Sussex to host first public meeting on lifting N.B.’s fracking moratorium

Posted on November 1, 2026 by brucewark

by John Chilibeck, Local Journalism Initiative Reporter
Source: Telegraph-Journal
October 30, 2026

Premier Holt sparring with Ashley Anthony last month over the proposed hyperscale data centre in Lorneville that would burn fracked gas to generate electricity

The Liberal government’s shale gas review faces its first real test Tuesday evening when it holds an inaugural public meeting about lifting the 12-year-old moratorium on developing the controversial resource.

Billed as a community dialogue, the meeting is advertised on the Town of Sussex’s events webpage as taking place from 6 p.m. to 8 p.m. at the Sussex Lions Club.

The provincial government did little to promote the event.

Asked about it by a reporter at the legislature on Friday, Premier Susan Holt said her government chose Sussex because it’s closest to where shale gas has been extracted for many years.

“We thought it was the right place to go first, to the people who will be most impacted by the development of this sector and who have already lived through the impacts of the development of the sector.”

Battered by criticisms of her government’s record deficit spending, Holt announced a five-month public review of New Brunswick’s natural gas, anti-fracking moratorium on Aug. 26.

Her hope is that fracking would create jobs and generate taxes and royalties.

The province is thought to have about 70 trillion cubic feet of gas deep underground, a potentially lucrative resource mostly trapped in shale and tight sand formations in southern New Brunswick.

2013 anti-fracking protest

Elsipogtog Chief Arren Sock accompanied by Indigenous warriors and members of his community as he entered the anti-shale gas blockade in Rexton on Oct. 1st, 2013. Photo: Dallas McQuarrie, NB Media Co-op

The Liberal government of Brian Gallant introduced a moratorium on shale gas fracking in 2014, a year after protesters clashed with police near Rexton over exploration work. Several police vehicles were torched, and scores were arrested.

The Higgs Tory government, that took over in 2018, wanted to end the moratorium, but said it wouldn’t make sense until investors showed a renewed interest in fracking. Instead, the Tories carved out a small piece of the province from the moratorium, the McCully field near Sussex, to allow extraction to continue there in limited quantities.

Hydraulic fracturing – better known as fracking – is controversial because it uses lots of water and chemical additives to break rock deep underground and push the gas to the surface. Many people worry about the health and environmental risks of developing the industry.

On the other hand, natural gas burns cleaner than coal or oil, and provides affordable, high-efficiency energy for homes, businesses, and heavy industry.

The Holt government says the review will include consulting with First Nations – many of which were opposed to shale gas 12 years ago. It will also look at the latest scientific and technical developments when it comes to capturing the gas, and gauge the economic benefits and public support for such projects.

Fracking & climate change

Opponents are furious, arguing the gas should stay put, warning that burning the fuel will contribute to global warming. They also say the industry will pollute the air, ground and water.

“We have scheduled the town hall and are getting ready to go and share information with the people of Sussex to listen to their experiences with this industry over the last number of years and to hear their questions, concerns, and feedback,” Holt said.

The premier said her government had set up several working groups to examine different sides of the review. She said their findings would be made public.

“Once we can share that information with New Brunswickers, then we can engage with them to say what do you think about this information. We’re all learning what the economic case, what the environmental case looks like today. Then we can take their reaction to it and incorporate that with the questions that they told us they had through the surveying that we’ve done.”

One of the biggest opponents of shale gas was Arren Sock, who in 2012 became chief of Elsipogtog. He led protest marches in 2013 against the gas exploration company SWN, eventually driving the American company out of the province.

The leader of New Brunswick’s biggest Mi’kmaq community has been re-elected ever since.

‘Great conversations’

Miles Howe’s book gives a first-hand account of the 2013 anti-fracking protests

The premier said she had talked to Sock and others in the community about shale gas when she visited on Thursday to announce the opening of the first long-term care home operated by a First Nation, a 60-bed facility that will be established in Five Rivers, near Elsipogtog.

“We had great conversations with Chief Sock and members of his team,” the premier said.

“Obviously, this is a sensitive subject for them because of the history. We’re talking about a different area, right? We’re talking about the existing area of development as opposed to the work that SWN had done getting up close to Elsipogtog in the past. But like all chiefs, he wants to understand what are the impacts, what are the benefits? What role can we play if we want to play a role?And so that conversation is ongoing with Chief Sock and with every other chief,” Holt added.

The previous Higgs government had strained relations with First Nations chiefs on several issues. Holt said her Liberal government was different.

“Since day one, this government has been demonstrating respect for and a desire to partnership, to partner with First Nations on virtually everything we do, and so the relationship is in a good place. We can have really good back and forth conversations, express concerns, identify opportunities, and find new ways to work together. So that’s what’s happening.”

The premier is scheduled to meet with the 15 chiefs in the second week of November to discuss shale gas again. She said she wanted to make sure that that the dialogue was constructive and “that we’re both moving forward together to get our questions answered, so that we can have a clear decision come the end of January.”

This story was written by John Chilibeck, a Local Journalism Initiative Reporter at Brunswick News.

Posted in climate change, LJI stories, New Brunswick government | Tagged | 1 Comment

Residents demand answers on gas plant safety and Tantramar’s role

Posted on October 29, 2026 by brucewark

Centre Village resident Terry Jones

Members of a group fighting the NB Power proposed 500 MW gas/diesel plant near Centre Village voiced their concerns Wednesday at the Sackville Music Barn during the last of a series of community meetings the town has been holding in all five municipal wards.

“I want to trust in my community. I want to trust in my town office,” said Terry Jones whose home would be next to the gas plant property.

