South Coast Today - municipality of shelburne

Provincial funding for "state-of-the-art" medical clinic announced

Timothy Gillespie — Fri, 28 Aug 2015 19:55:35 +0000

300% of original commitment by McNeil government

ER closures to continue?

A much-needed new clinic for Shelburne-area residents will soon enter the final stages of development, according to an announcement in Shelburne Friday.

Premier Stephen McNeil announced that the Nova Scotia government will contribute $1.65 million to renovate the old health clinic on the Roseway Hospital property. The new facility will now be referred to as a "primary health-care collaborative centre" and will have a team of family physicians and other health professionals.

The Municipality of Shelburne has committede $450,000 to the project and the Town of Shelburne pledged $100,000, in addition to funds promised by the Roseway Hospital Charitable Foundation.

The project, says the release, will move into the final design phase, with construction expected to begin next spring.

"It's about time," Pubnico-Barrington MLA and former health minister Chris d'Entrement told SCT. "This will be a long road. Getting new doctors here will not happen overnight."

"The community played a key role in identifying the need for a modern primary health-care facility," said Bob Legere, chair of the Roseway Hospital Charitable Foundation, today, Aug. 28. "Our foundation is pleased to join the Municipality and Town of Shelburne and the province in giving local people an opportunity to play a part in bringing this new health centre another step towards reality."

"The community was clear about their expectations for this facility, and the government listened and acted," said Premier Stephen McNeil. "We are working to ensure Nova Scotians have access to the right care at the right place, at the right time."

Health and Wellness Minister Leo Glavine said the group effort made the new clinic and its approach possible.

Glavine also noted that there will be no changes made in the emergency room at Roseway Hospital. A Shelburne resident who asked not to be named told SCT "this probably means that we will continue to have the rash of ER closures we have seen recently."

Shelburne mayor Karen Mattatall told the assembled crowd that she hoped that this announcement meant that area residents would receive the level of health care guaranteed by the Canadian Health Care Act.

"Young doctors and health professionals are telling me they want to work in collaborative care clinics like this one," said Mr. Glavine. "The community and governments worked hard to make this clinic a reality, and I'd like to thank everyone for their strong advocacy and support."

"This clinic will help us provide the types of care residents need early on, which will help them stay healthy and, in some cases, may help them avoid the emergency room," said Janet Knox, CEO of the Nova Scotia Health Authority. "It will also be a great recruitment tool as we work to attract more physicians, nurses and other health professionals to the Shelburne area."

The clinic will also include space for family medicine residents from Dalhousie University on residency placement in Shelburne.

Glavine referred to the new facility as a "teaching" facility, which was news to other participants in the announcement.

The project has been six years in the making, which has drawn ctiticism from Municipality of Shelburne warden Roger Taylor, who has previously accused health department officials of bungling the process

A 2011 announcement described the project as a more traditional doctor's office. It did not include space for health teams working together or residents who are part of the family medicine residency program.

The province had originally committed $429,000 to the project, but as it evolved, more investments were needed for the design and scope.

In a news release, the Municipality of Shelburne says it welcomes the significant investment announced today by Premier McNeil and Minister Glavine to enhance what they describe as "our community medical clinic." The project, says the release, "represents a major plank in our commitment to improve health care for the residents of greater Shelburne."

The release says that the Municipality was the first government to commit funds to the project and that they are pleased that the Province has announced their partnership today. Warden Taylor said, "For three years it was not clear if this project was even a priority for the previous District Health Authority or the Province. In our first meeting three months ago with Minister Glavine, after being briefed by Council on the project, he committed that this project would become a priority for him and his Department, and we are pleased he kept that commitment."

The new medical clinic, according to the release, gives the region a new and important tool to recruit doctors, nurses, and nurse practitioners. "These are priorities for us given that Shelburne County remains one of the most under serviced areas in the province. We must also recruit for pending family doctor retirements."

"We look forward to working with the Nova Scotia Health Authority to build the clinic as soon as possible."

