Official Fredericton, NB projects thread

[cj6286]

Originally Posted by Taeolas

As a rider, I have noticed more people on the bus; but my experience is harder to judge because I changed routes when I moved in April, and am now taking my route in the opposite direction. I heard a driver talking a couple days back how the oldest buses are due for retirement as soon as the new ones are active (they have the new ones, just not using them quite yet for some reason). The 3 oldest buses will be retired for good at least; dating back from the late 80's.

I to have noticed a dramatic increase in ridership. The 11 is always crowded when going from Kings Place to the Mall and vice versa. I think it's time to invest in an articulate bus? I've also noticed an increase in the number of people using the buses crossing the river.

Do you have any idea when the new buses will begin to be used?

[Justin6463]

Hey guys, I can confirm what I told you about Papa Johns coming to Freddy about a month ago. It will be beside the Dollarama on Smythe/Dundonald.

[Taeolas]

I know in the mornings, the 13 from the North side is crowded, but it empties out a lot at Kings Place. Still most of the stops seem to see use.

I don't think Freddy is big enough for the articulated buses yet, especially with the corners some of hte routes have. Instead, they should probably run more runs on those routes; we have lots of room left for that sort of expansion still. We just need more buses and drivers I guess. And I don't know when the new buses come in.

Another pizza place in that corner? Interesting; I'm a bit surprised there's enoguh demand for 2 pizza places around there but it is a busy spot. Living on the North side now though I do wish they'd come back over here.

[Freddypop]

Published Tuesday November 1st, 2011

Checking in | Bishop Drive project may leave downtown plan out in cold

A1 By HEATHER MCLAUGHLIN

mclaughlin.heather@dailygleaner.com

Fredericton's downtown hotel project could be on the ropes after a competitor snagged a deal for a Hampton Inn and Suites development at 470 Bishop Dr.

The city's planning advisory committee granted a height variance in September for the proposed 96-room, four-storey hotel with an indoor swimming pool and 200-seat conference centre.

The hitch is that Hampton Inn and Suites is a Hilton hotel chain brand and D.P. Murphy Inc., the Charlottetown company that secured the development rights to build a hotel with a pedway to the city's Queen Street convention centre, had been negotiating to deliver a Hilton Garden Inn to the city centre.

It would be unusual for a city of Fredericton's size to have two Hilton properties.

Add into that the fact that D.P. Murphy Inc. - which purchased property from Gardiner Real Estate in hopes of building a hotel with a bigger footprint and fewer floors than its earlier proposed 11-storey building hotel in the downtown - has extended an offer to downtown tenants to stay on until April 2014.

D.P. Murphy didn't return messages left by The Daily Gleaner on Friday or Monday for comment on the downtown hotel situation.

Asia Beef Noodles Restaurant, Clay Cafe, CDS Financial Group, Fredericton-Silverwood MLA Brian MacDonald and Family Enrichment and Counselling Service Fredericton Inc. are all tenants in the buildings D.P. Murphy Inc. was hoping to demolish so that it could construct a downtown hotel with restaurant and bar. They had originally been given notice to vacate by January, but now have verbal offers to remain until the spring of 2014.

Don Fitzgerald, the city's executive director of strategic initiatives, said the Hampton Inn developer for Bishop Drive isn't D.P. Murphy Inc.

"We are continuing to have conversations and work with our party (D.P. Murphy Inc.) downtown and we're hopeful we can bring them to fruition," Fitzgerald said.

He said he's not convinced that having the Hampton Inn on Bishop Drive automatically excludes a second Hilton development in the downtown.

"The downtown market is different than the uptown market and I'm not sure that they're mutually exclusive," Fitzgerald said. "We're still going on in terms of trying to put our deal together. They're (D.P. Murphy Inc.) working on their designs and plans and it's a challenging site as we've said before and we're hopeful we'll get in the end zone."

Bruce McCormack, general manager of Downtown Fredericton Inc., said the lease extensions would be news to him since their business improvement area association has been working with the Queen Street tenants to try to find them new homes.

