Work begins on trail users’ parking lot and new aboiteau

Posted on February 21, 2024 by brucewark

Tree clearing & debris removal underway off Walker Road. The present pedestrian entrance to the Crooked Tree trail is on the left

Tantramar public works staff have been clearing trees and hauling away debris to create a gravel parking lot for skiers, snowshoers, hikers and dog walkers who drive to the Crooked Tree and Ogden Loop trails off Walker Road in Sackville.

“It’ll be a single row of cars that should add up to around 30 parking spaces,” Matt Pryde, Tantramar’s director of active living and culture writes in an e-mail to Warktimes.

He adds that plans call for vehicles to enter the new lot by a utility pole that is nearer the TransCanada highway and exit via the existing, five-vehicle parking area at the present entrance to the Crooked Tree trail.

Pryde says the town is planning to put markings for the parking spots on a guardrail that will be installed parallel to the ditch on Walker Road.

He adds that the town set aside $25,000 in this year’s capital budget to pay for the project and that staff will be seeking quotes on completing the work in the spring.

Less parking, more trees

Municipal staff have been discussing a larger parking area with members of the Tantramar Outdoor Club (TOC), which manages the trails, for at least three years.

Town Engineer Jon Eppell says everyone agrees that the existing parking area isn’t big enough to accommodate the many vehicles that line both sides of the road especially on weekends and holidays when the trails are busy.

“It’s not safe for people crossing Walker Road from behind parked cars,” he says.

Although earlier plans called for a bigger parking lot, the Outdoor Club was concerned about the removal of so many trees.

Eppell says the town agreed to a compromise by creating fewer parking spots to see how things work out.

He’s says that once the larger parking lot is ready, people should no longer park on the Ogden Loop side outside the gate that leads to Sackville’s water treatment plant.

“There have been times when the gate has been blocked,” he says preventing maintenance work on the water system.

For earlier coverage from CHMA, click here.

Aboiteau construction underway

Crane hoisting large steel beam Tuesday over the dyke on the Tantramar River in Sackville’s industrial park.

Meantime, preliminary work is underway to install a new aboiteau in the dyke beside the Tantramar River in Sackville’s industrial park.

The double-gated aboiteau is needed to complete Sackville’s new flood control system.

On Tuesday, construction workers were making preparations to install interlocking steel panels designed to block water from getting into the construction site on the river side of the dyke.

Once the temporary, sheet pile barrier is in place, workers will drive pipes partway through the dyke and then install the aboiteau flapper gates that release stormwater at low tide.

Excavation work

Broad trench has been excavated leading up to the dyke where the new aboiteau will be installed

Meantime, workers have excavated a broad trench that will conduct stormwater to the aboiteau on the town side of the dyke.

The trench will be joined to the new ditch that runs from Crescent Street toward the dyke.

Town Engineer Jon Eppell says the first phase of aboiteau construction should be finished by the end of March and he’s optimistic that the provincial department of transportation and infrastructure will come up with the money soon to complete the project.

For previous coverage, click here.

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Tantramar council refusing to call for ceasefire in Gaza

Posted on February 13, 2024 by brucewark

Rally goers gather at town hall around clothing symbolizing the thousands of children killed in Israel’s relentless assault on Gaza

About 40 people gathered for a candlelight vigil tonight at Sackville’s town hall to renew their call for Tantramar council to join other municipal councils, such as the one in Bridgewater, Nova Scotia, in calling for a ceasefire in Gaza.

“I want to express our profound disappointment in the Tantramar Council’s lack of action on our demand to call on the federal government to take meaningful action towards an end to Israel’s killing, violence and destruction in Gaza,” Sackville Ceasefire Now organizer Sarah Kardash told the vigil.

She noted that after her five-minute presentation to council on January 9th, Councillor Allison Butcher had thanked her for “giving us a clear direction for something that we as a municipality in Canada can do,” but in a later e-mail, Butcher responded with the following message:

“I do believe that a ceasefire is needed. I also realize that this is a complicated issue with roots dating back well before the October 7th attack. Although you did explain how a small municipal government could take ‘action’, I remain unconvinced that this would do much to alter world affairs.”

