The following are some statistics I’ve gleaned from the Official Report from Elections NB on the provincial general election that took place in our province in September 2010.

I can guarantee you that some will not think much of these numbers, and in the end no one from our party achieved the ultimate goal of being elected. However, I wanted to highlight some things that I felt were positive steps to show where we were most successful in our 14 bids to send People’s Alliance representatives to the legislature in Fredericton.

This post is simply a way of showing our message during the last election did not go totally unheard by our fellow New Brunswickers.

There is still much work to be done by building and growing riding associations, raising funds and increasing our public presence leading into the next expected election in 2014. So please take these tidbits as positive information to use as a building block to start a base of support in your area.

Best of luck and know that those of us on the executive of the People’s Alliance are here to answer any questions you may have now and in the future. Although we may not have anyone in the legislature, we do remain an officially registered party after having fulfilled all the requirements set out by Elections NB. So we are here to listen and do what we can to address your concerns as people living in this province.

Bill Brewer

People’s Alliance Communications Director

Party Leader Kris Austin’s polls in Grand Lake-Gagetown District No. 41

Won 8 polls with a grand total 7 polls from  the Minto Seniors Club giving Kris a 194-vote edge, which breaks down to 100 votes more than Liberals in 4 polls and 94 votes over 3 polls to PCs

Won 1) Poll 4 Minto Seniors Club by 1 vote with total of 63 over PC

          2 thru took all 7 polls (Po. 7-13) at the Minto Seniors Club

                Po.7 won by 14 over Liberals

                Po.8 won by 48 over PCs

                Po.9 won by 9 over Liberals

                Po.10 won by 43 over Liberals

                Po.11 won by 37 over PCs

                Po. 12 won by 34 over Liberals

                Po. 13 won by 9 over PCs             

Came in second in 5 more polls, all to the PC candidate, losing first place over all five by a grand total of 142 votes.

2^nd 1) Poll 1 Four Lakes Seniors tie PC  won by 27 with 37 total

     2) Poll 3 Four Lakes Seniors by 9 votes over Liberals, PCs won by 73

     3) Poll 6 Newcastle Creek Yacht Club by 30 votes over Liberals, lost 1^st by 18 to PCs

     4) ADV polls for Po. 4,6,7,8,9 by 24 votes lost 1^st to PCs by 1 vote 100-99, Liberal was 24 votes behindKris.

     5) ADV polls for Po. 10,11,12,13 by 52 votes, lost to PCs by 23 175-152, Liberal was 52 votes behind       Kris.

Broke 150 votes on one poll, broke the 75-vote mark in four more and broke the 50-vote mark in five more, for 10 polls out of 45 with more than 50 votes. Received 1,182 votes more than NDP candidate and 1,242 more than the Green candidate.

Rest of candidates:

1)      Tommy L’Huillier polls in Miramichi Bay-Neguac, District No. 10

Highest showing came in Poll No. 25 Eglise l’Ascension Beaverbrook. Came in 3^rd place with 21 votes. Four votes ahead of NDP and 13 votes behind Liberals for 2^nd.

Over course of 36 polls, beat Greens by 30 votes 132-92.

2)      Fran Connell polls in Miramichi Centre, District No. 12

Broke double digits (more than 10) votes in nine out of 38 ballots. Broke 30-vote mark three times.

Best showing came in Poll No. 28 Friendly Neighbours Senior Citizens Center. Came in 3^rd place with 31 votes, 22 votes ahead of NDP and seven votes behind Liberals for 2^nd place. Took 89 votes at three polls in one polling station, the Friendly Neighbours Senior Citizens Center.

Fran came in 3^rd place in 10 polls overall and tied for 3^rd in two more. Over the course of 38 polls, beat the Greens by 149 votes for fourth place, 323-174.

3)      Wes Gullison polls in Southwest Miramichi, District No. 13

Broke double digits (more than 10) votes in 11 out of 42 ballots.  Broke 25 votes in four polls.

Best showing came in advance polls for the Boiestown region. Came in second place with 46 votes,  four ahead of third place Liberal incumbent and 53 votes behind PC in first.

Also had strong 3^rd place showing in Poll No. 34 Bloomfield Ridge Institute Hall with 39 votes, Liberals took second with 44 votes and PCs in first with 47. Only eight votes separated first from third.