“Small communities shut down big projects all over and all it takes is solidarity in the membership and support of their council,” she told Tantramar CAO Jennifer Borne who was hosting the meeting.

Jones pointed out that both the newly elected Tantramar council and the previous one passed motions opposing the gas plant, but now won’t agree to monitor developments there because it’s not in the municipality’s jurisdiction.

“I know I’m on a soap box, but my property value has dropped by over $200,000,” she said, adding that her property taxes are continuing to go up.

Council will decide

Tantramar CAO Jennifer Borne

“I completely appreciate you sharing your perspective,” Borne replied, adding it will be up to council to decide, for example, whether to follow recommendations from its Climate Change Advisory Committee (CCAC) and push for stricter environmental standards for the gas plant as well as a bigger role for the town in monitoring its operations.

“I certainly feel confident that there could be at least one [councillor] that brings a motion to accept those recommendations,” Borne added, referring to Ward 4 councillor Kristen LeBlanc who was at last night’s meeting.

Terry Jones also expressed concerns about the possibility of fires and explosions at the gas plant including the threat posed by a 57,000 litre tank of aqueous ammonia that would be stored on the site as part of its pollution control system.

She pointed out that under one of the 45 conditions imposed by the province, the U.S. company PROENERGY is required to work with the Tantramar Fire Department on emergency plans that include the provision of an adequate water supply for fire fighting at the facility and that the province must approve such plans “prior to project commencement.”

Fire fighters trained for emergencies

Tantramar Director of Protective Services Dan Dupuis

Dan Dupuis, Tantramar’s director of protective services said he has had discussions with PROENERGY about issues like water supply, but suggested the gas plant would not pose any greater risks than what firefighters might encounter, for example, with a train derailment and that they are trained to handle incidents that would require them to wear hazmat suits as protection against harmful chemicals.

Borne said that so far, the town has not signed a formal emergency plan with the company.

Midgic resident Juliette Bulmer wondered if the town has received any notification that PROENERGY is planning to start construction on the gas plant site within a few days at the end of the month.

Borne replied that she hasn’t had any conversations recently with the company and no confirmation on when it plans to break ground.

She added that both NB Power and PROENERGY are committed to holding another public engagement session and that the American company has invited both the municipality and the RCMP to sit on the community liaison committee that would act as a link between the company and the town.

‘Emotional trauma’

Midgic resident Juliette Bulmer

“The collective emotional trauma that our communities are going through right now has to be acknowledged,” Bulmer said as she referred to Mayor Wiggins-Colwell’s statement at this week’s town council meeting that the municipality should trust government officials to regulate the gas plant.

“It’s just so emotional for us and disappointing,” she added, suggesting that residents did not know that Dan Dupuis had been talking to PROENERGY about emergency plans.

“So, where is the transparency and where is that openness?” Bulmer asked. “We live here. We need to know and we demand to have some answers.”

Mayor Wiggins-Colwell responded that perhaps local experts have more environmental knowledge than those who were hired to conduct studies on the proposed plant.

“That is something I would like to find out too,” she said.

“But until we do, this is where we are. We have to rely on this,” she added.

After the mayor praised groups opposed to the gas plant for bringing their concerns and their knowledge to council, Bulmer warned there would be more presentations suggesting they would be much more forceful than previous ones.

‘Stand up for democracy’

Gas plant opponent Stephen Bulmer

Juliette’s partner Stephen said he attended the recent rally at the legislature in Fredericton where he noticed two police snipers in plain sight on the roofs of the Crowne Plaza Hotel and the Beaverbrook Art Gallery.

“They tried to intimidate us. It’s not a democracy anymore,” he said.

“So everybody in here, if you want to live in a nice place like Tantramar, do your part. Stand up,” he added.

“Stand up for the community. It’s time, no more bullshit, I’ve had enough.”

He said the gas plant would be operating for the next 25 years.

“When you live here long enough and you have the gas plant poison your water and your air kills your kids, you’ll wake up too,” he added.

“It’s going to take a long time, but it will happen,” he said to scattered applause, “because you didn’t stand up for democracy.”

Posted in NB Power, Town of Tantramar | Tagged , | 1 Comment

Climate committee calls for stronger gas plant safeguards; Tantramar mayor stands by provincial conditions

Posted on October 27, 2026 by brucewark

Climate Change Advisory Committee Chair Doug Bliss

The Chair of Tantramar’s Climate Change Advisory Committee (CCAC) is urging the town to push PROENERGY and NB Power to meet higher environmental standards for their proposed 500 MW gas/diesel plant near Centre Village.

During a presentation to town council on Monday, Doug Bliss said the 45 conditions that the province imposed when it approved the project in August are inadequate.

“In the opinion of the Climate Change Advisory Committee, the environmental assessment requirements represent minimum standards that do not adequately address the concerns of this council nor the people of Tantramar,” he said

“We believe these particular environmental assessment conditions and recommendations are weak,” Bliss added as he urged council to demand higher standards and push for a direct role in overseeing the project.

In one of the slides he showed council, Bliss pointed to several highly important areas that his nine-member committee felt needed stricter standards, tougher enforcement measures and more oversight from the municipality:


In its report, the CCAC recommends alert systems to notify residents when gas plant emissions exceed provincial standards.

Bliss told council there are few, if any “red lines” in the 45 provincial conditions that PROENERGY cannot cross.

He pointed out, for example, that the provincial conditions say the gas/diesel turbines can operate only 17% of the time in any given year, but noted that the American company could receive provincial approval for more operating hours as long as it notifies government officials in advance.

“So, this is in the category of it looks like a red line, but it’s not really a red line,” he said.

