Mt. A. news: Faculty strike moves a step closer; university seeks to tap into town’s expertise on water

Posted on December 9, 2019 by

Contract negotiations between Mount Allison University and its 196 full and part-time professors and librarians reached an impasse on November 27th as three months of conciliation talks ended.

The conciliation officer has now made a report to the provincial minister of post-secondary education who is expected to decide within a few days whether to appoint a conciliation board.

Judging from their most recent statements, university administrators and the Mount Allison Faculty Association (MAFA) appear to be far apart on the terms of a new collective agreement.

In October, MAFA held a non-binding straw vote with 94% in favour of job action, including a strike, to support the union.

“The main issues under negotiation in this round include faculty and librarian complement, workload, equity and human rights, including disability accommodation, and compensation and benefits for full-time and part-time members,” a MAFA news release says.

To read MAFA’s October release and the one it issued last week when conciliation talks ended, click here and here.

Meantime, university administrators describe the contracts with full and part-time faculty as “mature collective agreements,” adding:

“The full-time faculty collective agreement has been in place for 35 years, while the first part-time collective agreement was signed 15 years ago. As such, we believe that negotiations should focus on a relatively small number of core subjects of interest to one or both parties.”

The administration goes on to say that the union had approximately 90 proposals on the table as of October 24th.

“At this stage of the process, such a large number of active requests for changes poses a practical impediment to constructive negotiations,” the university says.

To read all of the administration’s bargaining updates, click here.

Mount Allison faculty and librarians were on strike for three weeks in January/February of 2014.

Mt. A. seeks partnership on water

Robert Inglis, Mount Allison University

Meantime, Mount Allison is seeking the town’s help in regulating and testing its water distribution system.

“We have a need on campus related to our water system — regulations, testing and work related to that,” Robert Inglis, the university’s vice-president of finance told Sackville Town Council last week.

“As you probably know,” he added, “we have a significant water distribution system on campus and it ties into the town’s water distribution because that’s where we get our water from.”

Inglis served notice that the university’s facilities department would be approaching the town’s public works staff with ideas for working together so that the university can meet more stringent government regulations on the quality of its drinking water.

“We’re not looking for the town to pick up costs and risks that they don’t otherwise have,” Inglis said, adding that taking advantage of town staff expertise could provide an opportunity that might benefit both the university and the town.

“If not, so be it, we will meet our obligations,” he said.

When asked later for more details about the kind partnership he was referring to, Inglis responded that the university is not proposing that the town take over its water system.

He said, for example, that Mt. A. could pay town staff to conduct the testing that’s required when water is shut off to a building during renovations and then, turned back on again.

“This could be a win/win, in our view, for both our organizations, but of course the town would need to see benefits for them.”

Mt. A’s annual report

Chart shows that 60% of Mt. A. students come from outside of New Brunswick

Inglis raised the possibility of a partnership with the town on water quality during his annual report to Sackville Town Council last week.

Among other things, he mentioned that with its 500 full-time employees, the university has a significant economic impact in southeastern New Brunswick.

He said that as of October 1st, Mt. A. had 2,167 full-time students.

Figures from the Association for Atlantic Universities show this is a gain from last year of 71 students for an overall increase in full-time enrollment of 3.4%.

Inglis acknowledged that in spite of this year’s increase, Mt. A., along with other smaller universities, continues to face challenges in recruiting students.

Meantime, he said Mount Allison is planning extensive renovations to its 50-year-old R.P. Bell Library, but hasn’t worked out yet how it will continue to provide library services while the project is underway.

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Sackville climate strike targets consumerism, big stores and Canada’s new environment minister

Posted on December 6, 2019 by

Climate strikers marching down Main St. to the main post office

About 55 members of the Sackville Youth Climate Change Coalition gathered at Mount Allison University today before marching down Main Street to Sackville’s main post office where they mailed a letter to the federal minister of the environment as well as letters and holiday greeting cards to several big stores.

Grade 9 student Quinn MacAskill, who helped organize the rally, told her fellow climate strikers that in keeping with the holiday season, the theme of today’s march was related to consumerism.

