The Official Saint John, NB Project Thread

[Helladog]

Nuke decision 'very close'

Energy Minister Jack Keir expects to seek approval for two additonal nuclear reactors at Point Lepreau early in New Year

Rob Linke and
Christine Morris
Telegraph-Journal

OTTAWA - Energy Minister Jack Keir hopes to ask Canada's nuclear regulatory agency early in the new year to approve not one but two new nuclear reactors at Point Lepreau.

The reactors would be built and financed by the federal Crown corporation Atomic Energy of Canada Ltd. and its private-sector partners, which include global engineering firms such as SNC-Lavalin and Hitachi Nuclear.

The consortium - known as Team Candu - has been gradually lining up investors.

"I've met with many of the investors and they're very excited to move forward," said Keir. "I think we're very close."

Keir has said applying for a licence is tantamount to the private sector and the provincial government deciding to go ahead with the megaproject.

Building even one reactor could cost an estimated $4- to $5-billion and employ several thousand construction workers.

Together with a proposed second Irving Oil refinery, Lepreau would anchor an energy-based cluster the Graham government hopes would transform the province's economy.

Getting Lepreau 2's design, safety and environmental approvals from the Canadian Nuclear Safety Commission and other agencies would likely take two or three years.

Deciding to go ahead with a second reactor at this point would be a surprise in at least one regard.

Some observers expected the Graham government to see if AECL could first prove it could complete the $1.4-billion refurbishment of NB Power's existing reactor at Lepreau on time and on budget.

That Candu 6 reactor, brought online in 1983, is the first in the world to undergo a total refurbishment.

AECL, the main contractor, stands to benefit if it can demonstrate costly nuclear plants can undergo smooth midlife overhauls that extend their useful service by another 25 years.

The 18-month project has a completion deadline of Sept. 30, 2009.

But this fall, AECL has had trouble with automated tooling, causing delays that have eaten up all the leeway in the schedule.

Unless engineers find ways to save time with the remaining work, the project will not meet its 18-month deadline.

NB Power expects to know sometime in January if the refurbishment can still be done on time.

Going ahead with site licensing also raises several other questions.

They include which Canadian or New England utilities will buy the power, and what specific benefits Team Candu has committed to in return for New Brunswick agreeing to host the new reactor, which is expected to be a new design, the ACR-1000.

For Lepreau 2, Team Candu would bear the estimated $10- to $30-million cost of the approval process.

Approval for two more reactors does not mean construction would go ahead on both simultaneously, although Team Candu and its potential investors are weighing that possibility, said Keir.

Approval for a third reactor would allow for the option of building it once a key obstacle - lacking enough transmission lines to ship the extra electricity to customers - is overcome by new construction.

Keir said there would be cost savings from building two at a time, but "the biggest hurdle is capacity in the transmission lines."

Early this year, he had hoped a site licence application could be submitted by this past summer.

He intimated the holdup has been in ironing out the precise details of responsibility and liability in the merchant model.

Under a merchant model, Team Candu would finance, build and own the project.

NB Power would hold the site licence and operate the plant, just as it does Lepreau's existing publicly owned reactor.

NB Power and other utilities in the Maritimes and New England would be potential customers for the electricity.

A merchant model has never been used in Canada for any energy plant.

This would be the first merchant model in the world for a nuclear plant.

Keir said the questions of who is responsible and who is liable is "very complex.

"You want to make sure you get that right up front."

The global credit crunch is not expected to be much of a factor, as the project would not start to spend significant sums for a few years.

"Every private sector investor I've talked to in the last three months since all this started has said the exact same thing - if there's a good business case, specifically if there's a good business case in the energy sector, there's still money around to invest," Keir said.

The province and its consultants finished their review of the Lepreau 2 feasibility study some time ago.

The study, undertaken by Team Candu, concluded Lepreau 2 had a viable market for its 1,100 megawatts of power - roughly twice what the existing reactor pumps out - and that it could be competitively priced and the transmission network could get it to customers.

Keir said the province's own analysis of Team Candu's study agreed with those conclusions.

The Team Candu study has never been made public.

This fall, a Court of Queen's Bench judge turned down a request from the Telegraph-Journal to compel the province to release the Team Candu study in response to a right to information request.

Through a spokesman, Paul Robichaud, the energy critic for the Conservative Opposition, declined to comment.

[kwajo]

If the new reactors get approved, they will - along with the refinery - amount to in excess of 20 billion dollars of investment in Saint John. That's 2 projects alone.

