Watson Gets Fredericton Promotion

Trading Quispamsis for Fredericton.

District 6 Superintendent Zoe Watson getting a promotion, she is Assistant Deputy Education Minister.
Watson is filling a vacancy that became available in October.

Andrew Hopper will be taking over as the new District 6 Superintendent, he currently holds the Director of Education position.

Chang Seeks Seat At City Hall Again

A former common councillor is hoping for another term around the Port City's horsheshoe.
Jay Chang agrees with others who see the negative culture as a problem for city hall.
He tells CHSJ News we live in a democracy but, it doesn't feel that way most of the time.
He says it's great that the city hosted the Ward meetings last week but, more interaction is needed.
Chang says city hall should be more transparent.

Local Housing Market Described As Static With Buyers Holding The Upper Hand

With the economy just plodding along and Saint Johnners not as optimistic about the economy as they were last year, the housing market is described as static in the latest report from Remax.

Local realtor Gordon Breau tells CHSJ News it will likely remain that way for a few months yet but he expects activity to start taking off again by the middle of next year. He says housing in the Valley remains hot and an attractive location for young families.

Breau also warns potential buyers housing prices will not be going down because land is at a premium and regulations governing the building of new homes boost the overall cost.

Seniors In Province Looking For Better Care

The number one priority for the New Brunswick Senior Citizens Federation is to have cancer drugs covered by medicare because they're so expensive and for some people in the province, a matter of life and death.

The Federation's Conrad Leblanc tells CHSJ News there is concern over all this talk about cutting the provincial budget but he's hoping Premier David Alward will strike a balance and not just slice and dice.

The Federation is also calling for the government to resume notifying seniors when their driver registrations expire and abolition of ambulance fees.

Friends Of Rockwood Park To Question Plan SJ About Municipal Plan

The Friends of Rockwood Park will be on hand for the open house tomorrow night hosted by Plan SJ to let people know how far along they are in getting a new municipal plan in place.

Three areas, Martinon, Treadwell Lake and Lorneville, have been identified as natural areas but they don't include Rockwood Park. David Thompson of the Friends of Rockwood Park tells CHSJ News he finds that surprising and disconcerting.

Thompson is questioning whether Plan SJ is being unduly influenced by what he calls their political masters at City Hall.

The new municipal plan is to serve as a roadmap for future development in the city for the next generation and there is concern more young people have not been involved in shaping it.

Nurse Practitioners Cited As Way To Reduce Healthcare Costs And Wait Times

If the provincial government wants to reduce its health care budget, it should rely more on nurse practitioners and have more of them in nursing homes. That word coming from Sue Cole, who's the nurse practitioner at Loch Lomand Villa.

Cole tells CHSJ News emergency room care is 3 to 4 times the cost of care in a nursing home and a seven day stay in hospital costs an estimated 7 thousand dollars.

There are over a thousand nursing home beds in the Saint John region but only 300 are covered by nurse practitioners.

Saint Johnners Want More Compact City According To Plan SJ

According to the latest community feedback Plan SJ is receiving about the municipal plan, the future of the city lies in focusing on compact urban development.

Consultant Cyndi Rottenberg-Walker says the key message is to focus development on the priority neighbourhoods and build up on top of existing infrastructure.
 
Another key recommendation is to establish a significant retail presence in the north end.
 
Plan SJ will be presenting its latest progress at an open house meeting tomorrow. It starts at 5pm at the UNB Saint John Grand Hall building across from the City Market.

Common Council's Priorities Are The Same As Those Identified By Saint Johnners

The priorities of Common Council are lining up with what the people of Saint John deem important..... That, according to the 2010 Citizen Survey.

The latest results show that roads, water and sewer treatment, taxes, the budget and employee issues top the list of priorities for Saint Johners.

Heather Shuve with Ipsos-Reid says accountability and the priority areas identified by Council lines up nicely with the results.

Overall satisfaction with living in the city stayed virtually the same as last year's results but the city did see slight drops in satisfaction when it came to economic outlook and traffic flow. The loss of several high profile projects, like the second refinery, contributed to the bleaker outlook.

Another Credit Card Scam Making The Rounds

As we head into the busy holiday season -- city police are advising to be careful about the latest phone scam making the rounds.

Police say a number of residents have fallen prey to a caller with generic information about the credit card and asking a series of questions to verify the card holder.
Another twist on this scam is the caller indicating they are investigating a fraudulent purchase on the credit card account and will ask for the three digit verification number on the back of the card.
Again -- police are warning not to give out any information over the phone unless you make the call and you know you are dealing with a reputable company.

Power Crews Struggling To Restore Service

The late fall storm is continuing to cause problems in some areas of the province -- the high winds and heavy wet snow in some areas are knocking down power lines with N-B Power reporting just under 12-thousand customers without power.
That includes about a thousand in the Sussex area and 14-hundred in the St Stephen area.
Environment Canada's weather service says we can expect a mix of showers and flurries through this evening with the temperature dropping off to near minus 2 overnight.

