Wednesday Nov 12th

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

(00:22):
Host Paddy Daily.

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

(00:46):
one eight eight eight five ninety VOCM, which is eighty
six twenty six. So I see. The Remembered Day ceremonies
were pretty well attended yesterday despite the inclement weather. One
thing you noticed on at the new the newly refurbished
National War Memorial in downtown Saint John's they did a
beautiful job on it, and of course one of the
key ceremonies will take place in Saint John's on the

(01:07):
eleventh of November. While it's really unfortunate the province has
to spend hundreds of thousands of dollars on security for
a good reason, but it's really unfortunate that has to
be the case for people who have such levels of
disrespect is astonishing. You wonder also if there are any
activities going on behind the scenes to see a ceremonial

(01:28):
century on duty at the National War Memorial like happens
at the other National War Memorial in the Ottawa So anyway,
any reflections on those types of issues, let's talk about it.
Quick sports note to get us going, generally we talk
about athletic achievements, whether be by individuals or teams. This morning,
it's a volunteer shout out. This past weekend, the Baseball
Canada Fall Convention was hosted by Baseball Manitoba and the

(01:51):
National Volunteer of the Year for Minor baseball, Michelle Healey,
from this province. Michelle and her husband Mark, And as
a matter of fact, it's their anniversary today, so happy
anniversary to the Healyes. Michelle takes on an awful out
regarding minor baseball here so she was the team manager
for a Canada game's female team, the venue lead at
Saint Pat's Ballpark this past summer. She manages the bullpen

(02:11):
canteam down at Saint Pat's Ballpark, also oversees the provinces
as fourteen U and sixteen U female programs and deals
with an awful lot of logistics there, fundraising, apparel, organizing travel.
So Michelle Healy is the National Volunteer of the Year
in baseball recognized by Baseball Canada. Absolutely fantastic hellry congratulations

(02:32):
to her and another congratulations to everyone behind the scenes
and on the stage. At this past Monday's we stand
on guard once more. Fundraiser of course in conjunction with
the Canadian Red Cross and to help fuel the wildlife
or wildfire relief fund. Raised over one point two million dollars.
So for everyone who participated as a musician on stage

(02:53):
or David at Doyle as the host, or any of
the organizers folks working behind the scenes, another absolutely massive
effort that's he creates stuff. One point two million dollars
and of course we spoke with dabmint oil here on
the show last week talking about the way that the
music and arts community rises up every single time that
they're asked to do something in an effort to raise
money for one initiative of another. And again they stood

(03:15):
up on Monday evening. This is music and l week,
so there's going to be a lot of opportunities to
catch some shows, maybe be involved with the gala coming
up on this Sunday evening, and music is still a
big part of the culture here because of course it
is all right. So the Internet is forever social media,

(03:35):
which can be fun, but it can be awful. It's
out there no matter if you delete your posts or
you wipe out your account. Very likely someone that screen
grab what you've posted to hold it over your head
into the future. So you know, I don't put a
whole lot of stock in certain things that happen on
social media. People get caught up in the confirmation bias,

(03:55):
echo chamber or bubble or whatever the case may be.
But it is a lindication of where people's minds are
and whether it be for our children or youth or
and or adults. You know why you post? Can adeve
come back to haunt you, whether it be with applying
for scholarships, whether it be for job applications, because you

(04:16):
know full well people who are involved in adjudicating applications
for one thing or another, they will peruse your social
media feed. They just will. It happens all the time. Now,
this is a very specific issue regarding a newly elected
member of the House of Assembly who won up in
some barb Blancemeato's Andrew Barber, I don't use TikTok, so

(04:36):
I was completely oblivious to any TikTok videos that Andrew
Barber or anybody else had posted over the years. And
this is not an attack on her, but this is
a commentary on how we use social media. So for
some people, there was plenty of controversy in some of
the things she posted. Okay, there's plenty of controversy in
many things that many people post. But it does kind

(04:57):
of beg a question as to when you wipe out
your accounts upon being elected to serve as a politician,
and in this case a minister, the Minister of Tourism,
Culture and Recreation. You know, is marketing an important tool
inside the tourism portfolio, absolutely, but on that front, you
hire companies like Target who have done terrific work in

(05:18):
branding the province and advertising the province and to try
to encourage people to travel to the province. But the
newly minted Minister of Tourism, Culture Recreation has said some
interesting things about tourism. You know, the policy role that
the minister will play. It's as much about infrastructure as
it is about marketing, because we hire professionals to do
the marketing piece. So this is a quote from one

(05:39):
of the videos. Now, the government here in Newfouland has
put a lot of money into tourism, but I don't
think they got it straight. I don't think they got
it right. They should build money into Newfoundlanders more into
the tradition we are. We hold personal responsibility as does government,
to ensure that Newfounland Laborador tradition is preserved, of course,
no question, But question in the merits of tourism, as

(06:01):
the Minister of Tourism is highly questionable. You know, the
contribution to GDP and just for money spent in the
tourism sector is what an excess of a billion dollars.
In addition to that, we know full well that visitors
to the province will spend more than folks who are
doing the staycation. Like if we go out to gross
more as a family, we spend less than people who

(06:22):
come to the province from out of province, whether it
be from around the country or around the world. So
the impact of new money is significant. You know, if
we spend our own money in local businesses and whatever
the case we be, we're recirculating our own money. So
the injection of money from out of province is massive.
So I do think it's a legitimate, a completely fair

(06:43):
question to ask of the Minister of Tourism whether or
not that individual in this case, Minister Barber understands the
importance of tourism. Sure we can talk about the absolute
importance of preserving Newfoundland and Labrador culture, because of course
we should and we will continue into the future. But
question what tourism means to the province. You know, with

(07:03):
over a billion dollars, well, the cash injected the support
us some twenty thousand plus jobs. So I'm not really
sure that's off to a flying start. And when the
social media accounts are deleted, that's only a function of
you pressing a clicking on your mouth, because it's out
there and we'll remain out there. So if Minister Barber
is interested in calling the program to talk about some

(07:25):
of these issues, given the fact she's the Minister responsible,
we of course will welcome the call. And this is
not commentary offered as any sort of combative stance that
we're taking here. But I don't think it's unfair to
ask ministers of various portfolios about their stance on the
portfolio and what it means as a minister and the
future of one department or another. So anyway, and there's

(07:47):
plenty of other questions being asked for some of the
videos that were posted, and look, having a bit of
fun on social media is one thing, but when the
serious nature of being a cabinet minister is part of
the conversation, then bitter fun on social media can turn
into legitimate questions about one facet of life for another,

(08:08):
one stance on public policy or another. So anyway you
want to take it on and we can do it. It
all get clabbored for that, but let's say, LEVI, that's
the job, right, all right, And in the world of
social media, I'm going to keep talking about this because
I think it's important the way the country of the
world's youth is used in social media has become extremely problematic.
It has. We have talked about very specific things like

(08:30):
the utilization of large language models like chat, GPT and
GROC on Twitter and unprovoked requests from ac of a
twelve year old boil whether or not he has any
nudies he wants to send. I mean, we've also got
ongoing court litigation regarding the fact that the interaction over
a prolonged amount of time has led to chat GPT

(08:51):
planting seeds of suicide in a young person's mind. So
these are not on serious issues to say the very least.
And then artificial intelligence, I'm I'd spend a bit more,
maybe a little bit too much time thinking about it
and reading about it. But let's go to folks who
know way more about it than me. Former Google executive
Nobel Prize winning computer scientist Jeffrey Hinton well understood or

(09:13):
well he's described as the godfather of artificial intelligence if
he's one of the people behind it, and he is
ringing the bell of worry all right now. May mister
Hinton's concerns be somewhat exaggerated, possibly, but the fact of
the matter is that artificial intelligence and its ability to
self learn is happening in break neck pace. That could

(09:38):
be a problem. Look for it to be utilized in
the world of healthcare to sift through the enormous or
copious amounts of data regarding MRI results or CT scans
or breast cancer screenings can absolutely be extremely helpful. Now,
will it replace some jobs, likely, But the problem really is,
and there's a variety of things we can talk about

(09:59):
in involving artificial intelligence, and like even governments that are
going to rely on it. When the big tech bros
who are not our friends, they're not whether it be
the Bezos or Zuckerbergs of the world, they are not
in it for your well being. They're in it for
one thing only, and that's profit and for their shareholders

(10:19):
and themselves personally. So with how powerful AI already is
and getting more and more powerful by the day, you know,
mister Hinton will go on to talk about wiping out
ten or twenty percent of humanity. That might be a
lot to be saying or considering, but the facts are
that with these big companies and these extraordinarily wealthy individuals,

(10:40):
they are pushing it hard some people think that it's
going to be some sort of boost to the economy.
I don't know how anybody sees it like that, And
if you do have that position, please do share it
because I probably need more information on that front. But
these people cannot be trusted. Bottom line, they cannot be trusted,
so how they're going to use it into the future
is highly questionable. It's not a matter of government overreach

(11:04):
and getting involved in a more heavy handed regulation. But boyle,
boy to just be oblivious to how these big tech
giants are going to utilize artificial intelligence. Given the fact
the way they use their algorithms for reach and clicks
is already ridiculously obscene, it's going to be more and
more absurd and dangerous into the future. It just will be.

(11:26):
AI can be extremely helpful, there is no question. But
in the hands of these people who we cannot trust,
it is going to be a huge question in the future.
Don't take it from me. Take from Jeffrey Hinton, former
executive at Google, who doesn't have bad things necessarily to
say about Google, one of the creators of artificial intelligence.
If he's worried, how can we not all share his worry? Now?

(11:50):
May he indeed be offering some unbelievable exaggerations. Possibly, but
boyle boy, I think we should probably listen to him.
What do you think? All right? Mention healthcare utilizing AI,
which is going to be helpful into the future. It's
also Nurse Practitioner Week to recognize the role they play
in the healthcare system has been underrecognized. I would suggest
over the years, so pilot programs about nurse practitioners direct

(12:13):
building of MCPA. Let's just make it a thing. Let's
just make it a thing in full. Every nurse practitioner
with his or her training at accreditation and the ability
to do so much work in the world diagnosing, prescribing,
managing chronic conditions. Let's go ahead and thank all our
nurse practitioners and hopefully their scope of practice can be

(12:34):
utilized in full your thoughts, let's go all right, healthcare.
This will be a tricky one, but hey, the tricky
ones are the most important ones to talk about. We've
not been told by the Pan American Health Organization. They've
notified Public Health Agency of Canada that Canada no longer
haulds Measle elimination status in the province of Alberta. There's

(12:55):
more case of measles there than there is in the
entirety of the United States, and we don't even know
about the accuracy of some reporting. But measles can be
extraordinarily dangerous for some, not all, whether it be children
under the age of five, pregnant women, folks who compromise
immune systems, measles. When you can track measles, it can

(13:17):
indeed compromise your immune system temporarily, and so consequently you're
more prone to other diseases or infections. So it is
a problem when we hear of these stories. What's remarkable
to me is that there's some people in my email
inbox and some names I recognize on social media who

(13:37):
have been talking about vaccines and their skepticism for years.
It has certainly ramped up since we were told at
one point, which is completely untrue, is that vaccines cause autism,
and we know that's not true anymore. But then you
have the conversation that really exploded regarding the COVID vaccine,
but then that trickled down to other vaccines. People talk

(13:58):
about scientific research, whether the testing is tried and true
and accurate. Measles vaccinations and mrs. I mean we understand
these vaccines and how effective they have been. Are there
other contributing factors to stemming the spread of small pox,
of polio and measels and mumps? Yes, but vaccines have
been a key component of it. And now we are

(14:19):
where we are. So while some people are talking about,
you know, vaccine skepticism, and yes, questioning science is a
role for individuals, but it's also a role for scientists
to question science. By and large individuals, we should probably
be questioning government's utilization of science as opposed to questioning
the research directly, because I'm not informed enough to question

(14:40):
vaccine research because I'm not an epidemiologist. But the go
too is now, all of a sudden, it's immigrants. The
same people who tell me that they're skeptical or hesitant
or completely opposed to or are anti vaccine. If that
was your stance for all these years, and now all
of a sudden, when things like measles elimination status has lost,