[PostModernPrometheus]

The roughly 150km Canaport natural gas pipeline seems to be drawing near completion...

http://www.news889.com/news/local/article.jsp?content=20081224_054029_20532

[PostModernPrometheus]

Originally Posted by kwajo

If the new reactors get approved, they will - along with the refinery - amount to in excess of 20 billion dollars of investment in Saint John. That's 2 projects alone.

I think the project will ultimately go ahead, just hard to guess specifics in terms of timelines, investors, etc in this economic climate...the power hungry US northeast isn't going anywhere, though, and as we know the electrical grid / infrastructure is beeing beefed up through the corridors up to NB...

[PostModernPrometheus]

Originally Posted by PersonPlaceorThing

There is a sign up for a new Brew Pub on Princess Street. The sign says it will be opening in the Spring.

ive been out of the city for several weeks.....which part of Princess is it opening on??


related note --> anything new happening with the former Tapp's site on King Street??

and a further tangentially related note --> any rumour on immenent plans for the old paramount complex on King Square (I know the site has been purchased....very very quiet though in terms of firm plans for it.....)

[PostModernPrometheus]

Cruise News....


Interesting letter in the Opinions section of the TG yesterday (http://telegraphjournal.canadaeast.com/opinion/article/520192)

kind of complement's Helladog's posting on the 22nd...

bascially outlining that the rate of growth the cruise sector is experiencing in SJ is outpacing the capacity for the port to effectively deal with with the current infrastructure...they point out that the size of new cruise ships is increasing, and the ability of the port to handle 3 and 4 cruise ships simultaneously docking is compromised....the solution being substantial $$ investment on the east side of the port ....

[PostModernPrometheus]

Council apparently was talking about sending a delegation to Ottawa (? unsure if the delegates have been chosen) looking for infrastructure $...

[PostModernPrometheus]

My personal wish list for infrastructure projects in the area (no particular order) . . .


- $$ to help wipe out the harbour bridge debt....this has been a cash cow for too long, and the original cost of the bridge has basically been covered...wipe out the accumulated (interest) debt and allow the bridge authority to use the income for further bridge renovations, upkeep,e tc

- $$ for the WEST side of the Port....improve the docking / unloading facilities, piers, rail-lines, etc

- $$ for the EAST side of the port. . .

- seeing as VIA is trying to actually expand it's service.....finally restore passenger rail service (i know....unlikely, but he - it's a wish list!)

- water treatment $$

- main highway funding (i.e., i'm unsure if all of the funding has come through for the 1 mile interchange project yet or not....)

[PostModernPrometheus]

Originally Posted by kwajo

Not sure if it has been posted, but SJTransit has a page dedicated to updates on their new building: http://saintjohntransit.com/index.php?id=35

The design looks efficient, and the impression is at least of some nice terracing & green space around the structure....

I do worry about the physical impact on the roads in the area a little though....

[PostModernPrometheus]

Originally Posted by PersonPlaceorThing

Does Crombie (the Empire REIT) own the Dooly's mall. If they do, and Lawton's leaves, I bet they will sell it. They don't seem to like to own properties that they don't occupy.

I think Empire is wise to make large format Lawton's. Shoppers seems to make good money - so I imagine a larger Lawton's would do well. There is a large format Lawton's in Moncton, so they have some experience with this.

Good point & it makes good sense...Lawton's is a little behind the times with the move towards either larger scale or stand alone "Box" stores...I can't quote you the change in market share between them & SDM in the maritimes in recent years, but I'd bet Lawton's is starting to lag a little....

[PostModernPrometheus]

Originally Posted by MonctonRad

I'm a physician at the Moncton Hospital. You need to have more than "bare bones" to make this program work. What we are developing here is a distributed medical education program, somewhat similar to what exists at the new Northern Ontario Medical School which is based both in Thunder Bay and Sudbury.

It is true that 3rd and 4th year medical students (clinical clerks) spend the vast majority of their time on the floors but there is also time set aside for rounds (both clinical rounds and formal teaching rounds). In addition, there is also probably at least 10% formal classroom time. In a distributed education model, the lecturer may be in Saint John (or Moncton) but delivering his lecture via teleconferencing to all teaching hospitals in the network. Provisions have to be made so that students, no matter where they are, are able to ask questions during the lecture and be able to get immediate feedback from the lecturer. This usually means a sophisticated two way video teleconferencing system.

