Backgrounder: What does the future hold for Tantramar’s volunteer fire departments?

Posted on August 9, 2026 by brucewark

So, it’s official: Tantramar is looking for a new chief to head Sackville Fire & Rescue.

The ad posted on the town’s website last week indicated the job would pay between $73,860 and $98,480.

It also said the new chief would report to Dan Dupuis, the newly appointed director of protective services.

Dupuis’ duties include overseeing all three of Tantramar’s fire departments as well as Becky Goodwin, the newly appointed Tantramar fire service manager of people & culture, the town’s bylaw officer and whoever is in charge of animal control.

The volunteers, who actually fight the fires, were represented on the job posting in light blue boxes at the bottom of the fire service hierarchy.

Dupuis and Goodwin are full-time employees and the new chief will be as well while the firefighters themselves will officially remain light-blue-box, honorary-pay-earning, volunteers.

Sharp decline in volunteers

How long this can continue is anyone’s guess, especially these days with the prospect of fighting more frequent fires in the era of climate change. That combined with the requirement for hundreds of hours of advanced, professional training and a commitment to be on-call 24/7 are discouraging factors for potential recruits.

The steady decline in volunteers for Sackville Fire & Rescue may have been due to how successive mayors, CAOs and many councillors ignored the documented evidence of favouritism, bullying and sexism some firefighters endured.

But, it may also be partly due to the physical dangers and health risks of an especially demanding job.

In 2022, the Canadian Association of Fire Chiefs appealed to the federal government on behalf of the dwindling numbers of volunteers for a more generous firefighter income tax credit. The Association’s brief sounded the alarm about the chronic shortage of volunteers who made up 85% of all firefighters in Canada:

“CTV’s W5 began its 57th Investigative reporting season last week with “Under Fire: Fewer firefighters mean slower response times, jeopardizing lives”. The story was heartbreaking, and to some shocking. However, the shortage of volunteer firefighters is not news to us. Our data show a drop from 126,000 in 2016 to 100,000 in 2021. About 32% of volunteer firefighters are over the age of 50 with over 15,000 vacancies. Our numbers are shrinking. All hazard response needs are increasing.”

To read more about the chronic shortage of volunteers and the Association’s successful campaign for more generous income tax breaks, click here.

To read previous Warktimes coverage about the shortage of volunteers that includes local participation in the CTV W5 program, click here.

New approach for Tantramar?

Since municipal amalgamation in 2023, Tantramar’s three volunteer fire departments have remained separate units that work together as needed.

Now that a new director of protective services has been hired to oversee all three, it may be time to ask this question:

How can Tantramar turn three volunteer departments into a professionally managed municipal fire service while preserving volunteers as an essential part of its operations in three separate locations?

Some municipalities have partially answered that question by hiring full-time career firefighters backed up by many more volunteers.

The newly amalgmated town of St. Stephen has a blend of full-time career firefighters backed up by volunteers in its “composite” fire dept. Photo: Facebook

The town of St. Stephen, for example, has a composite fire department that consists of six career firefighters and about 24 volunteers.

“The six career firefighters include the Chief, four driver dispatchers, and one firefighter,” says a note on its fire department webpage.

“Four of our career firefighters also act as volunteer firefighters on their days off…Each night, two volunteer firefighters sleep in the station, allowing for a rapid response during the overnight hours.”

Note: (1) After the province forced the amalgamation of St. Stephen and seven surrounding local service districts in 2023, members of the Oak Bay fire department resigned in protest because of what they saw as poor communication and a “hostile takeover.” The incident shows the importance of respecting geography, local traditions and history as Tantramar does by maintaining its three separate units.

(2) The newly amalgamated town of St. Stephen says it has 8,100 residents while Tantramar has about 10,255. Tantramar has a far larger area to cover, hence the need for three fire stations.

(3) Property tax rates are higher in St. Stephen’s downtown area at $1.5561 per $100 of assessment while the rates in Sackville and Dorchester are $1.5350. At the same time however, St. Stephen’s municipal rates are lower in its rural areas: $0.5597 vs. Tantramar’s municipal rates of $0.7411 (former Dorchester LSD); $0.8552 (Pointe de Bute) and $0.6625 (former Sackville LSD).

Other municipalities

Amherst is another example of composite fire service that combines full-time and casual staff with a large number of volunteers. Photo: Amherst Firefighters Association

Woodstock and Riverview are examples of other New Brunswick municipalities that combine career firefighters with volunteers.

Woodstock has five permanent dispatcher/pump operators plus 26 volunteers, while Riverview employs a chief, two deputy chiefs, four captain/paramedics, four lieutenant/paramedics, one training officer, 16 firefighters/paramedics and an administrative assistant supported by 28 volunteers.

Oromocto with a population of about 9,045 residents also has a composite fire department with three chief officers, 16 full-time firefighters, four part-time firefighters and 30 volunteers.

A note on its website says: “The Oromocto Fire Department is staffed 24 hours a day by a minimum of four career firefighters. The career firefighters work a trail, 24-hour rotation in a four platoon system and respond to all calls. If additional resources are required, the volunteer firefighters are paged-out and respond on the trucks that are needed.”

In Amherst, the fire department has eight full-time staff, five casual staff and more than 50 volunteers to serve a population of about 9,400 residents.

