Midgic meeting discusses how to stop proposed 500 MW gas plant on Chignecto Isthmus

Posted on August 12, 2025 by brucewark

Terry Jones (L) and Juliette Bulmer along with Kristen Nicole LeBlanc organized Monday’s meeting

About 80 people gathered in the basement of the Midgic Baptist Church Monday night to discuss ways of stopping NB Power from building a massive natural gas generating plant near Centre Village on the ecologically sensitive Chignecto Isthmus.

“Ultimately, the biggest impact that we’re going to find is going to come to our wetlands, our water and our wells,” said meeting organizer Terry Jones whose 178 acre family property is only 1.4 kilometres from the proposed 500 MW gas plant.

“And this water damage is going to travel all the way to the Tantramar River, to Sackville, to the aquifers down there. So to think that it’s just a Centre Village project, that’s just the tip of the iceberg,” she added.

“What we need to do is look at slowing this project down for sure so that we have time,” Jones said, “because if everything passes through, they’re going to start in the fall drilling test wells, and in January, first quarter of next year, building and starting the infrastructure.”

“It’s not that we’re anti-progress or anti-development. Not at all,” meeting organizer and Midgic resident Juliette Bulmer told the meeting.

“It’s just such a sensitive area right here. It’s one of the few corridors where we have the migratory birds, the moose project and all kinds of things,” she added.

“A lot of you have been living on the land for a long time. You’ve got generations of families and you know what it’s been like living here,” Bulmer said as someone in the audience called out, “The water is so good here.”

“The water is so good here,” Bulmer repeated.

“We have a right to have clean water, clean air and to enjoy our property,” Jones said adding there’s potential for safe, eco-friendly tourism in the area.

“But, we’re looking at building a concrete pad up there and sticking in generating stations.”

No ‘confidence’ in province

Tantramar MLA Megan Mitton

Tantramar MLA Megan Mitton reported on the provincial environment minister’s response to her letter calling for a comprehensive environmental impact assessment (EIA) that would require extensive public consultations.

She said Gilles LePage wrote back to say he would not decide on whether to order a comprehensive EIA until initial reviews had been completed and he added: “It should be noted that Comprehensive reviews are generally required for large scale projects like mines, refineries, nuclear power, etc.”

“So, I don’t have confidence in the provincial government,” Mitton said.

She offered to use her constituency office to co-ordinate e-mail and telephone lists as a tool for organizing and sharing information. She said she will also present petitions against the project in the legislature, but warned it won’t meet until October and it’s easy for the government to ignore petitions.

Diesel dangers

Pam Novak and Barry Rothfuss of the Atlantic Wildlife Institute

Barry Rothfuss, executive director of the Atlantic Wildlife Institute (AWI), which would be 4.5 kilometres from the generating plant, spoke about his expertise in dealing with the environmental effects of projects like this.

AWI is the only organization in Atlantic Canada that is certified to deal with risks and threats to ecologically sensitive flora and fauna and the only one certified to suggest ways of mitigating damage when it occurs.

“I’ve been in a lot of facilities like this,” he said. “Just to access these facilities, you need special training. You need understanding of the environments you’re walking into.”

He added that the big, 10-generator plant will be using diesel fuel as a backup to natural gas and that would require a diesel storage capacity of three million gallons.

Rothfuss said if significant leaks occurred, local organizations would not have the capacity to deal with them.

“These types of facilities are notorious for leaks and things going wrong and human error,” he added.

In addition to AWI, speakers for the Canadian Parks and Wilderness Society and EOS Eco-Energy expressed their environmental concerns about the proposed gas and diesel plant.

Renewable alternatives

Leslie Chandler

Activist Leslie Chandler told the meeting there are alternatives to fossil fuels such as gas and diesel.

“There’s something called BESS which is battery energy storage systems. The cost of those systems has dropped 50% since 2022,” she said.

“And building one of those is cheaper than a gas plant,” she added referring to a report from the Clean Energy States Alliance in Maine.

Chandler noted that PROENERGY, the American company contracted to build and operate the gas plant, is holding open houses from 4 to 8 p.m. on Tuesday, August 12th at the Sackville Music Barn and on Wednesday, August 13th at the Tantramar Veterans Memorial Civic Centre.

She urged people to carry one message to company representatives.

“Say our community is not having this and we are going renewable. Yeah, we’re just not buying it, we’re not having it, it’s not happening here and we’re going renewable,” she concluded.

Meeting participants on one side of the church basement. A total of about 80 people attended the meeting

Posted in climate change, Environment, Town of Tantramar | Tagged , , , | 5 Comments

Commentary: Key questions need answers before Centre Village natural gas plant is built

Posted on August 9, 2025 by brucewark

Note to readers: The following commentary raises questions about the 500 MW natural gas generating plant that NB Power is proposing for the ecologically sensitive Chignecto Isthmus near Centre Village in the Town of Tantramar.  NB Power announced last month that it had awarded a contract to the American company PROENERGY to build and operate the plant for at least 25 years on a 550 acre site that NB Power bought nearly a year ago. The project would consist of 10 natural gas generators that would use low-sulphur diesel fuel as a backup.

