It was a pleasure to host my second round of community gatherings in Lincoln, Lincoln Heights, Skyline Acres/Southwood Park, the East Plat/Downtown, and Bishop Drive/Lian-Valcour during the months of September and October. As always, thank you to the City and Town Councillors who joined me to hear from our mutual constituents.

Thank you to all who could make it. Due to the postal strike, we weren’t able to get flyers into all your mailboxes, but we did do mail drops as best we could. I hope you were able to get information about these events. Hearing from you is the best way I can represent your concerns and know what matters to you. Below are some of the things I heard and followed up on from the fall community gatherings.

Lincoln Heights

More effective ban on cellphone use in schools and concerns with the professional development days pilot project: I will raise both of these with our Education Critic Megan Mitton, as the Department of Education is her file at the Legislature.

Reducing the minimum distance from school to qualify for bus service: I have raised this with the School District in the past on behalf of constituents. I concluded that an organized effort to by parents directed to the school superintendent and the District Education Council for our region is necessary to bring about this change.

Update on Energy in NB: Big changes are coming to NB Power. A government appointed panel will make recommendations for restructuring the utility by the end of March. I met with them in November. To increase the percentage of electricity generated by renewable energy will require amendments to the Electricity Act, which I proposed with the tabling of a bill in the Legislature a couple of years ago. This fall I introduced a debatable motion on this subject. I also arranged for briefings on renewable energy by Ralph Torrie, an internationally renowned expert, for the Minister of Energy, members of cabinet, MLAs, and the media.