"What we understood is that next spring, they would start digging ground," he said. "We've been waiting anxiously for them (D.P. Murphy Inc.) to get their application into planning advisory committee because then it has to go through the rezoning process."

McCormack said it would be a shame if the downtown hotel is delayed. Downtown Fredericton Inc. has supported the city's plan to have a downtown hotel built adjacent its convention centre and it supported the convention centre as a development that would bring business to the city centre.

"My take on it is that the Hilton Garden Inn property is likely dead. At the least, it's on life support," said Doug Williams, president of Capital Region Tourism Association.

"We don't have enough downtown hotel space. That's what we don't have enough of. It's better now that there's the Crowne Plaza and the Delta with two of what I consider mid-tier brands, but my take is that we need another mid-tier brand downtown.

"For tourism, we always want more hotel space ... Our occupancy is higher than it is in plenty of other cities and I think there is the capacity for another hotel," he said.

"Everything that does come downtown helps downtown whether it's more office space or hotel space or residential. It all helps." If D.P. Murphy Inc. finds another hotel chain to do business with, it still has to go through the planning approval process, which adds another three months at the least to the timing of the hotel.

The earliest any project could be approved would be spring, which would likely mean no shovels in the ground until well into 2012.

http://dailygleaner.canadaeast.com/c...rticle/1452365

[cl812]

Originally Posted by Freddypop

Published Tuesday November 1st, 2011

Checking in | Bishop Drive project may leave downtown plan out in cold

A1 By HEATHER MCLAUGHLIN

mclaughlin.heather@dailygleaner.com

Fredericton's downtown hotel project could be on the ropes after a competitor snagged a deal for a Hampton Inn and Suites development at 470 Bishop Dr.

The city's planning advisory committee granted a height variance in September for the proposed 96-room, four-storey hotel with an indoor swimming pool and 200-seat conference centre.

The hitch is that Hampton Inn and Suites is a Hilton hotel chain brand and D.P. Murphy Inc., the Charlottetown company that secured the development rights to build a hotel with a pedway to the city's Queen Street convention centre, had been negotiating to deliver a Hilton Garden Inn to the city centre.

It would be unusual for a city of Fredericton's size to have two Hilton properties.

Add into that the fact that D.P. Murphy Inc. - which purchased property from Gardiner Real Estate in hopes of building a hotel with a bigger footprint and fewer floors than its earlier proposed 11-storey building hotel in the downtown - has extended an offer to downtown tenants to stay on until April 2014.

D.P. Murphy didn't return messages left by The Daily Gleaner on Friday or Monday for comment on the downtown hotel situation.

Asia Beef Noodles Restaurant, Clay Cafe, CDS Financial Group, Fredericton-Silverwood MLA Brian MacDonald and Family Enrichment and Counselling Service Fredericton Inc. are all tenants in the buildings D.P. Murphy Inc. was hoping to demolish so that it could construct a downtown hotel with restaurant and bar. They had originally been given notice to vacate by January, but now have verbal offers to remain until the spring of 2014.

Don Fitzgerald, the city's executive director of strategic initiatives, said the Hampton Inn developer for Bishop Drive isn't D.P. Murphy Inc.

"We are continuing to have conversations and work with our party (D.P. Murphy Inc.) downtown and we're hopeful we can bring them to fruition," Fitzgerald said.

He said he's not convinced that having the Hampton Inn on Bishop Drive automatically excludes a second Hilton development in the downtown.

"The downtown market is different than the uptown market and I'm not sure that they're mutually exclusive," Fitzgerald said. "We're still going on in terms of trying to put our deal together. They're (D.P. Murphy Inc.) working on their designs and plans and it's a challenging site as we've said before and we're hopeful we'll get in the end zone."

Bruce McCormack, general manager of Downtown Fredericton Inc., said the lease extensions would be news to him since their business improvement area association has been working with the Queen Street tenants to try to find them new homes.

