Is it selfish to want to hug someone?
By Michelle M Arsenault – originally posted April 10, 2020
Michelle M Arsenault is a prolific Cape Wolfe writer of erotic thrillers with edgy, political overtones. Her 13th book, She was his Angel, has just been published.
I’m sure people will get mad at me for saying it but this latest catchphrase of ‘the new reality’ reminds me of the brainwashing techniques used in the book 1984. People are repeating it as if it’s a certainty when in fact we really don’t know what our future looks like. We’ve had many experts tell us many things over the past few weeks and let’s face it, not all of them have been right.
And hey, I’m not saying it isn’t true either. Maybe this time next year we’ll all be wearing a mask, avoiding each other as if we have the plague and hiding in our houses until we die; it’s just a little soon to be making that prediction.
Personally, I don’t know how I feel about living in a world where we aren’t allowed to hug, can’t socialize and have to wear a mask all the time. And before you start telling me how selfish I am, I will confirm with you that I am selfish, so you can feel justified in being right and I can finish explaining myself.
The reality is that life without social contact isn’t a life at all. 
It’s an existence. We are social animals. Talking on Zoom isn’t real socializing. It’s merely a ‘better than nothing’ solution. It gives me no comfort. Hiding in your house in case you get sick isn’t realistic. At least, it’s not for me. Having Big Brother watching our every move and tracking our phones in case we run into someone with Covid-19 isn’t something I’m comfortable with. And the idea of sitting on our hands until Big Pharma gives up a vaccine (note; not cure, because you can’t make as much money off a cure) doesn’t sit well with me either.
These are all unpopular views and for that reason, I’ve felt very isolated since this pandemic started. I don’t feel that many people understand my feelings or agree with them. I don’t even feel like people want to hear them because I’m not saying what I’m supposed to say. There is an automatic tension that says ‘Shut up, Michelle’ and I do. And then I kind of get depressed because I’m scared like everyone else. But I also want to live my life.
It may be unpopular but I’d rather take the chance of getting sick and dying than hiding from my life.
We must get past our anger at allowing seasonal owners to return
By Alesia Napier
Mermaid, PEI
On May 20 Premier Dennis King, with PEI’s Chief Public Health Officer Heather Morrison sitting next to him (two metres apart), announced as of June 1 Prince Edward Island would allow property owners who live elsewhere part of the year to return to their Island homes.
As much as I thought there would be resistance to this idea of letting “Come From Aways” cross the Confederation Bridge, I have to admit I am stunned by the response of most Islanders. There seems to be a tsunami of rage at this decision. On May 19, you couldn’t find a person on PEI who wasn’t proud of Dr. Morrison and Premier King’s guidance and leadership, and by the afternoon of May 20, you’d be hard pressed to find many who would continue to proclaim their admiration.
“We aren’t COVID-19 free and we will never be”
It is often stated anger is a secondary emotion. The primary emotion is often short-lived and rarely examined and therefore presents as anger or even rage. In this case it’s easy to see the vitriolic response is based on fear; and rightly so. Dr. Morrison and Premier King instilled into all of us a primal fear of the virus. They needed to in order to get the vast majority of Islanders to comply with orders to stay at home and be physically distant to one another.
We were asked to report those who didn’t follow the orders and many of us did, because we wanted to protect ourselves, our families and those amongst us who are most vulnerable. We complied with the province’s public health directives and did such an amazing job we were flooded with the relief of thinking we were “COVID-19 free”.
Here’s the deal though. We aren’t COVID-19 free, and we will never be. We have had 27 cases. There have been reported “resolved” cases that became active again. Will we quarantine all persons who at one time had the misfortune of contracting this vile illness? Of course we won’t.
We have essential workers, that for the survival of every islander, risk their health and well-being by leaving the island and coming back on a regular basis. Do you expect these individuals to self-isolate for the rest of their lives? Of course you don’t.
In the middle of March we had no protocols in place, no systems in place and the medical and scientific communities knew nada about this virus that was rapidly spreading throughout the world. It made sense to close the bridge and issue stay at home orders.
“Even if the cottagers don’t come, life on PEI is not going back to pre-Covid-19”
We are in a different space now. We have cough and fever clinics and anyone that needs a test gets a test as PEI now has the capacity to test 2,800 cases a week. We have protocols in place to protect our infirmed. We have guidelines to safely open businesses with reduced traffic, enhanced cleaning and physical distancing as our armour. Every individual knows to keep their distance, wear a mask and wash your hands like your life depends on it. Because it does. We are geared up to test, quarantine appropriately and deploy a task force to contact trace when it becomes needed.
Here’s the part that the vast majority of islanders are missing; even if we don’t let cottagers come, we don’t get to go back to the way it was before. That time is over. Even if the cottagers don’t come, life on PEI is not going to go back to pre-COVID-19. It won’t until the scientific community either produces a vaccine or data becomes apparent the vast majority of people develop long term immunity after contracting COVID-19. Scientists all over the world are scrambling to solve the vaccine solution. They don’t know if they will ever find a vaccine, and even if they do, development and safe clinical trials can take years. Expecting a vaccine to be ready in the expected timeline of 18-24 months will only happen if huge amounts of training, expertise and funding are backed up by an exponential dose of luck. The jury is still out if a person develops immunity to COVID once they’ve had the illness and recovered and again, science will need time and data to figure out the specifics of immunity.
“This virus is literally forcing us to rethink every aspect of our day to day lives”
So, we must learn to live with COVID-19 for much longer than we originally thought. That means always keeping physically distant. It means wearing masks to protect one another, it means washing our hands over and over again. It means finding new ways to entertain ourselves. It means finding new ways to socialize. It may mean finding new ways to educate our children and young adults entering universities. And yes, it means it will be a struggle to be as physically close to our aged parents and relatives as they hibernate in nursing homes. This virus is literally forcing us to rethink every aspect of our day to day lives.
“We have no choice but to adapt and move forward”
Premier King stated there are about 3,500 homes on PEI owned by people who only live here part of the year. Twelve hundred are international, and of those about 150 are owned by Americans. The other 2,500 are Canadian owned. Dr. Morrison has stated before anyone is cleared to come to PEI they must prove property ownership and provide their 14-day quarantine plan. This isn’t about someone wealthy enough to own a property on PEI as much as it’s about their ability to quarantine themselves without risking others.
Dr. Morrison has emphasized that her team will not allow all these people to come at once but will schedule arrivals so that her team can continue to track individuals on quarantine to ensure they continue to be healthy and are following isolation protocols. Her team will also inquire if they need help.
Though I have not heard either Dr. Morrison or Premier King state this, I’m certain the pre arrival screening will include health conditions. If someone has a fever or cough, or arrives with a fever or cough they’ve developed during travel, they’ll be postponed or potentially rerouted.
With or without cottagers coming to PEI, the risk of another COVID case via essential worker travel is always going to be with us. With or without cottagers, we could face an outbreak that would force our Chief Public Health Officer to issue a stay at home order. Our lives are NOT going to go back to pre-COVID days. We have no choice but to adapt and move forward.
This time, I’m not letting my fear present as anger. This time, I’m going to use my fear to motivate me to help my fellow Canadians. They have invested in our communities and from what I’ve witnessed the vast majority have our well-being at heart. They want PEI to stay “COVID free” because they too want a safe haven.
I’ve met one via Twitter who wants to leave Ontario, self-quarantine on PEI and then stay here and ride out COVID away from the madness. I’ve volunteered to be of assistance during their quarantine. It’s the humane thing to do and more importantly, it’s the Island thing to do.
Stanley Bridge wharf, a day before setting day
Photos by Jim Brown
The rhythms of life continued in ports across PEI, even in the midst of a devastating pandemic that has claimed hundreds of thousands of lives around the globe and has stilled the engines of commerce nearly everywhere. The coronavirus outbreak delayed the spring lobster fishery’s start date by two weeks, to May 15. On May 14 the Stanley Bridge wharf stirred to life with workers cutting bait and lobster fishermen loading traps onto their vessels in preparation for the 6 am launch time.
Cavendish Tourist Mart could open as soon as May 15
Owner would be happy if he only lost $100,000
By Jim Brown
A favoured haunt of tourists and area residents alike, the Cavendish Tourist Mart, could be open as soon as May 15 if everything falls into place.
Owner Brian Ellis, who has run the popular store for decades, says if he can get through this season with only a $100,000 loss he will consider it a success.
“We’re shooting for that date…but we don’t have any stock in just yet,” he said on May 6.
Of course the coronavirus has thrown a wrench into his usual opening plans – since he will have to operate with fewer staff and on reduced hours. Fortunately, there are federal wage subsidies to help out and he believes he can shave thousands off electricity and other bills. For instance, he won’t need as much refrigeration.
The important thing is to provide his core staff with work opportunities and make it possible for them to collect employment insurance benefits in the fall if jobs fail to materialize in a COVID-19 ravaged economy.
Mr Ellis said he will focus on groceries with fewer T-shirts, souvenirs and novelty items, as well as camping supplies.
Of course if demand were to pick up he could add them later in the season.
It will be a much different operating season this summer, with few, if any, tourists. Many Cavendish area businesses will likely not open.
Mr Ellis said there was another good reason to open this season, even if doesn’t make a profit. His core employees have been with him for years and are very good at their jobs. If they aren’t retained this summer they may drift away to other work and he won’t be able to call them back for next summer when things could return to normal.
Another reason for opening, with the province’s approval, is to give the business community a boost – to revive local commerce.
A community without the noise “of hammers and saws” is an empty, haunted community, he said.
The PEI Liquor outlet attached to the store will also be open.
The mystery of the hole at a Cavendish cemetery
By Jim Brown
It was something Elwin Wyand had never seen before in all the years he had worked as a volunteer at the Cavendish Community Cemetery, helping to straighten and raise stones, plant grass seed and generally tidy up the property after harsh winters.
The mystery hole, next to a grave marker.
“See the crowbar marks?” he said.
Were they pulling something out? a reporter asked. Elwin let that question hang in the air.
“Not sure,” he said.
Why was it dug? Elwin isn’t the only person asking that question. So was an RCMP officer, who investigated the act of vandalism, or maybe something more.
Elwin Wyand inspects the gravestone of an infant child. The hundred year old gravestone was one of many such stones in the cemetery.
There were tracks leading from the hole, which looked like they were made by a “two wheel rig used to push propane tanks around,” said Elwin.
Was the rig used to move something heavy from the hole?
The tracks have since disappeared, fading away under fast growing grass.
“You never know what the heck it could be…I’m not going to speculate…but I’d like to know where it went,” said Elwin.
Update to story Another media outlet, the CBC, has reported the object pried from the hole several weeks ago was a gravestone, dated 1939. RCMP are still investigating the incident.
Improved internet service coming to North Granville Community Hall, residents
Chris MacFarlane, owner of Red Sands Internet, has been a very busy man in early April.
Workers drill a hole for a 45 foot power pole.
On April 7 a 45-foot power pole was erected by workers employed by Owen Simpson next to the recently renovated Stanley Bridge Centre (SBC) building. The building sits on property owned by the Stanley Bridge Memorial Society, the SBC’s operator.
Chris said the pole “will allow me to extend my service to a tower that will be erected in North Granville. That pole should also enable me to reach a number of homes in the Stanley Bridge area as long as they can see the pole.”
He went on to say: “I plan to begin working on the pole over the (Easter) weekend and hopefully have it ready to provide service to subscribers within two weeks. I will also be providing WiFi service to the Stanley Bridge Centre.”
Don Maynard of Granville Ridge Consulting had approached Chris about providing improved internet service to his company and ultimately for the North Granville area.
The power pole, after installation.
“It is difficult to nail down a timeline but we are hoping to have the tower ready for service within a month or so of having the pole in Stanley Bridge go live,” said Chris.
“Then I plan to extend my service to the North Granville Community Hall, once there is service available at the tower. It is expected that I should be able to reach the majority of homes on Taylor Road as well as a few on the Rattenbury Road in the North Granville area. Any home within a five km radius of the tower should be able to subscribe to my service as long as they have a clear line of sight to the tower.”
Gun-toting vigilantes and the Decline of the American Empire
By Richard Deaton, Stanley Bridge
This past weekend was an historical turning point. Only historians such as Gibbon and Toynbee would have the sweep and insight to fully appreciate the Decline of the American Empire in the Time of the Coronavirus. And as medical historian William H. McNeil has argued there is an intersection between epidemics and historical political events. But Sinclair Lewis and Philip Roth were right, It Can Happen Here. Fascism through the ballot box.
This past weekend those watching the social media were treated to the sight of right-wing goons wearing black military outfits and armed with assault rifles occupying and blocking the entrance to the state capital buildings in at least six American states, including Michigan, Wisconsin, Minnesota, Ohio and Pennsylvania. Many of these states have Democratic governors.
However, in any constitutional democracy there is always a limit to the exercise of political rights. No right is unfettered. The right to free speech, as US Supreme Court Justice Oliver Wendell Holmes once said, does not give one the right to yell fire in a crowded theatre. There are legitimate constraints on every political right. And public health measures are a necessary limitation on certain rights.
It is no exaggeration to say that these self-appointed vigilantes, who are allegedly protesting the COVID-19 shut down and “stay at home orders” in the name of “opening up the economy” do so by asserting their First and Second Amendment rights to public assembly and to bear arms. Toys for boys. These actions are grounded in the paramilitary- survivalist movement called Minutemen, created by Republican Senator Barry Goldwater when he ran for president against Lyndon Johnson in 1964.
Make no mistake about it, these are anti-government nihilists – red necks and crackers – parading as patriots, wrapped in the American flag. These are weaponized good ole’ boys and deplorables. In today’s political environment they are the modern day version of the Hitler’s brownshirts, the SA, who were his private army of street fighting goons who intimidated and beat up political opponents.
Most disturbingly we must ask: Where are the police? Where is the state National Guard? Where are the Democrats, and where is Joe Biden speaking out to preserve political democracy and social order? And outlining a rational exit strategy from COVID-19? America has become a Third World banana republic, with the president serving as the cheerleader-in-chief agreeing with and pandering to the lawlessness of his base. He has done this from the very first days of his administration. Are we now waiting for our Reichstag moment?
What is appalling is the silence emanating from Democratic Party leaders and the presumptive Democratic presidential nominee, Joe Biden. Some have commented on his recent incoherence and poor performance at the lectern; rumour has it that his handlers are limiting his exposure to 15 mins. Is he well? Is he up to the task? Should the DNC look to Cuomo as the Democratic nominee?
We live in dangerous times and must Stand on Guard for Thee.
Is the coronavirus making it illegal to date?
By Michelle M Arsenault – originally posted April 10, 2020
Michelle M Arsenault is a prolific Cape Wolfe writer of erotic thrillers with edgy, political overtones. Her 12th book, The Devil And His Legacy, recently hit bookstands everywhere.
Before you go off on me about how we have to social distance to contain the virus just hear me out. I’m not saying NOT to do it (which I would probably get arrested or a stern warning for during these Orwellian times) but has anyone thought about what all this means?
It’s a broad topic but for today I’m going to focus on how this specifically affects the dating world. And once again, it’s not necessary to shame me for bringing this up because it may seem selfish in the eye of a virus that kills people. I’m not a moron. I get that. However, I do have a point.
Technically, people aren’t allowed to date right now. Unless you meet someone online, where would you meet them? The grocery store? The gas station? There’s only a small number of essential businesses open and even if you did meet someone there, you have to stand about a mile away (and still get dirty looks from people because you’re talking and don’t have a somber expression on your face) and keep the conversation to a bare minimum. Like compliant robots, we have to move swiftly through the stores or risk offending someone for not moving fast enough, the right direction or again, showing any signs that you don’t currently hate your life.
Even if you do meet someone online or the three places you can go now, you aren’t technically allowed to go on a date. Businesses where you would normally meet are closed. You aren’t allowed to go to anyone’s house. You aren’t allowed to be in the car with anyone unless you’re related or something like that…I’m not sure of the exact rule. I’m not sure how a single person is LEGALLY allowed to have a sex life.
It’s funny because when all this started, many people joked about all the babies that would be coming nine months from now. That idea doesn’t seem so appealing these days, does it? Most couples probably cringe at the idea of having a child under these circumstances. Would you even be able to get to a doctor? Would you want to go to the hospital now? Would you want to be pregnant during all of this insanity? And forget single people getting pregnant now. If you did happen to, you might get arrested or burned at the stake because it is kind of proof that you weren’t ‘socially isolating’.
Interestingly, when all this started, conspiracy theorists suggested that this virus was a way to cut down the population. Maybe it was, but perhaps in a way they hadn’t considered.
Letter from tourism groups to PEI government officials expressing growing concern for seasonal operators
To:
Hon. Matthew MacKay, Minister of Economic Growth, Tourism and Culture Mr. Kent MacDonald, CEO, Tourism PEI
From:
Regional Tourism Associations of Prince Edward Island
March 31, 2020
Minister MacKay / CEO MacDonald,
During this challenging time related to COVID-19, Prince Edward Island’s collective of Regional Tourism Associations(RTAs) are writing to you with a shared concern for our Memberships, a representation of 750+ tourism operators of all sizes and types. We are also supported in this communication by the Tourism Industry Association of PEI.
Tourism is a vital industry in Prince Edward Island that provides 7,700 full time equivalent jobs for Islanders. It accounts for over $500 million in economic activity each year and 6.3 percent of GDP, the highest percentage of any Canadian province.
By way of this letter, we would like to express that our first priority is to work with Public Health to determine a feasible timeline for tourism activities. PEI’s tourism industry will work with government to ensure government has the funding and technology needed to help screen Visitors and protect the public.
With that said, our greatest growing concern is for seasonal operators and their need for support. Currently, it is unclear how seasonal operators are included in initial rounds of support and there is a growing uneasiness within the industry with how they fit in.
While we understand the landscape may change in due course, it is important that we do not lose sight of seasonal operators at this time. Our Island’s seasonal operators are currently weighing decisions related to whether or not they will open for the 2020 tourism season.
As one of PEI’s top three industries, it is our shared goal for tourism businesses to be open for the upcoming season: if attractions, accommodations, dining and other tourism experiences are closed, it will leave visitors with an impression that there is ‘nothing to do on PEI’, negatively impacting future tourism for our province. Operators are eager to contribute and generate some form of an economic impact that will get our province back on its feet.
We look to the government to offer incentives by ways of offsetting labour costs, expenses and revenues so that businesses will stay open even if tourism traffic isn’t there. This is outlined further in this letter.
We are pleased to see the many federal and provincial business support programs that have rolled out in the last few days and weeks. Will these programs be made available to seasonal tourism operators, and will they be available to operators and workers within the timeframe they are needed (i.e. June 1, 2020 and onward)?
RTAs suggest the following additional ways that government can assist PEI’s tourism industry this season:
EMPLOYEE SUPPORTS
Many long-time employees in tourism operate on a seasonal basis. Many of them have been eligible for EI benefits since last fall. Given that there is currently no work for them to return to, will provisions be made to extend their EI coverage? Will this allow for the possibility that they are unable to return to work at all in 2020 and carry them through until late spring 2021? What plan does the government have for them?
Wage Subsidies – Wage subsidies recently announced for employers to cover 75% of employee wages is a very positive announcement. It is important that these subsidies are available to seasonal operators at the beginning of the summer season. Offering these options to them as well, in June, July or August may mean the difference between many operators opening or closing.
For seasonal workers who are on EI now, extend or top up EI payments when they go back to work to provide owner-operators an opportunity to reduce operating costs.
Consider reducing the $50,000 threshold to receive salary relief for small and medium sized enterprises (Canada Emergency Business Account). This still leaves a large gap for small operators who will not meet this amount.
INDUSTRY SUPPORTS
Loan options*. While loan options will benefit some tourism operators and we welcome loan options, many operators do not want to add to their current debt load – therefore the suggestions that follow are of great importance.
Working with lending agencies and financial institutions to encourage multi-month deferrals (12-18 months). While some financial institutions are currently promoting 3-month deferrals, this is of little benefit. Operators need time in which to achieve revenue in the 2020 and early 2021 seasons, to be used to pay back existing loans.
Explore opportunities where Finance PEI could potentially assume operator loans from financial institutions, followed by a 12-18 month deferral.
Explore mechanisms for cash flow / cost recovery to operators at the beginning of the 2020 tourism season. Example: monthly grants.
Work with suppliers – Maritime Electric, Bell Aliant and others – to encourage deferred payments and rollbacks on rates for these services. Example: Eastlink has scheduled price increases for April – could the government work with such suppliers to provide breaks for tourism operators and the business community?
Provisions to assist tourism operators/owners who cannot currently access the EI program.
Forgiveness or deferral of federal/provincial tax and business-related fees (ex. Environmental Health,
Tourism Licensing, Visitor Guide Listings, etc.) for an extended time period (12 – 18 months).
Tourism is a year-round business that requires planning, maintenance and other expenses in the lead up to the season. Given that many operators are now facing either a complete elimination of the season, or a shortened season with decreased demand – has thought been given to assistance related to expenses already incurred that may be difficult to recover, such as advertising, training, inventory purchases and more?
Acknowledgement of lost reservations, cancelled events, season passes, group bookings at attractions, etc.
The window is closing on tourism operators’ ability to make decisions about operating within the 2020 tourism season landscape. We call on the government to take these issues very seriously and offer support that will provide seasonal tourism operators with some level of confidence moving into the ever-important summer operating season. This will provide continuity to our tourism industry’s ability to contribute significantly to the economy of Prince Edward Island.
On behalf of all the Regional Tourism Associations, Derrick Hoare, President of the Central Coastal Tourism Partnership, and owner of The Table Culinary Studio in New London, will follow up with Minister MacKay in the coming days. Alternatively, Derrick may be reached at 1-647-920-1542.
Yours in partnership,
Stanley MacDonald, President, North Cape Coastal Area Tourism Partnership Don Quarles, President, Explore Summerside
Derrick Hoare, President, Central Coastal Tourism Partnership
Steve Murphy, President, Tourism Cavendish Beach
Ben Murphy, President, Discover Charlottetown
Tanya Calver, President, Points East Tourism Partnership
Kirk Nicholson, President, Tourism Industry Association of PEI Kevin Mouflier, CEO, Tourism Industry Association of PEI
/pm
c.c.
Hon. Dennis King, Premier of Prince Edward Island Hon. Robert Morrissey, MP for Egmont
Hon. Wayne Easter, MP for Malpeque
Hon. Sean Casey, MP for Charlottetown
Hon. Lawrence MacAulay, MP for Cardigan
Royal haters are a particularly vindictive lot
By Nils Ling
If you’re an Islander ‘through and through’ it’s a good bet you know Nils Ling or have heard his name.
Mr Ling, who ran for the Green Party in 2015 in the federal riding of Egmont, is an author, playwright, actor, filmmaker, syndicated newspaper columnist and former broadcaster who has served as president of Film PEI. A resident of Breadalbane, he is also an unabashed royalist and a fierce fan of Harry and Meghan.
