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DG & Renewables : News
Feature Article
Floating Wind Turbines Deep at Sea are Both Compelling and Costly
Dec 2, 2009
By Doug Peeples
SGN News Editor
Researchers and wind energy advocates are setting their sights on the potential for harnessing the relatively consistent and powerful winds of the deepwater ocean—which could, despite some serious obstacles—provide the new Smart Grid with one of the most compelling renewable energy options available.
There are several advantages to deepwater wind over that generated on land or in shallow water—and probably as many disadvantages: The wind is stronger and more consistent, but exorbitant costs and mindboggling technical challenges are part of the equation, too. And transmission lines are needed to carry the wind power from the source to where it's needed. Undersea transmission lines are not uncommon and generally have approval and permitting processes similar to those for land-based systems, but probably more of them. In addition to meeting environmental and siting requirements — yes, even on the sea floor — tidal, meteorological, safety, failure, maintenance and other issues also must be addressed.
While undersea cable can be assembled on the sea floor, that option is impractical at depths over a few hundred feet. At that point, purpose-built barges and cranes are typically used. Costs vary depending on circumstances, but purpose-built equipment adds considerable expense to the already high cost of undersea transmission.
.
Advocates: Payoff Worth the Cost
Yet ocean wind advocates are optimistic that their efforts will lead to technologies that will be able to add a significant amount of clean, renewable energy for the nation's electric grid.
The director of the Advanced Structures and Composites Center at the University of Maine, Habib J. Dagher, thinks the payoff would be worth the effort. "Our real opportunity for ocean energy is deepwater wind," Dagher was quoted as saying in a New York Times article.
With a little help from an $8 million DOE grant, Dagher is setting up a consortium of universities, government agencies, companies and nonprofits to take on the task of developing floating wind turbines. He anticipates having prototypes to test miles off the Maine coast in 2011.
Norway's Statoil, a large oil and gas company, beat everyone to the punch by launching a full-size floating turbine six miles off the Norwegian coast. It's the first full-scale floating turbine in the world.
The Statoil turbine is fastened to a ballasted cylinder and held in place with cables attached to the sea floor. it began generating electricity in September. However, the project—named Hywind—is more properly considered a research project than a generation project.
The prototypes Dagher wants to see off the coast of Maine will come from Principle Power, an American company, and Blue H USA, a Dutch subsidiary operating in the U.S. Blue H USA has asked for a permit to build a test platform, minus the turbine, more than 20 miles south of Martha's Vineyard to collect environmental and engineering information.
Deep sea floating turbines offer several tantalizing features. One is that they are out of sight over the horizon. A large wind farm proposed five miles off the coast of Cape Cod has been facing serious, vehement and well-funded and well-organized opposition from residents who insist the turbines would spoil their view. And two local Indian tribes contend the location of the proposed wind farm has cultural significance for their people.
While the Cape Wind project isn't dead in the water, what originally was an expensive proposition is becoming more so.
None of that would happen in the deep sea. The turbines would be far from shipping lanes, migratory bird and aircraft flight paths and fishing areas—all of which should make the permitting process easier. Also, the winds are much stronger and much more consistent over deep water. Advocates also say it makes much more sense to tap a resource close to coastal population centers than transmit it from distant wind farms on the Great Plains.
.
Daunting Challenges
Sounds great, but the downside is daunting. A 5GW deepwater wind farm was estimated by Maine officials to require an investment of roughly $20 billion. The Hywind turbine had to be built at sea, and even those turbines that can be built on land or near shore are still going to be expensive. Consider installation, repair and even routine maintenance costs for a farm of turbines 10 miles offshore.
Also, as Dagher concedes, deepwater installations present an array of baffling technical issues. While the bulk of the structural floating platform technology comes from the offshore oil and gas industries, those platforms float and aren't stable. At this point, turbines are not designed to withstand constant jostling from high seas and storms. Couple those issues with the transmission line construction and maintenance challenges noted above, and it doesn't take an Einstein to realize it is, to put it mildly, a very tough proposition.
"There's no technical reason why you can't take a platform, put a turbine on it and get it to work," said Jason Johkman, who analyzes offshore designs for the National Renewable Energy Laboratory in Golden, Colorado. But Jonkman, also quoted in the New York Times piece, said, "The only question is, can you do it at a reasonable cost?"
