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9 Comment(s)

It never ceases to amaze me what will ruffle people's feathers. Last week we were told that not only is this province last in the country (again) for educating our youth, but some schools cannot manage to provide enough education for any more than 10 per cent of their students to read above the accepted levels. Our response: Oh, we need to do better, case closed and onto the next news story. Then comes the news of David Hay's bonus at NB Power and how it is so unfair for New Brunswickers to pay the rates they do while he gets a bonus.

I may be in the minority, but I think the man deserves every penny he gets! I always stick to the same phrase when I hear of someone's pay being out of whack - 'You pay peanuts, you get monkeys'. The CEO manages the infrastructure and operations of a multi-billion dollar corporation, which includes nuclear power plants and regional energy. What do you think he deserves?

Here is an idea: instead of paying some of our mayors, who are responsible for multi-mullion dollar budgets, $12,000 per year, why not pay them $100,000 per year and get educated young, successful people to run for the job.

RODNEY CHIASSON

Rothesay

Put bonuses into line repair

I was thoroughly amazed at the innovation shown by NB Power, while I calmly called in my third power outage in as many weeks. I got to listen to messages on how to be energy efficient, while I waited for 15 minutes for someone to pick up the phone. Now maybe I could do better, but I thought I was already doing my part, seeing that I was trying to get ready for work in the pitch black. Anyway, all was not lost, cause I was "all revved up, and ready to go" after that experience.

Maybe David Hay and his band of cronies could put their bonuses towards some preventative line maintenance. Then maybe the power wouldn't go out every time a puff of wind or flake of snow comes. A million bucks will trim a lot of trees, and I can show them plenty that weigh on the lines every time it snows.

ERIK KOHLER

Johnson Settlement

Crown corp is not competitive

The argument that salary ranges and compensation for NB Power executives are in line with private industry is bogus. NB Power is a Crown corporation, which doesn't seem to answer to anyone. In private industry, companies compete in the world market and their CEOs answer to shareholders who decide, based on profit and loss/performance, whether executives are entitled to bonuses and salary increases. How can you compare NB Power to private industry, when NB power has no competition and is a virtual monopoly?

Government must be held accountable for NB Power's decisions. It is the people's utility which means that the taxpayers are shareholders. Our government's responsibility should be to the taxpayers first, seeing that their hard-earned money is spent justly and wisely.

MARILYNN KIRCHGESSNER

Nasonworth

Global warming causes cooling

I feel indebted to Thaddee Renault for the letter on global warming, reminding us of the complexities of measuring effects in the enormous ecosystem. How can the Earth be 'warming' if the temperature drops? The answer is the melting of the polar ice caps.

One kilogram of ice absorbs enough heat in melting to cool 80 kg of water by one degree, or 8 kg by 10 C, etc. The polar ice was solid, and stayed in place, near the poles: the colder water is liquid and flows into the world's oceans, cooling them. The poles warm, taking heat from the rest of the world.

The loss of polar ice is undeniable. The effect elsewhere of the melting is a drop in the surface temperature of the world's oceans, because 'fresh' ice water tends to float on the denser salt water. The cooler the ocean surfaces, the cooler the air above them. Global heating (meaning increase in total world heat energy) can thus produce global cooling as measured by thermometers, as long as the shrinking ice caps last and fool people into waiting too long to correct the causes.

As Thaddee Renault points out, the situation is complex, hard to measure, hard to explain, and even harder to understand.

STUART MILLS

Fredericton

Don't raise minimum wage

I am tired of the editorials espousing that simply raising the minimum wage to $12.50 will magically result in fewer people living below the poverty line - if this reasoning holds true why not just raise the minimum wage to $60,000 per year so that every worker in New Brunswick would be launched into the upper middle class?

Why don't we take a basic economics course at UNB before we start throwing out figures. Raising the minimum wage will only result in a very temporary reprieve. Raising the minimum wage will raise the cost of goods and services. An increase will also have a snowball effect on wages throughout the economy, since every other worker would then need to have a proportionate increase in their wage to retain an equivalent standard of living. This would result in increased costs to the province as teachers, nurses, and physicians would need to be paid proportionately more.

I may have a vested interest, in that I own a small business that does employ a couple of students part-time in the winter and full-time in the summer. Although my employees are paid a little above minimum wage, such an increase would result in me only hiring for my peak period and may result in a closure of my business so that I may make minimum wage myself.

STEPHEN MORRIS

Rothesay

Family praises firefighters

In July 2008, upon completing his shift at the fire station, Fire Fighter Terry Graham passed away very suddenly. Needless to say, all were in total shock of Terry's untimely death and slowly began the process of grieving. A short period of time went by when a small electrical problem in our home was revealed. It soon became apparent that the small problem would cause a complete renovation of our home due to safety concerns. Terry's "Band of Brothers" answered the call for help and quickly came to our rescue to make our home safe and secure.

Although this was a private matter, the news of our plight became public, spreading throughout our community. Neighbours, friends, family, colleagues, co-workers, the parish church, businesses, union locals, and complete strangers provided meals, equipment, supplied, prayers, and many words of encouragement. Feelings expressed by all were of complete respect towards the Firefighters' Local 771 and the Saint John Fire Department.

This unfortunate circumstance my family found themselves in enabled the community to observe the "brotherhood" and to be so very proud of those who risk their lives to protect them on a daily basis. It renewed their trust and faith, it gave them such a sense of comfort knowing that these firefighters are always willing to answer the "call" and most often go above and beyond the "call of duty."

On behalf of our community, we say thank you for being there to protect us. You have our support in any way that is necessary to continue providing fire services to our community.

MICHELE (SHELLY) GRAHAM

Saint John

NDP opposes partnerships

The latest figures released by Finance Minister Victor Boudreau highlight some large projects to be financed, built and owned by the private sector.

The construction work and the new facilities will be welcome by New Brunswickers.

We need new schools, health care facilities, justice facilities and roads.

But what's the difference between this model and the one where the government finances builds and owns a project?

It's pretty simple. In the first case, the government will pay lease payments or rent if you will, and after say, 20 years or more, they will own nothing.

Possibly there will be an option to buy, as the aging facility or infrastructure will be in need of repairs or upgrades.

The second scenario involves a government-owned and financed project. After 20 years, we as a government own the facility. We paid interest on the loan, but not profit, over 20 years to manage the ownership of the facility.

The Federal Auditor General says Canada spent over $30 million more dollars on the P.E.I. Confederation Bridge by going the public-private route.

Is this how you want your millions of taxpayers' dollars to be spent?

ROGER DUGUAY

Leader

New Brunswick New Democratic Party