Town should have more say

Bliss noted that the large scale of the gas plant makes it the first of its kind in New Brunswick and that the standard wording of the provincial conditions lacks specifics when it comes to things like air quality monitoring.

Since the gas plant would operate within the town boundaries, he said, Tantramar should press for the right to review and in some cases, approve PROENERGY’s plans for monitoring such things as air and water quality as well as traffic volumes associated with the project.

He added that the town should receive information from the company’s environmental monitors.

“In this day and age, it’s kind of a no-brainer, I think. If you’re collecting digital data, it can easily be made accessible,” he said.

“We do recognize that most citizens in Tantramar have a low level of trust of PROENERGY and NB Power,” Bliss said, adding that council could indicate to both corporations that they would benefit from improving their relationships with the municipality, local residents and the people most directly affected by the proposed plant.

Council comments

Deputy Mayor Josh Goguen

Deputy Mayor Josh Goguen thanked Bliss for his report noting that at council’s meeting on September 8th, he had asked for the Climate Change Advisory Committee to review the provincial conditions imposed on the project and make recommendations to council.

“You guys took it head on,” Goguen said. “I’m super impressed with all the work that you’ve done.”

Goguen indicated he would talk with the mayor and CAO to see if the town could communicate with the province, NB Power and PROENERGY about the committee’s findings and recommendations.

Councillor Alyssa Greene called the committee’s assessment “very well thought out,” but suggested there’s no one on town staff who would have the time to analyze all of the monitoring data that Bliss said PROENERGY should provide.

“This is probably the fourth year running where we have recommended to council that you need dedicated staff to take on these kinds of things,” Bliss answered.

Mayor sticks by earlier statement

Mayor Debbie Wiggins-Colwell

Later, during the public question period, Mayor Wiggins-Colwell was asked if, in light of the CCAC’s report and recommendations, she would revise the statement she issued in August endorsing the 45 conditions the province imposed and calling on the town to leave regulation of the gas plant to government authorities.

“I have thought about this a lot,” Wiggins-Colwell replied.

“The municipality role is to focus on local matters within our authority, while decisions about environmental approval, monitoring and enforcement are made by provincial and federal regulatory (authorities),” she said, adding that council would continue to advocate for clear information and accountability as the project moves forward.

“We are encouraged by the commitment made by NB Power, RIGS (PROENERGY) and the government regulatory to share information and provide updates,” the mayor said.

“We are confident that the commitments will help keep our community informed as this project moves forward,” she concluded.

UPDATE: In an e-mail to Warktimes on Wednesday, Wiggins-Colwell said she was speaking on behalf of herself as mayor and not on behalf of council.

To read the Climate Change Advisory Committee’s report to council, click here.

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

Halifax reporters describe forcible removal from $10-billion data centre announcement

Posted on October 25, 2026 by brucewark

Halifax Examiner reporters Jennifer Henderson (L) & Joan Baxter. Henderson is a freelance reporter and retired CBC journalist; Baxter is the author of 7 books and  a member of the International Consortium of Investigative Journalists.

About 120 people crowded into a university lecture hall in Halifax on Friday to hear the story of how two veteran reporters were evicted from a news conference announcing the development of a $10 billion data centre in Point Tupper, Cape Breton.

“I have had experiences in a lot of countries that weren’t democracies, where I have been asked to leave,” said Halifax Examiner reporter Joan Baxter.

“This was not being asked to leave, this was being told to leave by someone who was extremely angry…it was vindictive, and it was vitriolic, it was nasty,” she added.

Baxter says an angry company official took the cell phone out of her hands, had her backpack taken away and grabbed her a couple of times.

“So yeah, it was very upsetting,” she said. “It took me hours to stop shaking.”

Baxter was referring to an incident on Friday, October 16th during a news conference just outside Port Hawkesbury in Cape Breton where she and her colleague Jennifer Henderson were forcibly removed from an event held to announce “the largest privately funded investment in Nova Scotia history,” according to EverWind Fuels, the American company promoting the data centre project.

“I got a tip on Thursday that there was going to be an announcement of a data centre in Point Tupper,” said Jennifer Henderson.

“We got the tip, a $10 billion event and federal and provincial politicians would be there,” she added.

“I thought, well, there’ll be a news release, the provincial government, the federal government, they’ll be advertising this,” Henderson said.

But the Halifax Examiner, an online, independent, subscriber-based, news outlet, did not receive either a news release or an invitation so Henderson and Baxter drove to Cape Breton to see what was happening for themselves.

Public event, but ‘private’ news conference

EverWind sign at the October 16th event announcing the $10 billion data centre. Photo: Joan Baxter, Halifax Examiner

Although a security guard at the site told Baxter and Henderson their names weren’t on the list, he directed them to park where a shuttle van would pick them up after they identified themselves as members of the media from Halifax.

So, both reporters ended up sitting in the audience recording audio and taking pictures during speeches delivered by EverWind CEO Trent Vichie, Nova Scotia Premier Tim Houston and Liberal MP Kody Blois, parliamentary secretary to the prime minister.

But as soon as the speeches ended and reporters from a wide variety of Nova Scotia news organizations were getting ready to ask questions about the data centre project, angry company officials forced Baxter and Henderson to leave after telling them they were trespassing on private property.

Halifax Examiner editor Tim Bousquet said he worries about how the company could classify a public announcement about a huge data centre as a private event.

“It’s indicative of a larger trend,” he said, adding a company such as EverWind should not be allowed to tell reporters they cannot cover a public announcement because it’s on private property.

“That’s the core of the problem right there,” Bousquet said.

AI turns ‘billionaires into trillionaires’

Halifax Examiner editor & founder Tim Bousquet

Bousquet, who founded the Halifax Examiner in 2014, said he’s been thinking about the expulsion of his reporters and how it fits with his reporting and commentary about artificial intelligence or AI.