I grew up in a family where arguing was a blood sport.
There were six kids – three along each side of the table. And at supper time my dad would throw out a topic. One side would argue from one position, the other diametrically opposed. And half way through my dad would stop the noise and say “Okay – now switch.” And we would have to stand and defend that which we adamantly opposed only moments earlier.
It was good training on seeing the other side of the argument.
I am a royalist. And if you think you have the perfect argument opposing the idea of hereditary privilege and why Queen Elizabeth is a drain on the economy and how in these times, royalty makes no sense, you go on ahead and make it – but please understand I have argued from your side and you are unlikely to give me anything new to think about. I love the Royals more and more every day because every frigging day we see the cost of inconstancy and lack of a foundation in tradition.
We see con artists and ne’er-do-wells. We see flavours of the day. We see those willing to promise the moon for five years of power with no regard to what has happened before and what will happen after. We see the daily cost of a lack of any continuity and it is staggering.
And there – always there – is the Queen. She is a bridge to the past and a stabilizing example we can follow for the future.
That’s why I don’t get those who spew animosity towards Harry and Meghan as they break from The Firm and try to go their own way.
And it’s there. When you read the comments on Facebook posts (which I do not recommend), there are those who couch their arguments against these two young people in vile, derisive terms. “Well, it better not be Canadians on the hook for their security.” “Oh, poor little rich boy, can’t take his life of entitlement.” And on and on, ad infinitum.
Just … stop. These kids are doing the right thing – for them and, by extension, for everyone else.
Harry had no choice as to the circumstances of his birth. None. Yet he has not sat idly by.
He served on active duty in harm’s way in Afghanistan, only being removed when some Aussie asshole reporter got a “scoop” and revealed his whereabouts, endangering those around him.
He and his wife have raised millions for charities using their fame and his position which, it bears repeating, he had NO CHOICE ABOUT.
He has opted to leave the life of privilege for the sake of his family’s safety and he and his wife are paying back the British taxpayers for renos to their London home. They will not be immediately self sufficient but will get there within a few years and in the meantime their major costs, including security which will be substantial will be covered by Prince Charles – not the Canadian government.
Royal haters are a particularly vindictive lot. They hate people for who they are and now, it seems, they are able to find hate in their hearts when people try to do the right thing.
I feel badly for them. It must be so tiring.
Tips on how not to be a jerk this winter
By Michelle M Arsenault
Michelle M Arsenault is a prolific Cape Wolfe writer of erotic thrillers with edgy, political overtones. Her 12th book, The Devil And His Legacy, recently hit bookstands everywhere.
I think all islanders were horrified to watch Newfoundland getting hit with storm after storm, followed by a blizzard that required residents to go home, stay home and not move until the army came along to save them. Let’s face it PEI – it was a little too close to home. Not only did those fierce storms bring back some terrible ghosts from winters’ past, it reminded us there’s still time to get blasted by Mother Nature’s wrath. After all, it’s January and spring is still about another four to five months away. Hopefully.
Meanwhile, there’s a few tips that I would like to pass along just in case we have a few more storms on the way. Consider them ‘thoughtful suggestions’.
1. If you head out on the roads after a storm and feel that some areas need extra attention, let the proper people know. Even though there’s some satisfaction from ranting to your best friend, boss or everyone on Facebook, you’ll probably have more chance of a resolution if you call or text one of these numbers (from the PEI Government website).
You can report road issues via email, phone, or text message. Staff will use this information to investigate concerns and dispatch crews as needed.
Report provincial road issues via text message by texting the information, photo and/or video to your county road issues text line.
Kings County (902) 200-2122
Queens County (902) 200-6649
Prince County (902) 200-1014
Please be careful where you throw that snow and make sure it doesn’t get on the road.
2. If you happen to be cleaning out your driveway, don’t be a jerk by putting your snow on the road. It’s dangerous and if I’m not mistaken, it’s also illegal. Not to mention the fact that snow plow operators probably want to pummel the morons who do it since it’s essentially making more work for them. Think of it like mopping your floor, only to have an inconsiderate relative walk in with mud all over his boots and walk through your kitchen. Except of course, there’s little chance of someone having an accident. Although if you’re walking across the right person’s freshly mopped floors with muddy boots, you could be having an unfortunate ‘accident’ of another kind.
This morning I drove past at least three people who were pushing their snow onto the road. One particular moron wasn’t just spraying snow onto the road but also onto passing cars as they drove by. I guess having blobs of snow everywhere wasn’t enough to potentially cause an accident, they wanted to blind drivers too.
Of course, if you know the person involved or the house number there’s always the option of calling the police and reporting the incident. Don’t want to seem like a jerk? Try reporting it on Crimestoppers and be an anonymous jerk.
3. When there’s a bad storm and you know of elderly or sick people or vulnerable neighbors (for example, a single mother of young children) you might want to check on them. Chances are they are fine but what if they need help cleaning off their walkway? If they have health problems, are they ok? Do they have enough medication or necessary supplies? If not, is this something you can help them with? Also, remember that stormy weather makes a lot of people anxious for obvious reasons. Feeling trapped in their home, worrying about road conditions, sudden issues with furnaces, plumbing (if pipes freeze) and concerns around power outages can cause a lot of stress. Speaking of which….
4. If the power goes out, call Maritime Electric at 1-800-670-1012. Don’t assume your neighbor did it because she could be assuming you did. Also, she might have her power and it might be an issue outside your own home. If the power is out for any amount of time (think Hurricane Dorian) then it’s even more important to check on those around you who might be vulnerable (see No. 3) Not everyone has a generator and if you happen to have one that is mobile (apparently some are) then maybe someone nearby could use some power to warm up their house, keep their freezer full of food from spoiling and if they have their own pump (as many rural people do) run off some water. A hot cup of coffee is greatly missed when you have no power. Oh, which reminds me….
5. If you live nearby and the power is out and you’re getting a hot coffee, for God Sakes, get me one too!
Australia is burning, a personal account of the catastrophic fires devastating an entire continent
By Robyn Joy Williams
Robyn Joy Williams and her spinning wheel drew lots of interest from tourists visiting the Stanley Bridge Centre’s farmer’s markets over the past several years.
Robyn is originally from Australia, but lives with her husband Alvin in the Stanley Bridge area for much of the spring, summer and fall. She and her husband return to Australia for part of the winter.
I write as a part time spring-winter resident of Bayview, PEI.
In Australia I usually live in Canberra, Australia’s capital city, located within New South Wales, about three hours drive from the south east coast of Australia. This is a personal account and I am unable to verify statistics.
When we arrived back in Australia in December, the air from Sydney to Canberra was already heavy with smoke from bushfires elsewhere in the country. The country everywhere was tinder dry and desperate for rain, which is not expected for some time. The fires had started in spring, earlier than ever recorded and caught fire authorities by surprise, preventing the usual back burning to clear bushfire fuel. Initially they spread rapidly in northern, old growth forests, in many for the first time, their peat base catching fire readily.
By Dec 19 fires were breaking out all over and a bush drive from Canberra to the coast for a dental appointment was fraught. Although I checked for road closures before I left, fire closed a major part of my route while I was on the road. I was forced to backtrack and detour quite a distance to get to the main highway – and even that was closed beyond my next exit point.
The drive down the windey, narrow, heavily treed Kangaroo Valley road, intensely smoky, was pretty scary because I didn’t know the source of the smoke. I was glued to radio live fire reports the whole way.
On New Year’s Eve, as predicted, weather conditions deteriorated. With intense heat and strong winds, the fires already burning erupted. Fire generated lightening strikes created new fires. By the end of that day, much of the coast of New South Wales and Victoria was on fire – the prime tourist areas of both states – packed with holidaymakers. The fire swept down from the forests and national parks of the Great Dividing Range that runs north south adjacent to the coast, right down to the sea along much of the coast.
Settlement along this coast is mostly in small communities, with small populations, except in tourist season. It is also home for many retirees or those who want to escape the rat race, on bush blocks far from the madding crowd. There are few roads – often there is only one road in and one road out. The old Princes Highway is the only south-north route, picturesque but mostly only two lanes and a regular holiday and weekend bottleneck. It was quickly cut in many places and remains so.
In many coastal communities people survived huddled by the water front or even escaping into the water in boats, while they watched their houses burn. Daytime skies were black and crimson – one “firie” said that from the top of his truck his hand disappeared when he held his arm up. Here in Canberra, three hours distant, the smoke was so intense it was difficult to see the opposite side of the street for three days and it permeated the house, stinging our eyes and throats. It achieved the unenviable status of having the worst air quality of any major city in the world, including Delhi! The accounts of those who faced the fire directly say it came with the roar and force of a freight train, sending hot air, gasses and burning embers over a kilometre ahead of its front. Flames rose 30 metres or more in the air. Experienced fire fighters with a lifetime fighting fires say they have never experienced anything like it. A fireman died when the huge fire truck he was in was literally lifted in the air and rolled by a fire generated whirl wind.
The day after the fires, on New Years Day, conditions eased and while fire fighting went on – many fires still out of control, authorities were able to take stock of damage to lives and property. Over 500 houses for a start, along with farms, orchards, wineries and tourist businesses. Three NSW firefighters had died, others were injured and there were deaths and injuries among those who decided to stay and defend their property. Some small towns were burnt out. Visitors and locals huddled in town centres or waterfronts. The fire had even licked into the larger urban hub of Batemans Bay, an especially popular tourist and retirement centre (population 11,294, outlying areas to 16,500).
With highways blocked, there was no way out, and no way for supplies to get in. Infrastructure had taken a major hit so for much of the coast there was no power, no communications and no water. Supermarket shelves emptied. Tourists were advised to leave ASAP, but there was no way for them to do so. It wasn’t even possible to fly the injured out from small rural hospitals because the smoke was too heavy to let helicopters land.
Since then there have been desperate efforts to get tourists out. Convoys of a hundred cars at a time have been moving at a snail’s pace sandwiched between police cars, stopped intermittently by fire outbreaks, fallen trees and car accidents, either along the north south Princes Highway or via precarious inland routes. A thousand people at the tourist village of Malacoota in Victoria have been taken out by a naval ship, which has also been ferrying supplies – but to go on the naval ship people had to be able to scale a very tall rope ladder up the side of the ship.
Tomorrow, 4 January, horrific conditions have been predicted again. With much of the NSW already burning, not only on the coast but inland, especially around the Snowy Mountains, no-one knows for sure which fire fronts will take off. A State of Emergency has been declared in NSW – again, and in Victoria a State of Disaster has been declared for the first time ever. The Shoalhaven Area of the South Coast, where my own house is (now rented) is 90 per cent bushland and is officially on high high alert. Fires have reached the edge of the suburb adjacent to the suburb where mine is located. One would hope it was sufficiently urban – but nothing is assured! My tenant is prepared, watching alerts and her car is packed, ready to leave. In 2001 a fast moving fire unexpectedly went through our Museum grounds in another Shoalhaven Village, and through the village to the sea front, so I know that anything his possible.
Fleeing Mogo, New South Wales, Australia
Even here in suburban Canberra we are worried and making plans – we are officially in a State of Alert. The city of approximately 500,000 people and the seat of Australian government (colloquially known as “the bush capital”), is surrounded by tall, eucalyptus covered hills. Canberra itself is very very dry. The only green grass is on top of Parliament House – parks and verges are crisp and golden. There are large areas of trees – a lot of them very flammable trees. Right now there are no immediately threatening fires, but we are watching fires coming up from the south west. It has happened before I moved here that a fire erupted and moved very quickly, wiping out several suburbs. In preparation for the horror day tomorrow – 42 degrees predicted – our fire services that have been out fighting fires in the Snowy Mountain area have been brought back to Canberra. There is a siren going past right now and I am on the alert!
All of this has a political dimension. We have a party in power with a very conservative group dominant. They choose to see all talk of climate change as a Greens’ plot to thwart big business, and the coal industry in particular. They blame the Greens for the fires by the preventing the all important pre-fire season back burning – something the fire services themselves have vehemently contradicted. The line taken by the prime minister about the fires is that this is really business as usual for Australia – that we have always had fires, nothing to worry about, services in place, and so on.
Meanwhile fire service chiefs met with the PM before the season and gave clear warnings. He took a badly timed holiday in Hawaii with his family just as the fire season erupted and he has had trouble catching up with the changing mood of the country ever since. Yesterday, in the small town of Cobargo on the NSW Coast, which lost much of its historic main street, houses and lives, he was heckled and people refused to shake his hand.
Yet, as one commentator said yesterday, he is stuck. Even if he was personally able to modify his stance, it would have little effect unless the dominant very conservative group in his party did the same.
We have only just got through the first month of summer – just at the beginning of bushfire season. The fires are not only in NSW and Victoria – they are also burning in West Australia, South Australia, Tasmania and across the Nullabor, cutting one side of Australia from the other. I heard that the area burnt to date was larger than the size of Holland. So much of the burnt land is National Park land, including the Wollemi National Park where an extraordinary fossil remnant tree, the Wollemi Pine, was discovered just a few years ago. I have no idea how this tree has fared but it is catastrophic for so much flora and fauna. Fire may be natural for Australia – but never before on this scale. It is truly frightening.
Dorian gave us a serious reality check, proving rural PEI isn’t prepared for big storms
By Michelle M Arsenault
Michelle M Arsenault is a prolific Cape Wolfe writer of erotic thrillers with edgy, political overtones. Her 12th book, The Devil And His Legacy, recently hit bookstands everywhere.
A few years ago there was a terrible storm in western PEI. We had no power. We had no landlines. Data for our phones was non-existent and, to top it all off, our cell reception was so poor that even if we had to make a call chances are it wouldn’t have went through. One neighbor commented on how he and his family had just left a Third World country only to come back to a cold house, no phone, no power and when they contacted Maritime Electric, no answers.
This is the reality of living in rural PEI.
Having said that, even in the best conditions our ‘high speed’ internet definitely doesn’t match the internet speed enjoyed by urban dwellers. Having lived most of my adult life in various cities in this country I can honestly say my expectations are pretty high considering the rates are the same.
Cell reception is also poor to terrible regardless of the weather. It’s almost impossible to have a call from my house that doesn’t involve the other party cutting me off mid-sentence with, ‘I can’t hear you, you’re cutting out!’ while other times the call just disconnects completely. I’ve actually made more than one complaint to my provider about this issue, pointing out that in poor weather or if there were an accident it’s pretty frightening to not be able to rely on your phone even working. (Note that the price is also the same in urban and rural areas).
So let’s just throw another problem in the mix, since we’re on a roll. When you live in rural areas a snowstorm can be much more stressful than it is in the city. I know. I’ve lived in both places.
In the city it storms, it’s over, the plows are out, life continues.
This Stanley Bridge car was almost completely covered after a fierce snowstorm a couple of years ago.
In the country a storm means you may not get out quite as fast because the plows haven’t reached your area. Also, depending on where you are on PEI, drifting can limit visibility and make the snow plow operator’s job redundant. And what if the power goes out? Do you have a generator? If you have your own pump did you happen to run off water in advance? If you have a generator do you have gas for it?
My biggest concern involves seniors. One lady I often talk to at work was recently commenting about how she has a great deal of concern for her father when it storms. He’s elderly and lives alone and has no heat when the power goes out. He’s also on medication. When the phone lines go down he has no way of communicating. Chances are slim he has plans to get the latest iPhone at this point in the game, and if he did he wouldn’t have reception anyway.
Kensington’s Frosty Treat was buried under a towering mound of snow several years ago during a record-shattering winter.
After our recent brush with Dorian my fears became stronger. Not to mention the terrible winter we had a few years ago that reduced most of our local roads down to one, very narrow lane. What if there had been an emergency? Could firetrucks and ambulances even get through some of these frighteningly small passages? As for the hurricane, I think many areas in the maritimes were given a stern reality check – that we certainly are not prepared if anything very serious ever hits us. We’ve seen it in other places in the world and said, ‘Those poor people!’ But has it ever occurred to anyone that one day those ‘poor people’ might be us?
Back on the home front, our power randomly went out again a few days ago. I decided that next year I would start recording times and dates when we have power outages. Not to mention reasons. In this past year there have been so many outages that when I mentioned this recent one to a coworker yesterday, he turned to me and said, “Again? Your power is always out!” When I asked a friend, who I grew up with in this area (and currently lives here again), if we experienced this many outages when we were kids, she said, “You know, I really don’t think we did.”
I thought technology was supposed to improve things but yet here we are on the edge of 2020 and I’m not so sure.
A Rattenbury Road man clearing snow from his driveway.
After Dorian, I commented on how it would be nice if there was a way Maritime Electric and other essential services could contact residents to let them know what is going on. A text message, perhaps, since that seems to be the only thing that works during these terrible conditions. Just a little something that says, Yes, we know your power is off and currently we have X amount of crews out including X amount in western PEI, X amount in central…. You get the idea. Some information and maybe some compassion. I think most people understand that crews are doing the best they can to fix things, but from our perspective we’re just worried that we will lose everything in our freezer while turning into popsicles ourselves.
I understand that some things can’t be prepared for because we just never know what is around the corner. However, when living in rural PEI has limitations in the best conditions, how are we supposed to weather the worst ones?
Will Cavendish have its own Citizens on Patrol program?
Meeting to gauge interest slated for mid-January
By Jim Brown
It’s hard to imagine a more enchanted part of the country than the home of Anne of Green Gables – the Resort Municipality of Cavendish.
But residents are increasingly anxious their innocence is under assault. And they have good reason for that apprehension.
Cottages have been broken into and in some cases the intruder has lingered for days. Other crimes are also occurring, many in the off-season when the Resort Municipality is sparsely populated.
Chris Robinson wants to know if residents care enough to do something about the crime that is gradually seeping into the community. Chris, a councillor with the Resort Municipality of Cavendish, who chairs the emergency services committee, would like to start a Citizens on Patrol (COP) group in this beloved haunt of tourists everywhere.
“We are planning an evening meeting in mid-January in order to get public input regarding a local Citizens on Patrol program,” he said.
According to an earlier survey 90 per cent of residents believe Cavendish should develop its own COP program. The survey also found 80 per cent of Cavendish residents are concerned about theft, break-ins and minor crime in the area.
“The Neighbourhood Watch volunteer program would be co-ordinated by the RCMP, similar to other existing programs in Stratford and Cornwall,” said Chris.
“This activity is intended to discourage potential petty crime, by providing an increased, watchful presence, with volunteers linked to the RCMP via radio.”
He went on to say suspicious activity will be observed and recorded, but without directly engaging suspects.
Anyone interested in being part of such a program is encouraged fill out a short online survey at https://www.surveymonkey.com/r/CWTSSQX
Cavendish Citizens on Patrol Survey
To better understand local Cavendish residents’ wishes regarding the possible development of a volunteer Citizens on Patrol Program, please answer each of the following questions by selecting the most appropriate response.
https://www.surveymonkey.com/
Anyone wishing to attend the January meeting is encouraged to contact him directly by email at chris.cavendishpei@gmail.comto get their official invitation and background information.
His proposal was discussed at the Resort Municipality’s monthly council meeting on Dec 9 and accepted. It is expected RCMP will also attend the one hour meeting to offer their expertise.
Fyfe family finally gets new home, replacing the historic farmhouse lost to fire last winter
Story and photos by Jim Brown
There was a stir of excitement in Stanley Bridge on Nov 22 when the Fyfe family’s new home was delivered to their homestead on St Mary’s Road.
The beautiful home, transported by Waugh’s Construction, came nine months after their farmhouse was destroyed in a fire.
Karen and Alfred Fyfe, their daughter Michelle and Michelle’s fiancé Kristen Rochford were lucky to escape from their 190-year-old farmhouse when it caught fire on Feb 20.
The historic farmhouse was older than Confederation but was reduced to ashes in minutes.
On Nov 22 they finally got to see their new home, hoisted from a large flatbed trailer onto its foundation by Tim’s Crane Service of Charlottetown.
The three-bedroom, two bathroom home, with a porch and a large living space, was purchased from PEI Low Energy Homes. The energy efficient home was constructed in Hangar 9 in Slemon Park. Michelle said there is a big demand for the company’s homes and she’s heard they were booked until spring, 2021.
Even with the delivery and installation their wait isn’t quite over yet, said Michelle.
“As far as a move-in date for us, it’s a waiting game now as we need power and water and a septic hook up.”
Michelle said the community has been very supportive.
Thanks to their neighbours’ generosity Michelle and Kristen were able to continue working on the family farm, which was largely spared by the fire.
In the weeks and months since the blaze Michelle and Kristen were able to find lodging from generous neighbours Leslie MacKay and Frances Coburn. But they were happy to finally get a new home to call their own.
He’s rolling up his sleeves to save a Hunter River landmark
By Jim Brown
One of Hunter River’s most celebrated, and neglected, landmarks is getting a new lease on life.
For the past couple of weeks Kris Taylor, owner of The Harmony House Theatre with his wife Melanie, has been busy tearing up the inside of the former St Mary’s of the People Church in a bid to preserve a big part of Hunter River’s history.
The church was decommissioned more than a decade ago and later acquired by a succession of owners, the last one an Ontario buyer.
Nobody could decide what to do with it and so it continued its decline.
That’s when Kris stepped in and bought the former church through an Island realtor.
“I’ve lived here my whole life and I just couldn’t imagine driving over that hill and seeing this thing gone,” he said.
“It’s a heritage building. Obviously we have to take the steeples off and that kind of thing, but the bones of the building will stay,” said Kris.
“I want to save it. It’s a great asset to the community. I still think it’s got a lot of life in it.”
It’s his building now and he isn’t quite sure what he will do with it after he completes the necessary renovations.
But in the meantime, it won’t fall into further disrepair.
“I was in the first time over the last year trying to see what was going on. The previous owner let me in and we talked about things,” said Kris.
“The pews were gone, there’s no records, it’s basically an empty building. This is all a fake ceiling too. Once this comes out, it’s 60 feet in the air.”
He said one of the possibilities he’s considering is converting the building to apartments, but he isn’t ready to make that commitment yet.
“Everybody knows we have a housing crisis on PEI so whether or not this can be turned into apartments, we’ll find out.”
In any case it will take roughly two years of hard work to get everything done.
In the meantime in the weeks and months ahead, he’s on his own.
After that he will bring workers in to accelerate the renovations.
This is not exactly new ground for Kris and his wife Melanie and their family.
They converted the decommissioned Hunter River United Church (built in 1846) into the popular Harmony House Theatre.
The family has a deep connection to the former Hunter River United Church, with Kris and his wife married there and three of their four children baptized in the church.
Melanie described her husband’s devotion to the former United Church in an essay posted to the Harmony House Theatre’s website.
