L-R: Phyllis Wheaton & Juliette Bulmer presenting letters to Premier Holt today at the Pump House Brewery in Shediac
Premier Susan Holt says her government is asking many questions about the proposed gas/diesel generating plant that NB Power wants built on the Chignecto Isthmus.
“There’s tonnes of questions on this project,” Holt said today after talking with Phyllis Wheaton and Juliette Bulmer of the Stop the Tantramar Gas Plant group at the Pump House Brewery in Shediac.
“I mean, there are the historical questions we’ve been asking about the whole tender process and the competitiveness of it,” she said referring to NB Power’s decision to award the contract to build and operate the gas/diesel generating plant to the American company PROENERGY.
She said her government also has questions about the technology being used and possible alternatives as well as the timing requirements based on federal rules.
“We’re at the beginning of asking a long list of questions about this,” she added.
Lack of Indigenous support
During a CBC question and answer session last month, Holt said she was encouraged that the project “will be co-owned by a group of different First Nations,” but in Shediac today, she suggested she did not know at the time that there was no Indigenous investment.
Mi’maq Chiefs have since declared the project cannot go ahead without an Indigenous-led, rights impact assessment.
“I didn’t say I look forward to a project that has Indigenous investment,” the premier said, referring to her CBC comments.
“I say we think Indigenous investment is a good thing. That’s something I look for in a lot of different projects.”
Juliette Bulmer & Susan Holt with the letters presented to the premier
The three letters that Bulmer and Wheaton presented to Holt included two from Kathy Berry and a personal, handwritten one from Wheaton.
Bulmer said the premier accepted the letters and seemed open to a meeting with the group opposed to the gas/diesel plant suggesting that they get in touch with one of her executive assistants to set it up.
“My feeling is more positive than negative,” Bulmer said. “She seemed willing to talk to us.”
The silent majority are not out protesting, writing letters, or doing anything on this….
If this project is approved and built, with the approval of “natives”, and there are people profitting from its installation.. that’s called capitalism… much like installing solar panel arrays and windfarms .. energy is a business… So.. Sorry greens but you will keep voting for Megan Mitton’s Green Party MLA and you won’t have a voice or a seat at the table when it comes to policy, energy and development in this province. When will the Tantramar cult of green wake up? The university in the region isn’t helping matters because the people working there as ‘educators’ have nothing good to say about oil and gas [which Canada is rich with] and that is a problem.
There appears to be some confusion as to what area is considered as part of the Chignecto Isthmus. This confusion is caused by the special interest groups. Therefore “What are the official legal boundaries of the Chignecto Isthmus, including the four-corner Grid References?”
“The Chignecto Isthmus, a narrow strip of land that connects the maritime province to continental North America, is just 24 kilometres wide at its narrowest point and roughly 25 kilometres long — a pinch point of wetlands, forests and shoreline areas interwoven with transportation corridors, industry and communities. And as the human footprint here grows, the integrity of natural spaces and the connections between them are being whittled away.” —Canadian Geographic 2025
Good map at this link:
https://canadiangeographic.ca/articles/in-a-pinch-reconnecting-a-vital-maritime-wildlife-corridor/
A perfect article…thanks for posting!
This shows it clearly:
https://cpawsnb.org/wp-content/uploads/2023/06/Chignecto.jpg
Also available at
https://www2.gnb.ca/content/gnb/en/departments/dti/promos/chignecto.html