Tomorrow an annual cross-country ski event will be hitting the slopes at the Kouchibouguac National Park.
The
29th annual Boules de Neige Loppet will offer 3 different distances for
skiers that include 3, 10 and 30 kilometers. People who register will
also get a warm meal. The oldest and youngest competitors that compete
at least 10 km will receive a plaque that will be displayed at the
waxing hut in the park.
The event gets underway at 9:30 am for 30 km and 11:00 am for 3 and 10 km tomorrow morning.
For more information, click here.
Having
strong literacy skills is as essential to your well-being as eating
healthy... that's according to Deanna Allen, executive director of
Laubach Literacy NB.
Today
is Family Literacy Day, a day to recognize and promote the importance of
literacy for both parents and children. Allen tells Tide news parents
should put an effort into helping kids improve their reading and writing
in their everyday lives. She says there's many easy exercises parents
can do, like asking their child to read recipes, labels on boxes and
picking out places on a map.
Although
some parents may not have a love of reading themselves, Allen says just
like eating healthy foods it's essential and kids will imitate their
parents. She says 60% of people over 16 in New Brunswick have literacy
problems, which is a pattern that needs to change.
An inquest into a death that occurred at the Canada Games Aquatic Centre in Saint John over a year ago is scheduled for court.
17-year-old
Yi Fan Wang died in September 2011 from injuries sustained during a
public swim session. The inquest is scheduled for April at the Sydney
Street Courthouse where Chief Coroner Gregory Forestell and a jury will
hear evidence from witnesses to determine the facts surrounding the
international students death.
The jury will then take that information and make recommendations so a situation like this well never reoccur.
Your
mama always warned you not to take any wooden nickels....and if you're
in Charlotte County you might also want to watch out for counterfeit
fives.
District
1 RCMP is investigating four incidents where counterfeit $5.00 Canadian
bills were passed...... two at grocery stores and a pub in St Stephen,
N.B. and in the elementary school cafeteria in St Andrews.
All the
notes were 1986 series with the same serial number.Police have
interviewed at least one person suspected of passing the counterfeit
money. If you think you've received a fake bill contact the police or Crime Stoppers.
The
provincial economy is not bouncing back from the recession of 2008 with
New Brunswick at the bottom of the scale in economic growth. That
message delivered by Provincial Finance Minister Blaine Higgs at his
first pre-budget consultation meeting.
Higgs
heard from alot of union members at the first of his pre-budget
consultation meetings with the message from them being it's time to tax
the rich more. Higgs says if you tax small businesses too much then more
people won't be hired.
Peter
Woychuk, who teaches skilled trades at Simonds, fears the province is
failing its students even though Higgs pointed out student enrollment is
falling but costs are still rising.
The
leader of the provincial Green Party David Coon advocated personal
income taxes be raised and a new tax created on junk food.
The provincial books will not be balanced anytime in the next two years.
That
means the Alward Government will not reach its goal of a balanced budget
by the time the next provincial election is held in 2014.
Provincial
Finance Minister Blaine Higgs says the only way it will happen is
through a balanced approach of containing costs and raising more
government revenue.
Higgs doesn't see any big improvement with
the deficit happening. He says the provincial economy is not bouncing
back from the 2008 recession and New Brunswick is at the bottom when its
comes to economic growth as compared to the other provinces.
You
don't hear this too often........A provincial party leader actually
calling for taxes to be raised but that's what David Coon of the Green
Party is advocating.
He says
Provincial Health Minister Blaine Higgs only has two choices.....Raise
taxes or implement deeper cuts to health and education.
Coon
says income taxes are good and he is calling for the tax cuts instituted
by the previous Liberal government in 2009 to be rescinded because in
his words, they were reckless and left provincial coffers short of much
needed revenue.
He goes
on to say raising income taxes would mainly affect those people who
already enjoy luxuries and maybe mean one less trip south in the winter.
The
Saint John Regional Hospital has received a big boost to its Neonatal
Unit in the form of $2 million combined funding from a record-breaking
The Give fundraiser and the provincial government.
Dr Luis
Monterossa tells Tide News the new equipment for treating conditions
including jaundice makes all the difference when you're dealing with
severely premature infants.
The $2
million dollar upgrade to the facility features specialized equipment,
10 patient care rooms and three hostel rooms for mothers to remain in
hospital and care for their babies.
A meeting will be held this weekend between the Provincial Medical Society and Health Minister Ted Flemming.
Flemming
tells Tide News he was simply doing his due diligence when he
investigated the feasibility of the suggestion that doctor's pays be
made public.
Further,
Flemming says it wasn't even him that wrote the proposal--rather, it
was penned by the auditor general. The health minister has already met
with the Saint John Medical Society and they say they're satisfied with
Flemming's clarifications.
