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Transcript of audio:<\/strong><\/em><\/p>\nCHMA<\/strong>: So, Megan, you\u2019re a member of the Standing Committee on Climate Change and Environmental Stewardship. Last month, there were two days of hearings about small modular nuclear reactors with lots of radically different perspectives. Some say SMRs will be part of efforts to get greenhouse gases under control. Others say they expose New Brunswick to risk in terms of environmental issues coming from the nuclear waste they create. What was your takeaway from those hearings?<\/em><\/p>\nMegan Mitton:<\/strong> So we definitely heard about some of the risks, whether that be with the waste, nuclear proliferation. And we heard that this technology doesn\u2019t exist yet. Specifically, the small modular nuclear reactors, is this even going to be viable? Is it going to be ready in time to really help us meet our climate change goals, to reduce emissions as fast as possible? And what\u2019s the cost going to be? What does this even really look like for New Brunswick? So what many presenters actually told us was, you should be looking at renewable energy, at a clean electricity strategy. Not having such a narrow focus, having a broader focus. And I actually moved a motion for us to look at a clean energy strategy through hearings, and we\u2019re going to be doing that this year.<\/p>\nCHMA<\/strong>: How broad will that be? What will the idea behind those hearings be? Are you going to look at comparing SMR technology to renewable technology to others, like battery storage? Tell me a bit more about that.<\/em><\/p>\nMegan Mitton:<\/strong> The idea is to really hear from experts on pathways to decarbonisation that New Brunswick can follow. What does our grid need to look like? What type of energy do we need to use? It\u2019s not going to be just one thing. We are going to need solar, we\u2019re going to need battery storage. So what does a plan look like? What pathways can we follow as a province as quickly as possible?<\/p>\nCHMA:<\/strong> Also last week, you issued a statement to call for Health Minister Bruce Fitch to launch an investigation into potential environmental causes of the high rate of neurodegenerative disease that we\u2019ve seen, especially in young New Brunswickers. Tell me a bit about that call, why you made it.<\/em><\/p>\nMegan Mitton<\/strong>: So the Department of Health has been really tight lipped on what\u2019s been going on. But we know from individuals and their families speaking out, people who have become sick, they don\u2019t know why they may have not even received a diagnosis. And these would be the people that initially were considered to have like a mystery disease.<\/p>\nWe haven\u2019t really heard anything for a long time. We know the province capped how many people they were even counting, and they\u2019ve stopped counting. But there are people who have continued counting, who have continued doing testing. And there are investigative journalists, Canadaland and The Guardian have published reports where they\u2019ve done RTIs as they\u2019ve looked at documents, and have shown that the Department of Health, and the Higgs government turned down $5 million dollars that was being offered to help them do research into this, from the federal level. They did not test for environmental toxins. Really, they have not found the answers that these patients and their families need. And they deserve answers. And so that\u2019s why I\u2019m calling for them to do something.<\/p>\n
CHMA<\/strong>: Now, The Guardian had indicated, in a letter from Dr. Marrero, who has been heavily involved in this research so far, that there was potential for herbicides like glyphosate to be\u2026 That we need to be testing for the effects of those in these patients. Are you concerned there might be an issue with an herbicide like glyphosate, that could be potentially causing issues, health issues?<\/em><\/p>\nMegan Mitton:<\/strong> I think the key thing is we need to rule out things like glyphosate and other environmental toxins that exist. We know BMA and other cyanotoxins that come from cyanobacteria, which is blue-green algae.<\/p>\nWe know that there have been harmful algal blooms in our waterways, including in the Moncton reservoir where they get drinking water. And it\u2019s several of them. So we need to rule those things out. We need to find out what is causing it. And so glyphosate may be playing a factor\u2026 maybe glyphosate is even contributing to cyanobacteria being able to reproduce? We need answers. We need to rule out environmental toxins. We don\u2019t have proper testing happening for cyanotoxins in the province, from what I was able to gather, not only asking the Department of Health about it, but asking the Department of Environment not that long ago. So there\u2019s more to be done on that.<\/p>\n
CHMA<\/strong>: Another health care question for you\u2026 In early January, Medavie changed its protocol, which would call qualified local fire departments to medical calls so they could assist, sometimes providing life saving help,in a very quick way that ambulances in many rural parts of the province can\u2019t do. And we\u2019ve heard some stories on CHMA recently about people left out in the cold for a long time, and also people getting getting help from fire departments that probably saved their lives. What can you tell us about why this change has happened now? And what have you been hearing from constituents? And what do you think you\u2019re going to be doing to look into this?<\/em><\/p>\nMegan Mitton:<\/strong> So there were two things that really happened. Ambulance New Brunswick changed the technology they were using, and changed from using radios to cell phones. So there\u2019s actually concerns there, because there\u2019s not universal cell coverage in the province. So that\u2019s one of the issues, in terms of them switching. Part of that switch, was that they had had agreements with some fire departments for first responders to be called to respond to emergencies. Those fire departments, basically, the new technology, couldn\u2019t do that. And so those fire departments just stopped getting those calls.