(15:03):
all of a sudden, you change your tune to blame
it on immigrants. The country that sends more immigrants or
more immigrants from one country, notably India. People point to
the flood of immigrants as they call it now, immigration
numbers have been slash dramatically. Just look no further than
the most recent federal budget. But can there be newcomers

(15:25):
of the country who are not vaccinated and part of
the spread of the disease? Sure? Can it be about
the complete disinformation campaigns that have been extremely active over
the last number of years contributed to this elimination status
being lost? Absolutely? Measles vaccination in India is extremely robust,
extremely robust. They had a hiccup during the pandemic that

(15:46):
most countries did on a variety of things medically, scientifically, economically,
But vaccination rates in India for measles are extremely high,
extremely high. So can we please try to have real
life the conversations because you cannot have it both ways.
You can't be skeptical of a vaccine and then at
the same time, in the same sentence, in the same account,

(16:08):
the same email, all of a sudden, blame it on immigration.
Can immigration play a role in the spread of one
disease or another? Of course? Absolutely? Is it the main
contributing factor here? No? How do we know that? Because
vaccination declines are up amongst wack group Canadians. You can
do what you as you see fit. But if the

(16:30):
vaccination refusals and those rates have been linked directly to
but born and raised Canadians, then that's probably the root cause,
don't you think so? Anyway? And measles can be fairly innocuous,
fairly gentle, easy to overcome, but not for everybody. It
can be fatal. And even when your immune system can

(16:50):
be compromised for weeks or months upon contracting measles, that
opens the door for more and more serious infection. So
the conversations were, it's really getting away from us anyway. Well,
I'll get blasted and blistered for that, But say LEVI,
all right, how are we doing? Not there, Dave, I'll
get a couple more role in here. All right. There's
a story coming up on the VOCM news later about

(17:12):
mining regulations and environmental assessments of what have you. It
would be nice even for the mining Association, So maybe
we can reach out to them this morning to have
a clear understanding just how many opportunities to present themselves,
given the fact that we have dozens of the classified
critical minerals and rare earth minerals and elements in this
province on that front. The next wave of nation building

(17:36):
projects has not been released formally, but we have a
pretty good idea of what they include. And three of
the next six involved critical minerals, none of which are
mentioned regarding this province. The Crawford Nickel project in Ontario
sits in mine in New Brunswick, which is all critical
mineral based. Then there's a hydro project in the Klowid.
There's another graphied Phase two project mine in Quebec. All right,

(17:59):
liquifiatural gas all part of it as well. Where is
this problence on some of these lists? And you can
pick a project, whether it be critical minerals and Labrador,
whether it be the Upper Churchill, whether it be let's
see here Beta, or whether it be the fixed Link
of what have you. But the next sixth are coming
out we expect today, and this province is not included

(18:20):
this go around as well. All right, last week there
was a dear like man convicted in a Cornerbrook court
of first degree murder and he confessed and so this
was he had shared a dinner with his grandmother. She
was washing Washington dishes. He snuck up behind her, put

(18:41):
her in a chokehold and killed her for what money?
And what was the money for to fuel his addiction
to crack cocaine. It's extraordinarily sad story, and of course
there's a pretty hefty dollop of evil in that man's head.
But the world of addictions, we still have to keep
it out there just a little bit more forced fleet
people leaning on fentanyl when we know the number one

(19:03):
contributor to overdose deaths in this province is cocaine. But
in the world of fentanyil, it's pretty interesting. We've got
a problem with the inspections that are not done our ports,
but the precursors of fentanyl and the number of drug labs,
super labs that we've seen in this country. Some have
been dismantled, but you know, it continues to be a problem.
Fentinil apparently was one of the triggers that led the

(19:24):
president to engage in ripping up a trade agreement that
he signed and said it was a great deal into
not what we see in the chaos about the tariffs.
So what which is it here? So like all of
the recent stories, and some seventy people have been killed
because the bombs being dropped on boats coming out of Venezuela.
They've been classified as a narco terrorists. Even though conviction

(19:45):
of drug trafficking in the United States does not carry
a death sentence, but it does. That's see and people say,
if you question, well you're pro drugs, don't be so foolish.
It's not about being pro drugs. And if it's about fentanyl,
I think there's reasonable questions to be asked. So this year,
I mean, the world of presidential partons is an unbelievable

(20:06):
amount of power to have. Number One, had there been
questioned partons being offered by Democratic Republican presidents over history, absolutely,
But if all this concern were told, that has triggered tariff,
trade wars and extra judicial I was going to say, killings,
bombings in international waters. How can we square this circle?
Do you know what ross Oldbrioke is. Ross Oldbrich was

(20:29):
the architect and the creator of Silk Road. It was
a dark web place for people to buy and sell
all kinds of things and primarily fentanyl, humans, weapons, but
it was extremely dangerous. He was investigated, arrested, tried, and
prosecuted and punished. He had two life sentences plus forty

(20:51):
years and was a lot of it was about fentanyl,
and now he's been pardoned, sentence commuted. So which is it? Again?
The lack of consistency, the hypocrisy of politics is really becoming.
Maybe I get more frustrated than others because I have
to spend so much time thinking about it and reading
about it. But which is it? Sir? We're on Twitter
or vismu poline follow us their email addresses open ONAFIOSM

(21:14):
dot com. Oh, I just saw saucy email floating And
how dare I question some person's social media presence? Well
as an individual, by and large, I don't care. As
a cabinet minister, I think we all should. All right,
we're taking our email. It's open on a FIOSM dot com.
When we come back, let's have a great show. There's
only one way that happens. You're in the queue to
talk about whatever's on your mind. Don't go away. Welcome
back to the show. It's beginning on line number one.
Good morning, Kark, you're on the air.

Speaker 3 (21:35):
Good morning, Patty.

Speaker 2 (21:36):
How are you great today?

Speaker 4 (21:37):
How you doing not bad? Patty?

Speaker 3 (21:40):
Let's talk about the Wabash Airport. There are two or
three weeks ago we had a shutdown for just under
twenty four hours, and there's zero releases, zero accountability, and
is going to get worse because TC being the regulator
and the operator, they're washing their hands of one and
sweepening on your rug with the other. So like Lass

(22:02):
when they had to shut down the fire truck because
the airport met the Earth category again they needed fire services.
They didn't have the equipment properly maintained or properly rely
available to go in the service, so the fire truck
needed tires. That's why the airport was shut down. But
you don't see no media releases from Transport Canada, the

(22:24):
stakeholders inning at all. It's all being swept under rug
and hoping to be forgot about.

Speaker 2 (22:30):
Can you go back and describe the issue one more
time from me Kirk?

Speaker 3 (22:34):
So the fire truck the earth truck.

Speaker 2 (22:36):
Yeah, okay.

Speaker 3 (22:37):
The tires on the emergency vehicle has a lifespan of
ten years maximum. So on May fourth of twenty twenty two,
I sent an email to have these tires replaced because
the lab City Fire Department was supposed to come over
and take over for the Earth for the airport, but
that fell through due to technicalities and municipality stuff. So

(22:58):
there's a contractor on site now, but they still failed
to replace the entires and to this day the runway
is still downgrade to a CAT dog instead of a
CAT six and WAB we should probably be a CAT
seven year report depend on what traffic is coming here.
It's crazy.

Speaker 2 (23:13):
The whole conversation about fire services at the Wilbwish Airport
has been bizarre over the course of the number of years.
I mean, it seems to me unless it was regularly
scheduled flights, they sort of undercount the amount of charters
that are a big part of the fly and flyout
mining sector up there. So when they downgrade it, it
comes with the reduction of some services and consequently that's

(23:34):
just going to see more and more regularly scheduled airline
or air traffic probably move away from the Wilwish Airport,
which is the last thing we need, you know.

Speaker 3 (23:43):
But even like even during COVID and just after COVID,
we used to keep itally internally for our own numbers
and we were still over that one hundred and eighty
thousand threshold, but Transfler Canada just kept threating on the
rugs saying oh no, no, we're not, We're not, But
they actually were, and even two years ago when Ivan
Jones said that Eric was coming back. By the time
they reach one hundred and eighty thousand passengers, they have

(24:05):
one year to implement it. These guys are nine months
late meeting the ball. But because they are the regulator
and the operator, they're getting away with it. If this
was Saint John's Airport or Halifax, they've pulled their certificates.

Speaker 2 (24:18):
Yeah, and I don't even I guess we can go
directly to the Wabish Airport Authority to talk about what
is or what is not happening at the airport. Transport Canada.
We've tried Transport Canada on a variety of different files
over the last decade plus. It's extremely difficult to get
someone from Transport Canada on the program. But we can
reach out to the airport authority and get their official
stance on the KRK. Happy to try.

Speaker 3 (24:41):
But the thing about it is is there is no
airport authority. Wabish is a Transport Canada ran and operator,
one of seven still in Canada like you, Saint Anthony
Wabash Seven Islands, Quebec Sanspit, BC Churchill, Manitoba and two
other ones. They already operator and the regulator sold. Their
hands are tied, like they can do what they want

(25:01):
and get away with it, whereas an airport authority or
private airport has to follow under carriage regulations. But these
guys are getting away with every left, right and center.

Speaker 2 (25:10):
Yeah. I do know they have a Wahbush Airport specific
committee at Transport Canada, so maybe authority is the wrong
word for it. But that's the best I can do
is try to follow up directly with people who are
calling the shots at that particular airport to see exactly
what's going on and how it has implications regarding their
cat status.

Speaker 3 (25:27):
Happy to do it, Yeah, well it is only going
to get worse too, because now they have no mechanic
or nothing. A mechanic that was zero for over twenty
something years. He's now left too, because of the place
is down to the dogs. There's zero leadership, zero management.
A flying flyout manager just don't work for a northern place.

Speaker 2 (25:46):
Like this sounds to me. You're one hundred percent correct, though.
I'll do the follow up Kirk and see if we
kind of it is generally like I mentioned extremely difficult
to get someone from Transport Canada on the program, but
we will absolutely give it a shot here again again
today on this particular issue. Anything else you want to
tell us about Thorny.

Speaker 3 (26:02):
Kirk No, lots of snow and webbish and come out more.

Speaker 2 (26:08):
Appreciate your time, thanks for doing it, Thank you, You're welcome.
Bye bye. Yeah. So inevitably going to get plenty of
reaction to some of the things I say, and that's
just nature the beast. I would encourage folks like the
emails keeping coming all good, some of the emails that
it would be certainly great if they can be translated

(26:30):
into a telephone call, because some of the issues are
pretty complicated to try to navigate via email, especially when
someone who's listening. And we appreciate you, support your support
of the program. When you have the time to craft
a very detailed, long email, I appreciate it. I don't
always have time during the course of a live show
to read them and carefully evaluate what you're saying, nor

(26:51):
do I have time to respond in full to very
in depth emails. But some of those, if you have
the time and the patience and or whatever the right
word is, to call the program. That'd be certainly well received.
Let's take a break. When we come back, Jennifer wants
talk about municipal affairs that we're going to talk about.
Whatever's on your mind. Don't away, welcome back to the show.

(27:12):
Just very quickly, let me open up my phone. So
if you were planning on taking a stroll around the
Long Pond Trail today, at this moment in time, it's impassable,
absolutely flooded, so don't head that way. Also on behalf
of a listener this regarding roadwork, bridge work and how
it's conducted at rush hour. So yes, we're near two
of the three year to a repair for repairs at

(27:34):
the Downtown Arterial or Pitts Memorial Drive. It's the bridgework.
So again this morning, as reported by many, the backup
is about a kilometer long till twenty minutes just to
pass through that section of bridgework that's being undertaken. The
question is can it be done at different times of
the day to start later, even if you have to
complicate one busy day of travel, whether it be at

(27:55):
rush hour in the morning or rush hour in the evening.
And people will continue to ask about nighttime work and
what have you. So I told him the listener, I
put it out there. It's out there. Let's go line
number three. Jennifer, you're on the air.