Kardash referred to an e-mail from Councillor Michael Tower that said he wasn’t willing to bring forth a motion on Gaza, adding:

“I share your concerns about the loss of life and the suffering happening in Gaza. I need to tell you I don’t share the idea of presenting or passing that motion. I don’t believe it is the answer.”

Councillor Bruce Phinney met with members of the Sackville Ceasefire Group on January 28th, but Kardash said he told them it would be pointless to pass a ceasefire motion.

“Councillor Debbie Wiggins-Colwell indicated interest in meeting with us,” Kardash said, “but our follow up went unanswered and it remained unclear whether she is willing to act with other people of conscience speaking out for a ceasefire.”

Renewed appeal

Kate DesRoches addressing Tantramar council

Inside the council chamber, organizer Kate DesRoches renewed her group’s appeal for a ceasefire motion.

“We maintain that the more decision-makers who add their voices, the more pressure on the federal government to respect human rights and international law,” DesRoches said.

But when her two-minute presentation ended and Mayor Black called on councillors for any comments or questions, there were none.

Black told reporters after the meeting, he could not comment since the mayor speaks for council and council had not discussed a ceasefire motion because no one had brought such a motion forward.

Canadian arms sales to Israel

Meantime, Sarah Kardash told the vigil outside that in the last few months, Canada has been deliberately misleading the public about approving more than $28.5 million in military exports to Israel.

“Canada approved more military exports to Israel in the context of the current war than in any single year over the last 30 years,” she said.

(To read a detailed and recently updated overview of Canadian military exports to Israel from the Canadian Council of Churches peace research institute, Project Ploughshares, click here.]

Higgs touts support for Israel

Kardash also took aim at New Brunswick Premier Blaine Higgs who is making his support for Israel one of four key planks in his re-election platform. The planks are highlighted on a recently launched Progressive Conservative Party fundraising website.

Staunch Israel backer, Blaine Higgs. Photo: PC party

She referred to the other planks that include a fiscal conservative approach (“you all like heath care, social safety nets, and well funded schools, right?”); common sense policies for parents (“a far-right dog whistle and rallying cry for anti-queer and anti-trans organizing”); and, Higgs’s stand as an ally for natural resource development (“or colonial extraction at the expense of indigenous sovereignty, land back and the ecosystem”).

“Certainly, local councils should concern themselves with the actions of the province’s leader. How far is Higgs willing to go in his support for Israel, and what implications does that have for Palestinians and Palestine solidarity activists in New Brunswick?” Kardash asked.

“What do we make of a world where our political leaders normalize support for genocide?” she added.

“We continue to invite the Tantramar Council to join us in building a world where no one is abandoned or dehumanized, and everyone’s needs for safety, security, and well-being are met.”

Posted in New Brunswick politics, Town of Tantramar | Tagged , , | 12 Comments

Sackville housing co-op aims to build ‘eco-village’ on Fairfield Rd.

Posted on February 2, 2024 by brucewark

Eric Tusz-King and Sabine Dietz, board co-chairs of Freshwinds Eco-Village Co-operative

A non-profit co-operative in Sackville has announced tentative plans to build up to 60 housing units on 21-acres of serviced land near the golf course on Fairfield Road.

“We finalized purchase of the property in October and have since been working on developing site plans,” says Sabine Dietz, board co-chair of the Freshwinds Eco-Village Co-operative that was formed a year ago.

“We’re right now at the stage where we would like the community to know what’s going on.”

Freshwinds paid $450,000 for the 21 acres that include a house at 64 Fairfield Road next to fields and a wooded area that used to be part of Inez and Bill Estabrooks’s farm.

Board co-chair Eric Tusz-King says the co-op is planning to sell the farmhouse and four separate lots fronting on Fairfield Road to help finance the 40-60 co-op housing units that will be tucked in behind.

The project could feature townhouses and a two-storey apartment building with rent-geared-to-income units ranging in size from studio to 1, 2, 3 and 4 bedrooms.

Diverse village

“We’re calling ourselves a village and not just a housing co-operative,” Tusz-King says referring to the co-op’s 10 board members who range in age and income.

