Jim Irving Takes Part in Delta Roundtable

(Prime Minister Harper Speaking at Last Night's Round Table at the Delta Brunswick Hotel)

Plenty of topics were up for discussion at a roundtable meeting with Prime Minister Harper at the Delta last night. Several business people were on hand to take part including David Ganong, Andrew Oland and Jim Irving. Irving tells CHSJ News, the economy was a big focus of the chat but found time to talk about a few personal matters like a request to build some more ships at the Halifax shipyard and help for the forest industry especially in the Northern half of the Province.


Irving adds the proposed sale of NB Power to Hydro Quebec never came up.

Weston at the Delta For Chat with PM

(MP Weston to the left, Prime Minister Harper
Center and Southwest MP Greg Thompson Right)

Saying it had a Provincial flavour to it, Saint John MP Rodney Weston is coming away from last night's meeting with the Prime Minister pleased. Weston tells CHSJ News, he frustration with the Province concerning the Harbour Bridge is their reluctance to accept any responsibility when it comes to the bridge.

Weston adds Prime Minister Harper is aware of the situation but gave no commitments for help at this time but says it will stay on the radar.

Arrests after thefts and damage in East and West Saint John

Six people are facing charges after a City Police investigation into a series of break and enters, car thefts and damage at businesses in East and West Saint John.

Four men and one woman in their 20's along with a younger man have been arrested and will be in court at a later date.

The damage occurred at businesses on Rothesay Avenue and Fairville Boulevard.

Premier Responds To Talk Of Funding Harbour Bridge Repairs

(file photo)

The province is continuing discussions over taking responsibility of the Harbour Bridge from the federal government.
Premier Shawn Graham says an offer is on the table.

Graham says his government has put an initial offer on the table and has not heard back.
Graham says the discussion about who is responsible for the bridge began when Saint John M-P Rodney Weston made a campaign promise to take the tolls off.
He says the province is willing to work with the feds.

Harper Visits the Border Town

(Premier Graham, US Ambassodor to Canada David Jacobsen and Prime Minister Harper)

(photo by Lisa Gullison)

The Prime Minister is in chocolate town to inaugurate the new border crossing.
The new St. Stephen Port of Entry is located on the new international bridge connecting to Calais.
Stephen Harper says this helps to ease traffic between the border towns.
Harper says Canada and the US are the best of friends saying no two nations on earth care less about the line that divides them and more about buidling goodwill across it.
Harper says since the crossing opened in November residential traffic has eased, and commerical traffic has increased by 20%.

New Deal for Saint John Emergency Rooms

(Health Minister Mary Schryer Signing Document)
              (Photo by Jim Hennessy)

With the stroke of a pen, Health Minister Mary Schryer has signed a deal to support the recruitement and retention of emergency department doctors for the Regional and St. Josephs Hospitals. Also involved in the deal are the Horizon Health Network and Dalhousie University. Health Minister Schryer says this deal guarantees coverage in both emergency departments 24/7.


The deal worth $7.9 million dollars, includes the $190 dollar per hour rate for emergency room doctor coverage. It also provides funding for clinical care, medical education and administrative tasks being carried out by emergency room doctors.

Regional's Chief of Staff Loves New Plan

The Chief of Staff at the Regional Hospital thinks this new fund is fabulous. Dr. Brian Wheelock says it is already paying dividends. Dr. Wheelock adds they are already reducing the dependency they have had on local physicians to cover shifts in the Emergency Department.

Currently, the Regional Emergency Room has 17 doctors but in a perfect world would like to have 22 or 23.

Water Rate in City Increases

The water rate in the city is increasing by 4.1 per cent. Brent McGovern with Saint John Water says the flat rate is going from $830 dollars to $864 dollars which would come out to an additional $2.80 a month.
McGovern says no matter which way the utility looked at the numbers, the operating cost increased. He goes on to say if the utility were to try to hold the rate, service would be negatively affected.
The total operating budget for Saint John Water is $33.7 million dollars.

City Budget

The city's tax rate is looking like it's going to remain stable in the 2010 operating budget. There is no increase, or decrease in the preliminary draft of the budget with the rate staying at  almost $1.79.
Acting City Manager Pat Woods says keeping the rate stable was the number one priority when drafting the budget. $756 thousand dollars is being pegged for the Municipal Plan and there is $580 thousand set aside for road maintenance. Woods says when putting together the proposed budget, city staff used Common Council's priority list as a guide.
The Mayor and Councillors will review the proposed budget over the weekend and another meeting is scheduled for Monday at 5:30 for further discussions.

Quite a Haul for RCMP

A victory for RCMP as they continue it's crackdown on illegal activity in the Province. Officers raided a home in Balmoral yesterday and came away with a significant quantity of pills, cocaine, smokes, money, guns and a stolen truck.


Marc Lepage has been arrested and made a court appearance answering to 17 charges related to the seizure.

Bell Aliant Hires a New Body

Management has a new face at Bell Aliant. The company has announced Dan McKeen is the new Senior Vice President of Customer Solutions. McKeen joins Bell Aliant after holding a number of leadership positions at Bragg Communications, a competitor of Bell Aliant under the Eastlink brand.