Wes came in third place in 12 polls overall, all of which were located from Doaktown to the western part of the riding. Receieved 120 votes more than the Green candidate and 122 more than the NDP candidate.

4)      Carl Bainbridge polls in Moncton North, District No. 23

Highest showing came in a Special Ballot good for nine votes.

5)      Lucy Goguen polls in Albert, District No. 27

Broke double digits (more than 10) votes in 11 out of 41 ballots. On election day received at least one vote in poll in the riding. Of the 41 ballots overall was only shut out in one poll, an advance poll that only received a total of 18 votes, 12 of which went PC. That was the smallest ballot box in the riding by far.

Best showing came in Poll No. 19 the Hank Braam Kiwanis Center. Came in 3^rd place with 21 votes, 11 votes ahead of NDP and 12 votes behind 2^nd place Liberals.

Took 3^rd place in eight polls and tied for 3rd in two others. The PC incumbent handily won all polls, except one advance poll which he lost by 22 votes.

6)      Glenn McAllister polls in Saint John-Fundy, District No. 31

Glenn was only shut out in one poll out of 34 in the entire riding.

Highest showing came in Poll No. 15 Renewed Hope of God church. Came in 4^th place with 13 votes, six ahead of the Green candidate. Only missed 4^th place showing overall by 14 votes 171-185. Came in 4^th place in 14 polls overall.

7)      Lisa Cromwell polls in Saint John-Portland, District No. 35

Highest showing came in a Special Ballot good for 16 votes and 4^th place, three votes ahead of the Green candidate. Came in 4^th place on three polls, all of which came over the Green candidate.

      Wendy Coughlin polls in Saint John-Lancaster, District No. 36

Highest showing came in a Special Ballot good for 18 votes. Came in 4^th place on three polls, all of which came over the Green candidate.

9)      Ed Hoyt polls in Fundy river Valley, District No. 37

Highest showing came in Poll No. 2 Lorneville Community Center, received 35 votes and good for second place, five votes ahead of third place incumbent Liberal cabinet minister Jack Keir.

Broke double digit (more than 10) votes in four polls out of 36 in the riding. Came in 3rd place in two polls and tied for 3^rd in three more. Missed fourth place to the Greens by only four votes. 217-221

The PC candidate who won took every poll in the riding by a large margin over everybody with the exception of one poll that he lost by 3 votes.

1)      Terry James polls in Charlotte-The Isles, District No. 38

Broke double digit (more than 10) votes in 10 polls out of 39 overall.

Highest showing came in Poll No. 16 Harbour View Seniors Room, came in 3^rd place with 26 votes, 16 ahead of fourth place NDP and only 17 votes behind 2^nd place PC candidate.

Came in 3^rd place in 10 polls overall and tied for 3^rd in two more. Finished 73 votes ahead of Greens for 4^th place. 247-174

2)      John Craig polls in Charlotte-Campobello, District No.39

Broke double digit (more than 10) votes in 21 polls out of 38 overall. Received more than 20 votes in five polls.

Best showing was 3^rd place finish in Poll No. 23 at the St. Andrews Fire Department with 29 votes, one more than the Green candidate. Finished 4^th place in 18 polls out of 38, 12 times over the Greens and six times over the NDP.

Only shut out in three polls, which were all at the same polling station on Campobello Island, where the winning PC candidate is from.

3)      Steven Hawkes polls in York North, District No.48

Broke double digit (more than 10) in 14 polls out of 46 in the riding. Received more than 25 in three polls.

Best showing was in Poll No. 13 at the Temperance Vale Community Center, came in 2^nd place with 45 votes, 30 ahead of the Liberal candidate. Came in second place in 3 polls overall and tied for second in one other. Came in 3^rd place in six more polls and tied for 3^rd in two more.

Received 81 more votes than the Green candidate by 385-304 margin.

4)      David Kennedy polls in Woodstock, District No. 49

Best showing came in Poll No. 10 Cozy Cabins campground office, came in 3^rd place with 11 votes, two ahead of 4^th place Liberal. Came in third in three polls and tied for 3^rd in one more out of 42 polls overall.

Finished 83 votes ahead of Green candidate by total of 185-103.

By Bill Brewer

 
Riding the government plane
Expense: New Brunswick is one of only four provinces that still owns a private aircraft to shuttle government ministers. Can we still afford it?