"What we understood is that next spring, they would start digging ground," he said. "We've been waiting anxiously for them (D.P. Murphy Inc.) to get their application into planning advisory committee because then it has to go through the rezoning process."

McCormack said it would be a shame if the downtown hotel is delayed. Downtown Fredericton Inc. has supported the city's plan to have a downtown hotel built adjacent its convention centre and it supported the convention centre as a development that would bring business to the city centre.

"My take on it is that the Hilton Garden Inn property is likely dead. At the least, it's on life support," said Doug Williams, president of Capital Region Tourism Association.

"We don't have enough downtown hotel space. That's what we don't have enough of. It's better now that there's the Crowne Plaza and the Delta with two of what I consider mid-tier brands, but my take is that we need another mid-tier brand downtown.

"For tourism, we always want more hotel space ... Our occupancy is higher than it is in plenty of other cities and I think there is the capacity for another hotel," he said.

"Everything that does come downtown helps downtown whether it's more office space or hotel space or residential. It all helps." If D.P. Murphy Inc. finds another hotel chain to do business with, it still has to go through the planning approval process, which adds another three months at the least to the timing of the hotel.

The earliest any project could be approved would be spring, which would likely mean no shovels in the ground until well into 2012.

http://dailygleaner.canadaeast.com/c...rticle/1452365

Thats unfortunate, hopefully it still goes ahead. I personally would rather see the hotel downtown go ahead than the one uptown. It would be good if both were to proceed.

[cl812]

Hanwell and Kingsclear studying possibility of becoming a rural community
Published Wednesday November 2nd, 2011
A4
By HEATHER MCLAUGHLIN
mclaughlin.heather@dailygleaner.com

The local service districts of Kingsclear and Hanwell are considering amalgamation.

A rural community study committee made up of representatives of both local service districts has enough names on a petition to ask the provincial government to launch a feasibility study into the merger.

The process was initiated by the Hanwell local service district, the largest local service district in New Brunswick.

The petition needs to be signed by at least 25 residents from each local service district. It asks Local Government Minister Bruce Fitch to proceed with a feasibility study.

If that feasibility study says the idea has merit, residents of Kingsclear and Hanwell would vote in a plebiscite to determine if they'll join together to create a rural community.

A rural community can form a body corporate, have an elected council, establish community planning and an emergency measures plan, and consider taxation to establish services.

There are five rural communities in the province.

Saint-Andre and Beaubassin-East incorporated in 2006. Upper Miramichi incorporated in 2008. Campobello Island incorporated in 2010, and Grimmer and Kedgwick recently merged.

"We certainly find that locally driven endeavours like this are the way to go," Fitch said. "I don't think top-down, forced amalagamation is going to be the way to go, and the premier (David Alward) has promised we won't have forced amalgamation and I've said it, too.

"We are hoping that people will understand, from a local level, the benefits of getting together and becoming more sustainable. The first step is that we have to have a petition."

Fitch said communities are realizing that if they want to move forward as a unit or to do economic planning, there has to be a structure in place. Local service districts don't have the ability to receive funds, apply for grants, own property and undertake local development projects. In some cases, their numbers are too few to raise the critical mass of taxes to undertake projects.

"I'm hearing in certain areas where they're saying, 'Look, we've got lots of potential and we want to enhance that or promote that, but we just don't have a vehicle to do that,' " Fitch said.

"In some parts of the province, everything is fine and people say, 'Don't bother us,' but there's other parts that are saying, 'We need help because we're losing population, assessment and revenue.' "

Fitch, who held public consultations on rural governance and municipal reform, said he remains committed to bringing forward ideas on changes before the end of the year. Any suggested reforms will be voluntary in terms of rural amalgamations.

Susan Cassidy, chairwoman of the Hanwell local service district, said several years ago Hanwell residents and the local service district advisory committee started looking at options for incorporation.

The community toyed with the idea of village or town status, but three years ago decided to create a subcommittee on the possibility of creating a rural community.

The committee is co-chaired by Hanwell's Peter Michaud and Kingsclear's Pierre Beaudoin.