By Bradley Walters, PhD, Professor of Geography & Environment, Mount Allison University

Mount Allison Professor Bradley Walters. Photo: Mount Allison University

I have real concerns about the potential for significant local impacts from the proposed Centre Village gas power plant project on wildlife, water and air quality, but will restrict my comments here to the issue of wider energy policy and greenhouse gas emissions. These are subjects I’ve been discussing with my students for many years at Mount Allison University.

The way this project is being framed seems appealing. The proponents are presenting it as a means to transition away from dirtier fossil fuels like coal and heavy oil while enabling the expansion of intermittent renewables such as wind and solar. The idea is that there needs to be a way of providing baseload power when the wind isn’t blowing or the sun isn’t shining. Baseload power is the minimum amount of electricity that needs to be supplied to the electrical grid at any given time.

If we indeed had to choose between fossil fuel power options, natural gas is probably the better one for this purpose. However, I’m highly skeptical that we’re limited in our choices and that fossil fuels are the answer.

‘Clean’ power sources

New Brunswick already has access to large amounts of ‘clean’, so-called, ‘baseload’ power in the form of Point Lepreau nuclear, Mactaquac hydro, and hydro imports from Quebec. In particular, Hydro Québec (HQ) is a possible source of massive, additional ‘clean’, baseload power given our province already imports electricity from it and HQ exports even more south of the border (New England, New York State) and to Ontario.

Is there a reason that increased electricity imports from HQ are not on the table as a viable alternative to both reducing existing fossil emissions from NB sources and backstopping intermittent renewables?

Such a scenario seems all the more relevant given the heightened talk of a so-called ‘Atlantic Loop’ that would integrate electricity production and transmission across the Atlantic Provinces and possibly Quebec. And then, there are the proposals now being seriously considered for massive development of offshore wind in Nova Scotia.

In short, the days of thinking provincially about electricity supply and demand rather than regionally and nationally/internationally are coming to an end. Is the proposed Centre Village project being effectively evaluated in light of these regional trends and related planning?

Battery storage

If backstopping NB’s intermittent renewables (existing and planned) from existing baseload sources is genuinely not an option (although I doubt that is the case), then I wonder whether alternatives like battery storage paired with specific intermittent, renewable power sources has been considered as an alternative.

Large-scale battery storage costs have declined rapidly in recent years, so much so that these are increasingly being chosen as the default option by power developers in the United States, Europe and elsewhere. Granted, the up-front costs of building such storage units are sizeable, but the up-front costs of battery storage need to be weighed against their reduced carbon emissions, lower local environmental effects, and gains in long-term energy and financial security.

For example, natural gas prices are currently low by historical standards, but aren’t likely to stay that way. When gas prices inevitably rise, will the economics of natural gas-fired power still look appealing compared to the alternatives?

It’s also worth noting that massive investments in Canadian battery manufacturing are currently underway, mostly in Ontario. This should lead to continued declines in battery costs and also offer New Brunswick a Canadian rather than an American-made solution to the need for baseload power. In the decision to go with gas-fired power, were such considerations even evaluated and if not, why not?

Finally, it appears that the proposed Centre Village generators will burn fracked gas from the U.S. While it’s important to appreciate that natural gas offers a far more efficient way to generate power on-site compared to conventional coal or oil, whole life-cycle assessments of fracked natural gas that take into account the energy consumed by extraction processes, climate impacts of methane leakages, etc., suggest it may not offer much net gain in terms of overall greenhouse gas emissions.

In short, local efficiencies and effects are only part of the picture and there are many key questions that need to be answered before this natural gas plant goes ahead.

Bradley Walters, PhD, Professor of Geography & Environment, Mount Allison University, Sackille, NB

Note: See below for details of public meeting on Monday, August 11th.

Posted in climate change, Environment | Tagged , , | 6 Comments

New pump should lessen risk of Sackville water shortage says town engineer

Posted on August 5, 2025 by brucewark

Crane lowers new low-lift pump through a specially designed hatch in the roof of the Sackville water treatment plant. Photo: Town of Tantramar

Tantramar Town Engineer Jon Eppell says a new $55,000 pump was successfully installed last week at the Sackville water treatment plant in the Ogden loop area off Walker Road.

The pump was lowered into the plant through a specially designed hatch on the building’s metal roof.

“The pump is now operational. It is producing much higher flows,” Eppell said in an e-mail to Warktimes.

Inside view of pump descending through hatch (L) with the new pump attached to its base inside the water plant. Photo: Town of Tantramar [click to enlarge]

Town council authorized the purchase of the new pump last September after Eppell warned that Sackville faced a risk of a water shortage because the impellers or blades in three pumps were too worn to perform properly.

He said the pumps were installed around 1997 and did not appear to have been refurbished or serviced since then.

Last Thursday, a crane removed the old pump before lowering the new one into the plant.

Old pump after its removal. Photo: Town of Tantramar

The old pump will now be refurbished replacing the second of the three pumps, which will then be refurbished until Sackville is left with one new pump and three refurbished ones, an operation that will cost just over $100,000.

During a step-by-step, media tour of the water plant last week, Eppell explained how it works.

He said that water from three deep wells gets pumped into a big tank underneath the treatment plant.

