Cheers & Jeers
CHEERS AND JEERS: Cheers to federal funding toward the housing crisis. Jeers to that funding being used for making a plan to build houses, though, and not for the direct construction of homes. Last week, the federal government gave $6.1 million to the City of Mount Pearl to accelerate the building of up to 2,000 new homes over the next decade. However, it appears that money will be used to aid the city to review its municipal plan, reduce exclusionary zoning, figure out how to build up density around public transportation, speed up permitting, create a special team with a sole job of speeding up housing developments, and give incentives to build affordable housing. Other than the incentives, isn’t the rest of it what city residents are already paying taxes to the municipality to do? Sure, planning’s important, but walls need to be going up now if we want to address the housing crisis before it becomes a housing disaster.
✓ CHEERS: to funding that will directly help with the housing crisis. Last week, the federal and provincial governments announced a new agreement to modernize and upgrade more than 850 Newfoundland and Labrador Housing Corporation homes province-wide. The funding will complement the ongoing work of the provincial government to undertake repairs and renovations to its inventory of public housing. Good move — now, let’s get those hammers swinging.
X JEERS: to a sad chapter in public library funding. Last week, the provincial government announced $600,000 in one-time funding for the provincial library board. Though it fell short of what is needed and failed to turn the page to bring the province’s libraries up to national standards, we agree that “every little bit helps,” as Education Minister Krista Lynn Howell put it. But an Ernst and Young review of the province’s public libraries in 20162017, completed at the request of the education department, found the province’s libraries had been “significantly underfunded for some time” and that funding per capita has been significantly below the national average. Given that the need for library services is now higher than ever, this needs to be a priority for the government moving forward.
✓ CHEERS: to quick cleanups. Last week mild temperatures and rain resulted in a washout at Marble Mountain in Corner Brook, sending about 600 tonnes of dirt down the hill and resulting in a pool about 30 feet deep in front of the terminal building for the chairlift. Thinking their season was over, crews dug in and started the cleanup. Amazingly, they got the ski hill back up and running. Great work.
✓ CHEERS: to have something to fight over. The province’s fishing industry and many rural communities are fortunate that after the collapse of the northern cod stocks, snow crab took its place. Many in the industry have done well in the crab fishery. According to the latest assessment by the federal Department of Fisheries and Oceans, the snow crab stock in the waters off the island portion of Newfoundland and Labrador will remain in the healthy zone in 2024. Now, if only a healthy dialogue could emerge to resolve the pricing formula issues that have plagued the industry and exploded into a six-week disruption to the start of the fishing season last year. Claws crossed the fishery will open on time this upcoming season.
X JEERS: to the difficulties encountered by parents of medically complex children in accessing government supports. Memorial University PHD candidate Amie Richards spoke with 11 parents of medically fragile children in Newfoundland and Labrador and published a report. In response to the question, “What is the worst thing about parenting your child,” parents responded, “trying to access government support.” Richards told Saltwire last week, “I was talking to parents whose children are severely disabled, and extremely medically complex. These children are not likely to make it to adulthood. They are very medically fragile, and to know the kinds of things that they have to go through — lots of medical appointments, lots of home care, surgeries, how unstable the very life of their child is, that their child could die tomorrow — and to hear that they considered the worst thing that they were going through was trying to access support from the government was mind-blowing.” Hopefully, work being done to change this will include input from parents.