On today’s CHMA daily news:
CUPE responds to Mount Allison layoffs;
Talking about moving beyond the Atlantic bubble;
Wolastoqey chiefs ask for an inquiry, not a task force;
Uncertain future for Sackville Tribune-Post;
Invasive Emerald Ash Borer in New Brunswick;
and the COVID numbers update.
TRANSCRIPT:
The province reported no new cases of COVID-19 on Thursday.
There are 14 remaining active cases in New Brunswick.
Two people are still in hospital, with one in intensive care.
As of today, all businesses in New Brunswick are permitted to open provided they follow WorkSafeNB and public health guidelines.
The Campbellton region also joins the rest of the province in the yellow phase of restrictions.
People are still being asked to get tested if they have just one symptom of COVID-19.
New Brunswick has conducted 2390 tests over the past 7 days, with 334 new results reported Thursday.
Mount Allison layoffs
One of the union locals affected by Mount Allison’s recently announced staff layoffs is calling the move unfair and unnecessary.
Tasha Hawkes is president of CUPE Local 3433, which represents over 141 clerical, administrative support and technical support staff.
Hawkes says, “Layoffs generate workload issues on the remaining staff and this in turn means less resources and help for students and faculty staff.”
She is calling on Mount Allison management to reverse their decision.
University spokesperson Laura Dillman says 52 Mount Allison employees have been affected, noting that some of the cuts are temporary.
Dillman says the university has laid off 11 people with no recall date.
Another 25 received temporary layoff notices.
Dillman says some of those have already been recalled and are working again.
16 people had their hours reduced, most with a specific date of return to full-time, says Dillman.
The university’s letter to staff on June 17th says that combined factors of increased COVID-related expenses, reduced enrolment, and lower rates of return on its endowments, leave the university with projected budget deficits of $7 million to $9 million.
CUPE servicing representative Lori Mackay says that the administration has not shared adequate student enrolment projections for fall 2020.
Faculty Association president Matt Litvak told CHMA that financial transparency has long been an issue at the university.
Click to listen:
“The reality is that, we’ve been concerned about how the budgets have been reported for quite a lot of years, and we would love to see greater transparency with regard to the budget itself… We are at an institution that has no deficit, and that’s rather impressive, when you looked at it with universities across Canada.”
CHMA asked if the university will be releasing any further details on its projected $7-9 million deficit.
Spokesperson Laura Dillman says, “the budget is still under development.”
The Mount Allison Students’ Union says it is disappointed with the announced layoffs, but that it is waiting to gather facts before making a statement.
Student union president Jonathan Ferguson says that the union supports students expressing their opinions directly to the university’s decision makers.
Mount Allison student Emily Shaw has created an online event to protest the staff cuts.
Shaw created a Facebook event called “Students and Alumni Against Mount Allison Layoffs” to encourage people to email their thoughts to Mount Allison senior administrators and the Board of Regents.
Beyond the Atlantic Bubble
The Atlantic premiers have discussed opening to the rest of Canada as early as July 17.
The Atlantic bubble is set to begin in one week on July 3rd, and means that residents of the Atlantic provinces will be able to cross provincial borders without the requirement for 14 days of self-isolation.
Premier Blaine Higgs says that while reopening to the rest of the country has been discussed for 14 days after July 3rd, the Premiers have not yet settled on a date.
Chief Medical Officer of Health Jennifer Russell describes what factors are involved in the public health decision to reopen to the rest of Canada.
Click to listen:
So at the national level when we discuss this with Public Health Agency of Canada, as well as all the chief medical officers of health in the country, we had agreed a long time ago that if the R factor in terms of the rate of transmission was decreased low enough that we were comfortable having that kind of travel inter-provincially happen, and we would we would do that. And so as of right now, if you look at the trends in each jurisdiction and collectively as a country, the trend is that the numbers are Dropping and so that’s a good news story. And Ontario and Quebec obviously have been the hardest hit. And their numbers are dropping also. So as we continue to see those numbers dropping, and and them being able to control their outbreaks, that is very encouraging and very positive. So those are the types of pieces of information that will take into account moving forward. But again, the trends as they are right now are looking quite positive. So we will keep our eye on that
Russell says she expects small outbreaks to happen within the Atlantic Provinces, but that these may not constitute a second wave of the disease.