Quinn MacAskill

“Youth may not be able to vote for our political leaders,” she said, “but we can vote with our dollar.”

She urged the strikers to buy more locally produced products to reduce carbon emissions.

“There’s a big difference between buying a highly packaged candy bar made with palm oil from a big box store, than buying a fair trade, sustainably made chocolate bar from a small local store,” she added.

MacAskill also argued that many big companies are heavy polluters that “hold way too much power in our governments.”

To read the complete text of her speech, click here.

The coalition’s letter to Jonathan Wilkinson, the new minister of the environment, calls on the federal government to honour its commitment in Thursday’s Speech from the Throne to reach net-zero carbon emissions by 2050 or sooner if possible.

It also calls on the government to reject all new fossil fuel projects; make the transition to a 100% renewable energy economy; uphold and advocate the rights of environmental migrants; and, hold large corporations to the same greenhouse gas emission targets that Canada sets for itself.

The letter asks Wilkinson to reply by February 1st. “We want to know that you’re listening,” it ends.

To read the complete letter, click here.

Letters to big stores

Student strikers mailing their letters

The student strikers also mailed letters and greeting cards to big stores such as Costco, Walmart, Lululemon, Roots Canada, Tim Hortons and Loblaws asking for the details of “a concrete plan for what your company is going to do to reduce its carbon emissions in the very near future so that we may hold you accountable.”

The letter warns that if the coalition does not receive a response by February 1st, the students “will make that known to the public.”

The letters contain copies of a parody of the Dr. Seuss poem, The Grinch Who Stole Christmas written by Weylin Lee Smith, a first-year Mount Allison University student.

To read the letter and the Grinch parody, click here.

After the rally, Quinn MacAskill acknowledged that fewer students participated this time than at the four other Sackville rallies held this year.

“Even if this one might have been smaller than some of the other ones, it’s still a sustaining, continuing movement,” she said.

“It’s not just one or two big events.”

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Sackville Town Council gets advice on making proposed dog park, trails, public art, etc. more climate-friendly

Posted on December 5, 2019 by

Dr. Richard Elliot is one of 27 members of the Mayor’s Roundtable on Climate Change

For the first time, Sackville Town Council is getting advice from an outside group on how to ensure that next year’s capital projects help lessen the negative effects of climate change.

A working group of professionals and academics on the 27-member Mayor’s Roundtable on Climate Change has submitted a number of preliminary suggestions.

One recommends using next year’s proposed $25,000 public art installation to raise public awareness about how climate change threatens Sackville “and the urgency of taking action now.”

Another suggests that the $15,000 allocated to improve the Lund property in the Waterfowl Park should be used to create trails that are as narrow as possible to avoid cutting down too many trees.

Richard Elliot, a retired wildlife biologist affiliated with the federal department of environment and climate change, said after Tuesday’s council meeting that he’s pleased town staff and councillors seem to be taking the roundtable’s recommendations seriously.

“We’re viewing the town’s capital projects through a climate-change lens,” Elliot said referring to the roundtable’s wide range of objectives.

Those objectives include seeking ways of using as little energy as possible, incorporating natural landscape features into project designs, using environmentally-appropriate materials such as wood approved by the Forest Stewardship Council and, maximizing the number of healthy trees in Sackville to help store more carbon, mitigate flooding and moderate temperatures.

Climate-friendly dog park

The roundtable working group’s list of specific recommendations includes designing a dog park “that incorporates existing ground cover, including trees, woods and fields” on town property “as close as possible to the town centre to minimize the amount of driving and thus fossil fuel consumption undertaken by dog owners to get to the park.” (Current plans call for an $80,000 dog park six-and-a-half kilometres from the downtown.)

The working group also recommends that the town think carefully about the environmental impact of its proposed $575,000 emergency generator at the Civic Centre where residents could take shelter when the town loses power during winter storms.

“We recognize the importance of having a warming facility in our community,” the roundtable writes in its recommendations to council. “Given the high costs of the proposed generator, we encourage town staff to consider the costs and benefits of alternatives such as sharing such facilities with Mount Allison University.”

