Fredericton, New Brunswick has been featured as a Google Earth Cities in 3D success story.

In January 2010 over 100 3D representations of buildings were added to Google Earth. These models are photo-textured and have quite a bit of detail in them.

The City of Fredericton in collaboration with the nearby Canadian Forces Base Gagetown’s Army Learning Support Center for Tactics School developed the models. The city provided a lot of the data and the Armed Forces group created the models which they use for simulations and tactical training.  They also integrated the 3D models into a first person game to teach tactics and for simulating various possible scenarios.

By uploading and sharing the models with the rest of the world through Google’s cities in 3D program, the groups have allowed others to get a different perspective. As a fringe benefit, it strengthens Fredericton’s reputation as a city on the forefront which understands, promotes and uses technology in everyday life. Considering that Fredericton is a high tech city and home to IT firms such as RIM, CGI, Radian6 and the National Research Council, this is a good reputation to promote.

The corner of King Street and York Street in 3D

The Trinity Development Group has a map of planned development of the Corbett Centre.  According to the map it appears that the electronics big box store Best Buy is planning to set up in Fredericton.  Other stores that appear to be slated for the Corbett Centre include home fashion store Bouclair and a new Tim Hortons. The long rumoured Tim Hortons store would fill in the gap (according to some Tim’s addicts) created by the closing of the Regent Mall location last year.

The Trinity site claims that these new stores will open in the spring of 2010 while Costco’s planned warehouse store is marked as a highly unlikely Fall 2009.  Perhaps these are construction start dates as opposed to store opening dates.

New Competition in Town?

A new Best Buy store would likely be the second store in Atlantic Canada after a recently opened store in Dartmouth, NS. A new Best Buy which sells laptops, big screen televisions, digital cameras and other electronics and opening would not only bring some needed competition to the current electronics giant in town Future Shop but it would also be a win for Fredericton in the ongoing battle with Moncton and Saint John to attract retailers to their cities.  Is Fredericton gaining an upper hand in attracting retailers to its city?

Are there any other retailers that you’d like to see open up in Fredericton?

Fredericton, New Brunswick based PQA – Professional Quality Assurance has announced its intention to grow its workforce from the current 91 to almost 400 over the next three years.  The province of New Brunswick has announced an assistance program for PQA which will see an average of $7544 per full time permanent employee that PQA hires over the next three years.  This assistance is for training and equipment for these new hires.

Who are PQA?

Founded in 1997, PQA is a software quality assurance vendor which provides services such as software testing, QA consultants, content quality assurance and e-learning or training development services. They currently have three offices with their headquarters in Fredericton and satellite offices in Moncton, New Brunswick and Dartmouth, Nova Scotia.  With this latest expansion there are hints that PQA will open additional offices in other New Brunswick locations, likely in Saint John but possibly in smaller and economically hard hit cities in northern NB such as Miramichi or Cambellton.

Software Testing is a dirty job

As many software developers know, software testing is very difficult as you become accustomed to the warts and consciously or sub-consciously avoid trouble areas or scenarios in your application when testing.  In addition, software testing, developing training materials and documentation are often pushed back to the end of the development cycle are are often the first tasks to get short changed when the pressure to ship starts to build. By farming out these tasks to a third party, your developers are free to concentrate on developing quality and compelling software.

A fresh, experienced and independent point of view

Just as a third party audit of financial records is a good idea (and often necessary), a third party software quality assurance can give your code a professional and independent critique before it ships to customers. An outsiders’ fresh view of your software may reveal omissions in your documentation or bring to light implicit or explicit assumptions that were made in the software design and development cycle. Identifying and addressing these issues prior to shipping can save a lot of money in fixing software as well as in support costs. Even more valuable than saving on support costs, by fixing problems you can ship a higher quality product and enhance the customer experience. Creating a quality experience for your customer can raise your reputation and brand. Remember: “Every Touch Counts“.

Third party QA can identify software bugs, performance and scalability problems, user experience issues, user interface inconsistencies and documentation issues.  Although some of these problems can be identified and addressed in house, a more thorough assessment by a third party quality assurance vendor can make your product that much more stable and bulletproof as well as give your product that extra usability edge over the competition.

Money well spent I’d say.

For the last few weeks, people in Fredericton and along the Saint John river valley have been anxiously watching the water levels in the river to watch if the river will flood as in 2008.

After a near record snowfall in the winter of 2008-2009, warm and wet weather early in April quickly rose the river levels.  After rising to the flood level of 6.5 m in Fredericton around April 8th, cooler and drier weather allowed the snow melt to slow down.  This allowed the river level to drop more than two meters to 4.35 m, providing people living near the flood zone some breathing room.

And the Saint John River rises

Due to a lot of rain and warmer weather over the last week or so, the river is back on the rise.  New Brunswick’s Riverwatch is now forecasting a rise past the flood stage on Friday morning and rising to 7.0 m on Saturday morning.  Although the weather forecast is calling for dry weather for the next few days, the temperature is also forecasted to rise to over 20 degrees which will increase the rate of melting for the remaining snow that is left on the ground.

Even with the river rising over the official flood level of 6.5 m, at 7.0 m damage to low lying areas should be fairly minimal although I would imagine that a few basements will be flooded.  The river would have to rise over another meter in order to attain last year’s high water mark of 8.35 m ( Map – PDF ) at which point there was extensive damage to many building along the waterfront.

Additional resources:

• Environment Canada’s real time hydrometric data shows present and past river levels through New Brunswick and the rest of Canada
• The city of Fredericton has a Riverwatch site with information including maps of previous flood levels and flood prone areas of the city
• The province of New Brunswick’s Riverwatch site has detailed river level forecasts as well as additional planning and emergency information
• The city of Fredericton has a few webcams which can give you a view of the current river levels

Fredericton Flood Watch 2009

As the snow begins to melt in the Great White North, thanks to the great Fredericton flood of 2008, one question that has been on people’s minds here in New Brunswick is whether or not there will be extensive flooding on the Saint John River again this year. The images of the floods and fear of possible flooding in Fargo, North Dakota and in the Red River valley in Manitoba remind us of what we experienced in Fredericton, Woodstock, Edmunston and all along the Saint John river a short year ago.

