Newfoundland Libraries To Be Closed As Part Of New Regional Model

First it became Canada's only province to tax books, and now Newfoundland and Labrador is closing a whole lot of libraries.

The province's library resources board announced on Wednesday it was adopting a new "regional library model," which would shut down 54 branches over two years, leaving 41 open. The list of affected libraries will be released once employees have been notified.

Rising tuition fees across Canada highlights need for Newfoundland-style grants program

Post-secondary students going back to school this year in Newfoundland and Labrador will be the first to fully benefit from the province's new student aid provisions. Starting in the 2015-2016 academic year, Newfoundland's student loan program will be eliminated and replaced with increased grants.

For those students eligible for the maximum amount per term, the provincial grant is $2,380 -- significantly more than enough, for example, to cover undergraduate tuition at the province's only university Memorial University of Newfoundland.

“The party has gone to hell” Newfoundland Tories lament

When former Prime Minister Brian Mulroney calls from Rome to express sympathy and outrage that Ches Crosbie was blocked from running as a Conservative candidate in the 2015 federal election, you know the Conservative Party of Canada has a big problem.

Nor does that problem get any smaller, when former Conservative cabinet minister Jim McGrath calls to add his voice to the political maelstrom triggered by this blunder of epic proportions.

“The party has gone to hell,” he told his former cabinet colleague and fellow Newfoundlander.

Newfoundland fracking panel lacks diversity and key areas of expertise

In February, the "Public Forum on the Gulf of St. Lawrence, Oil and Fracking" drew a full house in western Newfoundland, where anti-fracking sentiment has been growing since 2012 when Shoal Point Energy first suggested it may use fracking to unlock oil from shale rock.

The forum, sponsored by the Social Justice Cooperative of NL and the NL chapter of Save Our Seas and Shores, was organized partially in response to the lack of diversity in the recently announced panel, established by the N.L. government, which will study the socio-economic and environmental implications of fracking in the province, and to address the need to start looking at oil development issues in the area on a regional basis.

Newfoundland Suspends Participation In All Trade Agreements

ST. JOHN'S, N.L. - Newfoundland and Labrador says it is suspending its participation in all trade agreements because of its dispute with Ottawa over a promised federal-provincial fisheries fund.

The provincial government says the federal government has failed to honour its commitment to provide $280 million in exchange for the province relinquishing minimum processing requirements for fish plants as part of a free trade deal with Europe.

Provincial Business Minister Darin King says as a result, he has told federal International Trade Minister Ed Fast that Newfoundland and Labrador won't participate in all trade agreements, including those currently under negotiation.

The federal government has said that an unspecified amount of money would be available for direct losses to the fisheries sector as a result of the Comprehensive Economic and Trade Agreement with the EU.

But it said that those losses would have to be proven and no "blank cheque" was ever offered to the province.

Original Article
Source: huffingtonpost.ca/
Author: Sue Bailey

'End of medicare': Maude Barlow raises alarm on health spending

The head of a national non-profit group is warning that Newfoundland and Labrador could lose millions in federal health care dollars.

Maude Barlow, who chairs the Council of Canadians, says the Harper government will quietly reduce federal health care funding starting 2016.

Barlow estimates that Newfoundland and Labrador will lose $500-million a year, or roughly $1,000 per person.

UP! How the NL government and its unions solved their pension problem

In a country characterized by increasingly confrontational labour relations, an unlikely story of cooperation and negotiation emerges. Are there lessons for the rest of the country?

It took two years of wrangling -- and over a decade to get to the wrangling stage -- but on September 2, 2014, the government of Newfoundland and Labrador announced that it had reached an agreement on pension reform with five of its employees' labour unions.

In an era of increasingly hostile labour relations, the NL government and its unions managed to negotiate an agreement. Unions now have equal say in the new corporation that is to be established to administer the revised plan.

Newfoundland and Labrador to replace student loans with grants

Newfoundland and Labrador has become the first province set to entirely replace its student loans system with needs-based grants. The proposal was included as part of the governing Progressive Conservatives' earlier election platforms, and follows implementation of the removal of interest from student loans, which occurred in August 2009. Since then, Prince Edward Island and Nova Scotia have also eliminated loan interest. 

Frank Coleman, Next Newfoundland Premier, Pressured By Anti-Abortion Group

ST. JOHN'S, N.L. - The man poised to become the next premier of Newfoundland and Labrador is facing pressure from a pro-life group to follow the lead of Prince Edward Island in restricting abortion access in the province.

Frank Coleman's views on abortion sparked controversy after he said Friday that he attends a rally each year in Corner Brook, N.L., opposing abortion.

Pattrick Blackburn, Gay Newfoundland Man Who Was Beaten, Takes To Social Media

Pattrick Blackburn, a gay man living in St. John's, Newfoundland, who was beaten last week, has taken to Facebook and YouTube to speak out about the unprovoked attack.

