Demonstrators wave to honking cars & trucks passing under the Main St. bridge at TransCanada Exit 504

About 120 demonstrators waved to passing traffic on the TransCanada highway and on Sackville’s Main Street Thursday in the latest protest against NB Power’s plans for a 500 MW gas peaker plant near Centre Village.

“The turnout today is amazing,” said Tantramar MLA Megan Mitton. “We’re getting a lot of honks and a lot of support as folks drive by and I think it really shows that there’s no social licence for this project in our community.”

Truckers and motorists honked their horns before whizzing under the bridge on the busy highway

Mitton said the demonstration as well as the Protect the Chignecto Isthmus Coalition’s application for a judicial review of the Energy & Utility Board’s decision to approve the gas plant shows that the community hasn’t given up the fight against the gas plant.

MLA Megan Mitton at today’s demonstration

“I think it’s important that we show that we haven’t given up, that we show that this is still really important to us, and that even though it’s summertime, people are taking this beautiful sunny day to stand up and get the message out, and the Holt government needs to be listening,” Mitton said.

She added that NB Power should be listening too.

“New Brunswickers want to move away from burning fossil fuels and towards renewable energy. And it won’t happen overnight, but it needs to happen. And we need to be strategic about it. Unfortunately, NB Power seems to be allergic to renewables, to solar. And it’s hard to even understand their logic, but they are definitely stuck in a different century,” Mitton said.

Hudson Rogers and Fern Losier said a gas peaker plant would threaten wildlife on the ecologically sensitive Chignecto Isthmus

“I’m here because I’m a student in chemistry and I’ve heard about all the contaminants and all the pollution that gas plants do,” said Université de Moncton student Hudson Rogers.

“I think it’s a very bad idea, plain and simple. I care a lot about the birds and I’ve heard about how gas plants and processing gas can harm them,” he added, referring to the deaths in 2013 of 7,500 songbirds that flew into a burning gas flare at the Canaport LNG facility in Saint John.

“I’ve been going to anti-fracking protests since I was a very young child in Moncton and my parents very much raised me to care a lot about the environment,” said Fern Loiselle who is a recent graduate of U de M.

“I consider myself a naturalist where I very much believe that nature has their own rights. Rivers have river rights, trees have tree rights, humans have human rights,” she said, adding that there are endangered bats on the Isthmus as well as golden and bald eagles and plants that need protection in that space.

“And because humans are the ones destroying it, humans need to be the ones defending it as well and that’s why I’m here today.”

Ward 4 Councillor Kristen LeBlanc

“I think this demonstration is spectacular,” said Tantramar councillor Kristen LeBlanc whose ward includes Centre Village where NB Power wants to put the gas plant.

“As I rolled up and parked my vehicle, I kind of started to get a little bit teary-eyed to see how much compassion there is towards this municipality. And it’s not just people from the municipality that showed up, it’s people from the surrounding areas, Memramcook and Moncton, and it’s just a spectacular turnout,” she said.

LeBlanc added that she plans to introduce a motion at next week’s council meeting reaffirming Tantramar’s official opposition to the gas plant.

The meeting will be held on Tuesday, July 14th exactly one year after NB Power issued its news release announcing its plan for a Centre Village gas plant.

LeBlanc pointed to the meeting agenda showing that NB Power VP Brad Coady is scheduled to make a presentation to council.

“Yes, it will be a year to the day,” she said. “Yes, happy anniversary,” she added with an ironic smile.