No incentive for nurses to come to N.B.
Published Tuesday October 7th, 2008
Letter's to the editor
Excerpts of a letter to the local NBNU president in Moncton.
I would like to take this opportunity to voice my opinion as to why RNs rejected this contract; I am in no way speaking on behalf of my colleagues.
After thoroughly reviewing the tentative agreement, I found nothing to recruit, retain, or entice nurses to do overtime. The bottom line is the dollar amount. The percentage of wage increase wasn't high enough. It was noted in the Aug. 8 update on the NBNU website that RN III level nurses didn't feel that their jobs were valued. I, too, do not feel valued. I would like for nurses to be able to provide safe patient care to all patients. It's how to accomplish it that seems to be the problem.
The only way to provide safe care is to have more nurses. Most problems we have in this hospital are related to nursing shortage.
How do we recruit nurses to New Brunswick? Money. Increase in base salary. And double overtime for each day worked on your days off. We are one of only three provinces that do not offer this.
Wally Stiles' said "We have to be very prudent with the agreements that we make to make sure the taxpayer can afford the cost." Perhaps MLAs could ask the taxpayers how they prefer their tax dollars to be spent. The answer is always improvements in health care. Without nurses, there is no health care!
HEIDI PARIS, RN
Moncton City Hospital
Resident says 'No' to city's tap water
I supported Mayor Ivan Court in this years' election, but would not support him had I known what I know now about his stand on the bottled water issue.
I challenge Mayor Court to come into my downtown apartment and see my bathtub and sinks, stained green from the water here, that only an SOS pad will scrape off. I challenge Mayor Court to watch me take a new white washcloth and run it for 10 seconds under my tap and watch it turn a greenish-brown instantaneously.
I challenge Mayor Court to do this simple experiment. Place two glasses of water on his window sill, one of tap water, the other consisting of bottled water. Wait a few days and observe them. The glass with the bottled water will still be clear and pristine. The glass with the city tap water will be murky, bubbly, and have fungus or some other foreign matter "growing" in it, and if we wait long enough, we might have our own "chia pet."
No thank you, Mayor Court, no tap water for this body. If it can discolour a bathtub, think what it can do to your intestines.
SUSAN TONER
Saint John
Coverage of visit was a disservice
It is not often that the Prime Minister of Canada visits our city, and your minimal coverage of his recent visit did a disservice to the readers of your paper and the citizens of Saint John. By comparison, your extended coverage of visiting Liberal candidates, i.e. Ken Dryden, and the local candidate reflect your newspaper's open political bias.
Please be fair to your readers and our community by giving just and balanced reporting to all parties in the election, or declare your obvious political support for the Liberal party. Then, the people might understand the uneven reporting by your newspaper. My bias is obvious, so why not state yours.
ERMINIE COHEN
Saint John
Politicians ignore aboriginal issues
Shame on the leaders of Canada's political parties for once again failing to include aboriginal issues as a topic for consideration in either of the debates held this week.
Without denigrating the importance of the topics that were discussed, such as people losing their jobs, they must realize that most aboriginal people have never had jobs to lose. It pains me to say that very few Indians today would be impacted by the free fall we are witnessing in the financial markets except for the resulting higher cost of basic items.
The underlying philosophy behind foreign intervention and foreign aide, particularly in Afghanistan, is that we need to engage the Afghanies because if we leave them idle - unemployed - they will gravitate towards the Taliban and become terrorists. Do they not think that it would be prudent to apply the same thinking to aboriginal poverty?
It's high time Canada realizes that aboriginal people want to participate in Canadian society in a meaningful way - in a dignified way. Stop responding with more welfare dollars. Start providing funds to enable us to develop our economies so that we too can complain about 7 per cent unemployment rates instead of the 80 per cent rates that have existed forever.
The slogan "Make Poverty History" rings loud and clear in Indian country. Sadly it is our history. If our issues are continually relegated to the back burner, poverty will not only be our history - it will also be our future.
STEWART C. PAUL
Perth-Andover
A political reality check
This letter is a mini political reality check. "He's scary." Only to his opponents. Polls consistently show millions of voters think he is just fine. "He has a hidden agenda," so what? After three years it is still hidden. Nobody has a clue what it is. "He is controlling." He is the captain of the ship; it is essential he be in control. "He wears a blue sweater." It's the party colour for goodness sake. "Doesn't like NBers." Who else gives us more attention in this election?
"Fixed election dates?" Everyone knew or should have known that leaving in place the constitutional right of the Prime Minister to call an election, at any time, as well as the opposition's right to bring down the government rendered the law a mere suggested guideline. "Danny Williams?" A good man who has allowed hate, rage and vindictiveness to blur his vision of what is best for the province. What they need is not ABC but MPs sitting at the decision making table. "Cannot be trusted with a majority." His astute leadership in presiding over the longest successful minority government in Canadian history and his statesman-like performance in the debates should be more than sufficient credentials for a majority.
