Wednesday Dec 17th

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

Speaker 2 (00:19):
Now.

Speaker 1 (00:20):
Here's VOCM Open Line host Paddy Daily.

Speaker 3 (00:23):
Well, all right and good morning to you. Thank you
so much for tuning in to the program. It's Wednesday,
December the seventeenth. This is Open Line. I'm your host
Patty Daily, David Williams, he's produced the program. Let's get
it going if you're in the Saint John's metroridge. And
the number of dialogue in the Q and on the
air seven zero nine two seven three five two one
one elsewhere toll free long distance one eight eight eight

(00:45):
five ninety VOCM, which is eighty six twenty six. So
here we are another chilly December day. So let's talk
little tennis. Just last week, the International Tennis Federation named
the five Future Stars, and one of them was nineteen
year old Toronto native Victoria in Boco. Now she's also
been named by the WTA, the World Tennis Association as
the Newcomer of the Year. Pretty impressive stuff. So we

(01:08):
all harken back to the summer in August when she
won the WTA one thousand National Bank Open in Montreal,
huge event. Defeated four Grand Slam singles champions during that tournament,
also beat four time major champion Naomi Yusaka in the final,
her first victory on tour, and then she went on
to back it up with a win in Hong Kong.
So look out from Victoria and Boco into the future. Okay,

(01:32):
so let's get into this one. No good can come
of it, but hey, let's go all right. You know,
certainly there's lots of relationship between this province and Alberta.
So many people who are living here but make the
long distance commute to work in Alberta. I lived in Alberta.
Plenty people from this province have moved to Alberta, and
the politics of Alberta are interesting. Okay, Skate Canada. Skate

(01:55):
Canada of course in charge of figure skating events in
the country. They are no longer going to host major
events in Alberta. And that's all about legislation regarding the
participation of transgender athletes in women's sport. Okay, so they
certainly have the ability to do it. You know, the
culture war business is tedious, but let's dig into it
because it is part of the public discourse and it's

(02:17):
an important conversation. Okay. So there's a few things to
this for me. You know, we talk about government get
involved in things where they don't belong, and this type
of legislation regarding sport is just you know, talking about
what it's maybe one percent or less of the Canadian population,
but it gets a lot of traction and it gets
a lot of attention. So there's a few things to this.

(02:40):
Number One, as far as I'm concerned, we should leave
it up to the sports bodies to talk about who
can and cannot participate at whatever level of sport. Skate
Canada has already adopted the rules about transgender athletes. The
International Epic Committee is currently looking at the process of
review and it's definition of female sports. But here's one

(03:00):
of the key issues, as far as I can tell, is,
you know, you talk about an unfair biological advantage for
someone who's born male, who has transitioned to being a
female or identifying as a female to participate in female sport.
The facts are, if it was that dominant biological advantage,
then these athletes would win all the time. But the

(03:22):
fact of the matter is they don't. I mean, there's
still plenty of research going on in the medical community
as to whether or not there's a distinct advantage for
someone born male identifying as female competing in female sports.
I mean, remember back in the Paras Olympics there was
this one athlete in the boxing competition who was born male,
competed as a female at the Olympic Games, didn't win.

(03:44):
And we see this stuff all the time. And look,
I know, the culture conversations get an awful lot of
attention and they do attract voters to one political ideology
or another. But Skeay kinda says they will no longer
hold any national or international events in the province of Alberta.
It does not mean Alberta skaters are prohibited from participating
in Skate Canada sanctioned events. But anyway, I just thought

(04:07):
it's worth mentioning because it's a extremely tricky conversation. But
that's the ruling that's been made by Skate Canada, and
I do think those rules belong in the hands of
governing bodies of different sports as opposed to the government.
Now we can talk about things like that have been
proposed legislation and different provinces about if and when a
child in school chooses to use a different pronoun of

(04:28):
all things, and then they have to inform the parents.
You know, maybe between the parents and their children, they
can have those types of conversations at home, but anyway,
certainly no good can come of that. But let's talk
about it, okay. So yesterday the anticipated fiscal update coming
from the new finance minister Craig Party and he refers
to the province's financial bottom line as deeply troubling and

(04:51):
we all knew that. So now the projected deficit has
grown to nine hundred and forty eight million dollars from
the last projection we heard in the budget twenty twenty
five or six hundred and twenty six million dollars. Okay,
So they talk about structural changes and the time it
will take, you know, and then the reference to the
big tobacco settlement money that was included in the deficit,

(05:14):
which really kind of matched where we really were. But
the issue there is everybody knew that already. That's no
surprise we've talked about it extensively on the show. The
Government of the day, the Liberals at the time, were
absolutely able to do this. Other provinces chose a course
of bitter protect their backside by asking their respective auditor
generals to chime in on how they should proceed with

(05:36):
including that money, and we know to use it all
up front, even though a fraction of it has actually
been paid and won't be paid out over the course
until the course of thirty years. But we already knew
that was part of the deficit. So they look into
an on the bright side of it. They look at
economic growth projected in twenty twenty six. The forecast is

(05:57):
for five point three percent economic growth in this province,
which is scheduled to lead all promises. That is good news,
whether it be more activity in the mineral sector, more
activity in production in the oil sector, higher consumer spending,
and some of these forecasts are you can take them
with a grain of salt. So what does this mean
for pleasures and promises made on the campaign trail? So

(06:18):
they talk about and continue to talk about tax cuts.
People will see and hear these numbers and think that
possibly there are other cuts coming which are not tax cuts,
then things like building four new ferries, increase healthcare spending
to improve the healthcare system, and up and down the line.
But I don't know how surprised anyone could or should
be with this. But then you talk about things like,

(06:40):
you know, specific pledges on the campaign trail, whether or
not they can follow through given what they say is
a new to them number of deficit, all right, And
then the things like smart spending. I really don't know
what that means, but it's pretty important detail for us
to be able to flesh out as to what smart
spending constitutes. So I'll leave it up to you to

(07:02):
bring forward to your opinion on what you thought about
the update yesterday, but we'll remember you know, so there
was some unforeseen spending last year, but kind of small
numbers when we talk about the deficit at the potential
for nine hundred and forty eight million dollars, like the
Liberals will talk about, well, we spend twenty seven million
dollars on wildfires last year. Yeah, but we're talking about

(07:23):
just about three over three hundred million additional dollars in
the world of deficits in this province. But I'm not
so sure I learned a whole whole lot yesterday. No
one can be too surprised with the numbers that have
come out, but it would be nice to know how
those numbers job with promises made. And we do know
we have systemic and structural issues in this province regarding
deficit a debt, of course we do. But none of

(07:45):
that is real big earth shattering news. At least it
wasn't me. But if you want to take it on,
we can absolutely do it. And I think there's still
going to be plenty of conversations regarding the newly chosen
path for the government to assess the mayor of the
Upper Churchill MoU. Okay, so we are flooded with MoU
and referendum conversations in this country and certainly plenty of

(08:08):
months ago in this province. So whether it be MoU's
regarding onshore wind, the green hydrogen and ammonia for export,
MOUs regarding the Upper Churchill and Gull Island, and up
and down the line. But let's get into it a
little bit. So when the Liberal government, after announcing last
year that we have indeed entered into a memorandum of
understanding with Quebec people understandably questioned the appointment to Dennis

(08:32):
Brown to be the chair, not that Dennis Brown doesn't
have the qualifications, but the fact of the matter is
mister Brown called it a good deal before the panel
was struck. I think the same conversation is happening now
about the inclusion of Michael Wilson, who has been very
generous with these time and information on this program, but
he has also made a declaration about the MoU. He

(08:52):
says it's a disaster for the province. Now, I suppose
he was convinced to accept an appointment to this panel
given the broader scope and mandate of this particular three
person appointed panel, because it was very narrow with the
last structure of the independent panel. So I don't think
that's unfair to wonder aloud that if people have already

(09:14):
said I had stated their position on the MoU, what
can actually change inside this expanded scope? And then look,
I get absolutely browbeat when I have anything to say
about the referendum, Okay, just from my own perspective. So
we go through this exercise which was once sixty days

(09:34):
and now it's going to be four and a half months.
In a report due by the April of twenty twenty six,
then to be publicly disclosed, then to be debated in
the House of Assembly, then to be crafted into some
sort of referendum question, and then who knows what the
question I would have is, regardless of people would vote emotionally,
let's just look down the path. If this independent review
comes back and says this is a bad deal, then

(09:57):
why vote on it. If they come back and say
this is a good deal, then why vote on that.
So isn't this exercise intended to give us the final
thoughts on whether or not we should proceed on the
pathway to definitive agreements? Even that said, wouldn't a referendum
After the contracts are actually proposed, are tabled, all the

(10:18):
term sheets are there to be understood and discussed and
debated in the House of Assembly, as opposed to what
we are not understanding about the depending negotiations or the
stall negotiations. So I think there's still a lot of
meat on that bone to discuss and stick with referendums,
you know. I hear Francoisa Gough, the Premier Quebec, in
the news talking about the fact that his party, the

(10:39):
Coalition to Avonair is palling so terribly and they look
like they might get wiped off the map political map.
Then the Liberals under Pablo Rodriguez, they're struggling vitally, calls
for him to step down as leader, former Federal Liberal
Cabinet minister. And then you look at the Paddy Quebec Quah.
They're proposing a referendum. Lego's assertion is that that may

(11:00):
earn away some voters and consequently hamper the Party Quebec
cause opportunity to be the government in Quebec. And it's
a lot of who knows what into the future kind
of stuffware. And then I'll throw it back out there.
Referendums in Alberta, because we've got a built in relationship
with Alberta for obvious reasons aforementioned. It sounds like a

(11:20):
terrible idea to me for a variety of reasons. But
between referendums and political unrest and the unbelievable nature of
political discourse and MOUs up and down the line, including
MOUs of pipelines from Alberta to the BC North coast,
there's a lot there. If you want to take it on,
Let's do exactly that. All right, just about every time

(11:41):
that there are prolonged problems with Marine Atlantic, depending whether
not about mechanical issues or scheduling or any of those things,
but anything in Marine Atlantic we can talk about. But
every time that we see a week like this where
there have been a bunch of cancellations because of the weather,
inevitably I get a bunch of emails from pretty much
the same group of people about doesn't this paint a
very clear picture for the need for the fixed link.

(12:05):
I suppose you're not wrong when you say that when
there is a problem with getting the transport of goods
across Marine Atlantic for days on end, and of course
they are trying to their very best to clear up
the backlog, and some three onn commercial vehicles have indeed
made their way across since the first storm related interruption.
I do find the fixed link an interesting conversation, and

(12:25):
every time the email is sent about it, they say,
does this not belong in the Major Project's office? Fair enough,
whether it be the Churchill River issues regarding Major Project
Office fast tracking and approvals, potential financial assistance, same thing
with the fixed link. And it's not because I think so,
Because the Liberal government has said exactly that in the past,
the fixed link in the hand of the Canada's Infrastructure

(12:47):
Bank as a nation building project. People may opine that
beta or belongs in that exact office as well, even
though we don't know exactly how that's going to work.
And many of the projects that have been announced we're
already pretty advanced, have been approved for quite some time,
so I think there's plenty questions to be asked about
the projects that did get included in the major Project's office.
And if you want to get into the most recent

(13:09):
numbers as brought forward by Araup, a consulting company, after
work has been done in two thousand and four by
Hatch Engineering, then was updated in twenty eighteen, and now
updated again in twenty twenty three, which does not paint
a very rosy economic or financial picture regarding the possibility
for the fixed link. But we're happy to talk about
here in the program, and I do think this remains

(13:30):
an interesting conversation a couple of things. So there's another
new scam going around. Man. It is absolutely relentless, and
at this time of year, any opportunity to maybe get
a few extra shekels in your pocket, people may be
enticed to press that one button or click on that link,
and unbeknownst them, then they're in trouble. So this one

(13:51):
is going around asking for people's personal information so they
can receive a senior's bonus. And it says it's coming
from the Premier's office. It's not a thing. It's not real.
It is a complete one hundred percent scam. But you know, people,
especially if you're struggling and there's any opportunity to get
some sort of bonus or rebate or a few extra dollars,

(14:13):
that people are going to be really tempted to click
that link. But please do not do it. It is
absolutely scam and the government does not operate like that,
regardless if you trust them or not. So anyway, there
you go. Had a call yesterday talk about the volume
McCalls we get on this program and the voluy McCalls.
This person in particular receives Tom Badcock at the Hub
about the glaring need to finally establish a disabilities advocates office.