The committee hosted public information sessions in October and has begun the task of gathering signatures for the feasibility study request.

"They're going to continue to work at that to acquire further larger numbers and to keep informing people ... They've had a number of information sessions and opportunities for people to sign petitions, and the current rural community committee has the petitions in their possession and they're gathering signatures right now," Cassidy said.

Michaud said they're shooting for mid-December to present the petition to the province.

"We want to go out and meet with people in the community ... We're working with different communities in the area to see when we can attend some of their functions and talk about getting the feasibility study off the ground," Michaud said.

Information is also posted on the Hanwell local service district website, he said.

"In order to get more information, we need to get a feasibility study done and that will provide us with information so people can make an informed decision - if and when the minister decides to take the next step," he said.

The process of talking about Hanwell incorporation has been ongoing for several years.

"Generally, the reason we did initiate it was because we wanted to have a say in the direction of how things went for the residents of Hanwell," Cassidy said.

"As an unincorporated local service district, we're at the mercy of our provincial mayor, who is the minister of Local Government and the bureaucrats who work for him. Difficulties have arisen in the past because, as an unincorporated area, we couldn't own any property. We couldn't have recreation areas, develop a baseball field or a little soccer field."

More than a decade ago, the province would have land in trust for local service districts, and that's why some older local service districts in the province do have a recreation centre or a community sports field.

But the province altered that policy. If Hanwell incorporates, it can own property and seek out funding sources apart from taxation to develop facilities.

"We don't even have a community centre where people can meet," Cassidy said.

Not everyone is excited by the potential for a rural community, and some Kingsclear residents are pushing back against its creation.

Even with the creation of a rural community, the provincial government would continue to provide police and fire protection, garbage collection, road maintenance, recreation and community services and animal control. Hanwell and Kingsclear would have a combined population of 6,690 with a collective property value of $588 million.

http://dailygleaner.canadaeast.com/c...rticle/1452624

[cj6286]

Originally Posted by Pugsley

Here is a visual as promised...thoughts?

I stumbled across this and thought it was worth a revival. I hope they do something with that derelict property on the corner of Brunswick and Regent. It's been sitting empty since the bus terminal moved, two years ago? At least do something productive and build a temporary parking lot for the time being...

[mylesmalley]

Interesting idea. That corner is underused at the moment. An office development of that magnitude would be pretty tough all at once though, since you'd be flooding a relatively small office market with a lot of new space. And this comes at a time where Downtown has already picked up one large office building, and there are the two new Knowledge Park facilities nearly done too.

[Freddypop]

There likely won't be new office space until a decision is made what to do with the Cenntenial Building. No developer in his right mind would make a commitment until it is known what the province intends to do with it. They may decide to sell to private sector and turn it into office space.

[OliverD]

As far as I know, the new KP buildings are almost fully leased, though I have heard RIM is taking less space than they initially intended.

[cl812]

More bike lanes planned for city
Published Monday November 7th, 2011
A3
By The Daily Gleaner

City council has directed its legal division to draft a parking ban along the east side of Canterbury Drive between Liverpool and Rochester streets. The parking ban will allow for the installation of bike lanes along Canterbury Drive.

Canterbury Drive is considered a major collector street and will be able to accommodate the bike lane.

Council has approved the preparation of the bylaw. No-parking signs will cost $200 and are within the 2011 sign budget.

http://dailygleaner.canadaeast.com/c...rticle/1453875

[Freddypop]

Published Tuesday November 8th, 2011

City | Hilton-brand project up the hill puts development in doubt

A1 By HEATHER MCLAUGHLIN

mclaughlin.heather@dailygleaner.com

Mayor Brad Woodside is disappointed it looks like a downtown hotel development is on hold, but he said it's only a temporary setback.

Woodside said the developer, D.P. Murphy Inc., is a reliable company and he would like to see it get the downtown hotel deal done.

"The city retains the land and we have been in conversion with Mr. Murphy," Woodside said.

"Mr. Murphy is a very reputable developer and I would much rather have seen him proceed with this project. The important thing here is that we want a downtown hotel and we want it on that property."

