Cape Breton Island was ranked as the third worst place to live in all of Canada posted by Money Sense Magazine in 2016, in fact the listing of great places to live in Canada didn’t include any of our maritime provinces. Defending the CBRM the Mayor, Cecil Clarke quoted “If you want to take a look at all those stats, I understand where the ranking is.” in an article posted in the Cape Breton Post that year, in which addressing ‘ranking’ as mentioned concerns that the magazine focused on. It is now 2019 and topics that were listed in the article are still valid today and require immediate attention. It’s frustrating to think about how long we will be driving on these patched roads looking for jobs with a reasonable paying rate, while waiting for a functioning health care system as well as getting many other concerns “understood.” In a case like this ‘the worse before it gets better’ scenario has been getting worse and there looks to be no room for a brighter future without change and improvement. ROADS Or shall we say, ‘Old Town Road’ to be trendy and well, in this situation rather suiting. To be blunt, the appearance of our roads are terrible; why are we simplifying problems that only proceed to get worse within time? Road companies are ‘fixing’ pot holes and bumps with poor methods and continue to use these methods on our main streets with multiple areas of concern not only looks terrible but these ‘Throw and Go’ method’s also have the highest failure rate, and aren’t cost effective in the long run, they’re also easily ruined with weather and other factors appose to paving and doing the necessary work that’s blatantly required. This method is good for a quick, cheap, and a temporarily short-timed fix which will only lead to drivers to frustration, future construction, and companies wasting their time returning to the same locations. While tourists and locals are excited to relax on the provinces well known beaches and complete the Cabot Trail they’re not enthused for potholes as it’s their busy season. The Province of Nova Scotia is responsible for maintaining 90 percent of our roads and cost effective improvement is beyond overdue. There’s reason to argue that our main streets need paving that should consist of lines both for safety/appearance reasons and that we need to have a look at what we are using for winter conditions and removal procedures to reduce road-maintenance and construction tie-ups in the summer. LANDSCAPE Have you ever been somewhere and everywhere you looked was beautiful ? No this isn’t because your used to Cape Breton, it is because it maintained. If you stare off here in Sydney, you might catch a Wendy’s Restaurant takeout bag blowing like a tumble weed in the desert next to our non-existent trashcans. In the winter you can catch a glimpse of our telephone poles decorated with Christmas Decor, Sydney Mines got handed down from Sydney which i’m sure is true, in other seasons you will notice some local businesses and homes that don’t upkeep their storefronts and/or land which is mandatory in most towns, and very little street-scape. Street Scape is a noticeable attraction for a Cape Bretoner when we visit other cities for me anyways. Trees/gardening on sideways, benches or seating areas, walking parks and areas should be enhanced and created in towns that lack in landscape, with more street scaping it’s not only appealing to the eye for pedestrians, runners, tourists and even children but it is also encouraging to get out more. What made me include this topic is because Councillors want bylaws in place for the display of advertisement signs and want them also off utility poles, Macleod stated signs to appear and I quote, “looks so trashy.” If you look at both images in the article it portrays himself by the group of signs and including the utility pole, while ignoring the lot across the street on George Street that has more potential then to be left abandoned with shrubs and weeds growing freely to look rather a mess and many other things such as, sidewalk maintenance being an extreme concern. Photos clearly represent that we lack the adequate amount of street-scape in Cape Breton. The importance of street-scape needs to be heard, as it will create jobs, as it creates an increase of pedestrians which results in the reduce of air pollution and provides recreation areas that are helping change our lifestyles. Sydney is cared for and we care for it, but to tourists it doesn’t look this way. Local businesses rely on advertisement and these signs are the best for it, local businesses not only draws attraction but it helps keep money in our communities. Signs could be designed with calm toned colors or left the same but to call the look of signs “trashy” when a large majority of our “side walks” don’t even have trash cans? I think we have a larger issue to worry about Councillors. Don’t degrade advertisement skills that help communities and families if you can’t fix what the actual bigger problem is which in fact could bring in multiple types of jobs. HEALTH CARE The best country to live in is Canada, ‘Home of the proud, strong, and free’ this is because of our high quality health care system, but are Cape Bretoner’s really strong and proud? Sure we are if you join our traditional kitchen parties but in health care there is a big crisis. Lack of physicians then lead to hospitals and emergency rooms to close which racks up our already lengthy wait times while not only just effecting flow but it is potentially threaten the health of patients who won’t drive out of there way to other facility’s. In addition to that we are also facing frequent shortages of ambulances this too branching from wait times as this increases more time paramedics are spent waiting at hospitals offloading patients then responding to calls. If that isn’t at all shocking in 2017 for 3 months wait times were listed at 363 days in Cape Breton for adults to receive mental health care. and for patients under the age of 19 that were trying to receive care were then being redirected to Halifax due to lack of resources. How do you advise a patient with mental health concerns who is in harm to themselves to operate a vehicle and drive it 4hours plus to receive care? Doctors and nurses are running out of options and have every reason to be frustrated as this is not the type of health care they practiced. Physicians are being overworked and we are already short numbered. We need to invest in health care and the resources we need now and create a balanced – organized flow. When successfully achieved we can then look into balancing budget. It’s obvious we are on board with a health care crisis and with more closures we are having to deal with it like a chain link mess. What will things be like in the future? Good, worse or the same? When will we see improvement? How long will we be actually driving ourselves on these same patched roads into problems, looking for jobs with a reasonable paying rate, while waiting for a functioning health care system to arise? It’s time to act now. https://yourdoseofkait.blog/2019/05/30/cape-bretons-biggest-problems-its-time-to-wake-up/