Coming up today:
- Changes to alert levels allow for closer distancing with continuous mask-wearing
- RMCP use gas canisters in executing arrest warrant on Main Street;
- Deputy Mayor Ron Aiken reports on health care reform meeting;
- Amherst Armoury closed effective immediately, museum told to vacate;
- Fire in Moncton duplex leaves five people homeless;
- and CHMA’s Aura Groomes checks in with the Crossroads for Women shelter in Moncton.
COVID Maritimes Update: one new case and loosened restrictions in New Brunswick
New Brunswick Public Health reported one new case of COVID-19 yesterday. Someone in their 40’s in Zone 3, the Fredericton region, tested positive and is self-isolating.
The government has not yet reported the source of the infection, and says the case is under investigation.
Nova Scotia and PEI reported no new cases of COVID-19 yesterday.
There are 7 active cases in the Maritimes, all in New Brunswick.
Chief Medical Officer of Health Jennifer Russell announced revisions to the province’s system of COVID alert levels yesterday afternoon.
“If there’s a theme to this, it is that we believe that we can be less restrictive if we once again need to reintroduce population based measures such as closures or restrictions on gathering.”
As of next Monday, August 17th, rules in public venues will loosen to match those currently in place on public transit. Venues like theatres, arenas, or recreational facilities will be allowed to arrange seating with only one metre of physical distancing, as long as there is continuous use of masks at the venue.
Where food and drinks are being consumed, distancing of two metres will still be required.
Those changes will apply to the current yellow level of the province’s COVID alert system, as well as the slightly more strict orange level.
The government also announced further changes to red and orange levels.
In the orange level, public venues would have the same reduced distancing with continuous mask-wearing, but in addition, unregulated health professionals would be allowed to operate. Personal services such as hairstylists, barbers and spas would still have to close.
Also at the orange level, the two household bubble would be amended to include formal or informal caregivers and immediate family members like parents, grandparents, siblings and children.
In the red, or strictest level, bubbles would return to a single household, with the addition of caregivers and immediate family members.
Also at the red level, a broader range of businesses would be allowed to remain open as long as appropriate public health measures remained in place.
The red alert level would also mean that schools would return to virtual learning, while daycares would be allowed to remain open.
Russell says these changes are being made in consideration of the social determinants of health and the impacts that restrictions have had on communities. She says the alert levels are being revised now based on experience with the spread of COVID-19 so far.
“When you impose measures from a public health perspective for risk mitigation, they should really equal the risk at the time. And what we’re able to do now, looking back on all the measures that we’ve used to control and contain COVID-19, we know what’s been working, we know what perhaps we can do differently, should another wave occur.”
Russell says that the triggers for moving between phases are the number of cases, the presence of untraceable community transmission, and the presence of cases in vulnerable settings like long term care homes. The capacity of public health to trace cases in a timely manner, and the capacity of hospitals to care for infected patients are also considerations.
Gas canisters deployed in drug and firearms arrest in Sackville
Residents reported hearing what they thought were gunshots in the wee hours of Tuesday morning near the Booster Pump on Main Street in Sackville.
The loud noises were not gunshots, says RCMP spokesperson Jullie Rogers-Marsh, but more likely gas canisters being deployed by the RCMP as they executed a search warrant at a house on Main Street.
“Members of the New Brunswick emergency response team, along with members from several crime reduction units within the province, would have been part of executing the arrest warrant on Nicholas Bain. And I do believe gas canisters would have been deployed.”
Rogers-Marsh says the police arrested 25-year-old Nicholas Bain without incident.
Residents also reported on social media that the road was blocked off around 3am Tuesday morning.
“I believe that the road was blocked for a period of time, and it would have just been part of ensuring public safety while we executed the warrant.”
The warrant for Nicholas Bain was issued at the end of May for “possession of prohibited or restricted firearms with ammunition, without a licence or registration,” in connection to a search and seizure in Lake George, New Brunswick on May 20th.
“As a result of the search, there was 185 items and illegal substances seized, including 31 long guns, 22 handguns. Among them, 24 were prohibited or restricted. Police also seized more than three kilograms of what is believed to be cocaine. So his arrest warrant is in relation to that.”
At the Lake George search, police also seized nearly 5 and a half kilograms of what is believed to be crystal methamphetamine, as well as quantities of ammunition and Canadian currency.
Nicholas Bain made a brief appearance in Fredericton provincial court Tuesday afternoon.
Bain has been charged with drug possession for the purpose of trafficking, having money obtained through committing a crime and firearms charges.
Proposed health care reforms off the table pending consultations
Plans to drastically cut services at the Sackville Memorial Hospital are off the table, for now.
At Monday’s Sackville town council meeting Deputy Mayor Ron Aiken gave an update on a July 29th meeting with government officials to talk about healthcare reform, including the news that reforms proposed in February are being shelved to make way for consultations.
“All reforms proposed in February for all these hospitals—the closing of ERs, acute care beds, and the day surgery—are off the table. All of them. So that we’re starting from ground zero again.”
Aiken, along with the mayors of Perth Andover and Rogersville, met with Deputy Minister of Health Gérald Richard, Associate Deputy Minister Rene Boudreau, and director of planning, performance and alignment, Tracey Burkhardt. Aiken says the meeting was surprisingly congenial, considering the topic:
“I was ready for a bit of a tussle and the meeting was far more congenial than I expected. The points we went in with, essentially our agenda, were first of all, we asked what were the goals for the healthcare reform? And essentially, what problem were they trying to solve? We wanted to talk about the consultation process. We wanted data that led to concerns and to the solutions they proposed. We wanted to have ongoing communication and sharing of data. Our fifth point was that health care workers at all levels should be free to comment on the system without any fear of repercussion. And finally, our last point was that First Nations should be in all the consultations.”
