the broken typewriter

For today’s look back at the most-read Broken Typewriter articles of 2024, we have a tie for sixth place.

Both these articles highlight government policies that either have a detrimental effect on the North, or have the potential to do so.

The first one is healthcare and the province’s inability to keep hospital emergency rooms open – a situation that is still going on, apparently without end. The second is the government’s obsession with emissions – in this article, the government’s target is cattle.

#6 – It’s a system failure, not a service interruption

People are going to die.

That’s the fear of residents and local politicians in northeastern British Columbia this week, as the region’s largest hospital, located in Fort St. John, experiences one overnight Emergency Room closure after another, and this weekend, the Birthing Centre at Fort St. John Hospital will also be closed, adding yet more anxiety to the 70,000 people in the region.

“One diversion is too many,” Peace River Regional District Board Chair Brad Sperling said at Thursday’s Regional District board meeting. “But now it’s just day after day.”

Despite assurances from Northern Health that the health authority has been working hard to fill shift vacancies and avoid “service interruptions”, for the past week, the ER has been closed every night. That’s on top of ER simultaneous and repeated closures in Fort Nelson and Chetwynd, whose residents would need to seek emergency care in Fort St. John when their ERs are closed.

If there’s no emergency services available in Fort St. John, patients are forced to travel another 75km to Dawson Creek, compounding an already arduous four-hour journey for anyone from the Northern Rockies Regional Municipality needing emergency treatment.

Pouce Coupe Mayor Danielle Veach says the waiting time at the Dawson Creek Hospital ER, which her residents rely on is nine hours, when the ER in Fort St. John is closed.

“It’s systemic,” said Area B Director Jordan Kealy. “It’s not just this region, it’s all across the province. It has to change. When it comes to an essential service, we deserve better.”

To that end, the PRRD board passed a resolution calling for “an audit of Northern Health, financially, operationally and without prejudice, the workplace.”

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#6 – Latest emissions cap targets cow burps

Federal Environment and Climate Change Minister Steven Guilbeault continues his relentless attacks on Canada’s GHG emissions, as though the global climate crisis can only be solved by shutting down all of Canada’s industries, including agriculture. Canada, which despite its vast size, emits only 1.6 percent of GHGs on the planet.

Yet the way he’s going about it, is both vicious and ridiculous. Vicious, because Canada could help other countries reduce their emissions by providing them with cleaner-burning LNG to replace coal, thus reducing global emissions. A solution he is hindering with the recent announcement of the emissions cap on the oil and gas industry.

Ridiculous, because Guilbeault has now set his sights on eliminating emissions from cattle. Specifically, their burps.

This announcement, like the oil and gas emissions cap, was made while Guilbeault was at COP 28 in Dubai. On Food and Agriculture Day at COP 28, the Minister released a draft protocol Reducing Enteric Methane Emissions from Beef Cattle (REME).

Enteric emissions are caused when ruminants, animals with a rumen, burp. However, the protocol only mentions beef cattle. Sheep, goats, and deer are also ruminants.

“The fact that we’re even talking about this seems like we’re on an April Fools interview, and it’s before lunch,” said Prince George-Peace River-Northern Rockies MP Bob Zimmer. “It’s laughable if it wasn’t serious.”

Zimmer thinks that what the government is doing is simply trying to distract Canadians from the real problem of affordability.

“If you think putting a tax on beef is somehow not gonna impact Canadians, we already are seeing record high prices, even in places like Costco for buying beef. This is just going to increase that price even more needlessly,” said Zimmer.

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I hope you’re enjoying this trip down The Broken Typewriter’s Memory Lane – tomorrow will feature two articles published within three weeks of each other in fifth and fourth place on the countdown.