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News
1. Wait, we’re getting physician assistants? Er, not quite
We don’t have physician assistants in Nova Scotia, so we are reduced to stock photos. Photo: National Cancer Institute / Unsplash
In his column this week, Stephen Kimber looks at physician assistants. More specifically: Why aren’t we using them in Nova Scotia, and what the heck was up with the Canadian Association of Physician Assistants (CAPA) issuing a press release welcoming the “move by the Nova Scotia government today to introduce legislation that, once passed, will formalize the introduction of PAs into Nova Scotia” — when the government has done no such thing.
NDP MLA Susan LeBlanc has introduced a private members’ bill “to establish the framework for the creation of an allied health profession of physician assistants” and the province is in year two of a three-year pilot project. But beyond that? There’s no plan to formalize the use of physician assistants.
Physician assistants can take on some of the roles currently played by doctors, such as writing prescriptions, monitoring patients after surgery, and doing routine assessments. They are widely used in other jurisdictions. Kimber writes:
Given that physician assistants have been accepted elsewhere as integral players in the health care system, and given that — as I wrote then and could still write, perhaps even more starkly today — “we have a five-alarm health care emergency in Nova Scotia… a shortage of doctors and nurses… emergency rooms keep closing. It’s a mess. It’s a crisis…” why did we even have to bother with a three-year pilot project? Why not just get on with it?
The answer, I suspect, had/has more to do with bureaucracy and professional protectionism than with health care or the needs of Nova Scotians.
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2. On The Golden Girls, the “butterscotch palace” and Grandmother
Suzanne Rent’s grandmother, Elizabeth MacDonald, left, and Golden Girls star Betty White, right.
Suzanne Rent has a delightful commentary for you this morning. It’s a reflection on her grandmother, the Golden Girls TV show, and the pleasures of aging.
Rent introduces us to Elizabeth MacDonald, known simply as “Grandmother” to her 22 grandchildren:
Grandmother didn’t get married until she was 28, in what I consider an act of rebellion for the 1940s.
The couple moved to Sydney River and had nine children, including my mother, Jean. For about 18 years, Grandmother worked as a nursing attendant at the Cape Breton Hospital, known on the island as the Butterscotch Palace because of the caramel colour of its exterior paint. You could see the hospital from my grandmother’s living room window.
I remember my grandmother loving game shows like the Price is Right, Jeopardy, and Wheel of Fortune. She also watched the news and Golden Girls, of course. She always had Werther’s Originals butterscotch candies or Scotch mints tucked next to her rocking chair in front of the TV. She made the best chowder, Nanaimo bars, and sweet rolls with tops she shined up with melted butter.
Rent reflects on how her grandmother “didn’t take any crap” from anyone — and that leads her into thinking about the Golden Girls and herself:
I got thinking about all of this recently when I realized I am now the age Rue McClanahan was when she started on Golden Girls in 1984. I have to say it took the wind out of me when I did the math on that. Where did the time go?
I often joked that when I was older I would start a Golden Girls compound where women my age could live, hang out on the lanai or in the kitchen, eat cheesecake, and talk about the dates we went on.
But the biggest revelation was that I’d never want to go back to those years when I first started watching the Golden Girls. This age is so much better. I get paid to write, I ride horses every week, I have a fantastic kid, and I’m getting much better at not taking crap from people.
It’s a lovely piece. Please read the whole thing.
From our subscribers
Jeremy Wellard
Jeremy Wellard. Photo contributed
I started to take notice of the Halifax Examiner during the provincial government’s pandemic press conferences. We were all looking for information and answers but the lines of questioning from most of the press present were frustratingly mild. Whenever it was Tim’s turn, though, one could be guaranteed a stronger, more investigative approach. You could see the Premier and Dr. Strang visibly stiffen when the Halifax Examiner’s name was read out for the next question. That is how news reporting should be. The tough questions need to be asked and too few reporters do that these days. When Tim called out the premier for his cozy story about a doctor climbing Mount Everest whilst we were all stuck at home under COVID restrictions was the tipping point and sent me straight to the Halifax Examiner website to subscribe and donate.
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3. “Education without action is miseducation”
Lynn Jones (left) was introduced by El Jones (right) as she spoke to the 2021 graduating class at Mount Saint Vincent University last week. Photo: El Jones.