Detailed study needed

Tantramar Town Council could commission an independent study of response times over a five-year period before deciding how many, if any, career firefighters to hire.

The study would examine response data for each of the three departments including when calls occurred, how long before equipment was deployed, how many qualified firefighters responded, when they arrived on the scene, and how those figures varied by hour, weekday/weekend and station.

Council could also adopt explicit targets on how quickly an initial crew should arrive in Sackville/Dorchester versus more remote rural areas and how many firefighters should be assembled within 10, 15 or 20 minutes.

Tantramar has already begun professionalizing its fire service from the top. The question council may soon have to confront is whether that should stop with the people who manage the service — or extend to some of those who actually answer the calls.

Posted in NB Municipal Reform, Sackville Fire & Rescue, Town of Sackville, Town of Tantramar | Tagged , , | 1 Comment

Warktimes releases secret Montana recommendations on Sackville Fire & Rescue

Posted on August 1, 2026 by brucewark

Warktimes has obtained a copy of what appear to be the 20 recommendations issued by Montana Consulting Group following its 2021 workplace assessment of Sackville Fire & Rescue and, after careful consideration, has decided to publish them in the public interest.

Although the document does not contain a Montana Consulting letterhead or signature page, its contents closely correspond with the list of implemented actions released by Tantramar CAO Jennifer Borne in April.

The decision to publish the recommendations comes after five years of turmoil within the fire department including the departure of numerous firefighters and a renewed crisis on January 5th when 12 volunteers turned in their pagers, prompting the municipality to launch another workplace investigation.

Publishing the recommendations gives citizens the opportunity to judge for themselves whether the reforms proposed in 2021 were adequate to address the problems inside the department and whether greater public scrutiny could have helped prevent the crisis from continuing.

It also raises a broader question about transparency: why were recommendations dealing largely with governance, hiring practices, supervision, workplace procedures and accountability treated as confidential personnel information and withheld under New Brunswick’s Right to Information and Protection of Privacy Act (RTIPPA)?

Judicial decision

In April 2024, Mr. Justice Jean-Paul Ouellette of the Court of King’s Bench upheld Tantramar’s refusal to release the Montana report under RTIPPA, accepting the municipality’s argument that confidentiality is needed to protect the integrity of workplace investigations.

Warktimes is not publishing witness statements, allegations, interview notes or the workplace assessment itself. The document being released consists of the recommendations arising from that assessment. They focus mainly on changes to fire department governance, policies, procedures and accountability measures.

If those recommendations had been made public in 2021, residents, councillors and the media would have been able to monitor whether recommended reforms were actually carried out as additional firefighters continued to leave the department.

Once again, the town has classified the latest investigation by VanBuskirk Law as a personnel matter, and once again, that report and its recommendations are being withheld from the public.

Earlier this month, Councillor Alyssa Greene served notice that at a future council meeting she will introduce a motion directing CAO Jennifer Borne to disclose the VanBuskirk report to council and to prepare a comprehensive summary of its findings for the public.

The town argues that a section of RTIPPA prevents the release of personnel investigations, but the CBC is currently challenging the law on the grounds that it violates Canada’s Charter of Rights.

To read the 20 Montana recommendations, click here.

To read my earlier analysis of how many of the recommendations have been implemented, click here.

To read about the CBC’s case seeking to strike down Sections 20 and 21 of RTIPPA as unconstitutional, click here.

Posted in Sackville Fire & Rescue, Town of Sackville, Town of Tantramar | Tagged , , , | 5 Comments

Commentary: NB Power’s ‘Opposites Day’

Posted on July 30, 2026 by brucewark

by Logan Atkinson, Seniors for Climate Tantramar

Logan Atkinson, Seniors for Climate Tantramar

Fans of Sesame Street will recall the iconic video “Opposites Day,” in which Bert and Ernie learn all about opposites.

Whatever they do, the reverse is intended.  Whatever they say, the opposite is meant.

Hilarious for adults, educational for  kids.

In a stark example of life imitates art, members of Tantramar town council and residents who packed the chamber were treated recently to their own version of Opposites Day, as NB Power’s Chief Commercial Officer Brad Coady and his entourage appeared before town council on July 14th.

The ostensible purpose?  To demonstrate transparency about the proposed 500 MW fossil-fuel power generating plant for Centre Village, to be built, owned and operated by the American firm PROENERGY.

But the result?  Obscurity, unintelligibility, obfuscation.

Opposites Day indeed.

Mr. Coady presented to council for about 12 minutes, supported by a series of PowerPoint slides, and then seemed to artfully dodge a series of questions.

Did he enhance transparency in connection with the Centre Village proposal?  Did he say anything at all to inform council and the public about this dangerous project?  Or did he leave all of us more confused, more skeptical, than before?

Many examples might be cited to support the argument that the NB Power VP seemed more interested in obfuscation than in enlightenment.

In one case, he repeated the oft-quoted claim that the big, jet-engine turbines would operate only 7% of the time, apparently intending to ease our concerns about the combustion of fossil fuels, the poisoning of our climate, and the degradation of the delicate ecology of the Chignecto Isthmus.

Does this claim make any sense?  Does it not strain credulity to suggest that a project whose costs approach $3.5 billion will lie idle 93% of the time?

NS connection

And what about the commitment to sell 100 MW of power to Nova Scotia, a commitment revealed to New Brunswick’s Energy and Utilities Board and the public on February 2nd.

