UNB signature facility on time
Published Friday December 19th, 2008
B1
By BILL HUNT
[email protected]
Dr. John McLaughlin calls the Richard J. Currie Centre a "huge" component in the quest to make the University of New Brunswick a "national" university.
Enlarge Photo STEPHEN MACGILLIVRAY PHOTOFor SportsWEíRE GROWING: Dr. John McLaughlin, President and Vice-Chancellor of UNB, stands on the site of the new Richard J. Currie Centre.
UNB's president and vice-chancellor said the $50 million facility is "on time and on budget" to open in May 2010 and said the structure, currently under construction on campus, is "critically important if we're going to continue to attract our share of the best and the brightest."
And while he's satisfied that UNB is fulfilling that mandate. He pointed to a 60 per cent increase in the number of students who had high school averages of 95 or better and the fact UNB has had the most "Academic All Canadians-" varsity athletes with averages over 80 per cent in their courses - of any school in the region.
"Those things matter," said McLaughlin emphatically. "This is not a country where we can have two standards, a national standard, and a standard for Atlantic Canada. Our facilities have to be every bit as good as the University of Toronto or the University of Victoria. We've got to be at least as good as they are.
"National universities are about what you do and how you contribute to the national agenda, and they're about very, very high standards. We've got to be as good as anybody in the country ... better than virtually anybody."
The Currie Centre will reinforce that philosophy.
"It's an absolutely national, international class athletic facility, and it must be," McLaughlin said. "It will be a jewel, a treasure for the province."
He said the five-storey, 139,150- square foot building, which will contain two gymnasiums, locker rooms, offices, a human research laboratory and sports medicine clinic among several amenities, "will represent New Brunswick at its finest."
"It will be a signature facility in New Brunswick."
McLaughlin has discovered since being installed as president July 1, 2002 - he will step down next summer after completing seven years on the job - that athletics plays a key role in establishing UNB as a national university.
"Frankly, when I came back home, athletics would not have been on my map," he admitted. "(I thought) research and teaching and other things. But I now believe passionately in the importance of athletics to the overall mission of the university."
McLaughlin says he's seen for himself the value to the participating athletes in developing character, management skills and teamwork and contributing to "a complete education" for the student-athletes.
"But it's more than that," he said. "I talk to alumni, and it's an important part of your reputation and your branding. I put it right there as one of the central things that help define a sense of purpose of the university and its pursuits."
The about face came in his first year as president.
He attended events and "witnessed individual acts of amazing character and courage. It began with a whole series of individual stories that really moved me."
It was underlined the second year when he attended the annual Academic All-Canadian luncheon and continued to resonate - and still does - when he meets alumni from across the country.
"When our hockey team won the national championship ... it's a belief in yourself and a belief in your community that 'Yes, you can be as good, you can be better than anybody else,' " he said. "And that doesn't happen enough in New Brunswick."
McLaughlin fully supported the decision to stratify sports last season, reducing the number of varsity sports from 14 to eight.
"At the varsity level, I'm 100 per cent committed to the idea that 'If we're there, we're there to be the best in the country,' " he said.
"It's the same with research, it's the same with teaching. I don't believe just going along is good enough and I don't believe anyone else is going to look after us. For varsity sports, whatever resources we've got, we've got to use them strategically against our national objectives.
"If you want to be among the best in the country, you've got to take those limited resources and focus them," McLaughlin said. "I wasn't involved in one sport versus the other, but the philosophy behind it, I support 100 per cent."
McLaughlin said he is a fan of the Varsity Reds. But he also followed the Cougars, the UNB club team that won a second straight Canadian Interuniversity Baseball Association championship this past fall.
"I believe in club sports," he said. "Back-to-back national championships ... that's unbelievably moving. And I want to see more club sports, because I want to see local kids involved. I don't want it to be an either or. I see them as complementary missions."
"I've got the religion big time," he said, smiling.