“He (Kris) pays such close attention to detail with every choice in building materials and always has his eyes and ears peeled for must the right beam and structure that he thinks will enhance his ‘work of art’. Kris is an experienced home builder, pharmacist (and) musician…and an artist who likes to paint using oils on canvas.”
Kris estimates by the time the work is completed on the former St Mary’s of the People Church he will have sunk $500,000 and perhaps more into the renovations.
But this isn’t something he isn’t used to.
“The doctor’s office on the corner was a huge project as well. We had to get a moving company in to move it 30 feet from the corner so we could have better lines of sight at the Stop sign, and that was the only way to save that building.”
In the St Mary’s of the People project he’s working with roughly 4,000 sq feet on the main floor and there’s also a 19-foot ceiling and “a huge attic…so there’s an immense amount of space in here.”
Kris says he doesn’t have a strict timetable.
“This building is going to take a lot of money. For me anything I’ve ever done, construction wise, has not been on a clock. It’s been what does the building need and how long is it going to take to do it right and economically?”
And it wouldn’t be a surprise to many if this wasn’t his last project in Hunter River.
After five decades, aquarium closes in Stanley Bridge
Too much fresh water in the wells, too many restrictions on fish species
By Jim Brown
For the first time since it opened in 1971, under previous owners Elmer and Hilda Fyfe, Stanley Bridge does not have an aquarium for tourists to visit.
Carr’s Oyster Bar, where the Marine Aquarium is based, has several dry tanks and no fish to swim in them.
The aquarium was shut down at the end of September, as is done every year at the end of the tourist season. But this time it won’t re-open.
“Every year we apply for our license, there’s more and more restrictions on the fish we can hold,” said Phyllis Carr, owner of Carr’s Oyster Bar, which is celebrating its 20th season in business.
A special license from the Department of Fisheries is needed to stock the tanks.
“It’s getting to the point where it’s too complicated to apply for the license to carry fish that are going to be interesting for display,” said Phyllis.
“We used to have harbor seals, we used to have wolffish and ling, but now there are so many restrictions that there are fewer and fewer fish we’re allowed to hold.”
At its height the aquarium had 12 tanks filled with fish, but the number of tanks had dwindled to just four in recent years.
“This year we did have cod, we did have flatfish or American plaice. We had rock eels and an (American) eel,” she said.
The DFO licensing requirements are getting tighter every year because fish species she used to carry are under increasing threat.
Also, a private salt water well drawing water from New London Bay and used to fill the tanks has become ‘too fresh’ to hold fish without hurting their health.
“Maybe we’re getting more fresh water running from somewhere. It was up until the last couple of years a really good salt water well but it’s definitely changing. And one of the fish companies who tried to drill another salt water well right next to us came out too fresh (also). And that was for a fish plant,” she said.
Could it be something happening in the environment, perhaps?
“We don’t really know why,” added Phyllis, adding they’ve had problems with their pump, which was breaking down.
“We put our pump down three times and we don’t know what’s stopping it from working, whether there’s something coming in from through the lines that’s causing it to break down.”
The aquarium has lost its allure for several years now due to DFO restrictions.
Fortunately, the Manor of Birds next to the aquarium has been growing in popularity.
“When people come in here and realize that we have 750 mounted birds back there they can’t believe it. It’s one of the largest collections in the world and it’s not being focused on enough. That’s something we have to improve on,” said Phyllis.
“Most of them come out amazed there’s that many in there. There’s probably one other place in the world with a collection that size.”
In addition to birds, Carr’s also has dozens of stuffed large animals including bears, cougers, white-tailed deer, coyotes and foxes, as well as 14 cases filled with mounted butterflies from around the world.
On the day of the interview an entire busload of cruise ship passengers visited the gift shop and wildlife rooms.
Phyllis feels a twinge of sadness about the aquarium, originally stocked with fish by legendary local angler Tommy Gallant, who was her dad. Tommy Gallant passed away several years ago.
“When I started he was getting the fish for us. My uncle Leonard worked here, my brothers worked here, looking after the seals back in the day and my kids grew up with this place and the aquarium – their whole life. They were involved with the seals and the fish, putting them in the water and even my grandson (was involved). I have a picture of him helping dad take the fish out of the back of the truck and put them in the tanks,” said Phyllis
.
“Its sad for me and for everyone in the family.”
Click on an image to view full images in a lightbox
You may not recognize the Resort Municipality in two decades
By Jim Brown
In 2016, the most recent year for which Statistics Canada figures are available, the Resort Municipality of Cavendish experienced a big surge in population, with the enchanted tourist destination growing by an astonishing 23 per cent. That vastly outpaced the provincial growth rate of 1.93 per cent.
It’s probably a safe bet to assume population growth was at least in the double digit range for 2018 and 2019.
Still, there were just 350 private dwellings in Cavendish in 2016 and 328 people living in them. Of the 350 private dwellings only 39 per cent were occupied by full-time residents.
At the swell of the tourist season the population balloons to more than 10,000, largely due to a flood of seasonal residents.
Residents in the Resort Municipality also tend to be older and richer, with a much higher percentage of households earning six figure incomes than the rest of the province. The Resort Municipality leads in six of the eight highest earning income categories, starting from $40,000.
Another somewhat startling statistic is that the Resort Municipality has a much more transient population, according to Statistics Canada information.
Approximately a third of full-time residents have moved to the Resort Municipality over the past five years – coming largely from outside PEI.
With so much change going on what will the Resort Municipality of Cavendish look like in 20 years? Will someone living today even recognize it if they were transported two decades into the future?
A strategic planning process is underway – called Our Next 20 Years – and although it has mostly flown under the radar, it can’t help but be controversial at some point in the near future.
Emily Brooks
Ian Watson
At a public information session on Oct 10 fewer than 20 participants, led by consultants Emily Brooks and Ian Watson, grappled with some of the tough decisions that will have to be made – and long before the 20 years is up.
“You can never know if something is coming right at you. You can envision it all you want,” said one participant, Resort Municipality councillor Arnold Smith.
“When you look ahead for the long term you’ve got coastal erosion, you’ve got transportation (challenges) and you’ve got infrastructure (with sewer and water services),” he said.
“Where is the next group of people coming from? Because the people who came to Cavendish years ago…all wanted Anne and they all wanted the lobster suppers and they had these preconceived notions.”
People arriving now and into the future may not share those values, and may not be aware of the community’s history and culture.
A few years ago everyone thought the Resort Municipality would be dotted from one end to another with wind turbines, and now there is a NIMBY-style backlash against them.
Camping in the PEI National Park, for instance, has been transformed recently with cottage style tents called “Tentics” that are permanent looking A-frame buildings with wooden floors that can be disassembled like tents.
Things can happen in an instant said one participant, noting Hurricane Dorian destroyed 80 per cent of trees in the national park in less than a day.
At the same time one Resort Municipality councillor, George Clark-Dunning, said changing bylaws and issuing building permits for new motels and gas bars can take a long time.
You need a plan, a back-up plan in case that doesn’t work out and likely a back-up plan for the back-up plan. And still change can throw a lot of that planning out the window.
How do you prepare for washouts, for the loss of valuable ocean front property when waters rise as a result of climate change? asked Clark-Dunning.
If the Gulf Shore Road completely disintegrates and washes into the ocean, how do people get to their homes, since much of the land is owned by Parks Canada?
A growing trend involves building apartment buildings for people who want to downsize, especially seniors.
Clark-Dunning pointed to developer Jason Peters beautiful, well-maintained building in North Rustico that caters to older people who have downsized their lives, including those who have moved here from far afield.
“Why aren’t any of those buildings in Cavendish?” he asked.
He got some pushback, however.
One older resident said many people who moved to Cavendish came for the rural, laid-back lifestyle and the uncongested space.
“I think just by the nature of living in a community that has so much – you have Parks Canada, you have people coming from all over the world – you haven’t had this fixed, unchanging place for many, many generations,” said Emily Brooks.
“It’s always been evolving, based on your own actions and the things that have happened that you didn’t foresee. I actually think that is an incredible place to be when you’re thinking about the future. I think you are fortunate to have that framework for understanding.”
Arnold Smith observed just a few years ago warming centres were not even in the conversation, since homes often had a second source of heat such as a wood stove.
Those stoves were reliable and always a good source of heat in emergencies, but now electricity has supplanted wood stoves and when the electricity is disrupted by a storm people are left in the lurch unless they have a generator or can get to a warming centre.
Monster storm takes a heavy toll
Photos by Jim Brown
At the time these photos were posted (Wednesday, Sept 11, four days after Hurricane Dorian arrived) thousands of Islanders, including many in the Stanley Bridge, New London, Kensington, Hunter River, Cavendish and North Rustico area, were still without power. Fortunately, it appears no Islanders were killed or injured.
It will be left for historians and meteorologists to determine if Hurricane Dorian, which at its peak blasted parts of Island with wind gusts of over 160 km an hour, will be remembered as the most devastating storm ever to hit PEI. But it’s safe to say nobody escaped its fury, with homes, trees, bridges, barns, businesses and crops everywhere damaged and destroyed by water and wind. And there is a grim warning for all of us – as the waters off our shores get warmer due to the effects of climate change, we can only expect storms such as Hurricane Dorian, and perhaps even worse ones, to strike more frequently.
"It was quite a loud bang" at 9.30 pm on the evening of Sept 8, says French River resident Kerry McDougall, joined by her dogs Finley and Riley. She and her husband were shocked to find an enormous poplar, more than 70 feet long, had crashed into a corner of their home, spreading its limbs like tentacles across much of the deck.
Japanese princess thrilled to visit home of Anne of Green Gables
Story and photos by Jim Brown
Japanese princess Takamado was in Cavendish Aug 28, the home of Anne of Green Gables, to officially open the Montgomery Park and to unveil a new statue dedicated to Anne’s creator, Lucy Maud Montgomery. Hundreds of people assembled for the special event, sheltered from the bright sun by a large tent. Her visit also celebrated Canada’s 90 years of diplomatic relations with Japan.
Guests at the park’s opening included PEI Lieut. Governor Antoinette Perry, Malpeque MP Wayne Easter, Island Senator Mike Duffy and Education and Climate Change Minister Brad Trivers, MLA for Rustico-Emerald.
Princess Takamado, international patron of the Lucy Maud Montgomery Institute, was greeted with loud applause as she rose to speak.
“The novels of Miss Montgomery have managed to capture the imagination of so many people around the world and Anne of Green Gables has continued to give hope and encouragement to many.
“It’s universal appeal has bridged many cultural and linguistic differences over the years and today, when the world is subject to so much divisiveness, this homage to Lucy Maud Montgomery is most timely and relevant. I take this opportunity to thank PEI for the legendary Island hospitality with which you welcome visitors from Japan.”
Princess Takamado went on to say: “This is the 90th anniversary of our diplomatic relations, I think we may say that we differ physically Canada and Japan are indeed kindred spirits.”
Are we reaching the limits of growth in Cavendish?
Story and photos by Jim Brown
A stretch of North Rustico shoreline in early May.
Beautifully contoured farmland mingled with picturesque cottages, glistening ponds and streams, ocean-lapped beaches, inviting woods, emerald green golf courses, and a long list of attractions, restaurants and souvenir stores. It all blends together into a wholesome, family-friendly package that is the envy of tourist destinations everywhere. And, just after the last traces of snow have left and before the hordes of tourists have arrived, dozens of lobster boats hit the waters from the port of North Rustico for the start of the spring lobster fishery.
The wharf at Stanley Bridge at sunset.
A shark’s head poking from the roof of a Cavendish business. Should the resort municipality embrace its inner tackiness?
But it could have easily gone another way, perhaps turned into a Coney Island, “Shoot The Freak” show, with sweaty, leather-lunged barkers screaming at passerby to fire their paintguns at a costumed, heavily padded “Freak” dashing back and forth behind a chain fence and surrounded by graffiti blighted rubble.
There is a wonderful trippiness to much of Cavendish proper and the resort municipality, with business operators not quite sure what to think of what an incredible abundance of good fortune and good stewardship over several decades has brought them. Go big on Anne of Green Gables and the straw hats? Or maybe the Cavendish Beach Music Festival and the tens of thousands of country music fans, some of whom may not be sober for much of the three days of performances? Or maybe add another half dozen or so naturalist resorts to the one tucked down a rarely travelled side road, away from prying eyes? Maybe go wall-to-wall Niagara Falls with the tackiness and the chintz and slot machines and the not-quite-ready-for-Vegas acts?
Tens of thousands of country music lovers descend on the Cavendish Beach Music Festival grounds every summer.
What to make of the Resort Municipality of Stanley Bridge, Hope River, Bayview, Cavendish and North Rustico?
If you are among the 50 or so businesspeople and officials from all three levels of government attending the spring general meeting of Tourism Cavendish Beach Inc, you want the good times and years of record visits to roll on. But there is that niggling worry about the implications of unrestrained growth.
If you attended the meeting at the Cavendish Destination Centre on May 7 you heard about the troubling shortages of cooks and cleaners as well as other seasonal workers. You likely wouldn’t have been reassured by what you heard from guest speakers who basically warned those shortages will not ease any time soon.
An immigration official from Charlottetown confirmed what many nodding business owners already knew – it can cost upwards of $1,000 in fees and other expenses to hire temporary foreign workers.
That same immigration official said at any one time one billion people around the world were considering moving to Canada. Not that it helps tourist operators desperate for help in Canada’s smallest province.
You may have also have heard Canada, like many other industrialized countries, is getting older and there are fewer young folks around to pay the taxes that will sustain the country’s comprehensive social welfare system. Right now there are four workers for every retiree, but by 2030 that number will fall to just two. Canada’s low birthrate places this country 81st in the world in terms of fertility and that’s not a good place to be.
Where are the families with the screaming kids wanting to go to the Sandspit or the Cavendish Tourist Mart or that place that sells beavertails going to come from in the near future, if not Canada? Let’s hope worldwide travel continues to grow at a record rate and that Ottawa is smart enough to boost immigration numbers.
As an observer it was fascinating watching the polite pushback granting agency officials got from some tourist operators when they suggested ways to extend the summer tourism season into the fall, winter and early spring.
It’s easily to imagine a few dozen eyebrows going up at the same time.
Let us count the ways that could be problematic, including boosting advertising budgets to chase potentially fewer people while incurring more costs to provide additional product, and did I mention the problems encountered hiring workers?
There was something else that garnered a fair bit of discussion. The strategy of leaning on “travel influencers” to generate buzz about a locale. Newspapers and magazines, though still important in drawing visitors, are so late 20th century.
That guy or gal with flak jacket, press badge and camera as long as your arm is no longer ‘King of the Walk’.
Now you got kids who can draw hundreds of thousands of eyeballs to a single post, even if it is littered with typos and grammatical errors.
I can just imagine members of the Khardashian family dropping a few words and images on their Twitter and Instagram feeds in a bid to steer a sizable chunk of their millions of followers to Cavendish.
And, considering there are 800 or more cottages in the resort municipality, do we really need any more? Do we really want to encourage massive new development that strains the community’s resources and changes everything we love about Cavendish?
It reminds me of that old expression from the Vietnam War era, “We had to destroy the village to save it.”
Cavendish beach (PEI National Park) in early fall.
At the spring session one speaker noted in Venice, Italy local residents were advised to stay indoors as much as possible during high season to avoid the huge crush of selfie-taking tourists trampling on everything in sight. Headlines blare about how tourism has “destroyed” Venice. One of the most beautiful cities in the world, steeped in history and culture, is rapidly depopulating. Venice’s population is less than a third of what it was in the early 1950s, with many residents fleeing to escape the suffocating tide of tourists. Real estate has soared in value, making it harder for people who actually call Venice home to find affordable housing, and things only got worse when cruise ships dropped anchor in Venice’s famous canals.
One of the world’s most famous cities was always sinking under relentless attack from the sea, but global warming and the tourist invasion haven’t helped.
Cavendish gets as many as 500,000 visitors during the summer even as its population swells from 250 full time residents to about 10,000 or so when seasonal residents, including Americans and mainland Canadians, return to their cottages. Imagine how truly wretched things would become if the resort municipality got even 10 per cent of the 28 million or so visitors Venice gets annually?
Would they also mount protests against the threatening hordes as Venetians have done?
Let’s hope it never comes to that.
Now I know exactly how Justin Trudeau feels
By Eleanor Hora, Stanley Bridge, PEI
I have a confession to make: I’m not the wonderful person I appear to be. The truth is, I’ve done some very bad things.
I don’t enjoy having to drag my skeletons out of the closet where they’ve been resting happily for decades, but I realize that it’s time to come clean. Who knows? One day I may decide to run for office, and it’s far better that I share my transgressions with the world today than to have Time Magazine do it for me just before my big election. We all know how disastrous it can be when that happens!
The truth is I can’t even count the number of times over the years that I dressed up as a ghost or a witch or an old woman or an old man for Halloween. I’m so sorry! I should have known at the time that it was wrong, but I didn’t. I hope it isn’t too late to undo the pain I caused by apologizing to all ghosts and witches and elderly cross-dressers whom I may have offended. I’m sorry!
Once, for a costume party, we cut a huge wind-up key out of cardboard, covered it with foil, and attached it to the back of my ex-husband’s shirt. His name is Ota, and our friends thought turning him into a Toy Ota was clever. I went as a mechanic, complete with stained overalls and a toolbox. I apologize to all Japanese car makers and auto mechanics we may have offended. My only excuse is that it was a different time and we didn’t know any better. I would never do such a thing today.
Shortly after that party, we visited Morocco. The heavily veiled women in their long burqas fascinated me so much that I bought a beautifully embroidered burqa to wear as a dressing gown. For our next costume party, I fashioned a veil from a matching scarf, put on the burqa, and went as an Arab woman. What can I say? I’m so ashamed!
I have a Japanese kimono, complete with traditional shoes and obi, hidden away in a drawer. They were given to me by a Japanese friend who smiled and took a photo after they had me put them on and model them, but I know now that her smile was just to hide the humiliation she felt, and I promise never to wear them again. Even in the privacy of my own home.
It gets worse, I’m afraid.
One year when I was teaching Grade 8, several of my students were fans of a hip-hop group called NWA (Niggaz wit Attitudes) and – I shudder to think of it – I borrowed my son’s Doc Martin boots and dressed for Halloween as TWA (Teacher with Attitude). I sincerely apologize to all people with attitude for my transgression. It was not my intention to offend my students and send them into therapy for the rest of their lives, and I’m sincerely sorry.
Thank you for listening. What a relief it’s been to confess my past insensitivities! Now I know exactly how Justin Trudeau feels.
The poor man’s judgement is almost as bad as mine used to be, but the way I see it, we’re going to be stuck with Mr. Dress-Up or Mini-Trump for prime minister next time around. Personally, I’d rather vote for Mr. Dress-Up.
Stanley Bridge fisherman says there’s no market for eels
By Jim Brown
Stanley Bridge commercial eel fisherman David Carr has been fishing eels for exactly 30 years and he says this is the first time the market has been completely shut down and he can’t put his 100-ft long net into the water.
An estimated 200 or so Island eel fishermen are affected.
“I’ve learned nobody wants eels. The market is flooded with product from Europe and here.”
Why the market is flooded with product when eel populations aren’t exactly robust is puzzling.
“It’s beyond me,” he said
.
Carr said there is just one buyer and he doesn’t want product. Period.
“If I don’t have a buyer I’m not going to fish.”
The yearly fee for an eel license is $30, with Carr’s income from the eel fishery approximately $6,000 for the season.
Carr, an oyster fisherman, earns the bulk of his income from the oyster fishery, but having the eel market closed with hurt his overall income significantly.
In any given year he and his fishing partner catch 12,000 to 14,000 pounds of eels and though the high end can be $7 a pound, they usually get $3 a pound.
Only farmer’s market of the season at SBC on Saturday, Aug 24
Come on in! See what $80,000 worth of renovations over the summer have accomplished at the Stanley Bridge Centre (former century-old United Church).
This Saturday, Aug 24, from 10 am to 2 pm, as many as 15 vendors will be showing off their crafts, food and other wares at the Stanley Bridge Centre’s only farmer’s market of the season.
Visitors will have a chance to inspect two new washrooms, a new accessible entrance, a gleaming new kitchen with brand new equipment and much, much more. And don’t forget your appetite for fresh produce and baked goods.
Century-old church pews available at Stanley Bridge Centre auction
By Jim Brown
The Stanley Bridge Centre is holding an auction shortly to raise funds to pay for $65,000 worth of renovations, to begin later this spring. Among the items up for grabs to sharp-eyed bidders are several century-old church pews and their cushions, in good condition. Anyone who wishes to donate items for the auction can reach the website editor at peijim@hotmail.com and they can also contact Don at 902-432-2485 or Clayton at 902-886-3360.
These pews and hundreds of other items are on offer at the Stanley Bridge Centre auction this spring.
Neighbours open their arms to Stanley Bridge family after devastating fire
History burned to ashes when historic farmhouse destroyed
Story and photos by Jim Brown
It was the day after a devastating fire claimed a nearly 200 year-old farmhouse in Stanley Bridge and smoke could still be seen curling skyward from its charred basement.
Flames were still flickering in Fyfe home’s charred basement a day after the fire.
On Thursday Feb 21, flames were flickering in the rubble while the home’s four residents were trying to pick up the pieces.
Michelle Fyfe, daughter of the home’s owners Alfred and Karen Fyfe, said she and her fiancé Kristen and her mom and dad had only seconds to fetch everything of value from the home when the smoke was detected around 7:30 am, Feb 20.
The farmhouse had been in the Fyfe family since 1829 – six generations.
“We don’t really know what happened. All we know is that it started in the basement,” she said of the blaze firefighters ruled accidental.
“Dad was awake, mom was awake, and dad woke Kristen up. I was up but lying in bed, around 7:30 am.”
Smoke was filling the house as everyone rushed to get out, but Michelle and her family didn’t think the worst, yet.
“I think if we’d had known we were going to lose our home we would have taken the 45 seconds to grab something, anything. But we thought for sure it was just a flue fire and the fire department was going to come and get it out and we would be able to go back in, but that’s not the case,” said Michelle.
“I grabbed my purse and my cellphone, mom grabbed her purse and her cellphone, Kristen grabbed his cellphone and dad grabbed his cellphone. That’s it.”
The Fyfe family’s 190-year-old farmhouse was destroyed in a Feb 20 blaze but the farm and as many 40 cattle still need to be looked after.
It’s been a whirlwind ever since, but there was a very big silver lining.
The family has been blown away by the tremendous support they’ve received from their neighbours.
“We’ve got overwhelming support. This community is the best community to live in,” said Michelle, with a quiver in her voice.
“I want to say thank you to everyone who reached out. Food, clothes, offering to help anyway they can. The plumbers, the electricians, the firefighters, everyone just coming to offer us words of encouragement and support and saying we’ll get through this and that they were there to help us,” said Michelle.
“For 30 years this has been home,” she said.
What will be missed most of the many, many possessions that were lost to the fire?
