The Official Moncton, NB Project Thread

[David_99]

Moncton has a history of ranking well on the MoneySense Best Places to Live list and this year is no exception. However, after climbing from sixth in 2009 to fifth in 2010, Moncton has fallen out of the top 10. Hit hard by economic recession, the unemployment rate increased from 5.5% in 2010 to 8.1% in 2011. But it does continue to offer one of the more affordable locations in Canada to buy a home.

http://www.moneysense.ca/2011/03/18/top-25-best-places-to-live/11-moncton-new-brunswick/

[MonctonRad]

Originally Posted by David_99

Moncton has fallen out of the top 10. Hit hard by economic recession, the unemployment rate increased from 5.5% in 2010 to 8.1% in 2011.

http://www.moneysense.ca/2011/03/18/top-25-best-places-to-live/11-moncton-new-brunswick/

I think their analysis is flawed on this one point. As far as I'm concerned, Moncton came through the recession relatively unscathed. I think the reason why the local unemployment rate went up is because of economic refugees from the north moving to Moncton looking for work....

[josh_cat_eyes]

Yeah, you would think if the unemployment rate was going to change, it would have before now.

[mylesmalley]

It's not that people are losing their jobs, it's just that the population is currently growing faster than the city can create jobs. Because the unemployment rate is a factor of the employment rate, an improving economy can actually cause a change too, as more people attempt to get back into the workforce.

[mylesmalley]

Hypothetically speaking,

say you've got a city with 150,000 people. Subtract from that all the retired people, those too young to work, students, and people discouraged by unemployment and no longer looking, and you get say, 100,000 people.

of those 100,000, 95,000 actually have jobs. In this scenario, the unemoployment rate is 5%, even though in actuality, 33.67% of ALL people are not working.

If the economy starts to pick up a bit, and the population grows, you might get a situation where there are 110,000 people 'in the economy'. However if the labour market could only create 5,000 jobs in the same period, the unemployment rate would appear to double to 10%. But in actuality, both the economy and populations are growing at a good pace.

[Sunnybrae]

Soooooooo.... I have heard the politcal ad's on the radio from the Liberals that Harper said "no" to a Metro Centre for Moncton. Does this mean that if the Liberals get elected, Moncton will get a new event centre?

[MonctonRad]

Originally Posted by Sunnybrae

Soooooooo.... I have heard the politcal ad's on the radio from the Liberals that Harper said "no" to a Metro Centre for Moncton. Does this mean that if the Liberals get elected, Moncton will get a new event centre?

Did Harper actually say this? This may just be Liberal hyperbole.......

Harper has come out stating that he does not favour federal funding for professional sports facilities. The proposed Moncton events centre/arena probably does not fit in with this definition.

Until he unequivocably states that no federal funding is available for this project, then I will continue to hold out some (vain) hope.........

Harper should be taken to task on this when he shows up in the city. I imagine he will come to Moncton at least once during the campaign.

[mmmatt]

Originally Posted by Sunnybrae

Soooooooo.... I have heard the politcal ad's on the radio from the Liberals that Harper said "no" to a Metro Centre for Moncton. Does this mean that if the Liberals get elected, Moncton will get a new event centre?

If thats the case we are probably screwed...seems as though things are lining up for a Conservative majority

[riverviewer]

Originally Posted by mmmatt

If thats the case we are probably screwed...seems as though things are lining up for a Conservative majority

I think Harper's waiting until after the election to make the announcements so that Robert Goguen gets credit. If he announces spending before the election, Brian Murphy can claim success, and this riding is to close for Harper to give Murphy anything that might help Murphy win.

[MonctonRad]

They are starting to dig the foundation for the new residence building at Crandall University.

[josh_cat_eyes]

If the conservative for Moncton says he will get funding for that project (I assume that will be a pretty big local election issue) then Monctonians should vote for that candidate. Simple as that. Monctonians need to make it clear that the way to get into office is to guarantee funding for a new arena. You need to stress the importance of this project for the long-term future of downtown Moncton.

[mylesmalley]

No offense, but that's an absolutely ridiculous position to take. Local election promises almost never actually turn into official policy.

