
Air, Good morning, Patty. I'm a first time caller, I guess,
but I'm calling on behalf of the town of Avenue,
and I am the mayor, and also I am the
Liberal candidate for the Harbormaine district and part of my
district now or our district is involved with an evacuation

(02:05:09):
and we are far undergoing Holy Road and seal cover areas.
So the reason why I'm calling, we had some events
planned here in Avenue for the weekend. We had a
family day and Brady Lewis ball tournament that happens yearly,
but we got to eliminate any risk of fire. I mean,

(02:05:31):
these these events have been on for years and they
haven't started fires, but right now we do get a
fire up in this area. I guess. Resources are exhausted
and limited, so the town has agreed to postpone these

(02:05:52):
events until further notice and that eliminates any risk. And
also on behalf of the town of Avenue. I'd like
to thank all emergency response people for firefighters, police to
Salvation Army and the emergency center that has been set
up in CBS Stadium. I visited Jesse and it's an

(02:06:15):
excellent venue and people are getting looked after. And also
I asked our residents in the neighboring towns to follow
all the regulations, especially on fire bends, report any open
fires and be safe. So that's as a short call,

(02:06:36):
but that's all I wanted to do today.

Speaker 2 (02:06:38):
That's fair messages. I appreciate the time. They are lous,
stay in.

Speaker 17 (02:06:40):
Touch, Okay, thank you, You're welcome.

Speaker 2 (02:06:42):
Sir by bye. Yeah again. Those who are working actively
with the fires and with the evacuees, what have you, bravo.
And for the rest of us, everybody understands the risk,
everybody understands what they should or should not be doing,
and hopefully common sense plays a big role here as
we do, indeed, try to display our own personal responsibility.

(02:07:03):
The fires and the stories we're hearing are devastating, so
let's see if we can't decrease those as best possible.
All right, pretty good show today, Big thanks to all
hands who support the program, all of the listeners, the callers, emailers, tweeters.
You are all right. We will indep pick up this
conversation again tomorrow morning, right here on VOCM and Big
Land of FM's Open Line on behalf of the producer
David Williams. I'm your host, Patty Daily. Have yourself a safe,

(02:07:26):
fun happy day. We'll talk again in the morning. Bye.
Bay

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