What we don't need, in the next Parliament, is two opposition leaders pretending to be prime minister when someone else has been democratically elected and sworn in to do that job.
DAVID JENKINS
Rothesay
Treatments in U.S. aren't always easy
It's unfortunate Brent Skinner chose to devote most of his commentary "Wanted: new models of care for universal health care" telling us how much better our health-care system would be if we spent as much money on it as the Americans. He provided only scant details on the Dutch and Swiss systems.
Contrary to Mr. Skinner's belief, access to necessary treatments for Americans is not as easy as he makes it out to be. In the U.S.A., health care is a commodity to be bought and sold. At best, it must be managed, always looking out for the bottom line, really no different than Canada, minus the corporate profits. At worst, HMOs hire employees whose role is to find loopholes so coverage can be denied.
While living there for a short time, we paid dearly for what we believed would be a good health insurance plan. My family could never see a physician when we needed to. When we managed to get past the gatekeeper, we never saw the same doctor. I was prescribed the wrong medication to treat a serious illness just because it was less expensive. This is hardly the premium health care Mr. Skinner describes in his article.
Quality health care is not just about the amount of money that is spent and it is possible that the Dutch and Swiss have some good ideas for us on how to improve our system. I wish the author used his allotted space to tell us.
LINDA WILHELM
Midland, Kings Co.
Manufacturing job losses a concern
I am concerned about Mr. Harper and the Conservative economic policies. These policies favour tar sands development at the loss of manufacturing jobs.
According to CBC, we lost 67,000 manufacturing jobs this past year. If the things we use everyday aren't manufactured in Canada, where are they manufactured? China? When you buy from China you often get more than you bargained for. Right now it's melamine in milk products. A while ago it was lead in toys, asbestos in stuffed animals, chemicals in pet food and before that radioactive waste in cast iron. Products from China are cheap for a reason - poor regulations and standards for public safety, employment and the environment.
We need economic policies to ensure that the Canadian manufacturing sector stays alive and well and that Canadians can buy everyday products with a level of confidence in their quality.
MARY ANN COLEMAN
Waterford
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Comments (6)
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Now let me ask this, If saint john votes liberal again and everyone knows that Stephen Harper is going to win, the only question is minority or majority.
Do you think Mr Harper will be as kind this time around if we continue to vote liberal with a conservative government in Ottawa.
I ask you if you were theconservative PM and a region put a liberal in twice while you were in power, how much would you give them.
Level III nurses (read paper pushers, nights and weekends off) do not feel valued? Well maybe if they were always being asked to work on their days off they'd feel better. We need more nurses providing care and less shuffeling paper.
As for double time? NB power does it. Are NB power workers more valued in this province than nurses?
First off, I am not aboriginal. I have strong opinions on many things, but rarely do I say anything about the aboriginal issue which is probably more of a crisis.
Looking at the issue/crisis from an outsiders prospective and unless you are in that situation it's the only pov there is. I see a vast number of people who are squarely at the mercy of a corrupt and deteriorating system.
I don't know the answer, I wish I did, but my hat is off to any and all who are willing to make a non-selfish and non-political effort to bring to the fore their plight. We are talking human rights here. Life and death right and wrong. No other segment of the Canadian population would tolerate or be expected to tolerate in terms of socio-economic desparity what those living on reserves have come to accept as everyday life.
The Native population are a proud, intelligent and resourceful people and I know my own life has been enriched by living close to and associating with them.
I wondered at the time when I first realized Harper was gearing up an election. I said why now? Could it be to remain where "my buddy Steve" likes to be.. safely in the shadow of our neighbours to the south?
Then I realized there is more to it. Harper new of the coming economic woes and wanted to squeeze in an election and obtain a majority before the economic sh**t hit the fan.
And thanks to this country's corporately owned media(US interests) and a CBC which is pandering to the doughboy and his laptop henchmen for fear of their own existance, the story of Canada's economic woes is managing to stay off the radar screen the msm.
I'm choosing to believe that you didn't mean what you said in your above statement, about nurses should think of others and not just themselves...Are you aware of what nurses do? My God!
Don't blame nurses or anyone else who might expect a fair days pay for their services. The fault is squarly on the shoulders of the politicians and their constant sellout to corporate interests at the expense of practically everyone else.
Most workers, professional and non in this province are grossly underpaid. Our saleries have been spiraling downward since the late 1980's while the cost of living continues to soar.
Give your head a shake!
Place the blame at the feet of those responsible and not on those who bust their proverbial a**es trying to make a decent living while providing an extremely essential service.
This is still Canada is it not?