The Official Moncton, NB Project Thread [Archive] - Page 122

KnoxfordGuy

Jun 6, 2018, 3:46 PM

From the Canadian Real Estate Association website:

"Greater Moncton home sales set new all-time record in May 2018

Residential sales in the area served by the Greater Moncton REALTORS® du Grand Moncton numbered 363 units in May 2018. This was up 5.8% from May 2017 and marked the first time in history that any monthly sales figure has surpassed the 350 mark.

On a year-to-date basis, home sales totalled a record 1,211 units over the first five months of the year. This was up 9.8% from the same period in 2017 and remains on track for a record year.

“More homes traded hands in May 2018 than in any other month in history, keeping 2018 on track to be a record year for the local housing market,” said Chris Constantine, President of the Greater Moncton REALTORS® du Grand Moncton. “With sales setting records and supply at multi-year lows and still falling, prices continue to push higher, particularly for single family home types.”

The MLS® Home Price Index (HPI), tracks price trends far more accurately than is possible using average or median price measures. The overall MLS® HPI for Greater Moncton rose 4.3% in May 2018 compared to May 2017.

Semi-detached home prices were up 5.2% on a year-over-year basis in May, while prices for single-detached properties rose 4.4%. Townhouse prices were up 4.5% compared to a year earlier while apartment prices edged down 1.2%.

The average sale price of Greater Moncton home sales in May 2018 was up 9% from May 2017. The more comprehensive year-to-date average price up 6.9% from the first five months of 2017.

While the use of average price information can be useful in establishing trends when applied over a period of time, i.e. six months or longer, the Greater Moncton REALTORS® du Grand Moncton cautions that an average price does not indicate the actual value of any particular property. Those requiring specific information on property values should contact a REALTOR®.

There were 581 new residential listings in May 2018, down 1.9% (11 listings) on a year-over-year basis. This was a five-year low for new supply in the month of May.

Active residential listings numbered 2,066 units at the end of May. This was a decrease of 11.3% from the end of May 2017 and a seven-year low for that time of the year. Active listings have been trending down steadily since peaking in mid-2015.

Months of inventory numbered 5.7 at the end of May 2018, down from the 6.8 months recorded at the end of May 2017 and below the long-run average of 7.4 months for this time of year. The number of months of inventory is the number of months it would take to sell current inventories at the current rate of sales activity.

The total dollar value of all residential home sales in May 2018 was $68.8 million, rising 15.3% from the same month in 2017. Before May 2018 no monthly dollar volume has ever topped $60 million.

Sales of all property types numbered 396 units in May 2018, up 8.8% from May 2017. The total value of all properties sold was $73.5 million, jumping 18.8% from May 2017."

habs33

Jun 6, 2018, 4:06 PM

Commissioner, prospective Halifax owners meet with Moncton (https://www.tsn.ca/commissioner-prospective-halifax-owners-meet-with-moncton-1.1104836)
CFL commissioner Randy Ambrosie and representatives of the prospective Halifax team ownership group are meeting with the Premier of New Brunswick and Mayor of Moncton Wednesday about the impact of a regional Atlantic team and possibility of playing games in Moncton while a Halifax stadium is being built.

Taeolas

Jun 6, 2018, 4:11 PM

That is promising. I don't know if the region could support it yet, but if we do have the Maritime team in Moncton for a bit while it sets down roots before going to Halifax, it might lead to a second Maritime team with a regional rivalry already baked in.

MonctonRad

Jun 6, 2018, 5:27 PM

Commissioner, prospective Halifax owners meet with Moncton

CFL commissioner Randy Ambrosie and representatives of the prospective Halifax team ownership group are meeting with the Premier of New Brunswick and Mayor of Moncton Wednesday about the impact of a regional Atlantic team and possibility of playing games in Moncton while a Halifax stadium is being built.

https://www.tsn.ca/commissioner-prospective-halifax-owners-meet-with-moncton-1.1104836

Interesting.

First the CFL gets Moncton to host three Touchdown Atlantic games in order to prod Halifax into making a bid for a franchise. Now they want Moncton to serve as the temporary home of the CFL franchise while Halifax builds their stadium. This is no doubt an attempt by the league to embarrass the City of Halifax into getting off their asses and actually make a commitment towards a stadium.

I'm glad to see this renewed interest by the CFL towards Moncton, but I must admit to feeling a little used by the league.......... :rolleyes:

Scarface

Jun 7, 2018, 3:49 PM

Commissioner, prospective Halifax owners meet with Moncton

https://www.tsn.ca/commissioner-prospective-halifax-owners-meet-with-moncton-1.1104836

Interesting.

First the CFL gets Moncton to host three Touchdown Atlantic games in order to prod Halifax into making a bid for a franchise. Now they want Moncton to serve as the temporary home of the CFL franchise while Halifax builds their stadium. This is no doubt an attempt by the league to embarrass the City of Halifax into getting off their asses and actually make a commitment towards a stadium.

I'm glad to see this renewed interest by the CFL towards Moncton, but I must admit to feeling a little used by the league.......... :rolleyes:

you tend to get used to it. :haha:

But it is good news.

MonctonRad

Jun 17, 2018, 2:47 PM

Parks Canada has just announced that Northrop Frye has been named a "person of national historical significance', and that a bronze plaque will be cast in his honour.

https://www.newswire.ca/news-releases/government-of-canada-announces-12-new-national-historic-designations-678068053.html

No word yet (that I could find) about where the plaque will be placed, but I hope that it will be in Moncton and not in Toronto.........

Does this look familiar????

http://torontoplaques.com/Graphics/Herman_Northrop_Frye_1.jpg

Yes, this is a duplicate of our own Northrop Frye bench, except this one is located on the University of Toronto campus, where he did much of his work.

My gut feeling is that the plaque will be destined for the U of T campus, but one can hope that his home town might also be in the running for this honour. A plaque on the exterior wall of the Blue Cross Centre, outside the public library and overlooking the Northrup Frye bench would be pretty ideal........

lirette

Jun 19, 2018, 1:08 AM

New Centennial Park Pool to Cost 5.4 million

http://919thebend.ca/news/2115621261/new-centennial-park-pool-cost-54-million

MonctonRad

Jun 19, 2018, 2:40 AM

MonctonRad

Jun 19, 2018, 3:09 AM

:previous:

Sounds like a lot of money, but reading the article, this sounds like a large and sophisticated facility.

I wonder if the new pool is being built on the Johnathon Creek floodplain? That's been a problem in the past IIRC......

Just answered my own question. This is from Mayor Dawn Arnold's summary of the council meeting this evening:

awarded the tender for Centennial Beach (Marco Maritimes: $5,447,900 — this is for total replacement (up on the hill) of the 1984 facility, including construction of a new, cast-in-place concrete pool and deck and all related structural, mechanical pumping and filtration, play structures, beach house, installation of new watermain, sanitary and storm sewer systems, parking lots (with underground infrastructure to collect rain water, including a rain garden) and facility entrance, landscaping including trees, fencing, trails, furniture. The city was fortunate enough to receive a grant of $750,000 from the Federation of Canadian Municipalities (FCM) as part of their Climate Innovation Program (this was partly because we are moving the beach from a flood plain, but also because the pool house will be a “net zero” facility and will include solar panels).

Scarface

Jun 19, 2018, 5:22 AM

Just answered my own question. This is from Mayor Dawn Arnold's summary of the council meeting this evening:

Great Project that is sorely needed Despite some maintenance having been done to keep Centenial Beach/pool open it's only getting older, and with age comes higher cost of maintenance. So the price tag can be waranted as it would potentially cost more in the long run if they din't decide to do this masive upgrade.

I just seen the Render on the T&T Today, and one thing that stands out is there looks to be a full fledged Bus Stop just before you enter the Main Parking area of the Ne Beech that seems from the Render, and wording will be between St George, and the Rottary Lodge.

Ammn_guy

Jun 19, 2018, 2:06 PM

Great project.. taht will serve the whole city well...

I dont get the whole push for the east end pool .. its really bad spot for that pool.. its a flood plain and its a very underpopulated area...

it would serve the general tax payers better to be in north end or elmwood somewhere... its not exactly an area you can bike or walk to from sunny brae. I dont get it.

MonctonRad

Jun 19, 2018, 2:21 PM

I dont get the whole push for the east end pool .. its really bad spot for that pool.. its a flood plain and its a very underpopulated area...

It's a low income neighbourhood and the social justice activists are consequently all over this issue.

Also, it's a replacement for a previously decommissioned pool, therefore if it is not rebuilt in it's original location (or close to it), the city will be accused of taking something away from a disadvantaged neighbourhood.

I know exactly what you mean, and I don't think public works (and certain city councilors) are that much in favour of rebuilding the pool in that location, but the optics are poor, and I don't doubt the pool will get rebuilt (arguably for the wrong reasons), but that's politics..........

MonctonRad

Jun 19, 2018, 3:32 PM

Ammn_guy

Jun 19, 2018, 3:52 PM

Agreed on all points.. i think the best comprimise/better use of money here is to work with the provincial government and fund a renovation at St Pats pool(city is funding public swims here this summer), .. which can be used 12mths a year instead of 2.

It's a low income neighbourhood and the social justice activists are consequently all over this issue.

Also, it's a replacement for a previously decommissioned pool, therefore if it is not rebuilt in it's original location (or close to it), the city will be accused of taking something away from a disadvantaged neighbourhood.

I know exactly what you mean, and I don't think public works (and certain city councilors) are that much in favour of rebuilding the pool in that location, but the optics are poor, and I don't doubt the pool will get rebuilt (arguably for the wrong reasons), but that's politics..........