Town Engineer Jon Eppell explains that water gets pumped through two large blue-painted filters to remove iron, manganese and other particles. Filter #1 is at the upper left.  Photo: Warktimes

The three pumps, that are being replaced or refurbished, lift the water from the raw-water tank and pump it through two big, blue-painted filters that contain anthracite or charcoal-like material and sand.

“The water then gets deposited into a large tank that’s underneath the building and actually extends beyond the building,” Eppell said, “and we add chlorine, we add some pH adjustment, erosion protection and then by gravity, it goes to town.”

He says fluoride is not added to Sackville’s water.

Chlorine room (L) for water disinfection and caustic soda tank to adjust acidity/alkalinity. Polyphosphate is also added to prevent deterioration of the pipes in the water distribution system. Photo: Warktimes [click to enlarge]

Ron Nicholson, project manager for Veolia, the multi-national company that has operated and maintained Sackville’s water plant since 2007, explained that since chlorine gas is acidic, caustic soda is needed to make the water more palatable.

“It’s better on your skin for showering, bathing, things like that,” he said. “I’ll tell you that once it went in, the complaints from the town went way down.”

The Sackville plant treats about 2,500 cubic metres of water per day, enough to fill an Olympic-sized swimming pool.

Since 1998, Veolia has operated Moncton’s much-larger water treatment plant with a capacity of 45,000 cubic metres per day.

Moncton’s water comes from a surface reservoir, but Sackville now relies on three, deep wells with its two surface reservoirs as backup.

“The advantage of using wells is that there’s some natural filtering that happens, and you’re less susceptible to surface runoff and feces from animals and air pollution and that sort of thing,” Eppell says.

One of three pump houses (L) with a look inside it. Last summer, council allocated about $113,000 to replace two of the three pump houses that dated from the early 1980s. Photo: Warktimes [click to enlarge]

Ron Nicholson explained that when the filters inside the water plant get plugged with iron, manganese and other particles, Veolia runs a backwash or flushing cycle at least once every day.

“What happens there is this silver air blower pushes air up through the media, the sand and all that, it breaks it up, lifts it up,” he says, “and then these larger pumps come on, they come up underneath and push the water out.”

He explained the backwash water is discharged to two, fenced-in lagoons that act as settling ponds which get cleaned out periodically.

One of two, fenced-in lagoons that act as settling ponds for minerals filtered out of the treated water. Photo: Warktimes

Sackville’s water treatment plant also houses a small lab where water samples are regularly tested to ensure that water quality meets Canadian drinking water guidelines.

Nicholson says Veolia staff are at the water treatment plant at least twice a week, but monitor it through a remote automatic messaging system that notifies operators if things go wrong.

“It’s a constant alarms system, so anything goes out of whack, drifts a certain way, they get notified,” he says.

“It’s really monitored 24-7.”

For CHMA reporter Erica Butler’s coverage of the water plant tour, click here.

Posted in Town of Tantramar | Tagged , | 4 Comments

Tantramar MLA Megan Mitton responds to Premier Holt’s comments on natural gas plant

Posted on August 2, 2025 by brucewark

Tantramar MLA Megan Mitton: Facebook photo

Tantramar MLA Megan Mitton is vowing to continue pushing for a comprehensive environmental impact assessment (EIA) of NB Power’s proposed natural gas and diesel generating plant on the Chignecto Isthmus near Centre Village.

She was responding to Susan Holt’s comments Friday during CBC Radio’s morning show when the premier stopped short of committing the province to a comprehensive review of the project that would include government experts and an independent review panel.

Instead Holt suggested any assessment would be conducted by New Brunswick Power.

“I’m not sure if Premier Holt is familiar with the EIA process,” Mitton said during a telephone interview with Warktimes.

“It’s not NB Power that would be carrying it out,” she added noting that the American contractor, PROENERGY will be holding open houses on the project.

“A comprehensive review is much more in-depth and it requires extensive public participation as well as consultations with First Nations and much more study,” Mitton said.

She added that provincial Environment Minister Gilles LePage has not responded to her July 23rd letter requesting a comprehensive provincial EIA.

“And, I’m going to take his silence as a rejection of my request at this point.”

Uncertain project costs

During the CBC morning show, Holt acknowledged that the province is currently trying to support Canadian businesses rather than procuring U.S. goods and services, but said NB Power put the gas plant project out for tender before her government was elected and the American company was the only bidder that met the requirements.

Premier Susan Holt

“So, there wasn’t a Canadian option,” the premier said.

But Mitton says she’s skeptical.

“It’s unconscionable to be signing a contract with an American company during an economic trade war and moving forward without it being clear even how much this is going to cost New Brunswickers,” she said.

“I don’t think this is best option, and it’s locking us in for 25 years using fracked gas from the U.S,” she added, noting that NB Power is claiming that the province’s Energy & Utilities Board (EUB) does not have jurisdiction to oversee the costs of the project which it refers to as Renewables Integration Grid Security (RIGS).

Battery backup

Barb Clayton, who is chair of the group EOS Eco-Energy, e-mailed a question to the CBC that Premier Holt answered during Friday’s morning show.

“Why not focus on developing an energy storage facility using the battery technology already in use in places like the EU (European Union), which now generates almost three-quarters of its energy using renewables rather than relying on dated and polluting gas and diesel?” Clayton asked.

