Tuesday, July 21, 2009

WTF: Like I feel like I’m in some sort of weird time warp movie, today is like yesterday and tomorrow will be today.

WTF2: The Northern ranger is on its way north……with passengers only.
Seems the on board crane is not working, bloody great in it, all off season to do maintenance. I think this is a first, the crane has had breakdowns mid trip but I can’t remember The Ranger ever leaving GB without any freight before.

WTF3: The Federal Government has committed 4 million dollars over 4 years for maintenance of Labrador coastal airstrips. From the interview I heard this morning it would seem there is still the on going agro between the province and feds about who does what and when. The province operates the airstrips and the feds pay for it. The province it seems still has not put in their proposal for funding new airstrips for two coastal communities including Nain.
This sort of CRAP is what happens when both levels of government decide that they really do not want to fund certain projects as this time. Seems silly putting things off, the price tag will only increase every year, but that is the way the game is played.

I sure hope the provincial government is not waiting for Nains new airstrip before fixing the toilets down there, and Rigolet has the same problem.

A fourth black bear was shot last Friday. The decision to shoot the bears was a multi level provincial and NG government decision. Seems two cubs and mom and one other were the victims. The bears were showing no signs of fear of humans and were looking quite comfortable in the vicinity of town and all its noises, foods sources etc. I guess they would wouldn’t they.

The relocation of Hebron is still a very emotional issue for many people, you just have to watch the video “Always in Our Hearts” [produced by Okalakatiget Society] to get a good sense of the pain and hurt and anger over the way the whole relocation was handled.

Now we have an internal squabble that can only exacerbate the pain and hurt. I listened to two interviews by Andrea Webb and Jim Lyall. Andrea's was very emotional and Jim's had a slight air of detached and on the arrogance about it, funny how reasonable people become like that after they get elected to positions of power.
Both did not really communicate effectively to what the real issue seems to be here. That is that the Hebron relocation committee wanted to take one or two of their family members to the special ceremony next month. The president was saying no, you can’t do that as money is short and you can’t take your family members and not include all other family of relocates.
I am open for correction but that is my reading of what is going on.

Again, with some pre planning and pro active thinking by both parties this debacle could have been avoided.

Now Jim might say to me, "if you have any good ideas and solutions then convey them". To which I would say "show me the money baby".

1 comment:

dannytoro1 said...

..Lots going on up there today! On the airports I'm sort of confused. They shorted a year of operations is what I read elsewhere. I also think they have it wrong on the Port Hope Simpson location. They are going to spend a lot of money relocating to a favorable landing site. They should combine efficiencies and make the regional airport Cartwright in my opinion. Then you have Air, Sea and highway making cheap and easy access to all of Labrador. For sure they need to do something about Nain. The runway is way too short. But is there any where else to put it?

But what about a supply warehouse in Cartwright? Fill the orders right there and either fly them up in a large economical single engine air freighter.

Or put them on a small and fairly quick coastal trader boat. And then pick up goods from each community too, so the people can export their goods for employment. That would sure cut down on dead head loads in. And open up more product availability through the year....