Ifyoubuildit

Jun 19, 2018, 5:45 PM

Here are the renders of the Centennial Park pool project:

https://s3.amazonaws.com/telegraph_journal/story-pictures/100632721/gallerylandscape/9_21.jpg

https://s3.amazonaws.com/telegraph_journal/story-pictures/100632721/gallerylandscape/6_53.jpg

https://s3.amazonaws.com/telegraph_journal/story-pictures/100632721/gallerylandscape/4_68.jpg

https://s3.amazonaws.com/telegraph_journal/story-pictures/100632721/gallerylandscape/2_61.jpg

https://s3.amazonaws.com/telegraph_journal/story-pictures/100632721/gallerylandscape/1_67.jpg

Essentially the whole face of Centennial Park fronting on St George Blvd is going to get a makeover, including paving the parking lot and the access road to the Rotary Park Lodge, and it does appear that they are adding a bus stop in front of the pavilion for the pool. This is a major project!

This community pool will be a nice addition to the City. However, my family has frequented this park for years and it just seems like more and more of the park is cut down for activities. So the feel of a "Natural Park" seems to be slowly being eroded. How many extra acres of trees will be cut down to accommodate this new pool and expanded parking lots? People get excited when 3-4 trees are cut down in front of the new Hyatt Hotel but in this case, I suspect at least 3-5 acres of forested park will be cut down? Why not put this pool over on Millenium beside the Sportsdome and keep the natural park in tact?

L'homard

Jun 19, 2018, 6:20 PM

As a kid we biked and walked to the East End pool a few times per week, all summer long, for many years. I can't see what anyone finds so difficult about that.
The place was pretty full on most days and I don't doubt it will be full once again of happy kids from the least advantaged areas of Moncton. Is there even a single decent playground in that end of town?
But no, let's spend almost $6M on a fake beach in one of the better-off areas of the city, with barely even any bus service, in a neighbourhood where just about anyone who wants a pool has only to go into their own backyards (ever fly over that neighbourhood and count the backyard pools?) plus charge the poor children admission as well.
This place is almost inaccessible for poor kids unless they can bum a drive or afford bus fare, a couple of hours of bus travel time - assuming they know where and when to transfer buses - plus the price of admission.
I'd say that eliminates most of us east-end riff-raff rather nicely. Back in the day mom and dad worked all day and couldn't drive me. I'm not convinced that has changed today, except for I'll wager there are even more parents who cannot afford a car nowadays.

The idea of fixing up St. Pat's has merit in my opinion. Good luck getting the city to do that, however.

Scarface

Jun 19, 2018, 9:19 PM

Here are the renders of the Centennial Park pool project:

Essentially the whole face of Centennial Park fronting on St George Blvd is going to get a makeover, including paving the parking lot and the access road to the Rotary Park Lodge, and it does appear that they are adding a bus stop in front of the pavilion for the pool. This is a major project!

Can forget that they will be fixing the Entrances/Exits Rotary Lodge to right in front of Dickson Boulavard.

MonctonRad

Jun 27, 2018, 3:46 AM

A couple of interesting news releases and magazine articles came out yesterday and today:

Moncton has been selected to host the 2020 Canada Soccer Toyota National Championships U-17 Cup
June 26, 2018

Coupe U-17 Cup 2020MONCTON – The City of Moncton, the Jeux de la Francophonie 2021 and Soccer New Brunswick reacted to the positive news issued today by Canada Soccer, confirming Moncton as the host city of the Canada Soccer Toyota National Championships U-17 Cup in 2020. The three organizations partnered together earlier this year to submit a bid to host the championships in Moncton in 2020 in the U-17 category as a test event for the Jeux de la Francophonie 2021.

Official Statement by the City of Moncton:
“Moncton is thrilled to have been selected to host the Canada Soccer Toyota National Championships U 17 Cup in 2020. This important tournament will bring elite soccer athletes to our region and serve as an essential test event in preparation for the international soccer competition scheduled as part of the Jeux de la Francophonie 2021.

In hosting this championship, Moncton is thrilled to build upon the tremendous legacy that still resonates in our community from hosting the FIFA Women’s World Cup Canada 2015TM and the FIFA U-20 Women’s World Cup Canada 2014.

And then there is this:

Moncton Offers To Host CFL Team Until Halifax Stadium Is Ready
Jun 25, 2018 by Inda Intiar
Huddle Today
http://huddle.today/moncton-offers-host-cfl-team-until-halifax-stadium-is-ready/

MONCTON – Maritime Football is seeking to set up an Atlantic Canadian CFL team in Halifax and Moncton could play a role in the process. Mayor Dawn Arnold said the city would be open to hosting the team for one or two seasons while a new stadium is constructed in Halifax.

Although the city won’t bid to have the team based in Moncton, Mayor Arnold said Moncton could host a couple of seasons to help establish an Atlantic Canadian audience base before the team moves to Halifax.

Halifax Mayor Mike Savage told Huddle over the phone that if his city were to get a CFL team, “it would have to be a regional effort.”

If they need to do a regular season [in Moncton], that’s fine. I want to cooperate with any mayors in communities in Atlantic Canada that want to take part in the effort,” said Savage.

“It would show the level of collaboration and team spirit that we have here. It could be a really positive thing to help out in this way and help enable [the Atlantic Canadian franchise] to be successful,” Mayor Arnold said.

Mayor Savage said Maritime Football is looking at having the team enter the league in 2021 or 2022.

Moncton has the past experience of hosting CFL games for more than 20,000 fans. Its stadium has a capacity of nearly 21,000 seats. Talks are still preliminary, but Ambrosie and LeBlanc said some changes might be needed at the stadium to play games in Moncton.

“They did mention nicer box seats and obviously we’d have to bring in more seats and that’s doable too,” Mayor Arnold said. “There would probably be a lot of negotiations that have to happen. No one has really been talking about money at all here so that would be an interesting conversation that would have to take place.”

Mayor Arnold said the meeting with Ambrosie and LeBlanc was “a provincial play” and not arranged by the city.

So, lets look at what's going on here:

- 2020 Canadian National U17 Soccer Championships
- 2021 Jeux de la Francophonie (a French version of the Commonwealth Games)
- 2021/2022 Potential for one to two seasons of CFL football while the Halifax stadium is to be constructed.

All three of these events would require use of the Moncton Stadium, with the latter two events likely requiring an expansion of the facility. In particular, the offhanded comment from Mayor Arnold about bringing in more seating as well as "box seats" is intriguing. One doesn't usually do box seats as a temporary feature to a stadium. If the city, province and the feds might be prepared to do a substantial expansion to the facility, what could this mean for the city down the road?

I doubt a Moncton CFL franchise is in the offing anytime soon, but the Canadian Premier League (soccer) could be a possibility for the city. The Moncton Stadium is already big enough for a CPL team. All it really needs is box seats,more permanent washrooms and concessions (along with an interior concourse underneath the eastern stands).

One wonders if there isn't something suddenly afoot here.........

SevenSquared

Jun 28, 2018, 9:19 PM

I doubt a Moncton CFL franchise is in the offing anytime soon, but the Canadian Premier League (soccer) could be a possibility for the city. The Moncton Stadium is already big enough for a CPL team. All it really needs is box seats,more permanent washrooms and concessions (along with an interior concourse underneath the eastern stands).
If the Canadian Premier League does as well as they expect, there should certainly be a team in Moncton in the short/medium term. The question, however, is whether this team would be a part of the main/first division, or if they'll start in the proposed second division, which would be part of a promotion/relegation system.

If this temporary CFL deal happens, it should be an absolute priority to get rid of the track and move the east stand much closer to the pitch. The distance from the front row to the pitch is quite frankly obscene, good luck selling premium season tickets with that sort of view.

The opposite (west) stand on the other hand is workable as it is now, aside from washrooms/concessions obviously. They'd simply need to fill it in by adding 5-6 rows of seating where the track currently sits in front of the existing stand, along with pitchside club seats/tables.

MonctonRad

Jul 1, 2018, 12:29 AM

International Immigration is Booming in Greater Moncton

Some interesting notes from an article in the T&T today about how well Moncton anglophone schools are doing in retaining recent newcomers to the city.

- the Anglophone East School Board fully expected to lose over 1/3rd of Syrian refugees to larger cities in central Canada within the first couple of years of their arrival. Instead, the retention rate of Syrian refugee children in the anglophone school system in Moncton has been 90%.

- 18% of the school board's students are ESL (English as a second language) learners. The rate of ESL is highest in schools closer to the core of the city. Edith Cavell has more than 50% ESL.

- There is an International Welcome Centre at Queen Elizabeth School, which allows the school board to determine what it needs to do to help new international students adjust. In the last year the centre registered 650 new school applicants.

https://s3.amazonaws.com/telegraph_journal/story-pictures/100638616/gallerylandscape/20180629schoolboardimmigrationtt16.jpg

- at 453%, metro Moncton has seen the third highest rate of increase nationally (in the last five years) in new international immigrants. There are now immigrants from over 100 countries in greater Moncton.

The countries supplying the most immigrants to Anglophone School Board are:

1) - Philippines
2) - Syria
3) - China
4) - Viet Nam
5) - Nigeria
6) - South Korea
7) - Israel :eek:
8) - United States

Personal note - Diagnostic radiologists are involved in screening newcomers with chest radiography to exclude TB or other dangerous conditions. It was my turn last week to do so. I screened 24 new immigrants. I have no reason to believe that last week was an unusual one in terms of workload. If 24-25 new immigrants per week is the norm, then this works out to 1250 new immigrants to the greater Moncton area per year. I think this would jive pretty well with the Anglophone East School Board welcome centre registering 650 newcomers (children) per year.