 If the Independent Electricity System Operator in Nova Scotia exercises its option to draw this power from New Brunswick, what effect would that have on the operation of the Centre Village plant?

Does this not give the lie to NB Power’s claim that the Centre Village plant is necessary only to meet crises of peak demand in New Brunswick?  Will our friends in Nova Scotia accept mere intermittent supply, or will they insist on a steady, reliable source of needed power?

NB Power VP Brad Coady

Mr. Coady is quite agile at deflection.  At one point in his presentation, he said that the Centre Village plant “…has something called a synchronous condenser capability, and that’s essential for integrating renewable energy.”

This statement, one can only assume, is meant to boost the claim that the Centre Village project would be a transitional resource, helping New Brunswick move away from fossil fuel combustion and toward a more fully renewable energy future.

But Mr. Coady’s logic here is suspect, at best.  The clear implication of his words? Because we have synchronous condenser capability, you ought to believe us when we say that this plant is intended for transitional purposes only.

But the truth is that synchronous condenser capability is required by any addition of renewables to the grid; it is not logical to package it with a 25-year commitment to an American company to burn fossil fuels.

And so the deflection is on – please think of the synchronous condenser; please don’t think about fossil fuel combustion.

What about BESS?

One of the strikingly less expensive and increasingly available alternatives to fossil fuel peaker plants is battery storage, known as BESS (Battery Energy Storage Systems).  See the very successful Oneida Energy Storage Project in Ontario, operating reliably since May 2025.

At the Tantramar council meeting, Mr. Coady said NB Power has a lot of interest in BESS, but that it’s hard to make a business case for it to the EUB.

While this may at one point have been true, it is certainly no longer the case.  As reported by CBC News on March 18th, a BESS facility would be far less expensive and more reliable than a peaker plant. https://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/new-brunswick/nrstor-large-scale-battery-replace-tantramar-gas-plant-9.7131768

And in addition, it would provide these advantages without dangerous emissions, and without the heightened risks of exorbitant health and environmental costs.  Much evidence to this effect was led by the highly qualified intervenors at the EUB hearings on the Centre Village project.  And the Oneida Project in Ontario is living proof that it can be done.

“Transparency” or “Opposites Day” obfuscation?

NB Premier Holt

On July 22nd, CBC News quoted Premier Holt at the Charlottetown Premiers’ conference as saying that New Brunswick ought to be considered as the energy hub of the Maritimes. https://www.cbc.ca/player/play/video/9.7279906

An admirable ambition, but one that ought to be realized by the progressive development of clean, renewable energy supported by battery storage.  This is not an ambition to be anchored in aging, dangerous, dirty technology from the last century that will harm our environment in every way at radical expense to New Brunswickers for decades to come.

Operating merely 7% of the time?  Unbelievable.  Synchronous condenser capability to give us all some comfort?  Deflection from the real dangers of the project.  Batteries too expensive?  Contrary to all available evidence.

It’s become quite fashionable these days for corporate leaders and politicians to claim transparency, to promise transparency, to insist that they are committed to transparency.

But are these claims and promises real?  Or are deflection and obscurity what the public is expected to suffer in the name of openness?

Transparency, or obfuscation?  There may have been something educational for youngsters about Tantramar’s own version of Opposites Day, but is there anything hilarious there for the rest of us?

No. Not so much.

Logan Atkinson is a resident of Tantramar and a member of the Seniors for Climate Tantramar Steering Committee. scantantramar@gmail.com

Posted in Commentary, Environment, NB Power, Town of Tantramar | Tagged | 2 Comments

‘An enormous relief’: Province to build temporary detour bridge at Pecks Cove

Posted on July 29, 2026 by brucewark

Lower Rockport resident Crow Robichaud at the Pecks Cove Bridge where recent 16 tonne weight restrictions are preventing fire trucks from reaching her community

Lower Rockport resident Crow Robichaud says she’s pleased that the provincial department of transportation and infrastructure (DTI) has announced plans to construct a temporary detour bridge so that fire trucks will be able to cross into her community.

She says the 10 full-time residents in her area are currently facing a public safety nightmare because the province has imposed new 16 tonne weight restrictions that prevent fire trucks from crossing the Pecks Cove Bridge.

In a statement e-mailed to Warktimes Wednesday, DTI explains that the decision to change the weight restriction last month from 20 tonnes to 16 was made to ensure that the bridge can operate safely until it is replaced.

“While no repairs are currently planned for the structure, a detour bridge is planned for construction next to the existing bridge before the end of 2026,” the DTI statement says.

“It will be an enormous relief for the residents when we have full fire protection services,” Robichaud writes in a message to Warktimes.

During an interview Tuesday before the DTI announcement, she explained why she feels current fire services are inadequate.

“We have a Band-Aid solution that they can get some men and women across the bridge in a smaller vehicle and some water storage on a local property sort of midway in Rockport and Lower Rockport,” she said.

Tantramar has provided three storage tanks containing 3,000 litres of water to fight fires on the other side of the Pecks Cove Bridge. Photo: Crow Robichaud

Robichaud predicts the gravel road on the far side of the bridge will soon start deteriorating because heavy graders can’t cross to maintain it.

“What happens if there’s an auto accident down there and they can’t get the fire truck across with the jaws of life?” she asks.