“It’s really scary when somebody tells you that if you weren’t found 10 minutes before you would’ve bled out and died,” he said in the video which has since been taken down, choking back tears.

Blackburn recounts that a group of men followed him and he could hear one of them uttering a gay slur before he was attacked, he recounts in the video.

Ottawa breaching N.L.'s confidence in trade talks, says premier

Newfoundland and Labrador Premier Kathy Dunderdale says Ottawa has been trying to cut side deals with other provinces to build support for trade talks with the European Union, while excluding her province's demands from the final terms of the deal.

Dunderdale said federal officials, including Trade Minister Ed Fast, have been talking with other provinces to build broad support for the Comprehensive Economic Trade Agreement, also known as CETA, with the European Union.

Conservatives bring austerity to Newfoundland and Labrador

The government of Newfoundland and Labrador has continued to decline in popularity over the past few months and its latest budget faces low approval, recent polling suggests.

A Harris Decima poll commissioned by the Newfoundland and Labrador Association of Public and Private Employees (NAPE) found that 71 per cent of those surveyed opposed the budget, while at least two polls this year continued to show significantly lower levels of support for the governing Progressive Conservatives than those achieved in the 2011 election. Premier Kathy Dunderdale's personal popularity has also declined, primarily to the benefit of provincial NDP leader Lorraine Michael.

Rare win for voter turnout, big fail for political spin

The spin doctors are working hard today to disect the byelection results in Labrador yesterday.

Former Conservative cabinet minister Peter Penashue (pronounced Pen-A-shoo-way) went down to defeat at the hands of Liberal Yvonne Jones. Penashue stepped down in April, hours before Elections Canada released documents which showed his campaign in 2011 had accepted 28 illegal donations totalling $46,560, including from corporations and $18,710 of free flights from Provincial Airlines.

Labrador byelection result makes relations with Ottawa more difficult: premier

ST. JOHN'S, N.L. - Premier Kathy Dunderdale says she respects the choice of Labrador voters, but losing the province's only Conservative MP in Monday's byelection won't help relations with Ottawa.

Federal Conservatives had urged voters in Labrador to overlook spending violations in 2011 by incumbent Peter Penashue, who said he was guaranteed a cabinet post. He finished a distant second to Liberal challenger Yvonne Jones, the clear winner with just over 48 per cent of the vote.

Labrador byelection voter turnout highest of any federal byelection held in Canada since 1995

OTTAWA—The Labrador byelection had the highest voter turnout, 59.6 per cent, than any of the 47 federal byelections held since 1995, possibly the highest for any past federal byelection, and the scope of the Liberal victory against one of Prime Minister Stephen Harper’s former Cabinet ministers could be symbolic of a wider upheaval taking place in Canada’s political landscape now, say one Liberal MP and two leading pundits.

Conservatives spin Liberals’ huge win in Labrador as Justin Trudeau’s loss

ST. JOHN’S, N.L. — The Conservatives are attempting to paint the Liberals’ easy victory over an ex-cabinet minister in Monday’s federal byelection in Labrador as a loss for Leader Justin Trudeau.

Conservative party spokesman Fred DeLorey said Liberal candidate Yvonne Jones win over former cabinet minister and incumbent Peter Penashue was not a surprise, given that Liberals have won the riding in all but two elections since the province joined Confederation in 1949.

Yvonne Jones Wins Labrador Byelection

ST. JOHN'S, N.L. - Conservatives urged Labrador voters to overlook spending rule violations and return incumbent Peter Penashue to Ottawa as a cabinet minister — an offer they answered with a resounding No.

Liberal candidate Yvonne Jones won the federal byelection Monday in Labrador, recapturing a traditional Grit bastion and handing the Harper government its sole byelection defeat in a Tory-held seat.

Penashue’s ‘strong voice’ rarely heard in the House: study

If anyone in Labrador has any questions about how effective their former minister, Peter Penashue, is in the House of Commons, a new tally from democracy advocacy group, Samara, might help.

The group’s study tallies how many words MPs spoke in the House in 2012. At the top are New Democrat Peter Julian and Liberal Kevin Lamoureaux. For Hill watchers, neither of those comes as much of a surprise.

Labrador byelection pits promised cabinet post against passionate opposition

The federal byelection in Labrador boils down to a choice: a former cabinet minister who says he'll wield influence in Ottawa, versus Liberal and NDP challengers who say they'll chart a new course for political change.

It has also been cast as the first test of how fledgling Liberal Leader Justin Trudeau and NDP Leader Thomas Mulcair stack up on the campaign trail.

Henry White, who runs Bert's Barber Shop in Happy Valley-Goose Bay, knows how he'll vote.

Elizabeth May calling for investigation into Labrador by-election

Green Party MP Elizabeth May wants the ethics commissioner to investigate Prime Minister Stephen Harper, particularly his calling of a by-election in Labrador.

It’s the riding former cabinet minister Peter Penashue held until he resigned his position and seat amidst a swirl of controversy in March.