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Thursday, March 28, 2013

Police Need Help Indentifying This Man


The Major Crime Unit of the City police force wants your help in identifying a man.

It relates to one or more stolen or recovered vehicles in the City and police believe he can provide more information.

If you can know anything contact the City police at 648-3333 or Crime Stoppers at 1-800-222-TIPS or click here

We Will Get A New Economic Development Office

Of the 12 new economic development offices opening on Tuesday, Saint John will have one of the district offices on King Street.
 

The offices aim to provide quick and easy access to funding programs.

Each district office will have a director, a planning co-ordinator and economic development officers with administrative support.


The new offices are part of the Alward government's new export strategy and its goal to grow the economy in six sectors including biosciences and information and communications technology.

Two advisory councils will be announced in May and their role is to provide advice to the government about economic and business needs for each region.

For more info, click
here

Medical Society Says It Offered Ideas To Save Healthcare Money

The Alward Government and the New Brunswick Medical Society are sniping at eachother over the cap on medicare fees. 

Provincial Health Minister Ted Flemming accuses the Medical Society of not co-operating to lower the cost of healthcare, in effect telling him to stick it. 

Medical Society President Dr. Robert Desjardins tells CHSJ News an extensive report complete with suggestions on how to make the healthcare system more efficient was handed over to the government last August but he speculates the recommendations are gathering dust somewhere because there was no followup.

He adds one of the suggestions was not a medicare cap.

Retired heart surgeon and now M-L-A Dr. Jim Parrot got expelled from the Conservative part caucus after charging the Alward Government wasn't listening to doctors.

Funding For Universities Said To Be Tighter Than Ever

The Alward Government being accused of starving universities in the province. 

That charge made by Miriam Jones of U-N-B Saint John who's President of the New Brunswick Association of University Teachers. 

Jones tells CHSJ News universities provide hope to young people that they can have a better future. Without that, Jones maintains young people will move to a place where there's more hope and she adds the squeeze on university funding is now tighter than ever.

The State Of School Buildings Coming Under the Microscope

The Anglophone South School District will look into the crystal ball to determine the state of its school buildings from Sussex to St. Stephen and how they will shape up over the next five years.
 

Rob Fowler chairs the Anglophone South School District and he concedes Saint John has schools dating back to 1924 which can present financial challenges to keep them up to par.
 

Having said that, Fowler tells CHSJ News this review doesn't necessarily mean schools will be closed unless the drop in enrollment and cost of repairs are drastic. He adds no student in the district is in an unsafe school. 

The province wants a five year infrastructure plan from school districts by the end of June.

Drivers Getting A Price Break

The price of gas has fallen a bit after the weekly setting. 

The price of self serve regular around town is down from $1.30.3 last night to $1.29.5 a litre this morning. 

Diesel will also cost you less, $1.35.8 falling from $1.37.7 a litre and heating oil is cheaper by almost two cents a litre with a maximum price of $1.15.

Early Childhood Education To Be Expanded In Saint John Region

A big push is being made to enhance early childhood education in the region from Sussex to St. Stephen. 

The Education Department has taken over early childhood services from Social Development with the commitment to offer more support for families and expanded early intervention. 

The Director of Early Childhood Services in the Anglophone South School District Gary Hall tells CHSJ News the goal is to put children first with more support for families, easier access to services and expanded early intervention.
 

Hall says they want to have early childhood education available to all pre-schoolers in the region because of how crucial that is to their intellectual development.

 Meantime, the literacy assessments of Grade 7 students in the school district are in. 77 per cent of students in Anglophone South were successful in reading and 63.9 per cent in writing, both of which were slightly higher than the provincial averages.             

Medical Society And Alward Government In War Of Words

To say the relationship between the New Brunswick Medical Society and the provincial government at the moment is bad might be an understatement. 

The two sides are locked in a dispute over a budget measure to cap medicare fees. 

Medical Society President Dr. Robert Desjardins tells CHSJ News the patients are the ones who drive the cost of medicare depending on how sick they are and he warns their care will suffer with a cap on billing by doctors.

Dr. Desjardins says the cap announced in the budget came as a shock because doctors are in the middle of an agreement with the government which has a two year freeze on increases in medicare payments and that deal has been unilaterally broken.