Speaker 5 (28:08):
Good morning.

Speaker 2 (28:09):
How are you doom well? How about you?

Speaker 5 (28:11):
Very good? Very good. So I'm calling you today, Patty,
about the lack of accountability that I perceive in government.
I've been dealing with a situation now since twenty twenty
four with respect to practices and policies at my within
my local community relative to the electoral process, and I've
been in contact. I ran in a by election in

(28:33):
twenty twenty four, and I'm content. I was quite content
with the outcome. However, I was not thrilled with the
way the election was actually handled within the town hall,
in that there was only two candidates in the by election,
and sitting on the desk as a deputy returning officer

(28:53):
was the other candidate's husband. You know, the ballot box
was open and the station was in front of the clerk.
There was a whole litany of things that were bothersome.
So I reached out and contacted municipal affairs. At that
point in time, the election was done and dusted and
it was a by election. So they sent me back
a lovely response, probably stock or canned, and it provided

(29:18):
me with eight pages of legislation and told me to
go to the courts and file a petition. That's fine, right,
So fast forward to twenty twenty five. I think, okay,
you know there's some I perceived some issues with respect
to how council operates and steal a need for policies
and practice. So I throw my hat in the ring again.

(29:39):
But prior to that, I contact Municipal Affairs and say, listen,
this is what happened last time. Can we have an
assurance or can you ensure that communications given to the
respective parties that that's not cool, that's conflict of interest.
It shouldn't happen that way. Essentially, I'm told that the

(30:02):
clerk can do whatever they want, that conflict of interest
isn't bound to hear. The Municipal Act obviously has a gap,
because I had that in writing from twenty twenty four
that conflict of interest is not a requirement. The clerk
does indeed have autonomy and that the election can go

(30:24):
forward as planned. It was rifle problems, and you know,
I'm happy to identify those problems if you want. And
at the end of the day it was I walked
in and it was exactly as before. The ballot box
was unsealed, the other candidates spouse was on the desk,

(30:45):
the voting station was in front of the clerk. It
just was so inappropriate, and consequently I contacted Municipal Affairs again,
but I broadened it. I went to conflict of Interest
and I went to Elections Newfoundland, and unfortunately there's been
a complete lack of responsiveness from Elections Newfoundland. Conflict of

(31:09):
Interest was very responsive, and Municipal Affairs continues to send
me petitions copies of legislation for petitions at my cost
that I have to file if I have a problem
with the outcome of the election. And to me, this
just seems so it's like they're hiding behind legislation if
you know in advance, I think there should be some

(31:32):
remedial work done, Like there's issues, a ballot box should
never be unsealed, and you know, in conversation with the clerk,
I was told that's the way, it's fine, don't worry
about it. No, it's not fine. So you know, like
I'm seized here now, Like I don't know. I've continued
to communicate with municipal affairs and now it's gone crickets,

(31:56):
complete crickets. I mean, I've uncovered a whole bunch of
items that are inappropriate in my estimation, and perhaps I
don't have all the information, but I think by anyone,
anyone's thought process, you're going to take a look at it.

Speaker 6 (32:12):
And go, that's not right.

Speaker 5 (32:14):
And I, you know, like so, I don't know, like
I put in a well I call it fippo, but anyway,
I put in a request with respect to communications standards.
When someone from a from the community contacts you and says, hey, listen,
there's a problem here. You know, can you provide me
with some insight as to how you're going to address it?

(32:35):
And you don't get a response, and you follow up,
and you follow up, and you follow up. What is
the requirement on the part of government to interact with
their with their taxpayers.

Speaker 2 (32:44):
It's a fair question. I mean, it's extremely difficult to
get a response from an individual minister or otherwise these days.
But when look every single issue, people deserve an answer.
I completely understand and agree. When we're talking about faith
and the integrity of elections. It's an even bigger topic
than you know, a very specific request about woodcutting permits

(33:06):
or something like that, not to diminish or downplay people's
own concerns, but the growing lack of faith in elections.
It's something that governments at every level, and elections Canada
and Elections n L has to act on because before long,
if people don't have faith in the results, what do
you think that's going to result in chaos? Complete and
after chaos. So this is a big issue, and I'm

(33:27):
glad you're broke. I try to talk about it every
now and then here. Whether it be foreign interference, whether
it be domestic interference, whether it be inappropriate conduct by
returning officers, or access to voting stations, what have you.
Anything involving elections is something that I'm absolutely keen to
talk about. It's important.

Speaker 5 (33:44):
Well, and my challenge here is, you know, like you
go into so twenty twenty four, I go and I
identify these problems. Surely there should have been some remedial communication.
There should have been some connection with respect to hey,
that's not good. I chose not to follow up in
twenty twenty four because, you know, frankly, I didn't put

(34:05):
much effort into it after twenty twenty four, and based
on the outcome and what I saw at that time,
I thought, oh, I'm going to get more involved in
this community. And so I started to attend more of
the meetings, and the more I attended, the more worrisome
it became.

Speaker 6 (34:21):
So then I.

Speaker 5 (34:21):
Thought twenty twenty five, let's let's try this again. And
I know that I'm perceived as someone who's trying to
come in and turn things on their head, but no,
I'm not. I'm just someone who thinks we have rules
and processes for a reason, and elections in particular are
very stringent. People want to know that they there's integrity here.

(34:42):
You can't have a voting station in front of the
clerk can look at you, and there's all these subliminal
and these these you know, these psychological impacts with respect
to you know, who's in the in the voting in
the voting area. And I think that Municipal Affairs really
should have some sort of training program, some sort of

(35:03):
awareness piece. There should have been after twenty twenty four,
they should have come out and addressed this. And then
in September I sent them another message and said, Hey,
I just want an assurance that you're on this guys
like you know, and I get it. They probably get
a lot of messages from people and they're not entirely
sure of the veracity of the claims being made. You know,

(35:24):
when I went in in twenty twenty five, I did
something I'm not I shouldn't have done, but I was
gobsmack because the voting the ballot box was completely open,
like I mean if the top hadn't even been put down.
And I went and I said at the time, you
know that's wrong, and the response was it's fine, don't
worry about it. Right. So then when I came home

(35:46):
contacted municipal affairs said, you know what, not a problem? Hey,
you know what, Yeah, they should have sealed that shouldn't
they shuck Skollygi. It's frustrating and I just don't know.
You know, I have had some responses for me unicipal Affairs,
you know, I've had phone calls with them and I've
had a response of emails. But you know, I've gone

(36:08):
as high as the director. But they're all the same, Paddy,
They're all go to the courts file a petition. So
what I should go and spend four hundred dollars of
my money to cover you because you're not doing your job,
and that's how I view it. Do your job. Make
sure that every community has the same sets of rules
and processes, and that there's compliance and that people can

(36:31):
have faith and trust that Municipal Affairs is doing the
job by making sure communities know what's expected of them
when they're elected, they have other jobs and they're busy.
People give them guidelines. Make sure that people understand what
is expected of them.

Speaker 2 (36:48):
So did you go to the department's proper confederation building?
Did you go to one of the community engagement offices?
Are you contacting Municipal Affairs through the municipal Elections website?

Speaker 5 (37:00):
Because I have I I have reached out via email.
I'm a I'm in a rural community. I have reached
out via email to individuals in all three areas I
have heard. As I mentioned conflict Adventures, that I had
a telephone conversation and it was very informative. And you know,

(37:21):
if I were to proceed on in this, which I will,
this is just one more way of raising awareness because
you know, I think people like you said, the elector
the electoral process should be fiercely protected it. It's not
a joke. This is how we put people in place
to make sure that they're looking after our money and
things are being done right. And you know, like I

(37:43):
had hoped if I could get on council, I could
take a look at something. There was funding apparently received
four years ago to fix the guardrails. The guardrail has
never been fixed. Little why maybe there's a good reason,
but this particular guardrail, it's somebody hits that they're going
in the ocean, right, So there's reasons. Like I'm I'm
you know, I'm not trying to turn things on its

(38:05):
head here. I'm just trying to find out, you know,
why things are happening the way they're happening.

Speaker 2 (38:09):
And it's a fair question. There's a very specific email
for municipal elections at the department, the provincial department. I
think as as simple as municipal elections at gov dot
NL dot CA. Maybe that will find its way to
someone who's actually, you know, part of managing the returning
officers and those types of things. So that's the very
best advice I can give you, is that specific email

(38:29):
address or go directly to one of the community engagement
offices as opposed to the minister's office, because that's where
the red tape lives. That's where the litany of being
pointed to this person of that person becomes a problem,
as opposed to getting someone in more of the community offices.
So those are the two tidbits I'll try to give
you to maybe get get you further down the road here.

Speaker 5 (38:50):
No, that'd be great, Like, I mean, the reality is
I continue to look at the website. I've been peaking
through the website to see what modules are there, Like
do they have actual oversight modules for these people? Like
there's a whole series of supports that could be made
available to ensure consistency and to ensure integrity in the

(39:10):
process and actually in day to day operations at the
community level. And I just don't see it. So I'm wondering, like,
you know, what, what is the role of municipal affairs?
Is it not to get involved before the factor? Is
it essentially to just parse out legislation and send it
people and say sorry about your left off you go?
So will I will try the municipal election site that

(39:31):
you gave me. And I know your show is widely
listened to and I actually love the fact that you
keep your recordings on there. I don't know yesterday I
was looking it's four hundred and ninety three recordings. So
you know, I'm going to go I personally will spend
some time going back in time to see you know,
is there a pattern here? Is this? Is there a

(39:53):
subset of other issues that support this whole thing? And
you know somebody at government should be doing that, but heck,
I'm retired.

Speaker 2 (40:00):
I can do it absolutely, and I appreciate your time.
I got to get to the break here, but let
me know if you have any luck with the community
offices and or that specific email. Thank you very much,
appreciate your time, Jennifer, thank you. All right, let's get
a break in. Boy, I knew it was going to happen,
you know, when you bring up questions about anybody's social
media presence, especially when you become a minister, a cabinet minister,

(40:22):
it was going to get some emotional response. And boy,
oh boy, you have not disappointed. Let's take a break.
Don't go away, Welcome back to the show. Where am
I going here? Dave? Line number two, Line number two,
line number two. Bye more Doc here.

Speaker 4 (40:34):
On the air.

Speaker 6 (40:36):
Morning, Patty.

Speaker 7 (40:37):
How are you very well?

Speaker 2 (40:38):
How about yourself?

Speaker 8 (40:39):
Not bad?

Speaker 6 (40:40):
Not bad? I haven't talked to you in a while.

Speaker 2 (40:43):
Welcome back.

Speaker 6 (40:45):
Thanks. I one of the times I talked to you
in the past, you might recall by is my granddaughter
had lost her watch that she's valued very much, and
thanks to you and your open line, we find that
within within an hour or so.

Speaker 2 (41:02):
Yeah, that's the news. Someone let me know that right away,
So that's good news.

Speaker 6 (41:07):
Yeah, it was right away. I mean it was. It
was really not surprising, but it was amazing. And so
today I'm confronted with my grandson who's twelve years old
and a hockey player, and of course lost his glasses somewhere.
It could be at the Capitol Hyundai Extreme, it could

(41:28):
be at the Paradise Double Ice Complex, or being twelve
years old and ondergo. It could be anywhere. But I'm
hoping that somebody out there will hear our conversation and
either give the r C McCall or give me a call.
The the glasses are blue, typically just clean blue glasses

(41:51):
that are very valuable at this point in time in
each life. And we've looked everywhere, and this is the
last kick of the cat. Let's say, hopefully out there
somebody may have found them. Was and is kind of thinking, well,
see somebody who's without a pair of glasses this morning.
I'm going to have a listen to open line. Maybe

(42:11):
I can locate the owner.

Speaker 2 (42:13):
So these are just regular glasses, regular spectacles, nothing fancy.

Speaker 6 (42:16):
And regular blue framed glasses, simple as that. And he's
a little tiger of a Hackey player. So they it
was only two weeks ago somebody sat on these glasses
at one of the arenas while they were all getting
ready for Hackey. You know what it's like. Yep, And
we got that straightened out. But now the glasses are

(42:37):
lost and hopefully they'll be found again.

