This month there are several important events which bear mentioning.

Fire Prevention Week will be celebrated October 8-13. Unfortunately, we really only highlight the dedication and care of community of hundreds of volunteers once a year. If we were doing what we should be doing, from the sidelines, we should be praising the time they invest into our community on a weekly or daily basis.

Fighting fires is not the only responsibility of these precious volunteers. They are first responders. In many cases well over 85% of the time they leave work, or their family it’s an accident or medical call. Being the first on the scene they see some of the most tragic sights any human should experience.

It’s far different than a nurse or medical doctor in emergency. Even though hard on the mind, these people trained for it and are well paid in their profession.

By Raissa Tetanish

No matter where you go, you’ll find people both for and against fracking.

And it was no different in Pugwash the night of September 13 as about 150 people gathered inside the curling club for a debate.

Gerard Lucyshyn spoke on the positive aspects of fracking, while Michael Bradfield brought about the negative.

Lucyshyn, vice-president of research at the Frontier Centre for Public Policy, said technology has evolved since fracking first began, and drilling horizontally became a game changer. It allows companies to drill the equivalent depth, but horizontally out after initially drilling about 7,000 feet down.

Cement casings are inserted into the drill holes, before a perforating gun is inserted that, when discharged, creates holes in the rock in all directions. A mixture of water, sand, and chemicals is then pumped into the fractures, expanding them, and gas flows out of the hole when the fluid is pulled out.

According to information from March 2017, Lucyshyn said there are 2.71 trillion cubic feet of natural gas under Cumberland County. About half of that could be recovered.

"We’re looking at an asset sitting in the ground. We’re looking at an asset that you could exploit. All you have to do is access it," he said, noting the asset could be worth between a $75 million to $235 million provincial royalty at the current royalty rate.

But Lucyshyn says people are afraid of perceived threats and avoid what feels dangerous.

"Every industry that we have in this country – renewables, non-renewables, any other historical industries – the same thing. As that industry matures, it becomes safer, it becomes better, it becomes more efficient. That’s economics. It is becoming more efficient," he said.

But Bradfield, a retired Dalhousie University professor who sat on the Wheeler Commission, disagrees.

"The basic proposition is you don’t just look at the benefits, you look at the costs. We’ve heard some of the benefits, but I’ve got a few warnings," he said.

"The costs from fracking are not just environmental. Even before we talk about the huge methane release from fracking, the economics say it doesn’t matter about those things, we shouldn’t do it for economic reasons."

He said the government has to create a regulatory regime to make the fracking industry safe, complete with a set of regulations. Information – such as water and air quality, unemployment rates, wage levels, and distribution by income – has to be gathered beforehand to see what type of effect the industry has.

Bradfield questioned why, if the public is being told regulation is being done well in Alberta, that province has 15,000 orphaned wells that will deteriorate over time, which means leaking methane and adding to greenhouse gasses.

"You have to have monitoring once you start…right through to the decommissioning. Who’s going to watch those wells after they’re shut down? The long-term costs are going to continue, but who is going to do it?"

After the audience had heard from both sides, they had the opportunity for comments, and to ask questions of both panelists.

Barb Harris, with the Environmental Health Association of Nova Scotia, addressed some health issues.

Lucyshyn had initially mentioned the Wheeler Report, released in 2014, noting there was no evidence of catastrophic threats to public health in the short and medium term that would ban fracking outright.