The roundtable goes on to recommend that before purchasing the diesel generator, the town weigh its environmental effects against the cost of alternate fuel sources with potentially lower greenhouse gas emissions.

Road resurfacing

The roundtable criticizes the town’s plan to use $367,359 in federal gas tax funding next year for fixing local roads.

“We consider that the imaginative arguments to support the use of gas tax funding to finance the resurfacing of roads — to reduce gasoline use associated with acceleration and braking on rough roads — are misguided and inappropriate,” the roundtable writes.

“We urge the Town to find alternate ways to finance road resurfacing, beginning in 2021, and to redirect the gas tax funding to community initiatives to help mitigate impacts of climate change.”

‘Solar Fund’

The roundtable report also encourages the town to move toward the increased use of efficient energy alternatives including solar power.

“We recommend setting aside any funds not used in 2020 in a ‘solar fund,’ to serve as a reserve fund specifically to invest in solar panels as a supplementary energy source for town buildings,” the report says.

Origins of roundtable

The town established the Mayor’s Roundtable on Climate Change in response to hundreds of student strikers who marched on town hall in March demanding action.

On April 8th, town council passed a resolution promising, among other things, to “establish a roundtable on climate change, comprised of various community stakeholders, with a mandate to provide advice and guidance on climate change initiatives as part of the town’s annual priority planning and budget process.”

At Tuesday’s council meeting, Mayor Higham called the roundtable an experiment.

“Obviously, we’re getting some really good advice that future councils might want to consider,” he said.

“The only thing we know we’re doing right away is we’re going to have a public forum,” Higham said, adding that the forum will allow members of the roundtable to hear from residents and community groups on what needs to be done to lessen the effects of climate change.

“[The forum] would give us some kind of blueprint over where we might want to go,” the mayor concluded.

Note: The report from the roundtable’s working group entitled “2020 Town of Sackville Capital Projects — Viewed Through a Climate Change Lens” is dated November 25, 2019. The copy of the report that the town sent to The New Wark Times does not include the names of the members of the working group who made the recommendations about capital projects. The Town Clerk explained in an e-mail: “We have not had an opportunity to reach out to the participants who created the report and therefore their names have been blacked out.”

Posted in Environment, Town of Sackville | Tagged , | 4 Comments

Sackville hires head-hunting firm to recruit new town manager

Posted on November 21, 2019 by

Councillor Bill Evans

Sackville Town Council has hired a big Halifax-based, recruitment firm to search for someone to replace Phil Handrahan, the town’s chief administrative officer whose resignation takes effect in late February.

During its meeting Monday night, council passed a motion put forward by Councillor Bill Evans awarding the contract to KBRS – Knightsbridge Robertson Surrette.

The firm will be paid $25,000 plus advertising costs and other expenses.  The CAO position carries a salary range of $96,367 to $128,489.

Evans said the personnel committee reviewed nine proposals from executive recruitment firms before choosing KBRS.

“There were a number of good candidates, but we achieved consensus on this one,” Evans added before council passed his motion unanimously.

Search will cost more than last one

It appears that the search for a new CAO will cost considerably more than it did in 2012 when council awarded the contract to Municipal Human Resources Inc.

According to a report in the Sackville Tribune-Post published on October 17, 2012, the smaller New Brunswick firm — which also submitted a proposal this time around — was awarded a contract for $8,759 plus travel expenses which amounts to $9,791 plus expenses in 2019 dollars.

CAO Phil Handrahan is leaving in February

After that search, Phil Handrahan, a 30-year senior administrator with the city of Charlottetown, was appointed Sackville’s CAO in March 2013, taking up his duties in late May of that year.

KBRS, which helped Mount Allison University search for its new president in 2017/18, describes itself as “the largest search firm” in Atlantic Canada.

“Today our team of professionals is 60-strong across offices in Halifax, Toronto, Edmonton, Moncton and St. John’s,” the KBRS website says.

“While we remain independently owned in Atlantic Canada, we are also a part of Lee Hecht Harrison Knightsbridge – Canada’s leading human capital company and a global leader in talent mobility, with 300 offices in more than 60 countries.”