Holt replied that renewable sources such as wind and solar are intermittent and need to be backed up.

“The natural gas plant is the best and easiest way to allow us to adopt a lot more renewable energy quickly and be able to handle its load on the grid,” the premier said.

She suggested that batteries, such as ones used to back up a solar project in Shediac, generate power for only one or two hours and so wouldn’t be suitable for longer backups.

But Mitton points to larger batteries that are now being used in Ontario and Nova Scotia.

“Ontario has just procured a 390-megawatt one,” she said.

Barb Clayton, Chair EOS Eco-Energy, presenting to town council in February

“There are other options and so I just don’t buy what they’re selling,” she said, adding that New Brunswick needs energy that’s “not going to make us sick with air pollution, using up people’s well water, emitting light pollution and that’s not going to harm the environment in an ecologically sensitive area.”

Barb Clayton herself says she wasn’t satisfied with Holt’s answer either.

“The idea with renewables is that you have to use multiple sources, wind and solar and hydro,” she told Warktimes during a telephone interview.

“And besides, fossil fuels, including natural gas, are not a good investment,” Clayton said referring to Prime Minister Mark Carney’s book Value(s) which argues for massive investments in renewable energy including storage batteries while redirecting capital investments away from carbon-intensive sectors.

“It seems like some people in the European Union have figured it out because they’re getting a substantial amount of their energy needs from renewables,” Clayton says.

“So how are they doing it? Let’s find out what the rest of the world is doing.”

To read a transcript of Premier Holt’s comments, click here.

Note: Two public open houses have been scheduled on the project:

    1. Tuesday, August 12th from 4 p.m. to 8 p.m. at the Sackville Music Barn, 18 Station Rd.
    2. Wednesday, August 13th from 4 p.m. to 8 p.m. at the Tantramar Veterans Memorial Civic Centre, 182 Main St., Sackville.

To comment on the project and to read existing online comments made to the federal Impact Assessment Agency of Canada, click here.

For more information, click here.

Posted in climate change, Environment | Tagged , | 9 Comments

‘Sears Sanctuary’ threatened by NB Power’s proposed 500 MW gas plant

Posted on July 31, 2025 by brucewark

Veteran journalist Wallie Sears during a protest in 2020 against government cuts to Sackville’s hospital. Wallie Sears died last year

The late Wallie Sears’s daughter Paula says her father would be dismayed by NB Power’s proposal to build a big, natural gas generating plant 1.5 kilometres from land his family donated as a sanctuary for native wildlife and plants.

“He would shake his head and say, ‘What will be left for the future?'” Paula Sears wrote in a message in response to questions from Warktimes.

The Sears family donated the 160-acre property to the Atlantic Wildlife Institute (AWI) in 2018. Wallie Sears, who covered local news and sports for more than 60 years, spent part of his childhood on the property which had been in his family since 1875.

“It is extremely disappointing to consider what will happen to the wildlife and the flora and fauna in this area, should this project go ahead,” Paula Sears added.

“I thought about what my father would say. He always dreamed of that area being developed and young families starting to call it their home again,” Sears writes.

“In his mind, however, I doubt very much that this was the development he would envision.”

She also wrote that she fully supports recent comments made by AWI directors Barry Rothfuss and Pam Novak opposing the Centre Village natural gas development on the grounds that it would have devastating effects on the extremely sensitive ecosystem of the Chignecto Isthmus.

‘Absolutely shocking’

Pam Novak points to NB Power transmission lines that run just beyond the boundary of the Sears Sanctuary on the right. [click to enlarge photo]

During an interview this week, Rothfuss and Novak said AWI had planned to use what they called the “Sears Sanctuary” for conservation as well as an area for education and research.

They pointed out that their main, 120-acre location would be only 4.5 kilometres from the big gas plant and directly downstream from it.

“It’s absolutely shocking to us that this is happening this close to us,” Novak said, “in this region that is such an environmentally sensitive part of the province.”

Meantime, the federal impact assessment agency is inviting comments on the project until August 13th.

So far, online comments have been overwhelmingly opposed including these ones:

Howling Creek Farm online comment

Nature NB online comment

For previous Warktimes coverage, click here.

To read the latest CBC coverage, click here.

For tributes to Wallie Sears, click here.

Posted in Environment, Town of Tantramar | Tagged , , | 1 Comment

Mayor, MLA, environmental expert question plan for big Tantramar gas plant

Posted on July 19, 2025 by brucewark

Brotman Generating Station in Rosharon, Texas, has similar components and layout to the proposed project that a U.S. company is proposing to build on 50 acres in Tantramar. Image from Environmental Impact Assessment document

Tantramar Mayor Andrew Black says it’s “incredibly unacceptable” that the town was not informed or consulted before NB Power announced construction of a 500 megawatt, natural gas generating plant in Centre Village near Midgic.

“I can honestly say that neither myself and council through governance, nor the CAO and staff through operations, received any indication of this project before we all heard about it on the news,” Black writes in an e-mail to Warktimes.

“Yet again the municipality, as has happened often over the last couple of years, was not informed or communicated with about this project, its impact, and the public input which is a huge issue as seen through the obvious divisiveness of opinion of the residents of Tantramar,” he adds.