From Sean McGrath's Flickr stream

Just like 2008?

Thanks to the NOAA website, we can examine the current snow depth and snow water equivalent for the western portion of the Saint John watershed.  We can also compare the amount to last year’s record amounts as a benchmark.  Luckily it appears that the snow depth and water content is less than last year even though they are both above normal in most areas.

NOHRSC Interactive Snow Information.

Unknown factors

There are still several additional factors which could affect  the possibilities of flooding this spring.  Rainfall and the quickness of the snow melt can have significant impacts on the water levels in the river.  Last year’s floods were caused in part by a large storm which dropped over 100 mm of rain in the upper Saint John river valley in northern NB, Maine and eastern Quebec just as the snow melting was taking place.  Another large storm of similar magnitude or a quick warming trend could quickly increase the river’s water levels and make all previous predictions useless.

And the rain falls

The last weekend (April 4-5) brought some heavy rains over New Brunswick and the weather forecast for the rest of the week is calling for more rain which does not bode well for keeping the river under flood levels.

Due to the recent rain and warm weather, there is already some flooding being caused by ice jams in the upper Saint John river valley near Hartland. Tributaries such as the Nashwaak and Oromocto river are also nearing flood levels. The water level in the Saint John river at Fredericton has also risen dramatically in the last few days going from 2.5 m to a current reading of near 5 m with a forecasted rise to 5.8 m by Wednesday. Flood stage is defined as 6.5 m while the high water level during last year’s major flood was 8.36 meters.

Hopefully the river will crest near flood levels and spare people living along the river a lot of grief.

The eighth annual Silver Wave Film Festival is taking place in Fredericton, New Brunswick this week from Thursday November 13th until Sunday November 16th.  Screenings will take place at Tilley Hall on the UNB campus, the Charlotte Street Arts Centre and the Centre communautaire Sainte Anne.

Not the Toronto International Film Festival

Although it is a smaller film festival with 82 films being screened compared to the 312 film week-long extravaganza called the Toronto International Film Festival, the Silver Wave Film Festival is big enough to bring in directors, producers and other film industry professionals to town for the weekend to give presentations and workshops for budding film enthusiasts.

Local and International

Part of the goal of the Silver Wave Film Festival is provide a venue to showcase local films and talent. As usual, this year’s line-up features a large number of local and regional films with almost half of the screenings being from New Brunswick.  However, there is also international flavour to the festival with several international films being screened including feature films from the UK, Mexico and the United States along with shorts and documentaries from other countries such as Germany.

One of the stand out events for me include the opening gala screening of the Moncton, New Brunswick shot Growing Op (trailer)which has received rave reviews.  Another interesting showing will be Gruff and Ready: The Mazzuca Story which profiles the locally famous Mazzuca brothers.  There are several other interesting shorts and features being screened throughout the weekend that I hope to catch.

Bigger and Better

It looks like an exciting festival line-up and it seems to keep getting better every year.  It really is nice to have an opportunity to see something other than the multi-million dollar budget predictable ho-hum Hollywood movies.  Looking forward to 2009’s Silver Wave line-up.

Two Fredericton IT firms have recently merged to create a powerful Atlantic Canadian provider of information technology and management services.  Accreon which has 65 employees is acquiring ISOMNI and its 25 employees for an undisclosed sum.  With this acquisition, Accreon becomes of the largest independent IT services companies in Atlantic Canada.

Accreon, itself created out of a merger of three small companies, Evention Technologies Inc., AdvansysTMC and Redcliffe Group has also recently been named placed in the respectable position of 229 in the prestigious Branham 300 which is a listing of the top 250 Canadian IT companies (along with 25 multinationals and 25 “up and commers”).  Accreon joins other New Brunswick IT companies CARIS at 143, Mariner Partners at 206 in the listing.

I am hoping to see some good growth out of Accreon.  Hopefully the acquisition of ISOMNI will give them the expertise and the size to land some larger clients and contract in the near future.

See also : Accreon grows with acquisition of ISOMNI from the Daily Gleaner

Assessing the flood damage

If you are interested in seeing the extent of the damage from the great Fredericton flood of 2008, there are several videos and pictures available on the internet. I will list a few of the better sites and video which show how the Fredericton area has been impacted by this 2008 flood.

Fredericton Flood 2008 videos

May 3rd – 30 minute video (and pictures) from the government of New Brunswick taken from a boat on the river surveying damage in the rural areas of Maugerville and Sheffield.

May 1st – 36 minute aerial video (and associated aerial pictures) from the New Brunswick government of the Fredericton area starting at Lincoln, flying west over the downtown Fredericton area and continuing upstream on the south side over the river to Mactaquac Dam. The video then continues back to Fredericton on the north side of the river and continues downstream to Maugerville before circling back upstream to downtown Fredericton. Unfortunately the video is not of the highest resolution so it often hard to see the flooding particularly in the city except in obvious areas such as the Westmorland street bridge. The last couple of minutes of video however do have a better look at downtown Fredericton and the extent of the flooding. The devastation in the rural areas of Maugerville and Sheffield is readily obvious however.

A YouTube search Fredericton flood for Fredericton also has a few personal videos of the 2008 Fredericton flood from the ground.

On the ground flood pictures

There are several bloggers posting on the ground flood pictures including Charles Leblanc and MacBros.

Some major media sites, in particular the CBC and have also created a section on their site where people can post their own flood pictures and videos.

A Flickr search for “Fredericton flood“also brings up more 1300 photographs taken from various people around the city.