Introduced by Examiner contributor El Jones — who was recently awarded her doctorate from Queen’s — Jones spoke about the complexity of institutional legacies and the responsibilities that new educators face towards their students and their communities. Bayard writes:
Mount Saint Vincent University (MSVU) was established in 1873 as one of only a handful of institutions in Canada where women could attend to seek higher learning. At the time women were still not allowed to vote. The Mount went on to develop a convent, schools, an orphanage, and health care facilities throughout Halifax, as well as North America.
“I also know that recently, your president, Dr. Ramona Lumpkin apologized for the role of Mount Saint Vincent University in residential schools,” said Jones. “It is a stark reminder that often the places that are progressive for some are built off the backs — off the very lives — of others.”
Lynn Jones was awarded an honorary doctorate by MSVU last year, but was not able to address graduates in person, of course, because of pandemic restrictions.
4. Chinese land developers and “come from awayers”
DDI’s vision for Crystal City, which it says it will build up somewhere around Ecum Secum, looks like a a Chinese city of five million people.
The Globe and Mail and The New York Times both noticed Nova Scotia in features over the weekend, and whoa boy.
A feature on the turmoil in the Chinese real estate market opens with the infamous Crystal City plan. Crystal City, in case you need a refresher, was an elaborate plan to build movie studios and replicas of famous landmarks like the Eiffel Tower on the Eastern Shore, thereby making everyone rich forever.
Shockingly, none of this has happened. The Globe story takes us to the Crystal City site:
The path to Crystal City is a muddy all-terrain-vehicle trail that leads away from the ocean and deep into the woods. But Neil Partington, who keeps the key to unlock the chain at the entrance, doesn’t understand why anyone would want to go up there.
In his view, this 2,850-acre plot isn’t good for much; it’s difficult to access, soggy and remote. When Chinese developer DongDu International (DDI) began buying this land on Nova Scotia’s eastern shore in 2014, announcing a grand vision for a resort called Crystal City, he and many other locals wondered why.
“It’s just a huge chunk of useless bogland. Who would want to put a resort on that?” said Mr. Partington, whose vegetable farm backs onto the property, which can only be accessed through his family’s land. “They didn’t even bother to build a road to get in there.”
The failure of Crystal City, we are told, “was an early warning sign for the problems now facing other large Chinese real estate companies and their holdings around the world.”
Or not?
Maybe it failed because the plan was completely unhinged and probably existed solely to suck up money from credulous politicians in hopes of a big economic development pay off.
If you have never seen the deranged DDI promotional video for the project, you really must. It’s here.
The voiceover for the video explains the project using a whole lot of assumptions and skating over major issues:
Nova Scotia’s stunning natural landscape makes it an ideal location for developing film themed tourism. The combination of these two elements has the potential to turn it into a leading global travel destination in the future. The site will incorporate cultures from various parts of the world and showcase civilizations from different time periods, allowing visitors to Nova Scotia to feel as if they had travelled to different parts of the world.
As Tim Bousquet wrote back in 2015:
It’s not explained why people would travel all the way from China to Nova Scotia to see a fake Leaning Tower of Pisa when they could go half the distance to see the real thing in better weather.
The video continues:
To all this end, we will commit ourselves to investing in the branding of Nova Scotia by organizing film, TV and music festivals and events to promote Nova Scotia globally as a film production centre. We hope to use movies as a means to increase the popularity of Nova Scotia. We can emulate such success by inviting well-known film groups to visit Nova Scotia on fact-finding tours.
DDI Group has plans to purchase cruise ships, which will be docked at the Halifax Harbour. These ships have close to 1,000 rooms that are specially fitted for film crews, combining the comforts of a luxurious beachfront hotel in beautiful natural scenery, friendly staff and a film production centre that is in the pipeline.
Yeah, this sounds like something that definitely was going to happen. Too bad about the collapse of the Chinese real estate market though.
We envisage all these will be incentives that are strong enough to catch the interests of players from the film industry. North America has an abundance of skilled talent and possesses technological advantages in many key industries. DDI Group plans to create a turnkey mechanism to build and develop office buildings, research centres and other supporting infrastructure in Nova Scotia, in exchange for shares in the SMEs at market prices.
Oh, OK. They will develop “a mechanism” to build and develop office buildings. DDI did actually buy an office building in Halifax, but, the Globe story notes:
Tenant businesses soon complained to local media about neglected repairs, and said DDI allowed the building to deteriorate. The company sold it in June, 2020.
Back to the video:
This is our vision of Crystal City over the 10-year period: cutting edge science and technology will be introduced, while tourism and high-end residential areas in Crystal City will be fully integrated and a new coastal fisherman’s wharf will be established.
I love it. Technology “will be…