New Brunswick / Nouveau-Brunswick

I'm just hearing about this now and I thought it would be worthwhile to share.

There is a Canada-wide boycott of Loblaws planned for May 2024 (and beyond if you're able). This includes any store under the Loblaws umbrella such as: Atlantic Superstore, Shopper's Drug Mart, Save Easy, Your Independent Grocer, No Frills, Esso, and so on.

The goal of the boycott is for Loblaws to reduce prices by 15% and remove "member only pricing" so everyone has access to savings and deals.

The boycott is organized by a group on Reddit. You can find more details about it in this Reddit Thred

A happy byproduct of this will hopefully be more business going to small locally owned stores in your area instead of the two grocery giants. I'm in the Fredericton area so I can recommend Victory Meat Market and Peter's Meats as excellent alternatives with better products, and similar or sometimes lower prices.

Here's hoping there's enough engagement to produce a significant drop in Loblaws sales and they take the voice of the customer seriously.

Looks like we'll have a 50-50 chance of clear skies.

New Brunswick universities are scrambling for information after the federal government announced new caps on international students, set to come into effect for the next school year.

Article en français (Acadie Nouvelle)

While almost every home owner will get a higher property bill this year, can you guess who will get to pay less?

According to provincial assessment figures, the city's largest industrial property, the Irving Oil refinery, has received an assessment increase of 1.66 per cent for 2024.   

However, under provincial government property tax rules, Saint John's 2.5 per cent property tax rate cut has to be shared equally with all property owners. That will reduce municipal property taxes collected on the refinery in 2024 by about $25,000.

Lien en français (Rad-Can)

I’ve just moved here from Reddit after taking a couple weeks hiatus from the sinking ship that is Reddit. Lemmy is taking some getting used to, but it’s nice to see our local subs alive and well over here! I feel like the new kid who just changed schools

I live in Ontario, and this is also a huge problem here.

The solution is to ban dogs from all trails except dog parks, because people won't change, and this problem extends to more than just other trail users; it also contaminates the land and water, too.

Article en français (Rad-Can)

Blaine Higgs began his term as New Brunswick premier promising not to run his government from the top down like he accused his predecessor, Brian Gallant, of doing.

"Today there is too much power in the premier's office," he wrote in a personal letter to voters during the 2018 election campaign.

"The Premier's office ends up making all the decisions. The voices of citizens and elected officials are not allowed to be as strong as they could and should be. I want to be the Premier who says 'No we don't do it that way anymore.'"

Five years later, with his government roiled by a series of cabinet resignations and firings and mounting accusations of his own tendency toward centralized rule, Higgs still maintains he is a leader who values different points of view and is open to learning from those who do not agree with him.

Article en français (Acadie Nouvelle)

One more step on the way to ridding ourselves of Higgs! Here's the letter they submitted:

Article en français (Acadie Nouvelle)

Article en francais (Rad-Can)

The turmoil within New Brunswick's Progressive Conservative Party was deepening Friday morning as another minister quit Premier Blaine Higgs's cabinet and four former top party officials demanded the premier resign.

Portland-Simonds MLA Trevor Holder, the longest-serving MLA in the legislature, announced in an open letter he was quitting as minister of post-secondary education, training and labour.

"Under the leadership of Premier Higgs, caucus has been less about consensus and more about him getting his own way," Holder wrote.

Oof, Holder is a very long-time MLA. This one's gotta hurt.

This warms my heart. Thank you to PC party leadership for finally standing against this hateful man. Better late than never.

Article en français: Acadie Nouvelle

My favourite part of the article:

Asked what the odds were of the province heading into an early election, Higgs told reporters, "I don't play the odds, actually. I don't. So, I'm not going to delve into an election philosophy."

"I don't play the odds" gives me big "data my ass" vibes. I hope we data his ass out of office ASAP.