I'm sure there are many other francophone immigrants not being accounted for in the above T&T article.

L'homard

Jul 1, 2018, 2:57 AM

I'm sure there are many other francophone immigrants not being accounted for in the above T&T article.

I'm confident you are correct. I haven't been to the airport in about a year, but up to that point, one of the first things a newcomer would see, at the baggage carousel, was a big sign reminding immigrants that the francophone sud school district is happy to accommodate their children in their schools.

JHikka

Jul 1, 2018, 1:53 PM

If 24-25 new immigrants per week is the norm, then this works out to 1250 new immigrants to the greater Moncton area per year. I think this would jive pretty well with the Anglophone East School Board welcome centre registering 650 newcomers (children) per year.

It's more suited to the Statistics thread but this more or less lines up with the numbers StatCan puts out.

In 2016, NB welcomed 4,675 immigrants.
In 2017, NB welcomed 3,649 immigrants.
Table: 17-10-0040-01 (formerly CANSIM 051-0037)

Breaking it down further, we can see immigrant intake based on subprovincial areas:

Westmorland County, Immigrant intake:
2012/13: 603
2013/14: 692
2014/15: 1,043
2015/16: 1,722
2016/17: 1,329
Table: 17-10-0085-01 (formerly CANSIM 051-0063)

So yes, your estimation is essentially accurate.

The three major cities in New Brunswick effectively split the immigrant intake three ways.

MonctonRad

Jul 8, 2018, 5:45 PM

Some colour for the page

https://farm2.staticflickr.com/1801/29410816258_7614f31f21_b.jpg (https://flic.kr/p/LNW81W)
Canada Day fireworks over the Petitcodiac River, from Councillor Greg Turners Facebook page.

MonctonRad

Jul 8, 2018, 8:02 PM

:previous:

I've just reassessed this photo. There isn something not quite right here.

The trees are leafless. There may be a skiff of snow and ice on the ground and the lady just to the right of the monument seems a little overdressed for a July evening.

Also, the tower crane for Horizon Place is visible on the horizon. This was taken down a couple of month ago. Maybe these fireworks were from New Years Day.

Regardless, it's a neat photo.

gehrhardt

Jul 9, 2018, 12:06 PM

MonctonRad

Jul 10, 2018, 3:43 AM

The July meeting of the Moncton PAC is devoted to discussion of the Downtown Core Community Improvement Plan.

http://www.moncton.ca/Assets/Residents+English/July+26+PAC+Agenda+EN.pdf

The documentation on this plan is extensive.......

MonctonRad

Jul 12, 2018, 3:14 AM

MonctonRad

Jul 17, 2018, 6:35 PM

Apparently Rogers Communications has just announced 215 new jobs in the Hub City to go along with their existing employment base of 1,000 employees.

I currently have no additional information as to the type of jobs these are, but I presume they are "customer contact"

Stay tuned.........

MonctonRad

Jul 25, 2018, 2:41 AM

from the City of Moncton

City of Moncton building permit values closing in on last year’s record tally

July 24, 2018

MONCTON – Year-to-date values for 2018 permits add up to $145.6 million, compared with $153 million last year, representing a difference of about 5 per cent. The total value of permits for the second quarter ending June 30 came in at $127.8 million, compared with $95.2 million during the same period last year. The total number of permits for the quarter was 395, down slightly from 429 in 2017.

Commercial and residential building permits had 3-month totals of $88.2 million and $12.4 million, respectively. The largest drivers of these results include an expansion at Organigram on English Drive ($36.7 million), a new Hyatt Hotel adjacent to the Downtown Centre ($17.6 million), a new Costco off Elmwood Drive ($13.5 million), and an expansion of Kent Distribution on Commerce Street ($9.5 million).

Institutional permits accounted for $25.5 million or 20 per cent of the quarter’s activity, with much of that derived from a new school going up in Moncton’s North End.

“The last three years of development have been the best years on record at this point in the year,” said Mayor Dawn Arnold. “Our community is demonstrating confidence and consistency, and we are all working to ensure the momentum continues, leading the way as the economic leader in New Brunswick.”

The City’s Economic Development team continues to raise awareness related to Moncton’s attractiveness for investment, living, working, and running a business.

“We are seeing so much opportunity for both people and businesses to locate here for increased prosperity,” said Kevin Silliker, Director of Economic Development. “We are in the unique position of being able to facilitate some of these connections that go on to be very positive influences within our economy.”

MonctonRad

Aug 3, 2018, 2:03 PM

from CBC:

10 portable classrooms ordered as enrolment grows in Moncton schools
Superintendent says population growth and early French immersion changes play a role
CBC News · Posted: Aug 03, 2018 8:00 AM AT | Last Updated: 2 hours ago

Another 10 portable classrooms are being added to overcrowded schools in the Anglophone East School District to accommodate students in the upcoming school year.

Greg Ingersoll, superintendent of the Anglophone East School District, said population growth and the reintroduction to early French immersion are causing some schools to run out of space for students.

"In certain areas in our school catchments there's growth," Ingersoll said.

Ingersoll uses the example of Moncton's north end, where population is continuing to grow, resulting in portable classrooms being added to Northrop Frye School in the area.

"That's continuing to be a major growth area," he said.

The Moncton school will get two portable classrooms and eight more will be installed at four other schools throughout the district.

There will be three at Riverview East School, three at Bessborough School and one at Birchmount School in Moncton and one at the Shediac Cape School.

Right now, there are already six portable classrooms in schools across the district.

Four of those portables have already been added to the Arnold H. McLeod School in the city's east end over the last two years to help with overcrowding.

"In Riverview, specifically in the area of the Riverview East School is located is another area that's growing very rapidly. This year we had no choice but to add portables to that school."

Meanwhile, a new middle school is being built in Moncton's north end to help alleviate overcrowding in the two kindergarten to Grade 8 schools, Northup Frye and Evergreen Park School.

The school is expected to open next year.

"Even though once we do that and have a little bit of room in the north end, projection over the next 15 years, it's going to continue to grow," he said. "So probably all three will be full again at some point."

The population growth in the city and region is bucking the trend compared to other parts of the province where student enrolment is declining.

It's amazing to think that even with the addition of the new anglophone middle school in the northwest end that the school board is already predicting the need for additional capacity due to ongoing population growth. I know that Evergreen Park School cannot be expanded any further. I think that given it's design, Northrup Frye may be difficult to expand too. Hopefully they will be able to add another wing on the new middle school. Otherwise, a fourth anglophone school in the neighbourhood may be necessary within the next 10-12 years. Also, although nobody is talking about it, will growth in the area mean the need for a fifth anglophone high school in the metro area (in the northwest end)?

The other area of concern is Riverview East. The school there is only a few years old and already they are adding three new portable classrooms. What will this mean for the future???

C_Boy

Aug 3, 2018, 3:38 PM

The fact that all new schools that have opened up in the past 10 years in Moncton were already overcapacity the day the opened or within a year is a clear indication of the lack of planning on the provinces part. Building a school before an election is great for perception. Cheaping out in the short term is a costly longterm plan.

mylesmalley

Aug 3, 2018, 6:02 PM

I'd like to know what enrollment looks like across the board. I don't doubt that the North End schools are overcrowded, but are there neighborhood schools ( looking at you, Queen Elizabeth, Birchmount, Hillcrest, Beaverbrook, and especially Edith Cavell) that have capacity? If a certain percentage of kids are being bused in already, is it really so terrible to send some to the next school down the road?

alleben

Aug 3, 2018, 6:24 PM

Here are the 2017 enrollment numbers for each school in the district:
http://www2.gnb.ca/content/dam/gnb/Departments/ed/pdf/K12/districts/AnglophoneEast.pdf

lirette

Aug 6, 2018, 3:05 PM

Ridesharing service coming to Moncton

This could be another transportation option to the new events centre. They have a multi layered business plan involving other services like food delivery and parcel deliveries. I hope this succeeds. The Moncton Taxi market is ripe for disruption. Most feedback on taxi drivers in Moncton is not positive and I have experienced some of this myself.

http://huddle.today/this-company-has-big-plans-for-ride-sharing-in-the-maritimes/

MonctonRad

Aug 9, 2018, 12:19 AM

Here is the pdf for the monthly PAC meeting. This is the second month in a row that the PAC has been unusually quiet. I hope this is not a sign of things to come.........

http://www.moncton.ca/Assets/Residents+English/August+22+PAC+Agenda.pdf

MonctonRad

Aug 18, 2018, 2:56 AM

Federal/provincial infrastructure announcement at UdeM today.

Canada and NB support infrastructure improvements at the University of Moncton... both levels of government and the university allocate over $ 460,000 funding will be used to improve water supply infrastructure and Wastewater Treatment of campus and to develop and improve road infrastructure within campus. 1.3 M (split between the federal government, province and university)

https://scontent-lga3-1.xx.fbcdn.net/v/t1.0-9/39309677_10155728015296485_623882212068032512_n.jpg?_nc_cat=0&oh=d31742b104c45f49c431c5441af9f762&oe=5C05CBBA

Basically they are creating an internal roadway on the north side of Morton between the Shannex development and the medical school building for a "research and development campus"

L'homard

Aug 18, 2018, 12:23 PM

Sounds like an overblown way to say they are paying for the university's sewer and water pipes across Morton Avenue.

