| |
Posted Apr 9, 2008, 2:54 PM
|
 |
Registered User
|
|
Join Date: Jun 2006
Location: Grand Bay-Westfield :: NB
Posts: 3,088
|
|
Downtown Tim's to close May 31
Tim Hortons coffee shop at Main and Weldon Streets closes doors after 30
By Eric Lewis
Times & Transcript Staff
Published Wednesday April 9th, 2008
Appeared on page A1
Craig O'Neill says it might be a little dramatic to call the closure of a downtown coffee shop the "end of an era," but many downtown Moncton coffee drinkers might beg to differ.
The Tim Hortons on the corner of Main and Weldon Streets will be closing at the end of May, ending 30 years of business for the location.
The coffee shop opened in 1978. It was the third Tim Hortons location in Metro Moncton and the 92nd store in the Canadian chain. It will close for good on May 31.
Even so, O'Neill, vice-president of operations for Corey Craig Enterprises which owns all the Tim Hortons locations in Metro Moncton, says the Tim Hortons business simply "grew up around" the Main Street location.
"It no longer works for the chain, for us," O'Neill said yesterday. "It's kind of a redundant store in a way. I guess the best way to put it is the business simply grew up around it and the traffic flows are in different areas."
He says the store certainly served its purpose over the years, but as traffic patterns changed in the city over the years, the downtown location wasn't the hot spot for coffee and chatter that it once was.
Metro java lovers needn't worry however. O'Neill says one location closing is not a sign of trouble for the much-loved franchise.
He says customers in the downtown area are being directed to the several other nearby Tim's locations, including the small locations in the food court of Highfield Square and in City Hall, the store on the corner of Main and Alma Streets, right in the heart of downtown, the King Street location and the Tim's on West Main Street.
"It's a business decision that we had to make," O'Neil explains. "This has happened all across the chain with some of the older locations. We want to maintain the brand standard, so in the best interest of everything in the chain, we chose that our time was up there, so we got out of it."
He says the 30-year-old store would be in need of some major renovations to keep it up to date with other Tim's locations, and the store simply isn't the key location it once was for the company.
"It was a great location in its day, but it's kind of faded away," O'Neill says.
He was hesitant to say and chose his words carefully when asked if the closure might open up some room for another Tim Hortons location on or nearby the developing Vaughn Harvey Boulevard, perhaps even in the new Sobeys complex.
"I can't really say, to be honest with you," he says. "I can say that it's a place that we've looked."
All staff members at the Main Street location have been offered positions at other Tim Hortons locations, so no one is losing their job, he noted.
The first Tim Hortons to land in Atlantic Canada is the Mountain Road location, which is still busy serving customers daily. The second location in Metro Moncton was in Dieppe, on the corner of Champlain and Paul Streets. A Vogue Optical store is now in its place.
The Main and Weldon Streets location, the area's third Timmie's, has an interesting distinction. It was only the second Tim's location in the country to also house Breakaway, Tim Hortons short-lived delicatessen-style food venture where one could purchase soups, sandwiches, hot dogs and chili, among other items.
O'Neill says the Breakaway concept didn't last long however, and the Moncton location was likely one of only about 20 in the country during the brand's run.
The Breakaway locations closed down in the early 1980s. In some ways, he says it was likely a precursor to Tim Hortons selling food and other items under the Tim's banner.
_____________________________________________________________________________________________
Should Main Street be closed to vehicles in summer?
times & transcript staff
Published Wednesday April 9th, 2008
Appeared on page a12
It's a question that's been debated for years among downtown denizens, and it doesn't look like the debate will end this summer, Downtown Moncton Centreville Inc. says.
"Permanent or extended closing of Main Street is certainly an interesting option for our city and our downtown, but at this time, the board of directors of DMCI feels that our organization does not have all the necessary information to go that route," executive director Daniel Allain says.
"For this reason, DMCI supports limiting closing Main Street to temporary closure for special events only, until we have a better understanding of the traffic patterns and habits of drivers with the arrival of the new bridge and urban bypasses. This will be the first summer that the (Gunningsville) Bridge and Vaughn Harvey/Assomption Blvd will be fully open. Also, we can have a better chance to assess and evaluate effects of closure on our businesses.
Main Street will be closed three to four times this summer." The dates that Main Street will be closed to all but foot traffic have not yet been determined.
__________________________________________________________________________________________________
Better weather sees downtown diners move outdoors
Café culture once again emerges in city core on May 1
By James Foster
Times & Transcript Staff
Published Wednesday April 9th, 2008
Appeared on page A12
Crews have already started sweeping up winter's detritus from downtown sidewalks, and Moncton's café culture will re-emerge in just a few more weeks.
Sidewalk cafés have become an icon of the city centre, a fact not lost on Downtown Moncton Inc., which has summoned all café operators to a meeting on Thursday, a session designed to make sure all open-air restaurants put their best face forward again this year.
