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I would like to voice my concerns and confusion over the decision to cut early French immersion program in New Brunswick.

I have heard some of the rationale, and to be honest, it makes very little sense to me.

Apparently, one reason is too many children drop out of French immersion before graduating high school.

Rather than removing the program, why not offer a greater variety of subjects in French at the high school level?

Also, when children leave the program during high school, why not test their fluency then? I suspect it would be found that most are already at least functionally bilingual and likely even beyond that.

I enrolled in late French immersion starting in Grade 7. My son is currently in Grade 3 French immersion and is already more comfortable and fluent speaking French than I ever was. He is able to pronounce words correctly and understands inflections that often leave me wondering what was said.

Being an adult, my ability to comprehend what is read in French is still greater, but I have found that to be much easier to learn than the spoken word.

I have also heard it said that early French immersion is elitist. This makes no sense to me unless one is referring to the fact that some children, for various reasons, just aren't able to succeed in an immersion program.

But why take away something that is both so enriching for the students who can succeed in it and so beneficial to French/English relations, simply because not everyone can do it? That's like saying we should take away Fredericton's Playhouse because not everyone can afford to attend events there.

If this decision is because there is no early French immersion program in many rural areas, we need to look at making early immersion accessible to all New Brunswick students.

I ask officials to consider the ramifications of removing the early French immersion program from New Brunswick schools before finalizing any decisions.

How can we honestly call ourselves a bilingual province if we take away one of the best opportunities unilingual citizens of New Brunswick have to actually become bilingual?

Debi Skidmore

Fredericton

Deserves double suffering

If there is a God in heaven, whoever abused those poor little Pomeranians, killing five and leaving one brain injured, will feel the terror and pain the dogs did and suffer double that.

There is a special place in hell awaiting that person.

Shame on our justice system for making is too easy to get away with sub-human behaviour of this sort.

May the person rot in hell or a prison where other inmates can make him wish he were in hell.

Sandra Boudreau

Maugerville, N.B.

Obama not on front

I appreciate that front page space is precious, what with "Smiley" Miley Cyrus adopting her name officially.

But couldn't the editor have found space somewhere in the front section of your paper to at least mention one of the most significant speeches in modern U.S. history?

When it comes to speeches, Barack Obama may not be Winston Churchill, but he's far closer than anyone else in recent memory, at least on this side of the Atlantic.

Brian J. Lowry

Fredericton

English system over burdened

Surprise, surprise.

The province has discovered French language training has been a dismal failure.

We thought the excellence in education initiative touted by former premier Frank McKenna was the answer to all the education woes in poor, have-not New Brunswick.

Remember James Downey and Aldea Landry travelling around the province at taxpayers' expense to report an answer to all the problems?

Now, Education Minister Kelly Lamrock is going to have 70 per cent of students functionally bilingual when they graduate. He should give his head a shake.

Why doesn't the minister of education see that all children in English schools get a quality education like the children in French schools get?

The problem is the English system is (or was) funding three education systems.

The French students get a very focused education at the French schools. Then they learn English the rest of the day by living in an English world.

Our English children sacrifice a quality education for half an hour of French a day and then lose it, if they do learn it, after school.

Greg Hargrove

Calgary, Alta.

Thanks for support

On behalf of the board of directors of Positive Heart Living, we would like to thank Youth Choices and the north side Neighborhood Action police team for helping to launch our Youth Educational Addictions Awareness course.

To date, we have had students from a several communities certified in the four-hour course.

A doctoral study on issues facing youth at risk revealed the need for increased and mass education to create a safety net for our youth.

While we realize we are a small part of the solution, our organization is partnering with several agencies and has a newly formed Positively Balanced Youth Committee, with a goal of increasing programs and setting up a website.

We have two young reformed addicts who are more than willing to share their experience, strength and hope with interested youth.

Our course evaluations and surveys have shown the presentation of a youth addict has a major impact on youth participating in the programs.

The first week of April we will be hosting a training workshop for those who work with youth and would like to help us branch out to reach individuals and whole communities in New Brunswick.

Bonnie Priest

Founder Positive Heart Living

Savings must be passed on

As a natural gas residential consumer, a customer of Enbridge Gas New Brunswick, I converted a few years ago in order to take advantage of the lower price of natural gas, a cheaper and cleaner source of energy.

But even though world gas prices have remained stable since last year, I am upset to hear Enbridge has applied to the Energy and Utilities Board for a 12 per cent price increase.

Apparently company officials believe this is justified, since other energy costs such as oil and electricity have increased significantly.

But this seems like false advertising from Enbridge. They originally encouraged customers to sign up based on the fact natural gas prices were cheaper and would likely stay cheaper because of oversupply and large reserves.

The stable North American price for natural gas already takes into account the higher prices for alternative energy sources such as oil and electricity.

It is unethical for Enbridge to say they are adjusting to the prices of alternative energy costs. That has already been accounted for.

The proposed 12 per cent price increase is simply gouging. It is not tied to their costs. It is not tied to the cost of the commodity. We are in a monopoly market for natural gas.

This utility cannot be allowed to make up new prices in order to pad their profit.

I applaud the provincial government for appointing a public intervener to fight against this proposed increase. We need Enbridge to play fair, to pass on the savings of the lower cost of natural gas to its customers.

Ken Reimer

Fredericton