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$2 million Shelburne Medical Clinic announcement expected Friday

Timothy Gillespie — Wed, 26 Aug 2015 19:59:30 +0000

Politicians in Shelburne County have apparently received an invitation to an announcement Friday by Premier Stephen McNeil about the status of the proposed Shelburne Medical Centre.

The news release from the Health Department referred to the announcement of a "Medical Clinic", and government sources say that the announcement will be for an up-graded clinic, but will not include plans discussed over the past months for a Collaborative Emergency Centre (CEC) in Shelburne.

The premier and Health minister Leo Glavine are expected to announce that the enhanced clinic will cost more than $2 million to complete, but department sources wouyld not elaborate about what portion of that would be paid by the government. Previous media stories have pegged the provincial portion at $648,000.

The Municipality of Shelburne has committed $450,000 to the project and the Town has committed $100,000.

Shelburne Town Councilor Roy O'Donnell told SCT that, while the announcement about the clinic ending the six-year delay in rebuilding the clinic is good news, he would have been happier to hear an announcement about a CEC.

"The CEC system can deliver emergency and primary care," O'Donnell said, "and could have an advanced care paramedic on site to alleviate some of the Emergency Room closures which have become all to common lately."

Recently, a Shelburne native and successful businessman walked away from months of discussions with the Department about a possible private/public partnership in creating a CEC at a downtown location in Shelburne.

Last week in a news release, the Municipality urged the Department of Health to "build on the momentum of recent discussions and reach a final decision soon on fully funding the new primary care medical clinic for Shelburne."

CAO Kirk Cox said, "As a full funding partner of the project, the Municipality has been leading discussions with the Department of Health and the Minister of Health, Leo Glavine since the formation of the new Nova Scotia Health Authority to advocate for the project and to overcome any obstacles that remained in order for the Department to approve the $1.6 million funding request.

In the past few weeks, added Cox, the Municipality has met with the Minister, NSHA CEO Janet Knox, and several other senior officials in aggressive strategy to get the project approved and to begin the construction phase.

"Discussions have been positive and considerable headway has been made," he added. "The Municipality now feels it is time to move forward with the project and begin construction.

According to Cox, the Municipality believes a new clinic will aid in physician recruitment and will enable current doctors to practice with more modern equipment and systems.

The announcement will take place at 11 a.m., at the clinic, 1606 Lake Rd., Shelburne.

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Avalon receives low share price notice as it proceeds with East Kemptville project

Timothy Gillespie — Thu, 06 Aug 2015 16:38:24 +0000

Short selling affects price
Avalon Rare Metals Inc. announced Thursday that it has received a notice from the New York Stock Exchange regarding its low stock price listing. Avalon recently announced that it was moving forward on a multi-million dollar tin and indium mining exploration at its East Kemptville location. The $.46 stock price is down 16% year-to-date, 64% in the past 12 months and 90% in the past three years. For several months in 2015, the stock was being sold short on the market, which some analysts say can lead to a depressed price.

The NYSE letter said in part, "... it has been deemed to be not in compliance with the continued listing standards of the Exchange. Pursuant to Section 1003(f)(v) of the Exchange's Company Guide, the Company's continued listing is contingent upon the Company effecting a share consolidation within a reasonable period of time or upon a sustained increase in its share price." A potential share consolidation, if required, will need to be approved by the Company's shareholders at the Company's next annual general meeting currently planned for February, 2016, according to Avalon.

200 possible jobs
In June, the firm announced the start of a $1.3 million work program on the East Kemptville Project. The program will involve 2,000 metres of diamond drilling, metallurgical process testwork and preliminary environmental studies. This work will generate the data required to complete a Preliminary Economic Assessment ("PEA") by November, 2015, CEO Don Burbar told SCT in an exclusive interview that drilling was scheduled to commence in early July and be completed in September with initial results expected in late August.

The drilling program, said Bubar, will increase confidence in mineral resources in both the Main and Baby Zones, collect fresh sample material for bench-scale metallurgical process testwork and test two exploration targets (Duck Pond and South Grid) where there are encouraging results from historical drilling. Bubar expects that a fully-operating mine would produce 200 or more full-time jobs in the area.

