“Premier Shawn Graham says he had “no choice” but to ask Tourism and Parks Minister Stuart Jamieson to resign from cabinet for suggesting the proposed deal between NB Power and Hydro-Québec be put to a referendum.”

– Perhaps Jamieson has ambitions of running again.

“”I have the upmost [sic] respect for Mr. Jamieson and it has been an honour to serve with him. However, the custom of cabinet consensus must be maintained,” he (Shawn Graham) said.”

““The papers are presenting the view that what’s good for the Irving company is good for the province” Steuter says. “What we need is good investigative reporting to dig deep and provide New Brunswickers with a clear analysis of all sides of the proposed deal. Monopoly media ownership does not offer this and the public is paying the price.”

Irving-owned business including Irving Oil, and Irving Tissue have come out in favour of the sale, which guarantees electricity rate cuts for five years for current, large industrial users. Irving companies stand to benefit significantly from lower power rates following the proposed sale of NB Power to Hydro-Québec because they dominate the manufacturing sector of the province.”

UNBSU effectively bans teams of candidates from running in SU elections, continues using online voting, allows fines levied by the CRO to count against campaign expense limits.

–This is clearly a responsive to the challenge raised by the United For Change team in the elections last year. United For Change campaigned vocally on politics instead of vague and empty slogans (cf. Former president Bethany Vail’s promise to, “engage, entertain, electrify”).

“The change was recommended by the [UNB Student Union's Governance Review Committee], allegedly to address the issue of what it called “over-representation” of international students on council. … VP Academic Shannon Carmont noted that there, “are a ton of marginalized groups on campus,” such as student-parents and First Nations who do not have a voting representative on council.”

Instead of expanding council to include all constituencies represented within the undergraduate population, the UNBSU have chosen to restructure in a discriminatory way.

“The New Brunswick government has been promoting a savings of $1,400 for electric heat residential customers during the first five years of its deal to sell NB Power to Hydro-Québec.

A new government leaflet being distributed in mailboxes across the province promoting the sale also suggests savings in that range for people who heat with electricity. A charts shows $97 in residential savings in year one of the deal, which eventually grows to $1,392 in savings over the five years. But that figure requires a consumption rate of more than 27,000 kilowatt hours (kWh) of electricity, which is more than what most New Brunswick residents use, other government figures show.”

“Manufacturing facilities connected to J.D. Irving Ltd. dominate a list of 50 companies that would benefit from $91 million in power rate cuts following the proposed sale of NB Power to Hydro-Québec.”

“The New Brunswick Coalition for Pay Equity plans to make its cause an election issue. It wants provincial politicians to extend pay equity legislation to the private sector.”
-The NDP received an A+ from the Coalition, the Green Party (its leader the former liberal executive director Jack MacDougall) received a B.
-Jack MacDougall confused “pay equity” (equal pay for work of equal ‘value’ and qualification) with wage parity (paying male and female employees doing identical jobs the same amount)– according to people who attended this press conference for the parties to present their positions on pay equity in the private sector, MacDougall did not even want to enforce the latter in the private sector. Ha! It appears that this is the type of environmental party that thinks it would be better for the environment if women were doing unpaid housework in the kitchen.

“Three people were found guilty in Halifax provincial court Friday on a number of charges stemming from a violent protest in June 2007 at the Atlantica business conference.

George Dalli was convicted of resisting arrest, obstructing a police officer and unlawful assembly; Asaf Rachid was convicted of possessing a weapon for a dangerous purpose and unlawful assembly; and Colin Bell was convicted of unlawful assembly.”

-The “weapon” was a marble.

“When asked whether she thought the economic crisis was being used as a smokescreen to attack workers, [NBCNHU President] Black said, “Any economist that you talk with that has the working class people in mind will tell you that it is a capitalist agenda to move forward with a wage freeze, and to blame it on an economic crisis.””

New Brunswick Auditor General, Mike Ferguson states: “[The sale of NB Power] will not change the provinces net debt at all … there will be no impact on the provinces net debt, because the province has always been deducting off NB Power’s debt anyway [as it is backed by assets like dams and power plants that pay for themselves] … selling the utility may actually make New Brunswick’s debt worse by shutting down a source of revenue”

“John Levi was charged with seven counts of assaulting a police officer and one count of dangerous operation of a vessel on Tuesday at the provincial court in Richibucto, N.B.

After Levi was charged, he vowed that he would bring counter-charges against the DFO officers who he said stopped him and his son from exercising their traditional fishing rights.”

Hassan Arif has pointed to a flaw in the only “direct benefit” the New Brunswick government has promised New Brunswickers from the sell-off of NB Power.

“A proclaimed benefit of the deal is that “residential, commercial and wholesale” rates will be frozen for five years and industrial rates will be reduced to the lower Quebec rates. However, there are several loopholes to this in the memorandum of understanding, one of them being the “heritage pool supply,” which is the amount of electricity allocated to New Brunswick by Hydro-Québec under the deal.”

The recently announced sale of New Brunswick Power to Hydro Quebec is another alarm bell for the Canadian economy. The sale is aimed at enhancing the transformation of Hydro Quebec into an export industry — selling power into the U.S. market. It’s part of a bigger picture.

‘As people become aware of the complications and the catches, it’s hard to believe they will like the real deal better than the sunny version presented by Premier Graham.’

No kidding. These Libs have got to be defeated, and for good. Make NB a Liberal-free zone!

Unemployment reduces C02 as a side effect of people not working. A real environmental movement pushes for a radical change in how we work– a democratically planned economy with green jobs.

The world is upside down if the Tories are siding with the people and public ownership over the Liberals. The NB Grits are no longer remotely progressive. The next election with see the New Democrats take a bit out of their base.

“Hundreds of laid-off tradespeople gathered in East Saint John on Saturday morning to protest being replaced by out-of-province workers at the liquified natural gas terminal project.”

SNC Lavalin is cracking down on unions, trying to get concessions on the cost of labour for future projects, by replacing unionized workers with scabs.

UNBSU mulls cutting Student-Parent fund to bolster its food aid for students. Progressive councilors suggest cutting from entertainment fund instead. UNBSU Exec Ryan Brideau and Business Rep Jordan Thompson comment, missing the point entirely.

Tuesday, October 13, 2009.
1:30 PM at the UNB Bookstore

“The provincial debt in New Brunswick increased by $438.6 million in the 2008-09 fiscal year, more than three times the amount projected in the Liberal government’s budget… the government collected less than it expected in mining and corporate income taxes, but more than projected in harmonized sales tax and personal income tax.”