The bottom line? A host of mind-numbing technical challenges and equally mind-numbing costs versus a strong and relatively consistent source of renewable energy.
.
New York Times article
Smart Grid Renewables channel on SGN
Clash Could Blow Cape Cod Wind Farm Out of the Water
Saturday, December 5, 2009
NS Man Seeks Asylum in Europe
salem-news.com
Dec-05-2009 00:42
Man Heralded for Curing Cancer Seeks Asylum in Europe
Bonnie King Salem-News.com
Canadian authorities have still not laid charges ten days after the police action.
Rick Simpson holding hemp oil. Photo: JackHerer.com
(SALEM, Ore.) - There’s a man from Athol, Nova Scotia, Canada who has caused a stir around the world. About five years ago, he made the shocking claim to have cured cancer. As unbelievable as that sounds, there is viable evidence to support his claim.
You may not have heard of Rick Simpson, many people have not yet had the chance. He’s well known globally in the cannabis community, but the general public has been slow in receiving his whole story.
Simpson makes and distributes a medicinal cannabis extract popularly known as “hemp oil”. He does so without any profit motive. Many patients have claimed to be cured of their ailments, often terminal cancer, by miniscule amounts of this extract.
This pioneer for alternative health solutions was in Europe in November, and the Royal Canadian Mounted Police (RCMP) took the opportunity to raid Simpson’s home in Canada. As his house, office, and garden were being trampled through by police, Simpson was accepting an International Freedom Fighter award, thousands of miles away.
“While he has been touring in Europe his residence was raided by the RCMP and rumor has it the DEA was involved as well,” explains friend Desmond Wynnd.
January 2010 Issue
“The newest issue of "High Times" that came out a week or two ago has a lengthy article on his story and it's felt by many this is what prompted the latest raid. He is now seeking political asylum in Europe.”
The 22nd Annual High Times Cannabis Cup was just held in Amsterdam, and there Rick Simpson received the acclaimed honor of "Freedom Fighter of the Year". The special event came on the heels of a European tour Simpson had just completed.
Jack Herer, well-known as “the Hemperor”, author of Emperor Wears No Clothes, had anxiously awaited joining Simpson for the tour in early fall. Sadly, Herer was afflicted with a heart attack in September and is in recovery, but his assistant Chuck Jacobs was able to attend in his stead. Jack Herer and Rick Simpson are of like minds in that they truly believe hemp can save the world. One person at a time.
For five years, Simpson has been diligently working on the behalf of saving lives, challenging the traditional remedies for skin cancer and other cancers, diabetes, as well as many chronic illnesses. He aspires to enlighten the medical community and bring the discussion of curing cancer to a new level. That discussion is widely believed to be more politically motivated than cure goal-oriented.
Though Rick Simpson has helped so many, there are forces that want to stop him, at any cost.
As of December 3rd, Canadian authorities had still not charged Simpson, ten days after the police action. Initially there were discrepancies in available information from the two involved agencies that carried out this police action.
The Royal Canadian Mounted Police first claimed that such an action would have been undertaken by the Amherst Police Department, as Simpson’s home falls within their jurisdiction. Amherst PD denied that they incited this action when reached for comment, and deferred inquiry for detail to the RCMP.
Rick Simpson wrote, “If I return home, I will be arrested and put in jail without bail or medicine. I am not afraid of their jails but I cannot go without my medicine, the system has nothing that could help me with my conditions. So for me to return to Canada would be like committing suicide. I would be thrown in jail and denied my medicine and a short time later you would hear in the news that ‘Rick Simpson died of natural causes’.”
"It seems the goal is to keep me from returning home and they succeeded. But to what end? All hemp magazines on this planet are now telling their readers how to heal themselves with this wonderful medicine. If governments want to live in denial, it will be short-lived. We are gaining tens of thousands of followers every day. You cannot stop the truth.”
“For the time being, it seems I will be seeking asylum in Europe.”
The Canadian government’s lack of tolerance for marijuana has been building the last few years, a reaction, some believe, to America’s own drug war. Canadians are feeling the brunt. “They're doing a great job directing hate toward Americans when it's undeserved. I haven't met a bad American yet. In the end, we have to take care of ourselves and each other,” Wynnd said.