According to EverWind, its data centre in Point Tupper will be leased for 20 years to the big American AI company Anthropic, which runs the chatbot Claude.

“There is tremendous public anger at data centres globally for good reason,” Bousquet said referring, for example, to their need to consume massive quantities of local water and the noise pollution they generate.

“I think the public anger is reflective additionally or maybe even foundationally of an anger at AI completely. We’re sick of that shit,” he added, to laughter and applause.

“I see AI as part and parcel of the autocratic mission. It’s to confuse us. We don’t know what’s real, what’s not real…the billionaires will become trillionaires and the rest of us will lose our jobs.”

EverWind apology

About 120 King’s students & members of the public attended Friday’s evemt

Meantime, EverWind told CBC that the Halifax Examiner reporters were asked to leave because they had not notified the company they would attend the event and “did not meet the legislated security protocols for being on site,” an apparent reference to Transport Canada regulations about sites where fuels are stored. (EverWind has a $60 million fossil fuel terminal and storage facility at Point Tupper that it bought in 2022 when it first came to Nova Scotia.)

The company told CBC that the reporters’ “interaction with an EverWind employee…fell short of our expectations. We apologize for the incident and will review our procedures to ensure that similar situations are handled appropriately in the future.”

“We never saw an apology,” Baxter says.

“Yes, it was one employee who really screwed up, but the buck stops with the billionaire and he was there and she was texting with somebody and she did not do that on her own,” she adds, referring to New York-based billionaire Trent Vichie who founded the company.

Baxter says it’s no accident that the Halifax Examiner was not invited to the data centre announcement.

For the last four years, its reporting and commentary have featured many stories about EverWind including ones about Vichie’s support for Donald Trump, his friendship with Premier Houston and Houston’s sudden “flip flop” on data centres as well as the millions of dollars in government subsidies EverWind has received.

Baxter’s latest report, which points out that the proposed data centre will not require an environmental assessment, includes links to the many other stories the Examiner has published since 2022.

To read it, click here.

Posted in data centres, Technology, University of King's College | Tagged , | 4 Comments

Minister wants answers after Lepreau repair job costs an extra $178M

Posted on October 23, 2026 by brucewark

by John Chilibeck, Local Journalism Initiative Reporter
Source: Telegraph-Journal
October 23, 2026

NB Energy Minister René Legacy

New Brunswick’s energy minister says he wants a better explanation from NB Power about a big repair job at the Point Lepreau nuclear plant that likely cost its customers an extra $178 million.

René Legacy told Brunswick News on Wednesday he would seek a meeting with Andrew MacGillivray, chairman of NB Power’s board of directors, after learning the public utility had picked the most expensive repair option.

“I only recently read about the EUB’s decision,” Legacy said on the sidewalk of Fredericton’s King Street, only a block away from NB Power’s headquarters. “I need to talk to the chair. We need to talk about the process, and how it came to its decision.”

Last week, the New Brunswick Energy and Utilities Board, an independent regulator that acts as a check to NB Power’s monopoly on electricity, issued a decision on the Point Lepreau Nuclear Generating Station.

The three-member panel had reviewed NB Power’s application to retroactively ask permission to spend more than $50 million on a big capital repair project.

The law states NB Power must ask the regulator’s permission before spending 10 per cent on such high-cost projects, with a few exceptions. Those exceptions include projects that are essential for the reliability and safety of the electricity system.

The issue stemmed from a breakdown in June 2024, when technicians working at the nuclear plant west of Saint John discovered that stator bars inside the main generator were badly damaged.

Those bars, essential for the proper functioning of the massive generator, were improperly installed between 2008 and 2012 and several of them prematurely failed. Ian Thompson, an engineering expert who examined the repair job and testified at the public hearing looking into the matter, said it was “a miracle” the stator bars had lasted as long as they did.

NB Power was forced to painstakingly remove and replace all 144 stator bars, what it dubbed the Rewind Project.

Four options

The public utility’s executives had four options to choose from, but decided on the most expensive one: fixing the problem right away to avoid the plant being down a second winter in a row.

Point Lepreau provides a massive amount of the province’s baseload power. When it isn’t running, NB Power must fire up more expensive generators or buy electricity from outside the province. During the summer, when demand is low, it can be less than $1 million a day. On the coldest winter day, it’s several million dollars.

NB Power VP Brad Coady testifying before the Legislature’s Public Accounts Committee in June

Brad Coady, the utility’s chief commercial officer, has publicly sounded the alarm that NB Power came dangerously close to running out of electricity on a peak demand day on Feb. 4, 2023, only a year before the Point Lepreau breakdown.

During the public hearing, NB Power and the province’s public intervenor asked their own independent experts to give an assessment of the situation.

Testifying on behalf of NB Power, consultant Bruce Tsuchida from Boston concluded replacement power for Point Lepreau would have been difficult to find and having the plant offline too long would jeopardize NB Power’s ability to maintain reliability.

He was backed by the public intervenor’s expert, consultant Michael Zajmalowski from Toronto, who testified that the rewind project “represented a reasonable balance of reliability, risk and cost considerations.”

EUB expresses concern

Still, the three-member panel wasn’t happy that NB Power didn’t fully weigh all its options.

The most expensive option, picked by NB Power, finished the job before late 2025. However, the total cost for repairs and buying replacement power was $558 million. The cheapest of the options, using a temporary repair and delaying the work until April 2026, was estimated to cost $410 million. That would have represented a savings of $178 million.

The difference represents a sizable sum for NB Power’s nearly 447,000 direct and indirect customers. It works out to nearly $400 on average for every customer.

