Consider This (https://consider-this.ca/)
Northumberland Incumbent Liberal candidate Kim Rudd defends the Prime Minister regarding his absence during the first televised debate for City TV/Macleans. She also provides her views on the SNC Lavalin affair, the Trans Mountain pipeline, carbon tax, climate change, precarious jobs in our county, along with anecdotes about her early life and her life-long activism. Please take the time to listen. As part of the ongoing efforts of Northumberland 89.7 FM and Consider This, we continue our series of candidate interviews for this all-important job of being a member of parliament for our riding.
While we anxiously await the writ to be dropped on or before September 15, there is no doubt the federal election campaign is already underway. In fact, some would argue, locally it has been going on for nearly a year now – minus the lawn signs. As we prepare to cast our votes on Oct. 21, it is far too easy to get swept up with the party leaders in a national race.
A task force led by the health unit involving local police, Northumberland Hills Hospital, and emergency services (fire and paramedics) will take place in September. It is being called the first step in addressing the opioid crisis in Northumberland County. There will also be an effort by a tri-county group tasked with formulating a drug strategy for the area to engage the community and front-line workers, addicts and families, to build a comprehensive response. Megan Deyman, the Coordinator of the Haliburton, Kawartha Lakes, Northumberland Drug Strategy, and Catherine MacDonald, substances and harm reduction coordinator at the Haliburton, Kawartha, Pine Ridge Health Unit talk at length about these and other measures.
We have certainly talked to many different people over the past few weeks about Opioids in Northumberland. We have heard from a doctor, a mental health worker, law enforcement, two recovering addicts, and a politician. Their perspectives are provoking, the stories are compelling, and at times heartbreaking. But all have spoken their truth.
So far in the series on Opioids in Northumberland, we have heard from law enforcement and the role they play on the front lines. Today, we are about to hear more from those in the field dealing with this issue directly. It would be hard to imagine anyone who sees the impact more than doctors and addiction counsellors. They experience first-hand the horrific consequences of opioid overdoses and addictions.
It is one thing to hear from officials about opioids in Northumberland County. But it is quite another to hear from people who have walked through the darkness of opioid addiction. Today, my guests have undertaken that journey and continue to walk the path towards recovery and a life without drugs. Now, before you start creating an image in your mind about these people, they are not stereotypical. In fact, one is a prominent politician and the other a new Canadian. Continue Reading →
Northumberland-Peterborough South MPP David Piccini said his government will be addressing the opioid in Northumberland this fall. He also talks about funding health care, the new mandate for the autism advisory panel, funding for the Northumberland Legal Clinic, along with the future of the health unit. Please listen to the full interview. Originally aired: August 2, 2019 Continue Reading →
If you live in Northumberland County, surely there has been a time when you were standing in the sunshine and looked north only to see the dark clouds of a storm. And, you may wonder, it is going to come here or is it just going to pass by. The recent headlines coming out of Peterborough related to the opioid crisis facing that community are shocking. In a single weekend in early June, 13 people overdosed and two died within a 72-hour period. Deputy Chief Timothy Farquharson said in an interview with CBC, he hasn’t seen anything like it in his 33 years in policing. Continue Reading →
A group of International Baccalaureate students from Cobourg Collegiate Institute is off to Sidney, Australia to compete in an elite competition known as the World Scholars Cup in August. The five students won a major championship in Toronto in June to qualify. Two Grade 12 students, Xander Crook, and Dan Noronha, along with Grade 11 students Marilee Archer, Ambrosia Day and Lucy Tong are currently training for the prestigious event which involves a complex four-part competition. They must answer a multi-choice quiz, write essays, solve analytical questions and debate another team. The youth are led by CCI business teacher Dorothy Noronha with the help of parents. Continue Reading →
For decades, Cobourg’s waterfront stored massive, towering piles of coal, waiting to be loaded on to ships bound for the American steel factories. Once those factories modernized, the piles disappeared. Yet, up until the late 1980s, it was still an industrial area, as huge oil tanks storing fuel. It is hard to imagine today what it looked like before when viewing the residential development, parks, marina, campground, and historic beach, that has attracted people since the 19th century. For many, the waterfront is the gem of the town. Continue Reading →