Fredericton is flooding

It appears that the spring of 2008 will go down in the books as a bad flood year for Fredericton and the Saint John river. Over the past few weeks warm weather has quickly melted a large amount of snow in the Saint John valley watershed. There was such a large amount of snowpack which had accumulated over the winter that in the last week of April, the river has reached and surpassed the flood level of 6.5 meters. In fact the river reached 7.2 meters on April the 24th. Luckily, the following weekend was nice and dry which allowed the water levels to subside slightly back down to the 7.1 meter level which while above flood level is not a level which impacts too many people or a lot of property.

And the rain falls down…

This week however the weather has turned against us with a very large rainfall on Tuesday which is forecast to continue until Wednesday morning. This rainfall could dump over 100 millimeters of water over the Saint John river watershed which will quickly raise already high water levels by a significant amount. There is also some rain forecast for Friday and late in the following week as well.

How high will the Saint John go???

The New Brunswick government’s RiverWatch program is predicting a rise of the river in Fredericton to the 7.4 meter level on Wednesday morning and the 8.2 meter level on Thursday morning. If their predictions are accurate, this spring flood would be second highest recorded water level after the 1973 flood in which the Saint John river crested at 8.61 meters. The last significant flooding event in Fredericton (and the only one that I experienced personally) took place in 2005 when the river crested at 7.83 meters. In 2005, Saint Anne’s Point flooded over which caused traffic detour and delays as all vehicles had to detour though downtown in order to access the Westmorland street bridge. House at low elevations in Fredericton were also affected by the floods on street such as Burpee Street and Waterloo Row. Pictures of the 2005 flood can be seen www.ronniecat.com and at webshots.

Flooding beyond Fredericton

The flooding will also impact residents along the entire Saint John river valley as low lying and rural areas such as Maugerville, Jemseg and Sheffield will be severely affected as the water levels rise and access routes and highways are no longer accessible. These areas have had greater flooding and damage in previous flooding events and there is no reason to believe that 2008 will be any different. Fredericton may get the most media coverage but there are a lot of people outside of the city who are fearing the flood.

Tracking the 2008 flood

There are several resources which can be used to monitor the 2008 Saint John flood. The provincial government’s Riverwatch site tracks water levels on a daily basis and provides a two day water level forecast. The site also contains road closures, alerts, historical information on previous floods and photos (including an aerial video) of the 2008 flood.

Environment Canada also has a stream and river monitoring site which tracks in real time river levels.

I also came across an interesting paper on using GIS for decision support in flood scenarios with Fredericton specifically being examined. There is an interesting map on the third page which shows spring flooding areas as well as a hypothetical flooding event if the Mactaquac dam were to ever fail. Interesting scenario planning…

Here’s hoping for the best

Spring flooding is nothing new to the Fredericton area or the Saint John river valley. In fact a lot of people seem to be used to the flooding and refuse to leave their home to escape the possibility of being stranded. Hopefully the river won’t raise as much as forecast and spare property and home owners along the river. It certainly isn’t easy or cheap to pick up the pieces from a flood.

Let’s hope for a long spell of dry weather…

Update (April 30th): The forecast has been revised for the water level of the Saint John river to rise to 8.6 meters which would equal or surpass the historic 1973 flood.

Other web resources for updates and pictures include:

• The city of Fredericton has flood maps for various river levels including the 8.0 meter level and the 8.5  meter level
  
• Several sites have pictures of the 2008 flood

Update (May 3rd): The Saint John’s water level in Fredericton peaked on 8.35 meters on late in the day on May 1st.  Luckily the water levels have quickly come down and now stand at 7.6 meters with a projected decline to the 7.1 meter level on Monday.

Now the cleanup begins….

The Killarney Cup pond hockey tournament starts on Friday the 22nd at 6 pm at Killarney Lake in Fredericton and will continue throughout the weekend. There are already 65 teams registered with 4 of those being in the Ladies Division and 8 teams in the Over 35 category. This is up from the 61 teams that were registered for the 2007 tournament which was quite a success.

The Killarney Cup which is now in its third year is the last of the four larger New Brunswick pond hockey tournaments. This year, the tournaments started with the Miramichi Rotary pond hockey tournament which took place on the first weekend of February. Next in the pond hockey circuit was the first ever Moncton pond hockey tournament which this year was held on the same weekend as the famous World Pond Hockey Tournament in Plaster Rock, New Brunswick. The Fredericton based Killarney Cup ends off the “pond hockey season” and this year is being billed as the provincial pond hockey championship.

If somebody loves pond hockey, New Brunswick is definitely THE place to be in February!

This year there will be a family skate on Sunday afternoon for any families wanting to enjoy skating in the fresh outdoors.

Although I’m not much of a player I like to check out the action on the lake and I will probably bring my son for the family skate. The weather forecast is calling for some nice weather for the weekend too!  If you need directions to Killarney Lake, Google Maps is your friend.

Below are a couple of pictures from last year’s Killarney Cup:

The 20th annual East Coast Music Awards and Conference are being held in Fredericton, New Brunswick from the 7th to the 10th of February. This is the first time that Fredericton hosts the awards festival and only the third time in its twenty year history that the show will be in New Brunswick (Moncton having hosted in 1997 and Saint John in 2002).

The ECMAs showcase the best and newest of Canada’s east coast musical talent. In previous years artists such as Sloan, Great Big Sea and Sarah MacLachlan were all given recognition thanks to the ECMAs. I’m sure that the next big artist out of the east will be in Fredericton this week too. All weekend there will be some great performances and events including a 20th anniversary gala show on Saturday night and the ECMA award show itself on Sunday night. In addition, almost every club and bar in the city will be packed with east coast bands and artists partying it up.

I imagine with the student population that a lot of the shows will be packed. There is even a special show on Thursday night called Rock the Hill with bands like The Trews, Two Hours Traffic and Grand Theft Bus playing at the Student Union Building on campus.

I hope to see Fredericton support this awards show and make it the most successful one yet. Personally I am planning to check out the songwriter circle at the Playhouse on Sunday with Lennie Gallant. In addition, hip-hop artist Classified is playing on Thursday night at Nicky Zee’s (although not officially as part of the ECMAs) so I am hoping to go to that show. Who knows I might try to sneak out and listen to one of the smaller shows on Friday or Saturday night too. Can’t miss an opportunity to check out some good live east coast music…..