(14:37):
There's no doubt about it. And yes, I understand the
government's still relatively new, but it has been a key
pledge and they talked about some two million dollars in
the first year to establish a disability as advocate. So
that's a conversation that has certainly welcome here on this program.
And just a couple of moment before we get to you,
all right, education, So the final week of the twenty

(14:59):
twenty five year in the CADA twelve, I guess the
pre CADD twelve system. So there's so much we can
talk about in school, and you know me, I think
education deserves more conversation. But even over the past weekend,
and you know, I do think we've abused the word bullying,
because there's a long way between bullying and harassment and
an actual physical assault, which is a crime. But there

(15:22):
was two separate stories that I saw being shared over
the course of the weekend, and one was absolutely outrageous
and heartbreaking. Leave the school out of it, because I'm
not even one hundred percent what school we're talking about here,
But this young girl and her bully, the nuisance in
her corner year over year, took the time and the

(15:43):
effort to sit down to draw a very disparaging, ugly picture,
then went on the second page to really hammer on
this girl about her looks and her ability and her
smarts or the lack thereof, and it was disgraceful, absolutely
unbelievable that someone would take that kind of time. Kids

(16:04):
are going to be kids, and there's going to be
some name calling in the playground and those types of things,
but this example that was shared far and wide was
way over the top, extremely hurtful. And of course that's
just not hurt that you'll experience for the few minutes
that you read it, but that lingers and it permeates
throughout the student body. You know, other kids who are
not on the receiving end are very timid and quiet, thinking, Man,

(16:28):
I hope I'm not next. The question I would have
is what gets done about this? Because yes, there's going
to be some quote unquote innocuous, relatively innocent bullying that
you know, you can have teachers speak with the student
and hopefully they can come to some sort of understanding
about their heart that they're perpetrating. But when it gets
to that level, that extends. And I'm not going to
bother reading out some of the vile comments made about

(16:51):
this young fella, by this young fellow, about this young girl.
Is how do you bring the parents into the fault here?
Because it's not good enough to take that kid out
of the classroom. Unfortunately, what happens more often than not
is that the child on the receiving end gets all
the attention that may be pulled away from the what
we call a bully, but it's really a menace. Is

(17:13):
do you just automatically bring the parents in, get some
level of accountability for the family, for the caregivers, for
the mom, for the dad, because a lot of these
behaviors are learned at home, or they're accepted or ignored
at home. But the potential lifelong impact and that might
not be lifelong for kids who are on the receiving

(17:35):
end of some of this atrocious behavior when they're young,
but it does stick. And of course if that manifests
itself into not even wanting to go to school, because
if you don't want to be there, it's going to
be difficult to absorb the curriculum, it's going to be
difficult to socialize like a normal kid. So that kind
of stuff. Man, when I read it, and I unfortunately

(17:55):
took the time to read it all, it was horrendous.
It really was. And I'm sure folks were on my
social media feeds they know exactly what I'm talking about,
and it was despicable. So if you want to take
it on, we can do it. Oh, I've been asked
to put forward questions about what's the status of the
the snow crab rebate. I have no idea. I know

(18:17):
it was going to some form of expedited arbitration about
the end result of it has been I really don't
know what the status of it is. And so someone
asked me if I can put it out there, but
I don't know the answer. Last one or two. So
we've been talking about the story of doctor Neil Patterson,
who signed a two year contract to work in a
family care team on the province's west coast. Incentives offered

(18:38):
were up to two hundred thousand dollars. He has not
been paid. He doesn't even know who to go to
to speak about this. He's been told by nl Health
Services to not talk about it in the media, but
of course the straw has broken and he is talking
about it and he's going to join us on the
program sometime pretty soon here this morning. In addition to that,
we talked about the numbers out looking at the number

(18:59):
of homicides and this problem for the course of the
last decade and in and around half our result of
domestic violence, fourteen of the fifty three murders were perpetrated
by someone who was intimately involved, a partner of, or
married to the victim. It's an unbelievable, staggering number. And
how that conversation is best handled probably I'm not the

(19:21):
best person to do it, but our first guest this morning,
Janet McNaughten, is going to be probably a really important
voice here. She's an intimate partner of Violence Perform Advocate.
We'll hear from Janet, then we'll speak to doctor Patterson,
and then we're going to speak to you, and the
topic is entirely up to you. Don't go away, Welcome
back to the program. Let's spend this morning on line
number one. Second morning to Janet MacNaughton, an intimate partner

(19:41):
of Violence Perform Advocate. Good morning, Janet, you're on the air.

Speaker 4 (19:45):
Good morning, Patty. Thank you very much for having me.

Speaker 3 (19:47):
Happy to have you on the program. This story just
continues to grow with intensity and heartbreak every time we
get a new update or a new story, whether it
be about the amount of murders that have papanized a
resolve and there's a new report out now from ACT. Now,
where would you like to start, because I do struggle
with this conversation, I'll be honest.

Speaker 4 (20:08):
Well, the report isn't from US, it was It was
commissioned by the Council of Atlantic Premiers and it's called
Preventing Domestic Homicides in Atlantic Canada looking Back to see
our way forward. So I was really excited about this report. Now,
the actual report is mainly about the need for better
data collection, which is really boring and I'm not a

(20:28):
numbers person, but there are some things there that are
really useful. There's a snapshot of each province in Atlantic
Canada and where they are, and when it comes to
Nuthland and Labrador, it says, and this is a quote,
presently there is no provincial strategy addressing domestic violence in
Newfoundland and Labrador. Okay, And I know this from my

(20:50):
own personal experience because my friend was murdered and when
she came out of the shelter, we got no support
because there was no support. And the thing about domestic
violence IPv murders is that they are preventable, and not
very many kinds of murders are preventable. But they're preventable

(21:10):
because they follow a pattern. Most domestic violence goes up
and down, up and down, up and down, you know.
There it builds to a moment when there's violence, and
then there's a honeymoon period after and that's all that happens.
But in about one and four it escalates towards homicide. Now,
it doesn't usually get to homicide. Often women manage to

(21:31):
leave their partners before they are killed, you know, or
something happens to disrupt it. But we know that there
are predictable patterns because this has been studied for a
long time. And I just want to let your listeners
know if they want to know more about this about
you know, how are their patterns and how is this preventable,
they can go into a computer search and put in

(21:53):
the words the New Yorker, which is a magazine, and
then A Raised Hands okay, and that article A Raised
Hand by Rachel Louis Snyder details how they discovered that
domestic violence murders are preventable. And it's fascinating. It's a
true crime story.

Speaker 5 (22:14):
So what do you need?

Speaker 4 (22:17):
You know? In so in Nova Scotia and Prince Edward
Island when women come out of shelters, they have support. Now,
shelters are terrific, they really are, but nobody is intended
to live in an emergent women's emergency shelter. And that
is what's happening here. Women are living long term in
the shelters because they're afraid to come home. My friend

(22:38):
was so brave, you know. And so what do we
need when women come out of shelters? So there's two things.
The first thing is there has to be a way
to prioritize high risk cases so that everybody knows where
to put their resources. And that's what we found. We
had no way of letting anybody know what a serious

(23:02):
situation this was. So in this province, the day before
someone is murdered, you can go to the police and
say she is going to be killed and they will say,
I'm sorry, We've done everything we can for you. And
that happened, okay, So what needs to happen. And the

(23:23):
first thing is you have to be able to prioritize
the high risk cases. So there are risk assessment tools
that have been used in different places. Now the RNC
will tell you they have a risk assessment tool ODERA,
So when they do a risk assessment, what happens, and
that's where there's a vacuum. Okay. In Prince Edward Island,

(23:44):
they have this program called well, they have two things.
They have ankle monitors for people on probation and bail
who are charged with intimate partner violence. Not exclusively, but
it is used for this so when the court see
and there's a lack of education here. So one of

(24:05):
the main risk factors, one of the big red flags
is when you see a charge of strangulation on a
court docket. So a man who has strangulation on his
court docket is more than seven times more likely to
murder his partner. And we know that. And in twenty
twenty four, the Criminal Court Code was changed so that

(24:28):
judges are allowed to take intimate partner violence into account
when determining conditions of bail. Okay, but I don't you know,
I mean it's very hard. Judges insist on being independent
and they will educate themselves, and we really need more
education for judges. We need more education for judgment. Helply

(24:49):
that there is a judge in the provincial Court on
the West Coast named Wayne Gorman, and he recently said
in a judgment. This is a quote from him. Why
are release orders so spectac secularly unsuccessful in protecting women
from their intimate partners when those partners are charged with
assaulting them? Okay, So if you see strangulation, there are

(25:10):
other risk factors that are kind of you know, they
don't seem as important. If a man is unemployed, that's
a risk factor. If there are addictions, that's a risk factor.
There's some pretty strange ones. If a woman has children
from a previous partner, that's a risk factor. So you
put all these risk factors together and you try to
determine which women are most at risk. In Prince Edward Island,

(25:31):
when a woman leaves a shelter or her partner is
ex partner is coming out of jail a time of
high risk because we can identify these times of high risk, okay,
and they are when a woman leaves their partner, when
she gets a new partner, when she files for divorce,
when her assault the person who assault he comes out
of jail. We know that these are high risk times

(25:53):
and for about six months after that, that's when you
can expect the murders to occur. And it has improved
if you can provide women with the support they need
at those times, you can reduce your homicide rate. So
why aren't we doing this here? In Prince Edward Island.
There's a program called Circle of Support and a woman

(26:15):
tells people what she needs. So maybe she needs, you know, someone,
Maybe she's worried that her the person who assaulted her
is going to come to a workplace, so maybe his
photograph needs to be circulated to everyone. Maybe they know
that if they see that face, they need to call
nine to one one right away, you know. So women

(26:36):
get to determine what they need. And Prince Edward Island
hasn't had an intimate partner violence homicide for a decade now,
the last one was in twenty and fifteen. So they
have ankle monitors and they have this support for women
who are coming out of the shelter which has proven
to be effective, and we really need that sort of
thing here. So these are easy things, you know. This

(27:00):
This is not we're not talking about expensive programs. We're
not talking about a lot of money. We could bring
someone from Prince Cybert Island is a woman in Prince
Cvibert Island went to Edmonton to show them how to
do this circle of support, and we could be doing
this so that when women feel that they can leave shelters,
that they can live normal lives and that they have

(27:20):
some confidence that somebody's got their back.

Speaker 3 (27:24):
I mean, the province has talked about expanding the ankle
monitoring program, which they should. It's been talked about for
far too long without being implemented. Claire's Law, I think
is a helpful step forward. How should you know? We're
talking about reverse owners to get bail, and we do
know that when someone finally comes forward to file a
formal complaining with law enforcement and the person accused gets bail,

(27:44):
that amps up and intensifies the potential for higher, higher
and more severe violence. So we all understand these things
to be true. So on the world of bail, what
can be done here? Because an ankle monitor and a
piece of paper that says you can't go with an
x number of lead of one person or another is
not really that valuable if someone is, you know, intent

(28:04):
on causing harm or possibly killing their partner. So how
do we actually approach that bail question or is it
simply an automatic denial of bail If one of the
charges of strangulation or how do we how should we
be talking?

Speaker 4 (28:15):
I think that start, that would be a start, you know.
And if you go into the court docket, then you
put what's the term when they violate their bail? The
term is gone. But anyway about how you know a
breach of conditions breach breach? If you put breach in
a search term and then you run the docket for

(28:35):
any day, you get, you know, fifty seventy five charges.
These people are continually breaching and so an ankle monitor
actually does help. And Prince Edward Island they've had the
ankle monitor since twenty fifteen. One man tried to a
serious assault on his partner. The ankle monitor has a

(28:58):
siren on it. The siren was triggered because they could
see from the GPS monitoring that he was going towards
the apartment building where his ex partner lived. They triggered
the siren. He ran away and got in his car.
They caught him because they could track him. So ankle
monitors can be very effective. But the other thing is

(29:20):
that men who have a strangulation charge really shouldn't be
out on veil because we see over and over again
that I mean when you look at their court dockets,
they're just breach after breach, and each time it's the
same victims. So the woman gets re victimized. She's constantly
looking over her shoulder. There are other things that can

(29:42):
be done with GPS monitoring. They can put an exclusion
zone around the woman's house and workplace, around the children's school.
They can also have a mobile exclusion zone so that
if they see the man's ankle monitor coming towards the
woman wherever she is, they can alert her. So angle
monitoring would be a start. It costs about fourteen dollars

(30:05):
a day. That's a lot lower than incarceration. It would
allow men to continue to work if they have a job,
you know, so, and it's not a violation of their
rights because the alternative is incarceration.

Speaker 3 (30:21):
I know we have a keen focus on the criminal
justice system when we talk about this, but I wonder
if we do a better job in including different departments
like education and healthcare in this conversation, because to me,
it seems like those two other departments could play an
active and meaningful role as opposed to simply talk about
criminal justice.

Speaker 4 (30:40):
Yeah, you know, education is a really, really hard one.
I knew that my friend the victim of intimate partner violence,
but if I had gone to child protection, there was
a risk that the children would be removed from her home,
and that was the only thing I could think of
that would make her life worse, you know. So as
far as education goes, very very fine line that people

(31:01):
have to walk in the education system. You don't want
to trigger anything that drastic, but viewing domestic violence is
regarded as a form of child abuse in this province,
So there's that. Now, as far as the healthcare system goes,
there is a need for greater recognition of strangulation because

(31:22):
some of the signs of strangulation can be pretty you know, subtle.
So for example, a woman has a hoarse voice, or
she's coughing a lot, or she's got damage to her eyes,
you know. And so healthcare professionals have to be taught
to identify strangulation. And I believe it's now a reportable

(31:43):
injury like a gunshot wound, you know. So there is
real room for improvement there. And one of the people
in my committee, Olivia Lynch, who's the executive director of
Violence Prevention Avalon East, recently went into the School of
Nursing and talked to them about strangulation. The police in
Autawa got special training in strangulation, so it is something

(32:05):
that needs to be identified because that is a real red.

Speaker 3 (32:08):
Flag, no question, Jennet. I really appreciate making time for
the program this morning. Thanks for doing it. Thank you
very much, my pleasure. Take good care.

Speaker 4 (32:17):
Okay, you too, bout that right, bye bye.

Speaker 3 (32:19):
Obviously that's a tricky conversation, but we've got to have them.
The numbers are clear. The core talkt is patently obvious.
All right. We've been talking about doctor Neil Patterson here
for the last couple of days during the program. He's
got an interesting story, but it's also a cautionary tale
for the problems doctor Neil Patterson. Right after this, don't
go away, welcome back to the show. Let's go to
line number two. Good morning, doctor Neil Patterson. You're on

(32:40):
the air, Hi, Patty, are you I'm doing okay? Thanks
for making time for the show.

Speaker 6 (32:45):
Well, thanks for talking about me. It's I really appreciate
the advocacy and support that you've been talking about throughout
the week.

Speaker 3 (32:51):
Yes, and I mean take this for how it's intended.
This story is even bigger than you. I mean, if
we have more doctors in your circumstance, your particular two
are considered leaving because of things like not getting paid
as per contractual arrangement. This is a big potential problem
for the province. Bring us back to signing your initial
tutor contract here. What made you do it and what's

(33:11):
been the outcome?

Speaker 6 (33:13):
Yeah, so I think you know, anybody that's been listening
is probably aware right now that I'm actually from Ontario,
and so I moved out here in part because my
brother was a medical student here at the time, and
so I completed the last part of my training here,
my residency training here in the province, and I fell
in love with the area. There's lots of lovely physicians,
there's lots of excellent nurses in the area. It's a

(33:34):
good place to work. And so when I was made
aware of these these bonuses, incentives, incentives, you know, I
was quite happy to try and pay off a chunk
of my student loans and say and work in the
province for a little bit.

