This is World Glaucoma week--the eye disease affects a quarter of a million Canadians and half of them have no idea they even have it.
Canadian National Institute for the Blind spokesperson Rose Misner tells CHSJ News glaucoma involves damage to the optic nerve and sometimes people with normal eye pressure can develop it.
She says it's silent and painless because it happens so gradually and a lot of damage is done but, she says it can be controlled.
Misner adds risk factors for glaucoma include age, family history and nearsightedness.
The CNIB is holding a contest in honour of World Glaucoma Week where you could win a trip just for submitting photos. For more info, click here
The population of the Port City will be growing greatly over the next 25 years and Deputy Commissioner of Planning and Development Jacqueline Hamilton says the city's newly endorsed growth strategy will meet those needs.
She tells CHSJ News a lot of the growth will begin in the next 5 years as baby boomers start to retire.
She says the areas targeted for growth will be able to handle twice the amount of projected growth.
Construction can now begin on a 44 unit seniors apartment complex on Loch Lomond Road. Final approval being given at last night's council meeting.
The Josselyn Road will also be extended as part of the project, despite the concerns of residents that such an extension will be used as shortcut to bypass Loch Lomond Road.
A report by city staff says that would be unlikely due to the shortness of the extension.
The provincial government is saying goodbye to the unpopular branding slogan "Be...in this place".
It will no longer be featured on marketing materials including license plates.
Rothesay MLA and Minister for the Province's Communications department, Margaret Ann Blaney says it's no secret that the slogan is widely disliked.
The government supply of licence plates with the slogan is expected to run out this year.
A report from K-P-M-G is expected to be finished soon on the three options for blood services with the production lab in Saint John scheduled to be transferred to Dartmouth in 2013. The three options being analyzed in the report are transferring blood production to Nova Scotia, going it alone and partnering up with HEMA Quebec. The President of the Medical Staff Organization in the Saint John Region is Dr. Andrea Garland.
She personally she thinks an independent facility would work best and it would still connect to Canadian blood services as does Hema Quebec.
Dr. Garland says an earlier plan to consolidate blood services in Moncton was dropped after intense opposition from Nova Scotia, especially by the hospitals in Halifax.
Common Council giving its approval to Plan SJ's new growth strategy. The strategy will eventually be used as the basis for a new Municipal Plan which will guide development over the next 25 years.
Highlights include a focus on urban development, continued suburban growth, minimal rural development, in other words, building up instead of out.
Deputy Mayor Stephen Chase tells CHSJ the city has reached an important milestone and Councillor Mel Norton describes it as a plan by the people and for the people.
A new Municipal Plan will be created by the end of the year.
Deputy Fire Chief Mark Gillan has a new title......Gillan is now the Acting Fire Chief for the Saint John Fire Department until a permanent chief is found.
He tells CHSJ News it's a huge honour. Former Chief Rob Simonds left the Department last month in order to become Fire Chief in Hamilton, Ontario.
Gillan says he has a great team which will help make his transition very smooth. He says the department is facing many financial and operational challenges but he looks forward to taking them on.
A teen facing charges in the stabbing death of a city man will be back in court later this month.
The 17-year-old turned himself in to Hampton R-C-M-P Friday morning hours after a 29-year-old man was found lying on Barker street in the old North end.
The teen will be back in court on March 28th at 1:30pm to enter a plea in the case.
There should be 7 operating rooms running at the Regional Hospital but only 5 are being utilised because of a lack of resources and that's why the situation has become critical.
That, according to Dr. Andrea Garland, President of the Medical Staff Organisation in the Saint John Region.
She tells CHSJ News wait times for surgery are longer and there's the risk of losing surgeons who have become frustrated with the situation.
Dr. Garland adds not having local autonomy with the administrative staff at the Horizon Health Network in Miramichi doesn't help.
Meanwhile, Lisa Caissie with the Horizon Health Network says management at the Regional Hospital met last week with the heads of the Clinical Department to discuss the operating room issues.
She says more talks have been scheduled for tomorrow.
Concerns about the safety of nuclear power hitting home with a reactor down the road and the crisis unfolding in Japan. An energy expert says there are always tradeoffs when it comes to safety with nuclear power. Norm Rubin of Energy Probe tells CHSJ News companies can always spend more money to guard against things that seem unlikely including seismic activity.