Shipping from Shelburne or Yarmouth
Bubar told SCT that he and senior Avalon executives have met with officials in Yarmouth and Shelburne regarding the shipping routes for the hundreds of tonnes of minerals from the mine to processing plants in the USA. Municipality of Shelburne CAO Kirk Cox, who met with Bubar earlier this month, told SCT that the Municipality would cooperate in any way possible to assist Avalon in any attempt to ship the ore through the Port of Shelburne.

Ring road possible?
Avalon officials met with the Port Authority Committee some weeks ago to inform them about the progress with the project. Committee member and Shelburne Town councilor Rick Davis told SCT that the meeting was a positive one and that he sensed an appetite by Avalon the ship the ore from Shelburne. During the early stahes of the White Rock mine - also in East Kemptville - there were discussions about building a "ring" road to the Marine Terminal to avoid heavy truck traffic in the Town core.

Davis said that officials with the Department of Transportation were advised by Town officials recently to consider the prospect of increased truck traffic on the "tin mine" road, before they made final decisions about resurfacing that thoroughfare.

An Avalon news release says that bench-scale metallurgical test work has been initiated at a laboratory in the UK with expertise in processing similar tin ores. This program is designed to evaluate the metallurgical process flowsheet from grinding through to copper and zinc sulphide flotation to tin recovery by both gravity and flotation methods. It is anticipated that advances in process technology achieved since the 1980s will result in improved recoveries to all three concentrates and also confirm the presence of significant indium in the zinc concentrate. This work is targeted for completion in September, 2015 and is required to better define expected metal recoveries and concentrate grades for the PEA.

Bubar told SCT that an increased market for tin has made the project an increasingly desirable one for Avalon and that the demand for indium steadily increasing.

Another aspect of the project Bubar is pursuing is a possible partnership with the Truro Agricultural College or St. Mary's University on a system to mitigate any unfavourable environmental consequences from the tailings produced by the mining operation. He told SCT that there are techniques in use in some projects which result in land previously mined being converted to high-quality farmland for agricultural use.

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Scrap internet use cap, Shelburne Muni tells Eastlink and Stephen McNeil

Timothy Gillespie — Tue, 14 Jul 2015 15:04:48 +0000

Nova Scotia Premier Stephen McNeil says Eastlink is adding "insult to injury" by charging customers more for poor service in some areas. (CBC)
Usage clawback counterproductive and insulting
After Eastlink’s recent announcement to cap rural Internet Service the Municipality of Shelburne is calling on Eastlink to immediately kill the cap and invest in the service to meet existing standard household Internet requirements, according to a news release Tuesday.

MODS CAO Kirk Cox said the Municipality of Shelburne issued and open letter to Eastlink CEO, Lee Bragg this morning. “If Eastlink has any sense of commitment to rural communities, it must reinvest in the system to bring it to at least the levels of service seen in northern Nova Scotia,” the Municipality said to Eastlink. “And finally, you must kill the cap.”

The Municipality also wrote to Premier Stephen McNeil (who recently said the Eastlink decision "adds insult to injury") to seek a joint solution to address the severe Internet deficiencies in rural southern Nova Scotia. “As we try to grow our communities it is insulting and counterproductive to claw back high speed Internet capacity.” The Municipality is asking the Premier to use his government’s leverage to encourage Eastlink to make the necessary investments or remove the company from the region and introduce a competitor under the condition that the service be upgraded to 5 Mbps.

Eastlink has publicly announced that all households under their rural program will have a monthly usage cap of 15 GB. This prevents residents outside of town centers from using the Internet in many normal standard circumstances, including video and audio streaming, e-commerce, and working from a home office. Comparatively, Seaside, in Northern Nova Scotia, has announced a $6 million upgrade to their rural network to 5 Mbps, and no cap on usage.

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Health authority management failure on Roseway ER, says Shelburne warden

Timothy Gillespie — Tue, 31 Mar 2015 14:17:28 +0000

" I think resources exist within the Health Authority to solve this, if they chose to."