Speaker 3 (33:47):
And then of course there was incentives to work as
part of a primary care team or a collaborative for
clinic whatever. People want to call it. And then they're
splitting here saying, well, because you're not deemed to be
a full time salary provider in a family care and
you've shared some of your time with emerging rooms and hospitals,
they say that now potentially that removes you from the
access to this incentive. Who asked you to cover some

(34:10):
of the shifts at the hospitals in the.

Speaker 6 (34:11):
Air, it's the same people who are setting at these contracts, right,
So it's the Newfoundland Health the NLHS or the Newfoundland
and Labradora Health Services Department, so a branch of the government,
if you will, And so I think it's important to
emphasize it, like quite clearly in my contract, it includes
all of these responsibilities at the hospital. So my time

(34:32):
in the er, my time in the operating room, my
time looking after the in patients and covering the chemotherapy patients,
all of that is quite specifically listed in my contract.
So I'm not really doing anything that's outside of what
is covered, and I'm actually fulfilling exactly what my contract
entails me to do.

Speaker 3 (34:49):
It goes on in the story to say that you're
not even sure who to speak with ADA and Health
Services about this issue. Have you since figured that out
or has anybody reached out since the story has been
in the news.

Speaker 6 (34:59):
I don't think that the there one specific person it's
responsible for this. It seems to be a group of
people and I'm not even sure if they know themselves.
But now it's all through the lawyers, and so I'm
having minimal communication with them, and it's going from their
legal department to my legal team, and so my direct
communication with them is kind of out a halt. So

(35:20):
to speak.

Speaker 3 (35:21):
Amongst your other doctor colleagues here and the problems now
that the story is that do we far from doctor
Cynthia Slade, who's the president of the NLMA, the medical Association,
that you're not alone? Have you heard from other doctors
in a similar circumstance.

Speaker 2 (35:32):
I have.

Speaker 6 (35:33):
Actually, it's been an outpouring of support from hundreds of
colleagues and around Canada, actually not just within the province.
So it's been it's been lovely to receive words of support.
But also I'm hearing more and more stories that this
isn't an isolated issue, like you said. More people are
coming forward and telling me about their experiences with an
LHS and who have been in very similar situations struggling

(35:54):
to get paid, and people even before signing their contracts
are having such a touch tough time starting and signing
to become working here that they're leaving the province before
they've even started. So exactly like you said, it is
a little bit larger of an issue than me, and
it affects the public.

Speaker 3 (36:09):
So what's your stance now? You've said you're going to
fulfill your contract, but are you steadfast on the fact
that if you don't get this money, you're going to leave,
or even if you do get paid, you're still going
to leave. What's the plan?

Speaker 6 (36:20):
Well, I'm frustrated. I think that I deserve an apology.
It's something that should have been a brief email or
a phone call a year ago. This isn't something that
started a week ago, and I'm here chating to you
today about it. Right, this has been ongoing for a
year where I've been battling, meeting my head off a wall,
trying to get what what I signed for and what
was agreed to. And so I won't quit. I wouldn't.

(36:45):
I want to fulfill my end of the bargain. I
feel like I have an obligation to the community and
to the province, and I enjoy my job. There's a
lot of great aspects of it. I feel like I'm
making a difference in people's lives. But in the end,
I do feel like I would have to put my
foot down if I'm not if I'm not being paid
by the government, then I can't continue to work here.
It wouldn't be sustainable for me when I have job

(37:05):
offers and other provinces.

Speaker 3 (37:07):
How do you think this story is heard by current
members are apartment, current students and medical schools around the country,
or other doctors considering moving possibly to Atlantic Canada or
to this province in particular, when they hear these types
of things, How do you think that resonates.

Speaker 6 (37:21):
I think it's absolutely being heard by medical students and
residents across the country and especially within the province. It's
a very close, tight knit community and there's there's not
a lot of doctors, and most people in the community
can attest to that there's not enough doctors, and so
we know each other, we talk. It's a small it's
a small circle, and so word travels fast and it

(37:41):
definitely impacts people's decisions for where they choose to practice
an anecdotal story, but a true one is my brother
is a residence physician here in the province right now,
and he's in the process of completing his studies and
he's not eager to sign on for bonuses that he
won't get. So you know that definitely impacts people's decision
making process. We graduate with one hundreds of thousands of

(38:03):
dollars in debt and many times much later in age
than other people starting their careers, and so we have
to make some headway on that, and finances are definitely
part of the decision.

Speaker 3 (38:14):
Just on a broadstroke conversation here, you know, I know
this province is entered into the Atlantic Registry. Given the
ability for doctors to work in different provinces in Atlantic Canada.
The whole concept now nation equidation or licensing part of me.
You know, I've never understood why there's a different set
of circumstances with the College of Physicians and Surgeons in
BC or Alberta, Saskatchewan, Ontario or here. Is it time

(38:37):
for this national license to be part of the issue,
Because for doctors even wanted to work a locome, the time,
the effort, the money to try to do the right thing,
just puts up a barrier the money. Doctors say it's
not worth it. Is it time for a national license?

Speaker 6 (38:50):
I would say absolutely, and I think that most physicians
would agree, and you're corrected. So it can be days
of paperwork to do a locome in another province or
sometimes even within another area of the province, and so
I think most physicians are on board with that, and
it would certainly make it easier for people to transfer provinces.
But you know, when you are dealing with such a
headache here, then maybe it's worth dealing with the headache
of moving somewhere else.

Speaker 3 (39:11):
Doctor Patterson. I really appreciate you making time for the program.
I do hope this makes it that makes its way
into the heads of the decision makers at nl Health
Services to get this rectified, because it might not just
be you, It might be another handful of doctors. That's
the last thing we can suffer as doctors leaving because
contractual obligations have not been met.

Speaker 6 (39:30):
I think that most of the public is an agreement
with that. I think that people appreciate and understand the
value that the doctors and family doctors are offering this
province and so I hope that it does make its way.
I'm not sure exactly what could be done at this
point or who exactly could change the decision, but I
would appreciate an apology from somebody at some point.

Speaker 3 (39:51):
I appreciate your times this morning, sir, Happy Holiday's, Marry Christmas.

Speaker 6 (39:54):
Thank you very much for having me pleasure.

Speaker 3 (39:56):
Bye bye, I doctor Neil Patterson. And again I I
didn't really know how to put it, but it is
a story bigger than just doctor Patterson, because if he's
heard from other colleagues in this province who are dealing
with the exact same concern, what's the likelihood of so
called greener pastures up along being made even more attractive.
We can afford this, you know, and I know that

(40:17):
we're talking about a lot of money. If there's a
significant number of doctors who haven't received incentives that can
be as lucraf has two hundred thousand dollars. But we
agreed to it, and we got to stand by it,
especially when we talk about healthcare professionals. Let's get a
breaking up. We gome back. Joe's in the queue to
talk about the roads don't go away. Welcome back to
the show. Let's go line up for three. Joe, you're

(40:38):
on the air. Good morning, Betty, Good morning to you. Uh,
twenty four hours snow Clare.

Speaker 7 (40:46):
Is that bernews plan all over it?

Speaker 3 (40:48):
No? Not just no, it's for there's fourteen roots that
I've been identified. The Minister Responsible says they're the most
heavily traveled fourteen roots that are going to get this
year's phases twenty four seven snow clear, which is not
even a thing quite yet. I don't think they've done
all the necessary hiring to make it an actual effective

(41:09):
plan quite yet. No time, Petty, Yeah, actually out there today.

Speaker 8 (41:18):
Yeah, No, I have one more person very early.

Speaker 2 (41:21):
You won.

Speaker 8 (41:23):
One of the senior sports get that Sifting fifty one.

Speaker 3 (41:28):
Comes over the course of the year, comes out quarterly
at the same time with GST because it lands on GUC.

Speaker 8 (41:34):
Now we're going to get that for sure, have we?

Speaker 3 (41:36):
It was in the budget, Yeah, administered by CIRA.

Speaker 7 (41:43):
Why don't the soul of the service is get gone up?

Speaker 9 (41:46):
Uh.

Speaker 3 (41:46):
There was a forecast at increase, but was pretty small
as far as I can recall.

Speaker 7 (41:51):
Where was that at Familiars?

Speaker 3 (41:54):
Not really sure of the timing of that would show
to be honest.

Speaker 9 (42:02):
So our senior as well. I get that's just being a.

Speaker 3 (42:04):
Hundred and fifty one dollars, right apparently, So yeah, that's
rod that can come in and absolutely, Yeah, Eric and Patty,
by no sweat, Joe appreciate the time. Yeah, Mary birth,
Merry Christmas to you as well. Yeah, by bye bye bye. Yeah.

(42:24):
That's the Senior's Benefit that is referring to. And the
maximum is fifteen hundred and fifty one dollars, and that
comes with a net family income of twenty nine thousand
dollars ish or below. Then there's a sliding scale that
goes all the way to forty three thousand dollars. You
will get less, but you still qualify for the Seniors Benefit.
Premier Wakening in addition to that, has talked about expanding

(42:45):
it by or increasing it by twenty percent. So we'll
see when that comes to past. And I think even
more importantly is when we know that whether it be
thresholds to qualified for your Guaranteed Income Supplement or Senior's
Benefit or what have you, if you set a target
five years ago of twenty nine thousand dollars, twenty nine
thousand dollars in twenty twenty is vastly different than twenty

(43:07):
five twenty nine thousand dollars in twenty twenty five. It's
just not the same purchasing power whatsoever. So it's I
think a very meaningful opportunity to have a rethink of
those access or eligibility numbers. Let's go to doctor doctor
Filler long nine one failure on the air.

Speaker 8 (43:23):
Good morning, Patty. I just had the phone in. I
heard this young doctor especially as there speaking to you.
And by the way, I just I'm not for practicing
new form man, but I practice twenty five years in
the stage. But this young man who risked a lot
obviously very bright and totally true picture. Now I'm just
going to give you a couple of other facts to
go along exactly with this type of story. Here in

(43:45):
carbnair a few years ago we had two wonderful internals there.
One was yar Yardborer and the other guy, his last
name was Reza. Reza was from England. He was a
THHD in biochemistry, fifteen years on interness on Ingram, tremendous guy.
Both of these people were very very smart and Yarboro
moved out into a clinic in the town so he

(44:07):
wouldn't be involved in the hospital because he couldn't get
his patients getting stress tests, cardiac stress tests. It took
him much longer in the hospital than if he had
had a practice out in the clinic. So he did
all this, but over a period of time, these two
people were treated very poorly by the administration the health
care system here Nuffulan and had to do with money

(44:30):
moneys that they were old especialists. Being out here in
this area, I get a bonus. Now. I can't quote
me on experts.

Speaker 7 (44:39):
On it, and I don't want to.

Speaker 8 (44:40):
Make errors because I'm not involved, but I was told
this by these and these two people ended up leaving
Yarboro left. He went suwhere in Ontario, and I know
reason went to Ontario and it was very sad. And
also I can't mention the names with people here at
the Cabnair Hospital, tremendous people double jobs and specialties were

(45:05):
being pressured about the work time they put in. Had
to write letters to them. He had a family to
raise all kinds of problems that on the bottom line, UH,
the administration here in this province. Well, there was a
matter with them. And I was a doctor who I
can make this comment. They're treating these people like their employees.
And let me tell you something, Patty, there's no one

(45:26):
a boss of a doctor. You go to school for fifteen,
for ten or twelve years, get especially, there's no one
your boss. You're in a boss. Everything comes from from
from the education and the expertise of a specialists. And
this province in the medical part of it that Sukafady
is a specialist by treating them like you know, second

(45:48):
nice clinic and second nice clinic and citizens. And this
man was on the no doubt, he risked a lot
to say this, and you know it was a real gentleman.
There's still be here. And I just wanted to back
it up and say that it's not the first time
this happened.

Speaker 7 (46:01):
It's been happening everywhere.

Speaker 3 (46:03):
Yes, and then it's the number of the extensive audits
by MCP and money's not being paid, and the stories
go on and on. And of course doctors who share
their individual stories with me, I'll keep their names out
of it because they need to be I need to
respect their privacy because they've all been told that if
you speak out, you might be disciplined. Even the Newfland
Laboratory Health Services told doctor Patterson not to speak out,

(46:25):
but he just got fed up, and it's hard to blame.

Speaker 8 (46:27):
Him, you know, the one hundred percent writer. I can
tell you just this one thing. I asked Reza. He
was a wonderful guy. He came to the house and
they showed me his PhD thesis on biochemistry. And I
might understand that I had a master's green theotico physics.
So anyway, a real, real nice guy, a gentleman. And
he dies. I'm with a heart attack, which I ended

(46:47):
up getting with our surgery. But I asked him, I said,
why are you leaving? I said, you don't like the people?
They are different. Here's a co here. He said, no,
it's just the opposite. The people are beautiful Newfouland. I
love the place. There's no discriminations, you know, freedom, nature
and everything. Is not that at all. Is the pressure
and the way he was treated by the so called

(47:09):
healthcare managers, treating him with with with salaries and workload
and all this kind of thing. I just read that Crid,
we need these people here, need we need the interness
of their caliber. God only knows out here in Carbnir
or any hospital. You know, there are a gift. They're
a gift for our society and what we have. And

(47:30):
they're the administrators. They think they're in charge. They treat
all these people that they're riding on a garbage truck.
I'm not insulting the garbage workers, but is that kind
of an attitude and it's totally wrong.

Speaker 3 (47:41):
Yes. And as doctor Patterson pointed out, and you know
it to be true, is it's a pretty small medical
community and doctors talk to doctors. When a doctor who's
considering moving to this province, here's these type of stories.
You have to believe it kind of changes their tune.
So and maybe even graduates coming from our own medical
school hear these stories and wonder whether or not there's
better opportunities elsewhere. It just can't be the case, you know.

(48:03):
And I'm not saying we have to put doctors out
of pedestal, but we have to treat them fairly. They
have to feel respected, we have to live up to
our contractual obligations. Just very fundamental things. Doctor Earl, I'll
give you the final words before I.