That being said, Woodside isn't ruling out the possibility the project could change hands.

"If we can talk to other interested parties, he would be interested in making the land available that he purchased. I don't think that he would stand in the way of that," Woodside said.

The City of Fredericton called for downtown hotel proposals in 2009 and had a fistful of responses.

The city opted to deal with Prince Edward Island-based D.P. Murphy and took a deposit on a piece of land the city owns adjoining what used to be Camperdown Lane.

In April 2010, D.P. Murphy announced it had selected Dora Construction of Dieppe to build an 11-storey Hilton Garden Inn, with a 60-seat restaurant and 30-seat bar.

But the project, which was supposed to begin immediately after city approvals and design approval, started dragging as the city completed of its $78-million Queen Street convention centre, provincial government office building and parking garage.

Given the downtown's soil conditions, D.P. Murphy decided to buy more land so it could reduce the height of the hotel and widen its footprint, making it easier to built.

D.P. Murphy bought adjoining properties from Gardiner Real Estate. Tenants at those properties - including the Asia Beef Noodle restaurant, Clay Cafe, Family Enrichment and Counselling Services, CDS Financial Group, and Fredericton-Silverwood MLA Brian MacDonald - were given notices that their leases would be terminated.

But in the spring, apparently unknown to D.P. Murphy, a third party emerged on the development scene, got a height variance and building permit and is all set to construct a Hampton Inn on Bishop Drive. Hampton Inn is one of the Hilton brands.

Woodside said D.P. Murphy now appears to be involved with the Bishop Drive hotel project as a partner in that venture.

"Unfortunately for the downtown location, they're building two properties and they've decided that the property up the hill will be the first one that they build, obviously thinking that they can generate money quicker.

"The second property is one that is on hold for now. They still have an interest (in the downtown).

"In defence of him (Murphy), it's my understanding that the other party was going after the Hilton brand as well and got it. That's not to say he (Murphy) can't come up with another brand or name or that we can't come up with another developer," the mayor said.

"The bottom line is that the downtown, the business community, thinks it's an important project and we are aggressively pursuing it.

"I'm somewhat disappointed. I consider it a bit of a setback ... It delays it for a little bit, but that's the worst-case scenario."

In the meantime, the convention centre marketing effort is to boost events and delegates coming into the city and that will demonstrate the growing market for a downtown hotel, the mayor said.

Don Fitzgerald, executive director of strategic initiatives for the city, said the city hasn't sold the land it owns and D.P. Murphy hasn't asked for its deposit back.

"They want to go ahead, but the timing is not as immediate as it originally was," Fitzgerald said.

"They're a good developer. We'd like to do business with them."

That being said, Fitzgerald said the city isn't necessarily married to a Hilton project in the downtown, although it does want a mid- or upper-tier brand of hotel to cater to convention centre business.

The city's open to talking to anyone who can bring a hotel along the lines of a Westin, a Marriott or the like. The Wyndham hotel chain, which has both discount and upscale brands, has also scouted the city.

"We wouldn't discount anyone (developer) based on their chain," he said.

Fitzgerald said the city does has the option of starting over, but starting from scratch with a new developer will cost time.

"We're anxious to get this done as quickly as possible," he said.

Woodside said he wants the city-owned land - which had been used as the construction office for the city's contractor on the convention centre development - put to rights. He wants the vacant lot be grassed over and park benches installed to create a pleasant environment for the short-term.

"I don't like the thought of an empty lot," Woodside said.

http://dailygleaner.canadaeast.com/c...rticle/1454056

[Freddypop]

Published Thursday November 10th, 2011

Growing | General manager says one of the new buildings has no more room

A1 By STEPHEN LLEWELLYN

llewellyn.stephen@dailygleaner.com

The mortar is barely dry between the bricks in two new buildings in the Greater Fredericton Knowledge Park and the organization's operators are already thinking about buildings six and seven.