Greg Weston
Telegraph-Journal

Published Saturday September 3rd, 2011
Appeared on page A1

FREDERICTON – Government records show that Premier David Alward and his cabinet ministers made frequent use of the province’s airplane during their first months in office – despite their highly touted cost-cutting efforts.

Flight records show members of the Alward government used the twin-engine plane on 71 of their first 160 days in office, for an average of almost three days each week.

The price tag for operating the plane totalled $810,212 in the first six months of the Alward administration.

The biggest single cost of the airplane during the period in question – Oct. 15, 2010 to March 23, 2011 – was the cost of flying it empty after delivering or picking up its government passengers.

Taxpayers paid close to $90,000 in total for those 80 empty flights.

The Canadian Taxpayers Federation, a government watchdog group, says the provincially owned aircraft is a waste of taxpayers’ money.

The organization points out New Brunswick is the only province in Atlantic Canada – and one of only four provinces in all of Canada – with a dedicated plane for use by the premier, cabinet ministers and senior officials travelling on government business.

“It’s these kinds of perk expenditures which really anger the average taxpayer,” Kevin Lacey, Atlantic director for the federation, said in an interview.

The plane was bought by the previous Liberal government in 2008 at a cost of $5 million, a move the Tories strongly criticized at the time but appear much more willing to accept today.

The Tories did not use the plane in their first months in office as much as the Liberals did in their final months when, among other things, they were trying to work out a deal for the sale of NB Power.

According to the numbers, the Tories logged 210 hours in the air during their first six months in office – almost 10 per cent less than the Grits did over the same period the previous year.

Transportation Minister Claude Williams, the minister responsible for the government plane, says the Tories are making the most efficient use possible of an asset they inherited when they took office.

“This is about being effective and doing business,” he said, adding that the ministers who use the plane the most are from “remote” parts of the province.

The government estimates it costs $1,500 an hour to operate the plane.

The flight costs come out of the Department of Transportation’s budget, but are then charged to individual departments based on their respective use.

The flight records were released to the clerk of the legislative assembly at the request of the Liberals. A request by the Telegraph-Journal for more recent records was denied.

The records show the plane being used mainly for routine trips, such as the premier travelling to meetings, appearances and events around the province that couldn’t be done without flying.

But there are multiple examples of ministers – primarily Health Minister Madeleine Dubé, Post-Secondary Education, Training and Labour Minister Martine Coulombe and Economic Development Minister Paul Robichaud – flying between their northern ridings and Fredericton, often when the legislature isn’t sitting or without a pressing event on their schedules.

In most cases, the plane leaves or returns to its Fredericton base each day, often empty.

For example, on Nov. 12, 2010 the plane flew to the St-Léonard airport to pick up Coulombe, the MLA for Restigouche-la-Valleé, along with her executive assistant. The pair arrived in Fredericton at 8:36 a.m. and, a few hours later, returned north. The legislature hadn’t yet opened at that point and the department didn’t release any news about her time in Fredericton.

Similar examples involving Dubé appear throughout the logs.

For instance, the plane flew to St-Léonard to pick up Dubé, the health minister, on the morning of Feb. 1 and flew her to Fredericton. The MLA for Edmundston-Saint-Basile was then whisked back to her riding at the end of the work day, where she stayed for four hours before again taking off for the capital in the late evening.

That day’s travel alone amounted to more than two hours in the air and about $3,300 in cost to the department.

Dubé defends her use of the government plane.

“I use the plane to help me balance the demands of my role as Health minister with my responsibilities to my constituents,” Dubé said when asked about her frequent flights.

“For example, I often need to stay in the riding until late in the evening and I have early morning meetings with departmental stakeholders in Fredericton or elsewhere in the province the following day. Without access to the plane, I wouldn’t be able to do either job as well as my constituents and all New Brunswickers expect.”

The 220-kilometre stretch of Trans-Canada Highway between St-Léonard and Fredericton takes two hours to drive, if the posted speed limit is followed. The flight logs show a travel time of 30 minutes. The result is a time saving of about 90 minutes, but a cost that’s considerably higher than driving.

