The Official Saint John, NB Project Thread

[random11]

I found this on Facebook this evening. My apologies for the short notice however, it may be of interest to some:

Please be sure to attend the public consultation sessions tomorrow or Saturday (details below). From the point of view of our group's aim to save historic fabric while encouraging good new development, please attend one of these initial sessions if at all possible, fill out the six question-survey and be sure to bring up somewhere that you want to see EXISITING HISTORIC BUILDINGS
North of Union Area
Police, justice, parking facilities
Community Session
Delta Brunswick Trinity Room
Wed Jan 30
7pm presentation
7:30-9:30 one on one conversation with project experts

Sat Feb 2
10am presentation
10:30-11:30 one on one conversation with project experts

[Helladog]

I was going to mention that...saw it in the paper today...7-930pm it the Trinity Room at the Delta...I think I'll be there...take some shots! (Photos that is)...or maybe I should pose as a nutty heritage freak, lol.

[PersonPlaceorThing]

Originally Posted by Helladog

I was going to mention that...saw it in the paper today...7-930pm it the Trinity Room at the Delta...I think I'll be there...take some shots! (Photos that is)...or maybe I should pose as a nutty heritage freak, lol.

I would go, but fear my head will explode. On another note, my parking lot is now home of several dozen YMCA bricks that jumped the protective barrier.

[Helladog]

Meeting was kind of interesting...lot of good ideas for Union Street area. The consultation portion was crap though...I was going to some ppl, but they were being "hogged". I decided I'd be better off leaving at that point...

I put some pics of the ideas they came used for demonstration on the North of Union forum...here's a teaser...

[random11]

The authors of a new study rate housing in the Saint John area among the most affordable of 227 centres in six countries.

The 4th Annual Demographia International Housing Affordability Survey: 2008 Ratings for Major Urban Markets rates assigns a "median multiple" number for each community.

The authors - Wendell Cox of Belleville, Ill., principal of Wendell Cox Consultancy (Demographia), and Hugh Pavletich of New Zealand, managing director of Pavletich Properties Ltd - arrive at this number by comparing median incomes to median housing prices.

Besides Canada they looked at centres in Australia, New Zealand, Britain, Ireland and the United States.

Saint John ties for fifth place with St. John's, N.L., Flint, Mich., and Toledo, Ohio, with median house prices 2.2 times median local income.

Thunder Bay, Ont., came in with the lowest multiple of 1.8, Youngstown, Ohio, second at 1.9, Fort Wayne, Ind., third at 2.0, and Saguenay, Que., fourth at 2.1.

They consider houses in a community with a median multiple of three or lower eminently affordable.

The United States, which has some of the most affordable housing among the surveyed communities, also has the least affordable, including last place Los Angeles with a multiple of 11.5, Salinas, Calif., at 10.9, San Francisco at 10.8, Honolulu at 10.3, and fifth last San Diego, Calif., at 10.0.

Mandurah, Australia, came in sixth last at 9.5.

The Canadian locations with the least affordable housing are on the West Coast: Kelowna, B.C. 13th from the bottom at 8.5, Vancouver 15th at 8.4, Victoria 22nd at 7.3.

In the state neighbouring New Brunswick, Portland, Maine, ties with Edmonton as the 107th most affordable with a multiple of 4.3.

The authors conclude that zoning restrictions on land-use mainly account for these different ratings.

They say housing prices inevitably go up when communities attempt to force people to build in city centres, and discourage suburban development.

Nationally, the study ranks Canada first with a median of 3.1, the United States second at 3.6, Ireland third at 4.7, Britain fourth at 5.5, and Australia and New Zealand tied for last at 6.3.

[Downtown Bolivar]

I'd say from that study that comparitively speaking St John and St. John's are easily the nicer of the four metros than Flint and Toledo. It's not just economy either. Who'd rather have a maritime location than a midwestern or lakefront location? I know if prices were all the same I'd pick the Maritimes. Right now St. John has the best of both worlds--affordable housing and a growing economy.

[Seely32]

292 will lose jobs
Closing Stream International call centre shutting down


John Mazerolle
Telegraph-Journal
Published Friday February 1st, 2008
Appeared on page C1
SAINT JOHN - An uptown call centre is shutting down, putting 292 people out of work.

Stream International Inc. in Brunswick Square will close "no sooner than" March 15, said Katherin Dockerill, the company's senior vice-president of marketing and business strategy.

Speaking from the company's headquarters in Richardson, Tex., Dockerill said Thursday the shutdown was necessary because Stream's client in Saint John is taking its business elsewhere. Stream provides technical support and customer service for other companies - in this case an unspecified but apparently well-known Internet service provider.

"We don't have another client to take those jobs today," Dockerill said.

She promised that everything would be done to soften the blow for what she called a "qualified, high-performing" staff. She said the company will work with job fairs, other firms in the city, or even the company's four other Canadian locations to seek out employment for the departing workers. The nearest Canadian sites are in Glace Bay, N.S., and Belleville, Ont.

The Stream call centre is on the 11th floor of the Brunswick Square tower, and, according to a Facebook job recruitment site, it is open from 6 a.m. to 12 a.m. seven days a week.

Stream has 33 sites in 16 countries, Dockerill said.

The Saint John office opened on October 28, 2005, and came to the city without using government loans, grants or tax breaks.

According the company's website, "Saint John provides an ideal location for contact centre services due to its large, educated workforce and outstanding communications infrastructure. A strong commitment to technology and communications from the local government, private sector, and educational institutions add to Saint John's strengths."

Dockerill said it was too soon to say whether Stream would ever be back in the city.



