As we say goodbye to 2019 and look forward to 2020 – and the start of a new decade – we have to wonder if it the next 12 months (or 10 years for that matter) will be better than what has come before.
Here’s hoping it’s better, but there are numerous challenges out that threated to trip up the progress we have made in Cumberland County in recent years. As we conducted our year-end interviews with our political leadership almost everyone talked about the co-operative spirit that exists among the various levels of government and the spirit of positivity they have noticed growing from end of the county to the other.
Yes, there are many wonderful things taking place in Cumberland County. For one, a two-year wait to replace the Rainbow Bridge in Upper Nappan has come to a successful conclusion with a new structure that’s certain to draw attention from around North America with its wooden design and construction.
We also saw the community come together in 2019 to celebrate the 100th anniversary of the closure of the prisoner of war/internment camp that was in Amherst during the First World War. Bill Casey, our former MP, turned what could have been something negative into a community celebration that raised awareness about the importance of the Col. James Layton Ralston Armoury and included a performance by the German Luftwaffe that has only solidified the strong bonds of friendship between our two nations as well as between the German people and the community of Amherst.
It was also a year in which significant strides were made toward designating the Cliffs of Fundy Aspiring Geopark as a UNESCO-recognized site – one of only a select few in Canada. The two evaluators who came to Cumberland County last summer from UNESCO seemed overwhelmed with what they saw. We can only hope the positivity will continue into 2020 with an announcement that the Cumberland-Colchester bid was successful.
While there are many positives in Cumberland County, there are some challenges as we move into 2020. Most significant among those is the health-care situation in the region with the continued shortage of family physicians, specialists and psychiatry.
The partnership between our three municipal units and the medical staff, in the form of a recruitment and retention committee, has seen results in 2019 with the arrival of several new physicians and specialists, but it’s clear there’s still much more work to be done and the province is going to have to come to the table to address health care as a whole in this part of Nova Scotia.
There is a serious issue with the lack of long-term care beds in the county and emergency rooms in the three smaller hospitals seem to be closed more than they’re open. This while the provincial government and health authority seem oblivious to the pain their indecision and inaction has caused to the population.
We will also be watching in 2020 to find out what the results of geotechnical testing along the Trans-Canada Highway near Oxford and whether the sinkhole that gobbled up a huge portion of the Lions Park in August 2018 may do the same to a portion of the province’s most significant transportation link.
Something else we will have to watch in the coming months is whether Education Minister Zach Churchill’s word will see ground finally broken on a new elementary school for Springhill and whether Premier Stephen McNeil’s promises to build a new health-care centre in Pugwash will actually happen.
There will be speedbumps on the road in the next year, but overall – despite the aforementioned challenges – there is plenty to be optimistic about as we turn the calendar from December 2019 into January 2020. Happy New Year!