-----
Amalgamation plan shelved
Published Friday December 19th, 2008
Report | Government could save millions by forcing communities to join together
A1
By STEPHEN LLEWELLYN
[email protected]
A massive restructuring of New Brunswick's cities, towns and villages that would have seen Fredericton amalgamate with New Maryland and Harvey has been shelved by Premier Shawn Graham.
Graham said Thursday the province can't afford the $88 million a year to implement the sweeping changes at a time when the public treasury is running a $285-million deficit, the economy is slowing down and expensive taxation reform is on the horizon.
"The work was invaluable," he said. "It does not mean that we will not be moving forward in the future.
"You have to realize that our top priority today is the economic situation and that is what we are focusing on."
The report, entitled Building Stronger Local Governments and Regions, was tabled in the legislature Thursday. If it goes ahead, it will be the most sweeping change to the way New Brunswickers live since Equal Opportunity in the 1960s.
The 351-page report calls for dissolving all 101 of New Brunswick's municipalities, except for the largest eight which includes Fredericton.
It would create 53 new municipalities and 12 regional service districts.
Under the plan, Fredericton would amalgamate with New Maryland, the Hanwell area, Harvey, Keswick Ridge and Estey's Bridge.
Oromocto would take in Tracy, Fredericton Junction, Upper Gagetown and Gagetown.
North of the capital, Minto, Chipman and Cambridge-Narrows would be combined into one municipal entity. West of Fredericton, Nackawic, Millville, Queensbury, Dumfries and Prince William would be amalgamated together.
Jean-Guy Finn, commissioner on the future of local governance, said New Brunswick has too many municipalities for its population.
He also said many of the smaller communities are shrinking and will not be sustainable in the future.
For example, according to the report, the population of Upper Gagetown in 2006 was 297, down 16 per cent since 1996.
That's why the provincial government should force the municipalities to amalgamate, said Finn.
"This cannot be left to the discretion of local governments or it won't happen," he said.
The Equal Opportunity reforms in the 1960s were unpopular in some municipalities, he said, but over time they were accepted.
He also said the idea that communities would lose something by amalgamating isn't a big issue because the so-called community-of-interest is vague and nebulous.
"The notion of local community does not have the same meaning it had.''
He said most municipalities will still be able to keep their names for identification purposes.
Modern roads and telecommunications mean small communities are no longer isolated, he said.
The report calls for the creation of 12 regional service districts that would provide police, planning, solid- waste management, economic development and fire protection services.
Finn said those services are too expensive to be provided by small communities.
"The choice (in the future without change) will be between having a service and not having a service.''
Fredericton would be the centre of regional service District 11, which would be as far west as Nackawic, as far east as Gagetown, north to Chipman and south beyond Fredericton Junction.
There would also be major property tax changes if the report were implemented, including reducing the size of the unconditional grant from $71 million to $38 million because there would be fewer municipalities.
Finn said people living in rural areas would probably end up paying higher property taxes.
But overall there would be no increase or decrease in property tax collected, he said.
Finn warned that the report's recommendations can't be implemented piecemeal.
The government's decision to delay acting on the report isn't a shock to many.
The Liberals have had the report for months and decided to release it one day before the legislature breaks for Christmas.
A source told The Daily Gleaner there was significant dissent in the Liberal ranks over the implication of forced amalgamations.
"There were MLAs telling Shawn Graham that this would be a really tough sell," said the source, who has been in contact with government members of the legislature.
The timing of a pricey change during an uncertain economic situation was unlikely to curry public favour for the party, MLAs told the premier, according to the source.
Graham denied the suggestion from reporters that his government wasn't proceeding with the controversial report because the next provincial election is only 21 months away.
Official Opposition Leader David Alward said he wasn't surprised that the Liberals are backing away from the reform.
"This government talks transformational change, but it is all talk," he said. "There has been very little action."
When the government has tried to introduce change in areas such as French second language and post-secondary education, they have quickly back-pedalled, said Alward.
He said he wouldn't support forced amalgamation.
"I believe that we need to encourage (amalgamation where it makes sense), and there are good examples of communities like Saint Andre, like Bristol and Florenceville that have come together in a positive way," he said.
Prev
Linear Mode