Photo1

Sep 7, 2018, 12:55 AM

Not sure where this should go...but thought it might be of interest.

Nordia...the call center on Edinburgh Drive has purchased the old RBC building and is moving to that location (tentatively January). They have already begun construction and gutted the interior of the old RBC. Apparently this is in the area of a $4M renovation.

Organigram, the owner of the building Nordia is currently in, will continue its expansion into the Nordia space once they leave.

MonctonRad

Sep 9, 2018, 5:17 PM

Scarface

Sep 10, 2018, 12:42 PM

Cathy Rogers has just announced that the only location being considered for a replacement west end anglophone K-8 school is the Bessborough site.

https://www.telegraphjournal.com/times-transcript/story/100707114/ (paywall)

Formerly, a new site on the Franklin Yard was also potentially under consideration. This apparently has become an election issue, hence the nead for Rogers to clarify the situation now.

Essentially Hillcrest will eventually close. Bessborough will remain open during the construction phase of the new school next door. Once construction is complete, the old Bessborough and Hillcrest schools will be demolished.

It will be quite similar to what they did with the Ste Bernadette School in the west end six years ago or so........

1. It's good to know that they finally made a decision on this issue. It is indeed a good location I will say some parents from Hilcrest are not happy with this decision.

2. I was going to say it if you din't that they where going to copy the building process of Ste Bernadette School.

It's seemingly a better way to go as the school stays open but there will be some headaches as it shrinks down what little outdoor space the kids have for the time being until the new school is built, and old one demolished followed by the landscaping.

Sandbagger

Sep 17, 2018, 3:57 PM

Not really sure where to put this, but I was reading this article on the weekend about the CFL commissioner's plans to globalize the CFL:
https://www.tsn.ca/naylor-s-kickoff-ambrosie-thinking-global-with-cfl-2-0-1.1172970

One thing that struck me as interesting is that they are looking at perhaps creating some sort of a feeder league for the CFL. The long standing argument is that there are plenty of players coming out of NCAA and CIS with no place to play. Although I'm one that believes Moncton isn't ready for the CFL, I think depending how 'global' this new league could be, it could potentially be a nice fit for Moncton.

Lakeofthewood

Sep 18, 2018, 1:48 PM

1. It's good to know that they finally made a decision on this issue. It is indeed a good location I will say some parents from Hilcrest are not happy with this decision.

2. I was going to say it if you din't that they where going to copy the building process of Ste Bernadette School.

It's seemingly a better way to go as the school stays open but there will be some headaches as it shrinks down what little outdoor space the kids have for the time being until the new school is built, and old one demolished followed by the landscaping.

Thank god for this. As someone who went to Hillcrest, I am more than happy that the Bessborough location was chosen over Franklin Yards. Sure it sucks to not have a school right in our neighbourhood anymore, but I'm happy that a majority of students in Bessborough will still be able to walk and bike to school every day.

Frankly I am surprised that it appears the right decision is the one they went with. I had thought Franklin Yards was a done deal

Lakeofthewood

Sep 18, 2018, 2:02 PM

This community pool will be a nice addition to the City. However, my family has frequented this park for years and it just seems like more and more of the park is cut down for activities. So the feel of a "Natural Park" seems to be slowly being eroded. How many extra acres of trees will be cut down to accommodate this new pool and expanded parking lots? People get excited when 3-4 trees are cut down in front of the new Hyatt Hotel but in this case, I suspect at least 3-5 acres of forested park will be cut down? Why not put this pool over on Millenium beside the Sportsdome and keep the natural park in tact?

I know about 10-15 years ago there was a push to increase the activities in certain underused areas of the park, so as to try and clear out some illicit activities taking place there. Don't think you could ever get a firm confirmation on it, but that was at least a small part of the inspiration/placement for things like the dog park, bike park and TreeGo (obviously the main thing being that they are nice additions to the park).

As for where this pool is going to be located, its partially disrupting the drive-in picnic areas (which were never used) and that's about it. I think this is a great location for it, as it won't be flooded every year and it is in close proximity to Camp Centennial, who uses the pool every day. The natural park very much still exists on the trails west of Firebreak Rd and I don't see that changing anytime soon.

MonctonRad

Sep 21, 2018, 12:24 AM

MonctonianSentinel01

Sep 21, 2018, 12:44 AM

That's what we like to see. Good ole business booming in the hometown!

Photo1

Sep 21, 2018, 6:13 PM

Has anyone else noticed the expansion ongoing for Organigram in the MID Industrial Park?

They've developed an entire campus of buildings on the NW corner of Edinburgh and Saint George. This summer they put in an entire electrical substation to service their enterprise, and now there is structural steel going up for a new large building just to the north on Edinburgh to join the remainder of the campus.

In addition, Nordia is soon to vacate their space and move into the old RBC call centre. Once this is done, Organigram will take over the old Nordia space too.

The entire complex will be massive!!!

I see it every day...the steel for yet another building has gone up over the last two weeks and it's huge. They have also cleared land on the corner of English for an employee parking lot. I suspect that once Nordia moves the new building, based on it's footprint, will be connected to the existing structures (the Nordia building and the two behind are already connected).

It is indeed...'massive'.

Side note about Nordia's move...the inside of the old RBC center has now been completely gutted and the old HVAC units removed from the roof.

Scarface

Oct 2, 2018, 1:54 PM

I was looking at the RioCan website this morning, and it seems they either are no longer promoting there Moncton holdings, or there Moncton Holdings have been sold off. I remember someone saying a little while they believed RioCan was selling off all there Atlantic Canadian Properties.

The Properties they still have listed are:

Trinity Conception Square, Carbonear, NL
Shoppers On Topsail, St. John's, NL
Charlottetown Mall, Charlottetown, PE
Corbett Centre, Fredericton, NB
Quispamsis Town Centre, Quispamsis, NB

The places they no longer have listed are there holdings/partial holdings in Moncton, Saint John, and Miramichi.

BaseballFan

Oct 2, 2018, 2:00 PM

Hogie75

Oct 4, 2018, 11:13 AM

hi all took with a girlfriend a car and broke down talking about bad men who can help respond don't know where to go.WhatApp +79257946259 . i a girl with

Sorry but the last place I would try to get help is this page, call 911, this has to be fake.

Taeolas

Oct 4, 2018, 11:20 AM

Sorry but the last place I would try to get help is this page, call 911, this has to be fake.

The only two messages from the user are the exact same messages in two unrelated threads (Moncton and New Orleans). Seems like a badly configured spam bot.

Best thing to do with those types of messages is to hit the Report button on the top right of the message, so moderators can see the message and nuke it.

Freddypop

Oct 4, 2018, 5:12 PM

Correct, they are exiting Atlantic Canada. Riocan is actively trying to sell the Quimpamsis property. They sold Wheeler Park (Trinity) in Moncton to CREIT a couple of years ago.

RioCan announced, I believe last year, that they intended to divest themselves of all properties in Atlantic Canada to concentrate on the big 6 cities with a particular focus on Southern Ontario

MonctonRad

Oct 6, 2018, 1:42 AM

Interesting article in Huddle about Organigram

Inside The N.B. Cannabis Company Worth Nearly $900-Million That Just Keeps On Growing
Oct 4, 2018
by Inda Intiar
http://huddle.today/inside-the-n-b-cannabis-company-worth-nearly-900-million-and-just-keeps-on-growing/

VP of Operations Jeff Purcell recently gave Huddle a tour of the Moncton headquarters of the company, now valued at more than $850-million.

Purcell, who worked in the food industry for over two decades before coming to Organigram in June 2017, said it’s been busy but exciting for him.

“We kind of say here that a year here is like 10 years in normal business,” he said. “We’ve really done some phenomenal things in the last 15-to-18 months – not just people growth, but also the scale at which we’re growing from a capacity perspective. It’s fast-paced but it’s fantastic.”

Now a team of 430 employees, Organigram only had about 60 workers a year ago. For Purcell, the challenge is to make sure company structures evolve along with the growth.

Organigram’s facility had undergone two phases of expansion between February and June. It consists of two factories that are connected to each other in Moncton’s Industrial Park, with a total of two rooms to “clone” plants by clipping, 51 rooms to grow them, two packaging rooms for the recreational market, and a warehouse.

Each grow room can fit 1,080 plants. There’s also a section for organic plants. Workers use an in-house software to check on the plants’ stages.

The top floors include management offices, the marketing office, an employee gym and a call centre.

At the beginning of next year, the company plans to begin another phase of expansion which includes the addition of 91 grow rooms and a third clone room to serve the medical and recreational markets.

A valuation of nearly $900M - Holy Crap!!! :eek:

MonctonianSentinel01

Oct 6, 2018, 8:58 AM

That's awesome for Moncton to have such a profitable company. Good for them!

Mattyyy

Oct 6, 2018, 6:53 PM

Feneant

Oct 9, 2018, 10:21 AM

Most marijuana companies are not currently profitable nor worth anything close to their current valuations. Keep in mind that 900 million dollar valuation is simply number of outstanding shares on the market multiplied by share price. Therefore the valuation is simply what people are willing to pay for the stock today which we well know is very emotionally charged. There will be a steep correction in these prices in the future. My point here is that I just want people to understand the market valuations on marijuana companies really means nothing at this point.

Aside from that OGI is well positioned in the market and a great addition to the Moncton economy. They have a bright future.

