Tuesday, July 3, 2012

Skip…Skip a Day Come Again Another Day

You noticed that I skipped a day? Yep, I wasn’t feeling up to it yesterday. Besides, it was the last evening  with our friends and such precious time should be taken care of.
Bea brought our guests to Bangor today. They took the bus to Portland and are now “holed up” in a nice hotel. Their flight leaves tomorrow afternoon.

While Bea was gone, I kept up the defenses.

I must admit i got terribly mad today. Mad about our government. But I better start at the beginning.
When the phone rang it was the Government telling me that our final transportation permit was ready to be send out, but that I had to throw in another 27 Bucks for the plates. You know I will be getting two sets of plates.
One is issued by Service New Brunswick. That is for having the van on the road. The second set is for showing the mostly oblivious people that I am allowed to transport passengers. The whole thing is just meant to make another few bucks for the big cash box. So I issued a check and ran it over to the post office. You see the Government doesn’t take credit cards, that is except you deal with Service New Brunswick. They take your Master or a Visa card. And I do mean TAKE IT!

With the check in the mail I was happily waiting for customers when I remembered to check on my stack of brochures at the New Brunswick Tourist information office. To my surprise my brochures were not in the rack. So when I asked whether they were all gone, I received the most incredible answer. One had send one off for approval. And until the approval was done they could not be shown to the public.

Approval????

Yep, every brochure has to be approved in this province.

I was stunned!

To shorten the story a bit: Later today I got word that the brochure could not be approved. No reason given.

When I phoned somebody up the ladder to get an explanation the person was simply not in her office.

So If I shall sum this up, this is what happened:

After months of sitting on their hands Government approves the business and gives permit against cash.
At therack card same time Government denies approval of a friggin’ brochure which purpose is to marked the approved business.

Are you still with me? Or have you fallen off the chair?

I was mad! Very, very mad!

So I have written an email to his Excellency, the Minister of Tourism of the Province of New Brunswick.

Is this some sort of a Communist Country we are living in? What business has the d**** province with my brochure?

By the way I have distributed that brochure most successfully in Maine and around St. Andrews By-The-Sea. Nobody phoned and let me know how disgusting my brochure is.

But on my own turf I’m not allowed. My own government denies me that right. My guests have to kind of know it from birth that there is a sightseeing opportunity on Campobello.

Just wondering how many months it will take to receive an answer from the minister.

I’m done and out of words.

Have a better evening than me!

6 comments:

  1. Well, don't know what to make of all that Peter, except to say good luck with all this & I hope it all works out for you in the end. Of course the sooner the better.

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  2. Oh Peter, so sorry about the mess of dealing with the Government. I don't blame you for being very angry and upset. I would have been. Good luck and hope it gets worked out quickly.

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  3. wow government BS is what it is...hopefully it will be resolved very quickly..how are you suppose to market the business if you can't put the brochures in the info centers..thats nuts you have all your permits....keep on hounding them...

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  4. Should have gone into fishing! I saw some of those HUGE trawlers there on Campobello when we were there! That was all Government money! They didn't need flyers.

    And then they wonder why the tourist business sucks? Honest to Gawd, it's like the one hand not only doesn't know what the other is doing, it's trying to cut the other one off.

    Good Luck.

    I thought the brochure looked just fine.

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  5. Brochure looks great to me. the red tape is certainly frustrating, hopefully it will all come together soon. Good luck.

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  6. Your project to start a small business seems cursed ....... I'm just sayin'!

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