“Just like when the province decided to close a culvert wash-out on the way to Dorchester, closing the Wheaton covered Bridge, reducing the weight tonnage of the Peck’s Point Bridge, and the tearing down of the old Aulac tourism information centre, here we are again being surprised at a project that stands to have considerable impact on this community in many ways.”

Mayor Black was referring to the announcement that NB Power had awarded a contract to PROENERGY, an American company that would operate the facility under a 25-year power-purchase agreement.

As CHMA journalist Erica Butler reported, NB Power announced the project last Monday, the same day that the comment period opened for its federal environmental impact assessment process. The comment period closes August 1.

As part of the EIA process, the Impact Assessment Agency of Canada is hosting online (Zoom) information sessions on Monday, July 21 and Tuesday, July 22 for members of the public to learn more about the project.

Mitton criticizes use of shale gas

Tantramar MLA Megan Mitton

In a post on her Facebook page, Tantramar MLA Megan Mitton says she has serious concerns about holding the comment period in the middle of summer when many people are away on vacation.

And in a separate post, she questions building a plant that would be powered by shale gas from the U.S.

“This will cost taxpayers, increase emissions, threaten sensitive wetlands, and disrupt major wildlife corridors between provinces,” she writes.

“NB Power calls this project a ‘renewable energy integration project.’ But let’s be clear: hydraulic fracking gas is neither renewable nor clean. Methane, which escapes at every stage, from extraction to transport, is more than 80 times more powerful than CO2 in the short term,” Mitton adds.

“This project will lock us into expensive fossil fuels for 25 years as neighboring provinces switch to 100% renewable energy over the next decade. All this while our province is under a heatwave alert and faces growing climate risks.”

Atlantic Wildlife Institute at risk

Barry Rothfuss, executive director, Atlantic Wildlife Institute

In a letter to PROENERGY posted on Facebook, Barry Rothfuss, executive director of the Atlantic Wildlife Institute, writes that the environmental impact assessment documents do not mention that the natural gas generating plant would be located on the ecologically sensitive Chignecto Isthmus, an indication that it is not a serious, well thought-out plan.

During an interview today at the Institute, Rothfuss pointed out that his organization is the only one in Atlantic Canada that is certified to deal with risks and threats to ecologically sensitive flora and fauna and the only one certified to suggest ways of mitigating damage when it occurs.

And even though the Institute would be only 4.5 kilometres from the gas plant, he says no one called to consult him about the threats it would pose to an area that has been recognized regionally, nationally and internationally as a critical wildlife corridor between New Brunswick and Nova Scotia.

“It tells me that they had no concept of what they’re actually building here in relationship to its impact on the environment,” he says.

Gas pipeline damage

He recalls that when a gas pipeline was built in the area in the late 1990s, the environmental damage that occurred over several years was devastating.

“It’s just got worse and worse to the point of where we had a large lake in front of our property that’s now shrunken down to a very narrow marsh with a channel that runs through the middle of it, which was  due to siltation caused by development,” he says,

“And that siltation has built up to the point where it’s choked off the entire wetlands.”

He also recalls how he was called in to assess the deaths in 2013 of 7,500 songbirds that flew into a burning gas flare at the Canaport LNG facility in Saint John.

He says the proposed gas plant in Tantramar would probably have to use flaring systems too to relieve the buildup of pressure within storage tanks.

“We have huge migratory bird populations that fly in and out of here that could have very similar consequences as to what we saw in the LNG incident and it just takes one day with one instance where they’re flaring at the wrong time,” he says.

“Birds fly by light, stars and moon, and when you throw their senses off, they are attracted to these things.”

Threats to water

AWI photo

Rothfuss also worries about the potential for spills of toxic materials that can affect surface and ground water on the Isthmus and notes that the EIA documents show that the proposed gas plant would require 7,000 cubic metres of water every day when an average household uses 10 to 15 cubic metres per month.

“From our own perspective…I have a 120-acre site here, and we’re directly downstream from a facility that’s going to be basically pulling most of the groundwater out of the ground here,” Rothfuss says,

“It’s going to affect our wells, the quality of our wells. Then on top of that, the sound pollution that comes out of these facilities is going to be a major issue,” he adds.

“Then you’ve got a higher degree of traffic going up and down an area, which we’re trying to keep open for movement of wildlife, so you’re going to have impact issues. You’re going to have all sorts of problems that didn’t exist in the past that are going to be there, but it’s also going to directly affect our ability to stay here and do the type of work that we do,” he says.

He adds that the main reason he came to the area was that it was conducive for treating injured animals before releasing them back into the wild.

Rothfuss worries that his Atlantic Wildlife Institute will be pushed out of the area.

So, you know, we’ve put 30 years into building this program, and now we’re being threatened by a project that essentially will undermine and remove all of the positive work that we’ve done, not only through the province, but also here locally in the Isthmus itself.”

To read Barry Rothfuss’s letter, click here.

To view the Environmental Impact Assessment document, click here.

For Erica Butler’s story based on her interview with the president of PROENERGY, Canada, click here.

To read a recent Canadian Geographic article on the Chignecto Isthmus, click here.