Well said, the marijuana stocks on the market are high from hype and investors being irrational, Organigram is worth nowhere near 900 millions and everyone considering investing at this point should first read this article (https://www.moneysense.ca/save/the-pot-stock-boom-is-about-to-bust/)

MonctonRad

Oct 24, 2018, 12:10 AM

Things to see and do in Moncton - VIA Rail travel blog:

https://blog.viarail.ca/2018/10/11/unexpected-moncton-different-ways-explore-city/?fbclid=IwAR23vKsRKHQRVKMfVmqdYoJyiZMV1AvoFPRNYG3WoViBvFbXt89UyXV6gLU

very complimentary.

Ire Narissis

Oct 24, 2018, 3:32 PM

Small surprise there, considering the purpose of the blog is to entice people to travel on the train. :)

Philbilly

Oct 27, 2018, 3:56 AM

Not sure on accuracy but Moncton listed as the #1 most affordable rent for a city in canada from this article

https://www.facebook.com/1758264934461307/posts/2237467966540999/

MonctonRad

Nov 10, 2018, 2:33 AM

City of Moncton press release:

October 31, 2018

City of Moncton building permit figures remain healthy with diverse projects in third quarter

MONCTON – The total value of permits for the third quarter ending September 30 came in at
$41.3 million, compared with $63.1 million during the same period last year. The total number of permits for the quarter was 355, down slightly from 395 in 2017. Year-to-date values for 2018 permits add up to $187 million, compared with $215 million last year.
Commercial and residential building permits had 3-month totals of $21.3 million and $14.8 million, respectively. The largest drivers of these results include a new $4.6 million pool at Centennial Park, $4.5 million in renovations at 1199 St. George Blvd, a new apartment building on Ivy Road valued at $4.8 million, a $3.1 million commercial development at 1121 Shediac Road, $1.8 million of work related to the East End Pool, $900,000 in fit-ups for Bioscript Medical at 1234 Main Street, and a new Kelsey’s Restaurant on Trinity Drive valued at $800,000.
Institutional permits accounted for $4.1 million or 10 per cent of the quarter’s activity, with a new $1.2 million ambulance depot on Gorge Road and various school and church renovation projects.
“Now that the Avenir Centre is open, we should continue to see more development taking place within the vicinity,” said Mayor Dawn Arnold. “The atmosphere in our Downtown has been absolutely electric these past few weeks.”
The City’s Economic Development team echoed that sentiment.
“We’ve all been eager to observe the dynamics of having a facility like this in our Downtown,” said Kevin Silliker, Director of Economic Development. “The feedback has been very positive, and we continue to be well positioned to see new projects coming online.”

PEI highway guy

Nov 17, 2018, 11:21 PM

I saw the following on the agenda of Mondays City Council meetings. Any ideas?

6.
PLANNING MATTERS/ QUESTIONS D’URBANISME
6.1 New Rezoning Application – Franklin Yard
Nouvelle demande de rezonage – Franklin Yard

mylesmalley

Nov 18, 2018, 12:07 AM

...better not be for a new school...

MonctonRad

Nov 18, 2018, 1:33 AM

:previous:

You never know..........

https://farm1.staticflickr.com/795/40527211075_797d30b0a4_b.jpg (https://flic.kr/p/24KfxUx)

Cathy Rogers went out on a limb to reassure her constituents that the Bessborough replacement would be built on the existing school property. Now that Higgs has taken over, maybe he has different plans..........

MonctonRad

Nov 20, 2018, 12:44 AM

:previous:

from Mayor Dawn Arnold's summary of the council meeting:

We then moved into planning matters and heard about a new rezoning application for Franklin Crossing (from NH (Neighbourhood) to MUC (Mixed Use Centre). The plan would include residential, community college, future commercial development and park land. As always, this will go through a process that will include a Public Presentation (Dec. 3), written review from the Planning Advisory Committee (Dec. 19) and a Public Hearing (Jan. 21) — lots of opportunities for you to find out more details on this. We also had the final presentation on the 12 re-zonings of city owned land to parkland.

So, a school, no - but the developers of Franklin Crossing obviously want to keep all options open in terms of future development possibilities.

MonctonRad

Nov 20, 2018, 3:32 PM

:previous:

Here are a couple of images of what they have in mind from Mayor Arnold's FB page.

https://scontent-lga3-1.xx.fbcdn.net/v/t1.0-9/46493254_10155927220301485_5090965894343950336_n.jpg?_nc_cat=111&_nc_ht=scontent-lga3-1.xx&oh=f171a0bb8f439fe8e0f81c49a57e396b&oe=5C653CF0

https://scontent-lga3-1.xx.fbcdn.net/v/t1.0-9/46513817_10155927220421485_7621847400113504256_n.jpg?_nc_cat=107&_nc_ht=scontent-lga3-1.xx&oh=cf1742a03823003e376d3769ddf7dfde&oe=5C769834

The images unfortunately are pretty low res, so it's difficult to see exactly what's going on, however they do show a building with a substantial parking lot on the west end of the portion of the Franklin Yards that they want rezoned MUC. I presume this must be the "community college" she was referencing in her post. In this case, I presume it is a private college along the lines of Oulton's. I wonder which college this might be?

I do know that there are possible plans to convert the building McKenzie College is currently located in (on the corner of Gordon & Cameron) to residential. Perhaps McKenzie College is looking for a new home???

MonctonRad

Nov 21, 2018, 2:21 PM

:previous:

Good CBC article about the above rezoning request:

Mystery college proposed near Moncton's Centennial Park
City says proposal leaves the door open to a new west end school in the area
Shane Magee · CBC News · Posted: Nov 21, 2018 5:00 AM AT | Last Updated: 4 hours ago
https://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/new-brunswick/moncton-community-college-zoning-1.4913100

Moncton council is giving early approval to rezone a small wedge of land along Millennium Boulevard that would allow a two-storey college building, a change that also leaves the door open to constructing a new west end school in the area.

"What's being proposed is the property owner is trying subdivide a large portion, a large lot out of this, for a local community college for their new expanded campus," Bill Budd, the city's director of urban planning, told council while outlining the rezoning.

Budd told council the rezoning from integrated development zone to mixed use would also allow public schools.

"If the province wants to locate a school in this area, they could," Budd said.

Franklin Yard was one of the sites floated for a new kindergarten to Grade 8 school to replace Hillcrest and Bessborough schools.

The proposed Franklin Yard college site and parking lot would cover six acres (about two hectares), leaving about 14 acres (about 5½ hectares) open for other development.

The province usually requires about 20 acres, or about eight hectares, for new schools, Budd said.

There's no direct road access from the west end neighbourhoods where Hillcrest and Bessborough schools are located to Franklin Yard.

Marc Landry, the city manager, said staff would present options to council, such as a cost-sharing arrangement, if the developer wants a road connection through the city park.

The CBC article included better graphics than those available in Mayor Arnold's FB post.

https://i.cbc.ca/1.4913259.1542739268!/fileImage/httpImage/image.jpg_gen/derivatives/original_780/franklin-yard-site-with-pin.jpg
Good perspective on the location of the Franklin Yard

https://i.cbc.ca/1.4913242.1542738517!/fileImage/httpImage/image.jpg_gen/derivatives/original_780/proposed-college-site.jpg
close-up of the "proposed two storey educational facility"

- In the CBC article, McKenzie College denied that this proposal is from them. Oulton College on the other hand apparently only gave a terse "no comment".

- It could be Oulton College. Their school has been in growth mode for some time, and already operate a separate building for their Dental Hygiene and Dental Assistant programs. Their other health professions programs are increasingly in demand (including Laboratory Technology, Paramedic, Veterinary Assistant and Practical Nursing amongst others), and I could certainly see them separating the remainder of their health programs from all the other programs that they offer (information technology, business, policing and corrections, early childhood education, child care, etc).

- The fact that the remaining 14 acres to be zoned MUC could accommodate a public school is interesting. Cathy Rogers really wanted the (proposed) new school to be located on the current Bessborough site. I could see Blaine Higgs maybe throwing in a curve ball here.

- The real shocker in the CBC article is that the city apparently isn't rejecting out of hand the possibility of a connector road through Centennial Park between a possible new school and the new west end. This would be highly controversial, and could lead to drastically increased traffic within the park and several residential streets. The logical place to put a connector for a possible new public school would be between Grand Trunk and the Centennial Park Roadway. A road here would (incidentally) provide a direct route from West Main Street all the way through to the Trans Canada Highway! :eek:

https://farm5.staticflickr.com/4810/45985917401_e35f84cbfb_b.jpg (https://flic.kr/p/2d4BR7R)

Personally I'm neutral on the concept of a continuous crosstown route through the west end of the city, but people should be aware of this potentiality, realizing that there could be tremendous resulting changes in traffic patterns and volumes, especially on Milner and Purdy. A cross town route in this section of the city may have considerable benefit, but debate will be necessary.

MonctonianSentinel01

Nov 21, 2018, 6:47 PM

:previous:

Good CBC article about the above rezoning request:

Mystery college proposed near Moncton's Centennial Park
City says proposal leaves the door open to a new west end school in the area
Shane Magee · CBC News · Posted: Nov 21, 2018 5:00 AM AT | Last Updated: 4 hours ago
https://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/new-brunswick/moncton-community-college-zoning-1.4913100

The CBC article included better graphics than those available in Mayor Arnold's FB post.

https://i.cbc.ca/1.4913259.1542739268!/fileImage/httpImage/image.jpg_gen/derivatives/original_780/franklin-yard-site-with-pin.jpg
Good perspective on the location of the Franklin Yard

https://i.cbc.ca/1.4913242.1542738517!/fileImage/httpImage/image.jpg_gen/derivatives/original_780/proposed-college-site.jpg
close-up of the "proposed two storey educational facility"

- In the CBC article, McKenzie College denied that this proposal is from them. Oulton College on the other hand apparently only gave a terse "no comment".