He says Japan was prepared for 6.5 and they got a 9 and he adds if anyone had suggested they build the plant for a 9.0 magnitude earthquake they probably would have been laughed out of the room.
The Point Lepreau nuclear generating station is built on a fault and Rubin says the issue of seismic safety at Candu plants in Canada is a source of active discussion and controversy.
A man is facing a charge of criminal negligence causing death after a crash near the airport Friday night.
The head-on collision killing a 50-year-old Saint John area woman whose name is not being released by City Police.
The crash about 8:30 Friday forcing the closure of the airport arterial for over three hours.
The driver of the other vehicle is due back in court at a later date.
Common Council will be asked tonight to formally endorse Plan SJ's growth strategy.
Jacqueline Hamilton of Plan SJ says the goals are to bring about more economic and residential development in the city core along with the more efficient use of land which will improve the city's bottom line. The new direction would see 50 per cent of new development taking place in the urban core instead of just 15 per cent and 40 per cent in the suburban areas of the city instead of 60 per cent.
Mayor Ivan Court wants less sprawl arguing Saint John has too much territory with too few people and that's why it costs the city more to provide municipal services than in Fredericton or Moncton.
Court says Moncton and Fredericton combined would still be smaller than Saint John in the physical size of the city.
Enterprise Saint John is coming out with strong support in favour of Plan SJ's new growth strategy.
It also is telling Common Council that investment opportunities now being worked on could bring over 800 jobs to the region.
In the past month, there have been four visits to the city by potential investors and meetings with several others in Toronto.
Councillors have been told this can be tough slogging.....over 200 hours have been spent with just one potential investor and there's still more work to be done.
Common Council will be receiving a report tonight on the priorities for the old North End where 43.3 per cent of people who live there get by on low incomes with the median being just over 16 thousand 500 dollars a year.
The major priorities include pre-natal programmes which would include nutrition counselling, programmes aimed at getting young children ready to learn at school, expansion of recreational programming at the North End Community Centre, legal advice for teenagers and for adults, education and employment training along with addiction services.
Councillors will be told parents worry about the safety of their children when they're walking to the North End Community Centre.
CFB Gagetown will be hosting a ribbon cutting of its own today at its health services centre.
The interim facilites are part of improvements announced by the Minister of National Defence back in the fall of 2009.
The centre will also include a new dental facility and integrated personnel support centre.
ACOA Minister Keith Ashfield will be on hand this morning for the ribbon-cutting at the CFB Gagetown Medical building.
A brand new ambulance station is opening in Kingston today.
Ambulance NB CEO Alan Stephen, Hampton-Kings MLA Bev Harrison and Tony Rickett of the Kingston local service district will be on hand for the grand opening on Route 845.
It gets underway at 1 o'clock today.
Did you remember to put your clocks ahead one hour last night?
If you didn't, you might be waking up to find it's later than you think.
Everyone in Saskatchewan and a few other pockets of the country do not recognize daylight time.
For the rest of us, in exchange for the possible loss of an hour's sleep, there are months ahead with an extra hour of evening sunlight.
A City man who son lives in Japan felt the impact but was not hurt by the earthquake.
Bob MacVicar's son Mark and his family live near Yokohama about 30 minutes south of Tokyo. He tells CHSJ they felt the earthquake in Tokyo where transportation was knocked out.
His daughter-in-law and grandson were in downtown Tokyo at the time shooting a tv commercial and spent three hours on a bus trying to get back to Yokohama but ended up stayng in a shelter.
MacVicar says the aftershocks are the strength of legitimate earthquakes themselves registering magnitude 6.0. To make a donation to the Red Cross relief efforts in Japan,
click here
It
's that time of year again. Most Canadians lose an hour of sleep this weekend in the switch from Standard Time to Daylight Saving Time.
Before going to bed tonight, turn your clocks and watches ahead one hour.
The major Canadian exception is Saskatchewan, which is on Standard Time year round.
As the world watches in horror at the devastation in Japan, Maritimers are giving to the relief effort.
Of the 80,000 donations made by last night, 3000 were from this region.
Spokesperson Dan Bedell tells CHSJ News they have let Japanese red cross what they have to offer if they are called in to help and have also started a fundraising campaign.
He says you can go into any Red Cross office in Atlantic Canada to give just specify it's for the Japan earthquake/tsunami relief effort. If you want to donate online, click here