One theory on limiting a person’s ability to share information is to incarcerate them. That’s a pretty easy solution. A fellow Canadian, Marc Emery, can vouch for that, out on bail for selling cannabis seeds. He is currently scheduled to be extradited to the United States for a sentence of five years in US federal prison.
Perpetrators of the incarceration strategy believe that eventually the subject may lose support of their advocates, the costs will mount up, and just getting through the drama of arrest, red tape and humiliation that follows will be enough to distract even the most passionate, motivated activists.
But Rick isn’t like “most” activists.
He’s been arrested twice in the past, and his medicinal Cannabis plants confiscated. Both times, he was able to reason with the judicial system and continue living freely. Where the maximum penalty has been 12 years imprisonment in one of these instances, the courts instead levied a $2,000 fine.
Most of us have been duped into completely and blindly accepting that there is no cure for cancer.
–Christian Laurette, producer
“Last time he was arrested, the judge wouldn't send him to jail because the judge believed it would be a crime to lock up Rick Simpson, it’s all public record,” said Wynnd. “During his last trial he had doctors and patients lining up to testify for him. Even Narcotic officers have sent people to Rick so he could help them.”
“Mr. Simpson is in an unusual position, because unlike other people engaged in the drug trade, he was not engaged in trafficking for financial gain," said Judge Carole Beaton. "He was engaged in an altruistic activity and was firm in his belief that he was helping others,” she said after Rick Simpson’s sentencing for his second offense in healing dying cancer patients with hemp oil.
Rick Simpson didn’t start out as a crusader to stamp out cancer. He started out as an average guy, first as a steel worker, then in maintenance at a hospital in the boiler room. In his early twenties, Simpson suffered through the loss of a cousin to cancer. That long, exasperating experience changed him forever. He heard some reports about hemp’s healing qualities, and wondered if things would have gone differently for his cousin, had hemp been an option.
For someone who had never even smoked marijuana, this was a very foreign, open-minded idea. The thought provoked some personal research though and later proved very beneficial.
After 25 years working at the hospital, Simpson was in a serious accident causing a temporary nervous-system shutdown, within hours he developed an unbearable ringing in his ears. The doctors tried to find a solution for over a year, and gave up. Not willing to accept his life sentence of daily drugs that altered his memory and other side effects, he asked about medical marijuana, to no avail. So, he began his own research, and experimented with making oil. What he discovered...worked.
To be clear, Rick Simpson's Hemp Oil isn’t hemp oil in the truest sense. Hemp is the Cannabis (marijuana) plant, specifically the stalk and leaves raised mainly for industrial use, with extremely low THC. Rick Simpson’s oil is made exclusively from the Cannabis flowers, or buds. Not to be confused with hemp seed oil, a very different product, Rick Simpson’s hemp oil is a very pure cannabis extract made from high quality buds with a very high THC content.
In 2003, Simpson had three spots on his skin that his doctor believed to be skin cancer. The doctor removed and biopsied one, which then became infected and didn't heal. Almost on a whim, Simpson applied hemp oil directly to that sore and the other two spots. In only four days, all three cancerous spots were gone. A miracle? Maybe so, but it isn’t a lone event.
Once he started sharing his success story with others, people lined up to try the hemp oil. Jack Herer is an avid supporter of Simpson’s, always ready to demonstrate his personal success as the oil healed many long-term diabetic lesions on his legs. Herer would be the first to say that Rick Simpson’s Hemp Oil is miraculous.
Rick Simpson has never charged a patient for the hemp oil he creates. He not only teaches people how to make the extract and provides it to the ailing folks who request it, but he also uses it for a variety of his own medical issues. He freely lists the recipe on his site.
What will happen next for Rick Simpson remains to be seen. One thing is for sure though, raiding and seizing his home does not make the police look like the good guys. This type of action only propogates further division in society, turning civilians and police away from one another.
“People are dying needlessly when there's a cure we all can grow on our own, or have provided to us,” Desmond Wynnd said. “This is all a waste of energy, when we could be helping sick people. That's all Rick is trying to do.”