“We want seniors to be there and we want younger individuals to be there or couples or whatever the type of family arrangement is, so that we look after each other.”

Both Dietz and Tusz-King stress that the co-op would focus on sustainable living including energy-efficient heating, solar panels, car sharing, gardens and chickens.

“All these have to do with self-sufficiency, resiliency, community building,” Dietz says.

“These things of course are all connected: housing, food security, climate change, environment.”

‘Desperate need’

Dietz and Tusz-King say the co-op would help alleviate Sackville’s chronic shortage of affordable housing.

Dietz mentions the need for housing to accommodate new doctors and nurses including Beal University nursing students who will be trained at Sackville’s hospital.

“Drew Nursing Home is now using some of its rooms for its staff rather than the patients because the staff has no place to live,” Tusz-King says.

“There’s a desperate need and it’s at all economic levels.”

Government support

Freshwinds has hired George Cormier, managing director of the Moncton-based, non-profit housing organization Rising Tide, to help them raise federal and provincial funds for the Fairfield Road project.

“When we started this a year ago, I said, ‘There’s tonnes of funding out there, you know, everywhere, all sorts of things,'” Dietz says.

But she adds that once they started trying to figure out how to get access to that money, they ran into problems including the prospect of long federal administrative delays and provincial disorganization.

“It’s a nightmare,” she says.

“It’s a literal nightmare. I had no idea how impossible it is to find things, to know who can help with what. It’s disorganized to the hilt,” she adds.

“I can’t imagine how we want to have good housing in the province without having real good and solid co-ordination and support. I would say we do not have that in New Brunswick.”

‘Bumps in the road’

In the end though, Dietz says that in spite of occasional jitters, she’s confident the Freshwinds project will succeed.

“We know it’s needed, we know we can do it, we just need to line it up properly and I think we’ll be able to,” she says.

“There’ll be loads of bumps in the road. It’s not going to be smooth sailing, we all know that, but that’s fine too.”

“Even the goal is a goal,” Tusz-King adds.

“We want to build 60 units because we think that’s what the community needs, but it may be 35 or maybe 40, we don’t know yet. That’s what we have to work out in this business plan in the next seven or eight months,” he says.

“It’s an integrated model that takes time to work out.”

To read a recent Freshwinds news release about the project, click here.

To listen to CHMA coverage, click here.

Freshwinds’ 21-acre property consists of this farmhouse at 64 Fairfield Rd. and the fields and wooded area next to it two kilometres from downtown Sackville

Posted in Town of Sackville, Town of Tantramar | Tagged , , | 9 Comments

Tantramar council authorizes $2.2 million for partial completion of new aboiteau

Posted on January 29, 2024 by brucewark

Tantramar Engineer Jon Eppell

Sackville’s flood control project moved another step toward final completion today as municipal councillors awarded a $2,155,575 contract for partial construction of a double-gated aboiteau to discharge storm water into the Tantramar River.

They also approved a $71,000 expenditure for engineering services related to the project.

The new aboiteau would eventually replace an existing one that drains water through the dyke near the sewage lagoons in Sackville’s industrial park.

Town Engineer Jon Eppell described the construction project as “useful, but not complete — as a phase one that will use available funding and will be a building block for phase two.”

The municipality was forced to divide aboiteau construction into two phases after the lowest construction bid came in higher than expected leaving a substantial shortfall in the $2.4 million budget that the provincial department of transportation and infrastructure (DTI) had allotted for the project.

While the town is managing the project, DTI is providing 100% of the funding for it.

Eppell explained that phase one will involve building a temporary, sheet-pile wall to keep the construction site dry.

It will also include laying about the a third of the pipe that is needed to drain water through the dyke as well as installing the aboiteau flapper gates that release water at low tide.

He noted that phase two would not proceed until DTI comes up with an additional $658,000 to complete the piping, dredge the channel to the river and add riprap rock to prevent channel erosion.

Until phase two is completed, he said, water would continue to drain through the existing aboiteau. It has only one flapper gate and is higher than it should be for optimal drainage.