Speaker 8 (48:14):
Get to the news all that what you're saying is right.
I just want to say for people and never heard
me and people in the medical doctors and signa. Here
it is, and I know who I am. I'm doctor
Philip Burrow m Defon Dell Howsey. And before that I
had a master's degree in cregal quantum physics, led university
honors all the way. That's my background and from that

(48:36):
I speak.

Speaker 3 (48:37):
I appre sare your time, thanks for doing it. Thank you, Patty,
You're welcome. Bye bye. I was going to break in
for the news. We'll make it back. Tons of time
left for you. Don't go away, welcome back to the show.
Let's go line number two and David, can you put
that on for me to click? Or ain't working? Line
number two? Charlie, you are on the air.

Speaker 10 (48:56):
Oh, good morning, like all the snow is he playful
and he loves it.

Speaker 3 (49:04):
I cannot get him out of the park. It's unbelievable.

Speaker 10 (49:09):
Yeah, Ferry, I'd like to make a book recommendation. First.
It's called The Wide Wide Sea Imperial Ambitions. It's Captain
Cook's last voyage is third voyage. It's totally fascinating and
he gets killed of course in the Hawaiian Islands, and

(49:30):
he's probably more responsible for it than the natives. But anyway,
and on that note, he observed the locals young men
out on boards about six feet long, couple of feet wide, surfing,
So surfing in seventeen seventy six. Anyway, leave it at that,

(49:50):
did you do you want to make a quick comment?

Speaker 3 (49:53):
No, I don't really know what to say about it.
But what's the title of the book again, The.

Speaker 10 (49:57):
Title of the book is The Wide Sea Imperial Ambitions.
And the author Hampton sides, Okay, okay, you had the
doctor on this morning and he was talking about trying
to get his bonus two hundred thousand dollars, and I
couldn't help but think, whatever committee decides all this, they

(50:22):
allow four point nine million dollars to a doctor and
this guy has trouble getting two hundred thousand. Just seems
a little bit strange those two figures. Would you agree
with that?

Speaker 3 (50:33):
What's strange about it?

Speaker 10 (50:34):
I'm sorry, Well, that they would allow a doctor to
bill as much as four point nine million. It seems
to me that a million dollars you would start to
question things unless doctors are suddenly on a pedestal or something,
and you get this guy can't get the two hundred thousand.

(50:55):
It just seems to me that in one case they
were very very strict and watching the sense and dollars,
and the other one not so much.

Speaker 3 (51:06):
Yeah. I don't really know what oversight looks like insofar
as billing month by month at MCP, I really don't know,
but they kind of feel like two different conversations to me.
This was an incentive offered to him to work in
a family care clinic on the West Coast. He was
also then asked to work in the hospital in the
mercy room and still has not been received to his
bonus as opposed to whatever processes in place to monitor

(51:29):
billing weekly, monthly, annually, quarterly, whatever the case may be.

Speaker 10 (51:33):
Okay, it just struck me as a little bit incongruous.
But anyway, you had a guy on yesterday talking about
basically going it alone with gall Island. Am I right
on that?

Speaker 3 (51:45):
Yep?

Speaker 10 (51:48):
You know, if we haven't learned already that going it
alone from Muscat Falls, I don't know what it would
take us to. There's so many unknowns talking about data
centers and who the heck is going to finance billions
of dollars who we're certainly not going to take it
on as a province, and these companies Microsoft that's going

(52:10):
to come in spend twelve or fifteen billion dollars. I mean,
the whole thing makes no sense. The conversation we're having
no whether we should go in with this MoU thing
that has to be settled. But it seems that people
bring up these these far fetch things make it sound

(52:31):
like it's an option when it's not.

Speaker 9 (52:33):
Really.

Speaker 3 (52:34):
I don't quite understand the God alone, especially we haven't
even dealt with muskrat falls in full, so I just
don't get the concept of going the loan. To be
honest with you, like, even if you had you bring industry,
whether it be Microsoft or Meta or Jeff Bezos to
town with artificial intelligence data centers. I mean, even if
you did your very best on that front, we're still

(52:56):
talking about selling electricity at commercial or industrial rates. Turn
on that investment. Boy, it'd be a long time to
pay off what would inevitably be what thirty billion dollars
worth of building Gull Island out, and then you're still
gonna have to get some of the power out. You're
not gonna be able to use twenty two and twenty
five megawatts with the data centers, So I know why

(53:16):
people are, you know, I think it's born of the
fact that hydro Quebec in this MoU has all the authority.
Act Call gets the line's share of the power, all
the authority. We still don't really firmly understand the jobs
issues at gull Island, so I get it. A lot
of this feels like hangover about you know, distrust for
Quebec and hydro Quebec as much as anything else. And

(53:37):
I'm not saying that this MoU is perfect or it's
maybe the best deal ever. I just don't know. But
I don't think many people know.

Speaker 10 (53:44):
Well. The talk about that is almost as silly as
people talking about luscat falls is going to be so
great fifty years down the road. Meanwhile, people have to
have to pay bills that are going to go skuy
a as the years go on. The last thing I
want to mention, Patty is I want to make is

(54:05):
a couple of predictions for the new year. I'm going
to predict that Trump will release the files on UFOs,
and he of course he has reasons for doing that,
mainly distraction, but if he does it, I'll finally give
the marks for something. And the second one I want

(54:27):
to say is the stock market. I believe before the
six months is out in the new year, there will
be a crash in the stock market. It's it's over valued.
All indications point to a real breakdown at some point.
So that'll be my two predictions for you can write
those down.

Speaker 3 (54:45):
The half of the growth in market value this past
year in the United States, so on the big board fifty.
It is directly associated with artificial intelligence. I mean there's
always just look at histories, put clear. If there's that
type of alliance on one industry, one technological advancement, one
piece of innovation, it neverably there's a bubble there. And

(55:07):
when bubble's burst, it takes a direct impact on the
stock market. People's four oh one k's if we're talking
about Americans, people's pension portfolios. So I mean it's right
there for all to see. I mean the stock market
when people say that that's the clear evaluation or the
strength of the economy, not really. I mean if everyone
went to cash in and there are stocks today, then
the world will be upside down. There's no way to

(55:29):
cover the perceived or the toll value of some of
these companies. It's just not there's a lot of makeabul
heat that goes out in the stock market. Not to
say that there's not meaningful ways to invest and to
enrich your bank account and your portfolio, but boy, oh boy,
it's pretty contentious stuff in the Manipulation of the market
has long been an issue. And I don't know about

(55:49):
your other predictions, but and I don't know what Trump
is going to release. But this Friday we're told we'll
get some sort of release of some sort of information
associated with Jeffrey Epstein. I don't know how much faith
we can it in any of that stuff, but apparently
that's coming out this evening. The President is making an
address to the nation. I guess the consensus there is
going to be something to do with Venezuela and the

(56:09):
big armada that's down there. And I mean, this is
not about fentanel. It's not about drugs. It's about oil.
Same thing with Nigeria. It's not about people being persecuted,
it's about critical minerals. These things there's really not that
complicated sometimes.

Speaker 10 (56:22):
And it's also about performance and showing that I'm a
very strong man. I can go and blow up boats right.

Speaker 3 (56:29):
Yeah, I wonder what that's going to include tonight, because
if there's going to be some sort of actual war
with Venezuela, I mean, that's wild stuff to consider.

Speaker 10 (56:38):
There will be no war with Venezuela. How about that.

Speaker 11 (56:41):
I don't know.

Speaker 10 (56:43):
They'll probably attack some places on land, but he will
not send troops in there. You could take that to
the bank.

Speaker 3 (56:52):
And hopefully you're absolutely right, Charlie. Appreciate your time, sir,
rye bye bye. Yeah. I mean, I don't know what's
coming in so far as the President's addressing the nation
this evening, but they've been pretty boastful and forceful the
way they talk about issues regarding Venezuela in the recent past.
And you know, it's a funny world. So with all

(57:16):
the conversation about bombing, what we're told are drug boats
coming out of Venezuela that are not even heading to
the United States, and they've killed upwards of almost one
hundred people now in these strikes. If you dare question it,
the pushback is, oh, so you support the drug cartels,
you support the narco terrorists. No, it doesn't have to
be that way. You know, it's not a zero sum

(57:37):
game here. But American politics is fascinating to watch anyway,
lots of stuff to talk about inside of this country.
Insided this promise, and you could pick one of those
items to talk about right after this break. Don't go away,
Welcome back to the program. Sometimes I've had time deciphering
some emails, but this was a basic question about the
fiscal update offered yesterday by administer Party, and he's more
than welcome to join us on the program. Maybe we'll

(57:58):
reach out and see if you can make time for us.
But the question is basically, you know, why are we
doubting these new numbers. I didn't doubt the numbers at all.
You know they are what they are. So if the
deficit now is nine hundred and forty eight million dollars
as opposed to six hundred and twenty six, the question
I asked, which I think is reasonable, is you know,
we'll make reference to the big tobacco settlement money. We've
all known about that for quite a long time here now.

(58:19):
As soon as the budget was brought forward, and of
course we weren't told on budget day that that had
been done. It took some follow up questions from the
media to figure that out. So that's not exactly a
new revelation, but goes on to ask, you know, how
and how are they going to be able to follow
through campaign pledges with this new understanding of wherever we
are financially speaking. That's a very good question. I don't

(58:42):
really know the answer to it, but we'll see if
we can't convinced priority on to talk about how that
all jobs with campaign pledges. Let's keep going here. Let's
go to line number two. Marina around the air.

Speaker 5 (58:52):
Hi, Patty, good morning. How are you doing?

Speaker 3 (58:54):
Okay? How about you?

Speaker 12 (58:56):
I'm doing okay. I'm calling now. I usually get my
daughter to do this, but I said no, I'm going
to put my big girl pants down. I'm going to
call him myself, Patty. A couple of weeks ago, you
had talked about the MADE program, the medically assisted death.

Speaker 5 (59:16):
I don't know if you.

Speaker 12 (59:16):
Remember or app but my husband was diagnosed with pank
credic cancer a couple of years ago. He passed away,
so I just wanted to talk about our experience with
that program. Please do okay. So in June of twenty
twenty three, my husband was diagnosed terminal pancreatic cancer. It

(59:39):
was in September when he actually said to me, you know,
of all the dogs that we had and when they
were dying they had cancer, what did we do?

Speaker 9 (59:52):
So of course we gave.

Speaker 5 (59:54):
Them the needle.

Speaker 12 (59:54):
So he says, that's what I want. I supported him
with debt. Actually, the process itself went pretty smoothly for us.
It wasn't difficult, like you know, I mean, you had
to get doctor's forms completed and everything. The problem that

(01:00:16):
we ran into was my husband's health deteriorated really quickly
and he wasn't coherent enough to sign an insurance form.

Speaker 5 (01:00:29):
So what this insurance form.

Speaker 2 (01:00:31):
Is is if you.

Speaker 12 (01:00:33):
Choose a date, the insurance form allows you to change
the date. So because he wasn't coherent enough, I couldn't
change the date for him. So he went downhill pretty rapidly,
and so therefore.

Speaker 5 (01:00:54):
We couldn't We couldn't go.

Speaker 12 (01:00:56):
Ahead with the MAID program because he couldn't change the
date on the form, even though we had a healthcare
directive in place. What was told to me was I
couldn't sign that on his behalf because I would benefit

(01:01:17):
from his death. So Patty, one of the things that
I think that should happen with this is Obviously everybody
needs a healthcare directive along with your power of attorney
and your will. But I think if I myself right

(01:01:38):
now were diagnosed with a terminal cancer, I think it's
probably one of the things that I would start myself
so that my loved ones didn't have to make those decisions.
We should be able to talk to our lawyer or
a doctor or something like that. Well, we're coherent enough

(01:01:58):
to make these decisions to allow our loved ones not
to have to worry about going through what my husband
went through in the last few days of his life.
And on September twenty ninth, I spoke to.

Speaker 5 (01:02:19):
His doctor, and the doctor figured that he had a
few days left. I left the hospital, his.

Speaker 12 (01:02:25):
Sisters were with him. I came home to shower. He
died while I was at home. If that made program
was in place, I could have been with him and
he wouldn't have had to suffer as long as he did.

Speaker 5 (01:02:44):
So those are the reasons that I wanted.

Speaker 12 (01:02:48):
To call in today to say, if anybody is looking
at doing this, if you're.

Speaker 5 (01:02:54):
If you're terminal, you know you're going to.

Speaker 12 (01:02:57):
Die, do it, have it done so it's in pace.

Speaker 3 (01:03:04):
It's such a and I'm glad you're sharing your own
personal story here, you know, my thoughts on it to
me as a general concept, makes all the sense in
the world. If the prognosis is dire and you're facing
insufferable pain, a remediable condition, then this should be made
available to you. The process is pretty thorough. I think

(01:03:25):
what's unfortunately happened here, though, is that because it's available,
that sometimes people who just need additional supports are being
offered the opportunity for medical assistance and dying, and even
inside veterans affairs, if they present themselves with one concern
or another and before they even examine all the options,
asking folks, have you considered made That's not exactly how

(01:03:46):
it was intended to be utilized in this country. But
for folks who have no hope and insufferable pain is
right there in front of them and in front of
their family, this is a legitimate conversation that happen between
yourself and your doctor or doctors. So you know, it's
become a political oppotato, which unfortunately happens all the time here,
you know, as opposed to policy and the impact I
can have on an individual and family. We're talking about

(01:04:08):
the politics of it all. This should be a health
care concern, not a political concern.

Speaker 12 (01:04:13):
Absolutely, And like I said, we had the healthcare director
in place, but because they said that I would benefit
from his death, I couldn't change the date that he
had chosen, right, you know, so, and I agree, I
agree with you. I mean, somebody shouldn't be able to
just say, Okay, I'm going to choose MAID because you know,

(01:04:33):
I think I'm going to die or something like that. Right,
if you're diagnosed with you know, a terminal especially a
terminal cancer, it's there. I didn't think in my wildest
dreams that my husband and I would ever have to
have that conversation, but we did, and I supported him
with it because.

Speaker 5 (01:04:54):
I knew he was suffering.