In another instance, Justice Minister Marie-Claude Blais and her assistant took the 30-minute flight from Fredericton to Moncton on Dec. 1. The plane then returned to Fredericton to take Economic Development Minister Paul Robichaud and his assistant to the Hub City – arriving there 93 minutes after Blais and resulting in two round trips.

Williams says the plane allows busy ministers to better do their jobs, which often require attending several meetings around the province.

“If you’re in Moncton and you have to go to Edmundston, or if you’re in Shippagan and have to go to Saint John – if you have to drive, it’s a day’s drive,” the minister says.

But given New Brunswick’s huge debt and the government’s across-the-board spending cuts, Lacey says such travel is an extravagance. He says a good comparison is neighbouring Nova Scotia, where the government sold its airplane years ago.

“There’s no plane in that province and politicians seem to be able to get to their jobs and their announcements with little or no problem,” Lacey says.

“For the average taxpayer who has to travel for their job, they travel around by car. New Brunswick isn’t that big of a province.”

Some northern New Brunswick centres are a significant distance away from Fredericton, but other Canadian provinces have drives of 10 hours or more between towns and cities.

Lacey says he doesn’t understand the New Brunswick government’s desire to maintain an expensive aircraft in a time of restraint.

“Given the state of the province’s finances, watching ministers travel around on private planes is an insult to taxpayers and New Brunswick should go the route that most provinces are going, which is limiting the use of private planes or eliminating it.”

In Nova Scotia, government spokeswoman Janet Lynn McNeil says there has not been a government plane dedicated for use by the premier and cabinet ministers for many years.

“We have no plans to change that in the future,” she said.

“Planes in Nova Scotia are leased for a day at a time when that is cost-effective.”

The government of New Brunswick has operated an executive flight service since the days of Richard Hatfield. The current twin-propeller 2006 Beechcraft King Air B200 was purchased by the Shawn Graham government for $5 million in 2008 as a replacement for a 1992 Beechcraft that was leased for the previous seven years.

The Progressive Conservatives, who were then in Opposition, derided the decision, pointing to the added cost during a climate of budget cuts – but are now defending the plane’s use while in government.

Another factor in favour of the plane, they say, is the lack of a commercial alternative between many New Brunswick destinations, especially the smaller airports in more remote parts of the province.

However, 62 flights during the period in question were either from or to cities such as Montreal, Ottawa, Toronto or Halifax – all of which are serviced by private airlines.

Such flights accounted for 80.3 hours in the air, totalling $120,450 by the government’s estimated cost. That equals a one-way cost of almost $2,000 per flight, which, even with more than one person on board, remains above commercial rates.

There are also instances where a minister was flown to Ontario and the plane returned to Fredericton empty. After a few days, the empty plane was dispatched to pick up the minster and return home – meaning two flights were made without any passengers and the air travel expenses were doubled in the process.

In one such case, the plane was dispatched to Toronto to collect Economic Development Minister Paul Robichaud on Oct. 25. The minister was then flown to Pokemouche before the empty aircraft returned to its base in Fredericton.

In total, Robichaud’s one-way private flight required the government plane be in the air for almost six hours at a cost of $8,850 – rather than opting for a two-hour commercial flight between Toronto and Fredericton and driving to his home riding.

The aircraft is available for use by the premier, cabinet ministers, deputy ministers, senior staff and government guests, as authorized by the minister or deputy minister, and is for government business only.

The Department of Transportation is responsible for arranging the plane’s flight schedule to ensure it’s operated efficiently.

“It’s the same system that’s been in place for a long time and it’s to carry out government business,” Williams says of the criteria for using the plane.

“It’s a very simple system. If a minister needs to go meet stakeholders or needs to go to a meeting or for whatever reason, they’ll just book the plane.”

But Williams says no special directive has been given to use the plane less and he doesn’t have the authority to discern between necessary and unnecessary usage.

Ultimately, the minister says the goal is to make the best possible use of the government asset.

“We’ve got a plane. There’s a cost to the plane. If we park the plane, it’s still going to cost. I think we want to make the best use of the plane to carry out business,” he says.

“We are doing every effort to make sure that the requests from different ministers or departments are co-ordinated.”

In the name of finding new sources of revenue to help balance the books, the Tory government has publicly mused about selling provincial assets, including NB Liquor, the Algonquin hotel in St. Andrews and even the provincial parks system.

Williams won’t say whether he’s specifically considered selling the plane, but says every government asset is on the table.

