Mixed Reviews For Provincial Response to Cape Breton Snowstorms

NEW WATERFORD - Did the provincial government and its Department of Public Works have the right approach towards cleaning up the massive snowfall that covered most of Cape Breton Island this month?

While the Warden of Richmond County and two opposition-party MLAs from urban Cape Breton applaud the DPW crews' efforts, the MLAs are giving Premier Tim Houston a thumbs-down for his comments regarding the Cape Breton Regional Municipality's decision to declare a local state of emergency on the first weekend of February. 

With close to 150 centimetres of snow blanketing the CBRM by the 48-hour point of a three-day snowfall, CBRM councillors and Mayor Amanda MacDougall voted in favour of declaring a local state of emergency. The mayor later declared that the provincial government had forced the council's hand by not declaring a province-wide state of emergency. 

That led Houston to describe the CBRM announcement as a "PR stunt" during a February 4 press conference that updated Nova Scotia's overall approach to the storm. Houston repeated the same comments during a national news interview but then recanted the following day, apologizing both on his social media accounts and in an interview with a regional newscast host. 

Cape Breton Centre-Whitney Pier NDP MLA Kendra Coombes felt the apology was sincere but added that the original "PR stunt" comment showed the Premier's true colours. 

The same viewpoint came from Northside-Westmount Liberal MLA Fred Tilley, who suggested that some people in his riding were confused as to why the province didn't act faster when it became clear that many people would be stranded within their own homes. 

In Richmond County, during a Committee of the Whole meeting held just as the CBRM lifted its week-long state of emergency, Warden Amanda Mombourquette praised local and provincial Emergency Management Office representatives for working with the DPW and the county's Public Works crews to clear off several of the hardest-to-reach rural roads. 

This week's episode of Roundtable also features a closer look at federal Fisheries and Oceans Minister Diane Lebouthillier's plans to shut down the 2024 Atlantic Canadian elver fishery. According to the minister's parliamentary secretary, Cape Breton-Canso MP Mike Kelloway, the minister and the department are responding to increasing tensions between indigenous and non-indigenous fishers who are staking their claim in the lucrative sale of baby eels to Asian markets. Stakeholders have until February 23 to participate in a consultation process with the DFO, and Minister Lebouthillier is expected to make her final decision shortly afterwards.