The New Brunswick Energy Institute has a new chair.
David Besner has been appointed for a three-year term, effective immediately.
Besner is a chemical engineer and former assistant deputy minister with the provincial government. He had been acting as interim chair of the institute since last October.
The last chair, Louis LaPierre, stepped down after admitting to falsifying his academic credentials.
Quite a transformation taking place at Bayside Middle School with renovations to its auditorium now in the home stretch. A school committee has managed to raise 350 thousand dollars to payh for the project and is being helped out by a 25 thousand dollar contribution from Irving Oil.
French Immersion teacher Shawna Spinks is a member of the fundraising committee who has had a long association with the school--she says the auditorium is a place that holds a lot of memories for many people. All the chairs in the auditorium, which dated back to 1949, are being replaced. The revamped auditorium will also be wheelchair accessible. The washrooms are being modernised and a sprinkler system is being installed. The renovations are expected to be finished later this month.
Things are back to normal at Point Lepreau and its once again at full power adding about 660 megawatts to the grid.
The station went offline last Saturday night after a problem with one of the turbine system pumps.
It was synchronized to the grid yesterday and over the last 24 hours power was gradually increased back to 100 per cent.
Site VP and Chief Nuclear Officer Sean Granville says they are pleased that their team of nuclear professionals to quickly identify and resolve the issues.
The closure of New Brunswick's only abortion clinic has been making national headlines since it was announced in Fredericton this morning.
A few hours later in the provincial legislature, Liberal Leader Brian Gallant called for an independent review into abortion access in New Brunswick, saying New Brunswick is lagging behind the rest of Canada when it comes to addressing the issue. This questioning of the status quo represents a departure for the Liberals, who have historically aligned with the PCs on abortion legislation.
Health Minister Ted Flemming says the government's position hasn't changed--women in New Brunswick have access to abortions under certain medical circumstances and in his view further comment would be inappropriate. Currently in New Brunswick, women can only get an abortion in a hospital with the approval of 2 doctors, and clinic abortions are not covered.
The Saint John Police Association and the Police Commission will avoid binding arbitration after reaching a new three year contract agreement which is retroactive to January of last year.
The agreement came just as the two sides were about to start arbitration. The Police Association applied for arbitration back in September and there was some bitterness when Mayor Mel Norton was talking about a study on what it would cost to bring in the RCMP.
City Police officers will be getting pay raises of 4.5 per cent retroactive to January of 2013, 3.75 per cent as of this past January and another 3.75 per cent next January.
The deal also opens up the possibility of layoffs for those police officers hired after November 1st of 2011 along with the use of more civilians in jobs traditionally done by police officers.
Parents, teachers and some students wondering how to squish 10 missed days of teaching into the remaining school year. Zoe Watson of the Anglophone South School District tells CHSJ News high schools are concerned about the time missed.
She says they changed semesters at the end of January.
Only 2 days were missed in the first semester while the second semester saw 8 missed days.
After one recent storm they didn't close schools and the forecast changed significantly so it was necessary to send the students home at noon.
Watson says two weeks ago the snow days interfered with Parent/Teacher days and schools worked hard to get the evening portion in.
As far as extending the school year goes, the number of teaching days is a contractual issue so it would not be easily accomplished.
After 20 years, Fredericton's Mongentaler Abortion Clinic has announced it will be closing its doors.
The clinic says New Brunswick's strict abortions laws,which they say make it nearly impossible for women to terminate pregnancies in a hospital, are the reason for the closure. According to Clinic Manager Simone Leibovitch, the current laws make terminating a pregnancy difficult for women in the following ways:
-Women cannot get an abortion in a hospital unless referred by a family doctor -Many doctors are pro-life and will not make the referral -Hospitals have long wait lists, meaning women will often be past the 14-week gestation limit by the time they get an appointment
Due to these strictures, the clinic has subsidized over $100,000 dollars for procedures for New Brunswick women in the past decade. They say they can no longer afford to provide abortion services that are not publicly funded. In other provinces, abortions are covered under Medicare and are more readily available at hospitals.