Aside from safety concerns, Robichaud says the Pecks Cove Bridge can’t handle the weight of trucks that pump septic tanks, deliver hay to a local farmer or firewood to local residents.

“So, it’s affecting a lot of people in many different ways,” she says.

“And you know, we have no other route out.”

Tantramar MLA Megan Mitton, who has been pressing the government over several years to fix the bridge, says she’s relieved to hear about plans for a detour bridge this year.

“This is a public safety issue,” she writes in an e-mail to Warktimes.

“I’m glad DTI has finally understood the urgency that I’ve been communicating to them, and provided some more detail on how they will respond.”

Tantramar Mayor Debbie Wiggins-Colwell describes DTI’s announcement as “very good news.”

She adds it would be a lot better if construction were to begin sooner on a permanent bridge.

“But we’ll take what we can get as long as the community is safe,” she says.

Earlier this week, Wiggins-Colwell wrote to DTI Minister Chuck Chiasson requesting provincial action on the Pecks Cove Bridge.

To read her letter, click here.

Posted in Town of Tantramar | Tagged , , | Leave a comment

Tantramar awards $895,000 contract for Civic Centre elevator

Posted on July 26, 2026 by brucewark

Councillor Alyssa Greene raised questions about the elevator

Tantramar Town Council has voted unanimously to award an $895,000 contract for the installation of an elevator at the Tantramar Veterans Memorial Civic Centre.

“I feel this is a very important project and I feel the price is only going to go up if we delay it,” said Councillor Barry Hicks as he moved the motion on July 14th to award the contract to Maxim Construction, an employee-owned company with offices in Dartmouth and Saint John.

The other bid for the project, from Avant Garde Construction and Management of Dieppe, came in more than $41,000 higher at $936,390.

Before the vote, Councillor Alyssa Greene said she would support awarding the contract, but questioned why the town issued tenders excluding the option of installing a cheaper “limited-use/limited-application” LULA lift inside the building.

A LULA elevator has been described as a combination of a small commercial elevator and a wheelchair lift.

“It’s designed to be installed in low-rise buildings, particularly municipal buildings of two to three floors [and] has a lower footprint,” Greene said.

She referred to the previous council’s request for options, but added that the request for proposals issued to elevator companies said the project consisted of design and construction of a new elevator attached to the existing building.

“That would preclude designs that would have the LULA-lift that would be inside,” she said, adding that the town had removed opportunities for a lesser-cost option inside the building that would help people with disabilities.

‘Lowest-cost option’

Andrew Amos of Catalyst Consulting Engineers

Andrew Amos of Catalyst Consulting Engineers, who served as the town’s consultant on the elevator project, said that both companies told him during on-site inspections that the exterior elevator was the lowest-cost option.

Amos added that in his experience, a LULA lift would save up to $150,000.

“However, looking over the life span, we tend to find that those lifts are much more maintenance intensive, harder to get parts, fewer technicians that are qualified to work on them and they tend to be down a lot more and user satisfaction decreases tremendously.”

He said neither of the bidders suggested the LULA-type elevator.

“They felt that the standard elevator would give us the best investment over a 25-year investment horizon,” he added.

“It would be the lowest cost versus other options.”

In his written report to council, Jamie Ferguson, manager of active living and culture noted that the elevator was not included in the 2026 capital budget, but the $50,000 that Tantramar won this year in the Kraft Hockeyville award would help support the project.

To read Ferguson’s report including various questions raised by Councillor Greene, click here.

Posted in Town of Tantramar | Tagged , | 1 Comment

Gas plant critics accuse NB Power, PROENERGY of ‘bait and switch’ over Indigenous partnership

Posted on July 18, 2026 by brucewark

Barry Rothfuss, AWI executive director

Local opponents of the proposed 500 MW gas plant near Centre Village are accusing NB Power and its American partner PROENERGY of practising “bait and switch” tactics in attempting to get public support for their joint project.

“For months, PROENERGY and NB Power used the promise of First Nations’ partnership to quiet intense community, health care and environmental opposition,” Barry Rothfuss, executive director of the Atlantic Wildlife Institute says in a news release.

“Now that they have pushed through their initial approvals, they have uncoupled the project from Indigenous equity, proving that the original reconciliation narrative was just a public relations tactic used for commercial advantage,” he adds.

Rothfuss was reacting to NB Power Vice President Brad Coady’s comment this week that the gas/diesel plant could go ahead without an Indigenous financial or equity partnership.

Coady told reporters in Sackville on Tuesday that although Indigenous participation would be “a highly desired outcome,” it is not essential for the project to gain regulatory approvals from the Energy & Utilities Board or under the provincial environmental impact assessment.

‘Greenwashing’

Coady’s comments have led Rothfuss and five other opponents of the gas plant to update their previous complaint to the federal Competition Bureau to include what they claim is a “false narrative” about Indigenous reconciliation that is “direct evidence of corporate deception and federal greenwashing.”

The original complaint accused PROENERGY of making misleading statements about the health effects of the gas plant on the local community and NB Power of making misleading statements about the financial risks to provincial ratepayers.

Their complaint also accused NB Power and its American partner of the deceptive practice of “greenwashing” by using the acronym “RIGS” that stands for “Renewables Integration and Grid Security” to create the false impression that the project’s primary purpose is to support green energy.

