Letters: Little help for the working poor; staff, funds for hospital hard to find

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Affordability benefit not much help

Jeez, Mr. Higgs, if you are so “upset, ” “and feel abused” in reference to the $300 benefit that you so generously are offering the working poor then why not hand it out  to the soup kitchens, food banks, school breakfast  and lunch programs, homeless shelters, to name but a few, that the working poor already use? Don’t you feel that the working poor already feel abused?

And that is only the tip of a gigantic iceberg. High cost of living, rent increases,  gas prices…  Oh yeah, a lot of us get other benefits but they are nowhere near helping in today’s rising prices. The government today needs to get really real in what they offer all people, young or old.
 
Maggie O’Hara 

Quispamsis

Minister’s comments were on the nose

Wow! It looks like Brunswick News (or should I say Postmedia?) really has it in for federal Minister of the Environment Stephen Guilbeault. 

What was it that attracted the scorn of the Brunswick News editorial board? Well, two things. According to the editorial, the Minister said that electric cars are not a panacea for climate change. How scandalous is that? It seems to me to be a pretty self-evident statement of fact. Even if/when all new cars are electric, there will still be plenty of gas-burning cars on the road.  Electric vehicles might be part of the solution but they are certainly not a total solution to global warming. Perhaps such a candid comment from a federal minister came as a shock to the editorial board? 

The second point that the editorial board took great issue with was the environment minister’s comment that the federal government will no longer be using infrastructure dollars for road-building. The actual quote from the minister in the editorial is “without more enlargement of the road network.” This still leaves open the possibility of funding for some road projects such as the flood-proofing of existing roads. Moreover, road construction is a provincial – not a federal – responsibility. I am quite confident that provincial governments will not stop building new roads.  

Finally, I want to say that I hope that this particular editorial is not a sign of things to come now that Brunswick News is owned by the Postmedia organization. 

Dan Horsman 

Fredericton

Staffing for hospital hard to find

There are young adults/parents who are suggesting that New Brunswick builds a new children’s hospital. (Parents want children’s hospital in N.B., Feb. 25)

Where would we find nurses, doctors, administration staff etc…to operate this hospital? Where do these young parents think that the money will come from?

Pat Hebert

Moncton