06/06/2026
The NB veterinary issue is first and foremost in my mind these days.
We have 28 head of cattle + calves and 14 goats + kids. I don’t know what I would do without the veterinary department support. My attending vet Dr Liz Lovely is amazing and supportive of our needs.
Please read on to learn more about the government’s plans that affect all of us in NB. These are letters to the Editor shared:
Letters: Veterinary issue shows government’s views on rural N.B.
Jun 04, 2026 •
As a nation, Canada is a sad, pathetic joke of small-minded provincial selfishness. True prosperity, both national and per capita, could be gained by all working together to serve 'Canada first' with reduced gas pricing, states a letter-writer. PEXELS
Veterinary issue shows government’s views on rural N.B.
Approximately 49 per cent of New Brunswickers live in small villages and rural areas, yet the Holt government appears to have little interest in their economic welfare. The dissolution of the provincial large animal service and the accompanying provincial pathology laboratory is an excellent case in point. A recent newspaper article states that the service is losing $4 million a year! No, the service costs $4 million a year to run, an annual sum that is close to that paid by the Nova Scotia government to keep its large animal veterinarians on the road. By this same logic, will the Holt government decide that the cost of maintaining rural schools is a loss and therefore a justification for closing small rural schools?
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Someone is lobbying the premier’s office to push the veterinary issue; only a personal agenda explains the Holt government’s refusal to consider any alternative to the closure of this service. The in-house decision to have the Research and Productivity Council (RPC) examine the status of the pathology laboratory is a definite case of conflict of interest, given the government has already stated that the laboratory will likely move to RPC.
This whole situation smells of inside, undue interests that have the ear of the Premier’s Office. New Brunswickers should realize that this office controls all the government’s policy decisions. Ministers are directed to speak and implement these policies, so it is unfair to blame the Minister of Agriculture for this attack on rural New Brunswick.
A final point, while shopping at the Fredericton Co-op, I bumped into an old friend whose family run a dairy farm. They have more than 250 dairy cows and a milk quota. I shudder to think how much money this family has invested over the years in both the purchase of milk quota, land and equipment, and the genetics of good milk-producing cattle. One family member was in the House when the opposition Conservatives brought the veterinary issue to the floor for discussion. Is this all we rural residents can expect from our premier?
M. Sally McGrath
Taymouth
Canadians could be paying much less for gasoline
The recent commentary about gas pricing in Canada by Prof. Kent Fellows boils down to price-fixing collusion, as opposed to a spirit of supporting Canadian prosperity to make Canada better.
Data from Statistics Canada for the year 2024 show that of the 5.13 million barrels of oil produced in Canada per day, most (82 per cent) was exported. In principle a vast surplus exists for Canadians and we should be paying much lower prices per litre. The present cost of producing gasoline from raw crude petroleum is less than a dollar per litre. But the Canadian petroleum industry evidently does not value Canadians.
And despite the huge Canadian petroleum surplus, Atlantic Canada must import and then refine its petroleum from foreign nations, because neither Alberta nor Newfoundland oil is made available to us.
One can see why Alberta and sometimes Atlantic Canada and Quebec also talk of separation.
As a nation, Canada is a sad, pathetic joke of small-minded provincial selfishness. True prosperity, both national and per capita, could be gained by all working together to serve ‘Canada first’ with reduced gas pricing.
Rodney Arthur Savidge
Fredericton
