https://twitter.com/DavidRayAmos/with_replies



David Raymond Amos‏ @DavidRayAmos
Replying to @DavidRayAmos @alllibertynews and 49 others


Methinks Higgy et al must understand why I giggle every time my sneaky Green Meanie cousin Megan Mitton and the evil ex-cop Carl Urquhart are quoted by CBC N'esy Pas?


https://davidraymondamos3.blogspot.com/2020/07/mlas-in-new-brunswick-and-nova-scotia.html



#nbpoli#cdnpoli



https://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/new-brunswick/mlas-atlantic-bubble-1.5640274

MLAs in New Brunswick and Nova Scotia say Atlantic bubble needs some work

With the long wait times at border, it can't even be considered a bubble, says New Brunswick Green Party MLA

CBC News· Posted: Jul 07, 2020 11:56 AM AT



There were long lineups waiting to cross into New Brunswick on the first day of the Atlantic bubble Friday. (Submitted by Trevor Wilson)

After the launch of the Atlantic bubble on Friday MLAs from both sides of the Nova Scotia and New Brunswick border agree the system needs work.

Elizabeth Smith-McCrossin, Nova Scotia MLA for Cumberland North, said Friday was a "colossal disaster."

McCrossin is a registered nurse and was shocked by how unsafe the slow-moving traffic was on the first day the Atlantic provinces opened their borders to each other.

"One woman sent me a message saying that she could see 20 different people in ditches defecating and urinating, for example," she told Information Morning Moncton. "It's terrible, but this is what was going on," she told Information Morning Moncton.

Because of the need to provide certain information at border checkpoints, lineups formed quickly, especially at Aulac. By late afternoon cars in both directions were being waved across the border without being stopped.

The plan had been to ask for proof of Atlantic residency, and for certain health and contact information.


Green MLA Megan Mitton said there wasn't enough planning for the launch of the Atlantic bubble. (CBC)

McCrossin, a Progressive Conservative, said the long wait in traffic was dangerous for animals too.
"We had transfer trucks with live animals on them that potentially were in danger. We had to make special circumstances to get them through."

Megan Mitton, the New Brunswick MLA for Memramcook-Tantramar, said she inquired in advance about how essential workers were going to get through the border efficiently.

"There wasn't enough planning in advance," she said. "It still seems that the systems have not been worked out."

Mitton wants attention refocused on airports and the Quebec border, which generally is not open to people who don't fall under certain exceptions, such as essential workers or cottagers with property in the region.


Mitton is concerned the bubble provinces aren't all following the same regulations.

"[The four provinces] have not agreed even to similar regulations around airports and how they're going to deal with protecting this bubble because the idea is that people within the bubble don't have community spread right now."

McCrossin said that in Nova Scotia they need to do better with contact tracing and monitoring people who are arriving from outside of the bubble.

However, it's not all bad. Both MLAs agree bubble is a good thing. McCrossin said the chaos just shows how important both border communities are to one another.
"It really shows the value and just how significant our border is to both provinces, and I think it's been underestimated, certainly, by my premier in Nova Scotia."

Mitton said it's been a positive experience for a lot of people being able to reunite with family but challenges remain.

"This isn't really a bubble at this point. It certainly doesn't feel like it to the people who waited for hours and hours," she said.

 




63 Comments 
Commenting is now closed for this story.





David Amos
Methinks the spindoctors employed by the 4 Maritime premiers and all their political foes must enjoy the circus as much as I do N'esy Pas?









David Amos
Methinks Higgy et al must understand why I giggle every time my cousin is quoted in the news N'esy Pas?

























Terry Tibbs
Too bad the provincial planning department were all out of office attending a course outlining the fundamentals of creative shoelace tying? (and next week I hear the varnishing of paper cups course is very popular amongst the patronage appointed)


David Amos 






https://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/new-brunswick/atlantic-bubble-aulac-border-traffic-technology-public-safety-1.5638816

Vehicles will get waved through border checks if lines too long, says Public Safety minister

Carl Urquhart has instructed staff to keep traffic backups 'manageable'

Bobbi-Jean MacKinnon· CBC News· Posted: Jul 07, 2020 6:56 AM AT



Public Safety Minister Carl Urquhart said the province wants to make the border experience as easy as possible for travellers. (CBC)

Public Safety Minister Carl Urquhart says he's looking for ways to improve the Atlantic bubble border screening process, but if traffic gets backed up at checkpoints again this weekend, he has instructed staff to wave vehicles through again until the lineups become manageable.

