Provincial NDP leader Dominic Cardy tells CHSJ News he gives Shawn Graham some credit for realizing, albeit a bit late, that quitting was the right move.
Cardy says following Justice Ryan's report and his conflict of interest, getting out of politics is the correct and honourable step for Graham.
In terms of whether or not he'll seek a seat in the inevitable bye-election, Cardy says he'll be speaking with the NDP folks in Kent but he does promise there will be a strong candidate there.
It appears to be a shuffle with some title changes. That is the reaction from Norma Robinson, the President of the Council of Hospital Unions, on a management shake up at the Horizon Health Network.
The health authority announcing changes to 25 senior management positions yet only 2 people are actually leaving the system.
President Norma Robinson tells CHSJ News she wonders if there is an intention of making more reductions.
She says they are talking about going from 23 people to 12 but only two are leaving the system so she isn't sure what that implies.
Robinson isn't sure if that means there will be another sweep adding it's one of the unknowns.
Former Premier Shawn Graham is leaving politics after an investigation concluded he violated conflict of interest laws.
The province's conflict of interest commissioner released a report this week saying Graham was in a conflict of interest when his Liberal government gave a $50 million loan guarantee to a construction company.
Patrick Ryan said Graham should have removed himself from cabinet discussions in March 2009 over the loan guarantee to Atcon because his father was a paid consultant of Atcon companies.
Graham said the conflict was an oversight on his part and he accepts full responsibility for his actions.
Graham was elected premier in 2006 but ousted from power four years later.
He says he will continue to serve as the member for the riding of Kent until March 11.
Exporting natural gas from Canaport is where the real money is according to John Herron of the Atlantica Centre for Energy.
He says because of shale gas development in North America, the business case for bringing natural gas in by ship is drying up but being able to export natural gas is a whole different story with prices in Europe and Asia alot higher.
Herron says 30 per cent of natural gas in North America comes from shale already and that is expected to increase to over half within ten years which he calls a real game changer.
He also estimates an export terminal at Canaport would be a 2.5 to 4 billion dollar investment.
A public sector union says the Harper government should stop sending federal employees on Employment Insurance house calls because they might end up in dangerous situations.
Spokesman Larry Rousseau says some employees who have done the E-I house calls have not been well received and the union is worried about their safety.
Saint John M-P Rodney Weston is not ready to say yet whether this is the right approach to uncovering abuse. Weston has many questions he wants answered after conceding it caught him by surprise and , at first glance, finds the house calls a bit disturbing.
Prime Minister Harper is defending the house calls, saying hundreds of millions of dollars are lost through false or inappropriate E-I claims.
72 thousand dollars........That's the legal bill for former Liberal Premier Shawn Graham, who was found to be in a conflict of interest over loan guarantees to Atcon, but who should have paid that.
The Peoples' Alliance Party releasing a statement saying it should not have been provincial taxpayers who already find themselves under the gun but ought to have been the provincial Liberal party, the former Premier himself or the former members of his cabinet who took part in coming to the decision to give the loan guarantees.