- It could be Oulton College. Their school has been in growth mode for some time, and already operate a separate building for their Dental Hygiene and Dental Assistant programs. Their other health professions programs are increasingly in demand (including Laboratory Technology, Paramedic, Veterinary Assistant and Practical Nursing amongst others), and I could certainly see them separating the remainder of their health programs from all the other programs that they offer (information technology, business, policing and corrections, early childhood education, child care, etc).

- The fact that the remaining 14 acres to be zoned MUC could accommodate a public school is interesting. Cathy Rogers really wanted the (proposed) new school to be located on the current Bessborough site. I could see Blaine Higgs maybe throwing in a curve ball here.

- The real shocker in the CBC article is that the city apparently isn't rejecting out of hand the possibility of a connector road through Centennial Park between a possible new school and the new west end. This would be highly controversial, and could lead to drastically increased traffic within the park and several residential streets. The logical place to put a connector for a possible new public school would be between Grand Trunk and the Centennial Park Roadway. A road here would (incidentally) provide a direct route from West Main Street all the way through to the Trans Canada Highway! :eek:

https://farm5.staticflickr.com/4810/45985917401_e35f84cbfb_b.jpg (https://flic.kr/p/2d4BR7R)

Personally I'm neutral on the concept of a continuous crosstown route through the west end of the city, but people should be aware of this potentiality, realizing that there could be tremendous resulting changes in traffic patterns and volumes, especially on Milner and Purdy. A cross town route in this section of the city may have considerable benefit, but debate will be necessary.

Great to see more schools in the area. More choices for Monctonians and maritimers alike. They might as well do something else with that land because for residential it's not filling in very quickly at all, it's just at a crawling pace. What a great line through the city that Trans-Canada Highway to Main st. would make. Making areas of Moncton more easily accessible.

MonctonRad

Nov 22, 2018, 1:38 PM

Apparently Oulton College has confirmed that they may be interested in expanding by constructing a third academic building at the Franklin Yard. They however did not confirm that these future plans are solid, or cast in stone.

https://www.telegraphjournal.com/times-transcript/story/100776182 (paywall)

Also, a move to replace both Bessborough and Hillcrest schools by building a new K-8 school at the Franklin Yard is also very much on the table, according to sources in the Department of Education. No final decision has been made.

A new school here has the benefit of backing on Centennial Park, and being right across the street from the CN Sportplex and facilities like the 4-Ice Centre and the Sportsdome. This certainly could be of significant benefit to the students. On the downside, it is not really central to the neighbourhood that it will serve (and most importantly will be on the wrong side of the very busy St George Blvd). As such, it won't really be a "walking school".

If the new K-8 school is built at the Franklin Yard, a connector from the Centennial Park Roadway through to Grand Trunk and Russ Howard will be pretty much mandatory in order to allow access to the school from the new and old west end neighbourhoods. Traffic patterns would certainly change (although I am not necessarily predicting substantially increased through traffic volume on the way to the TCH). The connector could also be designated such that commercial truck traffic would't be allowed. Nevertheless, I'm sure the debate over all this will be interesting........

Blue Blazer

Nov 26, 2018, 6:50 PM

drove by the new Costco in Moncton on the way to Halifax see traffic was backed right up to the exit from the highway. looked Crazy busy on Friday afternoon.

is there any word on what is going in the old Costco. Someone told me "the brick. I don't see that but what do I know

MonctonRad

Nov 26, 2018, 7:03 PM

is there any word on what is going in the old Costco. Someone told me "the brick. I don't see that but what do I know

The Brick is already in Wheeler Park. They took over the old Sears Home store.

No one knows what's happening at the old Costco site, but it is pretty certain that they did indeed find a buyer. All signs point towards this.

Most likely possibilities:

1) - a new retail strip plaza with a restaurant pad.
2) - Kent expansion or relocation
3) - New Cineplex Complex with an IMAX and a Rec Room (this latter possibility is more of a wish than a definite possibility - IMAX wants into Moncton, the existing Cineplex in Wheeler Park needs to be upgraded and the Rec Room concept is confirmed for St. John's, possible for Halifax and Moncton would seem the next logical place to consider in the east). Aside from the IMAX bit, the rest doesn't even qualify as a rumour (yet).

Mattyyy

Nov 28, 2018, 9:00 PM

It looks like the rental vacancy rate in Moncton has fallen from 4.5% to 2.7% in Moncton from October 2017 to October 2018.

Sumater

Dec 3, 2018, 1:02 PM

Yeesh, that's worrying. I'm hoping those new apartment complexes are finished soon.

Anyone remember how, a few years ago, Moncton had a ridiculous oversupply of apartments?

MonctonRad

Dec 3, 2018, 3:04 PM

There's a public presentation at city council tonight about the Franklin Yard rezoning request. This should be interesting......

PEI highway guy

Dec 3, 2018, 7:41 PM

Another tidbit from tonight's council meeting.

9.5 Request for Proposal RFP18-083 – Project Management Services (New Codiac RCMP Facility)
Demande de propositions RFP18-083 – Services de gestion de projet

MonctonRad

Dec 7, 2018, 9:58 PM

I'm surprised nobody has brought up this outrage yet........

2021 Francophonie Games could cost taxpayers 7 times more than expected
Moncton-Dieppe won bid to host Francophonie Games in 2016 based on a $17 million budget
Gabrielle Fahmy · CBC News · Posted: Dec 06, 2018 4:46 PM AT | Last Updated: December 6
https://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/new-brunswick/2021-francophonie-games-dieppe-seven-times-over-budget-1.4934984

The Moncton-Dieppe bid was selected to host the 2021 Games — considered the biggest sporting and cultural event in the French-speaking world — based on a $17-million budget submitted back in 2015.

But Radio-Canada has learned the request for funding by the Games' organizing committee, first submitted to government back in April, is for $130 million, raising questions about whether hosting the games in New Brunswick is still a viable option.

The municipalities of Moncton and Dieppe were supposed to contribute $750,000 each, with the rest of the money split evenly between the federal and provincial governments.

It would appear that the organizing committee deliberately misled Moncton, Dieppe, New Brunswick and Canada by misrepresenting the total cost of hosting the games, by not including the "business case" as part of the bidding process.

This is outrageous!!!!!! I don't know which is worse, the fact that the organizing committee engaged in this deliberate falsehood, or the fact that the governments fell for it!!!!

When they first floated the idea of hosting the games for a mere $17M, they stated that the city did not need to build additional sports infrastructure, and that the francophone games were considerably more modest than their anglophone counterpart (the Commonwealth Games).

At the time, I thought the idea of a $17M games was a lowball estimate, but I gave them the benefit of the doubt. A low total cost like that seemed unlikely to me, especially since when Halifax pulled the plug on their Commonwealth games bid, the price for their games had escalated to more than a half billion dollars.

The feds have stated that they are not willing to fund any more than 50% of the cost of the games. I sincerely doubt the Higgs government will suddenly become generous either, especially given the blatant misrepresentation of the cost of the games by the organizing committee. To his credit, Mayor LaPierre of Dieppe has already gone on the record as stating that the organizing committee should not expect any additional help from his city.

The city of Moncton must do the same. There should not be another red cent pledged on behalf of city taxpayers to support this fraudulent bid by the organizing committee.

This is different than the monies spent by the city to build the Avenir Centre (a project I was fully in support of). The Avenir Centre is a vital piece of civic infrastructure which hopefully will more than pay for itself in the next decade or two by stimulating downtown development. The Jeux de la Francophonie however is a one-off event with little if any legacy benefits to either Moncton or Dieppe. This fiasco freight train needs to be stopped now before it becomes a full-fledged train wreck.

I live in ward three, and the by-election to replace Rob McKee is coming up on Monday. I wasn't sure who I was going to vote for before, but I know now. If there is one person who will stand up for Moncton ratepayers, and who will help put an end to this ridiculous and fraudulent farce, it will be Brian Hicks.

That's who I'm voting for..........

BlackYear

Dec 8, 2018, 4:06 AM

I'm surprised nobody has brought up this outrage yet........

This is outrageous!!!!!! I don't know which is worse, the fact that the organizing committee engaged in this deliberate falsehood, or the fact that the governments fell for it!!!!

The city of Moncton must do the same. There should not be another red cent pledged on behalf of city taxpayers to support this fraudulent bid by the organizing committee.

Oh yes I read that this morning. :hell: And I agree, just pull the plug on this joke and the organizing committee should be evaporated by Queen Daenerys Game of Thrones dragons.

L'homard

Dec 8, 2018, 12:41 PM

Just to clear up a popular misconception, these games are not "francophone" games, they are for residents of the nations belonging to the francophonie group of countries. You can speak any language you want.

That being said, I propose going one step further by immediately informing the organizing committee to GFYs and announcing our full withdrawal from this farce given the sleight of hand being perpetrated on us taxpayers. I was 100 per cent in favour of hosting this massive event for the mere price of less than a million bucks = too good to be true after all.
Once we announce our withdrawal, like today, there should be a full investigation to find out what went wrong and who is responsible, so that these same crooks don't try to pull this kind of BS on some other group/municipality.

MonctonRad

Dec 8, 2018, 3:14 PM

Just to clear up a popular misconception, these games are not "francophone" games, they are for residents of the nations belonging to the francophonie group of countries. You can speak any language you want.

An important distinction, thank you, but this doesn't change my opinion.

