Subject: Nurse Practitioner: Digby Neck and Islands
Honorable Darrell Dexter,
Premier of Nova Scotia,
Provincial Legislature,
Halifax N.S.
Honorable and Dear Sir:
Some,- how many I am not sure-, have failed to meet the challenge of the day for the people on Digby Neck and Islands by failing to resolve compassionately and expeditiously the grave loss of a much loved Nurse Practitioner,MS.Karen Snider, who had chosen "to pitch her tent amongst us" and remain here.
This has gone on far too long without resolution.To leave a people in isolation for nearly two months without consistent and on-going health care is not only most unkind, but borders at least on the immoral and the criminal. It's bad enough that our local Hospital is being more and more diminished in ordinary services due tax-paying people, and leaving mainlanders often without comprehensive health care, but to leave people two ferry rides and another thirty plus minutes to Digby and then on to Annapolis Royal, and there to find out that its' out-patient department is closed too is hideous!
I well know that health care is costly, but it is a right nonetheless. I often think of the history of this province and conclude that others, as yourself in power, forget it. You know, Sir, that had it not been for the riches of the sea coupled with that from the mines and farms of the coastal regions of Nova Scotia over the course of centuries there would be no Nova Scotia as we know it today! Any government which fails to recognize and value that in 2009 is not worthy of holding office.
To not recognize this as a truth, and to fail now to serve the people in these regions which have in many ways been drained (the fishery to wit) of their last resource, is to forget the countless millions and billions of tax dollars which left these shores to build this province and this nation, and our rural neighborhoods.
Country people - and I was born one and plan to die one- do not demand a great deal. We expect not the amenities of the City nor the services so readily found there. We travel long distances to shop and get our necessary supplies. We don't mind that. That's the choice we made viz. to live in isolation and embrace a life style that suits our situation.
Many of us are seniors now and it appears that Governments and massive Institutions would have us move to large centers and abandon home, land, and sea so as to free up what's left of our home and space for the ultimate exploitation of anything which is left for the pickings. Here we've faced the ugliest prospects of geographical annihilation in the last few years with governments and business' choosing to impose without consultation, projects and enterprises without adequate and prior study and consensus with the people.That's no way to treat a people, our fellow human beings.
I thought the spirit of Tommy Douglas was alive and well in the New Democratic Party. Although I'd seen some signs in recent years that I could be wrong, I still believed your words and promises for proper services at our Out- Patient Departments across the Province. I'm an old man, Sir, and I've been two years or so without a family doctor. How stressful do you think it is,Sir, with no doctor to call my own,and what snub one feels when his Out-Patient Department is closed too much of the time? Hardly valued as a long-time paying taxpayer, that's for sure!
So back to the people on the Inslands with a winter lobster fishery just underway. What is Ms.Marueen MacDonald, and yourself so by extension, thinking? I've seen and read tales of "all due process is in place and has been followed." That's not very reassuring, Sir, to folks in Westport or Freeport/Tiverton who often meet injury at the whim and fancy of the storming sea in the middel of the night!
What are you thinking,Sir, when all that's offered are sporadic dates and hours - sometimes as little as an hour? The sea is cruel, illness strikes the young and elderly without appointment! Woe to he who misses an itinerant nurse some Wednesday! What are you thinking Sir?
It's time for reinstating Ms.Snider and to do what has to be done to keep her. The idea that the SWNDAH is incompetent, and in my mind, even unnecessary, is unanimous in these parts, and it is we who you are called to serve. "Can" the Board. They may be an added and unnecessary expense that can easily be done without. Righy here,right now, there is a structure to take on this responsibility. These are intelligent and capable people who can run their own affairs, and that I firmly believe, is a far superior and more compassionate way than the present from your Minister down.
I am gravely concerned about my neighbours, and equally so democracy.
Daniel Mills
9396 Waterford
RR 4, Digby NS
BOV 1AO
902-245-5171
Friday, December 4, 2009
turbines in the Fundy
Fundy turbine passes early tests
Underwater generator creates power, keeps its moorings
By JUDY MYRDEN Business Reporter
Fri. Dec 4 - 4:46 AM
The Chronicle Herald
Nick Murphy, project manager for Open Hydro, speaks Thursday at the Westin Hotel in Halifax. (Christian Laforce / Staff)
The first commercial scale tidal turbine in the Bay of Fundy is producing electricity and is staying secure to the seabed floor.
"It’s operating the way it ought to be," Nick Murphy, OpenHydro’s commercial manager, said in Halifax on Thursday.
His comment was the first update on the 400-tonne device since it was launched Nov. 12 in the Minas Basin by Nova Scotia Power and its Irish partner OpenHydro of Dublin, Ireland.
The data collected from the one-megawatt turbine is showing it is operational, rotating with the tides and producing energy, said Mr. Murphy. He made the statement after addressing about 150 members of the Offshore/Onshore Technologies Association of Nova Scotia.
The association represents more than 300 suppliers for the energy industry. It hopes there will be opportunities in the tidal business.
The open-centre designed turbine is sitting in 20 metres of water but is not yet connected to an underwater cable. Data is being transmitted using an acoustic modem system, he said.
