Though she’s on maternity leave and expecting a baby “any day now”, Memramcook-Tantramar MLA Megan Mitton spoke with CHMA on Wednesday about the border blockade and the issues around continued border restrictions between Nova Scotia and New Brunswick.
Here’s that conversation:
“It’s beyond frustrating that after over a year of dealing with a pandemic, we still don’t have coordination between the Maritime provinces,” says Mitton. “This isn’t new. This is something that really should have been sorted out before now.”
“I would say that for the premiers, the governments and the public health officials that are making these decisions, it would be nice to have coordination between our maritime provinces so that we’re on the same page,” says Mitton. “This is impacting 1000s of people and it’s creating an unsafe situation at the border.”
Mitton says that she sat in traffic for hours Wednesday morning, on her way to a medical appointment in Amherst. New Brunswick RCMP turned away many vehicles, including health care workers and patients destined for the Cumberland Regional Health Care Centre in Amherst. The hospital was closed to all but emergency services on Wednesday due to the inability of cross-border staff to report to work.
https://www.nshealth.ca/news/emergency-services-only-cumberland-regional-health-care-centre-today
“A lot of people were being turned away,” says Mitton, “and then some people were going to be escorted across the border. It was kind of unclear how those decisions were being made.” CHMA has reached out to the New Brunswick RCMP for further information, but the force has yet to respond.
BORDER ISSUES ONGOING SINCE LAST YEAR, SAYS MITTON
Of course, the cancellation of medical appointments for people in the border region is not exactly new, but normally its triggered by changing provincial restrictions, not by citizens shutting down a highway.
Mitton says the continued border closure has disrupted important economic ties and family relationships in the region. “There have been serious consequences for people not receiving medical care, people not being able to basically live their lives,” says Mitton.
As a small success, Mitton points to the New Brunswick decision to include Cumberland County in the first phase of its reopening plan. Some people in the border region had been calling for a cross-border county bubble since the beginning of border restrictions, to acknowledge the interconnectedness of the communities and also the low case counts in each county. But as Amherst mayor David Kogon has pointed out, a unilateral opening on one side of the border has little practical effect.
Mitton says she would like to see follow up discussions on the idea of a county bubble. “There needs to be some communication. I don’t know what is going on with the Premiers not being able to speak, but that’s not acceptable,” says Mitton, referring to Nova Scotia Premier Iain Rankin’s statement that he did not inform New Brunswick officials of his decision to exclude the province from Nova Scotia’s reopening plans on Tuesday.
The premiers of all provinces did meet last night, and New Brunswick Premier Blaine Higgs says he has offered to share traveller information collected at New Brunswick borders with Nova Scotia. The Nova Scotia premier is schedule for a 3pm briefing today.
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