NB Power executives, however, had decided that a temporary repair was too risky and full of unknowns. Would a temporary repair last an extra winter? What if it didn’t work?

The three-member panel ruled that NB Power’s decision was prudent but left a lot to be desired.“Mr. Thompson was only asked to opine on the option that NB Power had already chosen, which was to complete the Rewind Project by August 2025,” the three-member panel wrote. “The lack of fulsome analysis on this point has caused the board concern.”

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

Posted in LJI stories, NB Power | Tagged , | 2 Comments

Police snipers watch as hundreds rally against gas plants, data centres, mining and fracking at N.B. legislature

Posted on October 21, 2026 by brucewark

Sniper wearing a vest marked ‘POLICE’ watches demonstrators from the roof of the Beaverbrook Art Gallery beside what appears to be a partially covered precision rifle. A second figure was visible on the roof of the nearby Beaverbrook (Crowne Plaza) Hotel, while police drones flew overhead. Photo: Harold Jarche (click to enlarge)

About 300 demonstrators gathered Tuesday outside the New Brunswick Legislature in Fredericton under the watchful eyes of two police snipers, one photographed on the roof of the Beaverbrook Art Gallery and the other on the roof of the Crowne Plaza Hotel.

At least two police drones were also circling overhead.

“These security measures in place yesterday were part of standard planning for the opening of the legislature,” the Fredericton Police Force said in a written statement to Warktimes that mentioned only one sniper.

“Similar measures are routinely implemented for major public events, including parades, Remembrance Day ceremonies, and other large gatherings and special events,” the police statement added.

“These measures are precautionary in nature and are intended to help ensure the safety of all attendees, including participants, spectators, demonstrators, and members of the public. They form part of contingency planning should a critical incident occur.  No specific threat prompted these measures.”

When asked for the definition of the term “critical incident,” a communications officer for the Fredericton Police said it “is an event that exceeds the capability of conventional policing units to handle safely and effectively, thus requiring the deployment of specialized resources and a command structure to lead those resources in order to mitigate risk.”

‘We don’t want that’

Green MLA Megan Mitton

As the rooftop police snipers watched and the drones flew overhead, Tantramar MLA Megan Mitton told the crowd that she and Green leader David Coon would carry their voices into the legislature.

“We will stand up for you to the right for a healthy environment, for a right to have a say about our community, about our health, about our water, about our air because without these things, we don’t have much left,” she said.

Mitton referred to NB Power’s proposed 500 MW gas/diesel plant in her riding and the 190 MW one that would be part of a hyperscale data centre in Lorneville, near Saint John, before mentioning the Holt government’s plan to revive the massive, open-pit Sisson Mine that would produce tungsten for the U.S. military.

“The things they’re planning to do in communities where the people are saying, ‘No, we don’t want that,'” she said as the crowd broke into sustained chants.

“WE DON’T WANT THAT. WE DON’T WANT THAT. WE DON’T WANT THAT.”

“Just so you know,” Mitton said, “when we’re in there [the legislature] and you’re all chanting, we can hear that,” as she urged the demonstrators to continue to chant so the Liberal and Progressive Conservative politicians would hear them.

‘Stop this madness now’

Terry Jones, Juliette Bulmer & Phyllis Wheaton (click to enlarge)

“We have been blindsided, misled, railroaded from Day One,” Meredith Fisher of the group Seniors for Climate told the demonstrators. as she listed the health, environmental and financial costs of the proposed $3.5 billion Tantramar gas/diesel plant on the ecologically sensitive Chignecto Isthmus.

Fisher criticized the provincial government for not responding to people’s concerns and federal MP Dominic LeBlanc for refusing to talk to his constituents about the gas plant.

Meredith Fisher, Seniors for Climate NB & Tantramar

“Madame Premier, we hope you’re listening,” she said. “We cannot give social license to this gas plant or any other gas plant or fossil-fuel-burning American development.”

She thanked everyone in southeastern New Brunswick, Francophone, Anglophone and Indigenous alike, for supporting the fight against the gas plant.

“The voice of the people rally with a loud and clear message: Stop this madness now,” Fisher said as the crowd once again broke into a sustained series of chants.

“STOP THIS MADNESS NOW. STOP THIS MADNESS NOW. STOP THIS MADNESS NOW.”

Angry family doctor

Dirk Groenenberg, a farmer from Rusagonis held a sign with a sharp political message. (click to enlarge)

Fredericton family doctor Chris Arsenault sounded genuinely angry as he told the demonstrators he was mad.

“I’m mad because I’m here today speaking instead of looking after my patients because of the threat this government’s plans pose to our health.”

Arsenault, who is a member of the group, Canadian Association of Physicians for the Environment (CAPE NB), said he recently met with doctors in rural British Columbia whose communities have undergone extensive fracking for shale gas in the last 20 years.

“The health effects they have seen are so extreme that nearly half of the physicians in Dawson Creek, B.C. have moved away saying they need to protect themselves and their families from the alarming illnesses they are seeing since fracking began,” he said.

“These include drastically higher rates of heart and lung disease, worsened pregnancy outcomes, and high rates of childhood cancers,” Arsenault told the demonstrators, adding that economic considerations should never take precedence over human suffering.

‘Wilful ignorance’

Familly doctor Chris Arsenault of CAPE NB

Arsenault referred to Dr. Eilish Cleary’s 2012 report on fracking issued three years before she was fired as the province’s Chief Medical Officer of Health.

He said her report was instrumental in securing the government moratorium on fracking and although many claim fracking is safer, recent studies from B.C. show it is even more dangerous now.

“But the province doesn’t know this,” Arsenault said.