I was reasonably happy with a $17M cost for the games (however unlikely that cost estimate seemed), but to have the costs escalate by 666% is beyond the pale. No government (should) acquiesce to such an overinflated request for additional funding. What was the organizing committee thinking??? The committee must be filled with rank amateurs if they thought for one minute that taxpayers would forgive them an "oversight" of this proportion. :koko:

Here's another CBC article regarding this financial travesty:

Sticker shock: Moncton councillors balk at Francophonie Games price
How to pay estimated $130M cost an open question
Shane Magee · CBC News · Posted: Dec 07, 2018 7:12 PM AT | Last Updated: December 7
https://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/new-brunswick/moncton-dieppe-francophonie-games-cost-reaction-1.4937208

I found this quote from the CBC article interesting:

While Dieppe's mayor said this week he only learned of the new cost on Wednesday night, city staff in both cities have known since April when they received the business plan.

"We got a copy of the business plan at the end of April and that's when we learned that the scope of the financial ask was broader than what was really submitted as part of the bid package," LeBlanc said. "However, we also knew that the federal and provincial governments needed to go through their negotiations process."

LeBlanc and Annie Duguay, Dieppe's director of communications, say the information wasn't shared with elected officials because the cities weren't asked to increase their contribution, so there was nothing for council to review and approve.

So, city staffers in both Moncton and Dieppe have been aware of the new cost estimate for the games for the last eight months, but they felt that since no specific funding request had been made to the city governments, that the mayors and city councils did not "need" to know the details....... :eek:

I can't believe this! It makes you wonder exactly who is running the two cities? Is it the bureaucrats or is it the politicians???

Basically, LaPierre and Arnold are being hung out to dry here. At the very least, the city managers should have foreseen the potential political ramifications involved and notified the mayors accordingly. It makes you wonder if heads should roll in the city administrations!!!

- The feds are only going to cost share up to 50% the cost of the games.
- The Higgs government has announced they are only going to fund a max of $10M towards the games.
- Dieppe says they will not readjust their contribution of $750,000
- Moncton should do the same (or else Moncton taxpayers will be played as fools).

As such, at present, the organizing committee appears to have only $21.5M secured for the games, only 16.5% of their "revised" request.

I think it's time to throw in the towel.

L'homard

Dec 8, 2018, 5:03 PM

An important distinction, thank you, but this doesn't change my opinion.

I point it out not to change anyone's opinion, but to help dispel the widely held but WRONG notion that this cultural/sporting event is only for French speakers. You probably already knew that but many do not. I'm with you 100%, the city must immediately make it clear that they won't be suckered into this scam, both so that organizers can have time to find another host, and so that the next batch of flim-flam artists are clear that we aren't fools here in Moncton and Dieppe.

MonctonRad

Dec 8, 2018, 10:02 PM

Games will bring in 'hundreds of millions': Organizer
https://www.telegraphjournal.com/telegraph-journal/story/100791852 (paywall)

This response by Eric Matthieu Doucet was made on Friday afternoon to a query from the T&T regarding the hugely inflated cost of the proposed Francophonie Games.

Sorry Eric, but judging from past experience, it's hard to believe a thing you say........ :rolleyes:

JHikka

Dec 8, 2018, 10:30 PM

Games will bring in 'hundreds of millions': Organizer
That's really interesting because this T&T article from 2015 says the games will generate an economic impact of $25M according to GNB.

https://www.telegraphjournal.com/times-transcript/story/43166016/jeux-de-la-francophonies?source=story-related

I point it out not to change anyone's opinion, but to help dispel the widely held but WRONG notion that this cultural/sporting event is only for French speakers. You probably already knew that but many do not.
Even if the games include anglophone speakers from Francophone countries it's still called Jeux de la Francophonie and is quite obviously (and optically) affiliated with solely French speakers. The Commonwealth Games, whether rightly or wrongly, are obviously affiliated with Anglophone speakers.

MonctonRad

Dec 8, 2018, 11:37 PM

That's really interesting because this T&T article from 2015 says the games will generate an economic impact of $25M according to GNB.

https://www.telegraphjournal.com/times-transcript/story/43166016/jeux-de-la-francophonies?source=story-related

Hmmmm........

Do you think maybe, just maybe, the chief organizer is pulling these numbers out of his ass???? :haha:

Lets see - if the budget of the games is $17M, then we'll say that the games should be able to pull in $25M.

Now that the games are going to cost $130M, lets say that the games will generate hundreds of millions of dollars...........

Yeah, that's the ticket.......... :rolleyes: :hell: :koko: :runaway:

Philbilly

Dec 9, 2018, 12:01 AM

MonctonRad

Dec 9, 2018, 1:49 AM

Word on the street has it that day &c Ross is moving to caledonia (frenette st)
and Kent is buying they're land. All the moving to be done by late next year. Irving wants them out. Did anyone hear anything similar?

The original rumour was that day & Ross was going to sell out to "Mapleton Crossing Phase Two" as part of the plan to relocate Costco here.

https://farm1.staticflickr.com/818/26638666017_05c2e8b691_b.jpg (https://flic.kr/p/GzY8k8)

There was a frenzied bidding war for Costco however, Day & Ross was too greedy and Costco ended up going to the Granite Centre instead.

Day & Ross might still be interested in selling. Their current location off of Mapleton is not ideal for a trucking company. I don't know why Kent would want the Day & Ross property however. They've already expanded their distribution centre in the Caledonia Industrial Park, and they have a current large retail store at Wheeler Park. I don't think the retail store is busy enough to warrant any relocation or expansion, but you never know. They just recently relocated their Dartmouth store to a massive new building next to IKEA.

In any event, i have heard no rumours.........

MonctonianSentinel01

Dec 9, 2018, 4:17 PM

The original rumour was that day & Ross was going to sell out to "Mapleton Crossing Phase Two" as part of the plan to relocate Costco here.

Day & Ross might still be interested in selling. Their current location off of Mapleton is not ideal for a trucking company. I don't know why Kent would want the Day & Ross property however. They've already expanded their distribution centre in the Caledonia Industrial Park, and they have a current large retail store at Wheeler Park. I don't think the retail store is busy enough to warrant any relocation or expansion, but you never know. They just recently relocated their Dartmouth store to a massive new building next to IKEA.

In any event, i have heard no rumours.........

I was going to say that Irving might want to put a Big Stop in there even though they have one in Salisbury I think they could have another successful one here too, but he said Kent wants the property. That would be neat if Kent did want the property though, it would make room for an even bigger redevelopment in Trinity Dive or would make room for 2 redevelopments rather than 1 :tup::D.

MonctonRad

Dec 11, 2018, 3:50 PM

I live in ward three, and the by-election to replace Rob McKee is coming up on Monday. I wasn't sure who I was going to vote for before, but I know now. If there is one person who will stand up for Moncton ratepayers, and who will help put an end to this ridiculous and fraudulent farce, it will be Brian Hicks.

That's who I'm voting for..........

Well, I got my wish and Brian Hicks was elected in the Ward 3 by-election. It wasn't even close really........

He is a fiscal conservative, and the "gang of three" on city council will now be a "gang of four". This should make it very difficult for the Francophonie Games organizers to pry any more money out of Moncton city council for their fraudulent enterprise.

On the other hand, this will also mean that council in general will be less progressive for the remainder of their term. This is both a good thing and a bad thing. It may mean that a number of other (potentially worthwhile) forward thinking projects will have a tougher time getting council approval.

MonctonRad

Dec 11, 2018, 7:50 PM

And the Higgs budget is lopping nearly $250M off of infrastructure projects formerly approved by the Gallant government.

The following projects have been postponed (Moncton region projects bolded):

- A new Centennial Building and courthouse complex in Fredericton
- A new New Brunswick Museum in Saint John
- Route 11 upgrades between Cocagne River and Little Bouctouche River and between Glenwood and Miramichi
- Planning for a new school in Moncton to replace Bessborough and Hillcrest schools
- The design of a new K-8 school in Campbellton
- Renovations to the Memramcook Institute.

The budget however includes a new francophone K-8 school in Moncton. The previous Liberal government had announced plans for the school to take pressure off two overcrowded schools in the city, École Le Sommet and École Champlain

a new maternity and newborn unit at the Moncton Hospital and a surgical suite addition at the Dr. Georges-L.-Dumont University Hospital Centre are also safe (planning and/or construction of both these projects are already well advanced).

A big difference between "Profligate Gallant" and "Parsimonious Higgs". Does anyone in the province still think the Francophonie Games are still going ahead???? I would say only if they are $20M or less. A $130M games certainly won't fly, especially considering the cost cutting on needed infrastructure projects elsewhere.

Feneant

Dec 12, 2018, 11:28 AM

Higgs could always say its either we get the games or the new school they promised, maybe that would placate the French- although as others have said the games aren't limited only to french people.

I don't understand this city or the province, we're dirt poor but yet we can somehow afford (italic because we CANT) to constantly spend millions on things like parks, fountains and new schools every year. I went to Champlain and didn't die of exhaust fumes, I went to Vanier in the early 90s and it was a dump but you know what, we all survived.

Maybe this is a part of our culture of expensive shiny things? Canadians owe 1.70$ for every dollar they bring in and they apparently expect provinces to do the same 'A little debt never hurt anyone!'.

Ammn_guy

Dec 12, 2018, 2:21 PM

My first question around the games is.. how much is the exectutive commitee getting paid.

What seems to have happened over the decades with these events is that what used to be a well supported mostly volunteer run event has turned it to some peoples profession.. and some business, entrpreneurs have latched onto major events as opportunity to create lucrative business's .. where voluteers where typically used in the past.

