Another warm day and night, we will start to become acclimatized if this keeps up.

Fran and I attended the regular council meeting as observers last evening. There were two other observers and a reporter from OK Society as well.

The main agenda item tabling the results of the Plebiscite held Monday. I will await release from council on what transpires next before commenting.

One thing I will comment on. We learnt that in the past four years this council has not tabled any information or concerns about alcohol abuse being a problem in Nain.

This is not to belittle or down play the seriousness of the events of the past months, but I do find it odd that no one on council saw fir to express any concerns in the previous four years.

After all the same intensity of drinking, the same amount of legal booze being flown in from Goose Bay, the same opportunity to buy beer at the retail store, which by the way is open three hours a day from six to nine pm except Sundays. Quite a sacrifice for the owner considering the license he holds allows him to be open from ten to ten.

Then we have the illegal bootlegging and drugs, no tabling of these as a serious concern in four years.

I do not have the statistics but there have been suicides in the past four years, many alcohol related family violence charges, the RCMP put out their yearly stats highlighting these very problems. The same amount of binge drinking of young and old, people making an arse of themselves in public and annoying residents late at night with their noise. Yet not one on council has deemed it important enough to table any suggestions of how to deal with these social problems until this past month.

Better late than never one could say, or another could say, what’s up with that?

The marine shipping problems of the past continue this year despite assurances from the provincial minister of transport and the member for Torngat Mountains that things would improve.

Containers not fit for the dump, the freight boat not going to Lewisport where the bulk of the freight for the local stores originates, at least not the last two runs.

The operators do not seem to be able to think outside the box and try different configurations to get the freight moving. The emphasis seems to be getting freight out of Goose Bay at the expense of leaving freight site idle in Lewisport.

One suggestion was; utilize the Bond to bring the freight from Lewisport into Goose Bay for transfer to the Aston, or even do a run up the coast instead of sitting idle for days waiting for the scheduled run up to Goose Bay.

As a couple of councilors lamented last evening, it is like they just don’t care [paraphrased].

My opinion on that is. I know they don’t care.