I posed the following question today (Oct. 31st) in the House of Commons.  Mr. Speaker, funding for East Coast businesses from the Atlantic Canada Opportunities Agency declined by a whopping 25 per last year alone — 25 per cent .  Businesses in Atlantic Canada haven't suddenly lost their need for support, the Conservatives have lost their willingness to support Atlantic Canada.  Except, of course, when it comes to the patronage trough. Mr. Speaker, why are the Conservatives leaving the east coast behind?  Why is this government not committed to ACOA? Bernard Valcourt (Associate Minister of National Defence and Minister of State, ACOA:  Mr. Speaker, the honourable member is wrong and fear-mongering.  If he wants to compare apples to apples and look at investment for economic development, he should take into account stimulus measures that were meant to deal with the recession and the unprecedented level of federal investmen...

I had only a single thought just before striking a moose on the western edge of Terra Nova National Park Sunday evening — if it goes through the windshield, I’m dead.  I didn’t see the moose until it was immediately in front of me, meters away.  It was as if my brain took a snapshot of the second before impact: I took in with absolute clarity how the moose didn’t have antlers; how the animal was almost as dark as the highway itself; and how it had a huge belly. “Moose must be eating well these days,” I thought.  I was driving between 75 and 80 kilometers an hour in mist and heavy fog and I didn’t see the moose until it was practically in my face.  The highway was clear.  Then there was a moose.  There was no time to swerve, barely time to hit the break. The Jeep struck the moose broadside and the animal tumbled over the hood before summersalting over the windshield. There was an Echo traveling behind me and the occupants — a mother, fa...



OTTAWA – MP Ryan Cleary (St. John’s South-Mount Pearl) is calling on the Canada- Newfoundland and Labrador Offshore Petroleum Board (C-NLOPB) and its new chair, Ed Drover, to follow through on a recommendation for a separate independent safety regulator for the offshore. Justice Robert Wells has described the need for an independent safety regulator as the most important recommendation from his inquiry into the March 2009 crash of Cougar Helicopters Flight 491 that killed 17 people. Justice Wells reiterated that stand this week in media interviews. “It’s been over three years since the crash of Cougar 491 and we’re still waiting for the federal Conservatives and the C-NLOPB to act on this recommendation — shameful,” says Cleary. “Max Ruelokke has said there’s no need for an independent safety regulator, and for that reason I’m glad he’s the outgoing chair. Let’s hope Ed Drover sees things differently.” Cleary says the C-NLOPB is in a conflict of interest. The board is respo...

  As critic for Post-Secondary Education, I posed the following question today (Oct. 25 th ) in the House of Commons.  Mr. Speaker,  Collectively, Canada's students are on the hook to the federal government for more than $15 billion of debt. A record high.  That does not include private debt, such as bank loans and credit cards. With that kind of debt load, how will this generation be able to contribute to the economy? The Canadian Federation of Students has a plan to cut student debt in half by 2015. Will the Conservatives work with us, the New Democrats, students, and their families to reduce student debt? Diane Finley (Minister of Human Resources and Skills Development):  Mr. Speaker,  In the process of job creation, we actually ensure that we have people with the skills and talents to fill those jobs.  That is why our government has been proud to streamline and improve Canada's student loan program....

 Trying on a pair of seal-skin boots at Natural Boutique, Water Street, St. John's, NL. “From a science perspective, science is really reaching the limits of what it can confidently and credibly predict would result from a cull of grey seals. Ultimately, the decision whether or not to do it … would not be a science one but will have to be based on something else.” — Dr. Jeffrey Hutchings, Dalhousie University, as quoted in a Senate report released this week that recommends a cull of grey seals in the Gulf of St. Lawrence.  “The Committee believes that scientific uncertainty should not be stopping DFO from taking action.” —  A direct quote from the Senate report, The Sustainable Management of Grey Seal Populations: A Path Toward the Recovery of Cod and other Groundfish Stocks .  ••• The Fabian Manning Senate report on grey seals recommends that Canada should pay hunters to kill 70,000 grey seals in the Gulf of St. Lawrence as a means to help ...