A lively back and forth on the new drug plan in the Legislature this morning.
Liberal Liberal Brian Gallant asking the health minister if the program is voluntary in the first phase beginning next spring.
He
asking Flemming if its true in the second phase of the plan after April
2015 that it will be mandatory for New Brunswickers to pay into the
plan.
Health Minister Ted Flemming says the first phase of the
plan is voluntary where people can assess their drug use and the extent
to which they have to pay and they have the option to make that kind of
decision.
Gallant does say the Liberals do support the new drug
plan in principle but they do have questions they think the government
should answer.
When the
Canadian Union of Public Employees complained about cuts to the winter
highway maintenance program, the more than 6 million dollars that could
be paid to a consultant was prominently mentioned.
The President of CUPE Local 1190 Andy Hardy has more to say on that.
"What
they were hired to do was to find a savings of 44.5 million dollars in
the Department of Transportation and Infrastructure Budget, and if they
do that, they're going to be paid 6.2 million dollars," he says.
Hardy
says, the consulting work has been going on all year. He has no doubt
there will recommendations forthcoming to save the designated amount of
money.
Police in Fredericton are on the scene at Fredericton High School, which received an unspecified threat earlier this morning.
The
students were dismissed to return home beginning at 10:30am--and
students were dismissed from the Ecole Ste. Anne location as well.
No
word on the exact nature of the threat but Simonds High School received
a call earlier this month about weapons in the school that turned out
to be the work of online hackers. No one was injured and no weapons were
found.
Authorities at the maximum security prison at Renous are investigating after a drug seizure.
An arrest was made after an attempt to smuggle between 15 and 20 thousand dollars worth of drugs into the penetentiary.
The drugs confiscated included hash, hash oil and hydromorphone.
