Letters | Why is government reviewing gas pricing?
It has come to my attention that EUB has undertaken a review of the Petroleum Pricing Act. My issue is why is the current EUB so secretive about this review?
Getting information from this board, which is essentially funded from tax revenue, has always amazed me.
As a participant in the retail/wholesale petroleum market in the province you would think the regulator of our business would want to communicate with the participants.
It would be nice to know what the board is spending our money on. The review should not have restrictions on it; if they hired a expert let him tell the whole story.
I realize with the pump price being what it is this might not get much sympathy, but the reality is more than 60 per cent of the New Brunswick market is made up of small independent business men and women who own one site and their margin is limited. The government would like you believe they are controlling the oil companies.
The reality is they are controlling about six per cent of the pump price while interfering with how these independent business operate.
Dealers really get pinched in an upward market with increased power rates, tax assessments and wages.
Add to this rising the credit card fees and these independent business people are quietly frustrated and will eventually give up.
Why is the government deciding who stays in business? Let the market decide.
We deserve to know what they want this review to accomplish.
KEVIN M. MCCANN
Wilsons Fuels
Forced measures concern parent
Our school system is becoming like a dictatorship. It appears New Brunswick's memory is slipping.
First, they take away the most profitable fundraiser: chocolate bar sales.
Their reasoning is chocolate is unhealthy. Who said it was the school's job to moderate how much chocolate the public consumes?
Second, school staff is given the authority to steal student lunches if any peanut products are in them.
Doesn't that make them bullies?
As someone who has a severe food allergy to shellfish I speak from experience when I say food allergies are the responsibility of the individual not the population. If a child has a severe food allergy then that child needs to attend a special school that caters to special needs or be schooled at home.
Finally, being educated in French is being forced on Grade 5 students and the choice to participate is removed from parents. While those in charge describe this as an opportunity, I must disagree.
Real opportunities are presented with a choice to participate, they are not forced.
Wouldn't the time and money be better spent on intensive math or intensive English?
If French as a second language is so important they should make it a main subject beginning in kindergarten and continuing through to Grade 12 as a requirement for graduation like math and English.
This would achieve the result of all students having a working knowledge of the French language.
If the immersion experience is necessary, take a summer and go to Quebec or France.
MONIKA LANE
Kingston
No opportunities for new graduates
Unable to find work that is not as a "customer service representative," this graduate is writing out of frustration for the lack of opportunity in this "energy hub."
Unlike the college that provides help finding employment for graduates of their programs, the university leaves students to find their own work.
There is a page of job listings found within the UNB web site. Listed there are many offers to travel and teach English abroad along with the customer service representative positions.
There are job fairs regularly held at campus promising exciting careers in a ever-changing business atmosphere; the businesses that appear are largely call centres.
Having just completed a bachelor degree, my parents' definition of success, I feel more unsuccessful than I ever have.
This should be a time of celebration for I am now able to be a contributing member of my community, right?
Unfortunately for me and your children there's a cubicle with a headset and a telephone where everything learned goes to waste. And the government is wondering why young people are leaving the province?
There is no opportunity here for a young person with a degree and no experience.
If the government wants to stop the migration from the East coast they should offer meaningful employment to its young people and raise the minimum wage for those who are not "lucky" enough to have spent thousands on an education.
Hey, who am I to complain? I have an interview for a customer service representative job tomorrow.
JANET PALMER
Saint John
Use wisdom when jumping into a boat
I write to say how pleased I was to see that a man was saved from drowning in the Bay of Chaleur last week by Cpl. Dan Melanson.
I trust, however, that the person saved will now be charged with reckless endangerment. This story could have very easily been "Mountie drowns trying to save non-swimmer!"
How can a non-swimmer, without a lifejacket, imagine it would be good idea to jump in a canoe and paddle into the frigid Bay of Chaleur?