I have an aunt who has worked here almost 2 years now it could be detrimental across the board hopefully the new ones in the parkway mall will help these people get jobs sooner.

[kwajo]

Stream's client in Saint John is taking its business elsewhere.

Let me guess, the call centre is being out-sourced to India

[Helladog]

Originally Posted by kwajo

Let me guess, the call centre is being out-sourced to India

With the dollar so high, most of the call centres are having trouble...even Xerox has moved it's US biz to Jamaica.

[Phantomtib]

Thanks for your support!~

[PostModernPrometheus]

from www.news889.com

Premier all but confirms a second reactor for the province
February 01, 2008 - 5:46 am
By: CP



The premier has all-but given the green light to a proposed second
nuclear reactor for New Brunswick.

A consortium of private companies has been conducting a
feasibility study for export electricity contracts since last fall,
and results are expected in a matter of days.

However, during his State-of-the-Province address last night,
Shawn Graham said results of the study have exceeded expectations.

Graham says that's great news because the project has the
potential of creating up to four-thousand jobs during construction
and 500 permanent, high-paying jobs to operate the facility.

Graham and Energy Minister Jack Keir have been promoting the
project as the main component to their plan to make New Brunswick
the energy hub of the region.

They say the project could create spin-off jobs in research,
training, manufacture and design of reactors to be built elsewhere
around the world.

[random11]

Saint John Airport is pleased to announce Air Canada’s fourth daily flight to Toronto, beginning March 30. The extra summer flight, which in past years began in May, will arrive in Saint John at 8:14 PM and depart again at 8:45 PM, adding an extra 50 seats to Toronto capacity, 7-days a week.

“This could well become a permanent fixture from Saint John, assuming there is sufficient passenger support, load factors and yield for JAZZ,” says Angela McLean, Airport Manager of Regulatory Affairs.

As well, the spring airline schedule shows that all three daily flights to Montreal will employ the 50-seat DASH-8 aircraft as of March 30. In January, the airline upgraded two out of three flights from the 37-seat aircraft, and now carries on from Montreal to Ottawa with the mid-day flight.

[random11]

Originally Posted by kwajo

Let me guess, the call centre is being out-sourced to India

The interesting thing is, Streams client is "not taking it's business elsewhere". The client - Time Warner Cable - will remain in 3 existing Stream sites located in Belleville and London, Ontario and one in Iowa. Stream made the decision to close the Saint John site - not the client.

[Phantomtib]

Originally Posted by random11

Saint John Airport is pleased to announce Air Canada’s fourth daily flight to Toronto, beginning March 30. The extra summer flight, which in past years began in May, will arrive in Saint John at 8:14 PM and depart again at 8:45 PM, adding an extra 50 seats to Toronto capacity, 7-days a week.

“This could well become a permanent fixture from Saint John, assuming there is sufficient passenger support, load factors and yield for JAZZ,” says Angela McLean, Airport Manager of Regulatory Affairs.

As well, the spring airline schedule shows that all three daily flights to Montreal will employ the 50-seat DASH-8 aircraft as of March 30. In January, the airline upgraded two out of three flights from the 37-seat aircraft, and now carries on from Montreal to Ottawa with the mid-day flight.

Are they expanding the existing runways to handle more aircraft? Any REAL development of the airport facilities yet?

[kwajo]

Originally Posted by PostModernPrometheus

from www.news889.com

Premier all but confirms a second reactor for the province
February 01, 2008 - 5:46 am
By: CP



The premier has all-but given the green light to a proposed second
nuclear reactor for New Brunswick.

A consortium of private companies has been conducting a
feasibility study for export electricity contracts since last fall,
and results are expected in a matter of days.

However, during his State-of-the-Province address last night,
Shawn Graham said results of the study have exceeded expectations.

Graham says that's great news because the project has the
potential of creating up to four-thousand jobs during construction
and 500 permanent, high-paying jobs to operate the facility.

Graham and Energy Minister Jack Keir have been promoting the
project as the main component to their plan to make New Brunswick
the energy hub of the region.

They say the project could create spin-off jobs in research,
training, manufacture and design of reactors to be built elsewhere
around the world.

This is great news, although expected.

Frankly I'm a lot more in favour of a second nuclear reactor than a second oil refinery.

[Helladog]

I'd like to see them announce two additional reactors, with the possibility of more with private partnership...

[magee_b]

Originally Posted by Phantomtib

Are they expanding the existing runways to handle more aircraft? Any REAL development of the airport facilities yet?

I know there has been talk about expanding the terminal further. Runway length is not very much of a problem for the size of the aircraft they are bringing in. So the addition of more flights makes it more necessary for terminal expansion rather than runway expansion.

[random11]

Well, it's February 2 and ground has still not been broken on the site for the Cruise Terminal. First ship of the season arrives May 27. That means 4 months remain to get this thing up. Also of interest, is the incredible amount if silence surrounding this project - when just a few months ago there was so much hype. I hate to say this but I am beginning to think those tents will be back this year.

[Alberta Bound]

Originally Posted by magee_b

I know there has been talk about expanding the terminal further. Runway length is not very much of a problem for the size of the aircraft they are bringing in. So the addition of more flights makes it more necessary for terminal expansion rather than runway expansion.

True. It can handle 737's. Can't see demand for much larger than that in Saint John in the foreseeable future.

[Seely32]

Originally Posted by kwajo

This is great news, although expected.

Frankly I'm a lot more in favour of a second nuclear reactor than a second oil refinery.

I completely agree Nuclear waste is cleaner than the shit that gets pumped into our lungs on a daily basis. It should also revitalize the area near lepreau. I have a 160 acres in dipper harbour hopefully my property value could either go up or go down.