Medicare Coverage Extended For Travellers

Going travelling this summer? You can now leave the province for as long as 212 days and still be covered by medicare when you get back. Currently, the maximum number of days was 182.

The extension is for vacation and visiting purposes...not business travel. Contact medicare with your dates of travel to maintain coverage.

Out-of-country costs aren't covered, except for emergencies, at a maximum of $100 per day.

Saint John Medical School To Mark Milestone

A milestone being marked tomorrow when the Class of 2014 from the medical school at U-N-B Saint John celebrates the completion of four years of undergraduate studies at the Marco Polo Cruise Terminal tomorrow. 

The Regional Director of Research for Horizon Health, Barry Strack tells CHSJ News Horizon Health and Dalhousie Medicine New Brunswick have been working with eachother almost from day 1.


Horizon Health has over 600 active research studies with 200 of those sponsored by the pharmaceutical industry.
 
The Associate Dean of Dalhousie Medicine New Brunswick, Dr. John Steeves says it can now be said the medical education program in New Brunswick has been fully implemented.

Finance Minister Defends Pension Reform As Necessary

The Alward Government is pointing to pension reform and the shared risk model as one of its accomplishments. 

The Liberals are accusing the government of not doing enough consultation which is a charge being rejected by Provincial Finance Minister Blaine Higgs.
 
Higgs is accusing the Liberals of trying to exploit this issue for votes with the provincial election in late September even though the cost would be borne by taxpayers.

Higgs argues something had to be done because pensions were in jeopardy and he accuses the Liberals of looking through the rear view mirror.

Another Big Theft Of Copper In City

If you're building anywhere in the city or own a home that's under construction, you might want to keep close tabs on it.

Another copper theft has been reported at two vacant homes in the city.

The call came in around noon to two homes on Saddlebrook Court. Police can't pinpoint when it happened other than that it was probably sometime in the last year.

The forensic unit came and processed the scenes where a large amount of copper electrical wire was stolen.

Health Minister Says Any Loss Of Federal Money Is No Big Deal

Any hope that New Brunswick will be getting more money from the Harper Government because of next year's federal budget surplus have been dashed by the Prime Minister who says he prefers to cut taxes. 

Provincial Health Minister Ted Flemming says there's a surplus in health of 44 million dollars which would be far above any reduction from Ottawa. The worst case scenario would be a loss of 18 million federal dollars.
 
The Conservatives have been hammering away at the Opposition Liberals, accusing them of financial mismanagement when they were in power and leaving the Alward Government with a huge deficit to deal with.

Conservation Plan Aims To Connect City Folk With Nature

How do you connect city-dwelling Canadians with nature?   The Harper Government will spend over 9 million bucks over the next 5 years figuring that out.
 
It's all part of a Conservation plan announced near Fredericton and the Nature Conservancy of Canada President John Lounds was there. 

He says the Feds are investing over $252 million dollars over the next 5 years in many aspects of conservation including 
funding for marine and coastal conservation, creating a national inventory of conserved areas in Canada and $50 million to restore wetlands.

It also includes $3 million dollars over three years to Earth Rangers to expand their family-oriented conservation programming.

Lounds says he's pretty pumped about the plan and can't wait to get working on it.