Wealthy Barber sounds financial alarm
One of Canada's top personal-finance experts, David Chilton – better known as the Wealthy Barber – told a crowd gathered in Pointe Claire that rising personal-debt levels would cripple the North American economy if consumers didn't change the way they used credit. Chilton, who co-hosts the CBC's The Dragon's Den venture-capitalist show, told the audience "granite countertops do not define you as a person," and that Canadians are being held captive by "stuff," needlessly.
LGH opens new birthing centre
The Lakeshore General Hospital opened its new $2.1 million birthing centre and named it after longtime West Island public-health advocate Nick Di Tomaso. The new Nick Di Tomaso birthing centre features 11 refurbished birthing rooms, each equipped with its own bathroom. The cost was covered by a $1.2 million donation from the Eric T. Webster Foundation and the other $900,000 was covered by the Lakeshore General Hospital Foundation 's fundraising efforts. The new birthing centre is expected to be able to handle more than 2,000 babies next year, up from the 1,700 born at the hospital last year.
Advocates petition for disabled resources
West Island Citizen Advocacy, a community group that works on behalf of vulnerable West Islanders living with a disability, launched a petition requesting the provincial government increase welfare contributions to the disabled by more than 10 per cent. The petition asks the government to close the gap between welfare contributions and the poverty line, which currently stands at about 40 per cent. Robert Baldwin MNA Pierre Marsan also supported the petition and will deposit it when signatures are gathered sometime in the new year.
Ward tossed from Union caucus
Pierrefonds-Roxboro city councillor Bert Ward was dropped from the Union Montreal caucus after the Directeur General des Elections du Quebec (DGEQ) announced Ward was being charged with illegal campaign financing after former borough councillor Rene Leblanc told authorities he had been paid for organizing the 2009 municipal campaign by Ward in cash. Ward would continue to sit as an independent, but if found guilty, would have to step down as an elected official.