Speaker 2 (42:39):
And prescription glasses are pretty specific to individuals, so they're
probably have no value to whoever found them, even if
you go to if you put your own prescription in
these new to U blue frames, it's a bit ridiculous, right,
So they're not good to you bring them to the
Loss and Found wherever you picked them up.

Speaker 6 (42:55):
Yeah, well they they can call me, I mean my
number six eighty five five six five seven, so that'll
get me, or I'm sure day they wanted to call
open line. David, get hold of me. He knows where
I am and an that boy. I've been pretty busy
with the elections, just getting through three of them now, municipal, provincial,

(43:17):
and federal. Not happy with a lot of us, happy
with some of it. That's about the best that I
can say about the current political situation people. I think
in all three elections, people were really really ready for change.

Speaker 9 (43:36):
That was.

Speaker 6 (43:38):
The mood was out there. We just when I say change,
I don't necessarily mean party. I mean change in the
way things are done, change in direction, change in the
ethics behind political decisions. And you know, that's what people
really really hoped for. Didn't happen municipally, certainly didn't happen federally.

(44:05):
I mean, I got to say, Petty, I'm a great
follower of the news, and when I sit down and
I look at what's going on with our federal politics,
and I look at the same old faces that I
looked at, doing the same old things that they did
when they were ministers under the Trudeau regime, there's this

(44:28):
It's just awful. I mean, I see it on the
news every day and I'm looking at these people who
I've been looking at for ever. It seems like making
decisions that are not I don't think taking us down
the right path and.

Speaker 7 (44:46):
Pardonly decisions such as well all kinds of decisions such
as the economy of the country, the financial condition that
the country is in in terms.

Speaker 6 (44:59):
Of the yet and the current expenditures. Bringing the same
old attitudes to the news that I see every every
single day that were there two years ago, three years
ago for you. I mean, I can ministers who indicated

(45:19):
they were going to give it up to be with
their family. Is when the Trudeau era was coming to
her close, and once it became clear that Trudeau was
gone and Kearnie was likely coming in, and all of
a sudden they announced that no, I'm going to run again.
And I'm saying, yeah, well that kind of decision making?

(45:40):
Is that very good? When you're a minister of the
crown and we're expecting you to make legitimate decisions that
will be firm and well thought out, you can sits
around and a nickel like that, You're can do anything.

Speaker 2 (45:53):
You don't think that politicians make decisions as to whether
or not to run or to design base in part
about who's the leader, because of course they do.

Speaker 6 (46:01):
Oh sure they do. What I mean, if you make
if you make a fantastic announcement and you're a minister
of federal minister from Nova Scotia, for example, and you
say you're you know, you've had your sign politics. You're resigning,
you want to be with your family, you want to
do this, you want to do that, and you're announcing
that you're not going to run again. And then all

(46:23):
of a sudden there's a change of leadership and you say, oh,
I think I am going to run again. And I'm saying, well,
that was a well thought out decision. You went one
road last month and now you're headed down another road
this month. I mean, it's all about decision making, Patty.

Speaker 2 (46:42):
Sure. Now, look, your opinion is welcome, as is everybody's
starting the show. For me, the issues facing the people
of Canada are millions on top of that one.

Speaker 6 (46:53):
Sure they are, But we're talking about the people who
are going to make those decisions you know, that are
so important to Canadians today. That's what I'm getting it,
And we have it in politics all the time, but
you know, right now, the people of Canada, the people
in Newfland, Labrador voted wanted to see a whole lot

(47:13):
of change. And you can name the ministers as well
as I can who are taking Canada down the road
that we're in right now financially, and they're the same
ministers that drove the bus for years and years with Trudeau,
and the same ministers said people hope not to see

(47:34):
this time around.

Speaker 2 (47:37):
Yeah, and I think there's lots of reasons behind that,
and they're complicated and there's a pretty exhaustive list, and
we can get into that another time. But right off
the bat, you're issue with regarding the glasses. I hope
they get returned because that could be a huge nuisance
and a conversation about the politics and the moving parts
of the machinations of the campaign and the results. Happy
to have that conversation any day with you or anybody else,

(47:58):
for sure, Doc, I got to get to the So
let me know how you make out.

Speaker 6 (48:01):
Okay, I'm going to thirty seconds. I'm gonna leave it
with this. We got an opportunity and I hope for
change here provincially. See I think our majority PC government
will will remain despite the recounts and they Tony Wakem
and his team have the opportunity now to change the
direction around in this province, and I'm confident and hopeful

(48:23):
that they will do so.

Speaker 2 (48:24):
So appreciate you too, Doc. Take care.

Speaker 6 (48:27):
Okay, bye bye bye, uh Stan.

Speaker 2 (48:30):
You stay right there. He wants to talk about the
fundraiser Monday evening. We stand on guard once more. One
point two million dollars raise. Absolutely brilliant stuff. I actually
tuned into a bit of it. Sounds terrific that and
whatever you want to talk about right after this, don't
quat Welcome back to the show. Let's go to line
number one. Morning.

Speaker 10 (48:46):
Stan, you're on the air, Hi, Patty. I just want
to comment on that show Monday night. Enjoyed it very
much good and all those people donating their time free,
you know they don't they don't charge for it, those entertainers,
and it was great to watch, and I want to
make a donation. My wife and I and we we waited.
We're awful. We don't text, we'd go the old fashioned

(49:08):
way telephone. So we waited the best part of an hour.
Didn't mind that had phone lay down was the stock
of my ear And when a gentleman cannon and take
my information in that top of him for a while,
and they want to know my email and all that.
I don't want him on the email, but anyway, we
get it to him and I said, they want my
credit card number. He said, by the way, he said,
we got to charge you a fee. I said, what

(49:29):
do you mean you got charge with your fee? We
have to charge a fee. I said, Look, I do
an agency of contraciety Jane way red Cross. I don't
get charge a fee. You're going to charge me a
fee to donate my bit of money, my wife and
I to a good cause, and you're going to charge
me a fee.

Speaker 4 (49:46):
You here tell that before No.

Speaker 2 (49:48):
I was unaware that there was a fee being charged.
To be honest, and I'm not sure what the fee.

Speaker 10 (49:51):
Was for fee that made a donation. I mean, that's
that's a crime. I mean, I'm closer to nineteen and
am to waity and we don't have a big got
money floating around and we want to donate to help
those people, and don't chairge me a fee. Couldn't penalize
me more or less in my wife to penalize us.
We're going to donate a bit of money to help
out people. I'm going to penalize us charge as a fee,

(50:13):
don't want have penny. We didn't give them any money.
Wife said, don't give them a credit card number, and
we didn't give them a credit card number. Now that's
a little bit of money that we're going to give
didn't didn't go where it should go because I didn't
like the idea of charge me a fee to help
somebody else. That's disgraceful.

Speaker 2 (50:30):
Yeah, I don't know if it was a specific credit
card transaction fee or what it might have been, because
I really don't know the answer to that particular question.

Speaker 10 (50:37):
I said to you, Patty, I've done I've done it before.
I've donated those organizations before, you know, like the Jamee
Waigh and the Red Cross and the Cancer Society and
those those other places that have those houses up on tickets.
I don't want to win a cabin now around wherever
it's to, I don't want to win a cabin, but
we buy those tickets. We win a cabin, we've got
to sell. If it's no good to us and the
house take up on tickets, we buy tickets. I need

(50:59):
to raise money help, you know. Would our organizations raise
the money and we can't live in that.

Speaker 4 (51:04):
We're too old and live.

Speaker 10 (51:05):
In a brief place for that, we had to sell that.
I noticed money. You come to our packet if we
if we want it, but it's not the point of that.
We just do to help other people. But you don't
chairs me a fee. No, no, don't work that way
with me.

Speaker 2 (51:16):
Okay, if you'd still like to contribute to that wildlife
or wildfire recovery fund, you can just go right directly
to the Canadian Red Cross and make your donation there.

Speaker 10 (51:24):
Do We would give Red Cross or credit card number
and they could take the money out.

Speaker 2 (51:29):
Yeah, there you go, you can do that directly.

Speaker 10 (51:31):
I don't like the idea of paying the fee. I mean,
there was all those people on the stage fars. I
know it was all volunteer. And then if somebody a
company just taking the phone calls or somebody taking the
phone calls and we got to pay them to do that,
it's not right. Let them volunteer too.

Speaker 2 (51:45):
Yeah, fair enough. And I don't know what the fee
was associated with, so I really don't have much to
say about it. But when we made a donation when
the fund was being created, we donated directly to the
Canadian Red cross and there was there was no fee
of any sort. So that's what we never should be.

Speaker 10 (52:01):
I mean, you know, like I said, I'm closer to
nineteen and I am a d eighty and I don't have
a lot of money. But when someone needs help, we
try to help.

Speaker 2 (52:09):
Yeah, sure, you know.

Speaker 10 (52:12):
And to Charish me, it was disgraceful and I no, no,
forget it, We'll just donated the rick Rouse itself.

Speaker 2 (52:18):
Yeah, it was.

Speaker 10 (52:19):
I have to say this morning, Patty, I just waited
to talk to you about epics. I didn't like that idea.
I don't know what. Maybe else I came across it
and wanted to pay a fee or discred just didn't
want to pay it, or he did pay it. But
I'm not paying no fees that donate my money to
somebody else.

Speaker 2 (52:33):
Yeah, and fair enough. And I think when you know,
in the big scheme of things, when we talk about
making donations, it's probably worth all of our while because
not everyone's sitting on a big pile of money, but
we have that feeling like you kind of feel like
you should contribute to some of these causes, including this
wildfire relief fund. So sure, it's always worthwhile when you
look around at the world of charities not for profits
to also look at how they operate. And what do

(52:55):
I mean by that is how much money that comes
in the door, it's spent on operating the charity is
what gets the the issue itself, regardless of what we're
talking about. There's some very helpful websites that helps you
break down and get into the weeds about how much
of your every dollar makes it to the cause versus
makes a too salaries and operating expenses and whatnot. Because
I think people are curious about that. They want to

(53:15):
make sure that they're hard or money of which they
probably don't have a whole lot of, and they're trying
to do something good. They want to make sure the
cause gets it the bulk of it.

Speaker 10 (53:24):
The gathering place older. I know there's volunteers over there,
but I guess there's people over getting paid. I don't
know to say you always getting paid the guy that
was premier one time and that I know if he's
going to a big fat salary or not. But I mean,
you know, if I going to donate to an organization,
is that even to help people that's you know, in
dire straits. And then someone's drawing a big fat salary.
I don't like that either.

Speaker 2 (53:45):
Now, you know, with someone who's operating Stay, for instance,
the Gathering Place or some of these big entities, they're
managing a lot of people and a lot of money.
I don't regard to someone at the helm of these
associations making a salary because I mean, if you think
about what's required to be the executive director at the
gathering Place, there's probably a lot to it. Dozens of
staff and dozens, if not hundreds of volunteers, millions of dollars.

(54:08):
So you know, with the salary comes some actual legitimate
froduciary responsibility and liability. So volunteers aren't going to put
themselves in the crosshairs of managing millions of dollars. Very unlikely.

Speaker 10 (54:20):
Yeah, you're going to say you need somebody that's well
educated into that field, probably like the CEO of the
company before we know it was over there run that
now and his job he was premier and he was
into the police force and all that. But I mean,
you know, I'm not criticizing him, but if he could
be drawn pretty good pension now when salary from what
he was involved with before, if he's trying to big
fat salary over there. I don't need that idea either. Yeah,

(54:44):
I mean, there's a lot of money coming down to
an ortization that needs help. And if he's he's just
wanted many probably in those groups that draw salaries. So
I don't think they should be drawn salaries. If you
can't donate their time, don't go there.

Speaker 2 (54:57):
Yeah. Well, and your point is understood for me. Like
if someone offered me a job managing dozens of people
and hundreds of volunteers and millions of dollars to do
it for free, I'm not so sure how many people
are going to take up that particular responsibility. But I
get where you're coming from. Anything else you'd like to
say this morning, while we have you.

