With any luck, North America's toughest cops and firefighters could be showing off their skills in Saint John in 2018. The Port City has been shortlisted for the Can-Am Police-Fire Games.
Volunteer Gail Bremner tells CHSJ News the Games have something for everyone, such as SWAT, police service dog, toughest firefighter alive, pistol, and toughest competitor alive.
The last Canadian city to host the Can-Am Police-Fire Games was Saskatoon. According to Bremner, if Saint John is selected it could inject as much as 6 to 8 million dollars into the local economy. We'll find out the results in November.
Women looking for alternatives to a traditional hospital birth are out of luck in New Brunswick---at least for now.
Provincial NDP leader Dominic Cardy tells CHSJ News cutting funding to the Midwifery Association of New Brunswick is a backward move which fundamentally infringes on a woman's right to give birth where she chooses.
According to Cardy, the $10,000 the association needs to function is about equal to the cost of a single ministerial car--and the potential savings associated with midwifery are significant in light of the province's struggling healthcare system.
Using a midwife is $800 cheaper per hospital birth and $1800 cheaper per home birth according to the Ontario Department of Health. Cardy says with doctors in the province already overtaxed it makes no sense to cut a program we already promised to implement back in 2010.
Premier David Alward expressing his condolences to the people of Lac-Mégantic, Quebec, and says the province stands ready to offer any material support that may be helpful.
The small town east of Montreal devastated after a train derailment over the weekend. When the train went off the tracks on Saturday, it caused explosions, destroying buildings and killing at least 13 people.
To read Alward's message in its entirety, click here.
With cans, bottles and other recyclables piling up next to blue bins around the town, one councillor is saying Rothesay is close to getting curbside recycling.
Matt Alexander, who sits on the Public Works and Infrastructure Committee, tells
CHSJ News they've been talking about curbside recycling for the past
year, and are looking at implementing it in the fall.
However, he's just been named the town's representative to look at regionalization of waste and says talks on that front could affect the plan to start curbside recycling then positively or negatively.
Alexander says collaborating on the waste issue will be a good thing. He says by working together, there's the potential to save money. He says we need to find ways to increase education on recycling and composting and create programs to deal with the stagnating levels.
The Fundy Solid Waste Commission looking for a new regional approach to increase recycling and composting in place by next summer.
The amount of material being recycled and composted in the Fundy Region is stagnating.....So says Brenda MacCallum of the Fundy Region Solid Waste Commission who wants to see a review of what can be done to get people to throw away less garbage.
She tells CHSJ News one option is a pay as you throw system with people being charged for the additional garbage they toss out.
MacCallum says the town of Hampton has imposed a limit on garbage with success without illegal dumping. The town of Rothesay is moving towards curbside recycling.
The Solid Waste Commission would like a regional approach and a decision made on what that should be by next June.
Regional Policing is supposed to be talked about at today's meeting of the Fundy Regional Service Commission and Rothesay Mayor Bill Bishop will be voicing that town's opposition.
Rothesay Council has passed a motion to make clear it has no interest in such an arrangement after hearing opposition from both the police commission and police union in the K-V.
Mayor Mel Norton is pushing for the idea of one regional police department for the Saint John area but Bishop says he has not been shown where the economic advantage is for the town.
Quispamsis Mayor Murray Driscoll has also come out against. Both say the two police departments co-operate with eachother and they want to see that to continue.
Rothesay Council wants a report on train traffic going through the town these days, wondering how safe it really is.
This item was put on the town's agenda by Deputy Mayor Nancy Grant long before the train derailment over the weekend in Quebec. She says the train tracks are very close to homes and that scares her.
Grant says the only way to evacuate the people in Kennebecasis Park would be by water since the train tracks are at the only access to and from K-Park.
She's also expressing concern at seeing trains with as many as 82 rail cars passing through the town and almost all of them are transporting petroleum which is highly combustable.
Councillor Peter Lewis says he lives near the rail tracks and would like the see the trains go at a slower speed through the town. Municipalities have no say over trains and can't even impose a speed limit.