Recent changes to the Competition Act prohibit companies from using greenwashing to promote their business interests in ways that would make them appear to be more environmentally friendly or less environmentally damaging than they really are.

NB Power VP Brad Coady speaking to Tantramar Town Council

In a telephone interview Friday, Rothfuss also pointed to Coady’s statements during his presentation to Tantramar Town Council acknowledging that the gas plant would produce higher levels of greenhouse gas emissions in the region when it is generating electricity.

“I understand that there’s concerns that the emissions in this region will go up and that is a fact,” Coady told council.

He added however, that overall emissions across the province would go down because the gas plant would enable NB Power to stop burning dirtier fuels as more intermittent renewables such as wind and solar are brought onto the grid.

Coady also pointed out that the gas plant would burn fuels to generate power, on average, only 7% of the time.

Transboundary pollution

Rothfuss says Coady’s acknowledgment that emissions will rise across the region confirms concerns about pollution crossing provincial boundaries which is a federal issue that would not be covered under a provincial environmental impact assessment.

“These peaker plants do environmental harm,” he says, “and it doesn’t matter whether they’re operating 5%, 10%, or 7% of the time because they run dirty when they start up and the impact can be devastating, especially from a human public health perspective.”

He adds that the health and environmental harms are well documented from the thousands of peaker plants operating across the globe.

Earlier this month, Rothfuss wrote to federal Environment Minister Julie Dabrusin requesting a full federal environmental review of the project partly because of transboundary pollution issues.

On Friday, he updated his request mentioning Coady’s admission to council that greenhouse gas emissions will rise across the region and that PROENERGY is now planning to truck wastewater from the site, possibly to a disposal facility in Halifax.

Constitutional treaty rights

Federal Environment Minister Julie Dabrusin. Photo: Mélanie Provencher, House of Commons

Rothfuss’s latest letter to Dabrusin also mentions Coady’s comment about the project going ahead without an Indigenous partnership and calls on the federal government to honour its obligation under Section 35 of Canada’s constitution to respect aboriginal treaty rights.

“The federal Crown cannot stand by as a passive observer while a crown corporation explicitly bypasses the necessity of Indigenous consent on unceded territory, particularly when the ongoing Mi’kmaw Rights Impact Assessment remains highly contested and incomplete,” his letter states, referring to the rights impact assessment being conducted on behalf of New Brunswick’s nine Mi’kmaq First Nations.

Rothfuss says he finds it frustrating that NB Power began by claiming there was Indigenous participation.

“They gave people the illusion that it was there and now they’re coming back and saying, ‘it’s not there, and therefore, we don’t really need it because it’s not required,'” he says.

“Well, it is required and the point I’m trying to make with the federal government is that it’s their mandate to regulate this and make sure that the Indigenous communities are being treated fairly and brought to the table for consultation, and that they’re heard,” he says.

Posted in Environment, Indigenous affairs, NB Power, Town of Sackville, Town of Tantramar | Tagged , | 3 Comments

Tantramar council renews opposition to NB Power gas plant, despite doubts it will matter

Posted on July 16, 2026 by brucewark

Councillor Kristen LeBlanc

Tantramar Town Council has once again approved sending a letter to Premier Holt urging her government to stop all further work on the development of a 500 MW gas/diesel plant on the Chignecto Isthmus.

But several members of council who voted to send the letter expressed mixed feelings about it while Councillor Barry Hicks voiced his opposition because he said it is not within the town’s jurisdiction.

Tuesday’s motion was introduced by Councillor Kristen LeBlanc whose ward includes Centre Village near the proposed site of the big gas plant.

The motion urged a halt to the project “to protect the social and environmental well-being of  the citizens of Tantramar and all of New Brunswick and to consider lower-cost alternatives here that are available.”

“Our responsibility as a council is to ask difficult questions, to represent our residents, to speak when we believe something is not in the best interest of our municipality,” LeBlanc said.

“So what I’m asking council tonight is to understand that supporting this motion does not mean that we oppose economic development,” she added.

“It means that we support reasonable and smart development; development that’s going to protect our environment; development that’s going to respect our residents and their health; development that’s going to create local lasting benefits and development that reflects where Canada is headed, not where it has been.”

‘Creature of the province’

Councillor Allison Butcher

Although Councillor Allison Butcher said she would be voting in favour of sending a letter, she questioned the wisdom of telling the provincial government what to do.

“Municipal governments are a creature of the province,” she said.

“We are here and allowed the authority that we have only through the province,” she added.

“They have a policy and procedure in place that we don’t agree with. I don’t like it, but this is akin to a child telling their parent that things are going to change.”

Butcher predicted the province would ignore the town’s letter for a couple of reasons.

First, the premier promised to come and talk to council, but so far, hasn’t done so and secondly, “it’s a little bit like us telling our boss the way we want [things],” she said.

“We do need to advocate for our community and our constituents. I just wanted to say that although I will support it, I don’t think that it’s going to win us any favours.”

Councillor Barry Hicks said he would vote against sending a letter because the gas plant isn’t within the municipality’s jurisdiction.

“The previous council already sent a letter off to the government opposing this, so I feel we have other important things that we can work on other than this,” Hicks said.

‘What else?’

Councillor Alyssa Greene

Councillor Alyssa Greene said she would be voting in favour, but agreed with Councillor Butcher that the letter would probably fall on deaf ears.