The official opening for two buildings at the Knowledge Park took place Wednesday. Larry Shaw, general manager of the Knowledge Park, right, speaks to the crowd gathered in the lobby of building five. "Well, we don't have anything that's inked on paper, but certainly part of my role is to continue to ... look ahead," said park general manager Larry Shaw.

"These (new) buildings are pretty much full."

He said they have months to make a decision about building.

"Probably in the 2013 time frame is when we will really get serious about breaking ground."

He made the comments after a ceremony to mark the official opening of buildings four and five.

The park was created in 1996 and the first building opened in 1998. There are five buildings with 180,000 square feet of Class A office space and 900 employees in 15 different organizations, said Shaw.

The first three buildings have 30,000 square feet of space each and the last two have 45,000 square feet of space each.

The park contributes $68.6 million to the local economy annually and it pays $900,000 a year in property taxes, he said.

"We will grow very consistently with the demand in the area, and we will be a bit like Field of Dreams," said Shaw.

"We will build some buildings ahead of schedule so that it gives a landing zone for people like Invest New Brunswick ... where they can land those (new) companies and they have a place to start up and they are not trying to solve infrastructure problems just to get a company to locate here or expand here."

Shaw said the two new buildings are almost full. He said building five - 50 Crowther Lane - is fully occupied by Radian6, Bluedrop, CAE and a centre for excellence for advanced learning and technologies, which received nearly $8 million the federal, provincial and municipal governments and the Atlantic Canada Revenue Agency. The knowledge park contributed $600,000.

In building four - 40 Crowther Lane - RIM will occupy the top two floors early in 2012, said Shaw.

"On the ground floor of that building we are working on a variety of different initiatives and, hopefully, what I would like to see us do is actually expand the entire acceleration and incubation strategy for all of the economic development issues and really focus into a very clear incubation environment," he said.

"It's available for opportunities that come along."

Overall the five buildings are more than 90 per cent full, said Shaw.

"We have a long-term plan in place that would see the knowledge park with 16 or 17 buildings," he said.

"We will continue to support the knowledge-based industry's growth and we will continue to play a very strategic part in economic development."

Shaw admitted constructing two buildings worth $14 million in the months following a major economic recession made some people nervous.

"When we broke ground some of our finances had not been put in place and we still had some leg work to do on that," he said.

"But it all came together."

Everyone understood the economy has ups and downs, and infrastructure investments need to be done with a focus beyond the current situation, said Shaw.

"We're coming out of that economic downturn very positively," he said.

The knowledge park is built on land leased from the University of New Brunswick. Gregory Kealy, provost and research vice-president (research) of UNB, said it's crucial all three levels of government continue to invest in the knowledge park and universities.

"In one fell swoop with buildings four and five, we have actually doubled the size of the park," he said.

"In these buildings we really are going to have the creme de la creme of the Canadian IT industry."

But this is just the start, said Kealy.

"If we read the newspapers on a daily basis, we know that New Brunswick continues to face serious problems," he said.

"Canada faces serious problems no matter how relatively healthy and wealthy we are."

"Unless we continue to invest in exactly these kinds of enterprises (the knowledge park and universities), we're not going to be in the game."

"Given the state of the economy and given the budgetary situations and everything else its really important, I think, that everyone understands that the only way these things can happen is if there is investment by government in infrastructure like this."

http://dailygleaner.canadaeast.com/c...rticle/1454749

[Freddypop]

Published Thursday November 10th, 2011

Computers | McKenzie says loss to the industry would be felt across N.B.

A1 By CHRIS MORRIS The Daily Gleaner

New Brunswick is likely about to lose its most prestigious research and development institute due to a change in direction at the National Research Council.

The chairman of the advisory board for the National Research Council's Institute for Information Technology says he believes the institute will be closed. Warren McKenzie, chairman of the advisory board for the NRC's Institute for Information Technology, said Wednesday he expects the institute, which has a facility in Fredericton, will be closed by next spring.

"Unfortunately, it is my belief that IIT will soon cease to exist as an institute and its talent, or at least those who remain, will be absorbed into as-yet-undefined programs," McKenzie said in a speech at a dinner for the University of New Brunswick's faculty of computer science.