“After Dr. Cleary’s report, her department of health was systematically dismantled with 70 of her 110 staff being moved to other departments,” he said.

“Subsequent Chief Medical Officers of Health no longer have the capacity to create a similar report. They have been disempowered by these changes,” he added.

“Currently, there is one person in the New Brunswick Department of Health responsible for environmental health. It is impossible to understand and act on the complexity of environmental public health with such limited resources,” Arsenault said.

“The government doesn’t know the risks they’re exposing us to. They don’t even know what they don’t know because they dismantled their own means of learning about it and this is wilful ignorance by design,” he said.

“To protect us all, the Sisson Mine, the Tantramar Gas Plant, and the Lorneville Data Centre must be put on hold and given full health impact assessments. To protect us all, the fracking moratorium must stand,” Arsenault concluded.

Holt on AI data centres & fracking

Premier Holt sparring with Ashley Anthony of the Save Lorneville group

As the rally continued, Ashley Anthony of the anti-data-centre Save Lorneville group sparred with Premier Holt who assured her that the AI project would have to undergo a rigorous environmental impact assessment and meet provincial regulatory standards.

“Personally, are you for or against the AI data centre?” Anthony asked.

“I need to see answers to the questions we laid out in the draft policy,” Holt replied referring to the province’s policy framework for data centre development.

Holt: “Can they do it without impact on water?”

Anthony: “They can’t.”

Holt: “Can they do it without impact on energy rates?”

Anthony: “They can’t.”

Holt: “Can they do it with a positive benefit to the community and if they cannot, then they haven’t met our threshold.”

Holt said her job as premier is to represent all New Brunswickers and that’s why her government asked the public for feedback and is now incorporating it into the draft policy framework on AI data centres.

Anthony then asked the premier about the government’s current review of the moratorium on fracking.

“You said that there was support for fracking,” she told the premier. “I said it was one of the largest environmental fights in New Brunswick history and people are against it,” she added.

“You told me there’s not as many people against it as I think there are,” Anthony said.

“No. I said there aren’t as many people expressing disagreement with the issue to us today as had been in the past,” Holt replied.

Posted in climate change, Health care, NB Power, Town of Tantramar | Tagged , , , | 2 Comments

Lower property tax rates likely for Tantramar next year, but water and sewer bills could rise 3.8%

Posted on October 19, 2026 by brucewark

Tantramar Treasurer Michael Beal

It appears that homeowners in Tantramar will be paying lower municipal tax rates next year.

In a presentation to council today, Treasurer Michael Beal revealed that the province has set lower rates for Sackville, Dorchester and the former LSDs under its new local rate stabilizer program.

Tantramar council has the power to increase rates when it passes its 2027 budget next month, but judging from their comments today, members of council want to keep rates as low as they can.

The provincial rates would mean that residents of Sackville and Dorchester would pay just under $1.47 per $100 of assessment next year, down from this year’s rate of just under $1.54,

Residents of the former LSDs pay just over 41 cents to the province mainly for road maintenance and snow plowing.

The table below summarizes this year’s total property tax rates compared to the ones the province has set per $100 of assessment. It combines the provincial LSD rates with the municipal ones:

Area 2026 rate 2027 rate
Sackville $1.5350 $1.4693
Dorchester $1.5350 $1.4693
Pointe de Bute $1.2667 $1.2301
Former Sackville LSD $1.0740 $1.0456
Former Dorchester LSD $1.1526 $1.1209

The Treasurer will present a detailed draft of his proposed 2027 Tantramar operating budget to council at 9 a.m. on Monday, October 26th.

Water & Sewer

In his presentation of the draft utility budget today, Beal proposed raising water rates for customers in Sackville and Dorchester by 3.8% in each of the next four years.

He said Sackville customers would pay a minimum rate next year of $677 for an annual increase of $25 which would rise if their meters showed they consumed more than 30 cubic metres every three months.

Dorchester customers would pay a flat rate of $891.44 in 2027, an increase of $32.67.

Beal said the 3.8% yearly increases would be needed to pay for rising costs as well as upgrades to underground pipes, lift stations, water treatment plants and sewage lagoons.

He presented a table showing that Sackville and Dorchester had among the lowest utility rates in the province this year:

Posted in Town of Tantramar | Tagged | 1 Comment

Journalist links data centre push to gas plants and renewed interest in fracking

Posted on October 18, 2026 by brucewark

Journalist Nick Tsergas

Journalist and activist Nick Tsergas says Canadian governments see the building of hyperscale, AI data centres as key to the development of the natural gas industry.

“That’s what it means in Alberta where Premier Danielle Smith has said the whole point of the AI data centre build-out is to create demand for fossil fuels,” Tsergas said Saturday during a public meeting in Saint John about how to stop the push for data centres across Canada including the 10 now being proposed in New Brunswick.

He said governments promise that power-hungry data centres won’t raise electricity rates.

“What that does is it actually incentivizes a company to just build its own power plant, and that usually means a gas plant,” he said.

The U.S. firm VoltaGrid and its partner Beacon AI Centers of Calgary say they plan to build a 190MW gas plant for  the proposed data centre in Lorneville, near Saint John, but would need an additional 190MW from the NB Power grid.

Tantramar gas plant

West Saint John resident David Thompson speaking into a mic held by moderator Ashley Anthony, a member of the group fighting the proposed Lorneville data centre

“The natural gas plant that NB Power and the government both want to build at the Tantramar marsh, the real purpose is to supply these data centres,” said David Thompson, a member of the audience who lives in West Saint John.

“They could easily use renewable wind power,” he said.

His comments echoed those of Green leader David Coon, who told Warktimes last November that the proposed Tantramar gas plant would generate the additional 190MW that the Lorneville project would need.

