I must admit that, years ago, I pined for a Starbucks and an Indigo in Saint John. But that was before Java Moose and more recently, Inprint, came on the scene – a local coffee shop and a local bookstore that filled a void long felt by Saint Johners with a taste for strong, high-quality coffee and a good book store to browse through on a Sunday afternoon. Along came Indigo and Starbucks anyway, in spite of – or perhaps because of – existing local options that demonstrated a market was there for quality coffee and book shops.
Perhaps fitting for Saint John, Starbucks first opened a stand-alone, box-store-style outlet on the east side – a striking departure from their urban roots on big-city street corners. It comes as no surprise then that they would open uptown in a mall, rather than in an historic building with a street view. I spent this afternoon marking papers in the new outlet in Brunswick Square. Note to Randy and Glen: A loyal Java Moose person, I promise I won’t go to Starbucks during the week, and I’ll stop going at all if you open the Prince William Java Moose Sunday afternoons. – Mark Leger
Low-income residents encouraged by reforms
The following commentary kicked off the November 19th episode of ‘Serf City’, which featured an interview with Juanita Black, a Crescent Valley resident and community activist, about how low-income New Brunswickers will benefit from sweeping reforms to the province’s social assistance program. Listen to the interview here.
By Mark Leger
Last Friday, I led a workshop with women from Saint John’s low-income neighbourhoods. We were talking about how get media outlets to do stories on initiatives that would improve the lives of people living below the poverty line.
They aired a list of long-standing complaints against a provincial government that made it harder for them to get off social assistance and back into the workforce.
If you’re on social assistance, for example, you get health coverage for prescription drugs, dental work and eye care. If you get a job, you lose the coverage after a year. This is a big deal because most low-wage, entry level jobs have a health plan for employees.
If you and a friend are both collecting social assistance, you’re not allowed to live together. This makes life difficult because assistance rates are often not high enough to help get your life on track by paying down debts, saving money and covering day-to-day living expenses.
So here we have two impediments to living a comfortable, secure life, things most of us take for granted – adequate health coverage and economic stability. Continue reading →
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