The Official Moncton, NB Project Thread

[JHikka]

Originally Posted by MonctonRad

If they are waiting for the feds to kick in their share of the cost to remove the causeway (which they should because it was largely a federal move to have the causeway built in the first place), I think they will have to wait until there is a new federal administration in place. Stephen Harper has been singularly unimpressed of the importance of this project.

Instead of name-blaming Steven Harper (who probably has no knowledge of this situation) I would suggest writing the Minister for the Department of Fisheries and Oceans, Keith Ashfield.

[MonctonRad]

Originally Posted by JHikka

Instead of name-blaming Steven Harper (who probably has no knowledge of this situation) I would suggest writing the Minister for the Department of Fisheries and Oceans, Keith Ashfield.

I didn't mean to name blame Harper (my own political persuasion is (red) Tory), but I can assure you he is personally aware of this controversy. Don't forget his Moncton roots and he seems to show up in the city every 1-2 years. He knows all about the Petitcodiac.

Part of the problem is the "save-the-lakers". They have done an effective job at creating controversy over this issue and making the Tories — shy about funding the removal of the causeway. Add that to the Conservatives inherent fiscal parsimony and I predict nothing will happen for at least another 5-10 years, and probably not at all until another party takes power....

[RyeJay]

Originally Posted by MonctonRad

I didn't mean to name blame Harper (my own political persuasion is (red) Tory), but I can assure you he is personally aware of this controversy. Don't forget his Moncton roots and he seems to show up in the city every 1-2 years. He knows all about the Petitcodiac.

Part of the problem is the "save-the-lakers". They have done an effective job at creating controversy over this issue and making the Tories — shy about funding the removal of the causeway. Add that to the Conservatives inherent fiscal parsimony and I predict nothing will happen for at least another 5-10 years, and probably not at all until another party takes power....

A bigger problem would be the federal government's concern over growing the economy. The Petitcodiac is not relevant to that concern. They aren't going to waste money on a river that has no potential of becoming an industrial port.

The causeway works just fine for handling vehicle traffic.

I would be extremely disappointed if the Moncton area was lobbying Ottawa more assertively for the removal of the causeway, instead of focusing on economic growth via lobbying for a downtown events centre.

As an environmentalist, I have higher hopes that someday the economy of Moncton's downtown will attract residential development, and then perhaps there would be less desire to clear more forests to accomidate Moncton's stupid outward growth.

[JasonL-Moncton]

Originally Posted by RyeJay

A bigger problem would be the federal government's concern over growing the economy. The Petitcodiac is not relevant to that concern. They aren't going to waste money on a river that has no potential of becoming an industrial port.

The causeway works just fine for handling vehicle traffic.

I would be extremely disappointed if the Moncton area was lobbying Ottawa more assertively for the removal of the causeway, instead of focusing on economic growth via lobbying for a downtown events centre.

As an environmentalist, I have higher hopes that someday the economy of Moncton's downtown will attract residential development, and then perhaps there would be less desire to clear more forests to accomidate Moncton's stupid outward growth.

I agree with most of your statement RJ...but the government is willing to spend a Bajillion dollars on fighter planes...a small fraction of which would build us a new bridge and a downtown event center giving us both environmental and economic infrastructure for years to come!

Priorities I guess...

[Blue Blazer]

Anymore word on Moncton getting their downtown rink/entertainment centre to replace the coleisum ?

[MonctonRad]

Originally Posted by Blue Blazer

Anymore word on Moncton getting their downtown rink/entertainment centre to replace the coleisum ?

Please refer to the [Moncton] Downtown Events Centre (proposed) thread.

The short answer is no. The land has been optioned and a request for qualifications has been issued, but that"s all so far.....

[Blue Blazer]

Originally Posted by MonctonRad

Please refer to the [Moncton] Downtown Events Centre (proposed) thread.

The short answer is no. The land has been optioned and a request for qualifications has been issued, but that"s all so far.....