Big vs. small

While KBRS points to what seem like the obvious advantages of a large staff and a broad-range of connections, smaller search firms, such as Toronto-based Dean Executive Search, criticize their larger rivals for the conflicts-of-interest that, they claim, can arise when head hunters work for multiple clients in similar fields.

The natural friction between competing firms, however, could explain the criticism a smaller one might level at a larger rival.

Jerome Young, a contributor to the U.S.-based Forbes business magazine, wrote in 2014 that there is merit to the argument that larger firms aren’t always the better choice. However, it’s worth noting that the magazine identified Young as a recruiter himself.

For statistics about Canada’s $15 billion recruitment industry, click here.

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Sackville treasurer presents 1st draft of 2020 budget with no tax increases and no borrowing for $1.5 million in general capital projects

Posted on November 19, 2019 by

Treasurer Michael Beal

Sackville’s treasurer has presented an $11.3 million budget for next year that balances the books and maintains public services without tax increases.

And, for the first time ever, there is no requirement for borrowing to pay for $1.5 million in general capital projects although the town would still need to borrow $462,000 for improvements to its water and sewage systems.

“We will be able to do all general capital [projects] without any borrowing and that includes the fire department,” Michael Beal said as he presented the first draft of his 2020 budget to Sackville Town Council on Monday night.

Beal cautioned that the budget could change as he receives more financial information from the province, but at the same time, he seemed confident that the town is on the right track.

Growth in tax base

The treasurer estimates that the town’s property tax base has grown by just over 3% thanks, in part, to the new Terra Beata frozen food storage plant in the industrial park. It alone boosted the commercial tax base by $5 million.

Beal noted that nearly 90% of the town’s revenues come from property taxes so the increase in the tax base is significant.

Electrical generators

One of the biggest general capital projects that town staff are recommending involves installing a $575,000 emergency electrical generator at the Civic Centre where town residents can take shelter when their power goes out during winter storms.

Last year’s budget allocated $286,000 for the generator with the remaining $289,000 coming from this year’s capital budget.

Beal says the generator should be installed this summer and be ready for the winter of 2021.

Town Engineer Dwayne Acton

Town staff are also recommending the purchase of an $80,000 portable generator that would be used to provide back-up power to the public works building, especially during emergencies.

Town Engineer Dwayne Acton added that the portable generator could also be used during power failures at the town’s lift stations to prevent sewage from backing up into people’s homes.

Acton also presented staff recommendations for $293,000 in road work on Milner Lane and at the end of Wright Street as well as installation of sidewalks, curbs and storm sewers on Cattail Ridge up to Robson Avenue.

Other capital project recommendations include $35,000 to install flashing lights at crosswalks, $40,000 in sidewalk renewals, $40,000 for two new bridges in the Waterfowl Park and $80,000 for a Beach Hill dog park.

The treasurer noted that staff recommend deferring some capital projects until next year including paving the gravel parking lots at the Civic Centre ($56,000) and Lilas Fawcett Park ($59,000).

Beal said staff recommend that instead of spending $15,000 on upgrading the skate park this year, the town appoint a users’ committee to come up with suggestions for new equipment and other improvements that could be included in the 2021 budget.

To read the complete list of capital project recommendations, click here.

Second draft

Beal invited councillors to study the draft budget between now and their next budget meeting on December 3rd.

He said he hoped that once he has more financial information from the province, he’ll be able to put together an updated, second draft.

Councillor Joyce O’Neil

Councillor Joyce O’Neil weighed in with her own recommendation just before Monday’s meeting adjourned.

“I just can’t see $80,000 for a dog park when there’s so many other things that that money could be spent for,” she said, noting that while most of that money would be used for fencing, there would be a need for additional spending on such things as water, lighting and parking.

“Different people in the public have talked to me on it,” O’Neil said. “On their behalf, I agree with them, $80,000 plus just doesn’t make sense to me.”

Beal replied that ultimately council will have to decide whether to approve the staff recommendations for capital projects including the dog park.

“That does not have to be completely decided during budget allocations because if budget is allocated and not spent, it can be put in the reserve fund for future planning,” he said.

