R-C-M-P in New Brunswick have issued a national alert after an inmate escaped from Southeast Regional Correctional Centre in Shediac.
Mounties say 35-year-old Todd John Lewis jumped a fence and ran off toward Route 15 late Thursday afternoon.
He was previously charged with weapons-related offences and is considered armed and dangerous.
Police are advising the public not to pick up hitchhikers and report anything suspicious immediately.
(The Canadian Press)
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(NB-Digital-Health)
The New Brunswick government has released a strategy to develop a more modern digital health system.
The work will include implementing a new electronic medical records system for doctors.
The government is adding 1.75-million dollars to the budget of a tentative new physician services agreement to pay for the work.
Premier Susan Holt says the strategy will give doctors the tools they need to spend more time with patients.
(The Canadian Press)
(Atlantic Update by The Canadian Press)
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(NB-Youth-Gang-Prevention)
The federal government is investing just over 628-thousand dollars for a youth gang prevention project in Saint John.
The money is earmarked for the John Howard Society of New Brunswick through Public Safety Canada’s youth gang prevention fund.
The project aims to help people aged 12 to 30 who may be at risk of getting involved in gangs by giving them support to make more informed choices.
It includes personalized care plans, mental health supports and life skills development to promote resilience and reduce recidivism. (The Canadian Press)
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(NL-Pandemic-Restrictions)
The Supreme Court of Canada has ruled that pandemic-era travel restrictions in Newfoundland and Labrador were “reasonably justified.”
The government’s response to the outbreak included a temporary order to restrict entry to the province by most non-residents.
The court said in a decision Friday that the policy did violate mobility rights but that was justified under a section of the Canadian Charter of Rights and Freedoms.
The case was launched by a Nova Scotian woman who could not attend her mother’s funeral and claimed the ban was unconstitutional.
(CBC News)
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(NS-Return-To-Work)
The largest union in the Nova Scotia government is speaking out about the province’s plan to end remote work this April.
The union says the change will impact between 25-hundred and three-thousand employees, with half in the Halifax area.
It says many union members have had flexible arrangements since the pandemic in 2020, and have built their lives around them.
The union says the move will worsen traffic in downtown Halifax and it’s concerned the government doesn’t have enough space to accommodate all its workers.
(The Canadian Press)
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(NS-Deficit)
Nova Scotia’s official Opposition leader is taking aim at the P-C government’s 1.4-billion dollar deficit that she says is driven in part by spending happening behind closed doors.
Claudia Chender says it’s irresponsible that government has been spending about a billion dollars a year over its budget — outlays that are not authorized by a majority vote in the legislature.
She says it needs to be clear with Nova Scotians about where money is going as the deficit balloons.
The province is set to release the next budget during the sitting of the legislature that begins February 23rd.
(The Canadian Press)
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(NS-Wind-Farm-Approval)
Nova Scotia says the Aulds Cove Wind Project in Guysborough County received environmental assessment approval yesterday, contingent upon complying with 58 conditions protecting the environment and human health.
Construction of the wind farm will begin in late 2026, employing as many as 150 people during the build.
The farm is scheduled to open in late 2027, and the province says about a dozen people — full- and part-time — will be employed for about 25 years and generate an estimated 1.21-million dollars in municipal tax revenue each year.
The project is expected to generate about 147 megawatts of clean electricity from up to 21 seven-megawatt turbines, reducing Nova Scotia’s annual greenhouse gas emissions by about 294-thousand tonnes. (The Canadian Press)