If you want to get a preview of some of the bands playing at the ECMAs, check out this week CBC Radio3 podcast at: http://radio3.cbc.ca/blogs/2008/2/Podcast-141-Toast-To-The-East-Coast

Update: ShoottheBand.com has a list of nominees and predictions for the ECMA awards

The Intelligent Community Forum has released it’s top seven picks for the most intelligent city in the world.  Fredericton, New Brunswick is singled out for its municipal fiber carrier (e-Novations) and Fred-eZone its freely available municipal wireless network.

One must take into account that the Intelligent Community Forum is a “think tank that focuses on the creation of local prosperity and social inclusion in the ‘broadband economy’ of the 21st century.”, so the factors which the forum use to assess cities are probably skewed towards cities with municipal wi-fi and other broadband deployment initiatives.  Unfortunately simply having a wireless network and broadband deployment doesn’t make you smart.  Having the vision to implement this infrastructure is smart but how the infrastructure is used to “create local prosperity” is what I think is very important.

Along with Fredericton, Dundee, Scotland; Gangnum District of Seoul South Korea; Northeast Ohio, USA; Tallinn, Estonia; Westchester County, New York; and Winston-Salem, North Carolina have been shortlisted.  ICF will announce the winner from its top seven list on May 16, 2008.  I’ll keep my fingers crossed that Fredericton wins.  It would be great PR and exposure for the city and New Brunswick as a whole.

Last week Statistics Canada released its Labour Force Survey for the month of November.  As I have done in previous months, I will look at some of the numbers and try to spot some trends especially when it comes to the province of New Brunswick and the Fredericton region in particular.

The headline numbers in this release certainly look good:

• Employment up by 43000 or 2.3%
• Labour force up by over 67000 workers
• Unemployment rate edged up by 0.1% to 5.9%
• Employment rate up to 63.8% which is higher than the United States and most European countries
• Most employment gains were in the private sector

Again manufacturing employment was hit hard as the slowing US economy and the high Canadian dollar continue to create difficult conditions for manufacturers who export mainly to the United States.

In New Brunswick, there are several good items contained in the report:

• Population is up by 500 over October
• Labour force is up by 4100 workers
• Employment is up by 5300 jobs
• Employment rate edges up to 60%
• Unemployment rate drops to 7.2% from 7.6%

If we look at the regional three month averages things get a little murky as the number don’t reflect the strength seen for the one month provincial average.  Most regions appear to have lost jobs including Fredericton (600 jobs) but there appears to be a shrinking of the labour force which offset the job loses and left Fredericton with an unemployment rate of 6.2%.

I imagine that with the recent announcements of the mill closure in Dalhousie and the closure of Shermag in Edmundston the next few release may not be quite so rosy, especially for the northern part of the province.

Last week the New Brunswick Department of Transportation made available its highway cameras online.  There are over 30 cameras which allow users to see road and weather conditions around the province before travelling (or just out of curiosity).

One glaring omission is the lack of cameras along the Highway 2 which being the Trans-Canada highway is one of the busiest highways in the province.  It appears that there are plans to add cameras on the highway in the upper Saint John valley but that still leaves no cameras between Fredericton and Moncton which can be treacherous at times in the winter.

Kudos to the NB DOT for this service.

Update Dec 08: There are now 36 cameras online including some in the Upper Saint John Valley near Woodstock and one on the Highway 2 (Trans-Canada) at the Saint John River Bridge between Fredericton and Moncton. http://www.gnb.ca/0113/cameras/camera-sites-e.asp

Update Dec 09: A few more cameras bringing the total up to 40.  NB DOT have also added a new feature which displays snapshots from all of the highway cameras in New Brunswick – http://www.gnb.ca/0113/cameras/allcams-e.asp

See also New Brunswick Road and highway conditions or dial 511 (in NB) for more information

Last Friday, Statistics Canada released their latest Labour Force Information update. The headline results appear quite rosy.

Nationally, 63000 jobs were created and the unemployment rate fell to a 33 year low of 5.8%. One highlighted detail is that most of the employment gains were in the health care and social assistance fields – taxpayer funded jobs. In addition manufacturing jobs are in decline probably caused somewhat by the strong Canadian dollar which impacts the export sector.

Provincially, New Brunswick had an increase in approximately 700 jobs with an increase of 1600 full time and a decrease of 800 part time jobs; encouraging numbers. Although the population being reported jumped by 500 people, the workforce declined by 2100 workers which is troubling to see. Perhaps this is an indication of the aging demographics of the province or even more troubling is a continued leaking of workers to the western provinces. The increase in jobs combined with the decrease in workers dropped the unemployment rate from 8.2% to 7.6% which is quite a respectable number for a province that had grown accustomed to double digit unemployment.

If we examine the number for the regions within New Brunswick we see a continued decline in population and employment for the northern regions of Edmunston-Woodstock and Campbellton-Miramichi while the southern regions and the major cities appear to be growing in terms of population and employment. This trend does not appear to be reversing in the near future as almost all of the major development projects over the next few years are in the southern half of the province. One of the few economic good stories in Northern NB has been the reopening of the Caribou mine by Blue Note Mining. Hopefully other positive developments will occur in the near future.

The Fredericton region had a bit of a tough month with the three month average showing a loss of 1000 jobs from last month. This pushes the unemployment rate for the region from 6.9% up to the provincial average of 7.3% (again three month average). There have been a few recent large events such as the closure of Connect North America which had a loss of 250 jobs and the shutdown of the M.L. Wilkens mill carried a loss of 70 jobs. Hopefully we will see these numbers turn around for November.

The Verdict

For a bit of history of this case see my previous posts on the subject.