Speaker 12 (01:04:57):
Outside of Maid. There's one last thing that I do.
I want to say, and there's been a lot of
talk on open line and through the media about the
Disability Tax Credit. So for anybody who's sick, if you
have something wrong with you apply for the Disability Health
Tax Credit because it does it is there for those purposes.

(01:05:21):
And even if you have to file the last tax return,
if FIERRA approves it, you do have that on the
final tax return of the person who passes.

Speaker 3 (01:05:31):
Away understood and helpful information. I really appreciate making time
for the show, Marina.

Speaker 5 (01:05:37):
Okay, thank you.

Speaker 3 (01:05:38):
You welcome to take good care, good bye, good bye.
I mean, it's one of those tricky ones when it
starts to get a lot of additional political commentary because
it's a healthcare conversation. Politicize and healthcare is always a
bit strange to me. Is was a story that came
out of Manitoba, and I'm pretty sure both women were
in Winnipeg at the time. Is they they had one

(01:06:01):
ill or another where all they really needed was some
additional support at home and they'd be able to manage
their symptoms, they'd be able to manage their lives. And
when that was not made available, the next thing you know,
there's a conversation about medical assistance and dying. So it's
not supposed to be used like that. The concept in
general terms just makes sense to me, Like, I hate

(01:06:22):
to be so morbid, but if I'm facing a death
sentence eternal illness, I'm going to consider it. Why not
only to avoid that type of insufferable pain for me,
but to have my family watch we deteriorate when there
is no hope, there is no cure, there is no treatment.
So in that circumstance, I just think it's a dignified

(01:06:44):
conversation and a dignified way out. And I hate to
be so morbid and think about it, but the conversation
is happening. You know. They expanded some of the issues
regarding made recently, like back in twenty twenty one, for
folks who individual their natural death isn't reasonly foreseeable, which
is strange. One. Now, what's the status of mental illness
being the sole condition? I think that was part of

(01:07:06):
the conversation last year. Has that actually been implemented. I
don't think so. I think we kind of went back
to the drawing board on that one. And that's a
very difficult conversation to have, and even people in the
mental health community are torn. Why because it's complicated. Let's
get a break in when we come back. Plenty show
left for you, don't go away, Welcome back to the show.

(01:07:29):
Let's go line number three, Lisa, you're on the air.

Speaker 4 (01:07:34):
Hi.

Speaker 13 (01:07:37):
I just canted to see if you knew any organizations
out there that are still taking names for hampers for
Christians hampers.

Speaker 3 (01:07:47):
That's good question. I know there's a weight list that
many of the organizations are unfamiliar with. They have a
wait list to get on for happers, whether it be
the Single Parents Association or the Community Food Sharing Association
or Bridges, the Hall for the Salivation Army, up and
down the line. So off the top of my head,
I really don't know the answer to that.

Speaker 9 (01:08:03):
Lisa, Okay, I don't know what to do.

Speaker 3 (01:08:07):
Well, I will give you one piece of information that
might be helpful. So if you call two one one,
because they have a real extensive network of trying to
keep up the date with some of these offerings by
different organizations, they might be able to give you a
very specific answer as opposed to what I was able
to do simply saying that there's a bunch of wait lists,
because I know that to be true because I hear
from people all the time. So if you call two

(01:08:28):
one one, you might get a specific answer to your
specific question.

Speaker 2 (01:08:33):
Yeah, it'll be good.

Speaker 9 (01:08:35):
Yeah, you know.

Speaker 13 (01:08:38):
Because I'm like, you know, it's a cass living now
is really high, you know, and I'm disabled.

Speaker 11 (01:08:48):
You know.

Speaker 3 (01:08:51):
You there, I'm listening. So if you make that call,
to two one one. If you have an answer as
to where people can put their name in for a
Christmas hamper and they're still accepting names, if you get
back to me, it'd be helpful information for the rest
of the listeners. How about that.

Speaker 2 (01:09:07):
Yes, yeah, okay, I'll do it.

Speaker 3 (01:09:10):
Then do that.

Speaker 13 (01:09:11):
I got I got two numbers there for Salvation Army
and I don't know the other one.

Speaker 5 (01:09:19):
There's something to hope for, just a hope yep.

Speaker 2 (01:09:23):
Okay.

Speaker 14 (01:09:24):
So so they called him.

Speaker 3 (01:09:26):
And just see your Yeah, that's probably their best bet.
And I tried just darling two one one.

Speaker 5 (01:09:31):
As well, Yes, and try that one.

Speaker 13 (01:09:34):
Yeah, let me know all race, yes, and I'll get
back to here.

Speaker 3 (01:09:37):
Please do Thank you, Lisa.

Speaker 14 (01:09:40):
Yeah, thank you.

Speaker 3 (01:09:40):
Welcome by bye bye. Let's keep going. Let's go to
the line number two. Ken, you're on the air.

Speaker 7 (01:09:47):
Good morning, Patty and okay, so I just listened. You
had a caller there and he was talking about fifty
one or fifteen fifty one knows what that's actually referred
to as purple pension text. Now I pulled this up online.
It seems to be it's got the Canada flag. So

(01:10:08):
things be from the government some a government website.

Speaker 2 (01:10:12):
Now, this is this article was.

Speaker 7 (01:10:17):
Posted in November twenty twenty five. But let's say in
November twenty twenty five, many and this on the word many,
Many Canadian citizens will receive a significant financial boost from
three government programs quote A Security Guarantee, Supplement income and
Canada Pension. So now, so I went one further and

(01:10:40):
I went and checked my CRA account to see if
I'd missed anything. I'm sure I would have seen it
in my bank account. But the only thing that I
got coming up for January.

Speaker 9 (01:10:50):
Is est payments.

Speaker 7 (01:10:53):
So the reason I'm calling is a lot of seniors
might have heard that and said, well, that's awesome, and
then you start looking and then gives you a sense
of alfold, you know what I mean?

Speaker 3 (01:11:02):
Yep, there is an increase coming for CPP it's two percent.

Speaker 7 (01:11:09):
Yeah, which that's not very much the case of beer.

Speaker 3 (01:11:14):
Yeah, I mean, then there's an increase in yearly maximum
pensable earnings. Increase in contribution. No, there's no increase in
contribution rate. It's it's still at what five point ninety
five percent for employer or employee? Okay, yeah, And reference
to the seniors benefit that you hear discussed on. This
program is a provincial program. It happens to be administered

(01:11:35):
by CIRA because CIRA, of course has your filings to
dictate your actual net family income for the year. So
it is a provincial program and it's provincial money, but
it's administered by CRA. That Senior's benefit the people.

Speaker 7 (01:11:48):
Okay, let me, let me get to get this right.
So that's what he was talking about. Okay. Now I
was getting just under for GST, just under five hundred
dollars a month, and all of a sudden I got
a boost. Is that why you're talking about?

Speaker 2 (01:12:03):
No.

Speaker 3 (01:12:03):
So, eligibility for the Provincial Senior's Benefit at this moment
of time is you had to be sixty four years
of age or over by December thirty first of a
specific tax year. Then it's an eligibility regarding your net
family income. It once was twenty nine thousand, four hundred ish.
Now it's up to just over thirty thousand dollars. It
floats all the way to forty three thousand, three hundred.

(01:12:24):
I think the number is maximum benefit is fifteen hundred
and fifteen hundred and fifty one dollars. That's an increase
from what was fifteen hundred and sixteen dollars and it's
paid out quarterly with GST administered by CIRA, but it's
a provincial program.

Speaker 7 (01:12:38):
Yeah, I'm pretty sure that I got that. For argument's sake,
I was getting tied undred dollars a month and then
all of a sudden, I've seen a boost, but no explanation.
So that's probably what it would the provencal boost let's
say one hundred and fifty.

Speaker 9 (01:12:52):
Dollars a month could be yeap.

Speaker 7 (01:12:55):
Yeah, So anyway, I I thought i'd call you, but
I'm not going to take a lot of your time
this morning. So like I said, when I I hope
a lot of seniors that we're listening to you don't
get don't get excited about getting a few extra dollars
in the new year because and it's many Canadian seniors,

(01:13:15):
so that don't include all of us.

Speaker 3 (01:13:17):
Great, Patty, Yeah, I appreciate your time.

Speaker 7 (01:13:20):
On that note, I want to wish you and your
family very merry Christmas. I have a good, good New
Year as well. I will be still listening Christmas comes on.
But anyway, thanks for all you do, Patty. Uh pretty
good show you got there, love it and uh Merry Christmas,
Happy New Year to you and your family.

Speaker 3 (01:13:42):
I appreciate that. Merry Christmas to you and yours as well.
Then thanks for the call. Okay, there we go, Pleasantries
on the way out. Love it. Let's go to line
number one. Hi Danny, you're on the air.

Speaker 11 (01:13:55):
Yeah, Hell Patty? Ready for Christmas?

Speaker 3 (01:13:58):
Yeah? As ready as I'm going to. Although I still
haven't bought a couple of things that I have to
share his presence bottom almost, sir, how about you?

Speaker 11 (01:14:05):
I went to the banking that the Morney, and that
was because I don't want to buy.

Speaker 3 (01:14:11):
I'm not sure what to buy? Are either, to be honest.

Speaker 11 (01:14:14):
Now what's in the White Rose? Is that?

Speaker 3 (01:14:18):
Don West White Rose?

Speaker 2 (01:14:21):
Yeah?

Speaker 3 (01:14:23):
I think first oil from the new platform was expected
early next year, I believe.

Speaker 11 (01:14:29):
Yeah, but I work in there email resources ever since
the High Burnie being built in the Heron as Modos
cream built here.

Speaker 2 (01:14:52):
For what.

Speaker 11 (01:14:54):
For the High Burnie and the Heron and the Rose South?

Speaker 3 (01:15:00):
Yeah, they just finished all of that work on shore.
I think it's all being recoupled now too for the extension,
which is going to produce another I think eighty barrels
of oil a day, and I think they'll talking about
the extended lifespan of maybe fourteen years if I remember
the numbers correctly.

Speaker 11 (01:15:20):
No time them mogles currently being built here in High
Bernia behavior on and right Rose and even a Moga
hotel down very waters Tree it's currently built to in
Mogres built here too.

Speaker 3 (01:15:41):
Which hotel sorry.

Speaker 11 (01:15:43):
The Mogra hotel besa street waterfront and a waterstree. Okay,
the Elt Hotel, the Alt.

Speaker 3 (01:15:57):
Hotel, that's I'm familiar with it.

Speaker 11 (01:15:59):
Yeah, these little bed to microw is there for that?

Speaker 3 (01:16:03):
I suppose so.

Speaker 11 (01:16:05):
Yeah, and when that's a lot of work from our
resources wecessry, I'm beating off of top sides over getting
there or we're not getting there.

Speaker 3 (01:16:20):
I don't think anybody knows at this moment of time.
They're going to offer an expression of interest to local
companies based on whether or not they can be the
cost elsewhere and hit the schedule has performed elsewhere like
South Korea or Singapore or whatever the case may be.

Speaker 11 (01:16:36):
Yep, Yeah, because we need work.

Speaker 3 (01:16:41):
We do need work.

Speaker 11 (01:16:43):
Retire actually from the federal harvem and.

Speaker 3 (01:16:47):
How long were you working with the federal.

Speaker 11 (01:16:48):
Government twenty thirty years?

Speaker 3 (01:16:53):
Thirty years okay, I'm retiring nice sixty four.

Speaker 11 (01:17:00):
Preciously follow its.

Speaker 3 (01:17:01):
Sure, retirement sounds good. It's not in the carts for
me anytime soon, unfortunately. Anything else you want to say,
Donny will be happy this morning.

Speaker 11 (01:17:12):
Who's calling ma'am? In our pipe? Fared out in Toboy
Road to Harvey's our shore had Yeah it went down here,
didn't I?

Speaker 3 (01:17:28):
Yes, I think so, Thank you?

Speaker 11 (01:17:29):
Thank you scrapped it and put trees on it.

Speaker 3 (01:17:34):
I think you're right.

Speaker 11 (01:17:38):
Yeah, I appreciate you.

Speaker 3 (01:17:43):
I don't know the answer to that one.

Speaker 11 (01:17:46):
Yeah. Oh you ever is Christmas and family and we.

Speaker 3 (01:17:51):
Cm you too, Danny, Thanks for the call.

Speaker 11 (01:17:53):
Take care of yourself, you too, by bye.

Speaker 5 (01:17:57):
Uh.

Speaker 3 (01:17:57):
Let's see here, let's get to break right on time.
Let me come back plenty for you. Don't go away,
Welcome back to the show. While Dave organized the caller online,
number three got an email asking why didn't I talk
about this? And I think it was probably offered as
a wisecrack. It's about some updated information regarding operations at
the Steven Millerport, which is not even actually designated as
an airport at this moment in time. Of course, it's

(01:18:19):
been shuttered since they cut off the power. They're a
few months back, so I'm pretty sure this was a
wisecrack email. But okay, here goes. So we do know
now that there's a Calgary based private equity manager representing
BTG Capital Inc. Has pried me acquired the rights to
collect the two million dollar court judgment against Carl Diamond.

(01:18:40):
What this actually means for operations at the airport end
of the future, I have no earthly idea, even when
people look around at what BTG Capital actually is pretty
small footprint online. I don't think there's any reason to
believe that this gives any glimmer of hope for resumption
of airport operations at this moment of time. But again,
I'm pretty sure the email er was just yank in

(01:19:01):
my chain by sending along that particular story. But it's
been close since June. I mean, it's very much akin
to conversations where when there's a need, and for instance,
in this province, when we're talking about the big scheme
of things, there's a need for an influx of cash,
and so some people point to the fiscal update yesterday
and how that might relate to potential for more moneies,

(01:19:23):
more revenue comingto the province based on the potential for
a contractual agreements with Hyder Quebec and the Province of Quebec.
I don't link the two directly, but it becomes more
tempting for folks who do see the shortcomings financially speaking.
And I don't know if we have a revenue side
problem as much as we have a spending problem in
this province, but that seems to me what happened in Stephenville.