Eppell said his discussions with provincial engineers suggested DTI would have more of an incentive to fund completion of the project if phase one were already completed.

“They would then very much want to see phase two finished,” he added, “whereas if we don’t proceed with phase one, there’s nothing to stop this from being kicked down the road several years and we wouldn’t know when the funding would come through.”

If the additional DTI money comes through by March 1st, the Fredericton-based construction company Caldwell & Ross has agreed to complete the aboiteau project under the terms of its original bid of just over $2.8 million.

To read earlier coverage, click here.

Photo taken from the dyke shows the old ditch on the left that drains directly into the existing aboiteau and the new ditch on the right that will drain into the new one

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

Who knew? Tantramar Mayor’s new Round Table on Housing has been meeting secretly since August

Posted on January 26, 2024 by brucewark

Mayor Andrew Black

Tantramar Mayor Andrew Black caught council watchers off-guard with a surprise announcement near the close of Monday’s committee of the whole meeting.

“One more,” he said raising an index finger. “I promise this will be the end,” he added peering down at his papers before launching into his announcement.

“The Mayor’s Round Table on Housing was created in August of last year to initiate a conversation about housing and the housing crisis and how to address those concerns within Tantramar,” Black said.

He went on to explain that he had reached out to knowledgeable people experienced in housing and community development.

“The goal of this group is to network with the intention of expanding that network as we progress,” he said.

“Our focus for the next couple of months is to have a larger stakeholder engagement session… a large event where we pull in people from our community,” he added later.

Black referred to the similar Mayor’s Round Table on Climate Change established in 2019 by former Sackville Mayor John Higham. It has since become a standing committee that meets periodically behind closed doors to come up with recommendations for council.

The mayor then asked Councillor Michael Tower, a member of the new round table, to report on what the group has been doing in its five meetings since August.

Councillor Michael Tower

“There are currently nine members to sit on the round table with the mayor as the chair,” Tower informed council.

“The group represents community members from three of the five wards of Tantramar with backgrounds in non-profit housing, co-op housing, provincial government, local government, Mount Allison administration as well as student life, heritage and outside the provincial housing experience.”

Later, after Councillor Debbie Wiggins-Colwell asked for the names of round table members, Tower gave a list: Megan Mitton, Donna Hurley, Margaret and Eric Tusz-King, Jeff Faulkner, Natalie Donaher, Bob Hickman and Sadie Shelly.

Closed-door meetings

During the public question period, Mayor Black said the round table’s meetings are not open to the public or press.

He explained that’s partly because a couple of its members were initiating housing developments that needed to be kept confidential. (Later, he identified the organizations concerned as Freshwinds Eco-Village Housing Co-operative and Sackville and Area Housing.)

Black said that’s why there have been no reports to the public or council since August.

As for opening future meetings to the public, Black said it’s something he could discuss with members of the round table to see if they are willing, but added later that the Mayor’s Round Table on Climate Change did not not hold public meetings. (Its successor, the Climate Change Advisory Committee, continues to meet behind closed doors.)

‘Easier to exclude public’

Mt. A. Politics Professor Geoff Martin

During a telephone interview, Mt. A. Professor Geoff Martin, who specializes in municipal politics, acknowledged that Tantramar needs to take action to tackle the shortage of affordable housing.

But, he said, holding closed-door meetings is another sign of the town’s disengagement from the public.

“The round table was appointed in August and we only find out about it many months later,” he added.

“Presumably it was appointed only by the mayor because if it’s a council action, it needs to be done in public and if it’s not a committee of council, then they can operate secretly and there’s not really much accountability.”

Martin, who served on Sackville council himself from 1998 to 2004, said four-year terms insulate members of council from the voters and the current reduction in public question periods to one, 15-minute session per month severely restricts public participation.

“Long-time residents of Sackville and even really all of Tantramar for that matter, will remember Dorothy Linkletter who would be rolling over in her grave now because in the late 90s and early 2000s, she was really a force for local democracy and openness and we’ve moved so much away from that unfortunately.”

Martin remembered with a laugh how as a councillor himself, he got a rough ride from Linkletter “more than once” during the days when citizens were to free to ask questions on any topic and sometimes interrupted council meetings.

