The Legislators

   Michael "Tanker" Malley, MLA for Miramichi-Bay Du Vin asserts that the Miramichi hospital will retain its regional status. What we are seeing is a restructuring as part of an all-encompassing health care strategy put forth by the Lord government.

   "It’s going to make it better," says Malley, acknowledging the cutting of hospital beds but pointing to as much as $2.4 million to be directed toward new equipment and infrastructure for the hospital.

   "We need to cut the waiting times down," Malley says. "Too many of our people are dying every day of cancer. Wouldn’t it be nice if we could cut treatment down from 10 to six months?" Cuts in one area will allow the government to "reinvest the money to bring in more heart surgeons," he offers as one example. Another reinvestment he cites is the increase in vaccination programs for such diseases as whooping cough, spinal meningitis, or any super flu that, as scientists warn, may arise in the near future.

   Still, the hospital issue was a dominating concern in 2004 and remains such into the New Year. Miramichiers showed that they are united in their efforts to defend what they have, by staging protests and demonstrations both at home and in Fredericton. As a member of the governing party, Malley became a lightning rod for public sentiment.

   In addition, it’s Foran’s hope that more training will become available to people, teaching how to begin producing value-added wood products and maximizing what revenue we earn from our forests. Such training should be available even to school age children who can partake in co-op programs to gain a combination of work experience and education, Foran says. Greater assistance for young people is also needed.

   "The community has to get together and form a forum," he says, "and a strategy must be put in place and reviewed on a yearly basis." That community, he adds, should include the whole area, "from Caraquet to Doaktown to Rexton."

   This expanded sphere in which Miramichi may find itself thriving is on the minds of both Malley and Foran. The future may lie in a combination of attracting people from surrounding areas to shop or do business in Miramichi, while also presenting a more unified regional front to visitors from away.

   Malley sees Miramichi as becoming the "Hub of the North" and the "Heart of New Brunswick", primarily through tourist attractions like Middle Island and the French Fort Cove eco-centre/curling club project.

   "Wouldn’t it be great to see the Canadian Brier or the Scott Tournament of Hearts come to Miramichi?" Malley says. "Miramichi is going to be the hottest place in New Brunswick and the top tourist site in northern New Brunswick."

   The city’s central role in this future also includes being a retail and manufacturing base, says Foran, capable of attracting professionals. To do this, he says, "We need good healthcare, and recreation… and we have to sell it."

   In the meantime, the phones of both constituency offices are ringing steadily. There are concerns about social assistance, seniors’ issues, drug assistance programs, and jobs. If you have a concern, your MLAs are there to help.

   Health concerns of a more personal nature surfaced with Miramichi’s other prominent MLA, John Foran, but coming into 2005, he’s "feeling great". His treatments are progressing well and he’s walking up to eight kilometres, three or four times a week.

   Presently, he’s hard at work confronting Miramichi’s other looming problem: layoffs and the future of the UPM-Kymmene pulp and paper mills.

   "We need to know, as a community, what the plans for UPM are for the next five years," Foran says.

   Miramichi may prove to be a touchstone for the forest industry of New Brunswick in general, as we address issues of technology, labour, and supply.

   "We need to develop a better strategy for the province of New Brunswick," says Foran. "There has to be a modernization plan in place."

   Forestry issues must be addressed "immediately" according to Foran who seeks to examine how much money the province is investing in silvaculture, as well as "how much money each mill spends on silvaculture."