To view the first draft of the 2020 budget documents, click here.

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Sackville’s mayor apologizes to council, staff and citizens for not correcting false claims

Posted on November 15, 2019 by

Mayor John Higham

Mayor John Higham took the unusual step Tuesday of apologizing to the citizens of Sackville, municipal councillors and town staff for his failure to correct what he termed fabrications, falsehoods and libellous statements in relation to Phase II of the $2.9 million Lorne Street flood control project.

During a report to council that lasted just over nine minutes, the mayor singled out two letters to the editor published by the Sackville Tribune-Post more than a year ago as well as an e-mail sent directly to town council.

He said one letter to the editor grossly inflated the amounts the town paid to purchase property for the flood control project while the other accused Jamie Burke, the town’s senior manager of corporate projects, of rudely interrupting a discussion outside the council chambers between two residents and a consultant from Crandall Engineering, the firm overseeing the flood control project.

As reported by Warktimes, residents Percy Best and Merlin Estabrooks were talking with Pierre Plourde of Crandall Engineering in September 2018 when Burke came out of the council chambers and apparently told them to stop unless they were willing to pay for the consultant’s time.

At the next meeting of council, Estabrooks demanded an apology from Burke for his “rude” behaviour. To read my report on what was said at that meeting, click here.

Mayor apologizes to Burke

During Tuesday’s meeting, Higham said an investigation that included interviews with all four participants as well as the viewing of surveillance video showed that Burke had not acted rudely.

“The tape showed a quiet, private, respectful conversation among the four,” the mayor said, adding that the exchange was “nothing remotely close to what was publicly alleged [in the letter to the editor] and the only possible conclusion was that this was fabricated.”

Former deputy mayor Merlin Estabrooks demands apology in 2018

Higham did not say, however, that the surveillance footage, which Warktimes has seen, did not include sound and he also did not say why Burke joined the conversation that Best and Estabrooks were having with Plourde.

“Unfortunately, Mr. Burke is not here,” the mayor said, “but my apologies to Mr. Burke, in particular, who had to go through that, but also to the community who should have known that this was fabricated and false.”

E-mail to council

The mayor then referred to an e-mail sent directly to council that he said alleged that the provincial department of transportation and infrastructure (DTI) “had a detailed alternative for flooding in town that was far cheaper and more effective than the town’s plans.”

He was apparently referring to criticisms that council has heard from Percy Best, Merlin Estabrooks and Keith Carter who, at various times, have advocated deepening drainage ditches across the marshes to carry flood water to an aboiteau behind the Armtec plant or toward Carters Brook in West Sackville instead of constructing expensive drainage ponds east of Lorne Street with walking trails around them.

The mayor said the e-mail that council received alleged that town staff and Crandall Engineering had colluded to avoid the cheaper plan simply to drive up consultants’ fees paid by the town.

He said he arranged meetings with the deputy minister at DTI as well as senior staff who assured him that they fully supported the town’s plan.

Mayor Higham

Higham said he asked a senior member of the DTI dike section staff to go through the e-mail.

“He was simply astounded by what was in the claims,” Higham said, adding that no one at DTI had ever suggested an alternative plan.

“In other words, another complete and utter fabrication,” the mayor said. “There is no alternative at DTI, it does not exist and never has,” he added.

“This one was a little more difficult dealing with because I thought there had been some slanderous statements made about some individuals, but the advice was, ‘you know what, that’s tough, the town can’t do anything [and] any individual who feels they were libelled or slandered has to go to court by themselves,” Higham said, suggesting that with the advent of social media, people can get away with making false and slanderous statements.

Earlier, he also referred to Councillor Andrew Black’s plea that citizens not fall into “the swampy mire of news blogs, improperly moderated social media sites or non-town affiliated Facebook pages that thrive on conjecture, misinformation, populist opinion and falsehoods.”

Higham said that before social media, public commentary was moderated by a free press and by respect for office holders striving to do their best for the community as well as by personal responsibility.