In a wide-ranging interview on Yarmouth radio station CJLS, Shelburne municipal warden Roger Taylor expressed his frustration with the regional health authority and with the Nova Scotia governent over lapses in management which he says have caused or exacerbated the rash of emergency room closures at Roseway Hospital and added to what he sees as years of unecessary delays in the construction of a sorely needed medical centre in Shelburne.

CJLS news director Gary Nickerson described the level of emergency room closures at Roseway as the ninth worst of thirteen in the province and asked Taylor if he knew what the problem was. Taylor said that he understood that the regular closures - which the NDP caucus says are 400% higher this year compared to last - are due to a shortage of nurses or doctors, or both.

"I see it as a management issue," Taylor said. "We have people in place whose job it is to hire nurses and physicians." He went on to discribe the problem as a "management failure" by the Southwest Health Authority.

"Would this have happened in Yarmouth", Taylor asked, saying, "there needs to be a willingness of people in power" to deal with the shortages

"They should have seen this coming," Taylor added, explaining that when recent cuts were made in nursing in the region, the only hospital to receive front-line nursing positions was Roseway. "It was easy pickings to cut at Roseway," he added, "where there were three vacancies and one imminent retirement."

The people responsible should have taken action then, he said, "to ensure that the shortage never happened in the first place."

"This is poor management, poor decisions. The DHA management failed us."

One temporary solution, posed Taylor, was for a re-allocation of nurses from Yarmouth to Shelburne.

When asked by Nickerson what he had been hearing from the health authority on the problem, Taylor said, "They like to come up with excuses."

"If you are a a manager, you are not doing your job if problems are not addressed. It is a management problem." Taylor expressed many of these same sentiments at a large public meeting last week.

When asked if he had raised issue with health minister, Tayor told CJLS that he was surprised at how aware the minister "seems to be of some of the issues."

The warden wondered why not Shelburne was not allowed to provide some services for Yarmouth.

"We're not being treated as full equals."

Nickerson asked how long Roseway Hospital could survice if the closures don't stop?

"A few years ago, we had problems with physician shortages," Taylor said. "After some lobbying, we got some physicians and things went smoothly for a couple of years. But this past year, we are having problems."

" I think resources exist within the Health Authority to solve this, if they chose to."

On the topic of the proposed medical clinic, Taylor said that he sees a "glimmer of hope", after his recent meeting with Minister Glavine, who gave his "vague assurances" of having the centre built.

"I think we are finally communicating with the minister about our concerns."

"Municipalities have no mandate for health care," Taylor explained, "and we have had to lobby [government] to get a small piece of the resources."

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$100,000 savings in new waste contracts

Timothy Gillespie — Wed, 25 Mar 2015 15:26:22 +0000

The Municipality of Shelburne announced in a news release Wednesday that changes to waste transportation and waste collection will lead to $100,000 in annual savings for all of eastern Shelburne County. The savings will be shared by the Municipality and the towns of Shelburne and Lockeport.

Council has awarded two contracts to new partners who will assist the Municipality with cost savings and efficiencies, says the release. The waste will be collected and transported by GE Services to a facility in Yarmouth operated by Scotia Recycling, rather than to the current facility in the Region of Queens. GE, according to the release, is the most experienced operator in the region and was the lowest bidder.

Collection schedules are not expected to change, and there will be no loss in service, added the release, as Council ensured service levels remained consistent throughout the two RFP processes.

The savings under the new contracts will bring the waste collection and transportation costs to approximately $500,000 per year.

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South Coast Today - municipality of shelburne

Provincial funding for "state-of-the-art" medical clinic announced

$2 million Shelburne Medical Clinic announcement expected Friday

Avalon receives low share price notice as it proceeds with East Kemptville project

"Blood metals" rules to help Avalon Rare Metals at Kemptville tin mine operation

$1.5 billion dollar mining play set to make SW Nova "tin capital" of North America?

Yarmouth Co. tin mine ready to re-open?

Scrap internet use cap, Shelburne Muni tells Eastlink and Stephen McNeil

Health authority management failure on Roseway ER, says Shelburne warden

$100,000 savings in new waste contracts