Green MLA Megan Mitton has appealed to the provincial minister of transportation and infrastructure (DTI) for his help in getting the Wheaton Covered Bridge repaired and re-opened.
In her August 6th letter addressed to Richard Ames, Mitton writes the bridge “needs to be repaired to ensure local residents, farmers, and tourists can travel on it.”
DTI closed the bridge on July 11th after an investigation raised concerns that its structural condition could pose a safety hazard.
In her letter, Mitton says she’s been communicating with district officials to advocate for repairs since the bridge closed and “it sounds as if an evaluation is pending.”
She urges DTI to make its evaluation a priority so that the bridge can be repaired immediately.
“It has already been almost a month and my community and I are waiting for news of when we can expect this work to happen,” she writes.
“Wheaton Covered Bridge is a piece of our history and heritage, and an important landmark. It’s a tourist attraction and an important place for locals, serving as a popular place to take wedding photos, for example,” the letter adds.
“The repair also needs to ensure the bridge is able to handle farm equipment that farmers need to transport and use on both sides of the Tantramar River.
“Currently, they are losing time and fuel, having to travel long-distances, and on roads that need to be graded, such as the Coles Island Road,” Mitton writes.
“I’m calling on you to act with urgency and ensure that repairs to Wheaton Covered Bridge happen right away.”
So far, DTI has not responded to a Warktimes request for more information on its plans for the bridge or its response to Mitton’s letter.
In an e-mail to Warktimes on July 16th, a DTI spokesperson said “there is currently no timeline” for re-opening the bridge.
To read the full text of Mitton’s letter, click here.
To read a report by CHMA’s Erica Butler on how the bridge closure affects local farmers, click here.
For earlier coverage, click here.
Wow! Bridge closed July 11 and she wrote a letter August 6! Such a quick response from our MLA!
On 24 July (as referenced by Bruce here) our MLA was reported by CHMA to have already been in discussions with DTI:
«The Memramcook-Tantramar MLA says she’s been passing along concerns to DTI. “I emphasized the importance of getting this open again,” says Mitton, “and to maintain the covered bridge, in addition to just being a route people can drive on.”»
Thanks so much Brian for your comment. I always welcome your thoughts. In this case though, I think you are being a bit unfair. From Day 1 of the Wheaton Bridge closure, Megan Mitton has been my main source of information. Except for one brief e-mail response, DTI has told me nothing and any info. I’ve managed to glean has been because of Mitton’s efforts to unearth it. Now, in the absence of answers, she’s writing to the minister to try to get action — and presumably, answers.
It’s a real bugger getting any info from DTI. After the Main St. hwy overpass lane closure in Feb. 2023, I tried to get basic info from their media communications staff about when the bridge might be fixed and how much it would cost. Absolutely no response. So, I applied through the remarkably weak N.B. Right to Info. law for this information. Yes, three months later, I did get a few dribs & drabs, but the lead to my story says how little there was:
“The provincial department of transportation and infrastructure (DTI) has released more information about damage to the Sackville bridge that crosses over the TransCanada highway near the McDonald’s intersection, but there is no indication about what repairs will be needed, when they will be undertaken or how much they might cost.”
So, once again, my main source of info. about DTI has always been the local MLA as well as Tantramar’s town engineer.
Perhaps but the letter to the Minister should have been written much sooner.
Remembering the good old days when one would just pick up a telephone and have a productive conversation to resolve an issue 10 minutes after they saw something questionable occurring. This still is the case usually in the private sector.
The New Brunswick Government public sector, on the other hand, is in a snail pace world all of its own.
It is high time for a major retrofit.
If their ambitious goal is to empty out the rural areas ie. The Agenda.. then why would they want you folks travelling out into this rural landscape and God forbid harming wildlife while you are there mucking around? https://ontariolandowners.ca/trudeau-adopts-chinese-communist-policy-the-plan-to-end-private-property-ownership-by-mp-cheryl-gallant/
There are “targets” to be reached:
“The Kunming-Montreal Global Biodiversity Framework creates 23 targets to be completed in the next seven years, but it is the first three which have Canadians worried.
Target 3 has been the one to attract the most attention from the media. It calls for protecting 30% of Canada’s ecologically pristine land and water by 2030.
Target 2 calls for restoring 30% of “degraded” land to a natural state. What the Enviro-crats mean by “degraded” is land used by humans, such as for roads, farms, and homes.
Target 1 calls for the end of all biodiversity loss by ensuring all land and water fall under “integrated biodiversity inclusive spatial planning and/or effective management processes”. Translated from enviro-speak, this means all land and water in Canada must be covered by a Conservation Authority of some type.”