Speaker 10 (55:13):
Oh, my friend, you go ahead and take next call.
I appreciate you talking to me.

Speaker 2 (55:16):
I appreciate your time. Thanks Dan, Thank you, bye bye. Yeah.
I don't know what the fee is about. I mean,
I'm sure I can find out here pretty quickly. But
just that concept of charities and how they're structured, and
how much money actually makes it to the cause versus
makes it to the salaries and operating expenses, what have you.

(55:37):
It's probably worth your while to have a look around here.
There's a couple of notable ones that I've used. They
refer to themselves as charity watchdogs, so worth I know
of too off the top of my head. Charity Navigator
and Charity watch And so what they do is they
basically analyze They have databases about regional charities financial filings
and they'll break down percentage of the money that makes

(55:58):
it to the cause versus makes it to the app
mentioned salaries and operating expenses. It's probably worthwhile. Not everybody
maybe thinks about that, but you know, consider especially when
we talk about charities that are operating overseas, it becomes
extremely difficult to know exactly where your money is going.
So I've done it in the past, and I know
there's some charities that we donate too that we've had

(56:20):
a look at to ensure that the money is being
spent where we think it's being spent where we think
it should be being spent. So anyways, that's just something
for your own consideration if you're so oclient. Oh there's
a research site too called what is it Charity Intelligence Canada.
I'm pretty sure, so that one's another good one. If
you'd like to ensure how your money's being spent when

(56:40):
you make a thoughtful donation. Let's see here, today's good
day to get on if you're in and around town.
It's seven zero nine two seven three five two one
one elsewhere a total free long distance one eight eight
eight five nine d VOCEM, which is eighty six twenty six.
We're taking a break and then we're coming back. Welcome
back to the show. You never know what's going to
get the big reaction, but stance call about a processing

(57:00):
fee or a transaction fee has got a ton of feedback.
So people are sending me even screenshots of you know,
the portion that is covered by fee, and it's fluctuating
from eighty cents all the way up to six dollars
depending on the platform you use to make a donation.
So again, we all need to know what we're getting
ourselves into when we decide we're going to make a donation.
So on top of processing or transaction fees or the

(57:22):
to fuel the necessary software to process these types of donations,
I guess you just have to be aware of what
you're doing prior to clicking the final button before you
go ahead and make your donation. So, okay, I appreciate
the feedback, very specific mention of you know, people working
at the helm of charities, and apparently plenty of people

(57:44):
disagree with my just pretty basic assertion that some charities
it does cost money to operate a charity and are
not for profit, and so there's always going to be
people that get paid. So the question would be, and
that's why I went a little a step further, said, look,
there are organizations out there that do that type of
research to provide that data analysis of exactly how much

(58:04):
money is spent on the cause versus money is spent
on salary and operating and overhead and the like, which
is why I gave out that information. But if we
look at some of the bigger charities, just pick one
and whichever. When you pick that manages dozens of employees
and hundreds of volunteers and millions of dollars, you take
on some pretty significant responsibilities for do share responsibilities liabilities?

(58:27):
So I don't know how many people have the appetite
to put themselves or expose themselves to enormous risk and
enormous responsibility to not get paid in some form or fashion. Now,
if the salary is x that you think is reasonable,
but someone's getting paid three x, which is certainly the
case that some of the biggest charities and not for
profits in the country. Then that's a question that you

(58:49):
have to ask yourself as to whether or not you
think that your money should be supporting that particular cause.
And that's why I leave it up to you. We
very seldom, you know, break down very specific charities unless
we have a call from one charity or another, because
this show has been spreading it around to a variety
of charities provincially and federally for a long time. Also,
someone asked what I meant about charities that are operating overseas.

(59:13):
I think it's been clear over the years that it
becomes harder and harder to understand the entirety of the chain,
how many hands the money passes through before what you
thought you were helping actually gets the help. When it's
domestic issues, there is much more robust audits and analysis
and revelation of financial data. But when you start getting

(59:33):
multi jurisdictional charities operating, whether it be in the Middle
East or in Africa or what have you not to
say that some of these charities aren't doing everything humanly
possible to make sure the maximum money spent is on
the cause that you think you're supporting. But it does
become very difficult to find and follow one hundred dollars
bill that you made a donation of. By the time

(59:53):
it makes its way to picket place whatever you want
to pick a gaza, it's sometimes hard to know how
that money and whether or not the help that you
think you're trying to provide actually makes it to the
people who need the support on that front. So plenty
of people extremely crooked about the conversation regarding the measles

(01:00:13):
elimination status which the country has lost, and even the
conversation about immigration in the most recent budget a couple
of things. It's a complex issue, but immigration numbers have
been cut dramatically in the most recent federal budget, dramatic
cuts like forty three percent. And of course immigration comes
in many forms and fashions. There's different silos between refugees

(01:00:35):
and asylum seekers, international student visas, people on the pathway
to permanent residency, people who are targeted for skilled trades
and or healthcare, what have you. So it's a different
issue for many different forms of newcomers to the country,
I will say, and the numbers have been cut a lot.
Here's where I think part of the conversation has been lost.
And I'm pretty sure we had Dan Kelly from the

(01:00:56):
Canadian Federation of Independent Business on the program foreign workers.
I should put that one out there too. And there
is no federal wage subsidies specifically for temporary foreign workers.
But it's interesting to been here from business groups because
overall spending is up in Canada. When the population grows,
of course, spending is going to grow as well. But

(01:01:17):
as the CFIV says, overall spending will indeed be compromised
because individual spending is down. When the population grew, overall
spending up. But that's a worry that business owners have
across the country because individual spending is down. Why obvious reasons.
Household debt is huge in this country, the amount of
credit card debt is huge. The cost of living pressures

(01:01:38):
are right there for all to seas. So of course
it stands to reason that for the vast majority of Canadians,
your disposable income is not what it was ten years ago.
The value and the purchasing power of your dollar is
way down. So that's one of those concerns that people
don't want to hear about. But the CFIB, the Canadian
Federation of Independent Business Things is a problem that's going

(01:02:01):
to happen when we see immigration numbers cut. Now, there's
a huge difference in cutting the number of people that
would be welcomed on asylumn claims or refugee claims or
for permanent residency and international students. The cut for international
student visas is a strange place to start. I mean,
if we're talking about brain drain and the need for

(01:02:24):
so many people in categories regarding science and technology and
engineering and mathematics and all the rest of it, it
does become a pretty curious place to start when we
talk about cutting numbers. Now, it's completely legitimate when there
was a careful examination done about just how many of
these student visas, international student visas are being given to

(01:02:47):
folks for these unaccredited in some cases fly by Night
colleges in Ontario, for instance, and there was plenty of them.
It's also completely fair to ask about subsidizing of education
and the international student visa as it pertains to whether
or not the education is gained, and then immediately they
leave so there are fair questions to be asked. But

(01:03:09):
that's where immigration as a very generalized conversation at one
hundred thousand feet above sea level probably doesn't get down
to the brass tax of all of the different silos
of pathways to coming to Canada and what it means.
And then just quick one on the measles elimination status
that the country has lost for so much of the

(01:03:30):
blame to be heaped on newcomers of the country. Again,
if we look at vaccination rates for measles in this case,
at the countries with which we see a lot of
immigration happen from number one contributor to population growth here
regarding newcomers is India. It is and vaccination rates for
Indians East Indians is extremely high. So not so sure

(01:03:54):
that's the group of people that are solely responsible for
the issue regarding whether or not people are willing or
hesitant or skeptical of vaccines and saying that measles vaccine
has been a big part of the elimination status. Yes,
there are many things that have also helped control and
to eliminate measles in this country. And one of those

(01:04:14):
concepts of what they call high fencing when a pockative
measles is identified. You know, what they talk about is
the high fence approach. You know, her immunity is one thing,
but the high fencing is basically the surrounding population. And
this can be surrounding population of daycare families, surrounding population
of school school communities, and or communities municipalities at large.

(01:04:36):
So I get myself a lot of trouble here, but
that's part of it. Let's check it out on the
Twitter box for a VSM open line. You can follow
us their email addresses open on AFIOCEM dot com. When
we come back, we're speaking with you. The topic entirely
up to you. Don't go away, Welcome back to the show.
Let's go to line number one. Second more to the
liberal member elected in the voting district to Gander. She's
the opposition tourism, culture and arts critic. That's Patina Ford. Patina,

(01:04:59):
you're on.

Speaker 11 (01:05:01):
Hi.

Speaker 9 (01:05:01):
Good morning, Patty, Good morning to you.

Speaker 1 (01:05:04):
Hi.

Speaker 11 (01:05:04):
I just wanted to Colin.

Speaker 9 (01:05:06):
I heard you reach out earlier to Minister Barber to
call in and speak to some of the issues that
came about earlier this week, and just wanted to clarify
my statement that I made on Monday and speak to
some of the concerns.

Speaker 8 (01:05:23):
That I have.

Speaker 9 (01:05:25):
There is a lot of chatter about this on social media.
Minister Barber herself posted about things around being bullied, So
I just want to be clear that I have no
intention of tearing her down.

Speaker 11 (01:05:41):
Like official opposition or not.

Speaker 9 (01:05:43):
I've spent my entire life building people up, so to
be clear, I have zero issues with her social media
around cooking and exercising. You know, the dancing videos on TikTok,
although the one of her playing with play or play
though and pretending that's poop, I mean, that's a little

(01:06:04):
bit questionable, but I guess she found that amusing.

Speaker 11 (01:06:07):
I mean, my concerns as the tourism critic really there
are two. One is the social.

Speaker 9 (01:06:14):
Media content itself that she posted prior to being elected
related to the sector that she's now minister responsible for,
and in second, the removal of that social media and
what that indicates to us.

Speaker 2 (01:06:32):
And of course you can speak to whatever concerns that
you have for me as a minister if there are
specific comments about tourism and the importance of tourism or
the arts or culture or recreation. That's something that I
would be interested in speaking with the minister about it.
And I, like you, I have no interest in tearing
anyone down that doesn't do me or anybody listen to

(01:06:53):
the program any good and content that was outside of that,
you know, whether it be the Plato bit or any
dadsing yours. I don't care about that stuff. Like I don't.
My brain doesn't have space to worry about those things.
I'm alrea worried about individuals Andrew Barbera and everybody else
who is an elected official their own personal thoughts on
the minisrial portfolio that day in here and how that

(01:07:15):
impacts public policy. That's where my concerns are. The other stuff,
it's a bit too frivolous what that means, people who
have their own opinions on it, And I'm welcoming your
opinion on I'm really focusing on the tourism piece personally.

Speaker 11 (01:07:26):
Yeah, one hundred percent.

Speaker 9 (01:07:28):
And I mean I have a lot of background and experience.
Petting worked in the sector, worked with people and supported
the sector. And you know, this sector one point for
billion dollar industry in Newsomnand and Labrador, over twenty thousand
people employed so we think about the hundreds of businesses
who rely and it's thriving tourism industry.

Speaker 11 (01:07:50):
So for me, what was.

Speaker 9 (01:07:52):
Concerning and what my statement addressed is when Minister Barber
granted prior to being elected talking about investment and tourism
from the government of Minsuland and Labrador and just comments
around I don't think they got it straight. And you know,
questioning around New Zemland traditions and its being washed out

(01:08:14):
and that when she grew up it was only New
Zealanders and Libradinians here, So I mean that again, it's
two concerning issues. And you know this isn't something that
was said off the cuff. These were purposeful, intentional videos
and content that she created and put out into the world.