The Council of Canadians holding public consultations In Ontario on the proposed Energy East Pipeline.
Council of Canadians Chair Maude Barlow had some choice words for the Harper Government at a stop in Thunder Bay.
She says they don't care about our water they only care about the big business interests in Canada adding their fight will be making it an election issue and making it one of the issues we force the opposition parties to take a position on.
Barlow says that most of the oil being transported will be exported and it won't directly benefit Canadians.
The Superintendent for the Anglophone South School District says they always have washrooms available. Zoe Watson responding to a parent's complaint that for a few days last month following vandalism to some of the boys bathrooms at KV high, students were without the facilities.
She says if schools in the district ever have issues where water or power are threatened they quickly start thinking about closures if they know its going to carry on for any amount of time.
Speaking at the school district's meeting last night in Hampton, Watson tells CHSJ News they looked into the complaint and the administration at KV has assured her that at no time were all of the boys washrooms not working.
St. Stephen's new Junior A Hockey Team now has a name---The County Aces.
Club President John Hyslop says the team logo relates to both sides of the border -- with a puck and maple leaf representing Canada, and stars around it for the US.
Hyslop says the Aces were a Bordertown team years ago and the other connection is to the Pennfield airstrip and the training centre for the pilots who became top guns or aces.
Hyslop says Hockey Canada will allow them up to 8 American players on the team and they have already started writing lists of players.
They estimate the Aces 1st exhibition game will be scheduled around September 6th or 7th of this year.
Clara Hughes bringing her big ride to Saint John on her 12,000 kilometre trek to promote mental health awareness. The 6-time Olympian arriving in the Port City for the first time to a crowd at Harbour Station. Hughes tell CHSJ News no matter the conditions she enjoys every stop in every town.
She says on the days where the weather is hard on the team they have an even bigger story to tell when they arrive adding this is about not giving up.
Hughes is the key note speaker at an event tonight at the Boys and Girls Club put on by Mindcare. It's free and doors open at 5:30 pm.
The provincial River Watch warning New Brunswickers that over the past 48 hours,water levels have risen and ice movement has begun in some waterways.
Warmer temps for the next few days could lead to melting snow pack and ice covers throughout the province, leading to localized flooding. There are currently ice jams on the Kennebecasis River at Hillsdale and Norton and Hammond River between Smithtown and Upham.
Water levels on the Nashwaak River remain a concern.
The Department of Health has reached a tentative agreement with the New Brunswick Pharmacists' Association.
Both sides have agreed to withhold details until the agreement is finalized.
The Pharmacists' Association claims the memorandum of understanding provides pharmacists with some predictability and helps to establish a foundation for future discussions.
Many adults in New Brunswick are struggling with basic literacy skills--as many as 60%, according to some polls. Liberal Leader Brian Gallant slamming the Alward government for what he calculates are 1.4 million dollars in cuts to adult literacy since the Tories took power.
He says in its first budget the Alward Government cut funding to the community adult learning services by $395,000, and in its second budget they cut even more than that.
Post-Secondary Education Minister Jody Carr counters that throwing money at problems isn't enough--and while cuts have been made that doesn't mean the quality of the services has suffered.
According to Life Literacy Canada, about 13% of workers in Canada are under-qualified for their jobs, which has a significant effect on wages and productivity.
A parent whose son attends Kennebecasis Valley High says he's dissatisfied with the investigation that was carried out by the Education Department into whether all the boy's washrooms but one were closed for 2 and a half days recently.
Blair Surette tells CHSJ News he was told by a senior official in the Education Dcepartment that Superintendent Zoe Watson denied it happened which was what she told us in an interview. Surette questions how all the boys he talked to could be wrong and points out Watson wasn't there are the school.
We also heard from another parent, who did not what her name used, who told us she was told by her daughter one boys' washroom and two washrooms for the girls were open.
Surette is vowing not to let the matter drop and is nowlooking at writing a letter of complaint to the Premier.
The Kennebecasis Regional Police have received several calls about a cell phone scam where victims buy a used cell phone on Kijiji or other on-line sales sites.