“Unfortunately, we’re not the decision makers on this one,” she said.

“What I would like to hear from your community is, you know, what can we do to ensure that we don’t end up in this predicament again?” Greene said speaking directly to dozens of people in the audience who were there to oppose the gas plant.

“What do you see [regarding] policy and bylaws that you would like to see in place? What can we proactively do rather than being reactionary as we are right now?” she asked.

She said residents should continue to speak out against the gas plant, but should also think about what else is needed to prevent such a situation from happening again.

“I’m looking for the ‘what else’ right now,” Greene said.

Mayor Wiggins-Colwell said she agreed the gas plant is out of the municipality’s jurisdiction.

“But we certainly do support the residents and the people opposed to this project,” she said. “So, we will be supporting you.”

‘Big noise’

Deputy Mayor Josh Goguen

Deputy Mayor Josh Goguen said he would also support the motion as he did in December when the previous council voted to send a letter to the premier.

“I think, yes, they might not listen to us,” he said, “but I’ll take the French term of tintamarre, which means big noise. So if we keep on making noise, they might listen to us at one point.

“So definitely I think we need to keep on advocating for our citizens and making their voice heard because they need somebody in their corner,” Goguen concluded.

The final vote on the motion was 8 to 1. Voting in favour: Mayor Wiggins-Colwell, Deputy Mayor Josh Goguen, Councillors Kristen LeBlanc, Allison Butcher, Alyssa Greene, Wayne Wells, Tori Weldon and Haidee Robertson.

Voting against: Councillor Barry Hicks.

Note: Councillors Haidee Robertson, Tori Weldon and Wayne Wells did not speak on the motion.

Posted in Environment, NB Power, Town of Sackville, Town of Tantramar | Tagged | 3 Comments

NB Power VP says Indigenous financial participation not essential for Tantramar gas plant

Posted on July 15, 2026 by brucewark

NB Power VP Brad Coady speaking to Tantramar Town Council

NB Power Vice President Brad Coady says the 500 MW gas/diesel plant near Centre Village could go ahead without an Indigenous financial or equity partnership.

“Yes, I believe it could. It [Indigenous participation] is not a part of the EUB regulatory process or the EIA regulatory process,” he told reporters Tuesday night at Tantramar Town Hall.

Coady said that Indigenous participation would be “a highly desired outcome,” and he added that projects with wide support “are a lot easier than when we see a lot of opposition.”

He was responding to a reporter’s questions about a report from Auditor General Paul Martin that said NB Power’s agreement with PROENERGY requires the American company to establish “a partnership and consultation with Indigenous communities.”

The A-G’s report added that an amendment to the agreement last December “allows PROENERGY to withdraw from the project and recover pre-development costs if an Indigenous partnership is not finalized by mid-2026.”

Martin told the legislature’s public accounts committee last month that the apparent lack of such a partnership raised doubts about whether the project could go ahead.

“I’d say we’re darn close to mid-2026 so I’m expecting we should know by this summer what’s going to happen there. Are they finding a partner or is this a dead duck?” the A-G asked.

But on Tuesday night, Coady suggested that it would be enough to give First Nations an opportunity to participate in the project.

“We’re hopeful or mindful that if the First Nations want or tell us that they would like to have an opportunity to economically participate in a project, that the opportunity is provided for them,” he said before mentioning ongoing Indigenous partnerships in renewable wind and solar projects.

“In this case, it’s a little bit of a different project because it does have fossil fuel or an emissions component to it, but that opportunity still exists for First Nations participation,” he said.

Earlier claims

Coady was speaking one year to the day after NB Power announced the gas plant project in a news release that contained quotes from Jim Ward, General Manager of the North Shore Mi’kmaq Tribal Council suggesting that an Indigenous partnership had been formed with PROENERGY.

Later, the U.S. company displayed slides during community information sessions in Sackville claiming such a partnership existed and that the gas plant project would be owned by PROENERGY and the Tribal Council.

PROENERGY slide on display last August during two public information sessions in Sackville

However, during a community question and answer session last August in Sackville, a representative of an Indigenous sovereign wealth fund admitted that although the Tribal Council had options to invest in the project, its seven chiefs had not yet decided to form a partnership with PROENERGY.

The President and CEO of NB power acknowledged that there were still no Indigenous partners in the project during her testimony before the legislature’s public accounts committee last month.

“They are working hard on it right now,” Lori Clark said.

“I can’t give you a timeline,” she added “and we’ve had several conversations in terms of the timeline, but as you know, as First Nations would tell us, it will take the time it takes to get an agreement.”

To read Erica Butler’s CBC report, click here.

Posted in NB Power, Town of Tantramar | Tagged , , | Leave a comment

Gaspereau Press moving into Sackville train station with plans to open its doors to the public

Posted on July 14, 2026 by brucewark

Gaspereau Press owner Keagan Hawthorne in front of the Sackville train station’s old ticket booth

Keagan Hawthorne, the new owner of the Gaspereau Press says he’s hoping to move his literary publishing company into the 119-year-old Sackville train station by Christmas where it will offer waiting room space and washrooms for VIA Rail passengers and also be open to members of the public.

“We’re really excited to be able to open our print shop to the public and to invite the community in and be able to show the community how we make books and why we make books the way we do,” Hawthorne told reporters today as he stood by the ticket booth in the old station.