(01:19:43):
They were struggling along city council was putting forward money
for continued operations. I can hear that in my headset
tap continued operations at the steven Ville Airport, and then
along comes Carl Diamond, and the announcement just sounded so enticing.
And this is as all as twenty twenty one, I think.
So while there was such a desperate need and people

(01:20:03):
in the region were hoping, with just some glimmer of hope,
that someone might ride in on a white horse and
save the airport, and that's what it felt like. So
it came with hundreds of millions of dollars in pledges,
hundreds or thousands of jobs, and the manufacturer of these
yet to be fully understood or designed or even the
real thing of these big cargo drones, And of course

(01:20:25):
none of it happened, And since then there's been a
pretty tattered story about operations and now the lack thereof
at Stephnville Airport. So I again, I think someone sent
it along simply because I have talked about Stevenville Airport,
even though there's not much to talk about over the
last number of months and years. But yeah, I don't
know what the implication of BTG Capital buying up or

(01:20:45):
acquiring the rights of the two million dollar court settlement
against Carl Diamond. All that said, in the last court
proceedings there were vague mentions made of BTG and what
role they might play, But it feels like it's more
a role that they'll play with Carl Diamond as opposed
to the role they might play at the steve VILLEA Airport,
even though it's a crying shamee that that went by

(01:21:07):
the wayside the way it did. And again, in another
reference to an email, is why am I all of
a sudden so concerned about how doctors in the problems
get paid?

Speaker 14 (01:21:15):
What?

Speaker 3 (01:21:16):
How can we all not be concerned? And this was
a very specific story in a conversation we have with
doctor Neil Patterson here this morning. But as I said
to doctor Patterson, and not as an intended insult, but
the broad strokes are this story is bigger than him,
because if he's not alone being in a circumstance where
he signed a contract to come to this province to

(01:21:37):
work in this province, the incentives were floated. He didn't
demand them, the province floated them and they were available
to doctors fire and wide to work in a collaborative
care clinic of which there are twenty three up and
running or currently in the process of being up and running.
So I don't know what the question means about why
am I so concerned with that? Well, if it means
that doctor Patterson leaves as a result, and he's and

(01:22:00):
doctor Cynthius Slade, the president of the Newfland Labador Medical Association,
has said that doctor Patterson's not alone. So if that's
the case, and if the potential to lose doctors because
we haven't lived up to our end of the bargain,
why is that not a concern for everybody? Because we
all see the stories about wait times between senior family

(01:22:21):
doctor and moving on to see specialists. We just know
the story about wait times and the emergency rooms. We
know about the downgrading the some of emergency rooms to
urgent care clinics and all the rest of it. So
any opportunity to keep a doctor in the province simply
by pain them based on the contract we sign with them,
I'm not so sure why that's an issue to discuss,
because healthcare pretty big deal in most people's minds and

(01:22:44):
probably at the top of the list for a lot
of people. And then you know, you get the same
reference from the same people all the time. Why just
focus on doctors? And we try not to, or at
least I try not to, because there are x number
of disciplines in the healthcare system and we need them
all to be there and fully staffed for the system
to work as intended. And that does, yes, absolutely include
nurse practitioners, which is the same person. Maybe they're a

(01:23:07):
nurse practitioner and maybe just feel slighted that they don't
enter into the conversation at the same level of doctors.
But yes, nurse practitioners absolutely a vital part of the system.
And that's not to diminish the role that other healthcare
pros will play from technicians and clinicians all the way
up the food chain to the specialists medical doctors. So

(01:23:28):
you know, we know we're entered into a pilot program
regarding nurse practitioners and moving off into the private sector
and building MCP directly. I don't know why it requires
a pilot program. I think we can all understand the
importance of being able to have access to primary care
and in this case nurse practitioner which can perform a
lot of not all of a lot of the duties

(01:23:49):
assigned to family doctors or other medical doctors. So yeah,
I think it's time to move past the pilot and
just put it out there. The fear that I suppose
that the public sector in the gard has is that
if that becomes an option, and when you work for
yourself as basically a subcontractor to the government, your hours
are more flexible, the patient roster can be what you

(01:24:09):
want it to be, as opposed to first come, first serve,
take them as they come into the public sector, whether
be at a clinic or the new ambulatory hub or
at the emergency room. So I guess that's some of
the worry, But basically for most taxpayers. I think they
just want access and the ability to go in to
get a service provided by a nurse practitioner shouldn't have

(01:24:32):
to come with putting cash on the barrelhead as far
as eignitser anyway, people may indeed have different opinions and
then I guess it was late last week we talked
about phase number two of expanding private health care in
the privates of Ontario. It's a pretty widely produced reporter.
So what they're doing is for three or maybe four

(01:24:53):
other clinics, they're going to providing hip and knee replacement
and they will be billing the public, but they'll be
offered in a private operated setting. You know, the concept
of private health care is not new. There's plenty of
private offerings in this country already, whether it be dentists,
or chiropractors or a yes, surgeons. The issue that people

(01:25:14):
speak to and the concerns that are voiced is that
unless you have a model that makes sure that doctors
can't leave the private public sector in full, like in
many parts of Europe, you can have your own shingle
hung out and offer a private clinic, but you're still
obliged to perform some duties, some level of duty in hospitals,
that's the issue because if it's a private offering, then

(01:25:37):
they will have the ability to treat people based on
the ability to pay, and they be able to pick
and choose the patients, so they maybe just will not deal.
And this is you know, I think there's a difference
between getting diagnostics done like an MRI or a cat
scan versus a surgery or other private offerings in healthcare,
because that's the concern, is that the take so many

(01:25:58):
doctors out of the public system because it might look
very attractive and enticing to be a doctor in a
full private setting, but they can come with problems. And
I mean it's a loophole, right, So if it was
accepting cash on the barrelhead to get a surgery done,
let's just pick a number, get hit perplace for twenty
five thousand dollars. The people who have the money and
are waiting for hip perplacement, they'll take it. And who

(01:26:20):
can blame them? If you're hurting and you've got the
money to rectify your pain and to get back on track.
People have the money who are going to pay it,
but those who don't can't. So I do think you
know there's a hybrid available to make things better. I mean,
just look at the numbers. There's obviously got to be
some sort of correlation, if not direct, certainly indirect of
the story that we heard last week about some five

(01:26:43):
hundred thousand Canadians this year left the emergency room without
seeing the doctor, which is a huge problem because what
happens if you can't get access to primary care. Whatever
you're ill is is likely only go to worsen. If
you go to the mergency room and don't see a
doctor and leave because of your frustrated or simply they
don't have more time to wait, then what's the likelihood

(01:27:03):
that whatever ills or whatever hurts you today is only
going to get worse in the future. And when things
get worse so we don't nip it in the butt
with a bit of preventative medicine, then it becomes more
costly because your interaction with the healthcare system will be extended,
and the possibility to be admitted into a hospital is
obviously one of the most expensive things in the country.
The two top billing issues are night in prison or

(01:27:25):
a night in the hospital. So there's a distinct reason
why we talked about this doctor Neil Patterson story because
losing one doctor is bad enough, the possibility to lose
others is obviously part of the complicated problem that we're
talking about. And to doctor Patterson's own words, the medical
community is a pretty small world. They talk with each other,

(01:27:46):
and even doctors who are outside of this province and
maybe considering coming to this province, if they hear these
types of stories, you know, that throws cold water on
their possibilities or their consideration to move to the province's
set up shop, whether it be in Saint John or
out out in Branch, who knows. But so that's why
the conversation seems to be I poorant, which is why

(01:28:06):
we've talked about it every day of this week, because
it could be a problem that becomes a snowball going
down the hill, and we hope that's not the case.
And hopefully the newfound Laborator Health Services have heard the
stories or read it in the other media outlets because
we've got to address it head on because it canady'd
become a bigger problem. Let's get a break in here
for the news. When we come back, we're speaking with you.

Speaker 1 (01:28:25):
Don't go away 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 3 (01:28:44):
Welcome back to the show. Let's go to line number one.
Secon went to the maryor Mount Pearl. That's Dave Acre,
mayor Acre. You're on the air.

Speaker 7 (01:28:50):
Goodbody, Patty, how's everything very well?

Speaker 3 (01:28:52):
Thanks? How about you?

Speaker 2 (01:28:53):
Good?

Speaker 9 (01:28:54):
Tired of the weather, early winter, hopefully they have an
early spring. But I'm well, Thank you very much.

Speaker 3 (01:28:58):
Glad to here. Let's dig into the most recent budget
tabled by the City of Mount Pearl. You know, there's
a lot of reference to public safety therein and there's
a specific earmark of two hundred thousand dollars. Questions are
being asked about exactly how's that two hundred thousand dollars
going to be spent regarding public safety or to increase
or has public safety.

Speaker 9 (01:29:15):
We're going to roll out our safety plan now in January.
And you know, they've been hard to work, the committee.
They've had eight focus groups, twenty two interviews with members
of the community. We did some surveying. I know it
takes a bit of time, Paddy, but we're not really
dragging our heels. We're working with our partners on this,
which include the arn C and the Department of Justice,
World's community groups, and you know, we're getting there. But

(01:29:37):
I can tell you that the focus is going to
be on youth safety and engagement. So recall some of
the incidents that we had in non peerl It's Ford
our public meeting last year ago November. That was more
about the youth creating a bit of havoc, you know
at certain parts of the city, and we saw some
very abusive and criminal style behavior, you know, impacting some

(01:29:58):
of our residents. But so to make our focus will
be making safe and inclusive public spaces, you know, the
park areas, and that we're people around publicly, and our
seniors are telling us they want to feel more comfortable.
So we're going to focus on that and we're going
to create safer places for our youth, which includes increasing
the programming that's available at the Root Center for the

(01:30:18):
youth in our community to do things after school. We've
always had a good program up there, but it will
be beefed up and likely also some of it may
be relocated to other parents in the city. And finally,
you know, we're trying to strengthen the communication between us
and the police, our residents and Patty. You'll agree with me,
I'm sure that safety is everybody's responsibility. At the end

(01:30:40):
of the day, it's no good for me to sit
here and say I've been talking to the chief and
police and it's all in the R and Z. The
R and C are probably going to say, well, your
mis enforcement people need to step up and we need
the liaison better. So rather than spending all of our
time going in circles debating and arguing about we will
announce the plan in January, but a lot of work
has gone through it. I've asked to aff the question,

(01:31:01):
you know, the things that we're going to do in
this plan, how do we know they work? And they've
been a little bit ahead of me and getting the answer.
But we're joining the Upstream program, which is run by
the Canadian Center for Safer Communities. There are ten piloted
sites across Canada and that's what it's all about, comparing
notes and seeing what things work and what things don't work,

(01:31:24):
and making sure that we're doing the right things. The
ten pilot sites our community is very similar to us,
and they just don't talk about police interaction, police monitoring
your community. But it's about empowering all of our communities
to shape locally grounded prevention strategies. And I'm quoting from

(01:31:44):
the set of notes here when I say that patty
and prevention is the key word here. So I can't
get into all the details. My colleagues want to wait
till after Christmas to make that announcement. So when we
do the budget, though, we had to make a provision.
And while two hundred thousand seems like a very small amount,
you know we're spending every year. We're spending well over

(01:32:04):
a million dollars already on minis enforcement and safety related
measures here in the city Mount Pearl. So the two
hundred thousands over and above.

Speaker 3 (01:32:12):
That, So for complication, the two hundred thousand dollars is
that for the full five years of community safety and
the well being planners at two thousand dollars for this year.

Speaker 9 (01:32:22):
That is two hundred thousand dollars for twenty twenty six,
and we will implement more of the plan as it unfolds.
So that's the first year's allotment. It likely will not
be spent immediately, so you can picture that being annualized
to be more than two hundred thousand. So the budget
for twenty twenty seven will be even higher again to

(01:32:43):
annualize that two hundred thousand, and then on top of
that there will be new measures introduced, but some of
those new measures may be the responsibility of the provincial government,
the RNC in the Department of Justice. We haven't worked
all the details out, but you know, Patty, and everything
we do, the finances always guide us in terms of
what we're football level and what we can sustain.

Speaker 3 (01:33:02):
In the city Saint John's we saw an increase in
overall spend of about five percent for your budget up
an annual increase of seven percent, but everything stayed the
same regarding mill rates for industry, commercial, residential, water fee
is the same, waste collection the same. So is that
a property value our property assessment related issue to be
able to absorb a seven percent increase, Yeah.

Speaker 9 (01:33:22):
It's and there's a bit of a misnomer out there.
Nobody here has said we did not increase taxes. Everybody's
got their assessments from the assessment agency. They received them
in early December. How it's impacting you depends on what
you have in your hands in terms of an assessment.
But I can tell you ninety eight percent, and I've
never seen this before, ninety eight percent of all of

(01:33:44):
the assessments went up here in the city Mount Pearl,
which is reflecting a very strong but cash poor housing market.
There's a lot of low interest rates, I should say,
driving sales up. And you know, as a result, Patty,
we're up to a total seven percent. So if people
want to say that there's an increase in spending in taxes,

(01:34:06):
that would be true. But the city has always maintained
this position that we can't tell any particular homeowner or
any group of homeowners how much taxes have changed by.
But the seven percent is made up. We have three
point nine million dollars and I asked aff long before
the budget, and my colleagues wanted to know what's causing
it to go up. And the interesting part about it

(01:34:26):
is that we know inflation is still impacting us. We're
still running it around two percent that continues to annualize
every year, and the you know, things like regional services
are up from the City of Saint John's by seven
hundred and fifty thousand, more money for fire, more money
for wastewater. They're about to begin the secondary treatment plant
down down at the Harbor, and at the end of

(01:34:49):
the day that could cost the region anywhere from three
hundred to four hundred million dollars. So this is just
the start of it there. And yeah, perhaps you might
see new tax lines on every everybody's budget for a
little bit more transparency and accountability, So think wastewater going forward.
Our statutory and debt costs are up eight hundred thousand dollars,

(01:35:10):
Daddy salt is up two hundred grand, and we have
to spend that money to keep the roads safe. We
have more money for road maintenance and other resources. So
just to be transparent, our operating increase was three point
million dollars three point nine million, and it wasn't just inflation.
And our total budget is up, yes, seven percent from

(01:35:31):
an operating twenty of view, but that includes in our case,
that includes provisions for capital as well. And we're in
a four year cycle for council, so year one typically
is when you start to increase your capital budget so
you can make sure your roads are all taken care
of your your asset management type items, if you know
what I.