“I was a third or fourth generation municipal councillor going back to other parts of New Brunswick and I was brought up with the idea that it’s always easier for the council to do things in secret, to shut down discussion, to discourage the people from engagement, but it’s not right in terms of democracy and it’s also self-defeating because if you’re not there for the people, the people won’t be there for you…

“The council may not realize it, but they do ultimately need public support for what they want to do and when things are done in secret, it’s very hard to get that public support because we also live in an era when people are suspicious of things that are done in secret even if there’s no reason to be.”

To read the town’s background document on the new round table, click here.

To read CHMA coverage of the new round table, click here.

Posted in Town of Sackville, Town of Tantramar | Tagged , | 7 Comments

Tantramar councillors hear about the water Sackville wants & the water it doesn’t

Posted on January 24, 2024 by brucewark

Contractors working Tuesday on Sackville’s well #1 inside its little red pump house — a familiar sight to hikers, snowshoers and skiers who use the Ogden Loop trails off Walker Rd. A note on a wall inside the pump house indicates the well was 380′ deep in 2009

At its regular meeting next month, Tantramar council will be asked to approve buying a new pump for one of the three deep wells that provide water to the former town of Sackville.

“One of those wells had a pump that failed on us recently,” Town Engineer Jon Eppell told council at its committee of the whole meeting on Monday.

“We’ve had to install a temporary pump as a stopgap that we’ve rented and we’re seeking approval from council to go out and purchase a replacement pump.”

Eppell said installing a new pump next summer as well as renting a temporary one in the meantime would cost an estimated $42,411.60 plus HST.

He added it might be possible to refurbish the existing pump which could be used as a backup.

He said the town plans to replace the little red huts at wells 1 and 2 which would make installation of the new pump easier and less expensive.

Plant that treats the water piped in from the 3 wells. One of the large open reservoirs is off to the right

Sackville no longer draws from large open reservoirs, one of which is near the water treatment plant, but depends on the two wells that date from the early 1980s as well as a third opened in 2015.

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 Jon Eppell’s full report on the pump replacement, click here.

Flood project nearly complete

In his engineering report and later during the public question period, Eppell gave council an update on the final phase of the $13.8 million Lorne Street flood control project.

He said the tricky operation to drive drainage pipes under the CN rail line has been put off until April when the ground is no longer frozen.

When that operation is complete, all three of the flood ponds including the one in the old quarry and a second south of St. James St. will flow into the newly completed Pond 3 behind the community gardens on Charles Street.

Tantramar CAO Jennifer Borne

That third pond is already connected through a series of ditches and culverts to an existing aboiteau in the dyke beside Sackville’s downtown sewage lagoons so that water can be discharged through it at low tide into the Tantramar River.

Town CAO Jennifer Borne said talks are ongoing with the provincial department of transportation and infrastructure over installation of a new, double-gated aboiteau equipped to drain water faster and to handle higher volumes after intense storms.

The province had committed $2.4 million to building the aboiteau, but in November, the lowest construction bid came in higher than expected putting the project $790,000 over budget.

Eppell says that the project may have to be finished in stages depending on how willing the province is to fund it.

For more, including an earlier overview of the flood control project, click here.

Posted in Town of Tantramar | Tagged , | 1 Comment

Mt. A. faculty split, CBC’s sanitized language reflect divisions over Israel/Palestine

Posted on January 13, 2024 by brucewark

A split within the Mount Allison Faculty Association (MAFA) surfaced last month over a union statement demanding that Canada call for an immediate ceasefire in Gaza.

A group of faculty members tried, but failed, to prevent members of the MAFA executive from making any future statements that aren’t directly related to collective bargaining or issues of academic freedom without consulting the membership first.

The November 10 MAFA statement, issued over the name of President Karen Bamford, also called on the federal government to:

  • “end all forms of Canadian military and financial aid, including arms sales, to Israel…
  • “call for talks under the auspices of the United Nations to find a durable and just political solution to this conflict…
  • “call for the release of all hostages and the thousands of Palestinian political prisoners held in Israeli prisons…
  • “pressure Israel to lift the unlawful blockade on Gaza…
  • “condemn Israel’s violation of international humanitarian law and laws of war and support investigation by the International Criminal Court…
  • “pressure the Israeli government to end its illegal occupation of Palestinian territories.”