Once again Alward has shouted loud and clear that he is bought and paid for by business.

After hard lobbying by business interests the Alward government has decided to “delay” the increase of minimum wage to $10 and to “consider two tier wage scales” in the interest of the “economy”. 

This is the same economy that is slowly making it more and more difficult for the poor to make ends meet as more and more companies are raising prices, as grocery stores are raising prices to almost double or more what they were only a year or two ago, and still the Alward government is saying we do not need to do anything to protect the working poor.

Now while some people say that these jobs are aimed at the youth, the truth is they are aimed at everyone and more and more often university educated students are ending up having to do these jobs simply because there is no jobs that they are “qualified” to do available for someone without actual work experience. At call centers I have worked it was not uncommon for tradespeople who had worked 15 to 20 years in a trade for a company that chose to close it’s doors in this province and university students to have to work these 10 dollar an hour jobs because their was no work available in their field and so they had to do some work.

This is an unacceptable attack on the working poor and will do nothing to protect individuals from the rising costs of simply living (and quite poorly at that).It is the most recent governments that have chosen to focus on bringing in companies which require huge subsidies (and therefore are unlikely to have a decent business model to start) or are nothing more then short term minimum wage jobs instead of focusing on bringing in jobs that would allow the people of this province to earn a decent living.

The government (both Cons now and Libs previously) have constantly marketed this province as a source of cheap bilingual labour, instead of marketing our skills and our easy going personality, as well as the work ethic that Maritimes are so well noted for, and prized for, when they leave this province to work in other provinces out west.

Once again this government has taken the interests of business to heart and drove another stake in the hearts of the young and the working poor.

Well done Alward, you have truly shown who you take your marching orders from and it is obviously not the citizens that voted you in, in the hopes that you would be a better alternative to the Shawn Graham Liberals.

An interesting video that may help some understand the issues behind fracking

As we watch discussions, condemnations and apologies are being made that are starting to make me uneasy.

We have governing MLA’s questioning the need for a bilingualism that is at least partly enshrined in the constitution and at best can be tweaked but not changed to the level that these elected officials are suggesting is required. The thing is that I would expect elected officials to actually understand this.

What this tells me is that these MLA’s knew what they were saying was not doable, would create major contention between anglo and franco NBers and chose to make this statement anyway. The only purpose that this would serve is if the government felt that they were best served by creating tensions between the anglo/franco portions of the population, or they were doing or going to be doing something that could potentially have serious repercussions to their re-electability and they wanted to bury what they were doing behind a full scale attack by the anglo/franco groups and the resultant publicity it would create.

While I do not know for certain what might be going on behind closed doors, I do know there are some potentially damaging things happening in this problem that the PC’s would likely love to have us not discussing or looking at. Bilingualism is something that polarizes people but if nothing is touched does not generally affect polling numbers and so having people looking here and fighting over this distracts us from what they might be doing when we are not looking.

As one aside that I think could help eliminate parts of this discussion. We do have to many school boards and it financially hurtful. I would prefer to see 1 or 2 for the province at a maximum.

Ideally in school boards I believe we should have one board which has a superintendant. That superintendant would then have two assistants one for french schools and one for english schools.  These two assistants would administer most things separately except for those areas where resources could be shared. This includes things like supplies and transportation.  The more shared resources that are possible without infringing on the rights of either population group the better.

It seems the ideals and aims of bilingualism is back in the news again. The focus, as is often the case, is the expense of “two” systems or “duality”

The whole issue of the so called duality of bilingualism was brought back to the forefront by the statements of a couple of elected conservative MLA’s who questioned the necessity of bilingualism while we are trying to cut costs.

Myth number one to me is that while the existence of bilingualism is a bit costly the fact is that if we were to remove bilingualism it would be even more costly. These costs include the changing of documents from french and bilingual to english as well as changing the way we do business and even the cost of changing signage to reflect a “unilingual” position would all be more costly then leaving things the way they are.

Myth number two is that this position has anything to do with cost. The ridings in question are predominantly english and I suspect (but do not know) that the voters in the riding have made it abundantly clear to these MLAs that if they do not take a stand against bilingualism they likely will not be back. I would also be surprised if in reality these MLAs were not completely aware of their ridings position before the election and likely held similar beliefs themselves.