Click to listen:
“We’re actually doing some modeling right now in our department to look at what a second wave would look like separate from the individual outbreaks that we expect to continue to see in each jurisdiction. So with respect to small outbreaks, we would take those on a case by case basis. Larger outbreaks, we would look at reimposing the limitations and restrictions that have been in place but it’ll depend on also what phase each province would consider themselves in. If it’s localized, or if it’s at a provincial level. So these are all conversations we’re having right now. And these are all the types of things that we will take into consideration as we move forward.”
Saltwire layoffs
The future still looks uncertain for the weekly newspapers in Sackville and Amherst.
The Sackville Tribune-Post and the Amherst News stopped publishing in March after a sharp decline in advertising revenues because of the COVID-19 pandemic when many businesses were forced to close.
Now, the company that owns the weeklies, along with many other newspapers in Atlantic Canada, says it’s still losing millions of dollars.
The Saltwire Network announced earlier this week that it’s laying off one hundred and nine of its workers permanently.
The company’s chief operating officer says he’s still hoping that some weekly papers will return, but that will depend on market conditions.
Ian Scott adds the company will assess advertising and circulation levels before deciding when or if the papers in Sackville and Amherst can start up again.
Renewed calls for inquiry into systemic racism
The chiefs of the six Wolastoqey First Nations are renewing their call for an independent inquiry into systemic discrimination and bias in New Brunswick.
In a statement released Thursday, the chiefs says they are not pleased with Premier Higgs’ response to date, and call on the Premier to appoint an inquiry under the Inquiries Act.
The chiefs say, “The inquiry should be indigenous led and the terms of reference developed by indigenous nations.”
They also ask for a short time frame with specific, implementation-ready action items.
Premier Higgs is supporting calling a task force to look at the issues raised by the Chiefs. Higgs says he wants to see action, and what he proposes will put action behind existing recommendations.
The Chiefs says that in the past, Higgs has said a study without the powers under the Inquiries Act was “bogus” and that an inquiry under the Act had “significantly more power” than the sort of task force the premier now wants to appoint.
Higgs says he is meeting with the Chiefs again soon, possibly next month, to discuss how to move forward.
Click to listen:
“I am looking forward to laying out a very clear path of how we can address real issues like what’s the top priority and they’re in the in the community and right today with the with certainly those those tragic events that occurred that we incurred a few weeks ago. How do we address that head on to make changes? Because you know, we, we, we value, our law enforcement officers, we value the people that are pretty protecting us, you know, anytime night or day in all conditions. So we need to find a way to work through this. So everyone feels that that security that we all value so much. And those that are putting themselves in positions we can’t even imagine. How do we fix this situation? So yes, we do not have these situations happen again, and we have a system that constantly improves. We’ve been talking about this. We’ve been talk about studies, and we’ve done studies. We just haven’t accomplished anything and making real improvements.”
That was Premier Blaine Higgs responding to a reporter question about the call for an inquiry into systemic racism and bias by Wolastoqey chiefs.
Invasive Emerald Ash Borer in New Brunswick
The Emerald Ash Borer is the culprit behind the destruction of ten 30-year-old trees in Edmundston.
The highly destructive invasive beetle was first found in Edmundston in 2018, and last year was found in Moncton.
The metallic blue-green bug attacks and kills all species of ash, and has already killed millions of trees in North America, according to the Canadian Food Inspection Agency.
Billions more trees are at risk. Trees infested with the emerald ash borer usually die within two to three years.
Emerald ash borer spreads most commonly through people moving infested wood in the form of firewood, logs, branches, nursery stock, or chips.
The adult insects can also fly up to 10 kilometres, but generally do not stray from their immediate area.
Westmoreland county is part of a regulated zone to attempt to control the spread of the Emerald Ash Borer.
All ash tree materials and firewood of all species cannot be removed from these areas without prior permission from the Canadian Food Inspection Agency.
CHMA Daily News is hosted Mahalia Thompson-Onichino, and produced by Erica Butler, with contributions from Bruce Wark, Geoff de Gannes, and James Anderson.
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