The scammer goes to any mobile phone shop, receives a phone at a significant discount or even for free, based on a promotion which involves a contract, which the receiver agrees to abide by. The person may use their own name or a fraudulent name to receive the phone and then sells the phone which technically has not been paid for and is now your problem.
Police say the easiest way to avoid being conned is to meet the seller at any mobile service provider and let them know you're going to have the mobile service provider check to see if the phone has been flagged in their database.
The Saint John Police are also advising the public that there's no threat to public safety in the South End.
Last weekend on Saturday night around 11pm, a woman reported to police that she was grabbed from behind and assaulted with a weapon near the intersection of Duke and Carmarthen.
Police say they've investigated the incident and determined the attack was a false report and did not actually occur.
The Saint John Police Department has arrested two men they believe were responsible for the armed robbery last Friday night at Little John's Variety over East.
An 18 year old was arrested in a vehicle in a parking lot off McAllister Drive in connection with that incident. A second suspect was nabbed in Queen Square later on the evening around 7:30 according to Sergeant Jay Henderson of the city police. He was also found to be in possession of a large quantity of crack.
He's facing armed robbery, trafficking, and breaking a judge's conditions.
A weapon was found after a search warrant was executed at a home off Westmorland Road. Both are scheduled to appear in court.
There will be no trial in the aftermath of a violent attack January 20th at Eastern College on Prospect Street in Fredericton.
A judge has ruled a former soldier, accused of attacking a classmate and an instructor in a criminology class with a machete is unfit to stand trial.
The decision is based on the findings of a mental health evaluation at Restigouche for 31 year old Luke Thomas Walter Powers. It determined he was not criminally responsible for his actions.
Powers has been diagnosed with post traumatic stress disorder.
It turns out 2013 wasn't exactly a spectacular year for Saint John's Industrial Parks (although really, are industrial parks ever truly 'spectacular'?)
Saint John Industrial Parks General Manager Brian Irving explained to common council they had hoped to see $500,000 in land sales---but they only managed to realize $60,000 of that projected goal due to a deal with the province for 1,100 acres which fell through. Tax revenue and growth for the industrial parks was $95,000 dollars which was almost on target. Currently, Saint John Industrial Parks have $4.4 million in assets--and they're hoping to turn things around on the sales front in 2014.
City crews will be spending the summer and part of the fall fixing a stretch of road in the North end.
A major infrastructure project on Douglas Avenue between Bentley and Clarendon will see parts of the existing watermain and sanitary sewer renewed, a new wastewater lift station and storm sewer installed and some repaving done.
Municipal Engineer for the City of Saint John Kevin O'Brien tells CHSJ Newsthe underground infrastructure in is poor shape and needs to be upgraded. O'Brien says there will be traffic interruptions but it's their goal to maintain at least one lane of traffic so people living in the area still have access and a rep will be on site at all times.
The project is scheduled to start in May and be completed by the end of October.
The City letting us know they are preparing to deal with rainfall and snowmelt from the heavy rain and warm temps.
Transportation and Environment services crews are inspecting catch basins in known trouble spots to ensure they are open and ready to handle any run-off.
The City warns the freeze and thaw cycle can cause ice to form on the street and sidewalks and crews will put down sand and salt where its needed.
To the joy of Saint Johners, that same freeze-and-thaw cycle can bring on potholes in our streets. Potholes can be reported by calling 658-4455 or email service@saintjohn.ca
The idea of a regional fire service seems to have caught the Mayors of the outlying municipalities by surprise. Rothesay Mayor Bill Bishop isn't dismissing the idea without first hearing the ins and outs.
He says if it means quality service at no increased cost to the town of Rothesay they'd be willing to discuss it.
Quispamsis Mayor Murray Driscoll tells CHSJ News the fire departments in the region already work together when needed--and we have mutual aid between all the fire departments in the outlying areas. Both Driscoll and Bishop say there doesn't seem to be any desire among people in the Kennebecasis Valley for a regional fire department that would also encompass Saint John.