\nThis is a major issue. And especially important in rural areas. And so I have been hearing from people. I\u2019ve spoken to Ambulance New Brunswick. I\u2019ve been speaking to people who serve in fire departments and asking them what are the implications of this and what needs to be done. And there have been people who, as you\u2019ve been covering, have been left out in the cold.<\/p>\nWhat I would say is that there needs to be more universal dispatching system. Basically, we don\u2019t have a province wide one; we have several around the province. And it feels like nobody really wants to be responsible for it. That\u2019s really what I\u2019m concluding, as I\u2019ve been looking into it. What needs to happen is that first responders need to be called to emergencies. Especially, we know that the delays for ambulances, especially in rural areas, have gotten even longer. We know there\u2019s problems with offload delays. We need them to be called. And for it to happen more automatically, so that, you know, people\u2019s lives can be saved. Because, you know, those people I\u2019ve spoken with who\u2019ve served in fire departments are saying, we have saved lives. And we\u2019re worried that that someone will lose their life, because of this gap that now exists.<\/p>\n
CHMA<\/strong>: Medavie says that, you know, they had been doing it, but it wasn\u2019t part of their mandate. They\u2019ve also said that they are going to be calling these fire departments under certain conditions, which sort of leads me to think that the technology does exist to call the fire departments and there\u2019s a decision made not to do it as often. Have you spoken directly to Medavie themselves? It sort of begs the question, I\u2019ve heard some people comment, maybe it\u2019s a money issue? Like do they need resources to cover off this kind of extra dispatching that they\u2019re doing? I guess I\u2019m questioning whether, do we know for sure that this is a technological issue? Or do we think it might just be budgetary and resource allocation?<\/em><\/p>\nMegan Mitton:<\/strong> I think that\u2019s a good question. And we don\u2019t really know the answer yet. We know that as they switched, there was something that they felt they couldn\u2019t do anymore. I don\u2019t think we we 100% know exactly why. And it does seem like something we that should be able to be resolved. Why can\u2019t we call first responders to emergencies that that feels like a really obvious thing we should be able to do. And so I\u2019m I\u2019m trying to put the pieces the pieces of the puzzle together and push for for this to get resolved as soon as possible.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Memramcook-Tantramar MLA Megan Mitton was on the Mount Allison campus on Wednesday for a meet and greet with students organized by the Mount Allison Students\u2019 Union. A small group of students gathered to ask about public funding for post secondary institutions, bilingualism in New Brunswick, and climate change policies, including the future of energy production…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":106,"featured_media":144473,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[221,222,223,225],"tags":[24266,24267,4273,6624,6645,7078,23587],"radio":[227],"origine":[274,275,277],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/canada-info.ca\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/144469"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/canada-info.ca\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/canada-info.ca\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/canada-info.ca\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/106"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/canada-info.ca\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=144469"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/canada-info.ca\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/144469\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":144481,"href":"https:\/\/canada-info.ca\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/144469\/revisions\/144481"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/canada-info.ca\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/144473"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/canada-info.ca\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=144469"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/canada-info.ca\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=144469"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/canada-info.ca\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=144469"},{"taxonomy":"radio","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/canada-info.ca\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/radio?post=144469"},{"taxonomy":"origine","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/canada-info.ca\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/origine?post=144469"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}