He said he had his eye on the Sackville train station after he decided to buy Gaspereau Press from Gary Dunfield and Andrew Steeves who had been operating out of a shop in Kentville, Nova Scotia.

“Visually, it’s a really appealing building. It has the space. It has a really skookum floor that can support our presses, that’s a consideration when you’re moving in large equipment,” Hawthorne says, “so the structure of the building made sense and works for our operation.”

Hawthorne is leasing the station from the town for $9,600 a year and will be responsible for paying the full cost of renovations.

He initially plans to occupy the northern third of the station where there will be space for an open-plan office, his printing workshop with its three presses, a small store that will sell Gaspereau books and other items such as stationery and pens as well as a space for VIA passengers.

“As the press expands, we will take up more of the building and the long-term goal is to have a portion of it be rentable to another small business,” he says, adding it could be a café, a repair shop, an artist’s studio or anything like that.

‘Taking care with language’

Hawthorne outside the historic station on the VIA platform

Gaspereau Press has been publishing poetry, fiction and non-fiction since it was founded in 1997.

Hawthorne, who moved to Sackville from B.C. in 2018, became its new owner in January after a two-year apprenticeship during which he learned how the presses ran, how the books were made, edited and designed.

“I was originally attracted to setting up a press and becoming a publisher, mostly because I was interested in being a printer first and foremost,” he says.

“I’m also a poet and I believe that taking care with language and being really deliberate about the language that we use is just as important and just as necessary in this moment in our culture,” he adds.

“And so, being a literary press combines both of those focuses. We publish amazing writers,” he says. “I’m always humbled and so grateful to get to work with the authors that publish with Gaspereau Press.”

To read a CHMA story about Gaspereau Press’s current location in the Sackville industrial park, click here.

To visit the Gaspereau Press website, click here.

Posted in Town of Tantramar | Tagged , , | 2 Comments

Mi’kmaq-led study to test moose for DDT and glyphosate contamination

Posted on July 11, 2026 by brucewark

By: John Chilibeck, Local Journalism Initiative Reporter
Source: The Daily Gleaner
July 9, 2026

Bald eagle about to fly in Alaska. Photo: Andy Morffew, Wikipedia

The soaring comeback of the bald eagle uplifts Ethan Augustine.

The senior biologist with the North Shore Mi’kmaq Tribal Council says the banning of the pesticide DDT in New Brunswick in 1968 allowed the large bird of prey to thrive once again.

“I remember being a kid and you’d be, like, ‘Oh, there’s an eagle. That’s so cool,’ because it was so rare,” says Augustine who is from the Mi’kmaq community of Metepenagiag, on the Miramichi, river.

“But now you’ll see six in one tree, and then you’ll go 15 minutes down the road, and there are four more in another tree. You’re seeing all kinds of them.”

Massive amounts of aerial spraying of the chemical in the 1950s and 1960s killed spruce budworm – an enemy of the lumber and paper industry – but also made its way into fish that the eagles would eat. The contaminants in their bodies made their eggshells thinner and weaker, causing them to break before chicks could hatch.

Over time, the bald eagle population plunged, until DDT was banned.

“It is good that they made a comeback because the eagle is such a culturally important species for the Mi’kmaq and Wolastoqey,” Augustine says, referring to his people in eastern New Brunswick and the other major Indigenous group on the western side of the province.

“We never got so much as an apology for almost wiping out one of our most culturally important species, right?”

Augustine also wonders how the old use of DDT and the chemical glyphosate, still sprayed by the pulp and paper industry to kill young broadleaf trees to promote the growth of evergreens, has affected another culturally significant species: moose.

Bull moose browses beaver pond. Photo: Walter Ezell, Wikipedia

This week, his tribal council announced it had secured $150,000 in federal funding to study whether those chemicals are affecting moose, or tia’m, the traditional food for Mi’kmaq. The project will test moose liver tissue for DDT, glyphosate and their metabolites in the Miramichi area and the Acadian peninsula.

It will combine lab testing with community knowledge to help understand whether contaminants are entering the food source and what further action could help prevent contamination.

Moose hunting was completely banned in New Brunswick between 1937 and 1960 because of overhunting, but since then, the animals have had a successful resurgence.

Last year, more than 58,000 New Brunswickers – or 7% of the entire population – applied for just under 4,800 available moose hunting licences, one of the most popular lotteries around.

Indigenous communities hold their own fall moose hunts, typically in the weeks after New Brunswick’s strictly regulated five-day hunt that takes place in late September.

Augustine said the regular and Indigenous hunts are separated to ensure less pressure is put on the animals and the environment.

Each First Nation, he says, will typically bag between two and 10 moose for communal purposes, dividing them up for elders and families. Individuals who want to exercise their Aboriginal treaty rights can also go hunt in the fall when they want.

Augustine, who has successfully hunted four moose himself over the years, says his people want to ensure the animals remain healthy.

The study hopes to combine traditional Indigenous knowledge and western academic research using what the Mi’kmaq call Etuaptmumk, or Two-Eyed Seeing.

The liver tissue of 40 moose will be tested for DDT, glyphosate, and their metabolites through accredited analytical laboratories based at Canadian universities, with support from academic researchers. The project will begin with community talks ahead of sample collection during this year’s and next year’s fall hunts.

