Story and photo by Jim Brown

Newcomers are being counted on to play a growing role in the future prosperity of the Resort Municipality of Cavendish.

“I’m the new community navigator for Central PEI and we’ve already had some effort in regard with working with the Resort Municipality…I think there is a lot of potential there to help integrate newcomers into the community and in the plan there is also a reference to development of an engagement strategy,” said Peggy Miles, at a two hour public meeting on Aug 18 at the North Rustico Lion’s Club on the municipality’s 20-year strategic plan.

Approximately a dozen people attended the meeting, where masks were handed to participants.

The Resort Municipality is becoming known as a welcoming community for newcomers, including those who are becoming established in the tourism sector.

Newcomers, both international and domestic, will be increasingly needed in a world living under the shadow of a global pandemic.

There were many issues addressed during the session including the impact of climate change, the need to build resilient communities and businesses in the face of a pandemic that has had a devastating impact on the local, national and world economy, the push to extend the tourist season, investing in ‘quality of life’ attributes that make the Resort Municipality a better place to live and raise a family and shortfalls in health care. All told, 54 projects were listed in the draft report.

According to the draft document, “…there is no local walk-in clinic or other physician services within the municipality, although a walk-in clinic has been proposed for consideration in nearby North Rustico.

“The Gulf Shore Medical Board has lobbied to establish an emergency medical service within the community, beginning seasonally. By working with local stakeholders, this addition could make a major difference in the municipality, and remove some strain from fire services.”

By Sandi Lowther
Owner, Fairways Cottages, Cavendish

When you think of the COVID-19 virus two immediate thoughts come to mind. The first is for those individuals and families who have been inflicted with the virus. Our hearts and prayers go out to the families who are suffering and those who have lost their lives. The second is the economic impact it has and will continue to cause people around the globe.

The industry most affected from the virus is world tourism. We are witnessing this impact with reduced international flights, cancelled meetings and conferences, and restricted and/or cancelled large festivals and events.

While Canada, comparably speaking, is most fortunate with few individuals reported with the virus, the economic impact will still be felt.

Despite the negative world-wide tourism predictions, Prince Edward Island tourism operators may actually experience an increase in summer leisure traffic. Why? Eight-five percent of travel to the Island is rubber tire traffic. Many travel parties from our key markets have already cancelled their late winter cruise and international travel plans. Given the safe and protected nature of our Island, coupled with the fact there are no known virus cases, people may flock to their cars and vacation on our Island.

Our company, Fairways Cottages, has experienced an unprecedented increase in reservation requests during the past two weeks. Our reservations on the books over this same time in 2019 are up 5.4 per cent. While we can not definitively tie this entire increase to the situation, we are hearing directly from our new clients that they cancelled their late winter – early spring international flights, all-inclusive vacation packages and cruise travel plans and have decided to take their families to our beautiful and safe Island.

While it is far too early to actually predict a long-term outcome, we have faith in our medical scientific community to soon find a COVID-19 vaccine.

By Jim Brown

Think one of the world’s longest bridges will protect Canada’s smallest province against the coronavirus? Think again.

The coronavirus will wash over our shores, and probably sooner than many of us expect.

We can’t wish it away, like anti-vaxxers wish measles away by not vaccinating their children against this serious, preventable childhood disease. Unvaccinated kids risk blindness, hearing loss, encephalitis, immune system suppression and even death from their parents’ wilful ignorance.

Will the coronavirus be the “Big One” that many experts predict is long overdue? We can only hope not. In the meantime everyone should practise washing their hands thoroughly every day – as many times as they can.

One possible bright side could be lower rents for modest and low income Islanders.

Housing and rental prices will likely fall everywhere, including Prince Edward Island. That’s potentially good news for Charlottetown renters, facing one of the lowest vacancy rates in the country. And, with travel slumping, Airbnbs may convert back to regular, long term rentals.
That is, of course, if the worst fears of infectious disease authorities come true.

The coronavirus has a two to three per cent death rate, which may not seem like a lot but it more than dwarfs that of the latest strain of influenza, which kills .05 to .5 per cent of all those infected. And yet thousands of Canadians, largely frail seniors, die every year.

If only we had a plan to deal with a pandemic. But wait, we do! The Prince Edward island Pandemic Influenza Contingency Plan for the Health Sector was released in 2006 and we hope it’s been updated at least a few times since.

The plan anticipates 140 to 200 deaths, 600 hospitalizations, 26,000 people with symptoms severe enough to require a visit to an emergency department and about 40,000 people with symptoms severe enough to keep them home from work for a minimum of half a day.