Speaker 3 (01:35:51):
Mean, Patty, absolutely, and of course it is missed and
over said that even if things hold steady on mill
right front, mil Right is only half of the equation
we're gotten by eventual prop pretty tax. So I understand
that same conversation. We have Deputy Mary Ellsworth here a
couple of days ago. Public transportation. We know ridership with
metro buses up. A lot of it can be attributed
to bus passes given to low income earners. We know

(01:36:13):
a lot of newcomers are using public transportation. You're talking
about extension service hours for a couple of routs. I
can't remember what they are, twenty one to twenty two.
Possibly do you have right? Do you happen to know
the ridership numbers for Mount Pearl residents.

Speaker 9 (01:36:26):
I don't have any ridership numbers just for Mount Pearl.
We are doing surveys, some of them being done online,
some of them being done on the buses. I don't
have the results in front of me, but there's an
indication that there's more and more non Mount Perer residents
coming to the city to work and our business community
are echoing that too, right. So the extension of the
existing roots is to make sure we have more coverage

(01:36:49):
primarily for bringing workers in and for making sure that
when they finish their shift, for example at Walmart or
places like that, that they can also get home and
pat Do you know the region's grown right, Like the
treason between the cities and the town is gone, and
that metrobal service now is very much your regional service
moving people around. And likely we'll reach out further into

(01:37:10):
Paradise and further down to CBS someday.

Speaker 3 (01:37:12):
There's a couple of years ago there was a proposed
economic development partnership between CBS, Mild Pearl and Saint John's. Eventually,
very late in the day, Mount Pearl pulled out. So
can you give us some update on economic development conversations
that may be here between Paradise, CBS and Saint John's
or just Mount Pearl.

Speaker 9 (01:37:29):
Specific Well, yeah, Mayor Brain said, if we ever wanted
to get back in, no problem there. But those conversations
happened more at the staff level. We're not part of
the threesome that started this new economic development agency. It's
large ar concern was the amount of administration that's gone
into it. It's also very difficult Patty to say, here

(01:37:50):
are the results of what you've done. Instead, we are
focusing on working with the Chamber of Commerce here, the
Mount Preparadise Chamber of Commerce, as well as the business
owners and Donovans. This year alone, we're going to spend
one point three million dollars to increase road safety, egress
and access on the roadways, as well as put in
sidewalks there indubments. That's the feedback we're getting from our

(01:38:11):
business owners. Our general feeling is if we can make
them and when I say happy, I don't just need
it from a physical point of view. If we can
make them happy in their business dealings, at the end
of the day, we're all successful, you know. Donovans much
like Glenn Press, much like Camout Business Park. The core

(01:38:32):
of the region is in three particular municipalities. We're mostly
a logistical hub. We're not all oil based. There's a
lot of warehousing and a lot of retailing goes all
away in tops of the road goes all away, came
Mount Road and the Lake right so the three town
Sorry Paradise, Mount Pearl, Saint Johns. Each of us has

(01:38:53):
a slice of that core business. That's basically making sure
that goods and services move into our region and move
to the you know, the retailers for customers as well
as to us as residents and other businesses.

Speaker 3 (01:39:05):
Ippreshire your times for the Mariak or anything else before
we say goodbye.

Speaker 9 (01:39:08):
Thank you, Patty, No, I'm following Mary. Christmas to you
and family.

Speaker 3 (01:39:11):
Very same too, Thanks for making time. Bye bye smart
Dave Aaker, I'm mom pearl. Let's get a break in,
don't go away, welcome back, Let's go line number two. Hi, Erna,
you're on the air. Hi, Patty has going grand you?

Speaker 14 (01:39:26):
Oh well, okay, it's more or less shut up and
put up Bell Island lack of service one moot.

Speaker 15 (01:39:34):
Uh.

Speaker 14 (01:39:34):
The Beaumont Hamo, for some reason now is going to
bab Opperts. It always went to Long Pond, or went
to Bell Island, or went to Portugal Cove, depending on circumstances.
But now I'll let you they keep sending it to
Baby Roberts. It's not saving us any money by not
having this boat run because number one, they're pain in

(01:39:56):
Baby Roberts to have that dock there or in Long
pot and it costs for that fuel, back and forth,
back and forth, but it's not making no troops for
Bellan today. It's got on there at nine point thirty
weather conditions. We'll go back in service when it improves,
when they see when it's feasible. In regards to this

(01:40:17):
spout to our story issues that's been going ongoing for years,
but now all of a sudden, the captains are not
comfortable with this, and it's the captain's discussion, but we
have to have somebody with experienced marine experience with running
these boats, and they have to be called out on
what they feel comfortable running them. On the other day,

(01:40:38):
twenty and Gustine twenty nine, they were going to take
it to Roberts. All of a sudden they started to
pay Roberts. Then they decided to run it. Patty, if
anybody else, you'd be working yourself at a job.

Speaker 8 (01:40:51):
But again, you're.

Speaker 14 (01:40:52):
Only as good as your management. And if you don't
have any management, and you're making the calls from getting
away with it. And I feel feel for the workers
on the Legionnaire because they're left to do the work
and are they being.

Speaker 8 (01:41:06):
Rewarded for it?

Speaker 14 (01:41:08):
Are they being thought about?

Speaker 12 (01:41:11):
No?

Speaker 14 (01:41:11):
But I do think about them and I appreciate them
that because if we didn't have the crew on the Legioneire,
we would be isolated on bell Island. And in regards
to what's coming up from for us in January, the Legionnaire,
I don't know if you're aware of it, that is
going for a refit for the bow trusters. So they
couldn't do it with the refit when it was gone

(01:41:33):
for six months, because they couldn't take it at the water.
But they did take it to the harbor, but they
didn't bother to take it at the water. Whether they
didn't have the space or they didn't have the crane,
I don't know. But after it goes the Legionnaire, which
is not the swing vessel, as you heard them saying.
The swing vessel is the Beaumont and the Astront and

(01:41:56):
the Keen. Excuse me, I may not be saying it right,
but it's the Knutic that goes to Fogo in the
winter when there's anything wrong with the veteran. When the
veterans goes for it's two weeks work. The Lesionaire is

(01:42:16):
leaving bell Island and we are left with the Flanders
that isn't even back yet. Was supposed to be two
months work. It's three months now and it just was
put around to another spot to put it on dry
dock to get the work done that they say it's
going to take two months, but they're saying it should
be back the end of this month. We're stuck with
that and Beaumont with the.

Speaker 15 (01:42:38):
Bow Thruster issues.

Speaker 14 (01:42:40):
Just where is the work going to take place with
these boats not going to happen? So we're at this
and the Lesioneer is going to Fogo. Why isn't it
not the Beaumont and the astroant doing that work there.
And in regards to traffic, we are the ones with
the traffic that never changes because you've got to realize
we are commuting.

Speaker 15 (01:43:02):
Community.

Speaker 14 (01:43:03):
We commute for our jobs, we commute for medical, we
commute for education, and this is where it goes. But
in regards to what is going on, I thought that
when a new party came in that they would take
accountability and they would look for accountability. Mister Patten, I'm

(01:43:26):
here and I'm asking you and maybe Patty you may
get some information in regards to what is going on
with the boat system because it's gotten. It's getting worse.
And I don't know if people realize, but when the
Flanders goes to the harbor and sets it, it's costing

(01:43:46):
every day it's costing to have that park.

Speaker 3 (01:43:49):
There vern a quick question. What's the difference to Bella
and residence if one ferry or another is in Bay
Roberts versus long.

Speaker 14 (01:43:57):
Poundin Well, you how long is it going to get
from play Roberts to hit number one? Number two? Why
is it in may Roberts? Why is it with Bay Roberts, Like,
we don't know. They're not giving us information to why.
And in regards to you've got to stop and think
about it. Okay, if the legionaire breaks down, how long

(01:44:19):
before it gets from.

Speaker 16 (01:44:19):
A Bay Robbers?

Speaker 5 (01:44:20):
Can you tell me No?

Speaker 14 (01:44:22):
I think it's an hour and a half long time.
I think it's forty five minutes. An hour and a
half to forty five minutes. When people just have to
have in surgery, or they're just have to having treatment,
or they want to get home from work, that half
hour forty five minutes makes a real big difference. And
in regards to the boat, nobody wants to tell what's

(01:44:43):
going on, why it's going on and who is in charge?
Who is qualified marine experience. I know there's one guy
in particular, and it's mister.

Speaker 15 (01:44:56):
Mrloney who has.

Speaker 14 (01:44:58):
Experience qualification and he has reached out to this department
in regards to willing to help them to cost efficient,
to running efficient, to accountability, and they're working on it.
We haven't got much time to work on it. Okay,

(01:45:20):
we don't have much time the people of Bell Island.
I mean, is it just going to be a matter
of time before something dramatic happens? And like I say,
I moved here thirty years ago. And if that boat,
like I say, in regards to I think that captain
should be taken and saying okay, where do you feel

(01:45:42):
comfortable to run a boat? What conditions? Is it disgusting?
The fifty is it gusting?

Speaker 8 (01:45:48):
The sixty?

Speaker 14 (01:45:49):
Is it with the undertoe? Is it that should be
all placed out by qualified management? And then they go
back to Transport Canada and is this sufficient? Is this
captain sufficient for here? Or maybe we should put the
captains in other places if they don't feel comfortable here
with this situation. Because I know the boat in regards

(01:46:10):
to running across the ticket, it can be really scary.
But I was always told years ago, I'd say, is
it going to be rough? Well, ma'am, if you feel
that way, I think you stay where you're at. And
the captains had confidence, and now I don't know if
it's because of management or not feeling that they have

(01:46:32):
their back that if something did happen, are they Because
the captains are responsible for the boat and if they
make the wrong call, they are. But twenty nine gusting,
that's a petty, that's kind of it's time for somebody
to And as far as the Legionnaire, why is it
leaving here when it has to leave to go to

(01:46:52):
dry dock for the bad trusters? Is the veteran coming
to Beilan According to the last set update we have
it's not. But the Kemutic is going to Fogo, So
Fogo will have the Keemutic plus the Legionnaire or the
veterum when it comes back. As far as the Kemutic,

(01:47:16):
it does not fit in Fortugal, coved, it does not
fit that lot of in regards to it. In Fogo
it is. It may not be perfect, but it does
work here it can't work and I'm not trying to
compete one off against the other. I'm just saying we
need answers. We need the answers to why, and maybe

(01:47:38):
if we had a picture of it we could understand.
I don't understand Fogo anymore than Vogo understands us. But
if the management who are qualified can't answer these why
can't they and why wouldn't they want to?

Speaker 3 (01:47:52):
Fair question? So the flanners is in dry dock right now, right.

Speaker 14 (01:47:56):
For extent September fifteen. Yeah, I appreciate the time went
and it just went to dry dock. It wasn't in
dry dock, it was in the water, and they pay
every date.

Speaker 3 (01:48:07):
For that that they do. I appreciate the time I
got to get to the news break. But stay in touch.

Speaker 7 (01:48:13):
Thank you.

Speaker 14 (01:48:13):
I have a great tap too.

Speaker 3 (01:48:15):
All the best, goodbye. Yeah, and you know you've mentioned
fairies and now what we understand to be a better
understanding by the government of the fiscal reality. I guess
it does big questions about the pledge to build four
fairies here in this province to be used on bought runs.
We don't know what size and capacity of fairies. We
don't know that either, but that was one of the

(01:48:36):
pledges made, is that the government would build four fairies
in this province for use in this province. There is there's,
you know, the Ganda market looking for potential additional what
would be a swing vessel. And that's the tricky thing
to satisfy too, because not every run is created equal
or has the same needs, and not every doc can
handle every single ferry either. So what they actually mean

(01:48:57):
by that not entirely sure. But let's get a break
in for the new so make it back a couple
of segments left for you.

Speaker 1 (01:49:02):
Don't go away the Tim Power Show. Join the conversation
weekday afternoons at four pm on your VOCM.

Speaker 3 (01:49:10):
Welcome back. Let's go to Lene number one. Rex, you're
on the air.

Speaker 2 (01:49:15):
Good morning, Patty. How are you.

Speaker 3 (01:49:16):
I'm doing okay? Thank you? How about you?

Speaker 2 (01:49:19):
And that's duck tating tream one all is not doing
the job anymore of them still plugging along. But anyway,
I called you back. I called you sometime back about
where's the labor law is to protect the working class
and stop the abuse and injured workers by big companies
in WSIB. Anyway I've said to you back then, like

(01:49:44):
you know how you lose the benefits at age sixty five,
but you're still left to deal with the injuries. I
just found it also did Okay, I'm going to lose
the benefits, so I'll apply for my CP disability. Well
at the age of sixty five, you know the longer

(01:50:05):
qualified for disability.

Speaker 3 (01:50:09):
Why not.

Speaker 2 (01:50:12):
You got to be underage sixty five.

Speaker 3 (01:50:14):
It's one of those okay, right right.

Speaker 2 (01:50:19):
And another thing like you had a woman calling after
that said, you know, she got injured, she's out fork
she had nothing coming in. So I felt for that
woman because I went through the same thing myself, like
I got injured and I was I had nothing coming

(01:50:41):
in for twenty six weeks. Lucky I never lost everything
and ended up in the street. But anyway, this is
the game. Like big companies in WSIB got calling, Like,
you know, you get up, you're not capable of going
to work, so you're phone injury work related. You don't
be lying getting a call from the company. Oh what's

(01:51:04):
going on? So you tell them anyway, he says, okay, well,
after you see the doctor, if you want to come in,
we got modified duty for you. Like it's a miracle.
Like I'm sitting here in the doctor's office. I don't
know what's wrong with me. I'm waiting to see the doctor.
But you know, you think you know just what I'm

(01:51:28):
capable of doing. So if you can't make it, if
you can make it in the work, do you have
to pay you for today? But if you don't go in,
the company is off the hook. Then it goes to
WSIB and D says, oh, your employer have modified for you,
but you refuse it, so we're not paying. This is

(01:51:52):
the game that's.