Bilingualism is up for a form of review during this government’s term and there is going to be some obvious contentous positions discussed with some saying we need far more french and others saying french should not exist in this province at all. Reality is that some area’s of the country offer service in more then one language and some in quite a few. Toronto for example has some of their services offered in 180 languages through translators and other means. We as a province are by no means stretching ourselves to provide services in two languages and with the immigrants coming to our area we are legitimately going to have to consider adding more languages to that list.

I believe we could tighten up costs in our school systems by using a single district for the entire province with some schools designated english schools and some designated french based on need. By using this system we could combine some services allowing for a more efficient approach to service. Health care as well could be tightened up with the use of a single health care system. The reason for this is that all hospitals and clinics should be able to serve any patient in the language of their choice regardless which hospital or clinic the patient chooses to attend.

The official languages commissioner said duality in education is necessary as bilingual schools do not work. I do agree in principal. We need separate french and English schools if we are to not be seen to be trying to assimilate another culture.

We need to make our province more efficiently bilingual. This means that any individual should be able to get any government service in this province in the language of their choice. This also means that no individual should be refused a job because of the language they speak. If we as a province can maintain these goals we can become an efficient and effective bilingual province one which truly supports both the french and english cultures of it’s citizens.

Everyone in this province should feel welcome and included because that is what we as New Brunswickers are known for and we must include our own citizens in this. We are on the right track and with a bit of tweaking and a little less fuss from the hard core antagonists on either side and we can make this not only a bilingual province but one where it’s bilingualism is not a drain on itself but is a benefit.

The governing PC’s here in New Brunswick started their term by paying out debt to Atcon, in the neighbourhood of millions, last week they paid off UMOE for leaving us high and dry without jobs and leaving, again to the tune of millions. We still don’t know how much we may be stuck paying for breaking the “deal” over the sale of NB Power.

Now we turn around and give a loan to one of the hard core supporters of the NB Power deal to the tune of (you guessed it) more millions. Now again there is a promise of jobs, this time up to 40, however the company already hires many foreign workers including 30 Romanians “because of a shortage of locals able or willing to work”.  So not only is it unlikely that New Brunswickers will be the ones getting the jobs, we are lending money again, where we have a poor track record of getting jobs in return. With recent history showing that lending to large corporations in this province is not a good idea due to the recent history of large companies recieving money from our governments leaving the province or going bankrupt, still the government turns a blind eye and lends out more money.

While every department in government is being asked to give up 2% of their budget and school districts finding it difficult to cut funds without adversely affecting students, this type of loan is realistically the last thing the province should be considering. If this project can increase plant size by 10% and sales by 25% then realistically this company should have no trouble securing private funding for this venture on it’s own. The fact that it has to come to the government, hat in hand, makes me think that the banks do not think this project is as viable as the company does.

We need to be far more careful in our lending of money and we need a guaranteed writ that a certain number of jobs will be available to New Brunswickers for a minimum specific amount of time. We also need to be certain that we are getting good collateral for any loan we agree to or guarantee for a company and we need to stop continually handing over money repeatedly anytime a large corporation asks for some. Some stuff these corporations have to start to do on their own, without the public purse to back them up. If they don’t have the confidence to pay for most of it with their own funds or private lenders that they have sourced out, then why should we as a province have more confidence in a given project then the company does itself.

Another point to think about is this. If a company owes the province 10 million and then says to the government “I need 20 million more or i will go bankrupt” the company has the government over a barrel, we are forced in this position to pay money to save a company so that we have any hope that we will see any of our investment back. The larger the figure the company owes gets, the harder it is for the government to say “ We cannot afford to do this anymore” and so we get into a position where the corporations hold more power in the province then the government itself does, simply because the province cannot afford for the company to leave.

The People’s Alliance of New Brunswick believes we have a fair set of resolutions to present at this week’s forum on natural gas hosted by the provincial government in Fredericton.

During Thursday’s event, party president Jason Inness will represent the People’s Alliance in the stakeholders’ forum to present our party’s suggestions, which covers protection of citizen’s rights, maximizing the province’s financial benefit and protection of the environment.

“Our goal with these ideas is to create a balance where industry can come in and invest in our natural resource while at the same time sharing that wealth with the province and not allowing the individual New Brunswicker and the area they live in fall by the wayside,” Inness said. “These resolutions are something we believe all parties can live with.”

