“EMPTY TH E NE ST ” SE LLS OUT ! THE P l e a s e r e c y c l e t h i s Thursday, April 2, 2009 newspaper when you are Volume 46, Issue 25 finished with it. NUGGETYOUR STUDENT NEWSPAPER EDMONTON, ALBERTA, CANADA NEST SET Changes to kitchen FOR A part of next year’s budget RENO Page 3 INK CULTURE Tuesday at the Nest was devoted to the art of tattooing, with local artist, Bear of Bear’s Skin Art, right, discussing the latest trends. Kyle Williams, left, proudly shows off the work on his arm during the NAITSA-sponsored evening, which included prizes of ink time, jewelry and free airbrush tattoos. Photos by Kari Knapp 2 The Nugget Thursday, April 2, 2009 NEWS&FEATURES Photo by Jason Ness When Arlene speaks ... Arlene Dickinson speaks to a large group at the Shaw Theatre on March 26. Dickinson owns Venture Communications, one of the top marketing companies in the country. Her speech, which was open to the public was about her late entry into the business world and about how it was fuelled out of necessity, at 31, with four children. Ten years ago, she bought out her last partner. Dickinson is perhaps best known as a “dragon” on CBC’s hit show, the Dragon’s Den. Minimum wage increased 5% “We want to ensure that Albertans earning the minimum or break their ability to make rent. The majority of these wage are as protected as possible during these changing wage earners are between the ages of 15 and 19 and are times,” said Hector Goudreau, Minister of Employment and working in the accommodation or food industry. Immigration. Lucky for us truck-driving NAIT carpentry students, we’ll “While a vast majority of Albertans earn much more than keep on rollin’ in the dough. the minimum wage, we can’t forget about those in lower-income occupations.” By brittanY BLACK Some employees don’t really believe the 40 Assistant Issues Editor cent raise will make much difference in their bi-weekly pay cheques. However, those who NAIT! It no longer matters that your tuition may be have been with a company for over a year have rising by 4.1 per cent! Because all you minimum wage seen some significant increases. Thinking back makers are getting a five per cent raise. Nice. Alberta’s to 2007, Alberta’s minimum wage was only $7, minimum wage officially increased from $8.40 to $8.80. and it jumped by one dollar over the next year. Hallelujah. Since then it has been hiked almost $2. This will make Alberta second among the Canadian prov- Although this is an attempt to keep up with inces with an estimated 20,000 minimum wage earners. the raising wages across Canada, it seems as Although it is expected that by May or June, provinces like though perhaps this recession isn’t killing us Ontario, Saskatchewan and Newfoundland will all be on the all that much. This rate is much better than the rise. Ontario’s minimum wage will lead at $9.50 per hour this wage throughout the Klein years. Then, the year, and it is estimated to rise to $10.25 by 2010. In Canada, problem was said to be that we could not raise however, the hourly wage is quite high, with an average of the minimum wage without killing jobs and the $23.90. economy. Employment ministry spokesperson Barrie Harrison, To put this into perspective, a full-time expressed the stress that comes with deciding about the (40 hours/month) employee will receive about minimum wage. Obviously there is pressure from both the $1,400/month before taxes. Before, at 40 cents employees and employers who really have two separate less, he or she made about $1,340/month before interests: One wants to make money, and the other doesn’t taxes. This is basically a $60 increase, which want to lose it. Finding a happy medium is not a simple may not seem like much, but to a student or sin- task. gle parent living on their own, this could make Thursday, April 2, 2009 NEWS AND features The Nugget 3 NAITSA budget Ok’ed direction they want to take. ” leaves 10 to 15 minutes when she does a job inter- The Nugget With all the hard work that went into the bud- view because it’s hard to find,” said Hoffman. Room E-128B get you can expect to see some changes around Along with changes to the Nest, the new budget 11762–106 Street NAIT campus next year. The first change that will bring changes to the first week of the school. A Edmonton, Alberta will take place is in the Nest. The kitchen will new frosh leader plan has been put in place to help T5G 2R1 undergo a complete renovation, giving the kitchen students connect with each other and take pride in Production Office 471-8866 staff more storage, new equip- the fact they go to NAIT. The www.thenuggetonline.com plan is to put key leaders around MacKENZIE MARSHALL ment, and more prep and cook- The (Nest) kitchen Editor-in-Chief ing space. This will lead some areas on campus where new stu- Issues Editor Chris Carmichael-Powell changes in the menu. will undergo a com- dents congregate and help show [email protected] After months of hard work, the NAIT Stu- “The equipment in the plete renovation, them all the things that NAIT dents’ Association Senate has approved its new kitchen is pretty old right now has to offer. Twenty seven lead- Sports Editor budget. Work on the budget began in January and and that had created some incon- giving the kitchen ers, three from each of the nine Amber Tienkamp continued up until last week when the budget was sistencies, but with the new staff more storage, schools, will be selected and [email protected] accepted by the senate. kitchen we’ll be able to keep the new equipment, will attend a two-day retreat at Assistant Sports Editor “It started with me and the great people on my quality high and bring some new the end of August that will build Landon Hommy staff and the finance committee, which is made up menu items. Hopefully we’ll be and more prep and camaraderie among the leaders, [email protected] of five members of the senate,” said Jon Hoffman, able to appeal to some more peo- cooking space. create an understanding of what Entertainment Editor director of finance for NAITSA. ple,” said Hoffman. NAITSA does, build excitement Bryce Althouse “The first part is to start tabulating where we Another change to the Nest for events next year, and bring [email protected] stand on the current year and then seeing where will be the signage outside. NAITSA has bud- pride to NAIT students. we’re at compared to last year’s budget,” Hoff- geted to add an archway to the outside entrance of The new building fund is another interesting Asst. Entertainment Editor man said. the Nest along with a new sign on the brick wall part of the budget. The budget now allows for a Leanne Truong “We get reports from directors of different hopefully to attract more people to the location. portion of student fees to be allotted to a savings [email protected] departments to see where they’re at, then we “The Nest is in a tough spot because it’s not in a fund over the next 10 years to be used on a new Issues Editor get input from the executive and after that is central location. A lot of people don’t usually wander building or to update or renovate spaces on NAIT MacKenzie Marshall working with the finance committee to see what down there. I know our manager at the Nest usually campus. [email protected] Assistant Issues Editor Brittany Black Incident highlights security [email protected] Photo Editor By Katharine HAY erty and attached roadways. They will continue to work with city police on area Javier Salazar NAIT campus served as the backdrop for the latest arrest by the special proj- crime as it relates to the NAIT campus. Current security will still be contracted out [email protected] ects team from the Edmonton Police Service. At noon on Tuesday March 24, offi- to run the A/B parkade on the north end of main campus and to patrol both South Online Editor cers arrested an individual who was driving a stolen car full of stolen property. and Patricia Campuses after hours. Kathleen Versteegt According to a police release to Campus Security, the indi- vidual had no connection to NAIT, and it was a pure fluke [email protected] that they were picked up near campus. Production Manager NAIT security head Jerry Hove spoke to this rela- Frank MacKay tionship with the EPS: “We do have a very good net- [email protected] work with the community beat station nearby, and the security services at Kingsway Garden Mall … we work For advertising, call 471-8866 together a lot on common issues.” or e-mail: [email protected] Answering questions Submissions encouraged: In this particular incident so close to home, Hove [email protected] said EPS was mainly concerned about answering ques- The deadline is noon on the last tions the campus community might have about it. school day of the week. (All sub- “Of course, EPS couldn’t release the names and par- missions must include your name ticulars, but I can confirm that the individual had noth- and student ID number.) ing to do with NAIT,” said Hove.