(01:08:35):
So you know, I question if that was her perspective,
then what does that say about her role now as
the Minister of Tourism Culture, as you say, and how
will that perspective impact the investment that the PC government
is going to make in tourism. So that's one part

(01:08:58):
of it. But then also just question around Newfoundland culture
being washed out and only having New Zoumdlanders around, Like
I can't help but question does that mean, like, does
she support immigration to New Zoundland and Labrador and our

(01:09:19):
culture in this province. It's not only questioning immigration from
people from other countries, but you know, Newsoundland and Labrador,
we have thousands of people in our province who've moved here,
Canadians from other provinces across the country who bring culture.
So just comments surround you know, maybe the government should

(01:09:40):
be investing in a new fie version of Zoomba. So
I'm really calling on the minister to clarify those comments.
The social media posts have been removed. I mean, I
don't know what's the Premier concerned about these comments being
in the public domain. Is the Premier questioning you know,

(01:10:01):
the judgment and having appointed her Minister of Tourism with
these comments out there. So I really feel that as
Minister of the department, she owes it to the industry,
to stakeholders. You know, I'm hearing from stakeholders in the
industry that they are concerned what this means for her
perspectives on tourism, investment and on culture in the province.

Speaker 2 (01:10:26):
Fair Enough, My very first question is look, even a
statement about I don't think they got it right regarding
tourism versus preserving new foland traditions of culture, what have you.
I don't know, I'm not exact sure what that means.
So if it's you know, whether or not she or
anybody else on her science or I think my position
on tourism is, you know, it's a critical contributor to

(01:10:47):
the economy, supports some twenty thousand plus jobs. It's new
money to the province, which cannot be overstated how important
that is. So that's basically what I want to know.
Is just a little bit more of an elaboration because
it's also the problem. This is not about Andrew Barber.
This is about social media, TikTok, what have you. It's
really just built for snippets. It's built for very short

(01:11:10):
thoughts and offerings, as opposed to talking about something that
is as complicated as tourism domestically and internationally. It's not
really a topic that's necessarily built for twenty five seconds
on a video platform. And again that's not about Andrew Barber.
That's just about it in particular, which has led us
to some pretty interesting things regarding people's attentionspans, people's ability

(01:11:32):
to think for themselves. So and again, that's not about
Andrew Barber. That's about how people utilize social media, especially
the like I don't use TikTok. I only see it
every now and then when someone shares what a clip
on Facebook or on Twitter, but I don't use it myself.
I just I didn't do it.

Speaker 11 (01:11:47):
Yeah, no, I mean everything is said there.

Speaker 9 (01:11:50):
I agree, And the videos themselves were longer than a
couple of quotes that I pulled out in the statement
that I issued on Monday, and I was all to
watch those four videos. And again, you know, as Minister
of Tourism, now, you know, perhaps she's had time to
reflect on those statements. Perhaps she feels that she should

(01:12:15):
clarify what those statements actually meant and put them into
greater context. I mean, I want her to succeed as
minister for the benefit of this industry that means so
much to New Zealanders and Labradorians, to those you know,
hundreds of businesses and thousands of people who work in
the sector. So really, I think that's that's where I'm

(01:12:37):
at at the official critic. It's not to criticize or
scrutinize for the sake of it.

Speaker 11 (01:12:43):
I think that.

Speaker 9 (01:12:44):
These are legitimate questions and it's acceptable for me and
for stakeholders in the sector to ask her and to
hold her account to those statements and to ask, now,
as the Minister of Tourism, how does she feel about.

Speaker 2 (01:12:57):
Those I'm more than happy to have many Barbara in
the program for we have some focus, of course on
this particular story and again just offering clarification or elaboration.
But then for me, I think I personally need to
move on from it to tourism policy into the future,
the understanding of the importance of tourism, the understanding of

(01:13:18):
the culture and recreation and arts, those things into the future.
I probably offer ninety five percent of the time when
I speak with the Minister Barber, but her opportunity to
clarify some of the questions that you bring forward, we
absolutely welcome it and she can feel free to join
us at her convenience.

Speaker 9 (01:13:33):
That's great, thanks, Patty, and I to you know, going forward,
I'm very interested to see the PC government where their
priorities are. You know, the district of Gander, for example,
the tourism industry is extremely important to this district and
I'm really looking forward to working with Minister Barber so.

Speaker 11 (01:13:53):
That she can see the value of it and the value.

Speaker 9 (01:13:55):
Of investment and the culture and how we can build
on that here in this strict as well as across
the province.

Speaker 2 (01:14:01):
I appreciate the time this morning betweena thank you, thank you, welcome,
bye bye. Look. I mean, does this require some never
ending examination of social media posts? Maybe for some it might,
for me not really some clarification on what Minister Barber

(01:14:22):
actually means by some of the things that she said,
other things that are, in my personal opinion, more frivolous.
And people enjoy social media. Sometimes it's a doom scroll,
but sometimes it's a welcome relief. If you follow certain
accounts that are talking about things that you enjoy, cooking
or music or exercise, or about culture or about dancing
or whatever. Fill your boots, because we all need a

(01:14:45):
little escape every now and then. And I'm not really
concerned with the vast majority of that kind of stuff.
You know, if it suits you and it's something that
you're interested in, why not. Absolutely right. I mean, it's
the same thing if I look at a bunch of
social media counts that talk about baseball stats. Some people
think it's a complete waste of time. I personally enjoy it,
So I don't begrudge people any of their own personal interest.

(01:15:05):
Why would I, Because it doesn't affect my life, doesn't
hurt me, doesn't hurt my family. So you do whatever
you like. And so I'm really not concerned with some
of the other posts made by Andrew Barber. Minister Barber,
pardon me, but some as it pertains directly to our
new ministerial portfolio, why not we should be talking about
that right, all right, let's get to the break right
on time, Mikes, And if you appreciate your patience, Mike
wants to talk about the seniors benefit. What about it?

(01:15:27):
Really not sure we'll find out. Just check in on
Twitter getting smoked there this morning or VOSM openline, you
know what to do. You can follow us there, email
addresses open on at FOSM dot com. Plenty flowing in there,
and certainly plenty of comments about credit card transactions or
processing fees. Some people are pointing out it's not necessarily
about the call specifically what standards say about the Canadian

(01:15:49):
Red Cross or we stand on guard. It's about sometimes
and this happens in the airline industry as well. You
don't know exactly what you paid until you've actually clicked
the final button to submit or to donate or to
pay whatever it says at the bottom of your screen.
And this is not about that particular concert. That's patently unfair.
You should have a detailed sum about exactly what's going

(01:16:10):
to appair in your credit card statement before you click
send or pay or donate or whatever the case. We'd
be not an after the fact, you look at your
credit cards, you try to make a donation to I
don't know, the George Cassanza World Fund, and upon your
credit card statement arriving, you try to donate a hundred
bucks and your credit card says one hundred and six.
That's not fair. Let's take a break, don't go away.
Welcome back to the program. Let's go to line number two.

(01:16:33):
Mike around the air.

Speaker 12 (01:16:35):
Good morning, Petty.

Speaker 3 (01:16:36):
How are you doing.

Speaker 2 (01:16:36):
I'm doing okay, how about you?

Speaker 12 (01:16:38):
A couple of weeks ago, there was a person called
into your show regarding the Seniors band program. Yeah, do
you do you have a contact number that I can
that I can call?

Speaker 2 (01:16:51):
Uh, maybe let me see if I can find and
just so we could pay the picture for those listening
the senior's benefit reaches about fifty thousand seniors in the problem,
and it's all based on income. If you have a
married or a common law couple with a justin family
net income of thirty thousand dollars thirty thousand and seventy
eight dollars, you can be eligible for the maximum benefit
of fifteen hundred and fifty one dollars. You have to

(01:17:13):
be sixty four years of age as well. Let's see
if I have an actual contact number for you. I
probably do. Here we go, got it so people can
obviously do it via email, which is the easiest one
for most. But here is a contact number. It's coming
up here now that so you it's part of the
Department of Finance at the Tax and Fiscal Policy Branch.

(01:17:33):
The telephone number seven.

Speaker 12 (01:17:35):
Zero nine seven seven zero nine.

Speaker 2 (01:17:39):
Seven two nine seven seven, Yeah, thirty one sixty six.

Speaker 12 (01:17:49):
Thirty war sixty six. So that's seven or nine.

Speaker 11 (01:17:54):
Seven.

Speaker 12 (01:17:58):
I can't believe with that number.

Speaker 2 (01:17:59):
Seven seven zero nine seven two nine thirty one sixty.

Speaker 12 (01:18:03):
Six, okay, seven to okay, thirty one sixty six. Okay,
I'll guess a couple of things to there. I missed
your program. I missed your radio FIGM last week on
your Kids Eat Smart program, I had donated to them
for ages and so do you have a number for

(01:18:26):
that for the kids the smack program?

Speaker 2 (01:18:29):
So donate directly the Kids Eat Smart.

Speaker 9 (01:18:32):
That's great.

Speaker 2 (01:18:32):
Yeah, I'm not so sure if I have one, tip
my fingers, but it's easy enough for me to find one.
Kids Eat Smart? That that that sure? Here you go
seven to two.

Speaker 12 (01:18:45):
Or second seven two two, Yeah.

Speaker 2 (01:18:48):
One nine six.

Speaker 12 (01:18:50):
One nine nine six, Okay.

Speaker 2 (01:18:56):
Go ahead, No, that's it, you got it.

Speaker 12 (01:18:58):
That's it seven for nine six program. And the last
thing is I was listening to the Tuesday We Stand
on Guard there on the Monday, uh the big program,
the big fund raiser for the for the people that
were displaced and by day wallfires and that, and I

(01:19:22):
was I was on the on the phone for your number.

Speaker 13 (01:19:27):
And I have the whole mate and then at eleven
o'clock I had to give up. And uh so I.

Speaker 12 (01:19:38):
I would like to donate to look to donate to
them at dere So do you know I would I
would go about.

Speaker 2 (01:19:46):
Yeah, I do. Yes, you can go to the Canadian
Red Cross just game red.

Speaker 12 (01:19:51):
Cross, ye, yeah, uh have a any ollier is called
in regarding the cot couldn't get food number.

Speaker 2 (01:19:59):
Now I've I don't know. That's the first I've heard
of it this morning.

Speaker 12 (01:20:03):
Okay, okay, okay, okay, the.

Speaker 11 (01:20:07):
Context correct?

Speaker 2 (01:20:09):
Yeah, okay, my friends, thank you very much, no problem.
I call the best.

Speaker 4 (01:20:14):
Okay, bye, good bye.

Speaker 2 (01:20:16):
All right, let's take a break for the news. Le'll
make it back. We'd speaking with you.

Speaker 1 (01:20:19):
You were listening to a rebroadcast VOCM Open Mind. Have
your say by calling seven oh nine two seven, three
fifty two eleven or one triple eight five ninety eight
six two six and listen live weekday mornings at nine am.

