Mr.Lord? It is with great sadness and disappointment that I am writing you this evening.
I cannot believe after going on four months of almost non-stop media exposure.
The awareness of the ills facing this Province and the Maritimes as a whole with the out of control VLT gambling problems?
Also the many suicides plus other levels of despair associated with this addiction that you have not made even the smallest attempt as the leader of this province to step forward with good face to present any type of implementation to ease this burden on the population.
Yet the public and myself have been told by at least three of your own Ministers that the suggestions put forward to ease this crises were and I quote (VERY REASONABLE)!!!!!!!
Other Maritime Provinces have listened to their people’s concerns and
have acted appropriately and have now given their plan of action to such
Legislation as to the concerns voiced within and yet you have not spoken
to a single reporter or newspaper either way other than the one liner you gave on opening day of the house to say ( Well the people want them for entertainment )
Well I must say for you to basically say that you find it entertaining to watch people die from an addiction that you have control over pretty well tells us as voters where your morals and principles lies.
I think that you should go to Nova Scotia and ask John Hamm if you
might sit in on how the legislature is properly run?
By the people!!!!!!!!!!!
With which you shouldn't find fault with his ideas as the governing
party is the Conservative Party and also you might also do well to include a few lessons from him on public relations with the people of which you govern.
For the life of me I cannot figure out how you see leading this Province with the arrogance and blatant disregard for any concerns but your own will ever bring you any further then this point in time.
As I've started to clarify how the wheels of government turn I can only see total disappointment in the remembrance of your time spent as Premier of the Province of New Brunswick because you do not take into account the will of the people with which you lead.
Everything I hear about you is full of
negativity and suppression!
It's like you carry the largest black cloud over this Province that it has ever seen in at least a hundred years.
According to the what the public are saying lately ABOUT YOU???
You are all but on your way out of office at first chance from just about every interest group of every kind.
I seriously feel demoralized because when you first came into the light as this great new leader and savour of the people I will admit that I was one who bought into that dream but mistakes were made and bridges were crossed but never again will I be known as a gullible citizen of New Brunswick because you have made absolutely sure that we will never forget what can happen to us if someone like you works there way into office through manipulative manoeuvres.
When I went to Fredericton to bring awareness to the public on what
was really happening to the people of this Province over this issue?
They told me I might as well die on your front step because you would not
do anything that would cost you one dollar regardless of lost lives or
not!!!!
I defended you every single time these remarks were made to me
and to the response was – You’re going to see what it's like to eat those very words!
You obviously do not know who it is you have come here to see the premier is not the type of person you think he is.
20 comments:
BY GOSH I THINK HE'S GOT IT!!!Well I think our job as the public trying to communicate to Mr.Smith finally got there!Now if only we could get through the many layers of bernard lord Hey maybe now tim will think liberal after all it sounds like he's seeing RED!
very detailed but probably just bounces off lord if nothing has happened by now chances are decisions have already been made.
just something else to file under ignored list.
I can certainly understand your frustration but try not to deny yourself of time these issues usually have to be handled by a number of departments and a common ground has to be established as to the recovery of the loss incurred you are to be commended for a great job-hang in there!
So well written letter. Tim Smith has described premier exceptionally well– a manipulative man who wants to hang on to power at every cost. As far as people of this province are concerned they can go to hell as far as Bernard Lord is concerned. People who have benefited most under him are rich, big business and his political buddies. Those who have suffered the most and are suffering are the ordinary NBers, poor, weak, ill, seniors and other vulnerable population. He is contrary to everything that morality teaches us and this society is based on, care and compassion.
Ms. Weir:
My question is for the Premier. In January, I watched and listened as the Minister of Training and Employment Development assured Tim Smith that this government would do something about access to VLTs. On January 25, the Premier said that he was prepared to look at options. My question this morning is, What are you going to do?
Hon. Mr. Lord:
I remember very well the question that was asked and the answer that was given. I gave the commitment to the member for Saint John Harbour that the government would examine those options. Those options are being examined now and the work is being continued.