He takes over the role from Heather Tulk who has been appointed Senior Vice President of Residential Products. Mckeen takes over his new job on the 28th.

Man Arrested in Connection with Bridge Fire

A 19-year old man has been arrested and is facing a charge of arson after one of the Province's covered bridges was destroyed last fall. It was October.14th when the Adair Bridge on Furlong Road was torched beyond repair.


RCMP made the arrest yesterday and the man is due in court to enter a plea on the ninth of March. Officers continue to investigate the arson.

Prime Minister Coming to St. Stephen

The new border crosing in St. Stephen is going to be busier than usual tomorrow. CHSJ News has learned Prime Minister Stephen Harper is due in the border town to officialy cut the ribbon on the new bridge. Premier Graham and several of his cabinet ministers will join the PM along with officials from the State of Maine.

The Province has invested $60.5 million dollars in the project which includes 23 km's of new highway which stretches from Waweig to the new border crossing. The ceremony is expected to get started at 1:30pm. The new crossing and highway opened back on November.16th.

New Businesses in Rothesay Poised to Open

(Cookie Crumb Bakery in Rothesay Under Construction)
                    (Photo by Jim Hennessy)

A bakery, a hair salon and daycare is close. Just three of the businesses poised to open in the expansion of the Fairville Mall. Construction got started just over a year ago and Tony Bamford with B-A Realty tells CHSJ News, he continues to take calls from people looking for space.


Bamford adds the daycare is just working through the paper-work and permits but when it does open, it will be four thousand square feet and have room for 80 children. The Cookie Crumb Bakery is hoping to open in two weeks.

Last Chance to Mulch Your Tree

(Christmas Trees Waiting to be Mulched in Rothesay)
                 (Photo by Jim Hennessy)

A sure sign the holiday is over is this reminder.....tomorrow is the last day to throw your Christmas tree on the pile to be mulched. In Quispamsis, you can take your tree to the parking lot of the Recreation Center off Meehan's Cove Road and the Walter Jewett Ballfield parking lot. Trees must be dropped of by tomorrow. In Rothesay, there are four drop-off area's. The Bill McGuire Center, Wells Recreation Field, East Riverside Kingshurst Park and the front lot of the Rothesay Arena.

In Saint John.......you can take your tree to the Gorman Arena in Millidgeville, The Peter Murray and Hilton Belyea is taking tree's for the West Side and in East Saint John it is the Forest Hills Ballfield.

Gas Prices Increase

You're paying for more for gas this morning in the Saint John area after the weekly setting. The maximum price for self serve regular is $102.9 a litre and $110.1 for diesel. Self Serve is being sold around town for $100.3 which is just under two cents more than it was going for last night. Diesel is selling for $107.5. The maximum price for furnace oil is 92.6 cents a litre and $114.7 for propane.

Campbell Seeks Tory Nod In Saint John Harbour

West side community activist John Campbell is seeking the Conservative Party nomination in Saint John Harbour.    
Campbell tells CHSJ News one of the key issues facing the riding and the city is poverty and he's concerned about the state of the education system.
Campbell also says he realizes there have to be some changes made to the business structure of N-B Power -- but -- he's opposed to any sale of the provincial electrical grid to Hydro Quebec or anyone else.    
No date has been set for the nomination meeting -- the riding is currently held by Supply and Services Minister Ed Doherty who says he will re-offer in the fall election.

City of Saint John in Court

A court appearance today for City Officials, in Saint John, New Brunswick answering to a charge of Violating the Clean Environment Act. It's related to a delay in notification by Saint John Water to the Department of Health, that they were having a problem back on June.29th and 30th of 2008.


The City has accepted responsibility for the violation but are quick to point out that at no time was public health compromised. The Crown and the City will be back in court on the 17th of next month to make their final arguments before sentencing.

Old Case Is Re-Opened

An eight year old hit and run incident in Saint John is back under the spotlight. City police and Crimestoppers are looking for any information that can help them help close the case on what happened back on September.8th/2002. Roger Cameron was travelling home in his wheelchair along Rothesay Avenue when he was hit from behind by a vehicle. The driver took off and witnesses says they vehicle did stop for a minue but then took off.


The vehicle is described as a light blue lumina van and it had brake lights on both sides of the rear upper portion of the van. If you have any information call city police or Crimestoppers at 1-800-222-TIPS.

Moosehead Helps Out Nature

Moosehead Breweries has found a new way to say Happy Holidays and help out a good cause at the same time. Instead of sending holiday cards to its customers, Moosehead donated $4,000 to the Nature Conservancy of Canada to celebrate the season. The money is earmarked specifically to help protect ecologically significant land in the Maritimes, including Johnson’s Mills, Port Joli in Nova Scotia and the Percival River on the Island.


Moosehead sent 8,000 Moose Light consumers a custom-designed wrist band incorporating a forest scene, a moose and the Nature Conservancy name which they hope will help promote what they are doing to help the environment.