Aiken says the government’s plan for the consultations is that the premier will first meet with all six communities that were impacted by the February announcement. Then a wider summit will be held.
“We insisted that we would be involved not only in the summit, but in the planning of it. So it wasn’t the bureaucrats doing it all.”
Aiken says government officials shared binders-full of data, and
told the town representatives that New Brunswick has the highest per capita health care spending in the country.
According to the Canadian Institute of Health Information, New Brunswick is actually middle of the pack in terms of per capita health care spending in Canadian provinces, and lowest among the Maritime provinces.
Aiken says the town reps asked about the quick turnaround in freeing up hospital beds at the outset of the coronavirus pandemic.
“They said they simply took away people’s choice. If you were in a hospital and had be sent to a home, you were sent to whatever home they could get you into.”
Aiken says the group expressed their concern with the management of Horizon and Vitalité.
“The boards of Horizon and Vitalité were in all aspects dysfunctional, they really seem to be out of touch with what the the problems were.”
They also made the point that communities are different and need to be treated according to different needs, and that healthcare decisions have wider social and economic effects.
“I stressed that Sackville, for example, has a university that none of the others do. And that they shouldn’t be thinking of healthcare in a silo. I cited the suspension of the Lafford seniors property, the development of that property, as an example of something changing in healthcare can affect that, can affect recruitment to Mount A. So they weren’t just working in only healthcare. There were ripple effects to what they were doing.”
Aiken says he and the two mayors, Pierrette Robichaud of Rogersville and Marianne Bell of Perth-Andover, are currently working on a final report on the meeting to be shared with all affected communities.
Fire in Moncton duplex leaves five homeless
Five people are homeless after a fire destroyed a duplex in Moncton on Tuesday morning.
The fire broke out on Clarendon Drive at 2 a.m. Five residents and one visitor were inside the building at the time.
Platoon Chief Brian McDonald with the Moncton Fire Department, said there was no one injured in the fire.
McDonald said both families were awakened by noise from their back deck area. A young child in one household woke up his parents to warn them about the fire.
Eighteen firefighters were able to get the fire under control in about an hour and were on scene for about three hours.
The Red Cross has arranged emergency lodging and support.
McDonald said the cause of the fire is still under investigation.
Amherst Armoury closed effective immediately, museum told to vacate
Staff at the Amherst Armoury received word at noon Tuesday that the Armouries have been closed effective immediately.
Amherst Town Councillor Darrell Jones says on his Facebook page that according to the Real Property Operations Section of the Department of National Defence in Halifax, the Armouries are unsafe for occupation, and that military museum curator Ray Coulson and staff had been told to vacate the building immediately.
The Department of National Defence had already announced its intention to divest itself of this property.
The historic building currently houses three cadet corps, and a Military Museum containing the memorabilia of the North Nova Scotia Highlanders who were trained and stationed in Amherst before going overseas.
Jones is urging local residents to contact their MP and MLA to voice their concerns.
He says the Mayor and Council have already been informed.
Meanwhile, both Cumberland Colchester MP Lenore Zann and Cumberland North MLA Elizabeth Smith McCrossin are calling on the federal government to reverse the decision.
Zann says the move is unacceptable and she’s calling on DND to produce the documentation claiming the building is unsafe.
She says the community wants the building protected and repurposed for public use.
Learning to preserve food, first workshop tonight
EOS Eco-Energy and Open Sky are co-hosting a series of food preservation workshops in the coming weeks.
The first of three workshops is an online pickling workshop happening tonight at 6pm over Zoom.
Participants will learn how to make pickles and “dilly beans” from the comfort of their home.
But that won’t be all, says EOS director Amanda Marlin.
“There’ll be a chance at those workshops for people to brainstorm ideas for resilience to climate change in Sackville, while also building some resilience skills and some traditional skills,,, learning how to make pickles and salsa and dehydrate food and ways we can preserve food for the winter that doesn’t require it being in a freezer, and then of course, you lose power and you lose everything in your freezer. And so you know, getting back to some of our roots and doing things in a traditional way.”
EOS director Amanda Marlin says all ages are welcome to join the free workshops online.
After tonight’s pickling workshop from 6pm to 8pm, there will be a salsa workshop on August 26th, and a Dehydrating Fruit workshop on September 12th.
People can register by calling or emailing EOS Eco Energy.
This is also the final week for another EOS Eco Energy project.
Tantramar residents, businesses and community organizations have until August 16th to answer EOS’s online survey on climate change resilience.
EOS director Amanda Marlin says the online survey is one way the organization will gather input towards creating a local guide to climate change resilience.
“A big chunk of it is looking for ideas. There’s also a section at the beginning trying to gauge how resilient people feel or how prepared people feel, and sort of looking for some insight into what they’re already doing. And then the second part is, you know, what else would we like to see? And what can we do as a community? How can we come together? Because when we’re faced with either a hurricane or a flood or a winter storm or a long term power outage, flooded roads, whatever the case might be, you know, it’s often in the moment we’re coming together as a community as neighbours and as neighbourhoods. And so what else can we be doing together?”
The survey is available on the EOS website until August 16th.
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And finally on today’s Local Report, CHMA reporter Aura Groomes brings us another instalment of the Check In, this time with Crossroads for Women Shelter in Moncton.
That’s it for the CHMA Local Report.
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