Last Friday, Justice Peter Glennie delivered his verdict on the injunction request by Brunswick News against its former Woodstock Bugle-Observer publisher William Kenneth Langdon and the Carleton Free Press.

The most controversial portion of the requested injunction which asked for a prohibition against soliciting 15 selected advertisers (presumably the most profitable 15) was struck down. However another portion of the injunction which prohibits Langdon from using confidential information in his running of the weekly Carleton Free Press. In addition Langdon is prohibited from trying to hire Brunswick News employees until June or until the lawsuit against him is settled, whichever comes first.

All of the turmoil hasn’t prevented the Carleton Free Press from releasing its inaugural issue which was published Tuesday October the 30th and indeed I would argue that the press of the trial has given the upstart paper huge exposure. The story of the trial and the Carleton Free Press has made national news in the Toronto Star and international news a story on October 29th and November 5th in the New York Times.

I also noticed that the newspaper’s website has been updated but is still only showing a “Coming Soon” message.

Although no longer classified as a hurricane but a post-tropical storm, Noel is headed for the Maritimes and headed my way.

It has been raining since 5 o’clock and the wind has really picked since 7 o’clock. The forecast is calling for up to 100 mm of rain and winds up to 120 km/h which is hurricane force winds. At 10 pm, Environment Canada is measuring gusts of wind up to 65 km/h in Fredericton and gusts of 74 km/h in Saint John.

Luckily right now, the tides are not near maximal and so the storm surge on the coast shouldn’t be too much of a problem although with forecasts of 12 -13 metres waves there may still be some issues.

I simply hope that New Brunswick and Nova Scotia come through unscathed and there is not too much to clean up over the next couple of days. With hurricane Juan, we saw what kind of devastation a storm of this magnitude can bring. Already at 10:30 pm, NB Power is reporting that over 3000 customers in NB are without power with 2000 of those in Fredericton. With the storm intensifying over the next few hours and overnight, I have a feeling that I’ll be losing power.

This is the third part of the Irving owned Brunswick News versus the upstart Carleton Free Press headed by William Kenneth Langdon.  Part 1 and Part 2 are available as background on the soap opera / court case.

At the continuation of the injunction hearing against Ken Langdon, Brunswick News has decided to scale back its injunction request from a complete ban preventing Mr. Langdon from contacting advertisers, suppliers and contractors of the Bugle-Observer to a ban preventing solicitation of 15 key advertisers and certain contractors including correspondents and paper delivery workers.

Mr. Langdon and his lawyer dismissed the changes and claimed that they are effectively the same and they argue that the concession is not a real concession when the volume of business from the unnamed 15 clients are taken into consideration.

Unfortunately after two days of arguments, the judge has reserved his decision on the requested injunction until Friday November 2nd.  The date for a complete trial against Mr. Langdon hasn’t been set yet.

Another fact in the case that was brought up at the now deleted Gypsy-blog (http://gypsy-blog.blogspot.com/2007/10/carleton-free-press.html) is that the new Carleton Free Press is not owned by Ken Langdon but by a (some?) prominent businessman in the Woodstock area.  I have also read conflicting evidence as to when the first edition of the Carleton Free Press is to be released.  Both Tuesday October 30th and Thursday November 1st have been put forward by various internet sources.  I would think that the latter is more likely being that Thursday is the beginning of the new month.

The Silver Wave Film Festival has announced its list of screenings for this year’s festival which takes place November 8 -11, 2007. There are quite a few New Brunswick producers and productions. Unfortunately most of the NB entries are shorter flicks but the opening gala on Thursday night does feature the film “They Didn’t Make It” which was directed by Joel Thompson and shot right here in Fredericton.

Based on the New Brunswick Film Co-operative website, there appears to be a lot of film activity going on in the province. Nice to see. Now we just need to attract (or create) some major motion pictures.

I have yet to decide what screenings that I will try to attend. I’m favouring the shorts right now because there seems to be a lot of interesting short films there and there is also a large variety. The opening gala of They Didn’t Make It is also sounding appealing.

My previous post on the case of Irving / Brunwick News vs. the former Bugle-Observer publisher WilliamKenneth Langdon stated that the case would be brought to court on October 19th.

According to the CBC, at the course case the judge ruled that affidavits entered into evidence by Mr. Langdon were inadmissible the case. Brunswick News is asking for an injunction which prevents Kenneth Langdon from approaching Bugle-Observer customers, employees or advertisers on behalf of his newspaper. Now I’m not exactly clear what an injunction specifies but would it also prevent Langdon’s co-workers from approaching customers and advertisers? If so, considering the limited amount of advertisers and customers in the Woodstock and Upper Saint John valley, it would severely limit and ability of the Carleton Free Press to compete. On the other hand, could it not backfire and encourage customers to stop being customers or advertisers in the Brunswick owned Bugle-Observer in order to advertise or become customers of the new Carleton Free Press?

The soap opera takes another twist as Brunswick News threatens to sue the CBC over publishing details of the affidavits which discuss some shady anti-competitive business practices. Brunswick News claims that the statement are untrue and thus defamatory.

The injunction which Brunswick News is seeking is still pending a continuation of the trial on Friday the 26th of October.

Whatever way this turns out, if Ken Langdon’s Carleton Free Press does ever get published it will have had a lot of free upfront publicity!

A little soap opera is being played out in western New Brunswick; Woodstock, NB to be precise.

A little background to start:

Brunswick News which is a wholly owned subsidiary of the J.D. Irving Ltd. the privately conglomorate. Irving, mainly through Brunswick News has a virtual monopoly on publishing in the province of New Brunswick by the fact that it owns every English language daily newspaper and with the exception of two small weeklies, every English language weekly as well. Every attempt at competition has been bought out by Brunswick News or has been squeezed out of the market. Their stranglehold on the New Brunswick media has been noted in several articles.