“There’s years and years of history, years of photos and antiques and quilts made by my dad’s mom and fine china…When we were at the Red Cross yesterday they asked us if we wanted a quilt and it reminded me that my grandmother made me a quilt when I was born and now it’s gone.”
One thing she feels lucky to have preserved from the fire are several photos of her historic farmhouse.
“I loved to take photos of the home. I have photos on my phone which I’m sure we’ll get printed.”
Michelle Fyfe, with the family dog. Michelle, her fiancé Kristen and her parents, Alfred and Karen, along with the dog and a cat, all escaped, but nearly all of their possessions were lost.
A beloved family dog and cat also escaped.
“The cat landed here one day in a snowstorm and we took her in. She was pretty shy yesterday. She spent the day in the back of the car, and then when we got to where we were going for the night she hid under the bed until I climbed into the bed and then she curled up and slept with us all night.”
Michelle and her family stayed at a home in the area, generously made available to them.
They plan to spend some time at Leslie MacKay’s, which is almost next door, allowing them to continue their daily work routine. The house may have been destroyed but the farm survived and needs tending.
“Even if there is a major snowstorm we’ll still be able to get to the cows and be here if the plumber, or insurance agents drop by. Cows still need to be fed,” she said.
The family plans to rebuild the home, once they have the insurance settled.
“I don’t think there’s a thought of not rebuilding. The farm is here, we need a home to live in,” said Michelle.
“We spoke to an insurance agent yesterday. He was out and dropped off the papers that we needed to get the ball rolling. So once we all sit down and have a minute to think and talk to each other and figure out what we want to do, then we’ll start moving forward.”
North Rustico and surrounding communities need a new arena
By Jim Brown
The old barn, the rink, the arena.
Whatever name it goes by, it is the lifeblood of just about every small community in Canada, including North Rustico.
On Wednesday, Jan 30, residents from throughout the North Shore and central PEI will get a glimpse of the possible future of the North Star Arena, which could include the arena’s replacement with a new multipurpose facility, featuring a new gym and indoor walking track, according to North Star Arena manager David Whitlock.
“Our arena is one of the busiest rural arenas on PEI. We rent in the vicinity of 49-52 hours per week, which is very high ice usage,” he said.
“We are pretty much booked all season. The only arenas that would be busier than ours are city arenas.”
No immediate structural work needs to be done, but that could all change in the next two to five years as the arena continues to age. Meanwhile, the ice surface is not regulation size and that is hampering its potential.
“At the end of the day if you fix up an old arena you still have the same old arena when you’re finished, with an ice surface that is not regulation, as well as other outdated parts,” stated Mr Whitlock.
He went on to say the plant that keeps the ice currently works well, “but it is old and outdated…My opinion is this is the time to start looking at building a new facility for the area and a new wellness facility could be a new hub for all surrounding communities to benefit from and enjoy.”
The Jan 30 public meeting will be held at 7:30 pm at the North Rustico Lions Club (upstairs). Residents from surrounding communities are invited
Visiting Spanish couple disappointed Green Gables House closed, surrounded by construction
By Jim Brown
Most Islanders know nearly everything tourism related, including attractions featuring PEI’s most famous redhead, are closed after the leaves have fallen and snow is on the ground.
But not a Spanish husband and wife, who arrived by taxi from Charlottetown at the Green Gables House in Cavendish in late November, only to find heavy construction surrounding it and no way to go inside.
“People go on vacation any time of the year and they leave somewhere sunny and they figure it’s going to be the same thing when they get to (their destination),” said Arnold Smith, a long-time tourist operator.
He’s also a member of the Resort Municipality’s planning board, which met on Dec 5.
“People plan vacations and it’s a lifetime dream and they’ve retired and off they go. Some of them are fortunate enough to come here in the summer and do a little extra planning and other people have just saved up the amount of money it’s going to cost them to get here and they’ve booked the flight at a little cheaper (price)…They assume because the Taj Mahal is open year year round (and) Big Ben and Niagara Falls, that other things are open year round too.”
To loud gasps from planning board members CAO Brenda MacDonald described the couple’s ordeal. They had eventually arrived at the Visitor Information Centre, where Brenda’s office is.
“They didn’t realize that wherever they stayed in Charlottetown, they (were told) the house was open,” she said.
The Parks Canada website wasn’t very clear on the attraction’s hours of operation.
“They were so frustrated, I was just trying to help,” she said.
Brenda said she drove them to a coffee shop in North Rustico, giving them a short tour, for which they were very appreciative since they were hungry and had nowhere to stay until the taxi arrived from Charlottetown (about a 40 minute drive).
Board members said efforts should be made to contact taxi companies, to make sure they knew the lack of places foreign visitors could go to in the winter months when everything is closed up.
This sort of thing happens every year and it can be very distressing to visitors expecting attractions to be open, said Brenda.
“They were happy and thankful, but it was just a bad situation because they had come specifically to see Green Gables House.”
She and the couple tried to reach Green Gables by phone but kept getting an answering machine.
There is definitely much more than can be done to reduce the chance of that sort of thing happening in the future, including better signage, greater awareness among taxi drivers and more up to date websites and guidebooks, said planning board members.
New twists in used car sales lot application saga
Dispute heading to IRAC public hearing
Story and photos by Jim Brown
It’s never over until it’s really, really over.
And even then it may not be over.
Bill Drost’s bid to open a used car sales lot in Stanley Bridge after its initial rejection by the Resort Municipality in July will now go to a public hearing in front of the Island Regulatory and Appeals Commission (IRAC). He decided to go the public hearing route on Oct 26.
Mr Drost didn’t take “No” for an answer when his application was given a thumbs down back in the summer.
A lot has happened since, including getting acclaimed to the same council that had rejected his application.
“I spent many years in government at the deputy minister level and other senior executive levels,” said Mr Drost.
He was always interested in public service, so he submitted his name.
Mr Drost said he could have opted to rely just on his written submission to IRAC to make his case. The municipality also made a written submission.
“For four months now I’ve been suffering financially because of a very arbitrary short-sighted decision by council,” he said.
“I live in this municipality and I think this should be a good place to do business and I want to continue to do business and at the end of the day they may drive me out of the municipality and force me to go some place else,” said Mr Drost.
The Resort Municipality “should be business friendly, and not just for tourism business but every type of business,” he said.
Mr Drost says he’s got about 20 cars on a lot near the Stanley Bridge roundabout, but he can’t sell them.
It’s basically just a parking lot, he said.
But he hasn’t given up on his dream.
“I submitted my case and the municipality submitted their case for the denial of my development permit and then we submitted rebuttal statements to rebut each other’s positions.”
And now, another twist.
“I went one step further and made a suggestion to IRAC that we have a thorough examination of past development permits that have been given out by the municipality for the last three years.”
“It’s not a great number…I would suggest a few dozen, likely…I just wanted to see the minutes of the planning committee (over three years).”
The Resort Municipality’s mayor, Matthew Jelley, says he couldn’t comment on Mr Drost’s IRAC appeal because it was before “an adjudicated body”.
Mr Jelley went on to say he didn’t think the appeal would hurt council’s operation, since differences of opinion will happen from time to time among councillors.
As long as conflict of interest regulations are followed it shouldn’t be an issue, he said.
Mr Jelley also noted differences of opinion over development issues can arise with he, or other councilors and have in the past.
As long as the appropriate regulations about not participating in the decision making process are followed, there shouldn’t be any problems, he said.
My friend was raped at 18 and the justice system only made things worse
By Michelle M Arsenault
Michelle M Arsenault is a prolific Cape Wolfe writer of erotic thrillers with edgy, political overtones. Her 10th book, And the Devil Will Laugh, has just been released. She is also the author of a popular blog which can be reached at https://mimaonfire.blogspot.com/
A close friend of mine was raped at 18. She wasn’t raped at a college party or after a drunken escapade, nor did it happen because she was dressed ‘slutty’ or because she hung around the wrong people. It happened because she was always told to trust the police; and so, when an on duty officer stopped his car to offer her a drive home, she felt safe accepting. This was her first mistake.
After driving her into a secluded area (this was rural NB after all) he raped her. Considering the officer was in the position of power, clearly that put her at an immediate disadvantage. She followed all the rules in reporting the assault but it was swept under the rug. The cop was shoved off to another community with no charges, and as a result my friend was sent a clear message; you don’t matter.
This is the same message many women have received in various situations over the years. Whether it’s the recent case with Dr. Christine Blasey Ford in the US or many other women who’ve reported assaults only to be abused by not only the perpetrator but also the system; it’s not a new story. Unfortunately, even though it’s 2018, it still appears nothing has changed from when my friend was raped 20 years ago.
Although this isn’t always the case, as a woman I often feel that if needed the police won’t be on my side. In fact, if I am victimized, I really have no faith calling the cops will help me. They’ll show up, ask a few questions and chances are that’s where everything will end. I’ve heard too many stories from other women who have reassured me of this belief; from women who were in abusive situations to women who were stalked, threatened and one of which was eventually killed, with little or no help from the police. I recently heard one story where the female officer accused the woman involved in a domestic situation of being of fault. Not to say that women are always innocent victims but it makes me feel that my odds of being taken seriously are slim.
My friend was never the same after that day. She suffered from self-esteem issues, made irrational and sometimes self-destructive decisions and not surprisingly, had a great deal of distrust for authority. Years later, she was assaulted again by an acquaintance who asked for a drive home. She briefly – very briefly – considered going to the police but finally decided against it. In her mind, it was the people who were supposed to protect her in the first place who lost her trust. The sad part is that when I tell this story to most women, they aren’t surprised.
Fierce winds, power challenges fail to disrupt Christmas Craft Fair
Some thoughts on Callbeck, Island PCs, Brett Kavanagh and the ugly side of politics
By Mike Duffy
Senator Mike Duffy
My wife says “this is better than any soap opera on TV!” By “this” she is, of course, referring to the slow motion train wreck unfolding in Washington.
The ugly, nasty side of politics is on full display, as the two sides arm-wrestle over abortion. They don’t make direct reference to it, but abortion is really what the Kavanaugh nomination fight is all about.
Ever since the Roe v. Wade decision, when the US Supreme Court opened the door to abortion, pro-life people have been dreaming of the day when a conservative majority on America’s highest court would overturn Roe and turn back the clock.
That’s why American pro-choice forces have put so much money and effort into trying to block the nomination of a conservative Roman Catholic judge. Brett Kavanaugh told US senators Roe v Wade is “settled law”, that means if confirmed he’s not going to vote to overturn it. But the pro-choice people aren’t buying. They don’t trust him.
We have had the same debate here on PEI about the availability of abortions for Island women. For decades successive Island governments have tried to avoid dealing directly with the issue, hoping it will quietly go away.
I am not going to wade into that minefield today, but instead want to address another big issue raised by the Kavanaugh hearing: Why would anyone go into public service when their entire life will be put under a microscope, and can be so easily and unfairly destroyed?
Could that be why none of the MLAs in the PC caucus plan to seek their party’s leadership?
At the rate we are going, it will be difficult to find bright, talented people to serve in politics or any other aspect of public life.
Which brings me to this weekend, and the installation of Hon. Catherine Callbeck as Chancellor of the University of Prince Edward Island.
After a successful career in business, and serving with distinction as Premier, MP and as a Senator, Ms. Callbeck would be entitled to say, “I’ve met my obligation for public service.” But no, like the great Islander she is, Ms. Callbeck has once again answered the call to serve at UPEI. (She studied business at Mount Allison University. One of her fellow students was John Bragg, Eastlink Cable, Oxford Frozen Foods etc.)
Ms. Callbeck’s background in, and deep knowledge of business and politics will be important to the continued success of our province’s university.
As chancellor, she follows business great Don McDougall, who brought the Blue Jays to Toronto, and whose optimism and boundless energy helped save Summerside after the CF base closure; and before him, Calgary oilman William E. “Bill” Andrew, who even with his great success in the oil patch, has never forgotten his alma mater.
UPEI has been fortunate to have a long list of distinguished chancellors, a who’s who of eminent Islanders who saw this public service as a way to give back to their home province.
As our economy continues to evolve, we will need our educational system to evolve with it. It will take strong, determined leadership.
Chancellor Catherine Callbeck will lead our university forward with confidence and vigor, just as she has led in every endeavor she has undertaken over the years.
Why can’t I get a treat at an ice cream stand after Labour Day?
By Michelle M Arsenault
Michelle M Arsenault is a prolific Cape Wolfe writer of erotic thrillers with edgy, political overtones. Her 10th book, And the Devil Will Laugh, has just been released. She is also the author of a popular blog which can be reached at https://mimaonfire.blogspot.com/
I recently had a few people say to me it was unfortunate all the ice cream stands on PEI seem to close as soon as September rolls around. It’s almost as if the unwritten rule ‘do not wear white after Labour Day’ on PEI extends to ‘do not have anything touristy open after the first week of September.’
It seems kind of shortsighted, considering we do have some tourists into the fall season. Furthermore, we also have local residents who might want to take advantage of the tourist scene when it’s less crowded, less hot and less busy. That might even include some of our neighbours in New Brunswick or Nova Scotia. It’s a crazy idea, I know, but I’m almost willing to bet that if that ice cream stand was open into the fall, they would have customers.
Of course, within reason – I’m not saying that everything should be open right to Christmas! However, why not experiment and go further into the season and see what happens?
I was recently at a local restaurant on its second last day of the season. The place was packed. I looked around and wondered what about that crowd suggested it was a good time to close the doors until next spring? How does this possibly make good business sense? What about the people working? Is it maybe just possible that these people would appreciate a couple more weeks of work for the season? Then again, are locals becoming too comfortable with only working the minimum to go on EI? I once had a relative say to me: “A person gets tired if they work year around.” Yes, I’m sure millions of people around the world are well aware of that fact.
Not only does closed doors in September suggest that the island is no longer open for business, it also closes the doors on Islanders. In fact, maybe what it is really saying is, “we were never opened for you in the first place”.
Empty parking lots surrounded by empty businesses in Cavendish on Sept 24. On many days in the summer parking lots throughout the Resort Municipality are jammed with cars.
Jim Brown photos
Lucky ticket wins this beautiful painting
Connie Morrison, a member of the Stanley Bridge Memorial Society’s (SBMS) board of directors, holds a beautiful painting of the Stanley Bridge wharf by acclaimed Margate artist and author Karen Slater. The SBMS is raffling off the painting, with tickets selling for $5 each or three for $10. They can be purchased on Wednesdays and Saturdays, from 9 am to 1 pm, beginning in July at the Stanley Bridge Centre. Money from the ticket sales will go towards needed renovations at the SBC.
Parliamentary teamwork in the era of Donald Trump
By Mike Duffy
Senator Mike Duffy
A year from now we’re expected to be heading to the polls in a federal general election, and we may even have a provincial vote at about the same time.
All to say the partisan rhetoric is going to amp up substantially. So before we get lost in the fog of partisanship, a tip of the ol’ cap to two political gentlemen, whom I know personally.
Last week James Aylward stepped down as leader of the Island’s PC Party. He’s a good, decent man who would have made a very good premier in the mold of Pat Binns – quietly competent.
But in the era of Donald Trump, being a nice, competent guy isn’t enough. You need something special to break through. It is good news that James will run for re-election. He’s been a great MLA for Stratford. We’ll see whom the Island Tories pick to fill James’ shoes as leader.
The polls suggest tough times for Joe Byrne and the New Democrats, but all lights are green for Peter Bevan Baker, Leader of the Green Party. Oh what a year awaits Island political fans!
Speaking of quiet, competent Island leaders, I was reminded last week during the Premier Doug Ford notwithstanding debate of the late Hon. J. Angus MacLean, a war hero who served as MP in the dual riding of Queens, and later as Premier of PEI. In 1982, Premier MacLean stood with Sterling Lyon of Manitoba and Alan Blakeney, the NDP Premier of Saskatchewan, in insisting that a notwithstanding clause be part of the Charter of Rights.
Premier Blakeney made an eloquent pitch for what he called “positive discrimination.” He said a Charter without the not-withstanding clause would open up Saskatchewan to Sunday shopping, strip clubs and porno books stores, all of which could be found just south of Saskatchewan in North Dakota. Looking back now 36 years later, how smart they were in their predictions of the future. It was another example of political teamwork involving leaders from various political parties.
Still with team work, a tip of the cap also goes to my federal colleague Hon. Wayne Easter, MP. He’s been elected MP for Malpeque for the last quarter-century. Last week I was reminded how he does it.
A young woman visiting from Ireland had run into problems getting her visa renewed. She contacted me through a mutual friend in Rustico.
I wrote the minister to explain her visa problem. My letter was probably one of dozens he gets every day, so I was settling in for a long wait. Then, while shopping at the Cavendish Tourist Mart, I bumped into Wayne Easter. I mentioned I was awaiting a response from the visa people. We agreed to exchange information, and within a few days, the file had been processed, and she had her visa renewal.
It might have happened anyway, but the team approach surely helped. The public wins when Island parliamentarians work together. That’s why they call it “public service.”
Thank you Wayne!
Cavendish resident Mike Duffy represents PEI in the Senate of Canada. Comments are welcome and can be forward by email to peijim@hotmail.com.
A surge of PNP investors over the past decade made PEI Canada’s fastest growing province
So now that the gold rush is over, what happens next?
By Mike Duffy – originally published September 16, 2018
Senator Mike Duffy
If there’s one subject – other than the weather – that Islanders like to grumble about, it’s the Provincial Nominee Program or PNP. Who got it, how much, and how can I get some of that “free money”.
In our area, some long-time tourist operators were able to retire because immigrant PNP investors were in the market to buy a tourist property. Understandably, they think the program is great.
Others complain the presence of the new rich investors hasn’t helped them. In fact, they say the program has driven up rents and house prices, making life more difficult for young Islanders who can’t compete with the big bucks coming from overseas.
The surge of PNP investors over the past decade made us the fastest growing province, and boosted our population above 150,000 for the first time in our history.
It is estimated that, over the years, the PNP program has delivered more than $500 million of new investment into the Island economy. That’s almost as much as the federal government sends to the provincial government every year.
Under the PNP program, off-shore investors were to move to PEI, and invest in a local business.
They were bringing cash, business expertise, and diversity to the Island culture. At least that was the theory.
At least 177 of the PNP investors never bothered to take up residence in PEI, preferring to grab their Canadian passport and forego their residency deposit. At more than $100,000 each, it’s not small change. Last year the province reported it is holding about $18 million in residency defaults. It’s a windfall.
And the windfall is not just for the provincial government. A select group of lawyers, agents and accountants got fabulously wealthy processing the PNP paperwork.
PC Opposition leader James Aylward was blunt when he told the CBC, “We were a bit of a laughingstock within the immigration community,” he said. “People weren’t taking us seriously, they were just seeing us as an easy way through” to getting a Canadian passport.
So now that the gold rush is over, what happens next? Who will replace these new Islanders?
Last week, chatting with visitors in Cavendish, and in the lineup at Richard’s in Covehead, we met two retired couples, one from Columbus, Ohio, the other from Hartford, Conn. Both were first-time visitors.
They were dazzled by the Island scenery, by our tranquil way of life, (the rush of the summer season had just ended), to say nothing of the 30 per cent premium they were getting for their US dollars.
Both couples had questions about immigration rules, taxes, and health care. Is it really as good as it looks? (Yes even in winter!).
With all of the turmoil in the US, the heat and humidity and uncertain weather, etc., they were seriously thinking of moving to PEI for at least six months of the year. Interestingly, neither couple mentioned President Trump.
Making PEI a retirement haven sounds nice, but it comes at a cost. Senior newcomers will need health care, space in our retirement manors and all of the other services seniors require.
With PNP in eclipse, are these the new Islanders we’ve been waiting for?
PEI has over its modern history had wave after wave of immigration starting with our first people, the Mi’kmaq’. The French, the English, Irish and Scots, Lebanese, Dutch and more recently Chinese, Koreans, Taiwanese, Eastern Europeans and from within Canada, the Amish.
These people came here to find a better life for themselves and their families and were enticed by the Island’s natural resources and beauty, the promise of prosperity, a tolerant community and many other reasons. Integration was not always easy or even amicable. Change is difficult, both for the immigrants and for the existing residents, but over time a slightly different and some would say somewhat stronger community emerges with each new wave.
The Government of Canada’s PNP program is the latest attempt to attract new citizens. Prince Edward Island’s administration of the program has come under significant and legitimate criticism and a lot of Islanders are embarrassed by the behavior of a few.
They believe any wrong-doing should not be tolerated but properly investigated and punished.
That said, there is no question the program has attracted new residents to the Island and that at least some of them will make their new Canadian home here. When legitimate concerns have been properly dealt with the memory of PEI’s PNP will fade but our new residents and their families will remain a lasting legacy.
Cavendish resident Mike Duffy represents PEI in the Senate of Canada. Comments are welcome and can be forward by email to peijim@hotmail.com.
Public a no show for public meeting on Cavendish Beach Music Festival
Few complaints, but seasonal resident says there had been reports of public urination, illegal parking, young girls drinking
By Jim Brown
In early July more than 80,000 people clicked through the turnstiles to watch Shawn Mendes and a host of other high profile acts during the four-day-long Cavendish Beach Music Festival. At a public meeting seeking feedback from residents affected by the festival exactly zero members of the public turned up.
More than 80,000 people attended the Cavendish Beach Music Festival in early July, but a public meeting seeking feedback from area residents didn’t draw a single person.
On Aug 29 there were 12 officials at the North Rustico Lions Club assembled to hear their feedback, good and bad, including Resort Municipality councillors, a concert promoter, an official from the PEI fire marshal’s office, an RCMP police officer, a provincial traffic operations engineer and a PEI liquor board official.
That isn’t the end of the comment period, with Sept 5 the final date for receiving written submissions (and emails) at the Resort Municipality office. Two letters with complaints were read at the public meeting.
Cavendish seasonal resident Murdock Morrison, in his email to Brenda MacDonald, the Resort Municipality’s chief administrative officer, wrote:
“During the festival there were several cars parked on the side of the road (after you make the turn at the lights – opposite Sunset campgrounds) all four days and on two occasions they had small-type barbecues set up, had them lit and drinking openly – obviously they tried to avoid parking fees.
“It was a safety issue for those making the turn and going to Graham’s and the beach. The RCMP would have seen these cars and either warned them or ticketed them and my only comment was that an officer could do a sight check around the area as they would have picked this up.”
Mr Morrison went on to write he “had heard from a number of people who had friends who went to the festival and told me that the drinking was a problem especially young girls.”
He also wrote “there were some incidents that were upsetting – men actually urinating in the crowd and people having to see it and stand (in) the urine.”
He added, it was “almost impossible to monitor in such a crowd.”
But complaints, like attendees, were scarce.
There was a “huge turnout” in the first year of the festival, but each successive year, as more and more issues were dealt with, the attendance at public meetings steadily declined, according to Mayor Matthew Jelley.