*sic*

It will also take time to acquire the medical human resources to staff this program. Take my word for it, the physicians in this province are too overwhelmed with work right now to take on this project without additional manpower. You can't amass the specialist teaching personnel to make this project work overnight. The devil is in the details and careful planning and recruitment is mandatory.
.

good points,

ive also trained through a residency program, and have trained in both rural and urban areas in three provinces.

from the clinical perspective -
keep in mind - the SJ regional hospital (i'm less familiar with fredericton, moncton, miramachi, etc) is already VERY used to having numerous medical students and residents around (close to 200 / year with about 30-45 on site in any given month) including fully functioning on site family medicine & internal medicine residency programs . . . . philosophically, it's not really a big leap to go to a medical school clinical teaching format from that perspective.
the point i agree with you most is getting the teaching staff in place for the first 2 years of medical student instruction (i.e., the physiologists, clinical anatomsits, biochemists, ethicists, etc, etc); beyond this, as you point out, more clinical/academic docs will be needed particularly once the students hit their 3rd and 4th as most of the NB sites are very strong clinically but not quite as used to working as a full scale academic / teaching site which takes manpower & time . . .
as for accomodations....first, there's 2 years to sort it out AFTER the incoming class starts....second, many of the sites already have some rudimentary accomodations to varying degrees in place; thirdly, you will get a number of people swapping apartments across cities / subletting during 1, 2 or 3 month rotations in various places around the province, as these types of situations are usually preferred anyway to onsite (or close to onsite) hospital accomodations.
as for didactic lectures done via teleconferenceing.... i think that's pretty easy straightforward to address (though personally, i detest being taught in that method...i prefer face to face contact)...time and time again, the commonly cited predictor to videoconferencing / videolecturing satisfaction is adequate bandwidth (i.e., fast streaming, no jerky images)
again, i agree with much of what you're saying, and i'm certainly not advocating a "fools rush in" kind of plan....I am saying that it's exceedingly easy to get lost in details to the point where things never get off the ground, however.

[PersonPlaceorThing]

Originally Posted by PostModernPrometheus

ive been out of the city for several weeks.....which part of Princess is it opening on??

Beside Sebatian, across from O'Leary's.

[MonctonRad]

Originally Posted by PostModernPrometheus

good points,

ive also trained through a residency program, and have trained in both rural and urban areas in three provinces.

from the clinical perspective -
keep in mind - the SJ regional hospital (i'm less familiar with fredericton, moncton, miramachi, etc) is already VERY used to having numerous medical students and residents around (close to 200 / year with about 30-45 on site in any given month) including fully functioning on site family medicine & internal medicine residency programs . . . . philosophically, it's not really a big leap to go to a medical school clinical teaching format from that perspective.
the point i agree with you most is getting the teaching staff in place for the first 2 years of medical student instruction (i.e., the physiologists, clinical anatomsits, biochemists, ethicists, etc, etc); beyond this, as you point out, more clinical/academic docs will be needed particularly once the students hit their 3rd and 4th as most of the NB sites are very strong clinically but not quite as used to working as a full scale academic / teaching site which takes manpower & time . . .
as for accomodations....first, there's 2 years to sort it out AFTER the incoming class starts....second, many of the sites already have some rudimentary accomodations to varying degrees in place; thirdly, you will get a number of people swapping apartments across cities / subletting during 1, 2 or 3 month rotations in various places around the province, as these types of situations are usually preferred anyway to onsite (or close to onsite) hospital accomodations.
as for didactic lectures done via teleconferenceing.... i think that's pretty easy straightforward to address (though personally, i detest being taught in that method...i prefer face to face contact)...time and time again, the commonly cited predictor to videoconferencing / videolecturing satisfaction is adequate bandwidth (i.e., fast streaming, no jerky images)
again, i agree with much of what you're saying, and i'm certainly not advocating a "fools rush in" kind of plan....I am saying that it's exceedingly easy to get lost in details to the point where things never get off the ground, however.

Well PMP, I didn't know you were a fellow physician. What type of speciallty are you in? As you can probably guess from my "handle", I'm a diagnostic radiologist.

Don't get me wrong, I think the current plan to have the first two years (didactic) in SJ and the next two years (clinical) distributed around the province is generally quite sound. I just want to make sure that the English language program is well structured and properly funded. There are serious problems over at the other training program at the Georges-Dumont Hospital. They rushed into that set-up without proper planning and funding. I don't want to see the same mistakes in our program. On the whole however, we have far more resources on the English side and with proper governance, I think our program will be one to be proud of.

The Moncton Hospital, like the SJRH is also quite used to having medical students and residents operating in our environs (usually in the range of 20-25 students at a time). We look forward to participating in this program. Both the SJRH and TMH have a broad range of specialties, including neurosurgery, oncology, and in the case of the SJRH, cardiac surgery. We have the tools to do this thing well.