“Why are all these people trying to avoid such a simple truth? If I am in some way wrong in what I have been saying then I invite the system to come and prove it. I would be happy to put on a public demonstration of what this (hemp) oil can do.” —Rick Simpson
Dec-05-2009 00:42
Man Heralded for Curing Cancer Seeks Asylum in Europe
Bonnie King Salem-News.com
Canadian authorities have still not laid charges ten days after the police action.
Rick Simpson holding hemp oil. Photo: JackHerer.com
(SALEM, Ore.) - There’s a man from Athol, Nova Scotia, Canada who has caused a stir around the world. About five years ago, he made the shocking claim to have cured cancer. As unbelievable as that sounds, there is viable evidence to support his claim.
You may not have heard of Rick Simpson, many people have not yet had the chance. He’s well known globally in the cannabis community, but the general public has been slow in receiving his whole story.
Simpson makes and distributes a medicinal cannabis extract popularly known as “hemp oil”. He does so without any profit motive. Many patients have claimed to be cured of their ailments, often terminal cancer, by miniscule amounts of this extract.
This pioneer for alternative health solutions was in Europe in November, and the Royal Canadian Mounted Police (RCMP) took the opportunity to raid Simpson’s home in Canada. As his house, office, and garden were being trampled through by police, Simpson was accepting an International Freedom Fighter award, thousands of miles away.
“While he has been touring in Europe his residence was raided by the RCMP and rumor has it the DEA was involved as well,” explains friend Desmond Wynnd.
January 2010 Issue
“The newest issue of "High Times" that came out a week or two ago has a lengthy article on his story and it's felt by many this is what prompted the latest raid. He is now seeking political asylum in Europe.”
The 22nd Annual High Times Cannabis Cup was just held in Amsterdam, and there Rick Simpson received the acclaimed honor of "Freedom Fighter of the Year". The special event came on the heels of a European tour Simpson had just completed.
Jack Herer, well-known as “the Hemperor”, author of Emperor Wears No Clothes, had anxiously awaited joining Simpson for the tour in early fall. Sadly, Herer was afflicted with a heart attack in September and is in recovery, but his assistant Chuck Jacobs was able to attend in his stead. Jack Herer and Rick Simpson are of like minds in that they truly believe hemp can save the world. One person at a time.
For five years, Simpson has been diligently working on the behalf of saving lives, challenging the traditional remedies for skin cancer and other cancers, diabetes, as well as many chronic illnesses. He aspires to enlighten the medical community and bring the discussion of curing cancer to a new level. That discussion is widely believed to be more politically motivated than cure goal-oriented.
Though Rick Simpson has helped so many, there are forces that want to stop him, at any cost.
As of December 3rd, Canadian authorities had still not charged Simpson, ten days after the police action. Initially there were discrepancies in available information from the two involved agencies that carried out this police action.
The Royal Canadian Mounted Police first claimed that such an action would have been undertaken by the Amherst Police Department, as Simpson’s home falls within their jurisdiction. Amherst PD denied that they incited this action when reached for comment, and deferred inquiry for detail to the RCMP.
Rick Simpson wrote, “If I return home, I will be arrested and put in jail without bail or medicine. I am not afraid of their jails but I cannot go without my medicine, the system has nothing that could help me with my conditions. So for me to return to Canada would be like committing suicide. I would be thrown in jail and denied my medicine and a short time later you would hear in the news that ‘Rick Simpson died of natural causes’.”
"It seems the goal is to keep me from returning home and they succeeded. But to what end? All hemp magazines on this planet are now telling their readers how to heal themselves with this wonderful medicine. If governments want to live in denial, it will be short-lived. We are gaining tens of thousands of followers every day. You cannot stop the truth.”
“For the time being, it seems I will be seeking asylum in Europe.”
The Canadian government’s lack of tolerance for marijuana has been building the last few years, a reaction, some believe, to America’s own drug war. Canadians are feeling the brunt. “They're doing a great job directing hate toward Americans when it's undeserved. I haven't met a bad American yet. In the end, we have to take care of ourselves and each other,” Wynnd said.
One theory on limiting a person’s ability to share information is to incarcerate them. That’s a pretty easy solution. A fellow Canadian, Marc Emery, can vouch for that, out on bail for selling cannabis seeds. He is currently scheduled to be extradited to the United States for a sentence of five years in US federal prison.
