It's been a good week at the Imperial Theatre.
On Tuesday, PotashCorp NB made a $250,000 matching contribution and today MP Rodney Weston gave $100,000 to support the theatre over two different seasons.
Executive Director S. G. Lee tells CHSJ News the money from the federal government is for programming.
She says this money goes directly to the cost of bringing in artists including fees, travel and flights and community activities in and around the Imperial.
Lee says planning for the 2013/2014 is 75 per cent complete and now they are working on the 2014/2015 season.
The mother of a Moncton teen who strangled herself in prison says no one has been held accountable for the death.
Testifying today at a Toronto inquest, Coralee Smith says nothing has changed for inmates.
She says everyone in the system knew how desperate her daughter was, yet they did not help.
Ashley Smith choked herself to death in her segregation cell in Kitchener, Ontario in October 2007.
Guards, who were under orders not to intervene, simply watched.
Her mom says the 19-year-old should not have been in prison in the first place.
Some streamlining at the top at the Horizon Health Network.
New president John McGarry announcing the Executive Management Team has been reduced from 12 to 7.
McGarry says three VP's are out of the senior management team, 4 VP's have been converted to corporate directors and one person have been brought in as Chief Operating Officer.
McGarry says the two people leaving will receive a standard severance package as approved by the province.
He says that will result in significant savings for the organization but he would say how much money they will save with these changes.
Horizon Health Network must find 3 million dollars in savings by next year and McGarry tells CHSJ News this gives them a start on it.
Disabled patients should be seen as people first and their disability second and doctors should be more compassionate. So says Dr. Shawn Jennings who suffered a debilitating brainstem stroke when he was 45, forcing him to give up his family practice of 20 years.
Dr. Jennings still uses a wheelchair but has recovered to the point where he's a member of the faculty at the Dal Medical School and tells CHSJ News doctors will treat the disabled differently but not out of malice but because they feel sorry for them.
Dr. Jennings says examination tables in doctors' offices are too high for the disabled to get up onto but they're designed that way so doctors don't have to bend over as much and save wear and tear on their backs. Another barrier is actually getting into a doctor's office if it isn't wheelchair accessible.
More than 17 per cent of people in the province are coping with disabilities which is the second highest rate in the country, second only to Nova Scotia and we have to get our act together. That was the message delivered at a forum organised by the Saint John Human Development Council.
Executive-Director Randy Hatfield tells CHSJ News there are still too many barriers when people with disabilities seek healthcare and at a time when the province is trying to constrain the escalating cost of healthcare.
The forum was told there are not enough interpreters around to allow the deaf to communicate by sign language and that sometimes results in them being treated with a lack of respect. The forum also hearing there's a stigma that if you have a physical disability, somehow you also suffer from a mental disability.
It's going to cost you more to fill up with self serve regular after the weekly setting. It has increased by 3 cents a litre to $1.34.6 in the city.
Diesel is down a bit at $1.45.7 and heating oil at $1.24.4 is basically unchanged.