Posted in Environment, Town of Tantramar | Tagged , , , | 20 Comments

Sandpiper Shep will get plaque & maybe a new coat of paint

Posted on July 17, 2025 by brucewark

Councillor Debbie Wiggins-Colwell with Shep

Tantramar Councillor Debbie Wiggins-Colwell says she’s pleased to hear that a non-profit group will be working with the town and its citizens to design a plaque for Shep, the giant shorebird sculpture in Dorchester’s Village Square.

“I’m so excited about that happening,” Wiggins-Colwell said in an interview today with Warktimes.

“It’s very important for our community and for the awareness of the semi-palmated sandpiper.”

She was referring to news that the Fundy Biosphere Region, a non-profit group that promotes conservation and tourism, is working with town staff to design the plaque.

In an e-mail to Warktimes, Naomi Meed, Fundy Biosphere’s strategic engagement manager added that her group will also solicit feedback from the community about the plaque’s design and content on Saturday, August 9th during this year’s Sandpiper Festival in Dorchester.

Among other things, the plaque is likely to say that the Fundy Biosphere Region paid for the $9,300 statue and that it was created by Robin Hanson, the artist who operates a workshop, art gallery and historical theme park in French Lake, near Oromocto.

Hanson had been approached by then Dorchester Mayor Debbie Wiggins-Colwell to create a fibreglass replacement for the original wooden Shep in time for the 2023 Sandpiper Festival celebrating the return of the shorebirds to the Bay of Fundy in August.

But when the newly amalgamated municipal council and staff seemed uninterested in restoring the Shep statue, Wiggins-Colwell had it installed herself leading to code of conduct complaints against her and a $19,000 investigation that concluded, among other things, that she did not follow proper municipal procurement policies.

(During her successful campaign for a Tantramar Council seat, Wiggins-Colwell had promised to have Shep returned to the $15,000 concrete platform, stairs and railings that the Village of Dorchester had already built for it.)

Shep ‘touch-up’ needed

Meantime, artist Robin Hanson says he’d be happy to come to Dorchester to touch Shep up free of charge.

He explained that ultra-violet sunlight can damage outdoor sculptures like Shep.

After viewing some photos that Warktimes sent to him, Hanson e-mailed to say he noticed some yellowing and a brownish tinge.

“Some sandpipers are very white on the underside,” he writes. “If we lightly sanded the smooth surfaces and sprayed with white paint, it will look much brighter.”

Hanson added that a “little face-lift” for statues like Shep is needed every couple of years.

He said he can’t tell from the photos if  the fibreglass Shep needs another coat of clear epoxy.

“Just say the word and I will come and assess,” he writes.

Tourism & science

Councillor Wiggins-Colwell says the Shep statue draws tourists from all over the world who come to the Dorchester area every August  to observe the return of the migrating shorebirds to the Bay of Fundy.

“Last year, we had over 200 scientists and shorebird watchers from about 20 countries who had their photo taken with Shep,” Wiggins-Colwell said. “So it just lets you know how important this is to have Shep here.”

Meantime, she and her husband have created four smaller Shep statues that welcome people to Dorchester.

“We have something very unique in our little community, so we do have to celebrate it,” she says.

Posted in Dorchester, Environment, Town of Tantramar | Tagged , | Leave a comment

Tantramar Council hears QAnon, anti-COVID message during 2-minute presentation

Posted on July 14, 2025 by brucewark

Sackville resident Sara Rideout reads her statement expressing QAnon claims

Sackville resident Sara Rideout followed procedural rules when she registered in advance for a two-minute presentation to Tantramar Town Council last week.

After Mayor Black called her name, Rideout began by quoting the Bible, Luke chapter 8, verse 17:

“For nothing is secret that will not be revealed, nor anything hidden that will not be known and come to light.”

She then referred to what she sees as hidden truths that the outbreak of  COVID-19 brought to light over the last five years.

“What we called a pandemic was not truly about a virus,” she said. “Instead it revealed the deep control woven through every system: education, healthcare, politics, business and finance at every level from local to global.”

In a reference to theories advanced by adherents of the group QAnon, Rideout mentioned an ongoing secret military campaign against the “deep state” that some believe U.S. President Donald Trump is now leading.

“Behind the scenes, there has been a covert military operation working for decades to cleanse the earth of darkness and deception that has held humanity captive and in slavery through the systems of control,” she said, adding that central to what she called “the Q-Plan” is the protection of children who are abused and tortured by liberal elites.

“This truth is about protecting God’s beautiful children from horrific evils, human trafficking, adrenochrome, organ harvesting, money laundering, and all forms of darkness.”

Vaccine safety

In an interview outside the council chamber, Rideout rejected the argument that COVID-19 was a worldwide public health emergency.

“When in your lifetime were people forced to wear masks and to take injections?” she asked.

“The time that I was in the military, not once did we ever close borders for a worldwide flu,” she added, referring to her 12 years as a supply technician in the Canadian armed forces.

When reminded of quarantines in the 1940s and 50s for infectious diseases such as polio, scarlet fever and whooping cough before the development of vaccines to protect against them, Rideout asked:

“Have you done any research on what’s in any of the vaccines?”

She then referred to heavy metals, chemical substances and fetal cells:

“Aluminum, barium, also formaldehyde, polysorbate 80, which allows heavy metals to cross the blood-brain barrier,” she said.