Jelley went on to say the festival has been an overwhelming success, from the community’s perspective, in its 10th year.
That view was echoed by others.
The Cavendish Beach Music Festival grounds were packed for much of the four day event.
“We had roughly 80,000 people go through that gate over the span of the entire event and to have as few problems as we’ve had from a policing perspective is…I was amazed,” said Queens District RCMP Staff Sgt Shane Hubley.
“That is not typical of these types of events…I really don’t have anything negative to say…There were arrests and there were drunks, but fortunately I’ve never seen one go that well. I’ve seen much smaller venues with way fewer people, way, way worse.”
There were still complaints about concert goers trespassing on private property, property damage, cars illegally parked, public drunkenness, underage drinking and some threatening behavior. But several officials said complaints were far less than the earlier years and steps taken over succeeding years to lessen the concert’s negative impacts on the community seem to have worked.
Man who fought council to open a used car sales lot is now a member of council
By Jim Brown – originally published August 30, 2018
Resort Municipality councillors will have to get used to hearing Bill Drost’s name.
Mr Drost came to their attention earlier this summer when his application to open a used car sales lot in Stanley Bridge was rejected. It would have operated about 200 yards from the roundabout towards Cavendish.
Now he’s sitting on council after running unopposed for one of seven seats.
“I want to see a pro-business approach” in the community, said Mr Drost, in an Aug 30 phone interview from Moncton, NB.
On July 16, immediately after the Resort Municipality rejected his bid, Mr Drost stated: “I think they erred in their decision….Council, I think, should perhaps reflect a little more on the approach they’re taking to business.”
He served notice he hasn’t given up on his dream and has, in fact, taken his complaint to the Island Regulatory and Appeals Commission (IRAC).
He and Council will submit written arguments to IRAC, whose members will make a ruling without a public hearing.
Mr Drost had also applied to council for a temporary permit, which was rejected, and a change of use designation on the C-1 zoned property that would have allowed him to set up his used car sales business.
Mr Drost’s business, if successful, would be located on a half acre property owned by Philip Gallant.
In an interview in July Mr Drost said it was a shame the Resort Municipality couldn’t have “a little diversity in the businesses we have. The decision is short-sighted and not in the best interest of the public and the residents of the community. You’re sending the wrong message to the business community.”
The new council will be sworn-in Sept. 10.
Green Gables Heritage Place gets multi-million dollar facelift
By Jim Brown – originally published August 28, 2018
Big things are in the works for an iconic landmark in the Cavendish area.
According to Parks Canada: “The current construction at Green Gables Heritage Place is part of a $9.5 million site redevelopment project that will improve visitor experience, site facilities (such as food service and parking) and accessibility ”
“There are three phases to this project. Phase 1 included an addition to the Barn, the creation of temporary orientation space, and the installation of temporary washrooms and a ticket kiosk. This work was completed in the spring of 2017.
“Phase 2 includes revisions to the parking lot, changes to landscaped pathways and planting and the construction of a new visitor centre that will house the gift shop, ticketing, orientation area, exhibits and washrooms. The parking lot has been completed and we are currently refining directional signage and line striping to direct traffic. Construction on the visitor centre is going well and it is anticipated that it will be completed in November.
“The final phase will begin once phase 2 complete, which includes renovations to improve accessibility of the Green Gable house and the retrofit of the temporary gift shop area to a food service area. The gift shop will remain in the renovated barn until the spring of 2019.
“Parks Canada is also working on a detailed design for interpretive exhibits and other media for the new visitor centre as well as the barn, grounds and trails.
“The new exhibits and interpretive elements will be installed following the completion of the visitor centre. All work on this multi-phased project will be completed by the spring of 2019.”
A few political thoughts on a perfect Island weekend
By Mike Duffy
Senator Mike Duffy
What a wonderful weekend for the 16th annual River Days Festival (Stanley Bridge/Trout River). From parades to fireworks, so much to see and do, all in celebration of this little bit of heaven we call home.
But while most “normal” people were enjoying the sights and sounds of summer, over in Halifax several thousand very earnest Conservatives were hard at work.
They were locked in a dark convention hall, debating public policy and the platform their party will present to Canadians in next year’s federal election.
There was a spasm of excitement Thursday when Maxime Bernier left the party. He called the Conservatives morally bankrupt because they refused to debate, let alone adopt policies dealing with controversial issues like supply management.
As a libertarian Mr. Bernier believes in smaller government, free trade and an end to “corporate welfare.” He is not interested in controversial social issues, like abortion and euthanasia. He sees these as private matters of individual conscience.
There are undoubtedly thousands of Canadians who share his views. But whatever they thought privately, the Conservative delegates in Halifax were determined to avoid controversy. They know what activists in all political parties know – controversy doesn’t sell in the run-up to an election.
Just look at Tory history.
In the 1974 election campaign, PC Leader Robert Stanfield proposed a 90-day income freeze as a brake on inflation; Pierre Trudeau ridiculed Stanfield and promised not to impose wage and price controls.
Canadians rewarded Mr. Trudeau with a majority government. And in 1975, a year after the election, Mr. Trudeau imposed wage and price controls.
In 1979, Prime Minister Joe Clark’s budget proposed an 18-cent a gallon gas tax.
Canadians rejected Mr. Clark’s tax – short-term pain in return for long-term gain – giving Mr. Trudeau another majority government. “Welcome to the 80s.” Of course gas taxes went up dramatically in the years after that election.
What’s the lesson? Canadians are human. Faced with tough choices, they will vote for the easy option.
Opposition parties (federal and provincial) believe the best course is to say nothing controversial before an election, and simply hope the incumbent government defeats itself. Bland works.
“It’s better to have him inside the tent pissing out, than outside the tent pissing in” – US President Lyndon B. Johnson, about J. Edgar Hoover, Director of the FBI,
Maxime Bernier is no J. Edgar Hoover, but the maxim applies.
History may record that Andrew Scheer’s failure to keep Maxime Bernier in the Tory tent cost him the Prime Ministership.
The CBC had this to say:
“The CBC’s Poll Tracker, which uses an average of polls to make seat projections, currently gives the Liberals a 48 per cent chance of winning a majority government if an election were held today — a coin flip.
But take two points away from the Conservatives and give that to a hypothetical Bernier party, and those Liberal odds increase to 65 per cent, or about two in three.
Increase that Bernier drain to five percentage points and the Liberals’ chances of winning a majority government increase to 81 per cent. The chances that the Conservatives emerge with even a minority government in such a scenario drop to virtually nothing.”
https://www.cbc.ca/news/politics/grenier-bernier-new-party-election-politics-1.4796682
It’s a lesson that wasn’t lost on the Conservatives this weekend in Halifax. They opted for bland, while we “normal” people were enjoying the River Days Festival.
(Cavendish resident Mike Duffy represents PEI as an Independent in the Canadian Senate. We welcome your comments to Mike Duffy’s submission. Please forward them to peijim@hotmail.com and we will post them to our website in as timely a manner as possible).
Changing the guard in the Resort Municipality
By Mike Duffy
Senator Mike Duffy
Did you notice? At the close of business Friday our democracy worked.
Residents of The Resort Municipality of Stanley Bridge, Hope River, Bayview, Cavendish and North Rustico acclaimed our new municipal council. It wasn’t earth shattering – it was an acclamation after all – but it was important.
For the next four years these seven men and women will make the important local decisions about the community in which we live.
Before we talk about the future, let’s look at how far we’ve come.
Remember the “good old days” when Rainbow Valley was the most exciting attraction on the strip? My kids still laugh about being splashed by “old facefull.”
But the excitement now comes in million-dollar shows that wow thousands during the Cavendish Beach Music Festival.
The times have changed, and because of demography, we are at an inflection point in the tourism business, which is critical to our local economy.
Just as reliable affordable high speed Internet is essential to our future, so too are updates to our attractions if we are to continue to draw tourists from around the world.
Parks Canada also sees a bright future. Just look at the size of the parking lot at the new Green Gables, and the growth factor which is being built-in at all of the other Parks Canada facilities which are currently being refurbished.
The anticipated spurt of growth, will be fuelled by boomers as we revisit the scenes of our youth and our grandchildren discover the many wonders of Cavendish.
We can’t stay in the past, so we must manage our future.
The municipal council saw the challenges that will be posed by this new growth, and under the leadership of Mayor Matthew Jelly and Deputy Mayor Linda Lowther, has struck a special committee to plan our strategic development.
The special committee is already working on a plan for the LM Montgomery Heritage Park, across from the cemetery on Rte 13, and for a literary tour to exploit the growing world-wide appreciation of and interest in, Montgomery’s writing beyond the iconic Anne.
Have you heard, have you heard?
We hear there are also plans to redevelop the Petro Canada station. Instead of a seasonal outlet, could we now actually have a year-round gas station in the heart of Cavendish? My, how times are changing!
It is a well-deserved recognition of his hard work that Matthew Jelly was acclaimed Mayor for another four years.
Serving with him on council are veterans Linda Lowther, and George Clark Dunning, with newcomers Kenny Singleton, Lee Brammer, Bill Drost and Chris Robinson.
The council lineup represents a nice balance between old and new blood, and draws on committed people from all parts of the community.
So let’s say “Thank you” to the outgoing councilors, Gwen Wyand, David Gauthier, Edmond Richard and Kay Hryckiw.
And to the new council, welcome. You have big shoes to fill!
The last meeting of the old Council is scheduled for Aug. 20. The new council will be sworn-in Sept. 10.
Cavendish resident Mike Duffy represents PEI in the Senate of Canada.
The high speed “bump” on PEI’s information highway.
By Mike Duffy
Senator Mike Duffy
From the post office to the Petro Can, to the R&A Service station in Stanley Bridge, wherever Islanders gather there are only three topics of conversation this summer:
1. The wonderful weather. How long can it last?
2. Donald Trump. Will his trade policies hurt PEI fish and agricultural exports?
3. High speed Internet. The availability, the reliability, and critically important, the cost of an Internet connection.
We can’t do much except talk about the weather, and most people I know have tired of talking about Donald Trump. Which leaves us with the Internet. From POS (point of sale) electronic cash registers, to hotels/motels to campgrounds, reliable and reasonably priced telecom is essential for success.
In 2008 the PEI government gave Bell Aliant a sole-sourced contract worth $8.2 million to provide high speed Internet service to 56 rural communities. The Resort Municipality was not on that list.
Five years later, in 2013, Bell Aliant was back. And this time PEI sweetened the pot, agreeing to a deal that by the end of 2020 will have paid Bell $23.3 million. That makes a total of $31.5 million dollars since 2008. This works out to about $200 per person, or $400 for every single private dwelling on the Island.
“Who knew that high speed Internet was a factor in the sale of existing homes and new construction?”
As all of this was going on tourism operators in our area were reporting that their customers were adamant. They would stay only in accommodations that had access to the Internet. No Internet. No reservation.
The Resort Municipality responded quickly. They tried to get Bell’s attention with little success. So they opened discussions with Eastlink cable. Eastlink was been keen to help, and a deal was made. The company has dramatically improved Internet access in the municipal offices, and is actively looking for innovative ways to solve the high-speed problem in difficult-to-connect areas of the municipality.
They have already had their first big win.
They were able to make a deal with council and homeowners to provide high speed Internet to Seawood Estates. That community has quickly seen an increase in home sales and new construction.
Who knew that high speed Internet was a factor in the sale of existing homes and new construction?
The Internet will be critical to Green Gables, the municipality’s big economic driver. Parks Canada is in the midst of a multi-million dollar program to improve the visitor experience at Green Gables.
The plan is to create a world-class experience for the thousands who visit Green Gables annually. When complete, there will be a state of the art, reimagined Anne exhibit.
What might that look like? Lets look at what’s happening in Charlottetown. At the Parks Canada project to rehabilitate Province House in Charlottetown, visitors wear virtual reality goggles to see “inside” the building as it is being refurbished.
One would expect the Green Gables visitor experience would also be interactive – which implies high speed Internet.
A special committee of the municipal council has been working to develop a plan for Cavendish Heritage Park and Heritage Centre, which will compliment the “new” Parks Canada project at Green Gables.
Many people don’t know about this small quiet refuge on Route 13, across from the Cemetery where Lucy Maud is buried. The committee wants to make it child and family friendly, with a statue of Maud, a rest and play area. Again high speed Internet is essential.
And if Bell Aliant isn’t up to the job – despite the millions in government subsidies – then more and more it looks like Eastlink is the solution to the high speed bump on our information highway.
Cavendish resident Mike Duffy represents PEI in the Senate of Canada.
No used car sales lot for you!: Resort Municipality to applicant
Bill Drost
Bill Drost’s dream of opening a used car lot in the community in which he lives and works has been dashed by the Resort Municipality.
They rejected his application for a used car lot near the Stanley Bridge roundabout at council’s monthly meeting on July 16 at the North Rustico Lions Club.
“I think they erred in their decision,” said a frustrated, disappointed Drost, who runs a project management engineering consulting business and a used car business in Kensington that he was hoping to relocate to Stanley Bridge.
“Council, I think should perhaps reflect a little more on the approach they’re taking to business,” he said.
Matthew Jelley, the resort municipality’s mayor, said council was on firm ground in rejecting the application.
“The current zoning is C-1 and automobile sales and service is not a permitted use within C-1 and so the current zoning does not match the requested use of the property. The concept of automobile sales is dealt with specifically as a permitted use in one zone and not in the other,” said Mr Jelley.
“They’re basically telling a resident and a business to go away, you’re not welcome in this municipality. If you look at the type of developments they allow in this municipality one would question (their approach to business development),” said Mr Drost.
Drost said the Resort Municipality may have opened the door to an IRAC challenge with a narrow and perhaps flawed interpretation of the current bylaws.
“The bylaws of the resort municipality are such that there are no lands in the municipality that permit the establishment of a used car lot or any automobile sales business. There’s also no bylaws that prohibit the establishment of such a business.
“Bylaws say the definition of an automobile sales and service business is where vehicles are held for sale and are maintained. I have absolutely no plans to maintain or repair vehicles at that location. It’s only sales. If the bylaw had said sales and or maintaining vehicles as the definition of a motor vehicle sales and service business then it would have met that part of the bylaw and the council would have made a proper decision in rejecting the application,” explained Mr Drost.
But Mr Jelley answered: “The fact that it’s automobile sales and/or automobile service doesn’t neglect the fact that automobile sales…is not of itself solely retail. The bylaw saw fit to specifically denote automobile sales as a different use and that use is not permitted in that zone.”
In the wake of council’s decision what are Mr Drost’s plans?
“I haven’t a clue. I’ve sought some other locations outside the municipality. An appeal to IRAC might be an alternative.”
He talked about what might have been, had his application been approved.
“My plan was to maintain a lot of 12 to 20 vehicles (and) operate at about eight months a year,” said Mr Drost, who also said he would likely hire staff.
“I have a project management engineering consulting business and a used car business which was being relocated from the Kensington area to Stanley Bridge. I live in Stanley Bridge (and would) like to see more business grow in the municipality. Unfortunately the municipality and its councilors don’t feel the same way,” he said.
It’s a shame the Resort Municipality couldn’t have “a little diversity in the businesses we have. The decision is short-sighted and not in the best interest of the public and the residents of the community. You’re sending the wrong message to the business community.”
Mr Drost said there was a new car wash in Cavendish his business would have used, and opportunities for other spinoff businesses and opportunities, “that are going to be lost.”
Alex B. Campbell & the gathering fiscal storm
Senator Mike Duffy
By Mike Duffy – originally published July 16, 2018
Later this week, Canada’s provincial premiers will hold their annual meeting in Saint Andrews, NB. It will be the first meeting of the new Ontario Premier Doug Ford with his counterparts from across the country, including our own Premier Wade MacLauchlan.
Premier Ford has already met Prime Minister Justin Trudeau, and from all accounts their meeting did not go well. Ontario has a long list of complaints about the federal government, and most of them involve money.
Doug Ford and Ottawa could be heading for a major confrontation
Ontario, (like PEI) does not like Ottawa’s planned carbon tax. Ontario complains federal funding is inadequate for the settlement of refugees; and Ontario government studies suggest equalization is too generous to the so-called “have not” provinces (that’s us) at the expense of Ontario taxpayers.
As the drop in the price of oil has hurt the economies of Newfoundland, Alberta and Saskatchewan, some in those provinces have joined Ontario in criticism of equalization.
Add in the fact that we are about a year away from a federal election, and you have a recipe for political fireworks. As The Globe & Mail put it, we are at “The dawn of an Ottawa-Ontario battle like none other.”
Readers may ask, why should Islanders care about a fight between Ontario and Ottawa?
If Ottawa, Ontario and the other “have provinces” get into a fight over money, the danger is we will be caught in the crossfire. If fiscal transfers to the Island are reduced, this would be a very serious blow to our standard of living.
PEI receives about $600 million in federal transfers every year. That’s about two million dollars every business day flowing from Ottawa to the government in Charlottetown.
In the “old days” – I’m talking about the 60s and 70s – we were considered “special” by the people who mattered in Ottawa. That protected us.
Former Island Premier Alex Campbell speaking at a history circle celebrating the life of Father Francis Bolger
That “special relationship” with Prime Minister Pierre Trudeau was built by Stanley Bridge resident Alex B. Campbell, who was elected Premier in 1966 at the very young age of 32.
Campbell and his cabinet developed a blueprint for the Island’s future prosperity. They called it the Comprehensive Development Plan.
It covered everything from the consolidation of farm land into larger economically viable units, to the construction of large new schools to replace the old one-room schoolhouses which dotted the landscape.
The CDP was big, controversial, and far too expensive for PEI to undertake alone. Alex Campbell convinced Pierre Trudeau that this plan was essential for the Island’s future. Trudeau bought the idea and the CDP was funded in large part by the federal government.
Campbell’s vision for PEI, and his positive relationship with the Trudeau government is catalogued in detail by none other than the man who now occupies the Premier’s office, Premier Wade MacLauchlan.
MacLauchlan’s biography; “Alex B. Campbell, the Island Premier who rocked the cradle” is a well-deserved tribute to the man who held power through four elections from 1966 and 1978.
The foundation of the Island we see today was built largely on the vision of Alex B. Campbell, and financed by the federal government as a direct result of his skill at building a “special relationship” with the Prime Minister in Ottawa.
Today Alex B. Campbell is living quietly with his wife Marilyn on the banks of the Stanley River. All around him are reminders of the Island he envisioned a half-century ago.
Premier MacLauchlan will need all of Alex B. Campbell’s skills and more, as he fights to protect us from the gathering fiscal storm.
That battle for cash begins this weekend at the Council of the Federation meeting in St.-Andrews-by-the-Sea, NB.
Cavendish resident Mike Duffy represents PEI in the Senate of Canada.
Father Francis Bolger’s “Island Pride” message continues to resonate.
Senator Mike Duffy
By Mike Duffy
Island Senator Mike Duffy was one of dozens of friends, colleagues and family members of the late Father Francis Bolger attending a history circle in his honour at the Stanley Bridge Women’s Institute, Sunday, July 8.
Sunday July 8 was one of the nicest days of the summer of 2018. Perfect for the beach, golf, or for the truly adventurous, the Cavendish Beach Music Festival.
Despite those alternatives, more than a hundred friends, relatives and Island history fans gathered in Stanley Bridge’s WI Hall to pay tribute to the late Rev. Dr. Francis Bolger on what would have been his 93rd birthday.
Dr Francis Bolger
There were heartfelt tributes and a few tears, as historian Prof. Ed MacDonald, former Premier Alex Campbell; former Lt. Gov. Marion Reid; broadcaster-historian Paul H. Schurman and a host of regular folks from Stanley Bridge paid tribute to a man they loved and respected.
Back in the 50s, Fr. Bolger led the movement to educate Islanders about our history, and to tell Canadians about the important role our province played in the creation of Canada. He made literally thousands of speeches describing the historic events that occurred at the Charlottetown Conference of September, 1864.
Today Charlottetown is recognized in law as the Birthplace of Confederation. But that recognition only became official last year, when Island Parliamentarians led by Senator Diane Griffin, and Hon. Wayne Easter managed to get the Senate and the House of Commons to pass a law officially declaring Charlottetown as the birthplace of Canada. It wasn’t easy. What should have been a slam dunk ran into quiet but determined opposition.
New Brunswick claimed the Confederation idea started with the Colonial Governor of New Brunswick; Quebec claimed the Charlottetown conference was simply a warm-up, that the real deal was made later in Quebec City.
Professor Ed MacDonald
Island history expert, Prof. Ed MacDonald, Dean of History at UPEI, saved the day. Called to testify before the Senate, Prof. MacDonald, (who was a student of Fr. Bolger) made persuasive arguments for the understandings reached during the Charlottetown Conference. His testimony broke the log-jam. The bill declaring Charlottetown the Birthplace of Confederation became law.
Former Premier Alex Campbell
So how does this connect to Fr. Bolger? As former Premier Alex Campbell told the attentive audience, until the late 50s when Fr. Bolger came on the scene, Islanders had taken their history for granted, and assumed all Canadians understood the importance of the 1864 meeting. Fr. Bolger saw that as the older generation died off, so would understanding of our historic role in nation-building.
With his intimate knowledge of the subject and his spellbinding oratory, Fr. Bolger made our history come alive. As a result of his passion and drive, today, we have a vibrant Island studies program at UPEI.
Interest in our Island’s place in Canadian history has never been greater. And with the new federal “Birthplace” law, the inspiring story of what happened in Charlottetown in Sept. 1864 will live as long as there is a Canada.
It is all part of the important legacy of Francis Bolger, the scholar-priest who called Stanley Bridge home.
Cavendish resident Mike Duffy represents PEI in the Senate of Canada.
Woman accepted into AVC bonds with horse sanctuary’s owner
Story and photos by Jim Brown. Originally published June 30, 2018.
Jim Brown can be reached at peijim@hotmail.com
Brittney Dow, 24, just got the best news of her young life when she learned of her acceptance into the Atlantic Veterinary College this fall.
But it almost didn’t happen.
Brittney, who works as a volunteer with her close friend and mentor Yogi Fell at her sprawling, 100-acre Handibear Hills Horse Sanctuary, had a medical scare that almost claimed her life four years ago.
Yogi Fell, who owns Handibear Hills Horse Sanctuary, and Brittney Dow share a lighter moment.
An ovarian cyst had ruptured and she was rushed to hospital.
“Afterwards, talking to people it made me realize I did come pretty close to death and I’d never had a situation like that before,” said Brittney, who was in her second year of a general biology degree.
“I woke up in the middle of the night with intense pains in my stomach and also my shoulder, which made the diagnosis really confusing later (at Queen Elizabeth Hospital),” she said.
“It took the hospital actually 24 hours to figure it out. The shoulder pain didn’t match anything else – it turned out there was blood rushing to my shoulder. I lost two litres of blood,” she said. That’s about half her blood.