Speaker 3 (01:51:52):
Going out Rex. How long ago were you injured on
the job.

Speaker 2 (01:51:57):
I got injured in nineteen, in nineteen June twenty nineteen.

Speaker 3 (01:52:02):
And what type of injury did you suffer?

Speaker 2 (01:52:04):
If you don't mind me asking, well, I developed ten
of nights in boat's shoulders and I got what the
capital impaction in boat wrists? All the cushion has gone
between the little bones and your wrists.

Speaker 3 (01:52:22):
And is recovery working at all?

Speaker 2 (01:52:26):
No, it's just getting worse. And you know, like, despite
what my doctor said, despite what I said, I was
accused of just trying to get the summer off, working
about in restrictions right. So anyway, twenty years next to

(01:52:49):
perfect attendance there and went about in the restrictions that's
what the nurse accused me of. And anyway, despite what
I said, my doctor said, he sent me to see
their doctor, a surgeon who also put me off work,
and I started seeing his physio group. In the first

(01:53:13):
three visits, I met up with eight other associates who
wasn't there half the lenged time I was, wasn't half
my age out similar injuries. So that'll tell you something.

Speaker 3 (01:53:31):
Absolutely. And my subject line here says stigma of being
an injured worker? Is that something that you said to
Dave Rex? No, okay, just curious because if that was something,
I was just going to see what that actually meant
for you. No.

Speaker 2 (01:53:47):
And anyway, so you know, like when their doctor put
me off a phone phone WSIB back and anyway, I said,
did you review the new medical documentation and she says, yeah,
she said I did. Oh she says that's hereditary, so
we're not approving your claim. Right after working physical work

(01:54:12):
out my life all of a sudden, I was born
like this. So anyway, you know, it was thanks to
the office of the Worker Advisor that I finally got
my claim approved. But you know, you go through the
abuse doesn't stop there. This work transitioning that's another form

(01:54:39):
of abuse there, because they're just trying to force you
on a reduced rate. Like d said to me, he says, oh,
you're capable doing entry level jobs. Oh, the offered me
a computer course with Dragon software. Well I didn't. That's

(01:55:00):
not the type of work that I do. I have
worked physical work on my life. I'm not a computer person.
Thought no. She would keep phone back, you know, she
didn't want to hear me say I was interested in
the computer course. She would go back to over and over. Oh,

(01:55:20):
most people don't want us to bother. They'll say, put
me on a reduced rate. I'll find my own job.
But every time, every time I would say I was
interested in the computer course, this is what you go
back to. So anyway, I ended up having to pay
eleven hundred dollars myself after I won my case to

(01:55:42):
hire a WSIB lawyer just to have dissatisfaction to say
to her when she called me, if you got any
questions on my file, I have a representative. Now you
call her just to try. And then on top of it, regardless,

(01:56:04):
they will get you on the reduced rate because you
got no. There's nothing to protect the injured worker. And
they will get you on the reduce rate eventually.

Speaker 3 (01:56:20):
Yeah, I mean, it certainly doesn't seem to work as
it's intended to, because nobody wants to get hurt on
the job. And if a doctor has deemed you too
injured to resume your actual job, whether it be physical
work or otherwise, I mean, that should kind of be
the end of it. And then it even gets more
tangly for folks who want to appeal some decisions made
at workplace because they don't even hit their own self

(01:56:41):
imposed timelines for the turnover for appeals. So it's amazing
to me. We used to have a lady who call
as an advocate for injured workers here in the program
fairly frequently, and that hasn't happened for quite a long
time here now. But wreck anything else while we have
you this morning.

Speaker 2 (01:56:58):
No, let's about it. Uh, it's about it, Patty. I know,
I know. I was out twenty six weeks under dead,
didn't have any income coming in. My company called me
and said we want you here for a meeting. So
you don't have a union there, so what choice do
you have? I go down. I'm sitting in a little

(01:57:21):
box room off to me in office, three of them
on one side of the table, me on the other.
Dare looking at me saying it's our meeting. We talk,
you listen. So anyway, he started off. He said, w
s ib de nigra claim your absence from mark is unsupported.

(01:57:42):
We offered you modified and you declined it. And I
went to say because it wasn't suitable modified, and he went,
we're not finished. So I sat there and let him finish,
but detailed I was coming in. I'm prepared, so knew.
I sat there in Lenham finished and one day, one

(01:58:04):
day finished, I pulled the binder at the bag with
almamedical documents in individual clear plastic sheets, open up to
the fourteen page specialty doctor report with the list of
limitations and precautions. I said, you read that, and D
said what's this? I said, that's your specialty doctor report.

(01:58:24):
I said, don't you have that? And she said, D
said no, Can we have a copy of yours? I
said sure. I said you can see nowt elbows at
the side, risks in a neutral position. I said, g
knew the modified you're offering wasn't suit the suitable modified.
I said, but ye uh, but ye offered it anyway,

(01:58:45):
and I said, that's harassment on your part. And when
I said the H word, arms went up there.

Speaker 3 (01:58:52):
Yeah, no doubt. I got to get going, Rex, But
I hope you're doing okay.

Speaker 16 (01:58:57):
Yeah.

Speaker 2 (01:58:57):
Well, you know you can't sleep at night in bed
and everything starts flaring up and you're like a rotisserie
chicken because you can't get comfortable.

Speaker 3 (01:59:07):
Nohow, I'm familiar with that.

Speaker 2 (01:59:08):
Unfortunately, you're up half tonight, you know, because you're in pain.
And you know, like like I said, at age sixty five,
you're still left to deal with the injury.

Speaker 3 (01:59:21):
But they're off the hook, like you look at I understand.
I do have to get going. Five more seconds, Yeah,
just one quick.

Speaker 2 (01:59:30):
Like you know, talking about this home invasions, like if
you do anything to protect you protect yourself, you know
you can be charged. How can big companies run you
beyond your limits day after day to the point where
you get injured and you got you can't do nothing
about it.

Speaker 3 (01:59:50):
It's a fair question and a big one at that.
I do have to get going, rect take no care.
Thanks for the.

Speaker 2 (01:59:54):
Call, okay, Patty, thank you very much.

Speaker 3 (01:59:56):
You're welcome here, you too, Bye bye, bye bye. All right,
final break in the morning Away, welcome back to the show.
Let's go to line number three. Collar you're on the.

Speaker 15 (02:00:04):
Air, Yes, Patty, I want to just express an opinion.
I'm not taking any your blame or anything else, okay,
just my opinion. Well, recently we had a physician that
was suspended and if you read the paper, you read
it's about the money. Founds about money, right because compared
one year's valary to another way that implies it's about

(02:00:26):
the money. Okay. Now, he was not suspended by Medicare,
and Medicare MCP is the people that look after money.
So he was suspended by the NLCPS, right, which is
the New Faland and Labrador College of Physicians and Surgeons.
That's right, correct, now, very mandate. I don't think it

(02:00:49):
is to go auditing spending. I think to Mandy's got
to do more with practices and qualifications and listening and
to see that the job is being done properly, not
accusing anybody even thing on. But here's my point. I
think that the onus is under the NLCPS to let

(02:01:12):
the people of new Land know that the work they
had done by that specific doctor is true work and
you need.

Speaker 7 (02:01:22):
Not worry because if I had work done by.

Speaker 15 (02:01:26):
That particular doctor who everybody knows, and all of a
sudden I even get to blink faster, I gets water
in my eyes or it gets some funny looking feeling
or quiver, I'm going to say to myself, I wondered
it was that done?

Speaker 2 (02:01:40):
Right?

Speaker 15 (02:01:41):
Did I have it done at all?

Speaker 2 (02:01:42):
What?

Speaker 15 (02:01:43):
So onto the NLCPS tells us, this's got nothing to
do with that doctors practice. You can rest short. What
you had done is properly. I don't feel comfortable, and
that's all.

Speaker 3 (02:01:59):
I and I think it's a fair point. And it's
the point that I made when the story first broke.
I was reported initially by all the Flan Labrador. We
have no idea why this doctor was suspended.

Speaker 15 (02:02:08):
I have no idea, So I said, exactly, look if
it's money sentence to the RCMP and assures that the
work we had done is good, and I have no
reasona believe it or not, because this man was very
very well qualified, according to what we're told.

Speaker 3 (02:02:26):
Well, absolutely, his academic background and training was top notch.
So you're you make an excellent point for folks who
had worked one by doctor Harry Dang if they're actually
worried about the basis for this suspension, it's a fair question.
I don't know when we're going to hear from the college,
but they do owe people an explanation, yes they.

Speaker 15 (02:02:44):
Do, oh people in explanation, and otherwise, you know, you
might get people going back to that saying, look, I
had this done and it is not improved. Did I
have it done? Did I have it done right? Anyway,
but just my opinion, and thank you for listening.

Speaker 3 (02:02:56):
I appreciate your time, thank you, thank you, Welcome Papa.
It's a fair point because I know why we lean
in on the billing because it's an extraordinary in year
number what do he bill? Just over seven hundred thousand dollars?
Year number two almost five million dollars. So there's I
guess that's why the reporting work the way it did.
But we have no idea why suspent it. Let's go

(02:03:16):
to line number one, collar around the.

Speaker 7 (02:03:17):
Air, nice hi, hi ya.

Speaker 17 (02:03:24):
Do you mind repeating what you were talking about? When
someone asked about what money and how much that we're
going to get in January, someone says something about fifteen
hundred dollars, and I thought I don't know nothing about it.

Speaker 3 (02:03:40):
Right, for those who qualify for the provincial program called
the New Fland Labrador Seniors Benefit, which will be paid
out quarterly if people are eligible and eligibility for it
is so whether it's a single or a couple seniors
with a net family income of up to thirty thousand dollars,
just over thirty thousand dollars, they qualified for the maximum benefit,

(02:04:01):
which is fifteen hundred and fifty one dollars over the
course of the year that those both those numbers have
increased recently, so that's the basics of it. Now there's
a floating target from thirty thousand dollars all the way
to forty three three hundred dollars, so you'll get a
reduced benefit, but the maximum is fifteen fifty one. It
comes out quarterly, same time you get your GST and

(02:04:24):
it is administered by the Candada Revenue Agency.

Speaker 14 (02:04:27):
Okay, thank you so much.

Speaker 17 (02:04:29):
Merry Christmas, you and David and all your family.

Speaker 3 (02:04:32):
Very same to you. Thank you, okay, bye bye, all right.
Likely final word goes the line number two Gerald around
the air.

Speaker 16 (02:04:40):
Good morning, Patty morning. So you must find your job
very frustrating. Do you sometimes, Yeah, because apparently from my
observation down to college, we don't have a functioning problems.
We have we have a problems not functioning properly. And

(02:05:01):
let's say if the evidence of has the cause that
you're getting about the number of frustrations and things that
aren't the operation, well, and it seems that the root
cause is a lack of accountability. It seems that there's
nobody accountable forrensing in dis government.

Speaker 3 (02:05:23):
You know, I think that's a fair observation. And you know,
we'll talk about accountability every four years of an opportunity
to vote for a different party or a different candidate,
but accountability should roll a little further down the org chart,
Like I mean, a lot of the power and the
knowledge about different government operations are in the heads and
the hearts of the senior bureaucrats, and most of them

(02:05:44):
are nameless, are faceless, like we never get to ask
them anything. It is the responsibility of the minister, but
an awful lot of government operations is well below the
ministerial level.

Speaker 16 (02:05:54):
And I think that you know, this problem is in
dire finance to position and there's people, there's people that
are accountable for that because the politicians that we have elected,
all the people they are accountable, they bought the problems
to the state were run. The financial precipice and the

(02:06:20):
Premiere Fury brought in the what's the name Dame Green?
The why Green Report?

Speaker 3 (02:06:29):
You know, the the Premier's Economic Recovery AM way a green.

Speaker 16 (02:06:33):
Yep, yeah, and yesterday the Economic Update. We were the focus.
The focus on the of that event was was would
they would can you fulfill the problemss that you've made?
You know, that's what you get. You know you're elected.
Will you will you be able to borrow more money

(02:06:55):
to fulfill these these these problems that that you've made,
when the focus should be why aren't you addressing the
eight hundred pound grella in the room right now, which
is the debt that's going to sink of.

Speaker 3 (02:07:13):
I don't disagree. I talk about debt and episodes fairly
frequently are on the program. So I mean, I don't
know where we go from here. I mean, it's not
that long ago. When Dwight Bob was a premier, the
thought was we couldn't even borrow long term anymore and
there was a risk of not hitting payroll. And here
we are continuing to add to the debt.

Speaker 16 (02:07:30):
Sorry sorry, we all know about the death. But the
thing is the Premiere should be should be now called
to account why he is not what's the name Craig
Party and Lloyd? Sorry, not very well for Lloyd to

(02:07:54):
come on and say why they are not implementing this
remedy for the financial position that we're in and some
only is to be held accountable in the accountability in
this case belongs with the Premiere and the cabinet to
come out and say why we are we are taking

(02:08:16):
all our all the hum lays of this and the
bus and passing on to our grandchildren. Not very well
this morning, not getting this across very well. Well, I
think that's it's of paramit importance. Let this be explained.

Speaker 3 (02:08:34):
I agree, I'm getting your points. I understand a lot
and clear.

Speaker 16 (02:08:39):
Like I said, I you know in your program, don't.
I don't know how how you can take the psychological
strain of the prostration that people have called him day
after day with these complaints and there's no one account
for it. You can you can take what you're like,
all the snack foods that have happened in this last

(02:09:01):
foot ten years and do you you're gonna make a list.
I can't take them out of my memory, but you
make it list the men they're jar honds and there's
no one we can have on account. Will no one
be fired, laid off or post discipline certainly the name.

Speaker 3 (02:09:15):
Nobody that we know about anyway. For the most part, Jared,
we just cleared twelve noon, but I appreciate making time
for the show. Thanks for doing this. You're welcome by
take you care, Bye bye record show today. We will
indeed pick up this conversation again to fore morning right
here on VOCM and b landfm's open Line. Be havealf
the producer David Williams. I'm your host, Patty Daily. You
have yourself a safe, fun, happy day. We'll talk in
the morning. Bye bye

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