I understand the infrastructure costs.. kinda with the exception of the soccer fields in Dieppe that seems unnecessary there are 4 professional grade artificial fields fields in Moncton with another 8 practice fields at the sportsplex. They could even use Mt A if they needed too probrably.

I also understand some professionals need to be paid.. however 84 million in operating costs.. sounds like some serious wallet padding or large pool of paid execs sitting around to me.

Taeolas

Dec 12, 2018, 2:35 PM

Don't worry, the province has a solution to pay for the games. (https://themanatee.net/new-brunswickers-to-fundraise-cost-of-francophonie-games/)

Each NBer is expected to sell 4 cases of World's Finest Chocolates, or 12 year long magazine subscriptions. Or face a 500$ fine. Also NBers will be randomly picked to sell 50/50 tix at all of the sporting events. :)

Yes I know that is satire, thank goodness.

MonctonRad

Dec 13, 2018, 2:13 AM

4 members of Francophonie Games committee resign over controversy
Members point to 'undue controversy' around planning for games
Gabrielle Fahmy · CBC News · Posted: Dec 12, 2018 7:04 PM AT | Last Updated: 2 hours ago

actually, five members of the board have resigned, all provincial appointees. They say that they "no longer had the confidence of the province to continue their mandate."

Personally, I think they realize the jig is up and have decided to abandon the sinking ship.

Meanwhile the Liberal government in Ottawa has decided to politicize this fraudulent bidding process by stating that "New Brunswick needs to accept responsibility for the games."

Fat chance for that!!! The provincial government was deceived by the games organizing committee. No reasonable person (aside from Dominic LeBlanc) would believe otherwise.

Higgs response to LeBlanc's challenge was quite reasonable:

Higgs repeated again Wednesday that the province would not put in more than $10 million but was not as clear on what would happen if the costs could not be lowered enough.

"It's not my plug to pull," Higgs told reporters. "It didn't get here through any action of mine.

"We recognize the commitment had been made, and we said we'll honour our commitment.

The blame game has started. The Francophonie Games are as dead as a doornail..........

MonctonianSentinel01

Dec 13, 2018, 2:21 AM

4 members of Francophonie Games committee resign over controversy
Members point to 'undue controversy' around planning for games
Gabrielle Fahmy · CBC News · Posted: Dec 12, 2018 7:04 PM AT | Last Updated: 2 hours ago

actually, five members of the board have resigned, all provincial appointees. They say that they "no longer had the confidence of the province to continue their mandate."

Personally, I think they realize the jig is up and have decided to abandon the sinking ship.

Meanwhile the Liberal government in Ottawa has decided to politicize this fraudulent bidding process by stating that "New Brunswick needs to accept responsibility for the games."

Fat chance for that!!! The provincial government was deceived by the games organizing committee. No reasonable person (aside from Dominic LeBlanc) would believe otherwise.

Higgs response to LeBlanc's challenge was quite reasonable:

The blame game has started. The Francophonie Games are as dead as a doornail..........

Not exactly sure why some people want to see these games dead. I would rather it go through but just for a compromise to be made as to the arrangements to use already existing infrastructure and keep the price down rather than pay a higher cost or to cancel the games all together.

MonctonRad

Dec 13, 2018, 2:33 AM

Not exactly sure why some people want to see these games dead. I would rather it go through but just for a compromise to be made as to the arrangements to use already existing infrastructure and keep the price down rather than pay a higher cost or to cancel the games all together.

Let me rephrase - I don't necessarily want to see them dead either, I just can't imagine how you can bridge the chasm between a $17M games and a $130M games. It's just too broad a leap.

Higgs won't pony up much more (especially when he is pruning $250M off of needed infrastructure). Even if he wanted to, he leads a weak minority government and the Peoples Alliance has already gone on record as opposing any more public money be spent on this enterprise.

Also, despite Dominic LeBlanc's righteous (politically motivated) indignation, he has stated that the feds will only provide matching funds to the provincial contribution, thus punting the ball back to Higgs. LeBlanc's tears are crocodile tears on this file.

Moncton and Dieppe do not have the fiscal capacity to increase their funding by much. LaPierre has refused on Dieppe's part, and Arnold is hobbled by a restive city council and pre-existing financial obligations for other civic infrastructure (events centre, north end YMCA, new RCMP station etc.). The cupboard is bare.

Unless a scaled back games can be held for $25M tops, then NB should just withdraw support for the games and be done with it.

There are precedents in Canada for doing this (Halifax and the Commonwealth Games, Calgary and their most recent Olympic Games bid). Sometimes discretion is the better part of valour. :yes:

MonctonianSentinel01

Dec 13, 2018, 4:05 AM

Let me rephrase - I don't necessarily want to see them dead either, I just can't imagine how you can bridge the chasm between a $17M games and a $130M games. It's just too broad a leap.

Higgs won't pony up much more (especially when he is pruning $250M off of needed infrastructure). Even if he wanted to, he leads a weak minority government and the Peoples Alliance has already gone on record as opposing any more public money be spent on this enterprise.

Also, despite Dominic LeBlanc's righteous (politically motivated) indignation, he has stated that the feds will only provide matching funds to the provincial contribution, thus punting the ball back to Higgs. LeBlanc's tears are crocodile tears on this file.

Moncton and Dieppe do not have the fiscal capacity to increase their funding by much. LaPierre has refused on Dieppe's part, and Arnold is hobbled by a restive city council and pre-existing financial obligations for other civic infrastructure (events centre, north end YMCA, new RCMP station etc.). The cupboard is bare.

Unless a scaled back games can be held for $25M tops, then NB should just withdraw support for the games and be done with it.

There are precedents in Canada for doing this (Halifax and the Commonwealth Games, Calgary and their most recent Olympic Games bid). Sometimes discretion is the better part of valour. :yes:

Personally I agree with your second post 100%. It was more like facts, not opinion. It's just your first post seemed like you were very energetic and enthusiastic. :hell: Maybe I just took you the wrong way. :haha:

MonctonRad

Dec 13, 2018, 4:13 AM

Personally I agree with your second post 100%. It was more like facts, not opinion. It's just your first post seemed like you were very energetic, enthusiastic and couldn't be happier. :hell: Maybe I just took you the wrong way. :haha:

Sometimes when I perceive a wrong, I let my enthusiasm get the better of me.

I'm personally affronted that the games organizing committee tried to deceive the politicians in such a blatant manner. I don't want to see them rewarded for their deliberate deception by suckering the government into caving into their outlandish requests. I'm mad as hell over this.

This will however be a black eye for Moncton that I am embarrassed over, but I would rather be embarrassed than impoverished. :yes:

MonctonRad

Dec 13, 2018, 1:56 PM

Brian Hicks returns to Moncton council ready to scrap over spending
Newly elected Hicks says he will continue to 'stand up and fight' when he sees something wrong
Jordan Gill · CBC News · Posted: Dec 12, 2018 2:46 PM AT | Last Updated: December 12
https://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/new-brunswick/brian-hicks-city-council-1.4942722

JHikka

Dec 13, 2018, 1:59 PM

This will however be a black eye for Moncton that I am embarrassed over, but I would rather be embarrassed than impoverished. :yes:

There very well could be a fee associated with cancelling the bid at this point. It's possible that when Moncton signed on to host that they entered into an agreement with the JDF and breaching that agreement could be millions unto itself. This isn't a simple situation of Moncton stepping away whenever it wants to.

I don't know if a cancellation fee exists in this situation but it would not shock me, and it wouldn't shock me if it was nine figures. It's unlikely to be as high as the hosting fee required but it still may be a fee nonetheless.

Taeolas

Dec 13, 2018, 2:15 PM

There very likely are cancellation fees, as well as minimum requirements guidelines. So if the city can't provide those minimum facilities and whatever, there might be more fines on top of that. This bid committee has probably dug Moncton into a hole that will be expensive to get out no matter what way the city goes.

MonctonRad

Dec 13, 2018, 2:27 PM

There very well could be a fee associated with cancelling the bid at this point. It's possible that when Moncton signed on to host that they entered into an agreement with the JDF and breaching that agreement could be millions unto itself. This isn't a simple situation of Moncton stepping away whenever it wants to.

You may be right. Nobody has mentioned cancellation fees yet.

If there are cancellation fees, this will be a final "gift" to the province by the Gallant Liberals.

Just like Atcon, a "gift that keeps on giving"......... :hell:

Franco401

Dec 14, 2018, 3:34 AM

You may be right. Nobody has mentioned cancellation fees yet.

If there are cancellation fees, this will be a final "gift" to the province by the Gallant Liberals.

Just like Atcon, a "gift that keeps on giving"......... :hell:

Yes, it's Gallant's fault that the organizers are either incompetent or intentionally lied.

Bishop2047

Dec 14, 2018, 11:43 AM

Sometimes when I perceive a wrong, I let my enthusiasm get the better of me.

I'm personally affronted that the games organizing committee tried to deceive the politicians in such a blatant manner. I don't want to see them rewarded for their deliberate deception by suckering the government into caving into their outlandish requests. I'm mad as hell over this.

This will however be a black eye for Moncton that I am embarrassed over, but I would rather be embarrassed than impoverished. :yes:

I doubt this will be seen as a black eye by many. The Jeux de la Francophonie, while a big event, isn't nearly as well respected or globally noticed as say the women's fifa or other events hosted in the city.

I am an avid sports fan, and I feel even within the nation's that take part in the games, the games are seen as a second teir competition by most. Let us be done with it and let Sherbrooke host.... if they still want it.