"It's not something that you want to do, but it's something that you've got two options," he said. "Do you leave … the lineups, or do you move them through?"

If a COVID-19 outbreak occurred, the government would try to notify everyone who didn't get registered by using social media and other outlets, Urquhart said.

Last Friday, the first day of the Atlantic bubble, vehicles from Nova Scotia were waved through at Aulac without any of the planned COVID-19 screening or collection of traveller details that could be used for contact tracing in the event of an outbreak.

In fact, about 10 per cent of all vehicles that entered the province between Friday and Monday entered at Aulac without processing — 5,665, according to the premier's office.
Public Safety officials said at the time that traffic congestion represented a safety concern.
On Tuesday, Urquhart said it wasn't a "dangerous situation."

But the lineup was "outweighing what we felt at the time we should do to the people."

He underestimated both the volume of traffic and the tolerance of motorists, he said.

It was his decision to forego screening until the lineups became "manageable again," after discussing the matter with Public Health.

"They understood it had to be done," he said. "And they felt that was quite doable."


Last Friday afternoon, the government decided to forego screening at the Aulac border crossing because traffic congestion represented a safety concern, according to the Department of Public Safety. (Kate Letterick/CBC)

The four Atlantic provinces have opened up their borders to each other, allowing people to travel within the region for non-essential reasons without having to self-isolate for 14 days after crossing a provincial boundary.

New Brunswick has had checkpoints at its Nova Scotia, P.E.I. and Quebec borders since March 25. The Atlantic bubble was portrayed as a big step in recovery after much of the economy was shut down because of the coronavirus.

For the bubble, New Brunswick's plan was to ask for proof of Atlantic residency, a filled-out health questionnaire from each vehicle, and traveller contact information.

Urquhart acknowledged Tuesday the importance of screening people coming into the province.

"We don't want to lose sight of the big picture. We are still in a pandemic and New Brunswick has done very good on controlling the situation when there is a breakout," he said.

Need to balance objectives

But "you get to a point you've got to balance your objective and the objective was to keep people safe. And at the same time, we are in the Atlantic bubble."

"If I had said, 'Look it's a health issue … we're leaving [the Aulac checkpoint] the way it is and the lineup will work its way through,' the risk is about the same," said Urquhart. "It's just a decision that we felt that we can, by opening it up, the risk is not as bad and we wanted to get the people moving."

Urquhart said plans to talk to Public Health about possibly cutting back on the number of questions officers need to ask when it's busy.

"We just want to make the experience as easy as we can."

Risk is 'very low'

The province's chief medical officer of health did not respond to questions about what Public Health is doing now that border protocol has been broken.

"We understand that over the weekend with the implementation of the Atlantic Bubble there was an influx of vehicles and some exceptions were made to ensure traffic safety," Dr. Jennifer Russell said in an emailed statement.

"While the risk in this region is very low, Atlantic Canadians should be self-monitoring at all times, including on vacation, and should call 811 or their primary health-care provider should symptoms occur."

'Not a good thing'

An epidemiologist says failing to gather that information for the vehicles waved through at Aulac was "not a good thing."

"The price of having a bubble of multiple provinces is diligence," said Raywat Deonandan, an associate professor with the faculty of health sciences at the University of Ottawa.

"We're in a strange new time in history where we don't really know how things will really unfold and what exactly to do, so it behooves us to do things carefully and to collect information," he said.
 

Raywat Deonandan, an Ottawa-based epidemiologist, said having online pre-registration and dedicated lanes for trucks and essential workers should help alleviate congestion at the border checkpoints. (Supplied by Raywat Deonandan)

"Anything that compromises our ability to have clean information about who is present, when they came out, what the situation was, potentially compromises our Public Health response."