Additional clinical teaching staff is very important. These clinical instructors will have to be based across the province and not in just Saint John (or Moncton). This is a very important point.

Another thing we should look at, and expeditiously at that, is starting our own specialist training programs here in NB. Yes, there are family practice programs in Moncton, Fredericton and Saint John and residents in other specialties spend time in Saint John (and to a lesser extent Moncton), but this is not enough.

At least in radiology, out of a five year Dalhousie residency, only two months are spent in Saint John and no time elsewhere. By the time you finish your residency, you are in your early 30's, married, frequently with children, and have established roots in Halifax. You don't want to leave. This can be very difficult to combat when it come time to recruit someone. By increasing the proportion of residency time spent in the periphery, we can increase the likelyhood of successful recruitment. This is a very important issue for me. The quality of the pathology (interesting cases) and the skill of the specialists in both Moncton and Saint John is every bit as good as it is in Halifax. We could be doing a lot more specialist training in our cities than we are now. This needs to be urgently addressed.

I remember a statistic from when I trained in Halifax. There were 100 pediatricians working in Nova Scotia at that time......98 of them were in Halifax. This was because that was where they trained, they didn't want to leave and they wanted to avoid the stigma of working in the "boonies". If we want to truly be in charge of our own physician manpower here in NB, we need to become more involved in specialist training.

"nuff said. Merry Christmas to all!

[Helladog]

Finally some good news for NBCCSJ:

NBCC funding spelled out

Alexandra Davis
Telegraph-Journal

SAINT JOHN - Post-Secondary Education, Training and Labour Minister Donald Arseneault has provided a breakdown of the funds for NBCC's Saint John campus, now that Premier Shawn Graham has announced the school will receive $44 million over the next two years.

Arseneault said the money will be used to create a 2,250-square-metre building on UNBSJ's campus for health-related programming, a 9,000-square-metre building on the main campus at Grandview Avenue and a total of 600 new seats.

NBCC Saint John principal Annette Albert says she was pleased to hear about the designation of the funding. She said it will help the campus grow, and will provide students with valuable opportunities.

Albert said the announcement of the new building at UNBSJ didn't come as a surprise, since students in health programs at NBCC often complete their degrees at the university, and the two institutions have always worked closely together.

"There have been discussions about bringing our programs together with the medical programs at UNB for some time," Albert said. "I think allowing students from a variety of health-related fields to work together will greatly increase the value of our programs."

She said the assigning of the 9,000-square-metre on-campus building and the 600 additional seats has yet to be decided.

"Right now we're still exploring what makes sense," she said. "We're looking at what will stay, what will change and what will go."

She said the growing needs of Saint John will certainly be considered as decisions are made in the coming months.

"We need to provide support for the areas that are currently growing," Albert said. "With the possibility of things like a new refinery, or a new reactor at Lepreau, we have to think about what role we can play in preparing our students."

Albert indicated that the expansion at NBCC Saint John will focus on construction and technology fields, but added that a great deal of discussion still has to take place before anything is set in stone.

"Now we can start having serious conversations about what's going to happen, We're glad we can start discussing the future. This is a very exciting time for us."

[Helladog]

Gothic Arches could become condo heaven

SANDRA DAVIS
Telegraph-Journal

SAINT JOHN - The neo-Gothic 126-year-old Centenary-Queen Square United Church may soon become a three-storey apartment building, with stained glass windows looking out over the city from every floor.

The building's owner, Philip Huggard, has been trying to sell the beautiful old rambling former church for at least a year now and, just a few months ago, decided to list it with realtor Bob McVicar, who's also president of the city's heritage board.

McVicar has a client who's interested in transforming the building into luxury condominiums and should know in the next few months whether the developer's plan will come to fruition.

Huggard purchased the building in 1999 because he was afraid it would have a date with a wrecking ball if he didn't step in and has been using it as a concert hall, calling it the Gothic Arches. It has also served as a home to several community groups.

"It's a fabulous property," McVicar said as he surveyed the wood-stained vaulted ceilings of the 10,000-square-foot building that features at least 20 stained-glass windows dedicated to members of well-known families including the Troops, Allisons and the Whites. To build the windows today would cost $18,000 each, Huggard said he has been told.

Some windows are enormous at 20 feet wide by nine feet high, with the largest measuring about 30 by 15. One, featuring religious scenes that overlooks the entrance, is said to be the oldest stained glass work in the city, but neither Huggard nor McVicar could confirm that.

If done properly, McVicar envisions how each floor could have stained windows; the third and top will also have the advantage of a high vaulted ceiling with wooden rosettes placed where the beams meet.

Huggard says he has mixed feelings about selling the building.