"It was designed to withstand the currents and that’s the nice thing about tidal energy, the forces are very predictable, you know how fast the tide is going to be on any given day of the year," said Mr. Murphy.
If the testing continues to go well, the utility envisions putting 200 to 300 units in the Bay of Fundy, Nova Scotia Power executive Rick Janega said. That many units could generate 15 per cent of the province’s electrical needs.
"This would also be a great opportunity for fabrication," Mr. Janega told the crowd of energy industry suppliers.
Mr. Murphy said the scenario is a "definite possibility" with limited environmental impact.
He said the "sensible" next step would be to install five or six units, and then scale up to maybe 20 or 50.
Next week OpenHydro and the power company will begin assessing the environmental impact the test turbine has on the fisheries and current flow rates, said Mr. Murphy.
The tidal turbine, its tripod-shaped base, the barge that carried it and the deployment method were all designed by Open Hydro, a renewable energy company.
The base was fabricated by Cherubini Metal Works, a Dartmouth based company, for $1.7 million.
The initial turbine cost $10 million, with Nova Scotia Power investing the lion’s share and $4.6 million coming from Sustainable Development Technology Canada, a non-profit green energy foundation with offices in Ottawa, Toronto and Vancouver.
Two more turbines will be lowered to the bottom of the channel next spring along with the underwater power cable to carry the electricity.
The other developers are Clean Current Power Systems Inc. of British Columbia and Minas Basin Pulp and Power Co. Ltd. of Hantsport.
Minas Basin Pulp and Power is also building a $12-million demonstration facility, including underwater transmission lines that will take turbine-generated power to a building containing electrical equipment synchronized with the Nova Scotia power grid.
The building will also house a research laboratory that will help private companies and the province determine whether the turbine project is environmentally and commercially feasible in the Bay of Fundy.
After the three turbines are in place, they will generate three to five megawatts of electricity, enough to annually supply power to 15 to 25 buildings, each the size of a supermarket.
( jmyrden@herald.ca)
Underwater generator creates power, keeps its moorings
By JUDY MYRDEN Business Reporter
Fri. Dec 4 - 4:46 AM
The Chronicle Herald
Nick Murphy, project manager for Open Hydro, speaks Thursday at the Westin Hotel in Halifax. (Christian Laforce / Staff)
The first commercial scale tidal turbine in the Bay of Fundy is producing electricity and is staying secure to the seabed floor.
"It’s operating the way it ought to be," Nick Murphy, OpenHydro’s commercial manager, said in Halifax on Thursday.
His comment was the first update on the 400-tonne device since it was launched Nov. 12 in the Minas Basin by Nova Scotia Power and its Irish partner OpenHydro of Dublin, Ireland.
The data collected from the one-megawatt turbine is showing it is operational, rotating with the tides and producing energy, said Mr. Murphy. He made the statement after addressing about 150 members of the Offshore/Onshore Technologies Association of Nova Scotia.
The association represents more than 300 suppliers for the energy industry. It hopes there will be opportunities in the tidal business.
The open-centre designed turbine is sitting in 20 metres of water but is not yet connected to an underwater cable. Data is being transmitted using an acoustic modem system, he said.
"It was designed to withstand the currents and that’s the nice thing about tidal energy, the forces are very predictable, you know how fast the tide is going to be on any given day of the year," said Mr. Murphy.
If the testing continues to go well, the utility envisions putting 200 to 300 units in the Bay of Fundy, Nova Scotia Power executive Rick Janega said. That many units could generate 15 per cent of the province’s electrical needs.
"This would also be a great opportunity for fabrication," Mr. Janega told the crowd of energy industry suppliers.
Mr. Murphy said the scenario is a "definite possibility" with limited environmental impact.
He said the "sensible" next step would be to install five or six units, and then scale up to maybe 20 or 50.
Next week OpenHydro and the power company will begin assessing the environmental impact the test turbine has on the fisheries and current flow rates, said Mr. Murphy.
The tidal turbine, its tripod-shaped base, the barge that carried it and the deployment method were all designed by Open Hydro, a renewable energy company.
The base was fabricated by Cherubini Metal Works, a Dartmouth based company, for $1.7 million.
The initial turbine cost $10 million, with Nova Scotia Power investing the lion’s share and $4.6 million coming from Sustainable Development Technology Canada, a non-profit green energy foundation with offices in Ottawa, Toronto and Vancouver.
Two more turbines will be lowered to the bottom of the channel next spring along with the underwater power cable to carry the electricity.
The other developers are Clean Current Power Systems Inc. of British Columbia and Minas Basin Pulp and Power Co. Ltd. of Hantsport.
Minas Basin Pulp and Power is also building a $12-million demonstration facility, including underwater transmission lines that will take turbine-generated power to a building containing electrical equipment synchronized with the Nova Scotia power grid.
The building will also house a research laboratory that will help private companies and the province determine whether the turbine project is environmentally and commercially feasible in the Bay of Fundy.
After the three turbines are in place, they will generate three to five megawatts of electricity, enough to annually supply power to 15 to 25 buildings, each the size of a supermarket.
( jmyrden@herald.ca)
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