“There’s lots of ways to find information about what I’m saying,” she added. “People worldwide know exactly what I’m telling you right now.”

From McGill University:  Should We worry about metals in vaccines?

From Government of Canada: COVID-19: Vaccine safety and side effects.

From the American Academy of Pediatrics: Fact Checked: Vaccines Do Not Contain Fetal Cells.

From the Canadian Paediatric Society: Vaccine Myths and Facts.

To read a transcript of Sara Rideout’s presentation to council, click here.

Posted in COVID-19, Health care, Town of Tantramar | Tagged , | 13 Comments

‘Warts and all,’ the need for community-based journalism

Posted on July 11, 2025 by brucewark

L-R: Paul MacNeill, Jo-Ann Roberts, Marcel Parker-Gallant, Darrell Cole

Paul MacNeill, publisher of PEI’s Eastern Graphic, says he’s optimistic about the future of local print journalism in spite of newspaper closures everywhere including in Sackville where the Tribune-Post ceased publication after the outbreak of the COVID-19 pandemic in March 2020.

“Our print is still very strong, our advertising is still very strong, and that’s because we’re relevant and have boots on the ground,” MacNeill  told a journalism symposium at Mount Allison University last month.

He mentioned his father Jim, who started the weekly paper in 1963 after emigrating to Canada from Scotland.

“He used to say a good community paper covers its community warts and all,” MacNeill said. “You’re tough when you need to be tough, but you support when you need to support and you’re always there.”

In 1998, Jim MacNeill died of a heart attack on the ferry ride back to PEI after delivering the convocation address to the graduating students at the University of King’s College in Halifax.

“Don’t let the bastards grind you down,” he told them explaining that the bastards he was referring to are people who hold power. (After Jim MacNeill had been convicted of impaired driving in 1990, he ran the story on the Eastern Graphic’s front page in keeping with his “warts and all” philosophy of holding power to account.)

“Autonomy, accountability, trust, personality,” Paul MacNeill told the symposium. “Those are the keys to local decision-making,” he said referring to his standards for local journalism at the Eastern Graphic and several other papers he publishes on PEI.

He cited research findings that show while local journalism remains the most trusted news source in Canada, 30% of Canadians pay no attention to mainstream news, instead relying on social media platforms like TikTok and YouTube.

Local journalism & social media

Jo-Ann Roberts, who spent decades as a CBC journalist before moving into advocacy and Green Party politics, said people’s reliance on social media makes media literacy education more important than ever.

“I love the idea of citizen journalism, but they should not replace trained journalists. Journalists who make curated decisions, who look for sources, who check whether they got it right,” she said.

“We need to start educating people about what media literacy is. And it’s going to become more important.”

Shrinking newsrooms, vanishing papers

Darrell Cole, who spent 30 years covering local news in Amherst and vicinity, said that journalists who work for small-town papers get to do everything.

“Besides general reporting, we covered politics, courts, sports, even IODE and Rotary meetings. I even wrote obituaries,” he said. “When I joined the industry, the paper was the heartbeat of the community.”

But when the Transcontinental Media chain bought the Amherst Daily News, the weekly Citizen-Record and the weekly Sackville Tribune-Post in 2002, Cole said things started falling apart.

“From 50 to 60 people working in Amherst and Sackville, the papers quickly went down to 20 to 25,” he said.

Eventually a staff of only four was producing the daily and weekly papers in Amherst until, in 2013, Transcontinental turned the 120-year-old Amherst Daily News into a weekly that published only on Fridays.

In 2017, after the Halifax-based Saltwire chain bought the papers, the Amherst staff went down to two and the weekly Citizen-Record was closed. About a year later, the Amherst paper became what’s known in the industry as a “shopper” full of fluffy features and distributed free with advertising flyers.

“The bread and butter of the small papers years ago was the small mom and pop businesses that advertised,” Cole said.  “Those businesses disappeared when the Walmarts and the Superstores came in and the Walmarts and Superstores don’t advertise in local papers.”

Cole joined the Municipality of Cumberland in 2022 to work as a communications officer, but said he misses the news business every day.

Listening to the community

Marcel Parker-Gallant brought a broadcaster’s perspective to the discussion. As assistant general manager of the French-language community station Radio Beauséjour, he said it’s vital to cover local issues that engage listeners who call the phone-in shows.

“Every time a host would go on air and sometimes picked subjects that weren’t related to local, no one was calling in,” he said.

“Why isn’t anybody calling in? It’s because you’re not talking about how certain things are touching their lives.”

Parker-Gallant said people go on Facebook and expose their lives because they want recognition, so it’s important for local media to cover their communities and give recognition to the people they include in their stories.

‘Print’s not dying’

Throughout the panel discussion, Paul MacNeill insisted  that printed newspapers are here to stay.

“Print’s not dying,” he said. “But the print product has to be relevant and it can’t simply be a copy of what’s been on the CBC news the night before or they’ve seen it somewhere else,” he said.

” So we’re going through a transition. I think what may be dying is corporate media, not the independent media who print.”

This is the second in a series on the Local News Matters journalism symposium held on June 14th in the Mt. A. library. For earlier coverage, click here.