Wow sorry, you guys in Moncton are real mucky muck and have different sections on everything, the Freddy beach boards just have one for everthing.


Hopefully that project gets done

[mylesmalley]

Originally Posted by Blue Blazer

Wow sorry, you guys in Moncton are real mucky muck and have different sections on everything, the Freddy beach boards just have one for everthing.


Hopefully that project gets done

It was getting pretty hard to keep track of what's going on in one massive thread. I think we probably have too many now, but it's a big improvement in terms of useability. Ultimately that's the #1 priority.


Oh, and sorry about your previous comment. You might see that it says 'edited by mylesmalley' at the bottom. I meant to quote you but hit the wrong button. I didn't change anything.

[MonctonRad]

Originally Posted by JasonL-Moncton

I agree with most of your statement RJ...but the government is willing to spend a Bajillion dollars on fighter planes...a small fraction of which would build us a new bridge and a downtown event center giving us both environmental and economic infrastructure for years to come!

Priorities I guess...

For once I agree with RyeJay. If the feds were to give us say, $50M, and said it was up to us whether we spent it on the events centre or spent it on removing the causeway, I would also spend it on the events centre.

The events centre certainly has more potential to be a significant economic generator than a new bridge to Riverview.

I still want to see the causeway gone, but I think we have to keep our priorities straight!

[jeddy1989]

Dear Moncton,

I'm writing to say that I'm happy you're our friend! and light hearted .. and I'm glad to see you doing so well!
Have a nice day!

Sincerely,
St. John's

[JasonL-Moncton]

Originally Posted by MonctonRad

For once I agree with RyeJay. If the feds were to give us say, $50M, and said it was up to us whether we spent it on the events centre or spent it on removing the causeway, I would also spend it on the events centre.

The events centre certainly has more potential to be a significant economic generator than a new bridge to Riverview.

I still want to see the causeway gone, but I think we have to keep our priorities straight!

Oh that would be my first choice too...because, I agree, we need all the economic generators we can get. But, that said, if they can spend money stupidly as they do, why couldn't they assist us in doing both?

[RyeJay]

Originally Posted by JasonL-Moncton

Oh that would be my first choice too...because, I agree, we need all the economic generators we can get. But, that said, if they can spend money stupidly as they do, why couldn't they assist us in doing both?

Two things on which Conservatives will waste money are corporate subsidies and military spending.

Environmental revitalisation doesn't register with them.

[RyeJay]

Originally Posted by MonctonRad

For once I agree with RyeJay.

You did say you are a red Tory, which means you're rational some of the time.

[MonctonRad]

Police headquarters, river on council agenda
Monday, February 04, 2013
Times & Transcript
http://22864.vws.magma.ca/index.php?&article_id=10583

The City of Moncton is preparing to issue a request for proposals aimed at getting an infrastructure feasibility study for the Codiac Regional RCMP headquarters on Main Street, which is owned by the city.

That's among the items on the agenda of tonight's regular public meeting of Moncton city council.

The Petitcodiac Riverkeeper will be making a presentation to council, and there is also a resolution regarding the Petitcodiac River expected to be introduced later in the meeting.

The meeting gets under way at 5 p.m. at Moncton City Hall, 655 Main St.

[Dmajackson]

Sorry if this was discussed previously but I was just catching up on this thread and I noticed the post count is well above 10'000 which is the general limit used for other threads.

I think this would be a good time to decide if a The Official Moncton, NB Project Thread II is preferred/required. Also if any other Moncton related changes should be made.

My personal suggestion would be for a new thread to be created. I'd find a dedicated Moncton forumer who is willing to create a first post to act as an update to the one for this thread. I would also add in quick links to other Moncton threads to avoid posting in the wrong place.

[mylesmalley]

This came up about quite a while ago when the thread first broke 10k posts. I don't recall which administrator it was that suggested it, but the recommendation was to keep this thread open for 'general' things and to spin off most discussion into sister threads like [Moncton] Downtown Developments.