"Every year, we meet to make sure that the café standards are adhered to," DMI Manager Daniel Allain says, "and if they want to exceed those standards, that's good too."
While sidewalk cafés can be seen in most city cores, nowhere in the Maritimes are they as omnipresent as in downtown Moncton, where the majority of restaurants and bars take advantage of the core's extra wide sidewalks to put out tables and chairs -- and if Allain has his way, flowers, parasols and other amenities.
Residents are not the only ones who have taken to dining "al fresco." Business visitors and tourists tell DMI they consider it a key aspect of the downtown.
And thus Thursday's meeting. DMI wants to emphasize to restaurateurs how important it is that the sidewalk cafés are visually appealing and clean, with no litter or cigarette butts to spoil the aura.
"We want to be known as the clean city," Allain says.
Sidewalk café sizes are generally guided by the need to leave enough of the sidewalk for pedestrians to get by and by the length of a restaurant's frontage. While it remains a matter of public debate, some Monctonians wish Main Street would close to vehicles all summer long so the cafés and pedestrians could freely spill right into the streets.
As well, some want the provincial government to allow Moncton's downtown bars an extra hour or two of business on the night of Aug. 1, which is the Friday night preceding the huge Magnetic Hill Music Festival, featuring The Eagles.
Fredericton bars were allowed to stay open an extra hour recently when they hosted the East Coast Music Awards.
As things currently stand, Moncton's usual 30 to 40 cafés add between 20 and 25 per cent more restaurant seats to the downtown's usual complement of about 3,000. That means approximately 1,000 more guests at the dinner table during café season, which begins around May 1.
Yet on a warm spring, summer or fall evening, it can still be tough to find a seat; dining "out" in downtown Moncton is just that popular.
"People want to come down to Main Street, they want to experience that different, urban experience," Allain says.
DMI clean-up crews will be making sure sidewalks are tidy seven days a week on Main Street and five days a week on St. George Street this year, Allain says, but DMI hopes restaurateurs will do their part as well.
_________________________________________________________________________________________________________________
No JYSK store planned for Metro Moncton
However, home furnishing chain says city is on radar for future expansion
By Eric Lewis
Times & Transcript Staff
Published Wednesday April 9th, 2008
Appeared on page C2
A popular home-furnishing store may be making a home in Moncton in the not-too-distant future, its chief operating officer says.
Times & Transcript readers may have noticed a flyer in one of last week's issues for JYSK Bed, Bath and Home. It advertised the company's birthday sale. The chain was established in 1979 in Denmark and moved into Canada in 1996 with a store in British Columbia. It's only East Coast store is currently in Dartmouth, N.S.
Pablo Reich, COO of JYSK (pronounced 'yisk'), said from his Mississauga, Ont. office yesterday that the flyer appearing in the Times & Transcript isn't a sign that the store is opening in the Moncton area anytime soon, but it is an acknowledgement that the chain is interested in the market.
"Moncton is on the radar," he says. "We definitely have an interest in the city."
However, Reich says if a store is to land in Metro it won't be for at least two years. The chain just opened it's Dartmouth store and he says it is slowly but surely expanding across Canada. He says the company's main priorities currently are strengthening the Quebec and Ontario markets as well as establishing the Dartmouth store.
But Reich says the company has taken notice that many Metro Monctonians have been shopping at the new Dartmouth store, a sign that Metro shoppers would support a JYSK of their own.
"That's why we also wanted to advertise, because we noticed that lots of people who live in Moncton drive, maybe over the weekend because they have family or relatives or business whatever, they go to Halifax a lot," he explains.
In addition, the company sells from its website, so Metro shoppers can order products online.
JYSK stores sell Scandanavian-inspired products from home furniture, kitchen and bath products to outdoor patio sets. JYSK has over 1,350 stores in 29 countries. There are 35 JYSK stores in Canada.
________________________________________________________________________________________________________________
Into the hazard
Government Taxpayers have $5-million stake in Moncton's Royal Oaks Estates & Golf Club
The Royal Oaks Estates & Golf Club currently owes the province about $4.8 million, stemming from a loan guarantee issued in 1998. The Liberals have decided to convert that debt into preferred shares in the company, meaning the province has a stake in any profits. Government will now receive 50 per cent of the club’s net profits – until the debt is paid back.
Quentin Casey
Telegraph-Journal
Published Wednesday April 9th, 2008
Appeared on page A1
FREDERICTON - The Liberal government has decided to erase nearly $5 million in debt from the books of a Moncton golf club - in exchange for a cut of the club's profits.
The move, approved last November but revealed in freshly released government documents, has critics howling.
The Royal Oaks Estates & Golf Club currently owes the province about $4.8 million, stemming from a loan guarantee issued in 1998.
