Sorry to be reporting great news again, but the local paper sometimes forget to get any happy news so here is some information I pulled off the latest Enterprise Greater Moncton news letter.

Moncton Building Permits - YTD (2008) : $ 4,246,806

Moncton Building Permits - YTD (2009) : $64,822,065  yes that's up about 1500%

Now in all fairness, unlike the "doomageddon" published by the papers, I will give a small piece of background.  This was a good year so far because of continued work at the casino and the starting of the courthouse.  However, it is still good news.  Dieppe is off a little bit and Riverview is double last year so, all in all, a great start to 2009.

Some other items from the newsletter;

•  The three municipalities got together with the Minister of Health to announce the this area would be the NB Health Centre of Excellence.  Over 30 companies operate in health related industries and this is not counting the dentist offices, optometrists, pharacies, wellness centres, fitness centres, etc.  These companies employ over 1100 people with a payroll of over $44m.

This initive is based on 5 pillars of excellence:

1. Quality and Diversity of Health Services
2. Quality Training of Health Workers
3. Quality Health R&D
4. Quality of Business, Health Technologies and Innovation
5. Quality of the Communities commitment in Health

"EGM and local agencies and health stakeholders have been mandated to establish an advisory board that will lead the development of a regional health strategy"

Other items of note:

• ABU has a $24m expansion planned
• St. Hubert's has opened a much larger restaurant on Carson Blvd
• Ontarion based Ling's Foods Ltd. has opened their Atlantic Distribution Center here in Moncton.  They supply frozen traditional entrees to grocery stores.  Moncton will be central to their expansion in Atlantic Canada.  They also  have food franchises Bento Box, Thai Bowl and Beijing Express will will be opening in this area.
• Ecole Ste-Therese school is getting a $12m renovation
• New businesses in Dieppe are La Vie en Rose, in Champlain Mall, College Atlantic de Massotherapie on Dieppe Blvd., and Cafe Archibald opening a second location on Gauvin Rd.

Congratulations to all of you. Best of luck.

Finally, District 2 has announced that Riverview will get a new school in the rapidly developing eat end of the town.  No fixed date has been set but I'm sure everyone going to the very outdated and over crowded Gunningville school hopes it's sooner than later!

Like I said in the Title - Recession??????  What recession??????