Yet another twist in the ongoing case of a parakeet stolen from a pet store in Dieppe.
RCMP reporting yesterday that two missing sun conure birds, one lost and one stolen, had both been recovered. The Mounties are now saying the lost parakeet who flew the coop back in February, named Cosmo, is still missing.
The parakeet returned by a woman to the pet store however is confirmed to be the stolen bird named Vern.
Anyone with any information about the theft of Vern being asked to contact Codiac RCMP at 506-857-2400 or Crime Stoppers anonymously at www.crimenb.ca or 1-800-222-TIPS (8477).
Is the Fundy Regional Service Commission just spinning its wheels with a lot of talk but no action?
Grand Bay-Westfield Mayor Grace Losier, who chairs the Commission, tells CHSJ News the members who make up the Commission just can't keep on holding meetings every month with no change happening because outcomes are needed.
Losier says a recreation study for the region is needed and should have been done earlier.
Mayor Mel Norton says funding of the Commission next year by the city is not up to him but will be made by Common Council on the basis of whether Saint John is getting value for its dollars which is the new direction for all city spending.
It's taken a long time but the Fundy Regional Service Commission has been told the landfill at Crane Mountain will be debt free by 2018.
For that to happen, no more money can be borrowed. Being debt free could mean a reduction in the tipping fee or some sort of financial dividend going to the various communities that make up the Fundy Region Solid Waste Commission.
Recommendations are expected by mid-summer on what will happen with recycling, composting and garbage collection in the future.
A full room at the Delta to hear TD Bank's chief economist speak about the valule of literacy and numeracy skills in today's workforce.
The call was made to make literacy an issue in coming provincial election campaign.
Craig Alexander says the you don't get a job for life anymore so you need different skills for several employers. He says literacy skills are the great enabler and if you experience unemployment the greater literacy skills you have will strongly limit how long you are out of work.
Learning difficulties that lead to school failure can increase the risk of absenteeism, dropping out, substance abuse, teen pregnancy all of which keep the cycle of poverty or dependency going.
The provincial Health Department releasing the letter sent to Dr. Marc Pelletier of the New Brunswick Heart Centre at the Regional Hospital about the large infusion of provincial funding which amounts to 4.5 million dollars.
2.3 million dollars will be used to renovate the cardiac care unit and 2.2 million for the purchase of an intervention suite at the heart centre.
In the letter, provincial Health Minister Ted Flemming writes that for too long politics have influenced decision-making in the health care system but now the decisions are being made on the basis of what's best for patients.
He also claims 40 million dollars of savings in healthcare this year alone.
Do harm-reduction initiatives like needle exchanges actually make a difference in the lives of drug addicts?
For the Executive Director of AIDS Saint John Julie Dingwell the answer to that question is a no-brainer. She tells CHSJ News it absolutely does, not only reducing the spread of disease among drug users but acting as a connector.
She says once people start using the service on a regular basis, that's when the organization can really begin working with them "to show them that they matter." Dingwell speaking as part of a discussion panel at U-N-B Saint John on community policing and harm-reduction in the city.
The Saint John Fire Department has been around since 1786---and in a Core Service Review that also included Waterfront Development, Enterprise Saint John, the industrial parks, and Discover Saint John, Fire Chief Kevin Clifford made a compelling case not to cut or freeze the fire budget any further.
Clifford tells CHSJ News he doesn't mind publicly stating he thinks a regional service could be an excellent option. Clifford says before the major cuts in 2012 there would be 2 or 4 times a year when all the apparatus was tied up: now, that's jumped to 40 or 50 times a year. The cuts in 2012 involved the loss of 16 positions.
He also emphasized that a robust fire service is key to our future as an industrial hub. Council has filed the information for consideration in its next budget deliberations.
Two colourful missing parakeets have been found safe---one was stolen and another flew away from its owner.
When the parakeet was turned into Codiac RCMP everyone thought "Vern" the had come home---that is until another person showed up a pet store with another Vern.
Now, they figure the bird is “Cosmo” Vern's sibling who flew the coop back in February.