Some of the individual resolutions include ideas such as: requiring companies to perform a full environmental remediation immediately following a project’s conclusion, allowing landowners the right in certain cases to deny exploration on their property and putting 50 per cent of all royalties from the resource towards retiring our provincial debt.

Besides our own initiatives, Inness added he is anxious to hear what the other stakeholders have to say so our party can learn all we can about this issue and hear all sides.

“I believe we have a good grip on making this situation the best possible for people living in this province,” he said. “But the knowledge that will be shared at this meeting should definitely provide us with a broader perspective of what other parties are thinking.”

People’s Alliance party leader Kris Austin said he feels confident our party has put forward solid suggestions as the province decides what to do with this controversial issue.

“Various members of our provincial executive took the opportunity to make suggestions in the report we’re presenting at the stakeholders forum,” Austin said. “This was a team effort to put forward viable solutions for the betterment of New Brunswick.”

Austin added while our suggestions are being made with the average New Brunswicker in mind, none of the ideas should pose a problem for the corporations looking to develop our natural resource.

“We’ve heard from industry time and time again how safe a process this is. So if that is the case then the measures we suggest putting in place to protect individual citizens shouldn’t cause them any concern at all,” Austin said.

To view our full submission to the natural gas forum, please check out our website at http://www.peoplesalliancenb.com or click here for the document

During the recent election period David Alward repeatedly told us that there would be no cuts to teacher’s with his attempt to balance the budget.

However when Jody Carr told the DECs that they would each have to cut 2% in response to Blaine Higgs request for a 2% cut from each department it has been met with dismay and outright refusal in one case. Those who have put those cuts in place when putting their next years budget in place have said that there would have to be a cut in teachers to make this work, with the District 8 superintendent suggesting that as many as 50 to 60 teachers may not be recalled. Now basic math says that if the entire department of education is giving up 2% and they have requested 2% from each of the districts, the Department of Education must therefore be cutting 2% from their own personal budget as well. My belief is that due to the incredibly important nature of education to our next generation that perhaps a bit deeper cut may have been justified at the DoE offices themselves in an attempt to reduce the damage to the individual Districts. My other suggestion is that all of the cuts that the Districts make should take place outside the confines of the classroom i.e.. no teachers or teachers assistants should be lost due to budget cuts. Instead all attempts should be made to reduce in the area of photocopies, replacing technologies could be delayed for an additional year, Personal communications devices should be downgraded at least temporarily and where new technology needs to be introduced a slightly cheaper model could perhaps be used for a couple of years to reduce the drain on the budgets.
Fundraising activities within the district could perhaps be enhanced to increase funding for library supplies, class trips, etc. and perhaps have these activities fund an extra couple of areas not normally covered by fundraising in an effort by the citizens of the province to help maintain the best services possible at the school.
However I do believe that no loss in the categories of Teachers or Teachers Assistants can be considered unless we intend on seriously damaging the integrity of our school system.
If necessary we can look to merge some of the school districts in an attempt to reduce the costs of administration as well in an attempt to meet this target.
It must always be looked at that what is most important when making any cuts is that the most important factor in any decision regarding cuts must always be, Children are the most important product that this province will provide going forward and nothing is more important then making sure that our children get the best education possible.

According to the June 7 Corporate Research Associates poll the People’s Alliance of New Brunswick is polling at 3 % of decided voters.

While this may not sound like much, we did not poll higher than 2% leading into and during the 2010 election and for the past two polls have registered at 0%.

And while it is only one individual poll, we can also take it positively that we polled higher than the provincial Green Party (1 %).

So this is a step in the right direction for the People’s Alliance as a party and is reflective of what we’ve been hearing from the public when it comes to the people’s concerns over the actions of the Progressive Conservatives and Liberals.

Each time we appear in the media or attend a public function we are making ourselves known to new people and making those who already know of us aware that we have no intention of fading into history.

While there hasn’t been a massive wave of support come our way, we are seeing a trickle of dedicated supporters coming our way and we have three more years before hitting election mode again with which to continue building and improve upon these numbers.

There is still a 37 % undecided vote out there and if we stay with our message of putting the public’s interest first, keeping government accountable and not making promises we can’t keep, that is going to start resonating with people.

Bill Brewer