_______
Mr. Lord is still examining when people are suffering. When would he cease examining and actually do something.
I live here in Saint John and I feel bad for the ones effected by this addiction that once again put their faith in the system hoping this time something might be done to help their cause by the bravery of Tim Smith to concor his fears of what was to take place to put this issue back into public awareness and the serious consequences faced by this addiction to those individuals and the shame of the lord government is that the risk of his own live to help others with his same addiction has basicly gone unnoticed by Bernard Lord but at the same time seems to have been benificial to others who took his message to heart in other areas of the maritimes.
Good work tim keep going I believe that support will take it's place for you soon the people I talk to are listening and watching the Lord government's reaction to this issue and his decisions will be evaluated and acted upon accordingly by us the voters.
ONCE AGAIN IT SEEMS OPPERTUNITY IS KNOCKING TO FIX A SERIUOSLY BROKEN PROGRAM AND THE LORD GOVERNMENT IS REFUSING TO ANSWER THE DOOR,THE REASON MONEY OVER LIFE,SOUND FAMILIAR???
Do not ask Bernard Lord to close VLT’s ask him to close hospitals and hospital beds. He will do that in no time. You see, hospitals and hospitals beds cost money and VLT’s make money. You have to understand the priorities of the guy. He is trying to overcome the shortfall from his financial boondoggles. Orimulsion. Shadow tolls. Then he needs money for good salary for himself and his political friends and some trips to Larry’s Gulch. And then some travel. Did you get the idea. Yes money over life.
Nova Scotia is going to lose over $40 million by eliminating VLTs. Lord is going to save over $40 million by closing hospitals. Smart money manager, Eh! Then of course government makes over $100 million through VLTs annually. All is fair in war and making money. So you lose few lives in war and making money operations. Then what. Lord government wants to make NB rich province??? To become rich comes at a price. That seems to be the governing philosophy of Lord government. People are just a cog in that big wheel of moneymaking machine. However, only rich get to keep the money and rest of us just keep working hard. Do you understand Eh! Surely you are ready to call Bernard Lord on Rogers cable program at 8 PM tonight and congratulate him to make our province rich and prosperous.
Well I called Mr.Lord and tried to read a letter of consern to him I managed to read about 3/4s of a page and was cut short due to time limit when they returned I got what I expected a short rebuttal of no response....So I will spend the next couple of days reviewing my options to this situation and I will write my decision of action to be taken at a near future date.
Watched Bernard Lord on Rogers channel. Lot of verbiage as usual and no substance. Tim Smith was rudely cut off using time constraint. If break was the excuse they should have let him read the letter after the break. Lord was shaken and did not want to hear the rest of Tim Smith’s letter.
Lord’s main answer was referendum said people want VLTs so they will stay. It does not look if Lord Government has any intention to act on Tim Smith’s recommendations. Lord and ministers will keep saying they are examining it and that examination will never end. Thank God Bernard Lord is not a doctor because by the time he will finish examining a patient, the patient will be long dead.
As in many other cases Tim Smith was lied to. Welcome to the real world of Bernard Lord.
That was the point I was trying to get across to Mr.Lord is that in the last four months on this issue in the media & public other governments have done the whole prosess from start to finish ie:brought up the subject,talked about the idea's,inplimented those idea's in action and more and what I tried to say to him last night is other premiers regardless of did not hide behind his ministers they came out and went through every step of the process themselves,good for them! also he tried to use this study that was made up out of manitaba but failed to affirm the governments addittance the system is actually not that easy to acess they had admitted that the numbers were much higher than previously thought it was something like 15000 vlt addicts and they admitted that it was also true that they now believe that only about 1000 of those were recieving treatment and it was that fact that encouraged them to act accordingly.
oh and the other thing that I could't believe was he was basicly saying that because he did not believe that the problem was not as bad as the rest of the country so what I got out of that is well it's ok for a few people to die for the amount of money he is recieving from their deaths.Well I care very much for those who lost their life from this and I do have a heart and I believe that one death due to a government run program used for a quick financial fix is definitly one too many.I can't help but refer this to the dope dealers that used to be in the place of these machines you couldn't get around them because they were around every corner you took and eventually you fell to this addiction and it is the axact same senario but the lord government controls these electronic dealers of the same priniple there has to be a time of relief through the day for those who cannot help falling victom through out the day and he must act to help them.