“So, where are they going to get it? Well, the only place they could possibly get it is from the new gas plant in Tantramar,” Coon said.

Governments back natural gas

During an interview after the Saturday meeting, Nick Tsergas pointed to a federal document obtained by the environmental group Greenpeace showing that one of the main “public policy benefits to Canada” of building a national network of data centres would be to create markets for Canada’s natural gas.

“The premier of New Brunswick has floated the idea of lifting the moratorium on fracking,” he said.

“I don’t think she ran on that,” he added.

“We’re talking about lifting the fracking ban because of the emergence of this new class of infrastructure, the AI data centre and  the enormous power demands that it carries, and the timing is not a coincidence.”

Nick Tsergas is a freelance journalist reporting on health, business and technology. He lives in Hamilton, Ontario and runs the website stopthedatacentre.ca. He also works with the Small Change Fund, a registered charity that helps raise funds for environmental and social justice projects.

This is the first of three reports on Saturday’s meeting in Saint John.

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

Divided Tantramar council agrees to explore community building for Ward 4

Posted on October 14, 2026 by brucewark

Ward 4 Councillor Kristen LeBlanc

The strengths and weaknesses of the municipal ward system were on full display Tuesday as Ward 4 Councillor Kristen LeBlanc tried to persuade her council colleagues to take the first steps toward establishing a community building in her ward, which includes Midgic, Cookville and Upper Sackville.

“Unfortunately, Ward 4 is one of the only wards within the municipality of Tantramar without an active community hall or a fire hall,” LeBlanc told council.

Her motion said that a dedicated municipal building could support activities for young people, provide a place for community gatherings or events and serve as an emergency warming and cooling centre when the power is out for extended periods.

It could also house an automated external defibrillator (AED) to revive people whose hearts suddenly stop beating.

LeBlanc pointed out that for many residents of Ward 4, the round trip to municipal facilities and events in other wards is roughly 30 kilometres.

“They either have to have a car, they have to have a tank of gas and funds to get there, the parents have to be available to drive their children to these activities and unfortunately, they’re not all the time,” she said.

“I’m not asking council to approve construction or commit funding today,” LeBlanc added as she called for municipal staff to investigate various options including town ownership of such a building or partnerships with community organizations.

Her motion also called on staff to investigate provincial and federal grants for a Ward 4 building that would fit with Tantramar’s long-term strategic plan and that could be included in the 2027 or 2028 capital budgets “subject to available funding and council approval.”

Reluctant colleagues

Ward 1 Councillor Alyssa Greene

“I think we’re putting the cart before the horse a little bit here,” said Councillor Alyssa Greene who represents Ward 1 where municipal facilities already include the Dorchester Community Veterans Centre.

Greene said the town needs to study populations in every ward and take an inventory of available facilities.

She mentioned existing churches in Ward 4 and the Music Barn as possible community spaces.

“I don’t really necessarily think that the municipality has prepared the information yet for us to make a decision on this,” Greene said.

Councillor LeBlanc responded that it’s not always easy to arrange to get access to church-run facilities and that churches are not always the best places for municipal events such as bingo nights.

“It would be nice to be able to see an active building where we can actually host events,” LeBlanc said later.

Ward 3 Councillor Tori Weldon

Councillor Tori Weldon, who represents Ward 3 in Sackville with multiple town facilities including the Civic Centre and Bill Johnstone Park, expressed concern that LeBlanc’s motion directed staff “to recognize the development of a community building within Ward 4 as a strategic priority and incorporate it into the municipality’s strategic recreation and long-term capital planning.”

“It’s just a language thing,” Weldon said, adding that it would be better to direct staff “to look into” a community building in Ward 4 “as opposed to telling them to definitely do it.”

Councillor LeBlanc agreed to modify her motion so that it would say that any action would be “subject to staff findings and council discretion.”

Councillor Haidee Robertson, who also represents Sackville, wondered if LeBlanc had looked into rental facilities, such as the Music Barn, that already exist in Ward 4.

“I think they also appreciate any sort of income they can get from rentals,” Robertson said, adding that staff could investigate the cost of renting existing facilities.

“I’m not quite sure how much it would cost to rent the Music Barn for an occasion, but it’s worth looking into,” LeBlanc said.

More agreeable colleagues

Councillor Allison Butcher and Deputy Mayor Josh Goguen, who also represent Sackville, welcomed LeBlanc’s motion.

Ward 3 Councillor Allison Butcher

“One of the challenges we have as a municipality of Tantramar is that we’ve doubled in population since amalgamation, but we have become 10 times bigger,” Butcher said.

“I think that moving forward, as we go, we need to do an inventory of each ward and make sure that we have spaces and places for the members of the communities that live in those smaller communities within our larger community,” she added.

“I think that’s part of how we become a community all together, which we’re all working forward towards now.”

“I see where the value is in bringing community spaces in different areas,” said Deputy Mayor Josh Goguen.

“It definitely would be nice to see something out in that area,” he added. “I’m happy to support this.”

Councillor LeBlanc’s amended motion directing staff to investigate the possibilities for a community building in her ward passed by a vote of 6 to 3.

Ayes: Mayor Debbie Wiggins-Colwell, Deputy Mayor Josh Goguen, Councillors Allison Butcher, Tori Weldon, Kristen LeBlanc, Wayne Wells.

Nays: Councillors Haidee Robertson, Barry Hicks, Alyssa Greene.

Posted in Town of Tantramar | Tagged | 2 Comments

Midgic resident urges Tantramar council to continue fighting against Centre Village gas plant

Posted on October 13, 2026 by brucewark

Midgic resident Andy Mills

Midgic resident Andy Mills urged Tantramar Town Council Tuesday to maintain a united front against NB Power’s plan for a 500 MW gas/diesel generating plant near Centre Village.