Another possible "danger" of simply waving people through, said Deonandan, is that someone from outside of the four Atlantic provinces could get "smuggled in."

"You don't want a traveller from the U.S., for example, having free access to your clean bubble because it represents a potential infection threat," he said.

Long waits may become the norm

The decision to wave vehicles through "probably won't result in anything bad," according to Deonandan.

But if an outbreak occurs, officials need to know why and how and where and who and when. "That's what it comes down to."

"It's a tough thing for a lot of people to understand — 'Why am I stuck at the border? I don't have this disease and you know it's so rare in this province anyway, why must I wait?'"

He said he understands people have a psychological need to keep moving and that means border officials may be faced with tempers, but multiple-hour waits are not unusual at international borders.

"So that will probably become the norm here for a while as well. And that's just the way it has to be."

Technology solution coming soon

The Department of Public Safety will launch in the coming days days a "technology-enabled solution" to the traffic problems, said a spokesperson.

It will "help speed up traffic flow," said Coreen Enos.

She did not provide any other details but did reveal a clue.

"Until the new technology is fully implemented," she said, "travellers entering New Brunswick can help speed up the process by printing and filling out the roadside questionnaire and having it ready when they arrive at the border."
 

It takes a few minutes to process each car but people have the option of printing out the questionnaire and filling it out before arrival to save some time during screening. (Kate Letterick )

Prince Edward Island has an online self-declaration form visitors from the other three Atlantic provinces must submit at least a day before their scheduled arrival in order to enter. They must also print a copy of their completed form and bring it with them.

Last Tuesday, the minister told CBC News the province would be moving away from a manual system for gathering info about travellers and details would be available soon.

"Currently, all of this information is recorded manually. We are working towards the implementation of a new system that will assist travellers coming into New Brunswick and will expedite things at the border," Urquhart had said.

Higgs says waits were 'excessive'

Before the bubble opened, Premier Blaine Higgs said his government was prepared for the additional traffic and promised that checkpoints at the P.E.I. and Nova Scotia borders would be adequately staffed.

On Tuesday, at a Fundy Trail Parkway announcement in Sussex, Higgs told reporters the traffic on the first day was "a little more than we expected."

"There were periods of time when the wait times became excessive, like two hours plus, and in a lot of cases commercial traffic was tied up in the middle of it."

Public Safety officials had to "relieve the pressure" because people were waiting too long, he said.
 

Premier Blaine Higgs was unavailable Monday for an interview about the border problems. (CBC)

The Department of Public Safety confirmed Friday night that for safety reasons, officers began at 3:45 p.m. to let vehicles into New Brunswick without checking on anything.

"This continued until congestion no longer represented a safety concern," department spokesperson Shawn Berry had said, without providing a time.

More than 17,000 vehicles entered the province that day, including 9,100 at Aulac, according to the government's dashboard of COVID-19-related statistics. It's unclear if the vehicles that were waved through were included in the statistics.

Overall this weekend, travel proceeded smoothly.
 



91 Comments 
Commenting is now closed for this story.




David Amos
Surprise Surprise Surprise



Johnny Almar
This is beyond dumb.


David Amos  
Jos Allaire
Higgs and his government are totally useless.


David Amos 





























Terry Tibbs
So, I'm guessing the Public Safety Minister is telling us that due to poor planning they were overwhelmed last weekend, and the exact same thing is going to happen this coming weekend, because?
Should we all take a guess?
Shall we all pretend they were too busy to develop a system?
Does this guy have any qualifications?


Ben Haroldson 

























Gina Pietrogiacomo
They were still waving people through as of Monday.


Tim Biddiscombe 


























Justin Gunther
Is this a system that could be easily subverted by, for example, stealing a cell phone that has the app already installed on it? Or perhaps through more high-tech trickery? Could vulnerable people be persuaded to put their "Pandemic ID," or whatever it is that this technology is going to leverage, on the market for the highest bidder?

Aren't there people out there hacking key FOBs and stealing late-model high priced vehicles? Are we going to be deploying a solution that is likely to be at least as vulnerable as key FOBs for late-model, high priced vehicles?


Tim Biddiscombe