Back to the soap opera…. In Woodstock the publisher of the Brunswick News owned Bugle-Observer recently resigned with the intention of starting up his own newspaper: the Carleton Free Press. None too pleased with this turn of events and a possible competitor, according to the CBC, Brunswick News is suing the former publisher William Kenneth Langdon alleging that he is using confidential information from the Bugle-Observer in order to start his own newspaper. In addition, Brunswick News is requesting an order preventing Langdon from contacting Bugle customers, employees or advertisers. Talk about stiffling the competition!

Even more bizarre, Irving managed to get a rarely used civil search warrant to enter Langdon’s premises and seize documents related to his employment at the Bugle including flyer routes, advertising rate and income statements.

A court date is set for October 19th.

Doing a bit more digging, I found that web based news site justFRED will be creating the online version of the Carleton Free Press according to a blog posting on their site.

Judging from their push to online blogs, a new French new website and this recent drama, I’d say that Brunswick News is a little scared of web based reporting (in addition to old school newspapers) taking over their turf and more importantly some of their advertising revenues.

Statistics Canada released the latest employment figures for the month of September 2007 last Friday.

As I suggested last month, this month’s report would include numbers from a few large layoffs such as the UPM mill in Miramichi.\  Despite this, the provincial economy only lost 100 jobs in the month.  This number does mask the fact that 600 full time jobs were lost while 500 part-time jobs were created.  Unfortunately part-time jobs are typically lower paying jobs and they are certainly lower paying than unionized paper mill jobs.

There is some good news in that the reported New Brunswick population has increased by 500 (rounded, of course) in the last month and the labour force increased by 2200 as well.  One question that comes up is the reason for this large labour force increase relative to the population growth.  Is it as some suggest that the job market is rosy so that people who had given up and stopped actively looking for work, and hence left the labour force are coming back to the job market?  The increase in labour force might also come out of necessity as a single earners lose their high wage job and now dual incomes are needed in order to maintain the lifestyle and provide the necessities.  Hopefully it is more of the former.

With the increase in the labour force and the decrease in jobs, the unemployment rate increased from 7.7% to 8.2%.  The local number in the Fredericton-Oromocto region don’t look as rosy either.  The sample sizes are small and hence the need for three month moving averages as opposed to the monthly provincial number.  The three month moving average for employment dropped 70.9 to 69 thousand.  Ouch.  The year over year numbers still look very good but September’s numbers are worrisome.

Statistics Canada focused on New Brunswick’s year to date numbers – “New Brunswick had the second-strongest employment growth (+2.5%) in the country so far this year. However, the unemployment rate rose by percentage points to 8.2% in September, the result of more people looking for work.  Unfortunately this statement is what was picked up by the media and thus spinned the job numbers as a positive.  The truth is a little dimmer….

In Atlantic Canada, there is only one federally inspected beef plant Atlantic Beef Products which is located in Albany, PEI. Unfortunately, the processing plant has lost over $10 million over the last three years since it was opened and is in danger of closing after the PEI government announced that it will no longer cover the plant’s losses.

There does appear to be hope for the beef plant as detailed an article by the CBC.

The thing that frustrates me about this story is that it is very difficult to find products from the plant here in the Maritimes in order to support them.  As far as I know, the only place in Fredericton which carried their products is the Atlantic Co-op store.  Unfortunately you need to be a member of the Co-op to shop there and it is at the complete other end of the city from where I live.  Why do the major chains such as the Atlantic Superstore and Sobey’s support their local producers and carry their products?  Is it simply because it is easier to deal with Maple Leaf and other large companies and have them ship their products half way across the country instead of having to manage relationships with regional players?

I have already shifted some of my buying over to a store called “Pete’s Meat Market” which carries a much larger selection of local produce than the major chains (and usually at better prices!).  My hope is that the major supermarkets will wake up and support local producers but I certainly won’t hold my breath.

On Friday the 7th Statistics Canada released the latest Canadian employment figures (The Daily, Friday, September 7, 2007. Labour Force Survey).

Although the headline grabbing unemployment rate has gone up from 7.2% to 7.7% in August this masks very positive trends in the labour market.

1. Employment has gone up by 1000 (rounded) jobs – a gain of 1800 full time jobs and a loss of 700 part-time jobs – 13000 more than September 2006.
2. The provincial labour force has gone up by 3100 people – a gain of over 8000 from Sepember 2006
3. The province’s population has gone up by 400 people which is more than 2000 people more than stated in the September 06 release
4. Participation rate up to 64.1% from 63.7% – up from 63% in September 2006.

All of these are positive trends and need to continue.

If we look closer at the various economic regions specifically the Fredericton-Oromocto economic region, we see some interesting numbers. In the past year, the population has increased by approximately 500 people but the number of people in the labour force has increased by 2300. The number of jobs has risen by 3600 dropping the unemployment rate to 5.5% and pushing the participation rate to 72.1% the highest in the Atlantic provinces, in fact the highest east of Ottawa. The employment rate in the region is also at a high 68.2% the highest employment rate east of Manitoba.

Things certainly seem to be going well in the Fredericton Oromocto area.

Other economic regions have mixed numbers with the northern regions of Cambellton and Edmunston having dropping population while the southern regions appear to be doing fairly well with both population and employment.

Unfortunately the labour force survey has a reference point of August 15th and so it does not take into account the layoff of 620 people at the UPM mill in Miramichi nor the 400 call-centre layoffs at Connect North America in Fredericton and Bathurst in late August.

I have a feeling that next month’s report won’t look quite as nice.

I must congratulate Fredericton’s city council for forging ahead with development of a downtown conference centre.

The proposal for a conference centre has been on the books for about 3 years but there has always been some hesitation due to unknown funding support from provincial and federal sources. The provincial government has pledged 5 million dollars towards the project but the federal government has not yet committed any money and in addition, any attempt to get Ottawa on board with the project has been met with excuses and delays.

Finally last Monday (Aug 27th), the city’s council voted to move ahead with the project instead of waiting to get funding from the federal government. I think that it is about time that we stop expecting to have federal involvement in every little project. Sure it is nice to have funding and additional support but it continues to perpetuate New Brunswick’s dependence on the federal government. Also by requiring federal funding, the government du jour in Ottawa effectively has veto power over projects in the province. Projects could be held up or executed based on the whims of the prime minister regardless of whether the project is good for the province or not.