Speaker 2 (01:20:37):
Welcome back to the program. Yeah, the seniors benefit. I'm
not so sure why, but there seems to be some
confusion out there about how it works. So basically, it's
different from the disability benefits of what have you. Sometimes
people conflate them, but they're they're different things. And so
again it's all based on your net family income and

(01:20:58):
for the senior's benefits abilities thirty thousand and seventy eight dollars.
So that's the basic starts off it. You have to
be sixty four years of age by December thirty, first
of a particular taxation year, and it's a floating target
based on your income, and the maximum benefit is fifteen
hundred and fifty one dollars and it comes out quarterly
and more often than not attract partly attached directly to

(01:21:20):
the GST rebate in so far as the date goes.
So that's one thing. Then I don't know if everybody
is aware of some of the other benefits that are
out there, like the Aging Well at Home grant four
hundred dollars. There has been some pledge of doubling that
to eight hundred dollars, which has not happened yet. That
would have to be done via legislation. But one of
the programs that does get overlooked that's directly associated with

(01:21:41):
the Aging Well Grant is the Caregiver Grant. So if
you are an eligible caregiver and you assist a low
income senior that has complex care needs, then you can
be eligible for a four hundred dollars grant as well.
So you know, if you're a caregiver. And I think
that conversation about family as caregivers is probably doesn't get
enough attention that we really should give it here on

(01:22:02):
the show. So maybe I'll devote some tom to tomorrow morning. Also,
there's provincial home repair programs, so when you age, you
may indeed need different things to modify your home to accommodate,
whether it be some of the handles in the washroom
or those types of things, or whether it's just basic repairs.
So there's a home modification program, there's a provincial home
repair program. So if you're eligible for those benefits, please

(01:22:25):
do indeed evaluate or at least apply for some of
those other supports that are there. Not everyone applies for
all of them, but they're there. And in the world
of disability tax credits and the ability to donate to
a disability retirement fund, every now and then someone will say, look,
I went to the province just to be told that
I'm not eligible. The starting point for eligibility for provincial

(01:22:49):
disability benefits and the retirement fund is if you have to,
and it's mandatory that you apply for and are given
the disability tax credit federally. Unless you have that, you
do not qualify for any of those programs here in
the province. So that's where it starts. And on that front,
there's plenty of ways to go about it, even if
I hear repeatedly, Look, I don't have a family doctor,

(01:23:11):
so how can I go about this disability and tax
credit application? It depends on your disability, Like there are
different health professionals that can be involved and help them
fill out that application for you. And I know Tom
Badcock at the Hub does a lot of work on
their front to try to help people. So if you
have issues with your speech and or walking or things

(01:23:32):
like that, like you might be able to go to
a physical physio, a physical therapist, or an occupational therapist
or a speech therapist. So it kind of depends what
you're concerned. Is here but a doctor, an MD and
or a nurse practitioner they can cover it all. So
if you're thinking you might be eligible, because I guarantee
you there's thousands of people listening in this province and

(01:23:52):
hundreds of thousands across the country that probably do qualify,
but they might not consider that their disability is severe enough.
It basically comes down to is if it has a
direct impact on your day to day activities and it's prolonged.
It's not like something that's short term, like you broke
your foot. It's something that's long term, has a direct
impact on day to day activities, and it is multifaceted.

(01:24:16):
It's not about severe disabilities necessarily, because as we age
things that really do complicate your day to day life
and the ability to conduct certain day to day activities,
it may indeed follow into that category. So it's probably
worthwhile to give that a little bit of a closer
look if you listen to the show. Interestingly, maybe it
was based on the fact that last week I brought

(01:24:37):
up the ongoing investigation into the fire that destroyed the
drift Wood End drift Wood ind over a year ago.
So I heard Sarah read the story on the newscast,
and we're being told that, yes, the investigations are complex
and the AIRCMP continues to do the work also with
input from forensic investigators, other witnesses, national experts that are

(01:24:57):
part of it. Okay, fair enough, And I don't know
how complex those types of investigations are, but it's been
over a year, so I think it's coming pretty close
in time to find out what went on there. The
basic question that I would have before we get the
complete results of the investigation is inspections. What type of
inspections are in place for places like that hotels and

(01:25:20):
motels and inns and traditional bnbs and the like, about
egress and for fire suppression and fire sprinklers and or
alarms and or extinguishers and lighting those types of things.
We should be able to get pretty up to date
understanding of the frequency of inspections, who does it, and
when something is identified is not compliant, what's done about it,

(01:25:44):
what's the timeline to hit compliance because a lot of
these entities they require permits and inspections, why fire marshals,
for occupancy and a whole bunch of things. So it's
interesting that that was in their newscast today in addition
to that, and people keep talking about it, but mostly
just about emails. It's still alarming to me that there

(01:26:04):
were people in Conception Bay North that prior to the
massive Kingston fire, because we know the Adams Cove fire
and it happened repeatedly in and around that community, and
there were some twelve homes lost in Adams Cove, just
about two hundred loss as a result of the North
Shore fire of the Kingston fire. Is it breaks my
heart to know that people were taking it upon themselves

(01:26:24):
to hide in the bushes or to go to high
ground to try to spot a fire that's just been
started on purpose by an arsonist and then consequently with
their own extinguisher in the back of the ATV or whatever,
able to keep it at bay until the fire department
was able to respond. And they say, and this is
a bunch of different people saying I was one of
those people hiding in the bushes. I reported what I

(01:26:47):
saw and when I saw it directly to the RCMP.
And it wasn't just one person, because it's easy enough
for law enforce from their one complaint and maybe not
give it the type of intention it requires. But apparently
it was pretty frequent. And now I don't know if
anyone's ever going to be arrested and taking the task
criminally speaking. Because of that particular fire where over two
hundred structures were lost, people's lives have changed as a

(01:27:10):
school worked to the ground. But it's something else to
know that the warnings were offered and who knows what
level of investigation took place, but obviously not enough to
keep it from becoming that massive fire. Let's take a break,
don't go away, Welcome back to the show. During the newscast,
I was asked by a listener as to how and

(01:27:30):
why we've totally dropped the topic of onshore wind proposals.
We haven't. We've talked about it extensively here on the show.
But what's interesting about that is the silence of some organizations,
as pointed out by Brend Kitchen with Protect and L
is that you would think the organizations that may be
directly impacted, including the New Plan, Labrador Outfitters Association, they
don't have a specific stance or position on these proposals. Look,

(01:27:55):
whether or not they even happen into the future, I
have no earthly idea. The offloading infrastructure on the other
side of the pond is not there. MOUs can be
signed with the Port of Amsterdam, the Port of Rotterdam
and with Germany, but the fact of the matter is
nothing has happened on that front. And even the Germans
themselves they consider the green hydrogen as extremely expensive. How
do I know that because they set aside specific like

(01:28:16):
a one point two billion euro to help subsidize the cost.
So whether or not World Energy or ever Wind or
anybody has a power purchase agreement, and as it pertains
the World Energy, they say, unless they have a PPA
for no less than ten years, they will not be proceeding,
and so at this moment in time, they don't. So no,
we haven't dropped the topic in its entirety. Now the

(01:28:38):
conversation itself and the industry seems to installed. I mean,
even the federal governments who were really quite bullish about this.
They dropped their forecast four years ago. They told us
that the value of the green hydrogen industry by twenty
fifty would be somewhere thanahbored to have eleven point two
trillion dollars. They downgraded that to just about two trillion
dollars themselves. And that's the entity that was really talking

(01:29:01):
about green hydrogen as the next great thing. Will it
be part of a so called transition? Yeah, probably to
the extent of which the Fence thought. Obviously not not
my words, their words. So no, we haven't dropped it
in full, and we're happy to take it on here
in the program because it is a big deal. But again,
for whether it be the Alantic Salmon Federation or the
Outfitters Association to not have an actual stance on it

(01:29:23):
or an official position is a bit odd. Now. Furthering that,
conversations as to whether or not the PCs have a
different stance on these proposals versus what the liberals are,
and the Liberals were very bullish on it. They obviously
were right. The short answer is, I'm not entirely sure,
but because of the fact that Tony Wakem's voting district
out in Stevenville Port of Port is right there amongst

(01:29:44):
the largest, one of the largest proposals when asked, and
I'm not going to put words in the Premier's mouth,
but we asked Tony Wakem several times about his position
on it, and he never did come out and say
that he was opposed to it. It was about process
and environment, environmental assessments and what's in it for the
tech and how much money would flow to local communities,
those types of general questions or concerns. But no, we

(01:30:07):
haven't heard the torri said that they're completely opposed to them.
And whether or not they changed that stance in the future,
I really don't know. Plenty of folks really displease that
there's any commentary offered about social media postings for newly
elected politicians. Some may indeed be exaggerated. I mean, I
get it, I totally understand, but if we think about

(01:30:28):
it in the broader strokes regarding different portfolios. If there
was a newly appointed and this is these are just fictionals.
If there was a newly appointed Minister of Health that
was leaning in on things about medical assistance and dying,
or that we should not have any doctors from one
country or another, then that person probably wouldn't be the

(01:30:49):
Minister of Health for very long. If there was a
Minister of Fisheries that banged down with some pretty bizarre
stuff regarding the fishery, probably wouldn't have a fisheries portfolio. Look,
if some people think it's a worthwhile conversation, some people
think it's complete waste of time, feel free to the
voice either or because again for some of for me,

(01:31:11):
some of it is I couldn't care less. You know,
if there was videos about dancing or exercise and it
got lots of likes and people were interacting with it
fair enough, issues that are very specific to government policy,
I think are worthwhile discussions. Right, why not, Let's take a.

Speaker 1 (01:31:27):
Break, don't go away the Tim Power Show during the
Conversation weekday afternoons at four pm on your VOCM.

Speaker 2 (01:31:35):
Welcome back to the program. Let's keep prog here, let's
go to line number one and good morning's riority around
the air.

Speaker 4 (01:31:43):
I guess you mean Meal.

Speaker 2 (01:31:45):
Gerald started, welcome to the show.

Speaker 4 (01:31:47):
Yeah, good morning, Patty, good morning. Excuse me. Now, I'm
like I told you, will have sort an old man's
little bit rattles. But you have the Fisheries minister interview
coming up.

Speaker 2 (01:32:00):
The week we're going to try You're not sure? Not sure?

Speaker 4 (01:32:08):
Okay, could you answer me? What's the purpose of this
interview with the fisheries minister.

Speaker 2 (01:32:14):
Well, depends on which one we get, whether it be
provincially or federally. I guess they kind of take two
different tacks.

Speaker 4 (01:32:20):
Oh, I think about how the federal case of pedal size.

Speaker 2 (01:32:23):
Well, there's also obviously a lot to discuss regarding the
fishery with the federal minister. Is there anything particularly like
me to make sure I discuss.

Speaker 4 (01:32:31):
Oh, sure that there's lots really, I mean and Thompson
horor ministry our minister. It seems to have been a
bit of a flap from from my point of view. Okay,
we start with the food, the food fishery, the food.
You know, you remember the frothelo for the extending that

(01:32:52):
you know, the limitations on that fishery. I the hon'ser
opportunities to step up as a minister, an exercise her
duty and responsibility as a minister, and clear less situation up.
There was no rationale for what for what went down
with that fishery. You know, we've been through all that.

(01:33:12):
I mean my point is a case for she failed.

Speaker 2 (01:33:19):
Yeah, well, I mean whether or not it's a failure,
it's pretty consistent with how the recreational food fisher has
been handled by successive ministers of both major parties, because
nothing's really changed there, which I think is the biggest.

Speaker 4 (01:33:33):
But that's what I'm saying. That this one was a Newfoundlander,
which everybody knows is just a squaciless one. Is her
opportunity I'm talking about her failure, you know, like restricted
to that. And number two would be when the macro
macro You could refresh me on that now, but it
wasn't open. The place was teaming with micro. But the

(01:33:56):
question is where is she?

Speaker 2 (01:34:00):
Yes, the macro fishery is only open in so far
as it's a bait fishery. That's it.

Speaker 4 (01:34:06):
Yeah, well, I mean so often, just what to think
the fishermen, the fishermen do the fishing, not bureaucrats. They
they fish what they want. They should fish what they want.
We're at the time they want and not be governed
by bureaucratic bureaucratic restriction. I can see, I can the

(01:34:28):
fishery needs to be overall, have a overseer. But to
have our bureaucrats managing the fishing, that's another story. But
I don't want just diverse a bit. And number three
would be the sea urchin. There's a somebody came up

(01:34:49):
on the fishery broadcast a while ago, not that long ago,
where she advocates the responsibility. Again, you could look at
the detail level. The woman called them. She was passionate, Well,
how the bureaucrats are you ruling the fishery? Are you?
You can forget? Should probably come out again with that's
the what point I'm making.

Speaker 2 (01:35:11):
Yeah, the one particular bay specific babying closed and the
sea or fishery that could be maintained. That's a very
specific one which we're happy to talk about recreational food fishery.
I mean, I think the minister was appointed last March,
so we're told there's going to be some consultations about
next year's recreational food fisher whether that that's a exercise.

Speaker 4 (01:35:33):
We don't want to hear that nonsense. Look, we don't
know what what'smable. It's a dundee. Let's dislike talking about
fresh here. That's just nuts. Apparently a bit irritated about
the how how we're being treated here, especially in the fishery.
And and I don't I just don't have that time

(01:35:54):
or for patients for fill in or excuses for them.
There's no excuses for them. They should be held accountable
and a looful land people should demand that. That's that's
my point.