Report Shows Wait Times Growing

If you're waiting for elective surgery - this may come as no surprise -- our province has the second highest wait times for elective surgery in the country -- 33.6-weeks.

The report from the Fraser Institute pegs Prince Edward Island with the longest waiting period at 44.4-weeks while the shortest wait times are in Ontario at 14-weeks.
A spokesman for the Institute says governments should try new health care policies including cost sharing and private health care instead of just throwing more money at the system.

Survey On Student Attitudes In Hampton To Be Released

How do students in the Hampton area perceive their community?.......How do they spend their time and do they engage in risky behaviours?

A survey was conducted to find those things out and the results will be released to the community tonight at 7:00 in Hampton Middle School.

Kent Staal of School District 6 tells CHSJ News the results were better than a similar survey done back in 2002. He says the survey finds young people who are active in their community and feel a sense of belonging behave better than those who feel disengaged and isolated.

City Wants Landlords To Keep Properties Clean To Deter Firebugs

The city is working on a bylaw or some other way to reduce the threat of fires being lit in some of the neighbourhoods around town.

Councillor Gary Sullivan, who used to head One Change in the North End, says he doesn't care what happens but wants to see landlords clean up the garbage lying around their properties. He says there have been several fires in the north end caused by garbage being lit.

Councillor Donnie Snook says this is turning out to be a problem in the south end as well.

Common Council To Get Report On City's Finances Tonight

(Deputy Mayor Stephen Case)
            (File Photo)

Common Council will be receiving a report tonight from the city's Finance Committee on the latest budget figures for this year.

The committee is chaired by Deputy Mayor Stephen Chase and he tells CHSJ News there will be a shortfall.

He warns there will be a huge fiscal crisis if the pension plan issue is not sorted out and, even if it is, the city will still be facing what he calls a moderate fiscal crisis which means Council will have to watch its spending next year.

Saint John M-P Gets Plan From City On Safe Clean Drinking Water

(Saint John Common Councillor Gary Sullivan)
            (Photo by Brian McLain)

Fresh off fulfilling a campaign promise to get rid of the tolls on the Harbour Bridge, Saint John M-P Rodney Weston is turning his attention to safe drinking water saying it is a priority for him.

The city has presented Weston with a plan that would see it get done over a 7 year period but Common Councillor Gary Sullivan questions whether the city can afford to pay its share of the 200 million dollar price tag even if the province and federal government pick up two-thirds of the tab.

Weston says there are programmes in place to access funding for such a project and Common Councillor Peter McGuire would like to see a point person in place at city hall whose job it would be to get that money.

Drivers On Harbour Bridge Urged To Share Road Space

(Saint John Harbour Bridge)
         (File Photo)

West side traffic has been a bone of contention since repair work on the Harbour Bridge began with collisions clogging things up.

Tim O'Reilly is the manager of pedestrian and traffic services for the City and he stresses the need for drivers to share the road space and to not be cutting in front of each other.

O'Reilly says they will also be looking for ways to improve the situation for pedestrians and cyclists. He tells CHSJ News they're hoping for the public's support again next year when the remaining construction on the bridge starts up again.

Numbers In For Advanced Byelection Polls

238 people casting their early ballot in the municipal byelection for Ward 3.

The returning office has also been taking votes since Nov 26th and combined with yesterday's advanced polls, 323 votes have been cast.

Returning Officer for Ward 3 Mary McAuliffe tells CHSJ News it was a small but steady turnout.

6 candidates are vying for the empty council seat left behind by Carl Killen when he got the MLA nod for Saint John Harbour.

Election day is December 13th.

Texting Is Number One Concern For Drivers

Canadian drivers are now afraid of a new threat while on the road: texting.

In a CAA survey, 85 pecent of respondents feel texting is the number one road safety issue, followed closely by drinking and driving.

Gary Howard with the CAA tells CHSJ News it has become a real threat since everyone uses mobile devices.

Howard says public education is important in order to make the use of mobile devices while driving socially unacceptable.

New Brunswick is banning the use of cell phones while driving with new legislation in early 2011.

City Transit Adding WiFi Service

You can update your status and tweet - all while making your way to and from work.The Saint John Transit Commission officially launching free Wi-Fi for its customers on its entire fleet of buses.

Assistant General Manager Brian Thorne tells CHSJ News they have testing it for over a year and the feedback is very positive.

Saint John Transit is the newest additions to the Freespots program.  

Irving and UNBSJ Team Up To Offer Degrees

Irving Oil and UNBSJ teaming up to deliver secondary education for Irving Oil employees.

The two recently launched an executive MBA program, which allows employees to earn their master's degree while remaining fully employed.

Director of Human Resource Management with Irving Oil Tracy Chapman tells CHSJ News they had more than 130 applicants.

Student JC Besner says it's a great way to learn more about his industry.

The course takes 2 years to complete and it is equivilant to the one year MBA program at UNBSJ.