Brenda Thompson raised the question about travel time to vaccination clinics (CH Wednesday, March 17, page A8). From the description it appears that there are presently no vaccination clinics in Annapolis and Digby counties for the over 80 cohort, partly because of the specialized storage requirements.
In the same time window (this week) I have noticed:
- Statistics Canada is seeking to hire staff for the next census;
- COGS is looking for graduating student projects in Lawrencetown.
Let me join the dots.
Not too many years ago, the provincial government had a group called Community Counts. This group used GIS technology to massage Statistics Canada census data at the enumeration area (EA) level. Given the need to locate vaccination clinics throughout Nova Scotia to meet the diverse needs of the population, would it not make sense to use this type of information and technology to map the demand?
Here is my proposal.
Obtain the latest census information for the province. Map the existing vaccination sites. Analyse the travel time for citizens to attend these sites. Identify the additional vaccination sites which maximize the accessibility for vulnerable populations.
In my day (pre-2011) this would be a relevant, excellent public service project for students graduating from COGS.
If we wanted to add an additional dimension, how about a map of citizens without a family doctor? Or access to high speed Internet? These are all examples of geographic research which could be facilitated by NSCC and CORAH . It is also an example of giving citizens access to public information. It’s also the “community” in Community College.
Ray Cronin has an essay in A Plague Year Reader on Maud Lewis. Here are a couple of quotations:
“One cannot discuss Maud Lewis without also discussing tourism and the economic factors that made tourism so important in her life.”
“Tourism has been the most successful strategy for bringing jobs, even if only seasonally, to rural Nova Scotia. That seasonal market, coupled with government assistance programs, enabled people to stay in their rural homes and help fuel a folk art boom in the latter half of the 20th century unique to Nova Scotia in its scope and impact.”
p.115.
From Oliver Sacks’s book ‘Why we need gardens?’ p.243-247
’The wonder of gardens was introduced to me very early, before the war, when my mother or Auntie Len would take me to the great botanical gardens at Kew.”
“The effect of nature’s qualities on health are not only spiritual and emotional but physical and neurological. I have no doubt that they reflect deep changes in brain physiology and perhaps even its structure’
I remember well trips to Kew Gardens (see also The Royal Landscape) from my childhood days in West London.
Acknowledgements
Edward provided his critical artistic eyes. Heather shared the same space.
References
Ian Fairclough, Woman questions travel time to vaccine clinics, Chronicle Herald, Wednesday March 17, 2021, A8.
Ray Cronin, Gaspereau Field Guides to Canadian Artists, No. 5. Maud Lewis: Creating an Icon.
Oliver Sacks, 2020, Everything in its Place, Vintage Canada.
Ernest Blair Experiment 