21inc. - Day 5

I am behind updating the blog about my week... the last couple of days have been really busy.

So day 5... I can barely remember which day was what....

We started in Richibucto at Imperial Manufacturing. I was totally clueless that this manufacturing plant was in NB. The place is massive (to my standards anyways). They make a variety of construction products out of sheet metal. A real production line with a variety of machinery. We had an hour tour of the place and it was quite impressive hearing them talk about the progression of their business over the years, their processes getting leaner and leaner over time and how they started.

We then travelled to Miramichi at Beaverbrk House for a half-way debrief amongst ourselves on how the trip is going... good group discussions about expectations, outcomes... too tired to get into it.

From there we travelled to Caraquet for a frustrating meeting with l'Acadie Nouvelle. Well frustrating for me anyways. The Chief Editor gave us a tour and answered questions. My frustration is the lack of coverage in Fredericton and Saint John... and not just within the francophonie, but anything! If it has nothing to do with Government or politics its almost like its not worth recognizing. I have a hard time swallowing the lack of resources as an answer, there must be a bit of wiggle room in there. And I express this frustration for the NGOs who have taken the impressive initative to go from being uniligual english to bilingual in this province, and it's nearly impossible for them to breakthrough the francophone media. Enough ranting.

We however had a really nice meeting with one of the VPs of la Fédération des Caisses Populaires Acadiennes and the group had a really good discussion.

Then we had supper at Hotel Paulin which was absolutely gorgeous and the food was fabulous... again, wish I could have had the wine!!!! We met with "old boys betwork" of the community and they spoke about their community's success and vision. The General Manager of Caraquet was there and is a 21inc. alumni so it was nice to make that connection.

It was a late night; we then travelled to Bathurst and arrived at 11pm at our hotel... I was already tired from th day before... and now I was really tired.