“This is a thing of nightmares. Toxins from that gas plant will spread far and wide and   everybody will be subject to poor air quality and increased pollution,” he said during a five-minute presentation on behalf of the group Seniors for Climate — Tantramar.

He said people outside of Centre Village may think the plant won’t affect them.

“It will because the winds blow in all different directions and as soon as it starts blowing over here, you’re going to be feeling it,” he said, adding that various experts, including the the lung association and more than 300 doctors at the Georges Dumont Hospital have expressed their opposition to the Tantramar gas plant.

Wouldn’t have moved to Midgic

Mills said he wouldn’t have moved to Midgic in 2021 if he had known that a plant with 10 fossil-fuel-burning jet engines would be built within seven kilometres of his home.

Councillor Kristen LeBlanc, who represents Ward 4 which includes Centre Village, said she probably wouldn’t have relocated to the area with her family either if she had known about the proposed gas plant.

When she pointed out that both the current council and the previous one passed motions opposing the plant, Mills referred indirectly to the mayor’s post on Facebook after the province granted its approval for the project.

In that post, Debbie Wiggins-Colwell called on the town to move forward in the expectation that the 45 conditions the province had imposed would address all public concerns about its potential health, safety and environmental effects.

“I’m not picking on anybody in particular, that’s not what I’m here for,” Mills said. “But we need to have a united front because the thing I see is if you’re not with us, you’re against us.”

‘Bushwacked’

In September, a motion to remove the mayor’s statement was defeated in a tied vote.

During Tuesday’s meeting, Mills referred to a part of her statement in which Wiggins-Colwell urged “residents to rely on official sources of information for updates” as the project goes ahead.

“Instructing the citizens who live here to refer to official sources for their information is ridiculous,” he said. “NB Power and PROENERGY have lied from the get-go to all of us.”

He accused the power utility and the American company of springing the project on local people without consulting them.

“We all got bushwhacked on this thing,” Mills said. “Well, enough is enough. We need to fight back.”

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

Canada needs stronger trade strategy and more investment in Atlantic Canada, scholar says

Posted on October 8, 2026 by brucewark

Canada’s response to Donald Trump’s trade pressure has become too deferential and needs a broader economic strategy that gives Atlantic Canada a larger role, a Canadian trade scholar told an audience at Mount Allison University Tuesday night.

Noah Fry, a Postdoctoral Fellow at Dalhousie University, argued that Canada is more vulnerable to the United States during Donald Trump’s second presidency, partly because the Canadian response is less coordinated than it was during the first.

“Our trade strategy has become increasingly deferential to the United States, potentially to our demise,” he said.

Fry, who grew up in Moncton and graduated from Mount Allison in 2019, researches Canada–U.S. trade relations. His lecture drew on interviews with Canadian and American trade officials, labour activists, auto workers and others involved in the negotiations that replaced the North American Free Trade Agreement.

He contrasted the Trudeau government’s original “Team Canada” approach with the response now being pursued by Prime Minister Carney.

During the first Trump presidency, federal officials worked with provincial premiers, businesses and unions to build support inside the United States for maintaining trade with Canada, Fry said.

“But now, we have new fractures present in Team Canada that we did not have previously,” he said referring, among other things, to Alberta Premier Danielle Smith’s inflaming of separatists in her province and the election of an openly separatist government in Quebec.

“You have unions now saying that we are giving too many concessions and then on the other side, you have business associations saying that we should be giving more concessions and getting a deal,” he said.

Canadian strategy

Dr. Noah Fry

Fry suggested Canada’s counter tariffs might help stir some American opposition to Trump’s policies in the U.S. midterm elections, but argued Canada needs to focus more seriously on finding new trading partners and developing a more effective industrial strategy of its own.

He argued that the Carney economic agenda places too much emphasis on western energy and resource extraction including the new Pacific Link pipeline.

“We’re going to spend $44 billion from public coffers to support the Pacific Link,” he said, but questioned the argument that it would diversify Canada’s trade and open up Asian markets.

“China’s oil demand has already peaked, and there is no real confirmation that there is demand for our oil in China, for example. That’s part of the reason why there aren’t private sector proponents coming forward,” he said, adding that oil from the new pipeline may end up going to California.

Atlantic Canada investment

Fry called for greater emphasis on Atlantic Canada’s economic future.

“I would like to see a lot more engagement with the East in terms of envisioning what our industries will look like,” he said.

Atlantic Canada’s proximity to Europe should make it an important part of efforts to expand trade with the European Union, he argued.

“What are we going to offer the European Union? We have lobster for sure. We have blueberries. But ideally, we move beyond agricultural industries into manufacturing.,” he said.

“Maybe we need our $44 billion investment here in Atlantic Canada,” he said.

“I’d love to see some premiers start to kick up a storm.”

Later during an interview, Fry said developing Atlantic Canada’s ports to facilitate trade would be one place to start as well as more investment here in the defence sector.

“I think Atlantic Canada can play a role in energy, clean energy specifically, that we could provide to different markets,” he added.

When asked if he’s optimistic that Canada can weather the Trump trade storm, Fry said he has no doubt that the country will succeed.

“Canadian people are willing to fight. Consumers have made their choice in terms of buying Canadian. They want to support local industry,” he said.

“They want a government that does the same. So I think the long-term arc bends towards providing local supports. It’s just arriving there sooner rather than later,” he added.

“That’s the concern for me.”

Posted in economic development, federal government, New Brunswick government | Tagged , | 1 Comment