I hope that the convention centre proceeds as planned and is a great success with or without federal government involvement.

I am quite happy to hear a few good news New Brunswick economic stories in the news lately.

The biggest announcement has been Potash Corp.’s announcement that they will build a new potash mine in Sussex, New Brunswick. This construction phase of this project has an estimated cost of $1.7 billion and is projected to create the equivalent of 2500 man hours of work as well as expand the ongoing mine workforce by 140 employees. The plan is that once completed, the new mine will replace the existing mine. Despite this the output from the mine will more than double from 800000 thousand tonnes to 2 million tonnes per year. This is good news not only for the Sussex area but impacts should be felt across southern New Brunswick from additional goods moving through the port of Saint John to additional work for engineering firms in Fredericton. The catch is that the provincial government has given Potash Corp a three year royalty holiday for potash and salt produced from the new shafts as well as a royalty reduction from 6.25% to 5.25% for potash and from 3.5% to 2.5% for salt for 5 years after the initial royalty holiday. Although some have complained that the province is giving up too much in royalties, overall this is still a very positive development. I would have to agree with David Campbell who would like to see incentives used to encourage value added manufacturing with the potash as opposed to simply shipping the raw potash offshore.

Another positive news story has been AV Group announcing expansion plans for its Atholville and Nackawic pulp mills. I recall seeing figures of $20 million but I can’t find any references and I can’t recall if that was for both mills or only for the Nackawic mill. I am a little worried by the tone of the CBC article covering the story as it implies that the company is trying to eek out more concessions from the government. This is after the provincial government put in a large amount of money when AV Group originally bought the mill in 2005. Hopefully the expansion will occur regardless of the provincial government involvement.

The base metals sector also seems to be getting some investment with ADEX Minerals announcing development plans for a tin and indium mine at its Mount Pleasant property in southwestern New Brunswick.

It is refreshing to see some good news in the New Brunswick economy. Hopefully we will soon see some good news for northern NB which has been have a terrible time with the forestry industries heavily impacted as well as increasing out migration.

The Fredericton trail system really is one of the city’s nicest assets. In my previous entry, I discussed my suggestions for improvements to the city’s trail system. I’d like to elaborate a little more on specific sections of the trails that should be examine for expansion or improvement. For a nice map of the current trail system click here (PDF).

North-South trails

Thanks to the railways forming the base for the Fredericton trail system as well as the geographical features such as the Saint John river, most trails run east-west in the city (the exceptions being the Nashwaak and Gibson trails on the North side which follow the Nashwaak river). There is a desperate need to have some trails running North-South. Except perhaps through O’Dell Park it is impractical to expect a fully dedicated bike path but by putting cycling lanes on York, Regent or Smythe street one could easily access the top of the hill and the UNB woodlot area which already has great recreational trails. Another North-South link should be examined on the North side perhaps up Brookside Drive to allow easier access to the Brookside Mall area and if lengthened all of the way up to Killarney Lake another Fredericton recreational gem.

Crossing the Saint John River

There are currently only two places to cross the Saint John river: the old railway bridge and the Westmorland Street Bridge. If anybody has crossed the Westmorland Street bridge on a bicycle will know that it isn’t the nicest place to cycle. Between avoiding pedestrians on the narrow path/sidewalk and getting onto and off of the bridge, crossing the river is definitely not a pleasant experience. Another way over the bridge involves trying to share the busy highway full of cars zooming by without getting clipped. The walking bridge in comparison is a delight to cross (except for the post 10 km/h speed limit). There are a few ways to address the problem. Upgrading the Westmorland Street bridge crossing by widening the current crossing or perhaps creating a crossing on the south or east side of the bridge might allow for a nicer crossing. Another possibility would be to create a walking / cycling bridge across the old Carleton Street Bridge piers. At a reported cost of $670000 to build the pedestrian bridge over Saint Anne’ s Point drive, I doubt that this would be financially be feasible although if done, it would be a huge asset for the city.

I must commend the city however on its foresight to equip Fredericton city transit buses with bicycle racks. Although I haven’t had the opportunity to make use of them, it is nice to know that they are there.

It appears that Fredericton is getting its own micro coffee roaster! Nancy and Jon from Paradise Imports on York Street (near King) are starting in-store roasting of fair trade beans. I will definitely have to try it out once it opens.

Having lived near the St. Lawrence Market in Toronto and having access to fresh roasted coffee beans, I long for freshly roasted beans. Mmmmmmm.

Until then I’ll have to stick with my current JustUs fair trade coffee which is made in Wolfville, NS.

Openstreet map is an open and free map source that can be used in applications, websites or for any other purpose that you can imagine.

Why?

“What’s the point?” you might ask. I can just use Google or Yahoo maps and just use their API to serve my needs. Although Google Maps and Yahoo Maps allow you to create and use their mapping services for free, there are several restrictions imposed by these sites. For example Google Maps terms of service prevents you from using the data outside of Google’s service. It is therefore a violation of Google’s terms if you attempt to cache maps for offline use in an application (which seems to be an obvious use case of map data). For more info see: http://wiki.openstreetmap.org/index.php/FAQ#Why_don.27t_you_just_use_Google_Maps.2Fwhoever_for_your_data.3F

How?

Openstreetmap attempts to create a completely free and open map source for programmers and users. In the same spirit as Wikipedia where users submit content for encyclopedia articles, Openstreetmap is created by the users. Users capture geographical co-ordinates using inexpensive GPS units. The GPS tracks are then tagged and uploaded to the Openstreetmap servers where they are combined with other users marked up traces to create maps.