Not only is voting in an national election based on a single issue in a single riding selfish, it trivializes the whole thing! An election is about issues of national importance; not who can score the best piece of federal meat to buy votes.

The only responsible way to go about this issue with the feds is to work with whoever gets elected here and whoever gets elected in Ottawa. But I really wouldn't expect any party to pony up cash for the project. We have a massive deficit, and frankly, much bigger problems to worry about.

Don't get me wrong, I want a new arena as much as all of you. But we can't walk around with our hands out all of the time. I think this needs to be a local project with corporate funding. That's the best way to legitimize it.

[mylesmalley]

And for the record, the Tories have made it pretty clear that they aren't interested in funding sports facilities. You can rename it an 'events centre' or 'entertainment venue', but to everyone else in the country who sees it, it's going to be 'a big-ass hockey arena beind funded by the guys who said they wouldn't find my big-ass hockey arena! WHAT GIVES?!?'

[Steelcowboy]

I went by the airport this evening around 1045pm and saw an Air Canada Airbus A319 parked by the old terminal, it was sporting the CONSERVATIVE PARTY on it. Is Harper in Moncton tomorrow? or was he already here?

[Sony500]

He was in Halifax yesterday (31st). I didn't hear anything about harper coming to Moncton.

[benvui]

I heard he was visiting Malley Industries today? Myles?

[MonctonRad]

Originally Posted by benvui

I heard he was visiting Malley Industries today? Myles?

(abridged) from today's T&T:

Harper visits Metro today
Published Friday April 1st, 2011

Stephen Harper will be at Malley Industries in Dieppe this morning at 10 a.m. on the federal election campaign trail, but it's not expected that he will be discussing a subsidy to resolve Metro Moncton's cost woes with the Codiac Regional RCMP during his time here.

The Conservative leader will be joined by local Tory candidates, and he is expected to continue promoting the message that the economy is his party's top priority.

The Tories confirmed last night that Harper would be highlighting elements of last week's budget, which was opposed by the three opposition parties, triggering the election. Today's theme is expected to be about protecting jobs and helping workers on the road to a stronger economy.

Meanwhile, the talk of Metro Moncton continues to be the RCMP rebate that the three municipalities do not receive.

Way to keep this quiet Myles!

You should personally ask him what his plans are for the Codiac RCMP rebate.

[pierremoncton]

Too bad Harper being in Moncton isn't an April fool's joke. I wouldn't vote Conservative even if they paid for the arena with their own money and built it with their own hands. Creationists running the country with a majority? No thanks. I would never allow those neanderthals to use my business for a photo op.

I like Brian Murphy but Ignatieff is a flip-flopping opportunist. We at least know that Harper is a fundamentalist; too hard to tell what Ignatieff really thinks. I'll waste my vote with the Greens once again.

[OliverD]

Originally Posted by pierremoncton

Too bad Harper being in Moncton isn't an April fool's joke. I wouldn't vote Conservative even if they paid for the arena with their own money and built it with their own hands. Creationists running the country with a majority? No thanks. I would never allow those neanderthals to use my business for a photo op.

What does creationism have to do with anything?

[Steelcowboy]

I don't normally vote conservative because they seem to kill railroads and rail services but, this country is in a pretty good economic state compared to the rest of the world so for the time being, why tamper with something that isn't broken. I think its too early and I do NOT trust Iggy!!

On another note about the rails around here, the carloads on the the CNR showed the strongest here in the maritimes there wasn't much of a decline during the economic downturn but now its booming, both westbound regular scheduled freight trains from Moncton (one intermodal/container and one general freight) are averaging 12,000 ft, 12,000 plus tonnes (approximately 160 cars per train) of course with the double stack service it would be nearly 400 containers per train daily, I think its amazing!! I think a new regular scheduled intermodal train is on the horizon. We're running extra trains almost daily from Moncton to Toronto and vice versa. Like they say "the railroads are the barometer of the economy" when cars are sitting and not being loaded...the economy is stalling, there aren't too many cars in storage anymore. I thinks its an awesome sign for this region and for the maritimes