Perpetrators of the incarceration strategy believe that eventually the subject may lose support of their advocates, the costs will mount up, and just getting through the drama of arrest, red tape and humiliation that follows will be enough to distract even the most passionate, motivated activists.
But Rick isn’t like “most” activists.
He’s been arrested twice in the past, and his medicinal Cannabis plants confiscated. Both times, he was able to reason with the judicial system and continue living freely. Where the maximum penalty has been 12 years imprisonment in one of these instances, the courts instead levied a $2,000 fine.
Most of us have been duped into completely and blindly accepting that there is no cure for cancer.
–Christian Laurette, producer
“Last time he was arrested, the judge wouldn't send him to jail because the judge believed it would be a crime to lock up Rick Simpson, it’s all public record,” said Wynnd. “During his last trial he had doctors and patients lining up to testify for him. Even Narcotic officers have sent people to Rick so he could help them.”
“Mr. Simpson is in an unusual position, because unlike other people engaged in the drug trade, he was not engaged in trafficking for financial gain," said Judge Carole Beaton. "He was engaged in an altruistic activity and was firm in his belief that he was helping others,” she said after Rick Simpson’s sentencing for his second offense in healing dying cancer patients with hemp oil.
Rick Simpson didn’t start out as a crusader to stamp out cancer. He started out as an average guy, first as a steel worker, then in maintenance at a hospital in the boiler room. In his early twenties, Simpson suffered through the loss of a cousin to cancer. That long, exasperating experience changed him forever. He heard some reports about hemp’s healing qualities, and wondered if things would have gone differently for his cousin, had hemp been an option.
For someone who had never even smoked marijuana, this was a very foreign, open-minded idea. The thought provoked some personal research though and later proved very beneficial.
After 25 years working at the hospital, Simpson was in a serious accident causing a temporary nervous-system shutdown, within hours he developed an unbearable ringing in his ears. The doctors tried to find a solution for over a year, and gave up. Not willing to accept his life sentence of daily drugs that altered his memory and other side effects, he asked about medical marijuana, to no avail. So, he began his own research, and experimented with making oil. What he discovered...worked.
To be clear, Rick Simpson's Hemp Oil isn’t hemp oil in the truest sense. Hemp is the Cannabis (marijuana) plant, specifically the stalk and leaves raised mainly for industrial use, with extremely low THC. Rick Simpson’s oil is made exclusively from the Cannabis flowers, or buds. Not to be confused with hemp seed oil, a very different product, Rick Simpson’s hemp oil is a very pure cannabis extract made from high quality buds with a very high THC content.
In 2003, Simpson had three spots on his skin that his doctor believed to be skin cancer. The doctor removed and biopsied one, which then became infected and didn't heal. Almost on a whim, Simpson applied hemp oil directly to that sore and the other two spots. In only four days, all three cancerous spots were gone. A miracle? Maybe so, but it isn’t a lone event.
Once he started sharing his success story with others, people lined up to try the hemp oil. Jack Herer is an avid supporter of Simpson’s, always ready to demonstrate his personal success as the oil healed many long-term diabetic lesions on his legs. Herer would be the first to say that Rick Simpson’s Hemp Oil is miraculous.
Rick Simpson has never charged a patient for the hemp oil he creates. He not only teaches people how to make the extract and provides it to the ailing folks who request it, but he also uses it for a variety of his own medical issues. He freely lists the recipe on his site.
What will happen next for Rick Simpson remains to be seen. One thing is for sure though, raiding and seizing his home does not make the police look like the good guys. This type of action only propogates further division in society, turning civilians and police away from one another.
“People are dying needlessly when there's a cure we all can grow on our own, or have provided to us,” Desmond Wynnd said. “This is all a waste of energy, when we could be helping sick people. That's all Rick is trying to do.”
“Why are all these people trying to avoid such a simple truth? If I am in some way wrong in what I have been saying then I invite the system to come and prove it. I would be happy to put on a public demonstration of what this (hemp) oil can do.” —Rick Simpson
Labels:
Rick Simpson Nova Scotia
Nurse Practioner- Newspaper Article
Nurse practitioner impasse: Try again, minister
Sat. Dec 5 - 4:46 AM
HEALTH MINISTER Maureen MacDonald is too quick to wash her hands of the nurse practitioner fiasco on Digby Neck.