Even one life lost through suicide because of VLt’s addiction is one too many. Mr. Lord and Elvy Robichaud should be ashamed of themselves for quoting some study that there are fewer addictions and hence fewer suicides in NB. It does not take a study or rocket scientist to understand that there is a real serious problem out there.
Bernard Lord had this pie chart and he was kind of bragging how much revenues comes from VLTs. Does this man look like that he will do something about VLT problem. Oh sure if you are Irving, Molson or other big business then he will give away millions of our tax dollars no questions asked. He knows what his agenda is, suck up to big business so that he can promote himself and become prime minister someday. Yuk! Scary thought he being PM.
Even one life lost through suicide because of VLt’s addiction is one too many. Mr. Lord and Elvy Robichaud should be ashamed of themselves for quoting some study that there are fewer addictions and hence fewer suicides in NB. It does not take a study or rocket scientist to understand that there is a real serious problem out there.
Bernard Lord had this pie chart and he was kind of bragging how much revenues comes from VLTs. Does this man look like that he will do something about VLT problem. Oh sure if you are Irving, Molson or other big business then he will give away millions of our tax dollars no questions asked. He knows what his agenda is, suck up to big business so that he can promote himself and become prime minister someday. Yuk! Scary thought he being PM.
Charles your down to the legeslature each day and I heard a few liberals mention this issue lately in defence of the idea of putting an hours of play limit on them and with all this wonderment of whether an election is close at hand maybe you should ask them if an election is called in the near future will they be taking action on this issue as a part of their platform and will it be immediet??I just thought I would pass that your way because you obviously care about this issue as much as tim looking at the many titles on your site for it and I noticed that the liberals in Nova Scotia were quite upset that the Conservatives there did not go far enough on this issue thanks.
I was watching voice of the province last night and I don't know If I'm losing my mine or if I heard correctly that bernard lord said because a study done in manitoba on video lottery machines claims that new brunswick has the lowest rate of fatallities from addiction so everything is ok?????no changes are nessesaray??????could someone out there please help me to understand how any elected official could ever use something as frivilous as that as a defence for unnessesary suicides????
I do believe there will be consequences for the lord government over this issue due to his inability to take action and help these people out through the unbelieveable way that it was presented if an election were held,Items of this nature are not easily forgotten and we all know there are many items in which 2 way talk and scapegoats were used shorely this type of governing connot be overlooked too long before proper asessments and actions follow an example of this was seen yesterday in the legeslature it's only a matter of time and push is comming to shove by the liberals.
The statement givin that Mr.Lord himself is addicted to the revenue generated is becomming clear with every mention of vlt's because as this has been unfolding to the public of new brunswick there have been reports done on news pieces such as the lottery commission saying that there is no problem with shutting machines off at specified times in seperate provinces and also they have said they can also shut them down on seperate days in all provinces,tim smith's requests for changes to this effect has also gotten approval to be very reasonable and the opposition parties seem to agree with these steps so one has to believe with nothing in the way of these changes the only conclusion that can be reached is indeed premier lord is simply addicted to the revenue generated by these vlt,s and by this token he has taken the choice to disregard the misfortunes and suicides to the addicts in question.
Get someone to take him to the supreme court for exploiting addictive personallities instead of using a percentage of the money towards a properly built casino. This would be a better plan than using blatant exploitation of the weak,a lot of those guys are lawyers they should know that what the government is probably illegal by tecknicality all we need is someone that is as smart as they think they are.
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