A Giant, Gaping Hole

One of the constants of the universe is that the sun will rise in the East and set in the West. Another is that you can always count on TJ Burke to have an opinion on a topic.

MLA Burke is quoted in the morning papers reacting to the surprise news of a call center closing in his riding in Fredericton. Some of his comments include:

"It sickens me, quite truthfully"

"It's a pretty big shock"

"Nothing short of a catastrophe"

"It's a giant, gaping hole at the Brookside Mall"

Most tellingly however is his statement that he will meet with Premier Graham this week to kick around some ideas about what to do.

"I don't know what the strategy will be at this time" said Burke.

Why doesn't the government know what the strategy will be? Why were they taken by surprise on this announcement? Why aren't there any contingency plans in place? And if there are, why aren't the Liberal MLA's aware of them?

This is the second announcement of the closure of a Fredericton call center in two weeks, both of which announcements cruelly coincide with the annual conference of Contact NB, the call center industry association for this province.

No doubt at the conference, participants will be discussing the "giant gaping hole" - not the one that will be left at the Brookside Mall, but rather the "giant gaping hole" in the Liberal government's contact center strategy.