"If it comes to pass, this is regrettable."

The software developer, philanthropist and UNB graduate said based on what he has learned behind the scenes, he believes the institute will be closed.

While nothing has been announced about the institute's fate, he believes it's just a matter of time.

"I really hope I'm wrong, but this is my industry," he said in an interview. "I have been intimately involved with the NRC in Fredericton since it was set up."

UNB dean of computer science Ali Ghorbani said losing the institute would be a blow to research and development in New Brunswick. The facility is involved in everything from medical research to helping companies take their products to market, he said.

"The researchers are adjunct professors with us, so they sometimes teach and supervise graduate students," he said of the institute, which is on the UNB campus.

"Also important is the interaction between their researchers and our faculty members - they complement each other in different domains. They also are a good employer of our co-op students and sometimes our graduates end up working in their building ... We would lose so much if it closes."

McKenzie said losing the institute would also be a setback for the development of computer technology in New Brunswick, which is estimated to provide more than 1,000 jobs in the province.

"NRC IIT has been a huge resource for Canada and New Brunswick," he said.

"The leverage of federal dollars through IIT has been five to one. The site in Moncton has been responsible for the discovery of two critical biomarkers for cancer in conjunction with Atlantic Cancer research Institute. With such a proven record of success and the federal government's expressed priority in ICT, which is software dominated, the role of the NRC IIT is impressive."

McKenzie said the decision to close institutes will be made by Ottawa without consideration of the impact on Canada's regions.

"The province of New Brunswick has a significant financial stake in the NRC, a lot of money in it," he said.

"This will be a unilateral federal decision to make these changes. Every province that has been a partner is impacted. I'm not sure everyone realizes just how significant this will be."

McKenzie's comments follow recent public statements by NRC president John McDougall, who said he intends to move the venerable 94-year-old institution away from "curiosity research" toward work on a cluster of key scientific challenges that have the potential to drive Canada's economy.

So far, the short list of four flagship projects includes: research into higher-output wheat strains; printable electronics; composite materials made from biomass; and CO2-ingesting algae.

McKenzie said software development is where it's at in the computer industry.

"Anyone who thinks that software licensing has no value should take it up with Bill Gates," he said.

"Microsoft is a multibillion-dollar world leader because of it."

The NRC Institute for Information Technology is a multi-site organization. It has staff and research programs in Ontario, Quebec and New Brunswick.

All NRC-IIT locations are dedicated to research and development in software and systems technologies, but each site focuses on different areas.

http://dailygleaner.canadaeast.com/f...rticle/1454723

[Taeolas]

Wow a full day and no one posted the great news?

The Princess Margaret Bridge is open again.

On the bus ride home today, I admit, it was a bit freaky to see Westmorland not lined up forever to get to the North side.

[cj6286]

Originally Posted by Taeolas

On the bus ride home today, I admit, it was a bit freaky to see Westmorland not lined up forever to get to the North side.

Hopefully this means the buses will be following the schedules again!

In other news, Station Pointe Village seems to be coming along well-
http://www.colpittsdevelopments.ca/s...-site-map.html

[Justin6463]

Heard the building on King that Coffee and Friends was in was on fire today. Anybody know how bad the damage was?

[OliverD]

Driving home across the Princess Margaret yesterday afternoon was awesome. I'm almost looking forward to my Monday morning commute!

[kirjtc2]

Originally Posted by Justin6463

Heard the building on King that Coffee and Friends was in was on fire today. Anybody know how bad the damage was?

Just a small electrical fire. No major damage.

[cj6286]

According to the Trinity website, it looks like we're getting a Tims, Bouclair and Best Buy. Best Buy will be interesting competition with Future Shop...

http://www.trinity-group.com/index.php?q=node/135

In other thoughts, I hope city council seriously considers re-routing bus routes 116 and 216 to go through the Corbett Centre/Knowledge Park Drive. It might increase ridership?