Speaker 2 (01:36:04):
Who's making excuse I hope I.

Speaker 4 (01:36:06):
Don't have found a hostile or whatever.

Speaker 2 (01:36:11):
You know, you can if you want. It doesn't bother me.
So who's making excuses for John Thompson certainly not me.

Speaker 4 (01:36:18):
Well, if the cap fits, you can weird. I mean,
you can answer for yourself. I that's not my point.
You know, you really really and I one more, I
just had a few things loaded down. Maybe sure you
could question her on the just the staff increases at
the FO over the last ten years have increased fifty percent,

(01:36:42):
you know, a dramatic increase in bureaucracy and the corresponding
decrease in fishery, just just for in for if you
can make a note of that, if you want to
use still time or whatever.

Speaker 2 (01:36:53):
You know, staffing is a conversation we're happy to have
across the public service. You know. See that's a good
place to start, and the DTHO happy to do it,
no problem.

Speaker 4 (01:37:08):
Yeah, anyway, that's I I see you for the good
opportunity to come on and bringing in bringing the subject
about the fishery. But I think it's essential and a
paramount in port and to the problems.

Speaker 2 (01:37:23):
You know, understood anything else this morning, cherlds.

Speaker 4 (01:37:28):
Well, I don't like to bring up another problem. I
just bounce it after you. My opinion or what I
think I think us us here in Newfoundland are you
are losing the flight of the valuable resource, A lot
of resource that we we could we could do and

(01:37:50):
be do well when that's the production of saltish, Yeah,
well we have a lot might be suby for some
other car. Well, it seems to me that if we
officially adopted going into the solfish business, there's a lot

(01:38:13):
of them. There's big markets there, there's big profits there.
I think it's an opportunity we're overlooking, you know.

Speaker 2 (01:38:20):
Yeah, fair enough. And I suppose that would be a
question for industry, not the minister, because if people wanted
to solve fish.

Speaker 4 (01:38:25):
Oh sorry, Patty, I don't mean for the minister. I
meant for you really and and me who say, you.

Speaker 2 (01:38:30):
Know, yeah, I mean if the industry can find profit
in a fish stick all the way to solve fish,
if they can find a market for it, that they
certainly have the ability to do it. I'm not directly
involved in the industry, but happy to put it out
there like we just did your no problem.

Speaker 4 (01:38:43):
That's that was my point. Apparently there was a fish,
some fish a while ago. I don't know what exactly,
but it needed to be salted for some reason. They
had to ship it down to Laverne, to Mary's Harbor
to get the salting. And I said, what's what's going
on here? You know? But we have we had a
new for that one time. Joey Smiles had a selfish
corporation here, you know. And I would uh, the handling

(01:39:11):
salt fish with the old labor intensity and drying. But
I remember, I remember that tells how old I am.
The Commission of Government investigator having artificial dryers for salt fish.
You know, surely we could come up with some sort
of fissient industry to take advantage of the market, especially

(01:39:31):
in the US economic times. Paddy. You know, that's just
I think something should be addressed, and that's what I
got to say about it.

Speaker 2 (01:39:41):
And I appreciate your time. Thanks for calling. Okay, okay,
bye bye uh quick down on saltfish. I've used this
example in the past. This is a number of years
ago now. At the time Grade acod at the wharf
was getting fifty or fifty two cents a pound. We
were in Florida right after the price was set about
a month later, so the product was hitting the shelves
in the United States and in the grocery store. The

(01:40:02):
first one we went to. I was just curious about
how much the fish was and it was a product
of Newfoundland and it was nineteen ninety nine pound, and
the fish officers that exact year, we're getting fifty or
fifty two cents a pound at the wharf for Grade
A cod. Amazing stuff. Another quick one on the fishery
and DFO. It was very vague, but when asked then

(01:40:23):
candidate Mark Kearney was asked about DFO and he made
some brief reference to possible restructuring of the organization. No
real detail about restructure what or for what intended goal,
but he did make mention of it. So it would
also be interesting now all of a sudden, as the
elected party is if there's any more detail or meet

(01:40:43):
on that particular bone, and of course get plenty of
emails on it. But it's the whole concept of floor crossing,
specifically Nova Scotia parliamentarian Chris Dauntrement who left the Conservative
Party to go to join the Liberal caucus, and then
Matt General who simply resigned the seat didn't cross the floor.
It's the possibility of more of these floor crossings to happen,

(01:41:03):
and consequently, if two more happened, then of course, all
of a sudden, minority problem becomes a majority parliament, which
has much to the chagrin of plenty people who contact us.
Let's get a break in, don't go away, welcome back,
let's go Line number two. Eugene around the air, Good morning,
Patrick O. Where are you okay? How about you?

Speaker 8 (01:41:24):
Not too bad? I'm pulled over now I'm on a
tcage Paddy, I just want to let the public know
that there's a section of highway just in the area
of Welcome to Scenic Queen Bay, which is about five
six commers east of Soapbrook. Now that section of oyeway

(01:41:46):
as from the terrible section of Oway in the last
few years, and Ivan lobbying to try to get the
brush cut and think they have cut the brush, which
is a good thing, but unfortunately we have had we
had think three people died. There's two two crosses there
now I just passed it, uh in the last three years,
so in that area, so it's a danger zone. It's

(01:42:08):
it's and so what I have done because I'm I'm
after concerning citizens, I have sent him to the Premier
and to the Minister Transportation and I've got a response
that they acknowledge my email. So I will keep lobbying
and try to get fencing that area. Now I know

(01:42:30):
what it's going to be a concern for the people
that cuts wood in that area. But anywhere there's a
woods road, like on the west coast, they are putting
the gate, so that should be taken care of. But Patty,
it's a it's a dead trap. I mean, I I
just passed the wall back to and there's a mooster.
And I mean there's just there's a mooster all the time.
And I mean I'm getting calls. I'm getting you know,

(01:42:52):
people even sitting down Evan Evan coffee, Lewis Pourt. I
mean there's people saying I almostrug a moose last night
on the way from the airport in Dearly. So that's
an area that needs fincing. Ef there's three people killed
and all these accents and sightings. That is a prime
spot for of fencing.

Speaker 2 (01:43:08):
You know what I mean, Patty, I do we have
an email address set up for that specific thing and
news tips of what have you. Every single show between
nine and twelve, I can say safely that I'll get
ten twelve of those emails that make its way to
me about moose sightings every single morning.

Speaker 8 (01:43:26):
It's not believe this. I'm gonna at this since two
thousand and two. I have my moose accent in two
thousand and two by Doobies, and I haven't stopped, as
you know, and the people this problem is knowing the
comedy moose man. But I don't mind it. And I
tell you this fall has been the worst fall on
record because I does the record of all this stuff,
because I got a lot of books on all this stuff.
This has been the worst fall on record for moose

(01:43:48):
vehicle accents. And it's hard to believe it because I
mean that the haunting season is open, and you know,
like first one season starts to said they're driving off
the yam, but no, I mean air there is November,
still have loose axes. My grandson was beyond the vehicle
there by Lewis for Johnson a couple of nights ago
they go christ you know, I shared on Facebook. Actually
they blown out of the pavement all that stuff. So

(01:44:09):
it's it's it's major. So so the government knows, Wallet knows, transportation,
knows where the worst areas are. Now the Premier did say,
and I got no reason to not believe it in
lection time that he's going to continue with the loose
fan scene and glob it off and seed it, which
needs to be done because that's that was cut just

(01:44:30):
a couple a couple of years ago there back there,
and now it's starting to grow up now where that
action was to by Lewis for a junction a couple
of nights ago that was cut two years ago and
it's up about five feet now, so why not do
the job right? That be the start glub it off
seated like he does in other other provinces, and we're
absolutely necesser like by the sign welcome to the sceney

(01:44:50):
Green Bay fencer. So they got you know where it's
important if you know it's got to the point no, Peddy,
it's very very dangerous to travel after that. I mean,
it is unbelievable, right, I know. I don't even don't
have different So I just want to let the public
know that that you have the concerned citizens this province.
I'm working on this and I'll work my butt off

(01:45:11):
until we can get that done.

Speaker 2 (01:45:14):
The only question I would have about area specific fencing
is that like it's the same thing with the extension
of the fence close by where I live, So it
gives you that sense of additional safety. And of course
you can indeed see a moose on the highway side
of the fence because the fence ends at some point.
So in area specific fencing, would we simply be pushing

(01:45:36):
the problem a little further down to where the fence
ends and the moose can just get out and cross
the throat. That's the questions I would have about you
know this, bit defence there, bit defense there.

Speaker 8 (01:45:46):
Yeah, no, in other problems, because I have traveled and
checked out this out. They do put the overpasses for
the animals, but I don't say you'll ever see that
in this province. It's an expensive venture. But they can
angle the fencing at the end. And yes, a real occasion,
you will see a moose on the outside of the
defense where it's not supposed to be. But I tell you,

(01:46:06):
I keep me in contact with the West coast, and
that's very rare. Ninety nine percent of the time the
moose is inside defense were supposed to be.

Speaker 2 (01:46:15):
Oh yeah, I understand that, and I don't believe that.
And you know, like the places that have spent copious
amounts of money on protecting the motoring public from big animals.
Is like when you go through bath it's unbelievable. The
amount of money spent on an underpass there is remarkable.

Speaker 8 (01:46:32):
No, No, I traveled the 're not too long ago. Yeah,
it's unbelievable the money they got to spend it. But
I guess, you know, if you're going to save people's lives,
it's worth it.

Speaker 11 (01:46:39):
I mean you got to do it.

Speaker 8 (01:46:40):
You got if you're going to keep one hundred and
thirty thousand or whatever moose in this province, you got
to predict you one. I I mean, you know, like
like I said, the next person pulled, it could be
you and I probably got a wut be or a
family member. We don't want that that. I mean, you know,
we got children, grandchildren that travels or whatever. I mean,
you know we lost two nineteen year olds last year,
I mean not too long ago. Yeah, I mean it

(01:47:02):
is unbelievable. But anyway, we I will keep lobbying and
behaved the people, and I am concerned and the people
are concerned, and hopefully we will get fencing in that area.
By Welcome to Scenic Green Bay, especially the east of
that sign, because that's where that's where the crosses are
and that's where we see a lot of moose.

Speaker 2 (01:47:23):
Appreciate the time, Eugenie, thank you, Thank you, my brother, thank.

Speaker 8 (01:47:27):
You to you'll see him. Thank you to you and
David for taking my call.

Speaker 10 (01:47:29):
Appreciate it.

Speaker 2 (01:47:30):
Happy to do it. Have a nice day, all right,
thank you? Uh yeah, And I mean my youngest came
into town. A couple of weekends ago, and I mean
he's training to be a pilot. I'm more worried when
he's on the highway than when he's in the sky.
And when he came in that I guess it was
last Thursday. Half hour behind him was a pretty significant

(01:47:55):
collision between a vehicle and moose and tearing over. And again,
we get these news to emails. You know, there's a
bunch of different emails, and some people send me notes
that they really are supposed supposed to go to the
newsroom because it's about something I have no control over.
I generally mail address here where we all get to
see it is if you email feedback at VOSM dot com,

(01:48:15):
so we'll all get it. If it's a newsroom concerned,
you can use that, I'll see it as well at
that point as two. But those news tip emails, it's
every single day. I'll see a dozen of those, just
between nine and twelve. Oh, Dave wanted me to read
another number out here. I forgot to do it, but
I suppose I can do it now. And it's about
contact for the seniors benefit. Where did I put that?

(01:48:36):
I suppose I can find it here somewhere. It was
seven zero nine yeah, seven zero nine seven two nine
three one six six. If you want to send an
email looking for information or to apply for these seniors benefit,
if you have an adjusted net family income of thirty thousand,
seventy eight dollars, you could indeed get it all right,

(01:48:57):
good show today. We will indeed pick up this conversation
again tomorrow morning, right here on VOCM and big landfm's
Open Line. I'm Behafter, the producer David Williams. I'm your host,
Patty Daily. Have yourself a safe, fun happy day. Wele
talk in the morning. Bye bye

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