Free speech

The mayor said he has always believed in free speech even if it’s not based on facts. He suggested that’s one of the reasons he did not correct the record when the letters to the editor appeared or council received the e-mail.

He added that he also believed erroneously that people making false or fabricated allegations would correct the record on their own.

“I’ve tried that for three years and it hasn’t worked,” he said. “So, I apologize for being naive and for not acting. I apologize to staff. I apologize to council and I apologize to the community. In the short time left in this mandate, I will be firmer and stronger,” Higham concluded.

Later, during the public question period, Higham was asked why he decided to apologize now when the incidents he described go back over a long period.

“Is there something that triggered this tonight?” I asked.

“No, I think it’s the cumulative of all of those events,” he replied. ‘They have never been addressed by the authors; there’s been no recanting despite the knowledge that some things are completely incorrect and false and the impacts on our staff are continuing. So I thought it’s time for me to step up and play the role that I should play.”

When I asked whether his comment about the “short time left in this mandate,” meant he’s not planning to run again, Higham replied: “I haven’t made a decision what I’m going to do, no.”

To listen to my exchange with Mayor Higham, click on the media player below:

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Sackville’s mayor says new Waterfowl Park Rotary Bridge helps tell environmental story

Posted on November 14, 2019 by

Ribbon cutting to open Rotary Bridge. L-R: Mayor John Higham, Rotary President David McKellar, MLA Megan Mitton, Waterfowl Park Advisory Committee Chair Sandy Burnett

About 50 people gathered today under a sunny, blue sky to watch the official opening of the $50,000 Rotary Bridge project linking Sackville’s 55-acre Waterfowl Park with a 20-acre park extension on land donated by the late Daniel Lund.

“Some time ago I used to walk along here and look across and say ‘what an opportunity we have to tell an environmental story,'” Mayor John Higham told the crowd just before helping to cut a green ribbon officially opening the bridge.

“People understand the marsh, but then right beside it is grassland and right behind that is the forest,” Higham added, referring to the Lund property.

“We’ve got a perfect environmental story which shows you how the environment works and how all the parts working together create what we have and create what we need to protect,” the mayor said.

“This bridge is the piece that links it all together.”

Community partners

Rotary Club President David McKellar

Sackville Rotary Club President David McKellar said the bridge represents the club’s policy of giving back to the community. He was referring to the $25,200 the Rotary Club donated to make the bridge possible.

“You’ll see small, but significant signs on the bridge saying that we’re a community partner and that’s why we’re here today,” McKellar added.

“Bridges seem to be a specialty of the Rotary Club of Sackville,” said Sandy Burnett, Chair of the Sackville Waterfowl Park Advisory Committee. “The bridge at the Swan Pond is another fine example.” He also thanked the club for helping with two observation towers in the Waterfowl Park.

Burnett, along with Al Smith, were founding members of the park, which opened more than 30 years ago.

“We really didn’t dream the degree to which the place and its trails would be adopted as a community gem and a community treasure,” he said.

Special place

Memramcook-Tantramar MLA Megan Mitton noted that the bridge opening was happening on a chilly, wintry day.

“This place is amazing to use all year round,” Mitton said, “and so we’ll be here and people will be able to use this bridge to go over to the Lund extension even when it’s wintry and stormy.”

She added that the large number attending the bridge opening ceremony shows how special the Waterfowl Park is to the people of Sackville.

Rotary Bridge crosses drainage ditch between the Lund extension and the main park. Note the bridge’s helical supports

Extra expenses

During its meeting on Tuesday, Sackville Town Council approved awarding an additional $18,481.75 to Sackville General Contracting bringing the total cost of the Rotary Bridge project to $50,881.75.

Town Engineer Dwayne Acton said the additional money was needed to cover unanticipated costs including an extra 48.5 metres (159 feet) of helical bridge supports needed to hit solid ground.

He agreed with Councillor Shawn Mesheau that helical supports for boardwalks in the park had to be sunk to greater depths than expected.

“It’s extremely difficult to predict exactly where you’re going to hit that solid point to get the load capacity that we’re looking for,” Acton said.

For coverage of the official opening of the Lund extension to the Waterfowl Park last June, click here.

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