But she gradually recovered after missing close to a month’s worth of classes and graduated with her general biology degree after taking an extra year because of her illness.
When she’s not helping out Yogi, Brittney, from Saint John, NB, works on a dairy farm near Charlottetown.
“I’ve always wanted to work with animals, but being in that situation, and physically unable to do a lot of things, made me especially want to do it when I was healthy again,” she said.
Brittney Dow with one of the 13 horses billeted on Yogi Fell’s Handibear Hills Horse Sanctuary.
“It felt like I basically a week and a half to catch up and prepare for exams but I got a tutor and I had some really good friends helping me get through it.”
Later she would need to upgrade her marks to meet the AVC’s strict admission requirements.
Brittney, who had always been healthy and never suffered even a broken bone, said she had been exhausted for a long time after her medical emergency.
“It took about three months to really get any energy back.”
Now it was her turn to carry the load for someone she respected and admired.
Yogi Fell is very grateful for volunteers at her horse sanctuary, who help her with manual labour when she is unable to do the work herself because of chronic conditions.
“I really depend on my volunteers now,” said Yogi, who has provided placements for AVC students.
“In the last five years I’ve had a lot of medical conditions…About six weeks ago I dislocated my shoulder, it’s kind of a chronic condition.
“You just keep going, plugging along. It all comes together. Some things I’ve just had to say I can’t do it. I wait until somebody comes and sometimes I’ve had to hire a carpenter because I’m unable to lift a hammer over my head,” she said.
“Yogi is such a wonderful person,” said Brittney and Yogi echoed the same view about Brittney, counting herself very lucky to have her around helping out and to have her as a close friend.
“I am so proud of her, she had to do a lot of upgrading because she lost a year of undergrad to illness and surgery. She did not give up, and got the job done. I will miss her volunteer work, and her employer is going to miss her milking,” Yogi wrote in a Facebook post shortly after Brittney learned of her admittance to the AVC.
“She does all this on her own and doesn’t ask anyone for help,” said Brittney.
“She does it for the horses, who she has such a deep love for. Yogi wants to improve their health and educate people on how to better care for them,” she said.
“Her story really touched me,” said Brittney.
“When they come here, this is their forever home,” said Yogi, who is billeting 13 horses and a llama. They were abandoned in the past or just not wanted.”
“Some of them are really broken down,” she said.
Now they get a chance to live their last years in peace and comfort.
One of Yogi Fell’s 13 horses ambled over to say hello
“There’s no one I’d rather help than someone like Yogi,” said Brittney.
“There’s lot of great people who own stables out there but this place is very special.”
Stephen Yeo, PEI’s Roundabout Guy
Story and photos by Jim Brown – originally published June 24, 2018
In late September 2015, after weeks of heavy construction, Stanley Bridge residents woke up to find a strange design at what used to be the Stanley Bridge intersection, near the RaceTrak gas station.
It was a collage of swirling yellow lines and circles, with a giant yellow bullseye right in the middle. It was the Stanley Bridge roundabout, built at a cost of just under $200,000 and surely one of the most baffling sights many motorists and residents alike have ever seen.
For months afterward, the Stanley Bridge roundabout was the butt of many jokes, and even a parody song by local MLA, Brad Trivers. On many days skid marks could be seen inside the circle. During the first winter, snow mountains were piled in the centre by provincial workers to prevent cars from breezing through.
Stephen Yeo, Chief Engineer for PEI’s Department of Transportation, Infrastructure & Energy, was the man on the firing line.
“Why weren’t there any raised surfaces in the middle?” was the question on many minds. “Why no curbs to prevent motorists from driving right through?” (which many did, and not just once, but multiple times). After the first year, the median was gently raised and other design features altered; the ridicule and the complaints then eased off.
“They’re using the intersection very safely right now,” said Mr Yeo.
During the winter, anywhere from 800 to 1,000 vehicles a day pass through the roundabout and in the summer, with the busy tourist season underway and Cavendish just a few kilometres down the road, that figure jumps to 12,000 to 15,000 a day.
“We see very few, if any, going through the centre. It is designed for the larger tractor trailers to put there trailing wheels through the centre of it, and buses as well,” said Mr Yeo.
The three-year-old roundabout is a vast improvement over what was there before.
“It was a four-way intersection with a three way stop, which was confusing to some of the locals and some of the tourists. This is certainly a lot better fit… and certainly has cleaned up the confusion,” said Mr. Yeo, in a wide ranging interview recently at Hunter River’s By the River Restaurant and Bakery.
Mr. Yeo noted there were two public meetings held to address issues about the intersection and to offer possible solutions, including a roundabout.
“There was a lot of concern about the commercial business (gas station) there,” he said. Would vehicles be able to get in and out easily? was one of the more pressing questions. “We planned originally to put the concrete centre in and the concrete medians and we just couldn’t sell it to the public, so we said alright, we’ll compromise.
“In the first year we’ll just leave it all as asphalt but I’ll come back in the second year and (put) the concrete in the median, which we did right in the centre.”
Heavy earth-moving equipment was a common sight during the roundabout’s construction.
When people accuse the Province of going “roundabout crazy”, Mr. Yeo can point to one crucial, immutable fact – there has not been a single death anywhere on PEI where roundabouts have been built, and that’s going back decades.
Roundabouts are generally built at high risk intersections, where “very severe” accidents and deaths have occurred, he noted.
By the end of the year, with the construction of new roundabouts in Kinkora and Newton, PEI should have approximately 20, with as many as four in Charlottetown alone.
As stated earlier, the Stanley Bridge roundabout cost a shade under $200,000, while a typical urban roundabout with multiple lanes is about $1.8 million. Rural roundabouts cost about $600,000 to build.
“We built them in areas where we had non-compliance with road signs. Oyster Bed Bridge is a good example,” said Mr Yeo.
“Certainly in the summer time it’s a high traffic volume area. People don’t always pick up the signage or obey the speeds coming into the intersections. With the commercial business there as well, there’s a problem with trucks blocking the sight distances to the intersections and so forth,” said Mr Yeo.
“With the rural roundabout to be constructed there, this provides a very safe intersection to go through,” he said.
“We’re looking at one at Mason Road in Stratford next year and we’re looking at one in Granville Street and Rte. 2 in Summerside next year as well. ”
Mr. Yeo said that the Stanley Bridge roundabout and one in 48 Road, on Rte. 5 in Cardigan, received some good promotion in 2015.
“We showcased those two roundabouts when we hosted the Transportation Association of Canada Conference. We did technical tours of both.”
In the case of the Stanley Bridge roundabout, that was before the raised surface was put in.
One really dangerous part of PEI was an intersection on the main highway in O’Leary, which over the years had recorded several major accidents, which included severe injuries and deaths.
Prior to the roundabout’s installation, “we had made a lot of strides to improve the intersection – buying property, improving sight distances, putting in turning lanes, putting in rumble strips, putting more pavement markings in and more signage and it was still a problematic intersection with all the accidents,” said Mr Yeo.
Accidents now involve collisions at much lower speeds, “sideways glancing blows”, or when cars are dinged on their bumpers when they line up to enter.
Stephen Yeo, at By the River.
It’s not just the number of roundabouts that are going up in PEI.
“Our traffic counts are going up on our roads, the number of registered drivers are going up, as well as the registered vehicles are going up,” said Mr Yeo.
Meanwhile, “our accident rates are going down.”
“It’s not just roundabouts alone that are responsible for falling accident rates”, he stressed, “it’s a combination of things including stricter enforcement and better road design”.
There is no denying that roundabouts have definitely made an important contribution to a safer PEI.
Neighbor at open house on proposed grain elevator expansion raises concerns
Story and photos by Jim Brown
Jim Brown can be reached at peijim@hotmail.com
A proposal to double the size of a grain elevator on the outskirts of Kensington hit a pocket of turbulence at an April 25 public meeting on the proposal.
The Kensington grain elevator could double its storage capacity if a major expansion goes ahead.
An increase in noise, a loss of scenic views and a greater volume of yellow dust were some of the concerns raised by a neighbor, whose wife runs a bed and breakfast and is also worried about its impact.
“The worst thing about it we find is the dust…and the noise” during the current operation, said Bill Bryanton at the meeting, which is part of the environmental assessment process.
“We have a deck in front of our house that goes all the way around and it’s always covered with some kind of yellowish-colored dust from when they clean the drain.”
Bryanton said a visitor in a black car, who had been at the house for no more than 25 minutes, noticed afterwards his entire car was coated with yellow dust.
“There’s a fair amount of noise. They’re putting another dryer in I noticed and it’s right next to the road…” said Bryanton, who has lived in the neighbourhood since 1996.
He also said the expansion, which would accommodate roughly 26,000 metric tonnes of grain when it is finished, up from the current 13,000 metric tonnes, would hurt the view of the trail and the fields.
Close to nine acres of land would be purchased with the expansion. The project’s total cost is pegged to be anywhere from $8 million to $18 million, depending on how extensive the work is.
Don Jardine, of DE Jardine Consulting, was one of several presenters at the April 25 open house.
According to earlier published reports the agricultural industry has embraced the expansion, saying it is long overdue. And interest has gone beyond PEI’s borders, with officials getting calls from all across Canada prior to the meeting.
The expansion will help ease growing problems with storage, which are costing large amounts of money and hurting exports. There is such a space crunch on PEI that storage has had to be found off Island, in Nova Scotia.
High and rising yields are adding to the volume of grains and soybeans available for storage and shipment.
As many as 35 local residents attended the meeting, held at the Kensington Legion and organized by PEI Grain Elevator Corporation.
At the meeting several elevator corporation officials described what the project would entail.
Other attendees expressed concerns about increased heavy truck traffic, but officials answered the tractor trailers would be spread out over more of the year instead of just three months or so. The actual numbers wouldn’t change that much.
The current grain elevator has been around since 1969 and needs an upgrade.
A berm would be constructed to address noise related issues.
The expansion must meet a range of stringent environmental and planning related conditions to go ahead.
Residents and others have an opportunity for input during the process.
Seas are rising and so is the threat to Islanders and all of humanity
Story and photos by Jim Brown – originally published February 12, 2018
Jim Brown can be reached at peijim@hotmail.com
Cliffs near Cavendish: Much of the Island’s coastline is vulnerable to rising ocean waters.
Climate experts thought a major subway line in the American eastern seaboard wouldn’t be vulnerable to flooding for decades, until a hurricane sent towering waves of water underground. A slice of the Antarctic ice-shelf, as large as PEI, broke off recently, causing sea levels to rise everywhere. That wasn’t supposed to happen for the better part of a century. Arctic and Antarctic sea ice are in rapid decline, disappearing far faster than the scientific community had predicted, even in their most dire warnings.
If the worst happens, PEI could eventually be transformed into three Islands, thanks to rising ocean waters.
It isn’t news to many islanders that soils are degrading, shorelines are in retreat and private wells are filling with salt water. Climate change is happening at an accelerated pace that has caught many scientists around the world by surprise.
That was one of the grim takeaways from a presentation, “Our Shrinking Island” by members of the University of Prince Edward Island’s Climate Research Lab, held at North Rustico’s Eagle Nest on Feb 20.
Dozens of people attended a UPEI Climate Research Lab presentation on the threat posed by climate change.
Islanders got a taste of what they can expect in the future when dry, scorching weather this summer, coupled with a sharp decline in precipitation, hurt potato yields and forced processors to bring in spuds from Alberta to meet their contracts.
Canadians welcomed thousands of Syrian refugees recently, but what happens when the world is faced with millions of climate refugees?
“We had 30,000 (Syrian refugees). What if I were to tell you that in 20 to 30 years we’re going to have people have to leave areas, not because of war, but because they can’t find water, they can’t find food. And Canada as a country is not going to stand around and watch people die around the world. We’re not talking 30,000, we’re talking 300,000, and we’re talking 300 million people (worldwide),” said Adam Fenech, who is the climate research lab’s director. He was joined at the presentation by fellow climate team members Andrew Clark (geospatial scientist and senior research assistant), project manager Don Jardine and research assistant Stephanie Arnold.
The Eagle Nest hosted a presentation by the UPEI Climate Research Lab called “Our Shrinking Island.”
“What scares me most as a climatologist who has followed this for 30 years is that it is happening faster and faster than we ever anticipated,” he said.
“That big of chunk of ice that broke up and fell into the ocean (Antarctic ice shelf) contributing to sea level rise? I have a report from two years ago from the US National Academy of Sciences saying we don’t have to worry about that for 100 years. They were calling that catastrophic climate change. That’s happening now,” said Fenech.
Many believe 2050 to be the year when everything collapses.
“That’s only 32 years…I doubt I’ll be around but I have three children who will,” said Fenech, who calls himself a determined optimist.
Malpeque Liberal MP Wayne Easter directs a question to Adam Fenech.
Well, at least Islanders probably won’t have to worry about worst case scenarios unfolding for a while. It’s not an immediate problem, said Fenech, but it is on the horizon and planning should be undertaken to prepare for the inevitability of PEI’s transformation.
“There’s a tidal gauge in Charlottetown. We’ve been taking measurements for almost 100 years,” noted Fenech.
“We’ve seen about a 32 cm increase in sea levels over the past century. And over the last 30 years or so scientists believed the sea levels would rise another metre over the next 100 years. Well, lo and behold, science over the last two years is telling us things are going to move a lot faster than that,” he said.
“The US Geological Society, the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, NASA, Rutgers University (are telling) engineers they should now be planning for two to 2.7 metres.
That’s almost three times the rate originally estimated.
Fenech went on to say between 1968 and 2010 more than 5,000 acres of land on PEI was lost to erosion.
The Island won’t disappear under water overnight, it will take many decades, but it is happening, he said.
MacNeill’s Brook, near Cavendish. The shoreline is cluttered with broken ice. Over the past decade hundreds of coastal structures have been lost to battering waves and rising ocean waters.
Many residents who have shorefront homes have spent large amounts of money “armouring” their properties with heavy rocks brought from off-Island. However armouring isn’t the solution it’s cracked up to be, because it’s not that effective against wave battering action, especially during severe storms.
What else will work? Perhaps building homes on stilts? Building further back from the shore?
There are also other, more natural ways to provide protection including using fast-growing vegetation as a water break. Or assembling hay bales.
Meanwhile, global mapping using the most sophisticated satellite technology has shown the Greenland ice-sheet is melting faster than scientists had expected.
In Antarctica that large chunk of ice that broke off is displacing water in a way similar what happens when “you drop an ice cube in your glass,” said Fenech.
What else can Islanders expect as their climate warms?
How about an increase in stormy weather – which has already gone up 10 to 20 per cent over the past 30 years.
And Fenech went on to say a loss of protective winter ice along the North Shore will lead to greater erosion and damage to shoreline properties.
Is the world moving fast enough towards renewable energy, towards reducing greenhouse gas emissions that are warming the atmosphere?
Other industrialized countries are blazing the way to a better future and we can learn from them, said Malpeque Liberal MP Wayne Easter.
“Germany has 1.7 million suppliers of energy, mainly from solar. It is a complicated system. It is a system in which everyone can supply energy and get paid for it. That’s an area that depended on coal (and) is going off nuclear. They are worth looking at,” said Easter.
Closer to home North Rustico is launching a major boardwalk improvement project at a cost of $750,00, with much of the funding provided by federal sources.
Up to half of the money is being used to armour the boardwalk to reduce erosion.
An attendee wanted to know if that money was well spent.
An attentive audience listened to a presentation about the threat posed to PEI and the rest of the world from climate change.
The climate lab operates image-taking drones, promotes climate change adaptation and builds virtual reality equipment to show how rising waters can overwhelm homes, buildings and other structures over a period of years or decades.
There are some positive things brought by climate change, at least in the short term, which includes longer growing seasons and increased numbers of certain valuable commercial species such as lobsters, says Stephanie Arnold.
She said warmer weather in the summer and shoulder season is drawing more tourists, and it’s likely the growing season will be longer and more varieties of crops can be grown. There could be more “shorter-season” crops planted such as soybeans, followed by peas.
Lentils, which require more heat and can’t be grown on PEI commercially now, could thrive here in the future.
But that’s about the end of the benefits.
“Species are very picky – too dry, too hot, too cold, too wet, they’ll move on,” said Arnold. She pointed to white spruce, which enjoys perfect conditions on the Island. But not by the end of the century.
Other things to be worried about? How about invasive species moving in as the climate warms.
“Right now, PEI is too cold for invasive species,” she said, adding Islanders can expect to see more disease-bearing black legged ticks.
“Ticks arrive on migratory birds.”
When it gets warmer, “birds come here and the ticks hop off. They bite animals, people, and pass on diseases.”
Expect to see more lyme disease within the next decade.
A warming climate means more runoff will increase, carrying contaminated soil into the sea.
And get used to more rain in the winter, instead of snow, similar to what happened in early February when extensive flooding was reported across the island.
When the ground is frozen, water has no where to go, said Arnold, and that leads to roads and bridges being washed out.
Heavy rain and rising temperatures, which melted snow everywhere, led to flooding in Stanley Bridge and across the Island in early February.
Other than finding ways to reduce greenhouse gas emissions, it’s always a good idea to learn what other, more successful jurisdictions are doing to mitigate against the worst impact of climate change.
For instance, in Nova Scotia millions of green crabs, which have taken a large toll on mussel production, are being trapped.
“We can’t keep doing what we’re doing and really expect things to change.”
The PEI government runs a program that encourages the creation of hedgerows, which reduce wind erosion, said Arnold.
She warned that valuable wetlands are disappearing to make way for developments, just when they will be needed the most.
Protecting wetlands prevents and reduces the severity of floods.
Wetlands in New Jersey actually prevented $625 million worth of damage when Hurricane Sandy struck, said Arnold.
It may be freezing outside, but tourist operators are already thinking of summer
Originally published February 9, 2018
Approximately 60 people attended the Feb 8 tourism mixer at The Eagle Nest.
Tony Zheng has a feeling this summer will be a very good summer in the resort municipality. It’s not even halfway into February, but he has good reason to believe his 36-unit cottage development in Cavendish will be doing a brisk business.
Tony Zheng and Huey Feng, new co-owners of the Lakeview Lodge and Cottages.
Zheng has been the co-owner of Lakeview Lodge and Cottages, with Huey Feng, for only a couple of weeks but bookings for June, July and August are already looking robust, at almost 80 per cent.
Zheng and Feng were among close to 60 people at North Rustico’s The Eagle Nest Feb 8, for a gathering with other businesspeople in the resort municipality to view five 30-second marketing videos.
One of the five promotional videos of Cavendish, aired at The Eagle Nest for tourist operators.
The videos were touting the attractions of the Cavendish area and were produced for about $70,000.
Business operators were also getting an update about the second year of operation of a shuttle bus service to Charlottetown for employees – City Beach Express.
Zheng said he was impressed with what he saw on the overhead screens during the tourism mixer.
“The videos were really helpful,” he said.
“We just took advantage of the fact we had a bunch of tourism operators here to share some good news we had with our videos,” said Darcy Butler, executive director/destination manager at Tourism Cavendish Beach Inc., which arranged the tourism mixer.
The 30-second videos will be released “primarily through YouTube, digital advertising…Facebook (and other) social media,” said Butler, adding this is the first time the marketing plan included videos, with past years focusing on photos and print ads.
George Campbell, who runs the Anne of Green Gables Museum in Park Corner.
“This is a new medium that gives us an opportunity to reach more potential visitors,” said Butler.
“We’re expecting a big season overall. We’ve got a lot of new development,” he said.
“I thought the videos were very well done and they certainly depicted all of the activities one could partake or have an interest in, in the Cavendish area,” said Debbie Mol, of the Tourism Industry Association of PEI.
She and her association are helping to organize a North Shore job fair on April 21 at the Lions Club in North Rustico.
George Campbell, who runs the Anne of Green Gables Museum in Park Corner and expects a very busy summer, also gave the videos a thumbs up.
“They look great,” he said.
Story and photos by Jim Brown
Jim Brown can be reached at peijim@hotmail.com
We’re looking forward to an exciting 2018 at the Stanley Bridge Centre
By Jim Brown – Editor, Stanley Bridge Centre Originally published January 8, 2018
Congratulations! You’ve made it to 2018.
Now what? That’s the question we’re asking ourselves at the Stanley Bridge Centre, which is the operator of this website, administered by North Granville resident Dale Amundson.
A dog show in Kensington
Everything Dale and I had ever dreamed of for the site has come true, and then some, over the past year. It’s grown and evolved to meet the challenges of the second decade of a new millennium and I believe is poised to do even more remarkable things in 2018.
I’m going to take a moment or so to brag about our accomplishments. With a limited budget we’ve increased the online news feed content to 15, in addition to the CBC. We’ve even got a Chinese language news site that offers streaming video. By the end of the year it’s possible we could double the number of news feeds.
We’ve also added a number of features we’re quite proud of, including news from the Resort Municipality of Cavendish, an Island photographers showcase and Rural Dreams, which offers a glimpse into the lives of people who make their living directly from the land, who happen to live right round’ the corner.
The Stanley Bridge Centre’s fundraising Centennial Quilt, displayed at the farmer’s market all season.
We are reaching out to the Stanley Bridge, New London, Hunter River, Cavendish, North Rustico, Clinton and Kensington geographical area every day through stories and photos – especially photos.
The Christmas craft fair at the New London Community Complex
The website is all about the people who live right next to us, around the corner and down the road. How better to tell their stories than with photos?
Got an event happening? Don’t just expect a story and a grip-and-grin. We won’t be limited to one, two or even half a dozen photos as print newspapers are. And we won’t be resorting to black and white photos – ever.
Believe it or not we’re doing this with a handful of hard-working volunteers – older residents who have enjoyed successful careers and who wish to make a lasting contribution to the communities in which they have raised families or moved to from other parts of Canada or the world.
Of course, the Stanley Bridge Centre website was created to serve a wider purpose than just allowing someone like me to practice journalism again, years after leaving the reporting biz.
Stanley Bridge Centre’s farmer’s market.
We want to promote the work of the Stanley Bridge Centre itself (former United Church at the top of the hill), which has hosted a very successful farmer’s market every summer for the past several years as well as auctions, concerts and history circles.
We are in the midst of an ambitious campaign to raise up to $150,000 to make needed renovations to the building so that we can offer more entertainment, culture and history-themed events and programs to the community.
We can’t lose sight of that ultimate goal.
But I believe over the past year we have broken new ground in a journalism landscape littered with dead and dying newspapers. Only a few days ago La Presse, one of Canada’s largest and oldest newspapers, announced it was ceasing its print edition.
Only a month or so earlier many Islanders were distraught when Canada’s national newspaper, the Globe & Mail, yanked its print edition from newsstands everywhere east of the Quebec border.
Journalism is dead, long live journalism!
Remembrance Day ceremonies in North Rustico.
