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By HEATHER MCLAUGHLIN
mclaughlin.heather@dailygleaner.com

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Strings of decorative LED lights are forming ties between the New Brunswick Provincial Capital Commission and communities across the province this holiday season.

The 2008 Lights Across the Province/La Province s'illumine, courtesy of the commission and its business partners, offered first-come, first-served LED lighting at discounted prices to cities, towns and villages.

The commission's goal was both beautification and energy conservation.

"It turns out to be $2.50 per string per set, so for 40 sets of lights, it would cost each city, town or village about $98. So, it was really, really reasonable," said Lee Ellen Pottie, executive director of the commission. "The (energy) savings are extraordinary."

The commission created a partnership with Home Depot, Credit Unions of New Brunswick, and Caisses populaires acadiennes to create a two-year LED light program. NB Power distributed the strings of LEDs as communities made requests.

Cap Pele, Fredericton Junction, Salisbury, Caraquet, St. Martins and Perth-Andover were among some of the 50 participants in the first year of the initiative. Fredericton didn't participate in the program this year.

"They have a lot of LED lights already," Pottie said. "So, they didn't join in."

The province also had enough for its tree-lighting ceremony.

"They have over 5,500 LED lights already," Pottie said.

At 7 p.m. on Friday, when the provincial tree-lighting ceremony is held on the grounds of the provincial legislature, Fredericton will be connected by teleconference to participating communities so they can be part of the ceremony.

Politicians of all stripes will join the tree-lighting ceremony in front of the legislative assembly building.

Pottie said all of Canada's provincial capitals are joining the green switch under the auspices of the National Capital Commission in Ottawa.

All together, nearly 2,000 strings of LEDs, or 69,615 individual lights, were distributed to communities provincewide.

Peter Corbyn of GreenNexxus, a company working on New Brunswick environmental causes, said the total greenhouse gas emission savings will be about 19 tonnes.