"We need to move on from this failed negotiation," she told The Chronicle Herald on Monday, a few days after talks aimed at reinstating Karen Snider hit an iceberg and foundered.
The deal-breaker was a surprise demand by the South West district health authority that she sign, for public consumption, what has been described as a false confession of her failings. Ms. Snider was let go two months ago, for undisclosed reasons, after her probationary work period expired, although her ex-employer acknowledges it had nothing to do with her competence.
Her firing triggered a popular revolt among Island residents who depended on her and praised her work ethic. The crux of the matter, it seems, was Ms. Snider’s temerity in publicly advocating for more clerical support at the local clinic.
On a certain level, one understands why health-care workers are not supposed to speak out about their working conditions or make their employer look bad. It breeds insubordination.
Nonetheless, it happens. DHAs should accept that a certain amount of venting is inevitable and that disciplinary overkill is not the answer. Six years ago, a group of nurses held a news conference to warn of dangerous overcrowding at the QEII hospital’s ER in Halifax. They weren’t fired. Nor should Ms. Snider be terminated for this.
If the SWDHA thought this would blow over quickly because Ms. Snider worked in a region off the beaten media path, it sorely underestimated the will of the people of Digby Neck.
Ms. MacDonald should not make the same mistake.
She has expressed confidence in Blaise MacNeil, the CEO of the DHA, and concern about the long-term impact of the controversy.
But it would be far more confidence-inspiring if she pressed the DHA to drop its attempt to extract a confession from Ms. Snider. Extracting this key concession instead could kickstart negotiations, which were progressing well enough until this show-stopper reared its ugly head.
In labour disputes, when talks break down and the public is left in a lurch, it is incumbent on the minister to intervene. Ms. Snider is just one person, but she is highly dedicated and not easily replaceable, and her absence has affected the quality and quantity of health care for 1,500 people.
What is required here is a hands-on approach, not an arm’s-length one. Ms. MacDonald should stick her neck out for the people of Digby Neck.
( edits@herald.ca)
Sat. Dec 5 - 4:46 AM
HEALTH MINISTER Maureen MacDonald is too quick to wash her hands of the nurse practitioner fiasco on Digby Neck.
"We need to move on from this failed negotiation," she told The Chronicle Herald on Monday, a few days after talks aimed at reinstating Karen Snider hit an iceberg and foundered.
The deal-breaker was a surprise demand by the South West district health authority that she sign, for public consumption, what has been described as a false confession of her failings. Ms. Snider was let go two months ago, for undisclosed reasons, after her probationary work period expired, although her ex-employer acknowledges it had nothing to do with her competence.
Her firing triggered a popular revolt among Island residents who depended on her and praised her work ethic. The crux of the matter, it seems, was Ms. Snider’s temerity in publicly advocating for more clerical support at the local clinic.
On a certain level, one understands why health-care workers are not supposed to speak out about their working conditions or make their employer look bad. It breeds insubordination.
Nonetheless, it happens. DHAs should accept that a certain amount of venting is inevitable and that disciplinary overkill is not the answer. Six years ago, a group of nurses held a news conference to warn of dangerous overcrowding at the QEII hospital’s ER in Halifax. They weren’t fired. Nor should Ms. Snider be terminated for this.
If the SWDHA thought this would blow over quickly because Ms. Snider worked in a region off the beaten media path, it sorely underestimated the will of the people of Digby Neck.
Ms. MacDonald should not make the same mistake.
She has expressed confidence in Blaise MacNeil, the CEO of the DHA, and concern about the long-term impact of the controversy.
But it would be far more confidence-inspiring if she pressed the DHA to drop its attempt to extract a confession from Ms. Snider. Extracting this key concession instead could kickstart negotiations, which were progressing well enough until this show-stopper reared its ugly head.
In labour disputes, when talks break down and the public is left in a lurch, it is incumbent on the minister to intervene. Ms. Snider is just one person, but she is highly dedicated and not easily replaceable, and her absence has affected the quality and quantity of health care for 1,500 people.
What is required here is a hands-on approach, not an arm’s-length one. Ms. MacDonald should stick her neck out for the people of Digby Neck.