Collecting data :

Using a GPS or GPS enabled device, you record your location as you move about by foot, by bike or by car. Personally I have been using my Nokia N800 Internet Tablet combined with an HP Bluetooth GPS device. I use maemo mapper to capture and view and save my tracks as I drive about my business whether that is going to work or driving to the store. Saving tracks or paths generates a GPX file which is simply an XML file which contains a series of latitude/longitude points with an associated time stamp.

Tagging and editing paths:

With a GPX file, one has the basic information required for a map. Indeed, you can simply upload a GPX file to Openstreetmap and hopefully somebody will annotate it and add details to it. It is much more desirable however if the person collecting the GPS data also marks up the path with additional information.

Although one can mark up a GPS trace using OSM’s online site, it is easier to use a standalone program called JOSM (Java Openstreetmap). It is necessary to mark “ways” on the track which indicate where the roads or features being mapped are located by using the captured GPS points as a reference. Why not simply use the captured points as a way? By marking up the ways, it is possible to smooth out features to take into account GPS errors. It also allows OSM to use fewer segments greatly easing the processing burden. For example, a straight line road can be delineated by two points and a connecting line between them while the GPX track might have tens or hundreds of positional points to deal with.

JOSM application examining a captured GPS track.

Once a way is defined, you can add various annotations or “tags” to it such as the type of highway (primary, secondary, etc.) and the name of the road. See here for a little of common conventions when creating tags.

Once all of the appropriate tags have been added, it is time to upload the maked up track to the OSM servers for everybody else to see. One disappointing thing about OSM is that currently the maps on the server are updated with uploaded tracks once a week (Wednesday night I believe). This current setup unfortunately removes the instantaneous satisfaction and feedback when uploading data that a site such as Wikipedia gives users.

Although I thought that I would be the first to upload data for the Fredericton area, somebody has beet me to it by a week or so. My first track detailing Lincoln road showed up on the update this Wednesday. Not perfect but it is a good start. I have captured a bunch of other tracks that I now have to mark up and upload.

As Tim Bray points out, points out, Microsoft is setting up a Vancouver office which will help them hire people which they otherwise wouldn’t be able to due to H1B issues. Perhaps Fredericton could do the same of Boston and other northeastern US based tech companies? After all, we now have twice daily flights to Boston and we are not that far from Boston or New York for that matter (although admittedly a little bit farther than the Redmond-Vancouver trip).

Anybody at Business New Brunswick be interested in pursuing this economic development strategy?

nbpolitio at Politics from a New Brunswick Perspective has posted his take on the best 8 New Brunswick premiers. Being brought up in northern Ontario, I didn’t get exposed to a lot of these names growing up. It is a nice refresher on New Brunswick political history and the men who have held power at the Legislative assembly in Fredericton.

Politics from a New Brunswick perspective: The first 8…

I had to laugh at Kelly Lamrock’s (the education minister here in New Brunswick) quote today in the Daily Gleaner.

First a bit of background : Recently the school district 18 here in Fredericton announced a change in policy with regards to busing students after school. Effectively, buses will no longer drop off students at locations outside of the individual school’s busing boundaries. The school district was never obliged to provide this service in the past but it had “generously” performed this service for parents. This change in policy has raised a lot of concern from parents who have relied on busing their children from school to after school programs some of which will no longer be accessible without some alternative arrangements such as a taxi or shuttle. There are petitions to reverse the rules. Also, there is a french school in the Fredericton region.

In the article Busing 101, some parents are claiming that there is a double standard in that the French school (which is run under its own school district) won’t have the same rules as the English schools. Lamrock says:

“One has to be very careful when one raises the language card because if one wanted exactly the same situation I would say, sure,” he told The Daily Gleaner.

“If parents would tolerate one anglophone school in the entire district of Fredericton then its (drop off) zone would be the entire district,” he said.
Lamrock said he seriously doubts that parents are asking him to close all but one anglophone school in District 18.
“If you are going to compare, you have to compare everything,” he said. “You can’t take half of the comparison.”

I just had to laugh…  I’m increasingly glad that I voted for him.

Recently, Fredericton city council held public consultations on a master plan for the city’s bike and trail ways. I haven’t been able to see all of the details that have been presented but I would like to propose (or vote) for a few suggestions:

1) Bike lanes!!! We need dedicated bike lane on some of the city’s streets. The current trail system is awesome as it stands but in order to get to the trails or from the trails to your final destination often requires a scary ride on a busy street. It’s not that I’m averse to driving a bicycle on a street, heck I’ve riding many times in the streets of Toronto but have you seen some of the drivers in Freddy Beach? The only dedicated bike lanes in the city that I am aware on the UNB campus near the student union building. The city really needs to add some of these to help cyclists out.

2) There was a mention that the city would examine the possibility of paving sections of the existing trails. Although it would be expensive, it can greatly enhance the trail experience. It would open up the option of roller blading on the trails which I’m sure that some people would quite enjoy. Paving some of the trails might also allow for better winter clearing allowing people to use the trails safely in the winter.

3) Another possibility that was brought up was the installation of washroom and or fountains at more points on the trails. I think that additional fountains would be a great addition. Thumbs up if it goes forward.

4) Expansion. Any expansion to the trail system would be welcomed by me. It would be quite nice to be able to access Killarney Lake trails through the trail system and I believe that the city will be putting this section in fairly soon. As an aside, if you haven’t seen the new trails up at Killarney Lake go and check them out. Great little park we have there.

5) Enhancing trails outside the city boundaries. Now I don’t expect the city to pay to improve the trails outside the city but adjacent jurisdictions and perhaps the provincial government could help out. Riding on several sections of the trails as soon as you cross the city lines (or shortly thereafter) the quality of the trail degrades quite quickly. This discourages users from making use of the trails for longer rides.

I guess I will have to see what the city proposes but at least they are examining the system and appear to be very serious about improving and enhancing the trails.

There is a relatively new site that appears to have gained some popularity with the parents here in Fredericton.

http://fredkid.com

It has listings of kid friendly events and resources around the city (and surrounding areas) as well as classifieds. Great site to check out if you’re looking for something to do with the kids.