Premier Pat Binns said he’s not convinced that the Island is ready for a dramatic change to the electoral system. He has forwarded the report to a legislative committee for more study.
“I would not want to impose a change on an unwilling electorate. I’m not saying they are unwilling. But to this point they have not been engaged despite the efforts of commissioner Carruthers and everyone who has submitted briefs to cause a major groundswell of discussion by Islanders about this.”
]]>MONTAGUE, PE - On-Line Support, Prince Edward Island’s premiere Customer Lifecycle Solutions Provider, has expanded into a new labour market in Montague, PE.
PE Premier Pat Binns describes the local company as a “giant success story”. Premier Binns went on to say, “Before, Toronto and New York had all the advantages, but no longer. Now the playing field is leveled, and Prince Edward Island is an equal player. On-Line Support President and CEO Ross Beattie couldn’t agree more. Mr Beattie added, “You don’t have to be in the same city, or even the same country to do the job. In a corporate world dominated by huge conglomerate, a small company like On-Line Support can take on the big guys and win.”
Montague’s largest employer is sending home most of its staff and moving other jobs to Charlottetown. On-line Support has lost a major client of its Island-based call centre service.
Forty people have been told they’ll be out of work after the holiday. Another 20 have been told to start reporting to Charlottetown.
Ken MacPhee, the chief operating officer at On-line support, said the company has no choice after large telecommunications company decided it doesn’t need an outside call centre.
No sign of the grant press release now at Tech PEI’s site.
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]]>“Former cadet won’t have to pay: Ottawa”, by Jennifer Pritchett, Whig- Standard
Saturday, September 13, 2003 - 07:00
Local News - An officer cadet who was kicked out of Royal Military College and billed $64,000 does not have to repay the cost of his failed education, the Defence Department in Ottawa says.
The Kingston college, the country’s only military university, maintains that Jimmy Hughes should be forced to fork over the cash.
The 23-year-old Prince Edward Island native received the hefty bill for his taxpayer-funded education after he was kicked out of the military just days before he was to graduate in May.
Over his five-year career in the military, he was caught plagiarizing, drinking and committing other infractions.
Though no one – not even Hughes – is disputing the fairness of his release from the Canadian Forces, RMC is trying to force the former cadet to foot the bill when it has no authority to do so, according to Defence officials in Ottawa.
“The problem… is that no one has the authority to agree with [RMC’s] recommendation because of the way the regulations are written,” said Commander John Roche of the director general of military careers in Ottawa.
“That [bill] will be thrown in the garbage. If nothing else, there was a misinterpretation of current policies. Nobody has the authority to force him to pay back anything and it was a mistake [for DND] for try and do that.”
Roche said the Defence Department has no right to bill cadets in cases where the military chooses to release the member. Only those cadets who voluntarily leave the Canadian Forces are required to reimburse the military for their RMC education because they did not fulfil their promise to complete mandatory service after graduating.
While Roche doesn’t know if other cadets have received bills that they shouldn’t have received, Roche said that the Hughes matter has forced the military to take a closer look at five or six other cases where cadets were about to receive similar bills.
“If they haven’t already got them, they aren’t going to get them,” said Roche.
RMC officials are remaining tight-lipped about the issue and despite promises to provide more information yesterday, they released only a brief statement to the newspaper:
“The individual did not meet the standard and he has been released of the Canadian Forces,” said college spokesman Capt. Bernard Dionne of Hughes.
“RMC has made reasonable recommendations. His file is well-documented and fully supports the recommendations we’ve made.”
Even after National Defence officials in Ottawa overruled RMC’s recommendation and decided to rescind the bill yesterday, college brass refused to provide Hughes with an update about his case when he called the college requesting information.
“It would be nice if somebody from our side – preferably someone from the college – would talk to Hughes,” said Roche, who eventually called RMC from Ottawa to ask that someone at the college inform Hughes of the decision.
“The proper thing to do, having caused all this consternation to the young fella, would be to at least phone him and tell him it looks like there was a mistake made.”
But that didn’t happen yesterday.
As far as Hughes is concerned, he is still waiting to receive word from the military that his $64,000 bill – which includes $3,500 a year for tuition costs and roughly $500 per month in salary paid to cadets while studying at RMC – is bogus. The bill didn’t include accommodation, food, uniform, books and other costs associated with training Canadian Forces officers and putting them through RMC.
He didn’t find out about the Ottawa decision until a reporter called him to inform him.
“[The military] hasn’t told me anything,” said an elated Hughes after hearing the news late yesterday.
“It’s a pleasant surprise. I’m glad no one else is going to have to go through what I went I went through.”
He plans to take some time off before returning to school.
“I could go back to school right away, but I think I’m going to clear my mind and focus myself – maybe go on some kind of pilgrimage to find myself,” he said.
“Maybe I’ll go to Japan and teach English for a while. Go see some different cultures and get some self-awareness and that kind of stuff.”
Hughes had hired a lawyer to fight the bill for his failed military education.
Tory defence critic Elsie Wayne told The Whig yesterday that she was surprised to hear that Hughes hadn’t been kicked out of RMC long before last spring.
“I was quite shocked when I read the story of the things that he did do while he was in military college and remained there as long as he did,” she said.
“I would say that if you wanted to be an officer you wouldn’t do some of the things that he did. If you’re going to go to the RMC you should have standards and you should have high-level standards. You should know that before you decide to go there. If you’re not going to conduct yourself in a proper fashion while you’re there, certainly you’re going to be removed.”
However,Wayne is most concerned about the type of behaviour Hughes described in a Whig-Standard story as being commonplace at RMC.
“Certainly we’re going to have to take a look at this whole situation,” she said.
She plans to take the issue up with a defence committee in the coming days.