BILL FRANCIS
St. Stephen
Disability pension is not income
My father, a Second World War Veteran, passed away on April 25.
Last week I got a call from the office of Social Development in Bathurst informing me that my mother will have to be reassessed in regards to her finances.
The worker informed me that now that my father has died, his Veteran's Disability Pension will be part of my mother's income. What is going on?
My mother is not a veteran. She is the spouse of a veteran and this policy was changed May 1, 2003. It was implemented by Shawn Graham.
My father and I went to court four times to fight this unfair policy under the former premier, Bernard Lord, and we won the battle in the court of Queen's Bench for all veterans in New Brunswick.
A Veteran's Disability Pension is not income. The government has to check the federal income tax form.
Also all provinces in western and central Canada plus Nova Scotia never include the Veteran's Disability Pension when completing a financial assessment for nursing home placement.
My father used his Veteran's Disability Pension to pay for private sitters for my mother. My sister and I have planned to do the same.
I am deeply mourning the sudden loss of my father and now I will have to fight again for the Veteran's Disability Pension. I thought that battle was over.
I will refuse to include my father's Veteran's Disability Pension in my mother's financial assessment. It is not income.
VERONICA RATCHFORD
Bathurst
Who calls the shots at N.B. Fisheries?
The outrage expressed by Fisheries Minister Rick Doucet against Minister Hearn's refusal to pin down important restrictions on the economic activities of a "selected" group of fishing enterprises from New Brunswick is symptomatic of a more insidious problem than meets the eye.
Until this week, Minister Doucet's perspective on this issue was the promotion of a voluntary approach involving all the stakeholders.
Last winter, the department invited the snow crab fishermen organizations to participate in a process whereby the problems would be assessed on a "plant by plant" basis followed by the identification of voluntary remedial measures where necessary and feasible.
The two main crabbers associations readily agreed to a process that would have brought at the table: the plant manager, fishermen from that plant, directors from both associations along with representatives from New Brunswick Fisheries and DFO.
We were also told that the officials from New Brunswick Fisheries would organize this consultation and that the meetings would take place during the two last weeks of April. We prepared ourselves but not even one meeting was called and no explanation was given to our organizations.
What happened? Who changed the plans? Who is now calling the shots at New Brunswick Fisheries?
JOËL GIONET
President, Association des crabiers acadiens
ROBERT F. HACHÉ
President, Crabiers du nord-est
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Do you know some children are so allergic to nuts that even the smell of it is enough to make them sick?
Your letter makes no sense.
Adult rights cannot be enjoyed by children. Children need to be protected from things that can harm them - things they do not fully appreciate the danger of.
Nut allergies can be lethal and the smallest amount can spread easily among children. The right of an allergic child to an inclusive education trumps the right of other children to bring whatever they want to school in their lunches. To suggest a child stay home rather than establish safeguards against nut allergies is, well, nuts. If a child were a chronic eater of chalk say, then I could see it.
Fluency in a second language is a basic curriculum requirement in the vast majority of advanced education systems - been so since ancient Greece. Every single person I know who took immersion is extremely grateful for it. North America generally lags behind in this, and many students are subsequently at a disadvantage in our global community.
Exactly!! We would like to be able to choose to put our children in EFI as you would like to choose not too. So what side do you support? The side that is taking choices away form all or the side that suppots choice for all? It sounds to me like you only want choice for yourself.
You need to look up the meaning of dictatorship, perhaps yours is the only memory that is slipping. It would seem from your rambling comments that you are a very unhappy person. First, schools have the right to endorse whatever products they wish to be sold in 'their' name. You should not forget that the point is to fundraise. Second, I am appalled that a parent would be so insensitive about allergies that could be lethal. Basically you are saying a child should be placed in a special needs school because of a peanut butter sandwich? You are very lucky that you don’t have to live in fear. Third, you almost made some sense on the French issue but then went off and sold crazy some more. Do you really think we should send our kids to Quebec or France?