Imagine what the toll would be on our Island economy. Remember, we have a population of less than 157,000 and our hospitals are already working at full or close to full capacity.

The coronavirus, which got its start in an illegal wildlife meat market in China, has now been found in dozens of countries around the world and is spreading at an alarming rate despite the World Health Organization’s best efforts to contain it.

In Japan, Korea, Italy and other hard-hit countries schools and churches are closing and sporting events are being cancelled or moved to empty stadiums. Large gatherings have been discouraged by authorities, but all it’s done so far is delay the inevitable.

It is truly disturbing to contemplate what we, as Islanders face, if the worst happens and the Pandemic Influenza Contingency Plan for the Health Sector lays it all out in clinical detail.

“In a pandemic, the number of deaths in a six to eight week wave is estimated to be similar to that which typically occurs over six months in a non-pandemic period. As in the health care system, demands on funeral industry services will increase at the same time as their workforce is reduced due to illness or caregiving responsibilities. A mass fatality plan for a pandemic will be established to deal with the predicted increase in deaths.”

Where do we put the bodies when morgues fill up? Are our rinks big enough and can they be kept cold long enough?

Are we prepared to wall ourselves in our homes – to self-quarantine – should things get really bad? Do we have enough food to live apart from others who may be infected, or to protect others if we are infected?

Do we have two weeks or more of food and other essential supplies?

Do we have enough grief counsellors?

Can we replace essential workers in hospitals, schools, utilities, police and fire services and public works departments? What about our fishing and farming sectors?

Already in cities throughout North America gowns and face masks are disappearing from store shelves and hand cleanser, if it can be found, often costs five or six times the regular price.

What happens when our ‘just in time’ delivery services are shut down because workers are sick and trains and trucks aren’t operating?

Are we ready for that?

God, I hope so…

By Jim Brown

I recently bumped into someone who works in the cruise ship industry on PEI.

When I asked him about the dark cloud overhanging cruise ships – thousands of passengers quarantined on vessels around the world for the coronavirus, he smiled and took a moment to explain why the industry wasn’t in the dumper.

“Every shipyard in the world that is capable of building (cruise) ships has one in production and (the ships) are bigger,” he said.

The growth in capacity is stunning. Ship sizes have soared from a range of 1,400 to 2,000 passengers to 3,000 passengers and up.

But not everything is rosy. There is a dark side to the growth.

Cruise ship demand has grown so much several European ports simply can’t handle them and many residents of communities besieged by the ships don’t want them there, or the hordes of tourists they disgorge with every visit.

Too much of anything is never a good thing. And seaports have lost many of the qualities that made them attractive places to settle down and raise a family. All because too many cruise ships were dropping anchor and disgorging too many passengers.

And last year’s hurricane Dorian posed huge logistical challenges for Caribbean ports, which were severely damaged and could not support cruise ship visits while repairs were being undertaken.

So guess what? That means more cruise ship traffic for the Eastern seaboard and for eastern Canada and the Maritimes.

The route “along the eastern seaboard in the states, Boston and even further down, all the way up Quebec City and Montreal and turn around and come back, is a winner for them,” said the source.

Last year Charlottetown received just shy of 100 cruise ships, while this year’s total should reach 120.

“And bigger ships, not 1,400-1,500 person ships like the Holland America boats are…but the 3,500 and up ones. They put another dock in the waterfront in Charlottetown so they can park two alongside. There’s a potential in Charlottetown right now, if everything went just right, for five cruise ships (to dock) in one day.”

So far the maximum number has been four, “and that was a real nightmare,” he said.

It’s easy to see why cruise ship visits are so desirable to our provincial government, since on average each cruise ship generates $350,000 per trip to PEI.

“There’s a huge amount of employment, the Island is just humming – people are working,” said the insider.
But in Europe the welcome mat has gotten awfully frayed.

Cruise ship traffic “is over-running the place, there’s so many. There’s not enough taxis, there’s not enough seats in the restaurants, there’s not enough facilities – it’s becoming unmanageable.”

The cruise ship insider compares the situation to that of Airbnb.

“In Europe there’s a huge revolution against Airbnb, to the point where the locals are up in arms – the local rental facilities have gone up in price because of demand.”

Will we be getting something like the coronavirus on our shores because of cruise ships?

“There have been many times when we’ve had the norovirus,” and it wasn’t good, he answered.

All those people crammed into small spaces is “a recipe for the transmission of any virus,” said the insider, who believes the coronavirus is more likely to arrive from Asia by plane, with many Islanders travelling to the continent to visit family and for work commitments.

He recalls several years ago when tour buses were fumigated and wiped down.

Still, the industry is awakening to public demands for improved service. For instance, newer ships will take less of a toll on the environment.

