Toronto-based band Billy Talent rocked Saint John on Friday, September 7th. For more background on the band, check out Wikipedia or HereNB.

The opening band, illScarlett, was pretty good and did a great job opening for Billy Talent. However, once Billy Talent, came out they blew everyone away. I was really impressed with the lead singer, Ben Kowalewicz, as his voice was perfect the entire time. I have no idea how he can still sing after all of his screaming!

Their final song was Red Flag and it was the perfect end a great concert. For anyone who has the chance to see them in concert - do it, they put on an awesome show!

Here are their videos, check them out if you’ve never heard of the band before!

Devil in a Midnight Mass:

Red Flag:

Surrender:

Fallen Leaves:

It’s out there now. The proposed ward boundaries have been released. The thing to keep is mind is that these boundaries are just proposed for now. They won’t be finalized until the plebiscite is successful. Afterwards, council has to adopt a bylaw that would incorporate these boundary decisions.

The boundaries were prepared by the city’s planning department and take into account a number of factors, population being most important. Each ward contains roughly 25 per cent of the city’s population.

Click on the image below to see the full picture of the boundaries:

The other development this week was the official in charge of education people about the wards says that getting 25% of the people to vote would be a success! That is just terrible news if you ask me. It’s just sick to see that people do not care about how their city is run. People care when garbage isn’t picked up on time, they care when snow isn’t being cleared, but how they don’t care about how people are elected to manage all of these things! I really hope that things improve and a majority of people do turnout. I want to see people care about the system and care enough to vote one way or another!

On a related note, the city has launched it’s education campaign this week. Their website is up and running here: http://www.saintjohn.ca/haveyoursay. There isn’t much information, but I am guessing it’s just a start.

Finally, here are some quick facts about the ward plebiscite:

• Plebiscite: Oct. 9, 10 a.m. to 8 p.m.
• Advance polling: Sept. 29 and Oct. 1, 10 a.m. to 8 p.m.
• The question: “Do you want the city to be divided into four wards of approximately equal population with two councillors to be elected by the voters of that ward, and two councillors to be elected at large?”
• Results: Any result greater than 60 per cent is binding. Any result less than 60 per cent leaves the final decision to common council.
• Information on ward boundaries, Saint John’s current voting system, the proposed mixed ward system: Website - http://www.saintjohn.ca/HaveYourSay; e-mail - HaveYourSay@saintjohn.ca; information line - 633-2015
• Information on voting: 632-6828, or SaintJohnClerk@elections.nb.ca
• More at the TJ’s article here!

Well, this week has brought the big news that Irving Oil and Repsol plan to build a third LNG tank at Canaport here in Saint John. But that’s not all. The bigger news is that they are way ahead of schedule for building this third tank. This is because the two tanks in progress are expected to be finished in mid-2008.

I am still pissed about the LNG tax deal; however, I am supportive of this LNG project. It’s now employing hundreds of construction workers from the area for another year! Iving Oil says that there are more than 500 workers are on-site every day. About 95 per cent of them come from the Greater Saint John area and New Brunswick, officials have said.

Another cool fact is how fast the tanks are being build. The second tank was built in record time, noted Pat Darrah, executive director of the Saint John Construction Association. It took only 15 days once the substructure work was done. The world record had been 17 days, he said. “We’ve got the best per capita trained workforce in the country,” contends Darrah. They’re also contributing to the economy, each earning an average of $1,000 to $1,500 a week, he said. “The whole spinoff of 500 people working, making that kind of money, think about it; it’s just, whew!”

Mayor Norm McFarlane agrees. They’ll be shopping in stores, eating in restaurants, and buying homes, the mayor said. And having them here makes it easier for the city to attract new retail projects, such as the free-standing Starbucks retail outlet announced Thursday, he said.

Another good thing is what the city gets for the permit on the third tank - $100,000! Hopefully, these workers will gain new skills that will allow them to find work more easily. Irving Oil hopes to build a second refinery in the city, which would employee these workers well into the future. It’s just another sign that the city is really starting to pick up and move!

Well, not long after I posted the video making fun of Senator Larry Craig, the Republican Senator who plead guilty to a charge during a sex sting operation at an airport bathroom, he resigned. “I apologize for what I have caused,” Craig said. Craig was arrested June 11 in a police undercover vice operation in a men’s room at the Minneapolis airport. The arresting officer, Sgt. Dave Karsnia, said in his report that the restroom is known location for homosexual activity.

“I am not gay. I never have been gay,” he declared Tuesday in Boise, Idaho, with his wife, Suzanne, at his side. He said he had kept the incident from aides, friends and family and later pleaded guilty “in hopes of making it go away.” But pressure on the senator to step down continued to grow both inside and outside the Republican party, man of whom styles themselves as defenders of “family values.”

“It is with sadness and deep regret that I announce it is my intention to resign from the Senate effective Sept. 30,” Craig said, with his wife again at his side and Idaho Gov. C.L. (Butch) Otter standing behind him.

Unfortunately, another backyard on Red Head Road has fallen into the Bay of Fundy due to erosion. Since 1995, several backyards and condemned homes have fallen into the Bay. The provincial government attempted to fix the problem by placing 4,000 steel cable anchors at the foot of the bluffs; however, several storms eventually blew the cables apart.

Roly McIntyre, the MLA for the area, said that while he feels concern for his constituents, he’s not sure what responsibility the province has in this situation. “Back in 1995, we did compensate some people that lost their houses. Now, the question of will we compensate again, that’s a question we would have to raise, because some of these properties were only purchased in the last two or three years.”

Red Head resident Peter Hilder said his family and his neighbours have been meeting with different levels of government about the erosion problem for the past decade. Hilder said an engineering company is monitoring the situation on Red Head, but nothing’s been done by city officials to fix the problem, and he’s wondering how long it will take.

For once, I actually agree with Roly. I really can’t see why the province should be responsible for people who choose to live there. The people who had lived there for years may have a point, because this wasn’t an issue at the time when they built or purchased their house; however, the people who have moved there since this became an issue are on their own. They would have known the risks and should not be expecting us, as taxpayers, to compensate them. I think any development along that stretch of the road should stop, and the homeowners should be making all attempts to move.