The Stanley Bridge Centre’s model, a non-profit one, points the way to a brighter future for community-based online sources of news. Unpaid volunteers provide the content, along with low cost news feeds from around the world (to supplement local copy).
New London Community Complex Christmas craft fair
We are growing every day in many different ways, and a big part of our mission is to fill the gaps Island news outlets no longer can, due to staffing cuts and diminished newsgathering resources.
Of course, local news isn’t everything.
The Island’s demographic makeup is changing dramatically. PEI is becoming a diverse, multicultural province and we will endeavor to tap news sources that provide newcomers with a connection to their homelands they can’t find easily anywhere else. We have news feeds from America, China, England, Hong Kong, Scotland, Ireland and much, much more.
North Rustico Canada Day celebrations.
We’ve seen many visitors from those countries at our farmer’s markets and other events.
Our goal for 2018 is to secure needed advertising and sponsorship money to help us complete renovations to the SBC. And if we can do good journalism at the same time, all the better.
We are excited about 2018 and we hope people in our area will climb on the board with us.
Happy New Year!
Wish PEI’s Liberals would show some courage, start a basic income pilot
By Jim Brown. – Originally published November 16, 2017
Jim Brown can be reached at peijim@hotmail.com
I can’t count the number of times I’ve written a column or an article on the guaranteed annual income (GAI), known more recently as the basic income.
It’s been more times than I can remember, and here I am doing it again. Of course all the other times I was a paid journalist working for newspapers across the country.
Now I’m out of journalism and writing about the GAI for a website operated by a non-profit corporation and not getting paid for my work but enjoying it much more.
What got me thinking about it again was the provincial government’s timid, predictable and utterly mind-numbing speech from the throne. There’s nothing new in this dog’s breakfast of a throne speech. Sure, they’re going to try to do something about poverty, but what exactly? I have a feeling it’s the same-old, same old. Lots of platitudes and little meat on the bone. A dog would maybe take a few licks at it and then find a place to bury this pathetic excuse for a meal.
A more discerning canine might even defecate on it.
So what happened to political courage? Why isn’t anyone talking about a guaranteed annual income? Or a basic income? Has the entire subject gone the way of the quickly embalmed electoral reform promise of the last election?
There was talk earlier of PEI launching a pilot project, but somehow that fell off the backburner and the Liberals seem to be treating the idea like it was something you’d catch off a wet toilet seat.
Too bad.
We need political courage more than ever since robots and automation are about to sweep away everything we know and hold dear. Jobs everywhere at risk, even good-paying white collar jobs.
Bread line in the 1930’s.
it’s already happening in major industrialized countries around the world and the Trump campaign was able to tap into a seething anger in parts of the US where hundreds of thousands of jobs dried up. Of course, they basically misled their supporters by claiming free trade was the major reason.
And so what are we doing about it? How are we going to cope with the inevitable social dislocation, disruption and turmoil?
How about starting by moving away from the idea of defining our lives by the hours we punch a clock every day and the work we do for a paycheque? Many jobs are dead-end soul-sucking jobs. Many are a serious threat to our health, thanks to stress and poorly designed office and industrial workplaces.
There’s only one thing worse than having a crappy job you can’t stand. Not having one, thanks to automation.
I admit I don’t have all the answers. I like what I’ve heard about the GAI and basic income. It all sounds so sensible. Pay every adult enough money to live comfortably and raise a family without worrying about falling into poverty.
Why not? I’m sure every one’s heard the arguments in favor of moving towards a GAI or basic income – eliminating a raft of social programs including welfare and employment insurance, improving overall health and even providing a boost to the economy thanks to all that money circulating around .
Things would suddenly become affordable to everyone and that would have a spillover effect on small business operators. Imagine how much easier it would be to find someone to work at a minimum wage job if the money they earned wouldn’t be clawed back, until they reached a certain threshold – much higher than benchmarks for clawing back EI and other social welfare benefits today.
That was the utopia many progressives were dreaming of ever since the 1960s when the concept was first explored. Now, however there is an urgent need to do more than simply write academic papers on the subject.
We have automation coming at us like a speeding train. Thousands of Island jobs in fishing and farming could disappear in just a few years. The jobs most at risk are low paying, physically demanding jobs that are the source of many injuries and declining health.
We need to find out – ASAP – what will mitigate against the loss of those jobs. We need research and pilot programs and evidence-based answers.
Fortunately, we may already have some.
Just in Stanley Bridge I know several neighbors who are retirees but are still engaged in their communities as volunteers. They are putting in long hours in “jobs” they are doing for free but finding far more satisfying than paid employment. They are able to live without a steady paycheque because they have investments, job-related pensions and monthly CPP payments.
They have, in fact, a guaranteed annual income.
Not every senior is that lucky, but many, and I would say a growing number, are.
And many have started their golden years in their mid-to-late 50s, meaning they could live another 30 years or so without drawing a paycheque.
I think that’s a good place to start if society wants to look at the impact of implementing GAI and basic income programs.
I know many seniors who are taking courses at university, signing up for distance education or even learning a trade they never considered signing up for when they were younger. Why can’t that happen at an earlier age, provided Canadians have the income to pay for it?
If you don’t need a job to put food on the table and a roof over your head, you can take the time to find work that is rewarding and satisfying.
Of course the PEI government could continue doing what it’s always done – providing lavish subsidies to large and small businesses to hire new workers, or just maintain their current payroll, but at a tremendous, and rising, cost to Island taxpayers. Eventually, in too many cases, the businesses go under, or shed workers or close up and leave the province, leaving employees without work and with few prospects for finding work. Many of these taxpayer supported businesses barely pay minimum wage and often lay off workers during lean periods, forcing them collect EI. How’s that helping the economy?
The bottom line is that governments need to launch pilot projects to find out whether the GAI lives up to its billing and if it doesn’t, to find something that does.
This week’s throne speech was an opportunity wasted.
Christmas hampers ready to roll out in Kensington
By Jim Brown. Jim Brown can be reached at peijim@hotmail.com – Originally published December 8, 2017
A woman drops by the Kensington Lions Club’s food bank and, at the urging of a food bank worker, she peers inside the pantry.
She’s a single mother with young children, struggling to make ends meet on a limited income.
“I’m looking at her and I’m wondering if there is anything wrong,” says Theresa Cousins, Chair of the Lion’s Club’s food bank committee, which will fill 70 hampers this Christmas for families throughout the Kensington fire district.
“She would not take anything. I had to make her,” said Theresa, who was told by the woman, “If someone else’s kids will go hungry, I don’t want it.”
People are very careful about taking food others, who are in more desperate straits, might use.
“They know there’s other people who have kids who are hungry.”
And that’s not an uncommon response from many who rely on the foodbank, she said.
The Kensington food bank serves residents of all ages, including a man well past retirement age whose pension leaves him with very little to live on.
“I’m thinking the first time I met him I cried…we have seniors who come in here who don’t have enough,” said Theresa.
And there are older women in the community who were homemakers for much of their lives and when their husbands died didn’t have a large pensions to sustain them, said Scott Zimmerman, treasurer of the Kensington Lion’s Club, who is also a Christmas hamper volunteer.
It’s especially sad at Christmas time, when entire families are under heavy financial strain – many parents struggling just to put food on the table, let alone presents under the tree for their children.
Elaine Chessman, right, dropped off some donated groceries to the Kensington food bank, where she was joined by Theresa Cousins, a local Lions Club member who runs the food bank and Scott Zimmerman, the club’s treasurer and a Christmas hamper volunteer. Seventy hampers will be filled for families in this area in time for Christmas
Elaine Chessman, who works at the Kensington Post office, dropped off bags of grocery supplies at the Lion’s Club on Dec 7. She’s also a volunteer with the Christmas hamper campaign.
“Every once in a while I’ll pick up a few things and donate them. This is the first time I’ve donated it to this site,” said Elaine, who had collected foodstuffs every year for the post office’s annual food drive in October.
“It’s hard to imagine that in this day and age that there are people in need. A lot of people don’t see it or realize it,” she said.
People may greet friends and neighbors every day and never realize the hardships they are facing, said Elaine.
Too many kids are also going go school without a breakfast, said Theresa Cousins.
Poverty can happen to any family, she said.
“They might have built a new home and (suddenly) the wife’s not working any more, or the husband broke his leg and (then) there is no money or somebody ends up with cancer.
“I always say every family is one paycheque away from a food bank.”
Many Islanders work in seasonal jobs and are unemployed for long stretches in the fall and winter, making it difficult to make ends meet, said Scott Zimmerman, adding Christmas hampers bring welcome cheer to needy families throughout the area.
So what’s in a Christmas hamper?
“Everything. You’ll get a turkey and there’s potatoes, there’s bread, there’s eggs, there’s milk, turnips, carrots and other vegetables – that’s the fresh stuff. And then you get the canned stuff, the soups and the sugar, peanut butter and spaghetti,” said Theresa.
The foodstuffs are placed in a banana box by up to 10 volunteers. This year the crates should be packed by Dec 19 and ready for distribution.
Everyone receiving a hamper must register with the Salvation Army in Summerside.
There have been some big changes in the way the Christmas hamper program has been run.
Years ago hampers were distributed by Lions Clubs, the Salvation Army, the Christian Council and Legions, as well as churches.
It was possible for some families to collect as many as six boxes, and although cheating didn’t happen that much it was a concern.
Now everything is coordinated through the Summerside Salvation Army.
The food bank gets very generous support from the community, including the Malpeque Bay Credit Union which provides toys and clothes.
White Gables owner has big plans for Stanley Bridge Centre, potato soap.
By Jim Brown. – Originally published November 3, 2017
Pieter Ijsselstein isn’t someone who does things by half measures. Want some proof? Well, check this out.
Pieter Ijsselstein stands next to the Stanley Bridge Centre’s door. He’s got big plans for the building after leasing it for the June to September tourist season.
Pieter has just leased the Stanley Bridge Centre from June to September for his White Gables at Hope River business and he also vastly expanded sales and markets for a very successful line of potato-based soaps. There are now close to 30 different potato soaps including lavender, coffee, peppermint, beer and sea kelp. Many of the potatoes used for production are surplus spuds that would otherwise be tossed away, so there is an environmental benefit to his potato soap business.
And he’s not stopping there.Pieter is currently lab testing potato juice to see if certain molecules can be used in the making of an effective organic, potato-based sunscreen. The potato soap line of products was introduced in April, 2016. All soap is produced nearby. “We’ve shipped to California and to Taiwan and we have interest from China,” said Pieter.
And then there’s this.
Netflix, which is carrying the latest Anne of Green Gables TV incarnation, simply called Anne, could offer them as a branded Anne of Green Gables themed product.
“There is a possibility of Netflix picking it up as a merchandise product (tied) to Anne of Green Gables. Netflix has been expanding their merchandise unit in the US market. There are several merchandise shops that are selling Netflix products,” said Pieter. In little more than a year his sales have shot up approximately four-fold and his soaps can be found in as many as 150 retail outlets, many of them on the mainland.
Mr Ijsselstein has run White Gables with his wife Geraldine for the past seven years. She’s responsible for the image of one of the world’s most iconic orphans on the soap’s packaging.
Some of the nearly 30 different types of potato soap Pieter Ijsselstein is selling to markets around the world
But potato soap is just one log Mr Ijsselstein has on a fast burning fire. Pieter has made an ‘all in’ commitment to the Stanley Bridge Centre. He expects to operate the building six days a week, eight hours a day, providing space for his burgeoning potato soap lines, as well as White Gables pottery, a new line of potato-based hand cream, for which the potato juice is organically sourced, and a wide range of organic vegetables and berries (also jams), paintings and other merchandise.
Some examples of the striking pottery that will be available to visitors next summer at the STB.
Geraldine Yesselstein, in addition to being a talented water-colour, oil and acrylic painter, is also an accomplished weaver. Look for plenty of weavings, knitted products, oil paintings, watercolour cards and much more when the doors open in June.
The Stanley Bridge Centre operated a successful farmer’s market on Wednesdays and Saturdays for the past several years and Pieter plans to continue that tradition, but with a different spin.
His daughter, who is an expert quilter based in Halifax, will be joining him in his venture.
The sign is empty now but it won’t be in the spring, when Pieter Ijsselstein opens White Gables at Hope River at the Stanley Bridge Centre.
On the day of this interview, on Oct 31, the floor was being sanded and shelves stacked along the walls. Much of the clutter in the storage room has been cleared out. There is the smell of sawdust in the air.
Many visitors from previous years who drop by the Stanley Bridge Centre over the summer will find a wide range of foods and crafts from area vendors – including cheese, honey, maple syrup, garlic, eggs and fresh vegetables. There’s room for as many as 12 to 15 vendors in his new venue, said Pieter, who is also attempting to secure history storytellers.
Mr Ijsselstein has agreed to allow the Stanley Bridge Centre’s board of directors to organize several evening concerts during the spring and summer months.
“We want to capitalize on the fact there’s lots of cars going past and that this is a historic site,” he said, adding the nearby roundabout is one of the busiest on the Island during the tourist season.
Remembering CJRW’s early days.
By Jim Brown. – Originally published October 19, 2017
CJRW was the little station in Summerside that made an outsized contribution to the lives of thousands of people in that city and much of western PEI.
Paul H. Schurman had been a part of Summerside’s pioneering AM broadcasting station for 33 years, beginning in March, 1959. His recollections of the glory days of radio in Summerside haven’t faded even after his retirement in 1992.
Paul H. Schurman, in a lighter moment, during his presentation on the history of CJRW.
Radio was the life-blood of the community, connecting everyone in Summerside and through much of western PEI.
“CJRW always took the lead in assisting people and organizations who might have fallen on hard times…fires, automobile mishaps, shootings,” said Mr Schurman, at an Oct 16 history circle on his years at CRJW, held at the Stanley Bridge Centre.
“In one stretch of time from 1975 to 1982, in nine appeal broadcasts, more than $275,000 was raised – representing an average of approximately $33,000 per appeal.”
Many loyal and talented people worked at CJRW over the years, often putting the community’s needs above their own, he said.
Mr Schurman would succeed his late brother, Robert Clayton Schurman, as the station’s owner. Robert Schurman passed away in 1973.
The Schurman family had deep roots in the station, with mom and dad Grace and Benjamin C. Schurman also helming CJRW.
Among the honour role of CJRW luminaries over the decades were Mike Gallant, Roger Ahern, John Perry, Rose Anne Gaudet, Kaye Ferguson, Phyllis McInnis, Florence Anne Cameron, Bob Schurman and his wife Lois and their son Paul M Schurman, Al Bestall, Bob Tabor, Al Nicholson, Roy Turner, Bob Johnson, Doug Ferguson, Wayne McLure, Chuck Hickey, Diane Dewar, Barb Skinner, John Burke, Roma Gallant, Allan Rankin, Grant Sonier, Ray Arsenault, Sonny Huestis, Ivan LeClair, Jean Gordon Whitlock, Lois MacDonald Clark, Fred MacFarlane, Mike Surette, Donna LeBlanc, Vivian MacPhail, Rosemary McSweeney, Nancy Boates Drummond, Whit Fraser, J.P. (Paul) Gaudet, Al Brideau, Elizabeth Logan, Mary Silliphant Kelly and Rob Millette.
There were others who shot up to the top rungs including James Murray, now based in Canada’s largest media market, Toronto, with the CBC national news. And George Matthews, a local school teacher, got his start at CRJW announcing hockey games. He went on to enjoy a very successful career that included 14 years as the voice of the NHL’s Columbus Blue Jackets.
There was also Don Cameron, who went from hockey broadcasts at CJRW to a stellar career calling games for St Catharines and Kitchener OHL teams. He retired in 2014 with 50 years of work as a sportscaster under his belt.
CJRW was the nexus of everything – providing coverage of church services and devotionals, school assemblies, Miss PEI pageants, Lobster Carnivals, Northumberland Strait swims, harness racing, hockey, boxing, baseball, curling, farming, fishing, politics – everything that touched upon the lives of Islanders.
There was even a “Hi Neighbor” weekly segment that ran for 40 years during the summer months in which tourists taking the ferry across the Strait would find themselves facing the business end of a mike held by a roving reporter.
CJRW offered local, regional, national and international news, sports and weather.
And of course, there was the music – from gospel, to swing, the big bands and jazz, to country and western, to rock.
CJRW also provided a showcase for local, emerging musical artists in the wildly popular West Prince Party Line.
The little station based in Summerside has undergone a number of format changes over the decades as well as changes in its ownership and its signal (now FM). It is currently owned by Halifax-based Maritime Broadcasting, a move Mr Schurman said hurt its identity as a “local” station.
Long before CJRW was unveiled Summerside had boasted a broadcasting station. In 1926 the new station opened. It was operated by the former department store R.T. Holman Ltd., and went by the call letters CHGS.
“CHGS stood for “Call Holman’s Guaranteed Satisfaction,” said Mr Schurman of the 100 watt outlet on the AM dial.
The then 250 watt CJRW went on the air 22 years later, on Nov 17, 1948.
Over the coming years and decades Summerside residents would rise in the morning to CJRW and would fall asleep to it.
Gordon Phillips, one of Mr Schurman’s life-long friends, brought along an audio clip of a hockey game Mr Schurman announced.
The radio was everything in those early years of Schurman’s tenure.
But by the 1980s and into the 1990s small town commercial radio was in sharp decline across Canada, including Summerside.
Staffing declined and so did the programming so many Islanders had grown up with.
“Gone is (a source) we could turn to for reliable news, sports and a variety of music. It’s a different age of commercial radio…one I would not want to be part of today or tomorrow,” said Mr Schurman.
But there is hope for a return to what radio once was, a vital part of a community’s life.
“It’s called community radio. It’s an FM signal, operated by a local non-profit organization (staffed) by volunteers and serving an area about 15 miles in radius,” he said.
With community radio it may be possible to restore much of the programming that has been lost to communities across the country, said Mr Schurman.
“Local radio can once again be a medium of community assistance, if one, someone, is prepared to expend that same commitment of years past…Perhaps you know of one or more such persons!”
Where are you going to go when you have to go in Cavendish?
By Jim Brown. – Originally published October 12, 2017
It’s October and the weather is still warm and inviting.
But if you are a tourist travelling through the Resort Municipality of Cavendish you’ll soon discover nearly everything is closed.
There is so much to see and do, especially with spectacular fields and seascapes burnished to a golden glow under a bright, early autumn sun.
It’s the perfect time for communing with Mother Nature, but what are you going to do when you have to go and everything has a padlock on it, including the public washroom facilities at the Prince Edward Island National Park?
Even gas stations have shuttered up in the resort municipality, home to just 250 permanent residents – a number that swells to more than 10,000 with the arrival of hordes of seasonal residents in the spring and summer.
On Thanksgiving weekend there was a knot of cars and people at Grandpas’s Antique Photo Studios, but once inside I was informed it, too, would be closed for the season by the end of the weekend.
Less than a week earlier I bought a coffee at a gas station near the Visitor Information Centre, only to be told it would be closed the next day.
So if you want to enjoy the Great Outdoors – to kayak, canoe, hike or ride a bicycle through the area, visitors better make sure they have a strong bladder, or be prepared to do their business behind a bush or a tree. God help them if they have to do more than sprinkle the bushes.
A businessperson actually brought the issue to my attention, otherwise it would have never occurred to me.
Just imagine you are an elderly couple driving through in a rented car trying to catch the sights of an enchanted part of the world, at a time of the year when you are far less likely to be confronted by screaming kids and their harried parents and thousands of inebriated country music festival goers – not to mention chubby. thong-wearing beachcombers.
What if you got a deal on an overseas flight to travel to PEI during the shoulder season, but you don’t know much about the area you are visiting other than it’s an incredibly beautiful and largely unspoiled part of the country?
Imagine what it must feel like to have that sense of urgency as you drive past cottage after cottage and many restaurants, stores and other commercial establishments, only to find they are all closed?
I’m sure many visitors in the fall would be gobsmacked to hear there are more than 650 cottages in the resort municipality, with three new developments poised to deliver 82 additional cottages over the next couple of years or so.
And take a wild guess how many of those 82 cottages would be open past Labour Day?
If I were in their shoes and searching desperately for a public washroom I wouldn’t feel so inclined to make a return visit.
If visitors like the idea of enjoying Mother Nature on their own terms, especially if they are recently retired and afflicted with the travel bug, they will probably find Prince Edward Island a welcome respite from mass shootings, floods, tornadoes, hurricanes, wildfires and crazed politicians.
But I’m reminded of a line from an old Seinfeld episode. In that episode Elaine had rushed into a public bathroom and hoisted herself onto a toilet, only to learn from the bathroom’s only other occupant that she didn’t have “a square to spare.”
PEI has enjoyed four straight record-smashing tourism seasons, with Cavendish drawing a lion’s share of the visitors. Tourism is booming around the world and many more tourists are choosing to travel in the fall.
The resort municipality could be a big beneficiary of those changes.
But, seriously, if tourist operators want to get more people into the Resort Municipality of Cavendish in the shoulder season they better make sure there are more places to go once they get here.
First council meeting draws less than overflow crowd
By Jim Brown. – Originally published September 20, 2017
I have to admit I was a bursting with curiosity when I attended a monthly council meeting in Cavendish recently.
It had been so long since I had last covered a meeting as a journalist on the hunt for headline grabbing stories.
What captured my attention the very first minute I walked into the resort municipality’s boardroom at the Visitor Information Centre was the lack of places to sit.
I squinted at the sight of four padded chairs. Then I squinted again. My eyes must be deceiving me. Really, only four?
But that will barely address the media presence, I thought. Where are the throngs of spectators going to sit? Good thing I got here early.
So I helped myself to coffee from the pot, making sure I didn’t fill my cup to the brim in case there wasn’t enough for late arrivals and after a few friendly introductions the meeting was underway at just a couple of minutes after the appointed time of 5 pm.
Right off the bat I saw councilors were intent on getting down to business. They had a long list of items to get through, 43 at my count, and little time to waste.
So where were the reporters and members of the public?
Surely they’ll arrive some time soon? After all, big ticket residential and business developments were going to be talked about as well as boardwalk repairs, lights, signage and a host of other items.
A good 20 minutes in I realized I would be the lone spectator. Good, that means I can get another cup of coffee.
So Council is underway and I glance at the agenda and my eye is drawn to something I’ve never noticed before at other meetings.
Each report is allocated a fixed number of minutes and a time window. For instance – the signage bylaw report in the Business Arising from Minutes section is allocated two minutes and runs from 6:38 pm to 6:40 pm. Another item in the Business Arising from Minutes section, a report on internet servicing, is given exactly three minutes – from 6:35 pm to 6:38 pm.
In New Business, the bike lane on Cavendish Road gets two minutes (6:58 pm to 7 pm).
The biggest block of time, at 31 minutes, was set aside for Planning Board/Signage, comprised of two items: bond releases for the Cavendish Beach Music Festival and Orchard View Cottages.