To read the full statement, click here.

Sources say a motion to change the MAFA constitution to prevent the union executive from issuing such statements in future without consulting the membership failed to gain majority support after a “spirited” debate at a meeting last month.

Deep divisions

Mt. A. students, staff, faculty and members of the public march to Convocation Hall on November 12 calling for a ceasefire in Gaza

The MAFA debate showed the deep divisions within Canadian institutions, including the media, over issues related to Israel and Palestine.

The CBC, for example, uses extreme caution bordering on self-censorship on such issues, as I found when I worked for its English-language radio news division from 1972 until 1991.

A January 5th report from the alternative news site The Breach provides a vivid illustration.

The Breach headlines read:

CBC says killing of Palestinians doesn’t merit terms ‘murderous,’ ‘brutal’:

In response to complaints about its coverage, CBC says Israeli state violence is different than Hamas’ violence because the killing of Palestinians happens “remotely”

The story, by Breach senior editor Emma Paling, reports on the CBC’s response to complaints by Jeff Winch, a retired film studies teacher at Humber College in Toronto.

Among other things, Winch complained that CBC described Hamas’s October 7th attacks on Israel as “murderous,” “vicious” or “brutal,” while using much less graphic terms for Israeli mass killings in Gaza.

CBC response

In a December 5th e-mail, Nancy Waugh, the CBC’s Senior Manager of Journalistic Standards, wrote:

Different words are used because although both result in death and injury, the events they describe are very different. The raid saw Hamas gunmen stream through the border fence and attack Israelis directly with firearms, knives and explosives. Gunmen chased down festival goers, assaulted kibbutzniks then shot them, fought hand to hand, and threw grenades. The attack was brutal, often vicious, and certainly murderous.

Bombs dropped from thousands of feet and artillery shells lofted into Gaza from kilometers away result in death and destruction on a massive scale, but it is carried out remotely. The deadly results are unseen by those who caused them and the source unseen by those [who] suffer and die.

It’s a different kind of event and is described differently as “intensive,” “unrelenting,” and “punishing,” raining death and destruction on one of the most densely populated places on earth…They are different stories, and we have tried to describe both accurately and vividly.

To read the full Breach report, click here.

Alternate news sources

Mainstream media sometimes publish revealing stories such as CBC’s well-documented October 28 report on Israeli Prime Minister Netanyahu’s longstanding policy of keeping Hamas in power in the Gaza strip. To read it, click here.

Also, a January 1st report by the Globe and Mail‘s Africa correspondent Geoffrey York on Canada’s willingness to recognize genocidal claims against certain countries, but not against Israel:

In a submission to the court in the Myanmar case last month, for example, Canada and five other Western governments argued that the evidence of genocide can include “a violent military operation triggering the forced displacement of members of a targeted group” and can also include “subjecting a group of people to a subsistence diet, systematic expulsion from homes and the induction of essential medical services below minimum requirement.”

It also argued that the scale of the deaths is “merely a starting point” in considering the intent of atrocities, and the victimized population should not be limited to those who are killed.

All these arguments could equally apply to Israel’s actions in Gaza, and Canada will appear hypocritical if it ignores the similarities, according to Mark Kersten, an assistant professor of criminal justice at the University of the Fraser Valley who specializes in international justice issues.

“The parallels are blatantly obvious,” Dr. Kersten said.

To read the Globe’s full story, click here.

But, after they publish such stories, mainstream media seem to forget them and frame their ongoing coverage around statements from official sources: Netanyahu righteously condemning Hamas and Trudeau claiming that Canada does not support the premise of South Africa’s case that Israel’s military action in Gaza is genocide.

I’d say other sources are needed to supplement the mainstream and on this story, excellent ones include Democracy Now (U.S.), Haaretz (Israel) and Al Jazeera (Qatar).

