Again, another reason I haven’t been blogging is due to the Aliant Business Pitch Competition that took place last night. I had been revising my business pitch at home and practicing it with co-workers during the day. All of this work paid off after successfully pitching my idea to judges inside of two limousines while driving around uptown Saint John!

The Telegraph-Journal has a story in todays newspaper (in the Business) section, you can read the full story here:

Thursday evening’s event was a new twist on what has become something of an institution in Saint John.

Aliant’s business plan competition, held for the past three years in an elevator, emerged this time around in the back seat of a stretch-limo. The evening was charged with the tension of a Donald Trump-style boardroom drama, without the in-fighting.

The stakes in this case were a little more modest, with sponsors investing a total of $1,000, which may be divided among several competitors.

Beyond the gimmick of Thursday evening was an underlying effort to support the development of small business in the city.

And that effort stretches province-wide, as economic development agencies and universities continue a long-standing campaign to identify New Brunswick’s up-and-comers, provide them with mentorship and find them capital.

…

There was an expectation Thursday evening that this ongoing effort to provide exposure to small business in the province will reap some rewards.

“It’s that whole concept of picking yourself up by the bootstraps and, as we go along, there’s going to be more stories of successes here,” said Oland, a judge and the executive chairman of Moosehead Breweries Limited. “And that success breeds success.

I had competed during last years event, the Aliant Elevator Pitch Competition, and finished outside the top three; however, I took what I had leaned last year to improve my pitch this time around.

It was a very well run and organized event, where I was able to make contact with several key people who can really help move this idea forward with their experience and contacts. I look forward to using this success to open more doors in getting this idea from the idea stage to a working product!

After many months of searching, we finally have an accepted offer on a house. The best part is that it’s in East Saint John!

It has been a busy time traveling out to see houses before they hit the market, looking at open houses on Sunday, and dealing with multiple offer situations; however, our real estate agent has made the process as smooth as possible.

We chose to work with Mel Vincent at Exit Reality, and I would highly recommend him to anyone else looking to buy or sell their home. He has helped us through each step of the way, and he finally found us the home we wanted. We still have paperwork to fill out and inspections to do; however, Beth and I are both looking forward to the closing day so we can move into our first home!

Look forward to a fun house warming party this summer!

Today, the Saint John Board of Trade released it’s reaction to the Liberal government’s decision to make “transformational changes” to the health care system in New Brunswick.

“We are pleased that the consolidation of selected non-clinical services under a new public sector company. That will most certainly build efficiencies into the health system and reduce infrastructure costs” said Nathalie Godbout, Chair of the Saint John Board of Trade. “We do, however, have some concerns surrounding the announced changes to the way health care will be administered in New Brunswick.”

I will to say that I do agree with Nathalie. I am very supportive of eliminating duplication of services. There is no need to have eight people doing a job that only requires a few people. I just wish that was the main change made.

Unfortunately, the government has also decided that we, the people, are not capable of electing people ourselves, they have decided to appoint the members of the health boards for us.

Yes, you heard me right, this government is changing our current democratically elected health board into a government appointed organization. I do not believe that they should be appointing people to such important positions without letting us vote.

The Saint John Board of Trade also raised some other good points:

• What will be the impact to our medical school?
• How will the implementation of the new trauma system be impacted?
• Where will the money raised by organizations in support of the Regional Hospital and St. Joseph’s go? Will it be divided among other hospitals?

And most importantly - do the savings the government is proposing ($20 million in 5 years on a $2.2 billion budget=1%) warrant such a drastic move?

Think about that, such drastic changes and it will only change 1% of the entire budget. It really is a sad day for democracy in New Brunswick.

“Demand the ballot as the undeniable right of every man who is called to the poll, and take special care that the old constitutional rule and principle, by which majorities alone shall decide in Parliamentary elections, shall not be violated.” - John Bright

Well, not everyone agrees with discussing the debt and tax rate behind closed doors. Councillor Stephen Chase has asked council to bring forward the document about the city’s debt and tax rate. Chase said that the documents are about the effect of capital spending on the tax rate from 2007 to 2011.

“This is clearly an example of one that should not have been behind closed doors,” Chase said. “This affects the taxpayers. I’m pretty ugly about it. Unacceptable.”

“No matter what excuse anyone could offer as to why this should be dealt with in closed session out of the ears of the public is not acceptable,” he said.

Commissioner of finance Greg Yeomans said he had asked city solicitor John Nugent whether it was appropriate to discuss the document in closed, and Nugent said it was because of the potential north of Union development, as well as whether the report might concern investors. (No he wasn’t referring to us, the taxpayers, he meant the developers…)

“That’s the very reason we should be talking about it in public,” Chase said “so the public can guide you on what they feel is an acceptable tax rate.” Exactly, just think what will happen if these things are not brought out into the public - imagine a 3% increase to all of our taxes!

Then, in a shot at the police investigation into a recent leak to the Telegraph-Journal, Chase said the RCMP should be investigating why the document was dealt with in closed. Not such a bad idea!

Tuesday night was another busy night for city council. Several steps were taken to move towards a solution to the city’s pension problems.

Not sure what’s going on? Let’s just say that this pension problem will cost us (the taxpayers) $19 million dollars by the end of this year. A previous council deal saw the employees contribute more out of their paychecks; however, this only put a million dollar dent in the figure.

While the city is looking to work out a solution with the employee union’s, it was councillor Stephen Chase who made the motion to hire an expert to look at the financial implications of changes to the plan. Chase said not getting expert advice would be a “dereliction of council’s responsibility and an abandonment of the taxpayers.”

But changing the plan isn’t easy - it is currently a very time consuming process for council to make any changes. The proposed motion would mean that council would have the ability to make changes to the plan when required (while still being bound by the Income Tax Act). This motion was strongly supported by Stephen Chase, a councillor who is looking out for us - the taxpayers.

All I can say is that I’m glad that there is a person on city council who is looking out for us. And it’s not just this pension issue, he’s looking our for us on transparency, tax increases, wasteful spending, good governance, and much more. I just wish there were more councillors like him, imagine what the city could do with an extra $19 million dollars!

This is one of the funniest videos I’ve seen in a long time! The one liners are what make it great:

• “I don’t even know if I can enjoy the sham election now that I know who’s going to win!”
• “If you can’t trust your shadowy overlords to keep a secret - what is the purpose, really, of voting in a puppet democracy.”
• “I’m fine with it, I mean, he was going to get my meaningless vote anyway.”
• “And we at Diebold would like to formally apologize to all of our shadowy puppet masters - this will not happen again. Please have mercy on us.”