Are these councillors efficiency experts or what? House of Commons parliamentary committees should send representatives down to take notes. I also think Province House could learn a thing or two about good time management. Come to think of it so could just about every council I ever covered in 30 plus years of journalism.
For the record here are the people who sit on the Resort Municipality of Stanley Bridge, Hope River, Bayview, Cavendish and North Rustico. Matthew Jelley chairs the resort municipality, with Linda Lowther the vice-chair and strategic development chair, while the councilors are Edmond Richard, David Gauthier, Kathleen Benoit-Hryckiw, Gwen Wyand and George Clark-Dunning. Brenda MacDonald is the chief administrative officer.
I’m sure many of the 250 or so people who dwell in the resort municipality year round know who their councillors are – they just have better things to do when council business is discussed. Maybe they’re watching Compass or a rerun of Murdoch Mysteries or something on Netflix.
I have to admit I was really curious to see how long it would take them to get through the Cavendish Sewer Utility report (three minutes allocated) or the Route 13 Crosswalk item (two minutes) or the Swimming Rock Infilling (part of a 10 minute report on trails and paths).
I checked my watch when the meeting concluded only a few minutes past the appointed hour of 7:10 pm.
I remain confident attendance will be vastly increased at the next meeting. If not, maybe I’ll get to drink an extra cup of coffee.
Sept 22 auction had something for everyone
Originally published September 25, 2017
There were some great deals to be had at the Sept 22 fundraising auction held at the Stanley Bridge Centre. Included in the items were four black and white prints of Winston Churchill’s last state visit to Canada in the early 1950s. In one of the photos auctioneer Dennis Lowther shared a lighter moment hoisting an unusual handbag. Money from the sale of hundreds of items donated by residents and business owners will be directed to the SBC’s building fund, to be used for the construction of a new foundation for the former United Church as well as other improvements. The Stanley Bridge Centre would like to thank Mr Lowther for generously providing his services free of charge.
Photos by Jim Brown.
Jim Brown can be reached at peijim@hotmail.com
A Rousing Show
The first concert of September kicked off at the Stanley Bridge Centre Sept 17 with a rousing performance before an appreciative crowd by The Just For Fun Band, fiddler Jason Campbell, Denton MacSwain, saw-player Brad Fremlin and others. The two hour show set a lofty standard for other shows to follow later in the season. Proceeds from the performance will support the Stanley Bridge Centre’s Building Fund.
Photos by Jim Brown.
Jim Brown can be reached at peijim@hotmail.com
Splatter Paint Fun
Kids and their parents visiting the recently opened Lupin Studio and Gift Shop on the Stanley Bridge wharf were in for a treat Sunday, Aug 27 – the last day of the 15th annual River Days Festival.
Kids got to work with paint and splash it around during the free workshop, having a great deal of fun in the process. Lupin Studio and Gift Shop is operated by co-owners Elizabeth Campbell and Natalie Slater.
During the two hour session kids received an introduction to potato stamp art and they also got to engage in an exercise where the paint flew everywhere, called splatter painting.
There were lots of smiles, giggles and laughs – a sure sign participating kids were in the early stages of becoming life long art lovers.
Photos by Jim Brown.
Jim Brown can be reached at peijim@hotmail.com
Two-year-old Kate Morrissey, with co-owner Elizabeth Campbell, was one of the younger children visiting the Lupin Studio and Gift Shop Sunday.
Evangeline Sawchuk, six, flashes a gap-toothed smile during the splatter painting session.
Natalie Slater passes on some artistic pointers to Claire Morrissey.
Claire Morrissey, six, dabs her brush into brightly colored paint during a splatter painting session. Not all of the paint made it to her paper.
River Days photos from Saturday, Aug 26
The River Days Festival was in full swing on Saturday in bracing, late summer weather. Dozens of illuminated boats glided under the Stanley River bridge at the wharf to loud cheers, followed by an impressive fireworks display. Earlier youngsters took turns diving off the bridge into the water, many leaping under the watchful eye of their parents. In the morning and early afternoon the Stanley Bridge Centre’s farmer’s market drew a heavy crush of visitors. Awards were to be handed out to the best jumpers throughout the day on Sunday, the final day of the three day festival.
Photos by Jim Brown.
Jim Brown can be reached at peijim@hotmail.com
The Stanley Bridge wharf was filled with spectators watching bridge jumpers plunge into the water.
A youngster enjoys her Smarties donut from one of the Stanley Bridge Centre’s vendors, Samuel’s coffee house.
Splashing jumpers, of all ages, enjoyed a dip in the Stanley River.
A young girl and her father watched the parade of boats Saturday evening.
Passengers were in a celebratory mood as their vessel passed under the Stanley River bridge at the wharf.
Dozens of brightly lit vessels glided under the Stanley River bridge for the parade of boats shortly after 8:30 pm – one of the most popular events of River Days.
Bringing the house down
Photos from the Aug 13 Roy MacCaull, Marcella Richard and Larry Campbell performance at the Stanley Bridge Centre. The talented trio, which played largely original music, cast a spell over an appreciative hand-clapping, foot-stomping crowd for the two hour set. If you missed them this time around you will still have a chance to catch them at the SBC. They will likely be back next summer.
Jim Brown photos.
Jim Brown can be reached at peijim@hotmail.com
Marco Polo resurfaces at SBC history circle
Originally published July 27, 2017
Its sinking is still talked about at many Island dining tables nearly a century and a half later.
The three-masted 184-foot long Marco Polo, once the fastest sailing vessel on the seas, was deliberately run aground by its captain near the Cavendish beach dunes 134 years ago on July 25, 1883. Miraculously, nobody died that day though the ship was battered by heavy gales.
A history circle on the Marco Polo was held at the Stanley Bridge Centre on the same date. The session was led by Philip Gallant, whose late father Tommy Gallant discovered the submerged ship in 120 feet of water in 1959 and salvaged anchors and other materials from the vessel, as did Philip. Mr Gallant was joined by a large crowd which included Tommy’s widow Anita Gallant and Warren Grove resident David Thomson who crafted a beautiful seaworthy model of the Marco Polo with wood recovered from the actual ship.
Philip Gallant, standing in front of a Queen-size quilt, kept a packed crowd enthralled with his hour long presentation.
“I hope my son and daughter and their offspring will also have some involvement with the ship,” said Philip Gallant.
Up to 25 per cent of Australians can trace their family roots back to the Marco Polo, which brought thousands of passengers there from North America, he said.
Philip said his father Tommy tried to earn a sustainable income through salvage work and then organizing chartered trips for divers. He has happy memories of growing up in a yard filled with memorabilia from the ship.
“It’s always been a great pleasure to learn about the ship and have many discussions with people from all over the world, from as far away as Australia,” he said.
“The site of the wreck is now a national historic site and is protected as such…I hope the stories never die.”
Wood planking, brass pins and bolts, anchor chains, copper fittings and lead pipes have been recovered over the years.
One of the larger items, the ship’s storm anchor, which weighed 3,500 pounds, was eventually sold by Tommy Gallant to industrialist K.C. Irving for $800.
When it was a passenger ship the Marco Polo could carry close to a thousand passengers, and it weighed 1,625 tonnes.
David Thomson, standing beside his magnificent seaworthy model of the Marco Polo he built in 2005.
David Thomson holding a book on the Marco Polo.
Attendees viewed the Marco Polo exhibit.
There were lots of newspaper articles, books and several items from the doomed Marco Polo itself to prick the interest of attendees.
Story and photos by Jim Brown.
Jim Brown can be reached at peijim@hotmail.com
Stanley Bridge Centre hosts tomorrow’s business leaders
They are the Bill Gates, Steve Jobs and Warren Buffets of tomorrow.
Young Millionaires, some as young as eight, have been displaying their entrepreneurial smarts at the Stanley Bridge Centre’s farmer’s market since its opening on July 5.
Among this year’s crop of budding business owners are jewelry handcrafters, scarf, bracelet and candleholder makers, bath fizz makers, coaster designers, landscape photography artists and flying stick manufacturers. The list of products offered to customers is seemingly endless.
Anyone wishing to participate in this exciting program can fill out a registration form online at www.ymppei.com.
Want to see tomorrow’s titans of the business world in action? Why not drop by the SBC’s farmers markets, running Wednesdays and Saturdays, 9 am to 1 pm.
Story and photos by Jim Brown.
Jim Brown can be reached at peijim@hotmail.com
A fragrant business
Meet the Stanley Bridge Centre’s newest vendor, Helene Bouchard, who sells lavender from her decorative, specially designed bike. She’s one of only a handful of commercial producers on the Island.
Bouchard grows her plants on her 1.5 acre property on the Rattenbury Road. She sells them at markets, stores and restaurants around the area including the SBC’s farmer’s market.
Yes, restaurants.
The flowers and herbs are quite tasty and can provide flavor and texture to a wide variety of prepared dishes and snacks including soups, stews, salads and cookies. And of course lavender can be brewed in tea.
Bouchard said growing the aromatic plant requires much patience, adding it’s taken two years of cultivation to get her plants to the harvest stage.
“You have to be very patient, because everything is done by hand. It’s cut by hand and grown by hand.”
And all without the use of any chemicals.
“Lavender very useful in different areas – antiseptic, anti-inflammatory…you can cook with it, you can keep anxiety away, so it has a lot of purposes.”
It’s very easy to grow, “but you do have to like to work all the time because it takes a lot of maintenance and cutting and taking care of the bushes,” she said.
It wasn’t exactly a straight line to the lavender cultivation business.
“I come from the classical world of dance and training, but I did study in the flower business because of all my family’s background. So it’s in my genes but it wasn’t something I was doing professionally. I did something else but I had to retire. So this is my second career.”
On Wednesday, July 12 she wheeled her bike to the Stanley Bridge Centre and set up shop on the lawn outside the door – displaying her cut lavender in a basket at the front of her bike.
Later she took her bike indoors, where she was immediately surrounded by knots of people, including several young children.
Helene, who built her home on the Rattenbury Road before launching into her lavender business, hopes to be at the SBC this summer on a regular basis. Why not drop by (Saturdays and Wednesday’s, 9 am to 1 pm) and catch a glimpse of what the lavender business is all about?
Story and photos by Jim Brown.
Jim Brown can be reached at peijim@hotmail.com
Lady Singers deliver the hits
The Stanley Bridge Centre’s parking lot was packed half an hour before the curtain lifted and space had to be utilized at the nearby WI to accommodate the crush of ticket-holders Sunday, July 9 to see Lady Singers of Our Century. Truly gifted performers Colleen MacPhee, Joan Reeves, Judy MacGregor, Jolee Patkai and Keila Glydon tripped merrily down memory lane, taking us along for the ride.
They knocked it out of the park with songs from the playlists of Tanya Tucker, Linda Ronstadt, Rita MacNeil, Patsy Cline and others. Not to mention a dizzying swirl of costume changes, all handled seamlessly. Didn’t get a ticket to the July 9 show? Don’t worry, you will still get a chance to see them at the SBC. Lady Singers of Our Century will be back for an encore performance at 7:30 pm, Sunday, Aug 13.
Story and photos by Jim Brown.
Jim Brown can be reached at peijim@hotmail.com
SBC doors swing open on another farmer’s market season.
Wednesday, July 5 was the opening day of the farmer’s market season at the Stanley Bridge Centre and vendors were greeted with a steady stream of visitors enticed by tasty delicacies, outstanding local artists and artisans and entrepreneurial youngsters under the banner of the Young Millionaires. There were also several new vendors including Samuel’s Coffee House and By the River Bakery and Cafe, of Hunter River. The Stanley Bridge Centre’s farmers markets will run all summer, every Wednesday and Saturday, 9 am to 1 pm.
Samuel’s Coffee House was a welcome addition to the lineup of vendors at this year’s farmer’s market.
A steady flow of visitors greeted vendors on the opening of the farmer’s market.
Not all vendors’ booths were set up indoors. This young entrepreneur enjoyed the sun while selling bundles of firewood.
Young Millionaires display some of their products.
The first official day of the farmer’s market drew many people, young and old, to the Stanley Bridge Centre.
Young Millionaires stand next to a beautiful Queen-size quilt marking the 150th anniversary of Canada and featuring exquisitely designed cascading Maple Leafs. The quilt was made by a talented group of Charlottetown quilters.
Lots of delicious treats were prepared on the spot by By the River vendors.
By the River Bakery and Cafe was a new vendor at this market, with the owners drawing many visitors to their table.
Story and photos by Jim Brown.
Jim Brown can be reached at peijim@hotmail.com
Auctioneer shows how to empty a building real fast.
Auctioneer Dennis Lowther, who generously donated his services, made brisk work of hundreds of items up for sale at the Stanley Bridge Centre’s live auction on Friday, June 16.
Watching Dennis at work was like watching a pro athlete at the top of his game. Items flew off racks and tables and out the door into cars and trucks, causing more than a few suspensions to sag. Everything went – from gift cards to boxed barbecues to dining sets, paintings, jackets, coats, suitcases and hockey jerseys, to bags of railway spikes and fashion accessories to plush toys, stacks of books and golf clubs. They were all snapped up by eager bidders, who often walked away with eye-popping bargains. Many items were purchased for dimes and even pennies on the dollar.
Money from the event, which drew a good turnout, will be used to help pay for a new foundation for the former United Church and move the building to another part of the property so it can access water and sewer services.
Among the many items snapped up in the auction was a hockey stick autographed by Ottawa Senator blueliner Dion Phaneuf.
Story and photos by Jim Brown.
Jim Brown can be reached at peijim@hotmail.com
Dream ends for owner of Bedeque’s Village Store.
Pop, chips, DVDs, milk, chocolate bars, bread, newspapers, ice cream, lottery tickets and postal services – all the essentials of life in cottage country.
And that’s what family members and visitors to the Brown summer cottage in Fernwood relied on from Bedeque’s Village Store.
It was also the source of many happy memories.
For more than 20 years, ever since the cottage was purchased, the Village Store was there when we needed it.
The first clue something was amiss came when I was driving past the store on Victoria Day and I didn’t see the trademark “World’s Greatest Ice Cream” sign out front.
“Very curious,” I thought, as I turned back and parked nearby.
Then I looked more closely at the façade – it was weathered and fading and the windows were papered over.
I thought to myself, they’ve closed it for Victoria Day, but isn’t it always open on Victoria Day? It appeared to be sealed up tighter than a mummy’s tomb. The Village Store looked like it hadn’t been open for months.
And, truth be told, it hadn’t.
One of the most recognized buildings in all of Bedeque had been closed as of February 13. How did I know the precise date?
After spending two hours in Fernwood opening the cottage for the season with my sister, her husband and my nephew, I was on my way back home to Stanley Bridge when I passed the store again. I saw someone with a truck, who had opened the building’s front door and was removing materials from inside.
Being a curious person I just had to stop again and ask if he knew what was happening to my beloved store.
It turned out the person I had bumped into was Erik Gerlund, 56, who had bought the store in September and was forced to shutter it just two weeks shy of six months.
Village Store owner Erik Gerlund.
Gerlund knows all about dreams, having worked in the dream factory for much of his life as a successful set designer and artistic director for numerous film and TV productions including popular shows such as Lucifer, The Dead Zone, Eureka and Smallville.
From Vancouver BC, he had never lived in PEI before and on a whim visited the province and immediately fell in love with the Island and then the community of Bedeque and then the iconic corner store, which was for sale at the time.
Of course, the dream of owning a small country store in a small village more often than not does not have a happy ending. Bludgeoned by larger retail outlets which could afford to sell larger volumes of products at lower prices, the odds were stacked against him from the start.
And the revenues from a small population are just not enough to offset the costs of running a store.
“Just to maintain the building for electricity and for your insurances runs between $1,350 and $1,500. We never turned a profit in any one of those six months,” said Erik.
His catchment area numbers 95 homes, not enough to sustain an operation on a year-long basis.
“People only have so much money in their pocket,” he said.
Gerlund figured he needed $500,000 in yearly revenues just to break even and he never came close to that.
“Some people are very upset and I understand. I didn’t want to close it. I (ran) it as tight as I could but we simply didn’t have the volume locally to make the numbers work.”
Now Gerlund is gutting it, and turning it into a home for himself and his mother, now 80.
“I still have the World’s Greatest Ice Cream sign,” he joked.
“There’s a lot of history to this building,” he said wistfully, adding the front part was 148 years old.
Of course there had been many add-ons over the decades.
Gerlund doesn’t anticipate making many structural changes that will drastically affect its appearance and, in fact, he wants to burnish its historic roots.
He allowed there is a chance once he’s done some more renovations it could yet be sold to someone else harboring the same dream he had – to run a country store in a picturesque village in an enchanting province.
Gerlund offers some blunt, practical advice to anyone considering buying the Village Store building as a full service country store – “Open it just for the season – June through September. In the summer months you get tourists, the people who go to the beach, you get the fishermen. That makes sense. Yes, you can turn a profit, but in the winter months when the sidewalks have been folded up it’s a real challenge,” he said.
I think many who own cottages or permanent homes in the Bedeque area will miss the charming store with the World’s Greatest Ice Cream sign out front.
It just won’t be the same without it.
Story and photos by Jim Brown.
Jim Brown can be reached at peijim@hotmail.com
Setting out for the lobster fishing grounds.
Close to 70 vessels left the port of North Rustico for lobster fishing grounds on the opening day of the spring lobster fishery. The weather was good, with only a slight drizzle and mild temperatures, although some fishermen were saying the water was likely to be cold during the first few days and the lobsters would not be moving much, making it harder to catch them. All the vessels had left the port before 6 am. Dozens of family, friends and onlookers were at the wharf for setting day. All told, nearly a thousand vessels were expected to head out to lobster grounds from PEI ports.
Story and photos by Jim Brown.
Jim Brown can be reached at peijim@hotmail.com
Job Fair draws large crowd.
Close to 40 business operators set up their booths at the Stanley Bridge Country Resort on Saturday, April 22 and they were impressed with the turnout of job seekers. Many of the tourism-related businesses were from the Stanley Bridge, Cavendish and Rustico area.
Story and photos by Jim Brown
Jim Brown can be reached at peijim@hotmail.com
Fighting pests without chemicals.
It’s mid-April and snow is fast disappearing across the Island.
Many thoughts are turning from snowshoes and snow shovels to the start of gardening season and the inevitable invasion of garden-ravaging pests.
Millvale environmentalist Sharon Labchuk, former leader of the PEI Green Party, says toxic chemicals aren’t necessary to dispatch most pests. It can be done naturally, in ways that protect wildlife, human health, the soil, the water and the air. She should know, she’s been gardening chemical-free for 40 years.
Less than a week ago much of her 50-acre property was covered in hip-deep snow, but heavy rains have come and washed much of the snow away. Now several plants she has carefully tended in trays indoors, near a large picture window, are ready for planting. She hopes to have the earth turned on her garden by the end of the month.
Labchuk says it all starts with the soil. Poor soils mean poorly nourished plants which are deprived of the nutrients they need to make them strong enough to fight off insect pests and disease organisms.
PEI’s soils are sandy and need all the help they can get to store nutrients efficiently. But that doesn’t mean dumping manure on them, she stressed.
“If you add organic matter it gets consumed so fast. It’s a constant battle to keep plants healthy,” said Labchuk.
“Adding too much manure can cause stunted or even dead plants because phosphorous builds up in the soil and may not go away for years. It’s better to add organic matter to the soil in the form of plants, like compost, mulch or a cover crop,” said Labchuk, who collects large amounts of seaweed from the nearby North Shore.
“If I go to the beach I always take bags with me.”
Adding a cover crop is an ideal way for gardeners to enrich their soil.
“I use winter rye and plant it before the middle of September and it will grow into the fall.”
Winter rye can grow to six inches tall and in the spring it can be grown a bit more before being turned over into the soil where it can rot for a couple of weeks before planting begins, giving the soil the valuable nutrients, such as nitrogen, necessary to support healthy plants.
“Or you could also take a section of the garden, use it for a cover crop and don’t plant anything (else) for a year,” she said.
“It’s never a good idea to leave the soil bare,” explained Labchuk.
A thick mulch of organic material, such as straw, seaweed, dried leaves and dried grass clippings not only helps conserve soil moisture and improve the soil itself, it also provides habitat for important beneficial creatures, such as spiders and ground beetles.
“They’ll help control populations of Colorado potato beetles, cabbage worms, cutworms, slugs, aphids and other insects that eat your garden plants.”
There are other things that can done, too, to improve the odds of a productive, abundant garden.
For instance, barriers around plants can block insects from getting through and laying eggs that can have a devastating impact on harvests.
“Carrots are plagued by the carrot rust fly,” said Labchuk.
“I’ve got them in my garden. The small fly lays an egg in the soil and the maggot (that emerges) burrows into the carrot.”
The damage is easy to spot. It’s sort of a rusty tunnel damage when the fly burrows into the surface of the carrot and then right through it.”
The larva leaves “a mess behind” in the form of excrement or “poop” inside the carrot, said Labchuk.
“It doesn’t look good, it doesn’t taste good and it promotes rot if you store it in your cellar. It will attack anything in the carrot family (such as) parsnips and dill.”
The solution? Cover the carrots with garden fabric. Labchuk has used two to three foot high plastic fences. Since the adult pest can’t fly higher than two feet it is effectively blocked.
Of course nothing beats getting down on your knees and hand picking eggs left on the undersides of leaves, and crawling insects. That’s especially the case with the Colorado potato beetle, which she argues only becomes an issue when a commercial potato field is in operation close to people’s homes and gardens.
If potatoes aren’t harvested commercially nearby that greatly lessens the odds of potato beetles showing up in a hobby gardener’s plot, she said.
“Learn their life cycle. The beetle lays eggs in big masses. They are bright orange and super-visible. And you just take your fingers and rub them (eggs) between the leaves and crush them,” said Labchuk.
The same applies to other insect infestations.
If the Colorado beetle eggs (or other insect pest eggs) have hatched, all is not lost. Just go to your gardening store and buy a certified organic spray called Bt.
“There’s a Bt spray for potatoes and a Bt spray for everything else,” she said.
Bt is a commercial form of bacteria. When it is sprayed on the plant the caterpillar ingests the bacteria when consuming the plant. The bacteria crystalizes in the pest’s stomach, killing it.
But Sharon acknowledges that humans don’t always win against garden pests and that there’s no shame in admitting defeat from time to time.
“If you have a crop failure once in a while, so be it,” she said.
“Sometimes the potatoes get so blighted you don’t get any (to harvest). So I don’t have potatoes that winter. Big deal,” said Labchuk.
“You can’t go around poisoning yourself, the soil, the things that live in the soil, the birds possibly, just because you feel you want to have a crop that year.
“We’re not talking about a ‘life or death’ situation. You can go to the grocery store,” she said.
Story and photos by Jim Brown
Jim Brown can be reached at peijim@hotmail.com