A new thread could be started, obviously, but this one only gets posts infrequently. I don't think there's a technical limit to the number of posts a thread can have either.

What might make more sense is to just unsticky this one and replace it with the most popular of the new threads. What does everyone think?

[MonctonRad]

Myles is right. Ever since the multithread format was developed for Moncton, activity on the "official" thread dropped off quite a bit. This reduced the pressure to create an "official thread #2". There is probably only 1-2 posts per day on the main thread at present.

A replacement thread could be created, but if so, I think it should be renamed, possibly to [Moncton] General Discussions and Development Thread. This would more accurately reflect this thread's current purpose as a discussion forum for development, political and economic issues affecting the whole CMA. I would still make it a sticky, because every other city in the region has a sticky and the thread would still be the main clearing house for general discussions about greater Moncton. Finally, for the sake of continuity, I would wonder if it would be possible to move the last 100 or so posts from the old thread to the new thread before the old thread retires. This would help to give a reference point for ongoing discussions.

We should not do anything hasty and it would be interesting to get further input from other forumers as to what we should do.

I still remain hopeful that at some point, we can make a successful transition to a subforum like St. John's did. A subforum is the best way to keep discussions organized. The time isn't right yet though. We don't have the big developments going on in Moncton right now like they do in St. John's or Halifax, and we need more activity from more forumers on the Moncton threads, but we are close, and if the events centre gets announced and other ancillary projects (like the Aquillini block) get developed, then the time would likely be right to move to the next step.....

[MonctonRad]

Moncton pushes for river fix
Tuesday, February 05, 2013

City council asks Ottawa to honour commitment to restore river flow

Petitcodiac Riverkeeper founder Daniel LeBlanc made another stop on his tour of municipalities along the Petitcodiac River by going before the council of the largest municipality on the river last night, getting Moncton city council's support for his mission to pressure the federal government into honouring what he says is a commitment to cost-share the removal of much of the Petitcodiac River causeway and improve the flow of the tidal river.

It didn't come easily.

A clause in the resolution cites fears of flooding from the rising sea levels and refers to climate change studies.

That didn't sit well with Ward 3 Coun. Daniel Bourgeois, who pointed to a consultant's report commissioned by the city itself that seems to suggest the opposite may in fact be the case.

read more:
http://22864.vws.magma.ca/index.php?&article_id=10592

Personal note - the plan for the Petitcodiac River apparently is not just to replace the causeway with a partial bridge, but also to dredge an entirely new river channel more in the center of the river bed and not close to the Riverview shore like at present. This undoubtedly would have an effect on the aesthetics of the Riverfront Park in Riverview. I wonder if people are aware of this. Also, the engineering study indicating the possibility of increased flooding risk is disconcerting.

I remain dedicated to the concept of replacing the causeway with a partial bridge to maximize rehabilitation of the river, but we should be very careful about how we do this. More studies are necessary.

[mylesmalley]

Originally Posted by MonctonRad

Myles is right. Ever since the multithread format was developed for Moncton, activity on the "official" thread dropped off quite a bit. This reduced the pressure to create an "official thread #2". There is probably only 1-2 posts per day on the main thread at present.

Totally doable.

[RyeJay]

Before jumping to conclusions by demanding even more studies, which would cost the city millions of dollars -- after millions have already been spent -- let this single 'engineering' study, claiming that a wider, deeper river would somehow increase flooding risks become public. As we are seeing in real time, the opposite is true, as the river's water level has been dropping.

Not even the councillors were aware of this one study of apparent flood risks. As I watched city council vote last night, via RogersTV online, I sympathised with Councillor Paulette Thériault when she expressed her embarrassment over how this one secretive study nearly de-railed council's progress.

All of the science has been indicating that a naturalised river will become a better watershed and actually protect against flooding because there is more available area for larger volumes of water, during instances of torrential rains.

Climate Change was a major theme of the discussion last night.