Green leader David Coon with local candidates Megan Mitton and Jacques Giguère outside the Memramcook Institute

The fate of Sackville’s Wheaton Covered Bridge was a main theme yesterday as Green leader David Coon promised his party will push for a comprehensive plan to preserve New Brunswick heritage buildings, lighthouses and covered bridges.

During a campaign event in Memramcook, both Coon and Tantramar Green candidate Megan Mitton promised to fight for the preservation of the Wheaton bridge which has been closed for safety reasons since July 11.

Mitton stressed the need to find a solution for farmers who use the bridge to transport livestock and crops, such as corn silage and hay, across the Tantramar River.

“There’s two issues here,” Mitton told reporters.

“There’s heritage, preservation of the heritage, and then there’s farmers that need to cross that river and so, there may need to be two different solutions to make those two things happen.”

Mitton explained that since the Wheaton bridge wasn’t built to handle the weight and width of today’s farming equipment, the province may need to construct an additional crossing.

“I went for a drive with a farmer out on Goose Lake Road to check things out and I think there’s some fields that won’t get harvested because it’s not going to make sense for the fuel cost and the energy and the time,” she said.

“It’s adding hours and hours of work to their harvest.”

Mitton criticized both the Progressive Conservatives and the Liberals for neglecting covered bridges when they’re  in power.

“Their asset management plan is to let things deteriorate so that then they can…get away with closing them quietly,” she said.

Memramcook Institute

The Higgs government sold the Memramcook Institute a few months ago for $1 million. A Liberal government spent $17 million renovating it

Meantime, David Coon promised that a Green government would buy back the Memramcook Institute, site of the first Acadian University.

The Higgs government sold the building a few months ago to Heritage Developments, a Moncton-based property company that also owns the former Moncton High School.

The government did not disclose the sale price, so after Mitton filed a Right to Information request, she learned that the building was sold for only $1 million even though a previous Liberal government had spent $17 million restoring the exterior of the building and putting a new heating system in it.

Jacques Giguère, who is running for the Greens in the new riding of Dieppe-Memramcook, said the historic, five-storey building could be used for a variety of things including a health-care clinic, nursing home space and offices for social workers.

Giguère castigated the Higgs government for the secrecy surrounding the deal and complained that so far, the new owner isn’t saying anything about the fate of the building.

“It’s all behind closed doors,” he said.  “This is not the way to govern.”

To read extensive CHMA coverage of the sale, click here.