Emergencies and politics
It’s hard to know what was piled higher last week — the snow drifts in Cape Breton or the rhetoric surrounding the municipality’s call for a state of emergency.
The winter storm that blew into the region beginning Friday, Feb. 3, deposited more than 100 centimetres of snow on parts of Cape Breton island by Monday morning. On Sunday, the Cape Breton Regional Municipality declared a local state of emergency.
“The reason that council decided to go forward with the local state of emergency is really and truly to keep people off the roads,” Mayor Amanda McDougall-Merill said in a video posted to Facebook. “We need to keep people in their houses because right now, in your home is the safest place where you can be.”
COVID LOCKDOWNS
Atlantic Canadian readers should be familiar with the concept of using emergency measures mechanisms to compel people to stay (the blazes) home after living through the COVID19 lockdowns in 2020-22.
We also just heard the Federal Court decision on Jan. 23 that the Trudeau government’s use of the Emergency Measures Act during the 2022 trucker protest was not justified.
There is no question these kinds of laws are controversial, and there ought to be due diligence before they are enacted. However, Nova Scotia Premier Tim Houston’s response to the CBRM local state of emergency smacks of politics rather than concern for the residents of the island.
“We respect their ability to do that but at the end of the process … Will they do anything with it or was it more just a kind of a PR (public relations) issue,” Houston said at a Monday afternoon news conference, without any appearance of irony.
POLITICAL FOOTBALL
If McDougall-Merill’s use of the legislation was a ploy, perhaps the premier needs to ask himself why she felt she needed it to get his attention. Similarly, it would be difficult to find a better example of political football than Houston’s own statement.
Meanwhile in CBRM, roads are blocked, hospitals are inaccessible, commerce is shut down and people are trapped in their homes.
McDougall-Merill said the local state of emergency for CBRM was decided upon unanimously by members of council in consultation with their fire, police and health services.
“It allows us to go to the province and say, ‘hey, we need more resources,’ as well.”
Perhaps it was that line that irritated Houston.
“What a state of emergency does not do is get you a plow faster. What a state of emergency does not do is get a road cleared faster,” Houston clapped back.
SPECIAL POWERS
What it does do is give the mayor special powers for the next seven days to forbid unnecessary travel, enter homes, command evacuations, confiscate property and order assistance.
All of us living through the “snowmageddons” and other weather- and health-related emergencies in recent years can appreciate some of these tools might be necessary to keep the population safe.
There are times when states of emergency are necessary; it is up to us as citizens to see beyond the political games and scrutinize their use.
If McDougall-Merill’s use of the legislation was a ploy, perhaps the premier needs to ask himself why she felt she needed it to get his attention. Similarly, it would be difficult to find a better example of political football than Houston’s own statement.