Many experts think gas is heading toward a $1.50 per litre as we near the summer driving season, but Wilson Fuel VP Dave Collins isn't one of them. Halifax motorists awoke Friday to news gas had climbed to $1.45.4 a litre, a record high since gas price regulation was introduced. Collins blames speculators for the rising price of gas. investors banking on shortages because of some refinery closures in the U.S. Collins thinks prices will top out at $1.47 or so before they start to drop. He's predicting prices in the $1.20 range by summer. Other analysts don't agree. They're predicting prices will remain high through the summer with one suggesting gas will rise as much as 8 more cents a litre by summer. Let's hope Collins is right.
The Chignecto-Central school board's decision to axe its entire library staff is a concern, but with more and more emphasis on electronics like cell phones to aid students, perhaps we should have seen this coming. The board informed its 41 librarians their services will no longer be needed once this school year comes to an end in June. It's being blamed on provincial government ordered budget cuts. The Chignecto board says it was facing a $6.5 million shortfall as a result. The librarians did much more than check books in or out. They also provided research help for students and teachers among other duties. Now kids can just Google the information they seek without much of an effort. It will be hard to imagine schools without libraries, but that seems to be the direction in which our education system's headed. Glad I'm done with it.
Not everyone today has access to computers, and that's why the federal government Community Access Program or CAP was established. The Harper government seems not to give a damn about people unable to afford things like internet access, because now the federal government has chopped funding to the program right across the country. There are just over 200 CAP sites in Nova Scotia providing access to the internet for those needing it. CAP organizers are urging people to contact their politicians to save the program.
It's an accounting thing. So says Defence Minister Peter MacKay in attempting to explain the $10 billion discrepancy in the publicly stated cost of the F35 fighter jet program. The federal auditor general last week released a reporting slamming the government for not revealing the true cost of the aircraft. Publicly the government was saying it was a $15 billion program while behind closed doors it was aware the cost was closer to $25 billion, prompting the auditor general to state Parliament and the Canadian people were being misled about the true cost of the program. Not so says our boy Pete. MacKay says the higher number factors in things like pilot salaries, fuel and other operational costs. But isn't that part of the total package? Thanks for the explanation Mr MacKay, but Canadians see it for what it really is, an effort to keep us from knowing the full details of the cost of a fighter program that is escalating out of control.
Have a great day. Get involved. And if you're not outraged, you're not paying attention.
Rick Howe