Community feedback will help guide how information is gathered, understood, and shared, the organizers say, with the results “brought back to communities and leadership to support future conversations about moose, traditional food, and pesticide concerns in New Brunswick forests,” according to a news release.

Josh Kurek, professor in the Mt. A. geography & environment dept. Photo: Mount Allison University

Josh Kurek, a professor at Mount Allison University who’s studied the persistent effect of DDT on lake trout in New Brunswick, and Katherine Chong, a PhD student at McGill University in Montreal who studies Indigenous health, are also participating in the research.

“This project is about making sure concerns from our communities are taken seriously, especially when they involve traditional food and what is happening in our forests,” said Jim Ward, the general manager of the tribal council, which represents seven of nine Mi’kmaq communities in New Brunswick.

“We are going to look at this through Indigenous Knowledge and lab testing, and make sure what we learn is brought back to our community members.”

Augustine says that the banning of DDT spraying likely improved moose health over time. However, Kurek’s research showed that the chemical is still in the environment of north-central New Brunswick, 58 years after it was last sprayed.

“Where we’re finding it in the bottom of lakes and in lake sediments, that’s where moose often forage,” Augustine said.

“Moose are known to go underwater up to 20 feet to eat the aquatic plants they love. So, DDT could be in their system too, not just trout. It could be that it affects their liver, but not their muscle tissue. It could be found in both. We just don’t know.”

The scientist said once the findings are ready, they’ll be made public.

“If for some reason DDT is adversely affecting our traditional food sources, we want someone to be held accountable for it, right?”

This story was written by Local Journalism Initiative Reporter John Chilibeck of Brunswick News.

Posted in Environment, Interesting people, LJI stories, Mount Allison University | 1 Comment

120 demonstrators line Sackville bridge saying fight isn’t over against NB Power gas plant

Posted on July 9, 2026 by brucewark

Demonstrators wave to honking cars & trucks passing under the Main St. bridge at TransCanada Exit 504

About 120 demonstrators waved to passing traffic on the TransCanada highway and on Sackville’s Main Street Thursday in the latest protest against NB Power’s plans for a 500 MW gas peaker plant near Centre Village.

“The turnout today is amazing,” said Tantramar MLA Megan Mitton. “We’re getting a lot of honks and a lot of support as folks drive by and I think it really shows that there’s no social licence for this project in our community.”

Truckers and motorists honked their horns before whizzing under the bridge on the busy highway

Mitton said the demonstration as well as the Protect the Chignecto Isthmus Coalition’s application for a judicial review of the Energy & Utility Board’s decision to approve the gas plant shows that the community hasn’t given up the fight against the gas plant.

MLA Megan Mitton at today’s demonstration

“I think it’s important that we show that we haven’t given up, that we show that this is still really important to us, and that even though it’s summertime, people are taking this beautiful sunny day to stand up and get the message out, and the Holt government needs to be listening,” Mitton said.

She added that NB Power should be listening too.

“New Brunswickers want to move away from burning fossil fuels and towards renewable energy. And it won’t happen overnight, but it needs to happen. And we need to be strategic about it. Unfortunately, NB Power seems to be allergic to renewables, to solar. And it’s hard to even understand their logic, but they are definitely stuck in a different century,” Mitton said.

Hudson Rogers and Fern Losier said a gas peaker plant would threaten wildlife on the ecologically sensitive Chignecto Isthmus

“I’m here because I’m a student in chemistry and I’ve heard about all the contaminants and all the pollution that gas plants do,” said Université de Moncton student Hudson Rogers.

“I think it’s a very bad idea, plain and simple. I care a lot about the birds and I’ve heard about how gas plants and processing gas can harm them,” he added, referring to the deaths in 2013 of 7,500 songbirds that flew into a burning gas flare at the Canaport LNG facility in Saint John.

“I’ve been going to anti-fracking protests since I was a very young child in Moncton and my parents very much raised me to care a lot about the environment,” said Fern Loiselle who is a recent graduate of U de M.

“I consider myself a naturalist where I very much believe that nature has their own rights. Rivers have river rights, trees have tree rights, humans have human rights,” she said, adding that there are endangered bats on the Isthmus as well as golden and bald eagles and plants that need protection in that space.

“And because humans are the ones destroying it, humans need to be the ones defending it as well and that’s why I’m here today.”

Ward 4 Councillor Kristen LeBlanc

“I think this demonstration is spectacular,” said Tantramar councillor Kristen LeBlanc whose ward includes Centre Village where NB Power wants to put the gas plant.

“As I rolled up and parked my vehicle, I kind of started to get a little bit teary-eyed to see how much compassion there is towards this municipality. And it’s not just people from the municipality that showed up, it’s people from the surrounding areas, Memramcook and Moncton, and it’s just a spectacular turnout,” she said.

LeBlanc added that she plans to introduce a motion at next week’s council meeting reaffirming Tantramar’s official opposition to the gas plant.

The meeting will be held on Tuesday, July 14th exactly one year after NB Power issued its news release announcing its plan for a Centre Village gas plant.

LeBlanc pointed to the meeting agenda showing that NB Power VP Brad Coady is scheduled to make a presentation to council.

“Yes, it will be a year to the day,” she said. “Yes, happy anniversary,” she added with an ironic smile.

Posted in NB Power, New Brunswick politics, Town of Tantramar | Tagged | 2 Comments