With up to 50 millimetres of rain forecasted in the region, New Brunswickers are being warned to keep an eye out and prepare for flooding.
Richard Keeley of River Watch tells CHSJ News water levels are expected to peak on Wednesday and Thursday.
Keeley says if you live in a flood-prone area and you have a basement, you should move your belongings to a higher level and be sure that any drainage equipment is functioning properly.
For a link to more information and updates, click here
The majority of the Port City's business community has high hopes for the coming year.
The Saint John Board of Trade Membership survey shows business confidence in the city is on the rise with 78-percent of respondents saying they expect their company to do much better or somewhat better in the coming year. 84-percent say they think the business community in the city is very supportive or at least somewhat supportive of their business.
Meantime the latest results from the Monthly Labour Force Survey released by Stats Canada showing a drop of 1.4-percent in employment in Saint John from February to March of this year. However, that's up 3-percent from March of last year.
Provincial Health Minister Ted Flemming says New Brunswick is ahead of all other provinces with the exception of Ontario when it comes to keeping seniors in their homes for as long as possible.
Flemming says the "Home First" policy means the government, hopefully, won't have to spend a lot more money constructing new nursing homes for a growing population of seniors.
Flemming is even hoping to see the movement of seniors from long term hospital care, not necessarily into nursing homes, but back to their own homes as long as there's proper home care in place.
He says the role of hospitals is to treat people, who are sic,k on a short term basis and move them out as quickly as possible.
A 25 year old St. George man, facing a charge of armed robbery in the holdup of the Garden Street Circle "K" last Friday morning, is back in jail after making a brief court appearance.
Stephen Hall of Fundy Bay Drive was in court for a bail hearing but asked for a one week adjournment. The judge agreed to that and scheduled his next court appearance for next Monday afternoon.
A sun conure parakeet stolen from a Dieppe shop last Month has been located.
The Mounties got several tips after a picture of Vern along with pictures and descriptions of the two men came out last week. One of the tips allowed officers to recover him and he was not harmed.
No arrests have yet been made and if you know anything, contact Crime Stoppers anonymously.
You can reach Crime Stoppers at 1-800-222-8477 or click here.
The large numbers of people who make their way to the Regional Hospital and U-N-B Saint John each weekday were seen as a potential pool of riders for the Comex suburban bus service.
It's estimated 16 hundred people from the Kennebecasis Valley go to the hospital and university to work or attend classes each weekday but It hasn't turned out that way. The problem, according to Saint John Transit General Manager Frank McCarey is that the starting times are all different.
McCarey does observe the hospital and university appear to be busier these past few years than the uptown, at least judging by bus ridership.
Various organic black peppercorns being pulled off grocery store shelves because they could be contaminated with salmonella.
Eleven products including three from Frontier, four from 365 Everyday Value and four from Simply Organic being recalled. The Canadian Food Inspection Agency says if you have the product in your home you should throw it out or return it to the store where you bought it.
Salmonella can lead to fever, headache, vomiting, nausea, abdominal cramps and diarrhea in healthy people. There have been no reports of anyone getting sick from eating any of these peppercorns.
Click here for a full list of the recalled products.
Saint John is described as being right at the bottom when it comes to literacy rates and that, according to Yves Bourgeois of the Urban Studies Institute at U-N-B Saint John, doesn't bode well for turning around the economy in the future.
Research done at U-N-B has shown children who are having problems with literacy by Grade 2 may never recover. Literacy will be highlighted Tuesday morning at the Delta where the chief economist with the T-D Bank Craig Alexander will be speaking.
We all know that New Brunswick has an employment problem--but does it also have a problem with its work ethic?
That was the question posed to Premier David Alward, who responded it's not for him to say whether there's a work ethic problem. All he knows is that he meets New Brunswickers every day, and they want jobs. That being said, the province has seen unfilled jobs in a number of sectors including Tourism and Hospitality, which can get short shrift as people leave for better paying jobs out West.
But according to the Premier, we're seeing that trend of unfilled positions and empty classrooms turning around.