"It's a beautiful building and I would have loved to have taken it to the greatest extent," he said.

"It's time to see it before entropy sets in. The pews - which seat about 1,500 worshippers - will be going up for sale if the building is sold as an apartment complex," McVicar said.

The asking price is $495,000; it has dropped from $649,000 two years ago.

[Wrightguy0]

I've been in that building many times over the last year and the condition just keeps deteriorating, they pulled out the furnace last year, still no heat.
I have no clue how they'll turn it into luxury apartments.

[PersonPlaceorThing]

Originally Posted by Wrightguy0

I've been in that building many times over the last year and the condition just keeps deteriorating, they pulled out the furnace last year, still no heat.
I have no clue how they'll turn it into luxury apartments.

I think the conversion itself will be easier than selling it as condos. I would be reluctant to take on the liability of part ownership of the structure - when there are new condo structures that could have smaller maintenance concerns.

Here's a link to a site that talks about church conversions. http://www.getreligion.org/?p=3753

[homebody]

Been hearing alot of rumours lately about Home Depot closing and Costco taking over their building. The supposed date is somtime in April. One of those sources is supposedly close to: the fella who doesn't have much to say lately, yes Mr Northrup. Has anyone else heard of anything along these lines. I thought HD was holding its own even though a little pricey at times.

[Helladog]

Originally Posted by homebody

Been hearing alot of rumours lately about Home Depot closing and Costco taking over their building. The supposed date is somtime in April. One of those sources is supposedly close to: the fella who doesn't have much to say lately, yes Mr Northrup. Has anyone else heard of anything along these lines. I thought HD was holding its own even though a little pricey at times.

If this is true, chalk another one up for Mr. Irving.

God knows there's enough old properties to allow more than one building store in SJ, I guess we'll see.

[Helladog]

Apartment crunch seen hard on single parents
Housing City's poor will facing tough choices, official says

SANDRA DAVIS
Telegraph-Journal

SAINT JOHN - Apartments are already scarce in the Saint John area and, with the market getting tighter, Narinder Singh worries that the poor are going to have to start making some tough choices.


Noel Chenier/Telegraph-Journal

Narinder Singh, general manager of Saint John Non-Profit Housing Inc., says the fact there are only so many city apartments has always been an issue. But the problem is getting worse.

"When people are paying higher rents, they're not paying for other things that they need," he said. Singh is general manager of Saint John Non-Profit Housing Inc.

When you look at the number of people living in poverty who may be on social assistance, and take a look at what the average single parent makes on welfare, they shouldn't be paying more than about $330 a month on rent - that's if you follow the rule of thumb that says no more than 30 per cent of income should be spent on accommodations, he said.

"That's the demographic that's going to have the most difficulty in finding a suitable and affordable place to live."

The rental vacancy rate in the Saint John Census Metropolitan Area (CMA) dropped to 4.3 per cent by April 2008, down from six per cent in 1992 and 5.2 per cent in 2007. The provincial average in April 2008 was 5.3 per cent.

On the other hand, housing starts in the Saint John CMA totalled 687 in 2007, up from 501 in 2005 and 278 in 1998.

These statistics and many others are contained in the Greater Saint John Community Foundation's annual Vital Signs report, which tracks quality of life in 10 key areas, including the gap between rich and poor, health, housing, and the environment - providing insight into the community's strengths, challenges and opportunities.

The influx of people coming into the city to work on energy projects is compounding the problems arising from scarcity of apartments, Singh said.

"When a landlord has to choose between renting a unit that they might have been able to rent before at $550 but they can rent at $700, obviously they're going to rent it at $700. There are a great many people in Saint John who can't afford to pay those rents."

As a result, the leftover apartments aren't the most desirable, he said. "They have to compromise even more for the quality of housing they're getting for the price they're paying.

"There are only so many units to go around. It's always been an issue. It's just getting worse."

What is encouraging, he said, is that new apartments are being built so people going into those won't be competing for other accommodations that are driving up rental costs.

"At least now, with the economic growth and the stimulus that's happening, we're seeing a lot of new multiple units being constructed," he said.

"Those units are coming at the top of the market and it's helping to make Saint John's housing stock much more diversified.

"Over the longer term, if we can keep going in that direction, it might alleviate the problem, but only if you do that as well as incorporate more affordable housing as you go forward in creating market units."

Nevertheless, affordable housing is only part of the solution.

"We have to work towards having our citizens be able to afford market housing and get them on the track where they're trained and employable," he said.

"When you combine that with providing affordable housing and with all the other stuff that's going on, we should be moving in the right direction."