( edits@herald.ca)
Nurse Practioner-Ralph Surette
The Chronicle Herald
OPINION
Saturday; Dec. 5, 2009
Blowup over a sacked nurse: the fallout
THE CASE of the terrni-
nated Digby Neck nurse
practitioner, Karen Snid-
er, and a popular near-
insurgency to have her rein-
stated is providing Health Min-
ister Maureen MacDonald with
her first real test out in the
open.
MacDonald has taken an
arm's-length approach - trying
to resolve the issue by bringing
the two sides together. So far it
has failed, and MacDonald is
loath to get more deeply in-
volved in what amounts to a
local "contract issue."
But it's more than a contract
issue. It's sending out cracks in
all directions. If there's no
adequate resolution to it, it's
primarily MacDonald whose
reputation will take tire hit and
at a very unfortunate time -
the beginning of the public part
of her ministry, so to speak, as
the honeymoon ends and ques-
tions arise as to where the
troubled vessel of health care is
heading. If she can't fix this, as
somebody said, the perception
will be: What can she fix?
And because the South West
district health authority
RALPH SURETTE
(SWDHA) has been overboard
on this - going as far as to
want Snider to sign a public
apology as a condition of nego-
tiations for her reinstatement
- the impression has been
reinforced, rightly or wrongly
and far beyond Digby Neck,
that the injured majesty of
bureaucrats is more important
than health care for the people.
It wouldn't be so bad if this
was an isolated episode. But it
evokes a broader medical-bu-
reaucratic culture that has
evolved as the health care cri-
sis worsened - uptight admin-
istrators, and overworked doc-
tors and nurses often in dread
of the system they work for,
sometimes with good reason.
You may remember, among
other episodes, the two QEII
doctors who had their medical
licences suspended for years
for what turned out to be frivo-
lous and arbitrary bureaucratic
reasons.
Digby Neck residents are
saying Snider was terminated
because she spoke out in a
community newsletter about
needing more clerical support.
The SWDHA says there are
other reasons that can't be
stated for legal and confiden-
tiality reasons. These other
reasons probably involve some
kind of implacable personality
clash. Nevertheless, even if
there really are reasons to sack
her, one thing must be under-
stood from the minister on
down: The health authorities
won't be believed by a suspi-
cious public as long as the
allegations remain secret.
Thus, here's my advice: If
she's not going to be reinstated
and the authorities stick to
their "other reasons," there
should be an investigation by
an independent third party to
tell the public that these "other
reasons" are substantial
enough to justify her dismissal.
In fact, says SWDHA spokes-
man Fraser Mooney, the auth-
ority itself has asked for such
an independent arbitrator. It
also has had its own third par-
ty, he says. A lawyer from
Boyne, Clark "reviewed all the
private and confidential facts
in the case and found South
West Health's decision was fair,
reasonable and unbiased."
Mooney also says the SWDHA
urged Snider to avail herself of
the union grievance process,
but she didn't.
But the issue is bigger. While
this arbitrator is at work, he or
she could also investigate the
functionality of the SWDHA, as
a starting point for a checkup
on all nine district health auth-
orities in the province. Wheth-
er they work well or not,
whether they should be re-
formed, whether their citizen
health boards help or hinder
are questions very much alive
in many expert minds.
Some provinces - notably
Alberta and New Brunswick -
have already moved to reduce
and re-jig their regional auth-
orities.
In Nova Scotia, they were set
up in the present configuration
during the John Savage govern-
ment in the mid-1990s with the
stated purpose of getting local
people involved in adminis-
tering health care, and in the
hope that this would ease the
gathering crisis. Instead, they
appear to have merely insulat-
ed the minister and head office
generally from local crises,
which can be blamed on local
managers - which some critics
have always said was their true
purpose.
This question is very much
in play in the Digby Neck case:
How much "arm's-length"
should a minister have in her
own department?
Meanwhile, the SWDHA has
a "robust campaign" going "to
recruit a full-time nurse practi-
tioner to serve the people of
Long and Brier Island," says
Mooney. And "we are working
to secure as much coverage as
possible at the health clinic,
and we hope to make an
announcement about this very
soon."
Good luck.
Ralph Surette is a veteran freelance
journalist living in Yarmouth County.
