The Honourable John G. Abbott, Minister of Children, Seniors and Social Development announced a call for applications for the 2023-24 Newfoundland and Labrador Community Transportation Program.

Incorporated municipalities, not-for-profit groups and Indigenous Governments and communities are eligible to apply for up to $100,000 to develop, implement and evaluate accessible and inclusive community-based transportation programs.

As part of Budget 2023, the Provincial Government is investing $300,000 for the 2023-24 Newfoundland and Labrador Community Transportation Program.

Projects under the program should focus on helping to enhance and expand community transportation services for people who experience barriers to transportation, including ability and geography, often in combination with low income.

In 2022-23, six recipients were awarded funding through the Newfoundland and Labrador Community Transportation Program, as detailed in the backgrounder below.

Program guidelines and applications can be found at www.gov.nl.ca/cssd/grants/nl-transportation.

The deadline to submit an application is Friday, May 26, 2023.

The seniors benefit increase by 5 percent in the 2023 provincial budget, and while Seniors Advocate, Susan Walsh says “something better than nothing,” it is not what her office was looking for.

Walsh released a report last Thursday into what they heard during consultations with seniors across the province with the cost of living being the top concerns.

She says the increase see seniors get a maximum of an extra $72 a year.

Their budget submission proposed in indexed benefit and they still stand by that proposal.

Walsh says they wanted changes to the formula for calculating the benefit so that those above the $29,000 threshold would receive more.

Newfoundland and Labrador’s minimum wage increased on Saturday to $14.50 an hour. Sadly, says NDP Leader Jim Dinn, the province’s lowest-paid workers continue to fall further and further behind.

“Just look at the increasing number of people forced to rely on food banks to feed their families. Something is very broken in our economy,” Dinn said.

“We at the NDP believe the best solution to permanently eradicating poverty is a guaranteed basic livable income,” he added. “All parties in the House of Assembly have committed to working on the issue. Our role is to ensure the committee does not water down the intent of the original NDP motion.”

Labrador West NDP MHA Jordan Brown twice proposed the formation of an all-party committee on GBLI in the provincial House of Assembly; the motion received unanimous support from all MHAs on November 21, 2021. After a year of no action from government, Dinn wrote to the premier demanding the committee be struck. It is now meeting regularly.

The NDP caucus is hopeful that the committee will review and make recommendations on eligibility and minimum income amounts, how the GBLI would interact with existing income supports, additional poverty reduction initiatives, a cost-benefit analysis, and potential models for such a program and a timeline for implementation.

“Any increase in the minimum wage is better than no increase, but a living wage in this province is $21.65 based on the Bank of Canada inflation calculator,” said Dinn. “Jobs that pay minimum wage are often the hardest to do – it is reprehensible that we as a society continue to condemn the people that do those jobs to worsening poverty.”

There was a constituency meeting held here in Nain last Wednesday with Ordinary Members and AngajukKâk of NICG.

Roxanne Barbour is one of the Ordinary Members of Nain, and Minister of Language, Culture and Tourism.

She says the turnout was very well; there were 14 people that attended the meeting, and there were discussions about the caribou, Inuttitut language, housing, and more.

Barbour adds if anyone have any questions or concerns that you would like to discuss, you may contact her or Tony Andersen at their office.

Click here to hear more from Barbour on the constituency meeting.

Nunatsiavut Government Archeology and Heritage are in the planning stages of a re-union in Hebron and Nutâk in the summer this year.

They do not have confirmation of a ship yet so they can’t do an interview until they know for sure it will happen.

Do you have a film person who would be interested to attend and record the trip?

Would they be interested to come all expense paid, or would we also have to pay them?

The plan is two separate trips at maximum one week each location.

Lena Onalik, NG Archologist will be back in the office on Monday, April 3rd. So, if you need to reach her, you can call her work cell at 899-0466.

Health Department reports 16 hospitalizations from March 12-25, including 2 in critical care.

The latest statistics from the Newfoundland and Labrador Department of Health reveal six new deaths from COVID-19 reported since the last update, two weeks ago.

In Wednesday’s update, the provincial Health Department says there have been no new deaths in the latest two-week reporting period, March 12-25, but data in the regional and age breakdowns on the government’s COVID-19 website shows the number of total deaths has climbed by six.

Since the provincial government moved to biweekly pandemic updates, the number of announced new deaths has been consistently underreported by the Health Department. The department says the discrepancy is due to deaths that have been reported since the last update but which happened before the latest two-week reporting period. In this case, the six deaths would have occurred before March 12 but weren’t recorded until after the previous pandemic update, on March 15.

Over the two-week period, 16 people were hospitalized, most of them, 11 people, in the Eastern Health region. Three people were hospitalized in Western Health, one in Central Health and one in Labrador-Grenfell Health. Two of the hospitalizations required critical care.

The new deaths raise Newfoundland and Labrador’s total since the pandemic began to 339, with 44 so far in 2023.

The provincial government has released the details of the wage grid for Early Childhood Educators.

The grid officially takes effect on Saturday, but will be retroactive to January 1.

The grid is based on an educator’s certification level and is broken up into four categories; A base rate, and then three steps that are based on years of service.

The starting rate for a level two ECE is $25. The highest payrate will be just over $35 an hour for someone with a level four certification.

As well, there’s a 10 per cent adjustment for administrator positions, an allowance of over $5,000 for workers in Labrador, and legacy rates for staff whose current earnings exceed the wage scale.

If an ECE chooses to further their education and attain a higher certification level they will be placed on the first step of their new level, with each step lasting 12 months.

The province is also providing a one-time payment to ECEs to cover the period from January 1 to March 31 of this year.

Government had hoped to get the new wage grid up and running by January 1 but it was delayed for a couple of months.

Education Minister John Haggie says government will provide the one-time payment to take the burden off of employers.

He says that will ensure that ECEs get the pay owed to them during that period, but doesn’t provide an administrative burden on employers to make retroactive payments.

Courtesy of VOCM News.

The Language Division of Nunatsiavut Government is launching an Inuttitut Blitz tomorrow Friday, March 31st from 11am-1pm and the Illusuak Cultural Centre in Nain.

The Inuttitut Blitz is a campaign aimed at promoting and preserving the Inuttitut Language, which will run from April to August this year.

There will be lunch and refreshments as well as opportunities to win prizes such as cooler of frozen food, gift cards and promotional item.

This event is open to the public, so please feel free to come by and learn about this exciting new program.

The event will also be livestreamed on the Nunatsiavut Government Facebook Page for those who are unable to attend in person.

This year was its 40th year for the annual Hopedale Heritage Dog Team Race.

We spoke with Hilda Pijogge who was one of the committee members and organizers.

She says the turnout was very good, a lot of people showed up at the starting line.

Pijogge adds that there were 5 dog teams racers registered in this year’s event.

Click here to hear the results with Pijogge.

It’s just a week away for the Air Inuit will be arriving to Nain for Easter.

They will be offering Kangiqsualujjuaq and Kuujjuaq residents a chance to visit Nain from April 4 to 15, 2023.

People from Nain will have a chance to visit either Kuujjuaq or Kangiqsualujjuaq.

With 30% Easter discount for Nunatsiavut beneficiaries from Nain to George River, return tickets are $858.05 for adults, and $611.40 for children ages 2-12 and Seniors ages 60 and up.

From Nain to Kuujjuaq, adult return tickets are $1,255.67, and $895.42 for children ages 2-12 and Seniors 60 and up.

You can call reservations at Air Inuit to book a reservation starting today at 1-800-361-2965.