Posted in Mount Allison University, Sackville Tribune-Post, Town of Sackville, University of King's College | Tagged , | 1 Comment

Town engineer says ‘no swimming,’ ‘no dogs’ signs to be posted at Sackville’s water reservoirs

Posted on July 9, 2025 by brucewark

One of two large reservoirs that serves as an emergency back-up for Sackville’s water supply. A hiking trail runs beside the reservoir on the left

Tantramar Town Engineer Jon Eppell says the town is planning to post signs within the next year to keep dogs and people out of the big, open-air reservoirs that serve as an emergency back-up for Sackville’s water supply.

The reservoirs are accessible to hikers, dog-walkers, snowshoers and cross-country skiers who use the network of Ogden Loop trails off Walker Road.

“It’s unusual to have trails so close to a water supply,” Eppell told Warktimes Tuesday night.

He acknowledged that Sackville gets its water from three deep wells, but says the reservoirs should be protected in case they’re needed as back-up.

His comments came after town council approved spending more than $100,000 to replace and refurbish three low-lift pumps inside Sackville’s water treatment plant.

“These are pumps that pump from the raw water tank that’s underneath the building, through the filters and into the clear well where it’s chlorinated and then goes into Sackville,” Eppell told council.

Sackville’s water treatment plant

Last September, council approved spending just over $55,000 to buy one new pump for the treatment plant after Eppell said the pumps, which date from 1997, have never been refurbished even though it’s standard practice to rebuild them every 7 to 12 years.

“We believe that they are operating at about 40% of their rated capacity and that has been affecting our ability to produce water,” he said at Tuesday night’s council meeting.

He added that the new pump should arrive soon and will be hoisted by crane through an existing roof hatch.

The pump that it replaces will be rebuilt and will in turn replace a second pump that will also be rebuilt to replace the third while it is refurbished.

The total bill will come to $100,705 plus HST.

To read Eppell’s two-page background report to council, click here.

For previous coverage, click here.

Sackville pump house over well  #1 is located near the treatment plant which can be seen in the distance on the right. It is one of three deep wells that pump water into the raw water reservoir underneath the plant

Last summer, Tantramar council approved spending about $113,000 to replace two wooden pump houses that dated from the early 1980s.

That  included $55,000 for a new pump for well #1 as well as additional well-drilling; $35,000 for electrical work and $22,000 for additional technical work on both wells #1 and #2.

Eppell said at the time that the pump house over well #3, which opened in 2015, is made of fibreglass and is in good shape.

Sackville’s water system includes the highly-visible tower located just off Hesler Drive that cost $4 million and was officially opened in November 2010. It has a 550,000 gallon capacity.

To read previous coverage about work on the wells, click here.

Posted in Town of Sackville, Town of Tantramar | Tagged | Leave a comment

Streetlights likely coming to former LSDs, but it’s not clear who will pay for them

Posted on July 2, 2025 by brucewark

Deputy Mayor Matt Estabrooks

At its meeting next Tuesday, Tantramar Town Council is expected to approve spending about $11,225 this year and $10,850 every year after for streetlights at 27 intersections in the former local service districts (LSDs) that were amalgamated with Sackville and Dorchester in 2023.

The mayor and several councillors spoke in favour of having the streetlights installed during their Committee of the Whole meeting last week even though no money has been set aside in this year’s budget.

“I do realize it’s unbudgeted,” said Deputy Mayor Matt Estabrooks who represents Ward 4 encompassing rural areas north of Sackville.

“But you know, representing the people from the former LSDs, this is an important one, so my hat and my interest is in having it happen as quickly as possible.”

Streetlights would be installed at several intersections in Estabrooks’s ward including at Pond Shore and Upper Aboujagane Roads as well as several on Rte. 940 at White Birch, Cookville, Midgic Station and Goose Lake Roads.

Estabrooks suggested the money could come from this year’s $50,000 council initiatives budget.

‘No reason to hold back’

Councillor Michael Tower, who represents Ward 3 that includes most of the former town of Sackville, agreed the streetlights should be installed this year.

“There’s no reason to hold back,” he said. “The LSDs do deserve something and for us to step forward now to give some improvements is what we should do.”

Treasurer Michael Beal agreed the money could come from the council initiatives budget, but warned installing streetlights could mean higher taxes in the former LSDs.

Beal estimated taxes would rise by about one cent for each $100 of assessment.

Ward 2 Councillor Barry Hicks

Councillor Barry Hicks, who represents Ward 2 that includes Westcock, British Settlement, Wood Point and Rockport, said the streetlights should be installed this year.

But he strongly disagreed with raising local taxes to pay for them since former LSD residents have already had their tax rates raised by 10 cents with further five cent increases scheduled in each of the next few years.

“We’ve already risen 10 cents and spent nothing in the LSDs yet,” Hicks complained.

Deputy Mayor Estabrooks agreed saying installing streetlights now is important.

“I also think we need another way to fund this,” he added.

Council voted unanimously to send the streetlights issue to its next regular meeting where installing them this fall is likely to be approved.

Treasurer Michael Beal said if council does goes ahead, the initial money would come from the total Tantramar budget, but decisions would have to be made about who will pay for them during the 2026 budget deliberations.

List of proposed streetlight locations

For previous coverage of LSD tax rates, click here.

Posted in NB Municipal Reform, Town of Tantramar | 9 Comments