All of the candidates for Sackville Town Council who were present during Tuesday evening’s all-candidates’ forum declared their opposition to the development of shale gas and, all but one, expressed support for continuing the provincial moratorium on fracking.

Virgil Hammock, who is running for mayor, repeated his position that he wants an outright ban instead of a moratorium.

The audience at the Tantramar Civic Centre gave a hearty round of applause to the candidates after hearing those answers from Hammock, Ron Corbett, Joyce O’Neil, Bruce Phinney, Bill Evans, Andrew Black, Allison Butcher, Julia Feltham, Megan Mitton, Brian Neilson, Jim Throop and Gwen Zwicker.

Warktimes e-mailed the candidates who did not attend the meeting — mayoralty candidate John Higham and council candidates Ron Aiken, Ashley Broderick and Michael Tower — to ask how they would have answered the question.

All expressed opposition to shale gas development and supported the provincial moratorium although Aiken and Broderick say they would prefer an outright ban.

Higham also said he wants the new Council to press for changes to provincial legislation so that municipalities would have more say in resource developments that affect them.