(rsurette@herald.caJ
OPINION
Saturday; Dec. 5, 2009
Blowup over a sacked nurse: the fallout
THE CASE of the terrni-
nated Digby Neck nurse
practitioner, Karen Snid-
er, and a popular near-
insurgency to have her rein-
stated is providing Health Min-
ister Maureen MacDonald with
her first real test out in the
open.
MacDonald has taken an
arm's-length approach - trying
to resolve the issue by bringing
the two sides together. So far it
has failed, and MacDonald is
loath to get more deeply in-
volved in what amounts to a
local "contract issue."
But it's more than a contract
issue. It's sending out cracks in
all directions. If there's no
adequate resolution to it, it's
primarily MacDonald whose
reputation will take tire hit and
at a very unfortunate time -
the beginning of the public part
of her ministry, so to speak, as
the honeymoon ends and ques-
tions arise as to where the
troubled vessel of health care is
heading. If she can't fix this, as
somebody said, the perception
will be: What can she fix?
And because the South West
district health authority
RALPH SURETTE
(SWDHA) has been overboard
on this - going as far as to
want Snider to sign a public
apology as a condition of nego-
tiations for her reinstatement
- the impression has been
reinforced, rightly or wrongly
and far beyond Digby Neck,
that the injured majesty of
bureaucrats is more important
than health care for the people.
It wouldn't be so bad if this
was an isolated episode. But it
evokes a broader medical-bu-
reaucratic culture that has
evolved as the health care cri-
sis worsened - uptight admin-
istrators, and overworked doc-
tors and nurses often in dread
of the system they work for,
sometimes with good reason.
You may remember, among
other episodes, the two QEII
doctors who had their medical
licences suspended for years
for what turned out to be frivo-
lous and arbitrary bureaucratic
reasons.
Digby Neck residents are
saying Snider was terminated
because she spoke out in a
community newsletter about
needing more clerical support.
The SWDHA says there are
other reasons that can't be
stated for legal and confiden-
tiality reasons. These other
reasons probably involve some
kind of implacable personality
clash. Nevertheless, even if
there really are reasons to sack
her, one thing must be under-
stood from the minister on
down: The health authorities
won't be believed by a suspi-
cious public as long as the
allegations remain secret.
Thus, here's my advice: If
she's not going to be reinstated
and the authorities stick to
their "other reasons," there
should be an investigation by
an independent third party to
tell the public that these "other
reasons" are substantial
enough to justify her dismissal.
In fact, says SWDHA spokes-
man Fraser Mooney, the auth-
ority itself has asked for such
an independent arbitrator. It
also has had its own third par-
ty, he says. A lawyer from
Boyne, Clark "reviewed all the
private and confidential facts
in the case and found South
West Health's decision was fair,
reasonable and unbiased."
Mooney also says the SWDHA
urged Snider to avail herself of
the union grievance process,
but she didn't.
But the issue is bigger. While
this arbitrator is at work, he or
she could also investigate the
functionality of the SWDHA, as
a starting point for a checkup
on all nine district health auth-
orities in the province. Wheth-
er they work well or not,
whether they should be re-
formed, whether their citizen
health boards help or hinder
are questions very much alive
in many expert minds.
Some provinces - notably
Alberta and New Brunswick -
have already moved to reduce
and re-jig their regional auth-
orities.
In Nova Scotia, they were set
up in the present configuration
during the John Savage govern-
ment in the mid-1990s with the
stated purpose of getting local
people involved in adminis-
tering health care, and in the
hope that this would ease the
gathering crisis. Instead, they
appear to have merely insulat-
ed the minister and head office
generally from local crises,
which can be blamed on local
managers - which some critics
have always said was their true
purpose.
This question is very much
in play in the Digby Neck case:
How much "arm's-length"
should a minister have in her
own department?
Meanwhile, the SWDHA has
a "robust campaign" going "to
recruit a full-time nurse practi-
tioner to serve the people of
Long and Brier Island," says
Mooney. And "we are working
to secure as much coverage as
possible at the health clinic,
and we hope to make an
announcement about this very
soon."
Good luck.
Ralph Surette is a veteran freelance
journalist living in Yarmouth County.
(rsurette@herald.caJ
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