But is that enough to keep our love affair with cruise ships alive?

It’s safe to say we should know a lot more by this summer.

By Richard Deaton, Stanley Bridge

Trump’s so-called “peace plan” for the Palestinians and Israel is blatantly one-sided: his farcical proposal allows Israel to make yet another massive land grab, as it has already done with Jerusalem and the Occupied Territories.

This so-called peace plan destroys any possibility of nationhood for the Palestinians.

Virtually every major international organization and media outlet has condemned the proposal, including the UN, the OIC, the European Union (EU), the British Guardian, the Independent, B’Tselem ( a group of decommissioned Israeli soldiers), our own Globe and Mail, and Haaretz, one of Israel’s leading newspapers. This so-called “Deal of the Century” has been rammed down the Palestinians throat. They were never consulted. Trump’s so-called “peace plan” is built on a series of crimes against humanity, and the Palestinians.

For example, the forcible transfer of people, called for by this proposal, is what the Nazis did to the Jews during WW II. Trump’s “Deal of the Century” includes relocating 200,000 to 400,000 Israeli-Arabs. This is expressly forbidden by the Geneva Accords and ignores Israel’s many violations of international law, as well as their defiance of over a hundred UN General Assembly resolutions.

Israel’s brutal policies in the Occupied Territories have continued unabated and have created an increasing schism between Israeli and North American Jews, resulting in increased support for the BDS movement. According to a US-based poll reported in Haaretz (Feb. 4, 2020), Israeli PM Natanyahu’s support for Trump’s policies is the main reason why North American Jews are increasingly disenchanted with Israel.

Importantly, Trudeau’s Liberal government and the federal NDP have remained silent on these recent developments, effectively making them complicit in this crime against humanity. Why the silence?

Story and photos by Jim Brown

There are just four people on the waiting list for subsidized seniors housing in North Rustico, which is not a true representation of the need, says District 18 MLA Brad Travers, who hosted a town hall on housing related issues on Jan 13 at the North Rustico Lion’s Club.

Forty people joined Mr Trivers including housing officer Jillian Scott, from Social Housing and Development, and other provincial officials from Finance PEI.
Homes are getting pricey, not just in Charlottetown, but all across the Island and eligibility thresholds and subsidies are struggling to keep up.

For example, for a one bedroom in senior housing, the cutoff for eligibility is $29,000 gross, for a two bedroom $35,500 and for a three bedroom it’s $39,500.

In the private market the income thresholds are the same.

Ms Scott, who is also responsible for subsidized seniors housing in rural parts of the province including Hunter River and North Rustico, said while there were only four people on a waiting list for seniors subsidized housing in North Rustico, there were 467 in Charlottetown.

Mr Trivers expressed disbelief at the North Rustico numbers.

“When I first heard there were only four seniors on the wait list (in North Rustico) and maybe five or so (others that he knows of) for nine, I asked how can that be right? The problem is people aren’t actually going through the process. That’s one of the reasons we’re here tonight.”

He urged residents who need the subsidy to get on the list, or if they know of someone who deserves to be on the list, make sure they know about it.

He said he met with a group of seniors last spring who estimated at least 12 units could be filled in North Rustico.

Builders need that information in order to determine whether the market is large enough to sustain new projects.

“That’s the only way their going to get subsidized housing and it’s also the only way as a government we’re going to be able to fund developers to build subsidized housing in any given area,” said Mr Trivers.

People who qualify for seniors subsidies are 60 and up or 55 with a CPP disability income.

Maximum rents eligible for subsidies are $794 for one bedroom units, $951 for two bedrooms, and $1,118 for three bedrooms. Seniors must pay 25 per cent of their income toward the rent.

Ms Scott added there is a little bit of flexibility in the ceilings, depending on the programs.

Resort Municipality of Cavendish councillor George Clark Dunning expressed some frustration at the soaring rent costs.

“I’m not leaving here with any answers or hope…Good luck finding a one room bedroom for less than $1,000,” he said.

“The numbers aren’t real…There’s been fabulous developments in the Town of North Rustico. There’s some beautiful housing, but I can guarantee you none of them start at a thousand dollars a month and I imagine they are all plus utilities.”

Mr Clark Dunning suggested building a three apartment building could cost $500,000 and rent will have to be set a level that will cover those costs, which are probably higher than the thresholds allowed for subsidies.

Tenants will likely be responsible for utilities and heat which will take a big bite of their disposable income, he said.

Finance PEI officials were on hand later to explain to builders how they could tap into sources of financing that could help reduce the cost of borrowing and make it easier for them to get their projects off the ground.