N.S. premier apologizes for comments made on local state of emergency in Cape Breton

Nova Scotia’s premier is apologizing for comments he made earlier this week surrounding a local state of emergency in Cape Breton.

The Cape Breton Regional Municipality (CBRM) declared a local state of emergency on Sunday after some areas received upwards of 150 centimetres of snow during a weekend snowstorm.

CBRM residents have been asked to shelter in place, stay off roads and clear snow around their homes.

"The state of emergency triggers certain things, but what it does not do is speed up access to equipment," Premier Tim Houston said Monday during a news conference. "What’s the state of emergency being used for? If you’re not doing anything  with it, why are you doing it? This is a stressful time for everyone and I think elected officials have a responsibility to calm fears and anxieties and not stoke them."

CBRM Amanda MacDougall-Merrill called the comments “an unfortunate choice of words” during a Tuesday morning interview with CTV Morning Live and said the local state of emergency was “absolutely necessary.”

Houston expressed regret over his comments during an interview with CTV News at Six on Tuesday about snow clearing efforts in the province.

“I do want to apologize to the people of Cape Breton in particular for my choice of words yesterday around the state of emergency. People are doing the best that they can. This is an urgent situation for sure and we’re pulling all the resources that we can,” he said.

Houston said it is within CBRM’s rights to call a local state of emergency and they are “doing what they think is necessary.”

“But what I think I was trying to say, and I didn’t say it very well, and certainly I feel very bad about that, is that nobody was waiting to spring into action until that was made. The resources were moving, the mobilization effort was there, the focus on keeping people safe was there, and we will continue to do that.”

Houston said he spoke with MacDougall-Merrill Tuesday morning to reassure her that the province is doing “everything it can.”

“We can have a discussion later about process and communications and make sure we clean that up moving forward, but for me, right now, the fact that I moved the discussion away from digging people out to a discussion about a state of emergency – that’s something that I feel really bad about because the urgency is getting people dug out. CBRM feels that, I feel that, everyone on the ground feels that and that’s where our focus has to be.”

The premier says he will visit the CBRM as soon as he can.

“We’ve shown through past disasters we’ve been through we want to get there and make sure people see some visibility. Right now, I think the best thing that I can do is make sure that we continue to work to get the resources there, that we continue to mobilize and be supportive because we’ve got to get these people dug out.”

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