The Liberals have decided to convert that debt into preferred shares in the company, meaning the province has a stake in any profits.
The government will now receive 50 per cent of the club's net profits - until the debt is paid back.
The club's general manager says the debt reduction will allow Royal Oaks to expand its facilities.
In fact, that expansion will require the club - which includes an 18-hole golf course and condominiums - to borrow more money.
Critics say the whole situation is a waste of government dollars.
John Williamson, of the Canadian Taxpayers Federation, says a province with over-crowded classrooms and rising health-care costs should not be fronting money for a golf course.
"That's hardly an activity that is in need of government support," he said. "It's about as frivolous as it gets in terms of spending."
The province's dealings with Royal Oaks began in 1998 with a $3.3-million guaranteed loan, meaning the province would cover that amount if it couldn't be paid back to the bank.
In 2002 the government paid off the loan and resulting interest. So instead of owing a bank, the club was now in debt to the province. Including interest, the original sum has grown to the current $4.8 million.
"This is just a fine example of public policy that was bad from the very get-go," said Williamson, who doubts the province will get a return on its investment.
"It's another example of corporate welfare and of (a losing situation) for taxpayers.
"On this one the province teed-off and the ball ended up in the hazard."
Vince MacDonald, the club's general manager, said the fiscal flexibility will allow Royal Oaks to borrow additional funds.
Those will be used to build a new clubhouse, part of the club's attempt to become a year-round facility - with cross-country skiing, skating and room for business meetings.
MacDonald said the expansion will mean a doubling of the club's workforce, to 40 employees
"We're in the business of employing people. It's not just folks going out to play golf," he said. "It's generally good for Royal Oaks and its good for Moncton."
The club, which has additional debt outside of the government loan, houses 26 condominium units near the golf course's fourth hole. Another 40 units are under construction, said MacDonald.
Charles Cirtwill, of the Atlantic Institute for Market Studies, a think-tank, said the Liberal move is better than simply writing-off the loan.
Still, he stressed that governments are poorly placed to judge sound business cases in the first place.
"This is a trap that almost all governments fall into - once you've started supporting businesses with direct cash"¦ you just keep going," he said.
"The question now is: how quickly can they sell those shares and recoup the money for the people of New Brunswick?"
Business New Brunswick Minister Greg Byrne was unavailable for comment Tuesday.
The par-72 course at Royal Oaks opened in July 2000. According to the club's website, it features "bent grass fairways, tees and greens, strategic bunkering (and) challenging approaches."
In 2002, Score Magazine named Royal Oaks the best new course in eastern Canada. A club membership costs between $1,600 and $1,750. A daily green fee runs $70.
_____________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________
Letter of the day | At this rate, why not just buy power from Quebec?
Published Wednesday April 9th, 2008
Appeared on page D8
To The Editor:
A government has a special mandate when it is elected: it is to preserve the security of the people that elected them.
By security I do not mean only the police force or the firefighters, I mean something more simple. We want to feel secure in our environment, our education, our health, our food supply, our dispensation of justice, the respect of people's rights. All these spell security. If they are well managed, we feel secure. And that is the primary responsibility of a government.
Now, let's get to the security of having energy in our homes.
I cannot understand the government position that one day requests full discovery of NB Power Corporation, and the next accepts without blinking an eye their request for a rate hike.
Furthermore I cannot understand how Mr. Francis McGuire, who I consider an intelligent and efficient man, cannot put his stamp of efficiency on this out-of-control corporation.
Despite several years of marked profits, they require another rate hike! Why?
Too much is questionable about NB Power. The whole phenomenon resembles a mafia group. It cannot be questioned, it does not explain itself, it refuses to divulge information, it makes decisions in whichever manner, shrugging off any responsibility if it's a dud.
It's a top-heavy business of big salaries and benefits while its debt load is unacceptable. Too many unforgettable and costly mistakes made, infrastructures showing their age at a time when the climate is bringing bigger storms.
But why not put a few billions repairing something that will not be efficient in seven years. Is it worth it? And while we're at it let's throw another several billions in building another one. For us? NO!
The first Lepreau is not even paid after all this time and it's costing more and more.
Where can anyone explain the logic behind this if there is any?
Then there is the separation in several entities (makes me think of the Borgs in Star Trek) and more CEOs and the whole thing is unscrutable and wrapped in secrecy. The refusal to make public the finances of a public company is beyond comprehension.
Whose company is it anyway?
I suggest strongly that the government take back the running of NB Power. It could not get worse.
However if the province is not interested, here is the usual way to deal with a mismanaged corporation: let's close its doors. Québec can become the provider of energy in New Brunswick at a very much lower price.
What is it . . . two, three, four cents a kilowatt/hour?
That would be an excellent change in our household budget as well as the government's.
|
|
|
Prev
Linear Mode