Posted in Media, Uncategorized | Tagged , , | 12 Comments

Sackville coalition asks Tantramar council for help in ending the slaughter in Gaza

Posted on January 9, 2024 by brucewark

Those who attended the candlelight vigil heard poems written by Palestinians and the names of journalists killed in Gaza.

About 50 people held a candlelight vigil outside town hall tonight before asking Tantramar council to write a letter to the prime minister calling for Canadian intervention to help end the war in Gaza.

The call for Canada to act was included in a petition that Sarah Kardash of the Sackville Ceasefire Coalition presented to council.

“I am grateful to live in a community with so many people of conscience,” she said referring to the 253 people who had signed it.

“As a Jewish member of the coalition, I am horrified that Israel is weaponizing the deaths of Israeli citizens on October 7 to fuel a genocidal war against Palestinians. In just over 90 days, 30,000 Palestinians have been killed when accounting for those presumed dead under the rubble. This includes 12,000 children,” she said.

“From my own people’s history, I have learned that we find safety in solidarity, that never again means never again for anyone and that it is my duty to denounce genocide wherever it occurs. I insist that criticism of Israel is not anti-semitic, and refuse to stand by while Israel commits war crimes in my name as a Jew.”

‘Necessary first step’

Sarah Kardash of the Sackville Ceasefire Coalition

Kardash said that her group welcomes Canada’s vote at the United Nations on December 12th calling for a ceasefire in Gaza, but only as a necessary first step.

“Canada must utilize all economic and diplomatic means at its disposal to achieve an end to the current atrocities,” she added.

“Canada should, for example, end arms sales to Israel and support South Africa’s case at the International Court of Justice invoking the Genocide Convention,” she said.

“A ceasefire is urgently needed to end the air strikes and slaughter, allow unobstructed entry of aid into Gaza, and ensure the safe return of hostages and political prisoners. The time for Canada to decisively intervene is now.”

Kardash ended her five-minute presentation with a question:

“Is there a councillor here tonight willing to put forward a motion to write a letter to Justin Trudeau urging him to take concrete actions to ensure a ceasefire is enacted, respected and enforced?”

Allison Butcher was the only councillor to respond.

“When I saw that this was on the agenda, I thought, well, of course ceasefire, but what does a municipality in the wilds of Canada do about that,” Butcher said.

“So I really thank you for giving us a clear direction for something that we as a municipality in Canada can do that looks directed and hopefully effective.”

Kardash said later that although she was disappointed that none of the councillors responded by putting forward a motion, she was happy about Butcher’s positive comment.

“She seems to understand the issues and understand why it’s appropriate for a municipal government to be acting on this,” Kardash said.

“I look forward to following up with her for further discussion about a motion.”

Posted in Town of Tantramar | Tagged , , | 13 Comments

Why is Code of Conduct report being kept secret? Mt. A. prof asks

Posted on December 15, 2023 by brucewark

Mt. A. politics professor Geoff Martin

Mount Allison politics professor Geoff Martin is questioning why the Town of Tantramar is refusing to release an investigator’s report on how Councillor Debbie Wiggins-Colwell violated seven sections of Council’s Code of Conduct.

“Why is the report — the allegations, the responses and the findings — why is that not all public if it’s about something the person did in the former Village of Dorchester this year in connection with municipal assets?” Martin asks.

“I don’t see why that’s even secret.”

Martin, who served on Sackville Town Council from 1998 to 2004, part of that time as deputy mayor, was referring to allegations that Wiggins-Colwell breached the Code of Conduct in her efforts to restore the Shep sandpiper statue in the village square and dispose of surplus tables in Dorchester’s Veterans Community Centre.

Tantramar clerk Donna Beal responded to separate requests for copies of the investigator’s report from Wiggins-Colwell, Warktimes and Dorchester resident Bill Steele with letters stating that the Right to Information and Protection of Privacy Act (RTIPPA) requires the town to withhold information relating to a personnel or harassment investigation.

Martin says if there is any sensitive information relating to harassment in the report, it could be removed before releasing what it says about Wiggins-Colwell’s performance as a councillor so that voters can judge her actions for themselves.

“This person is accountable to the voters,” he adds. “The voters are the supervisors of the councillor, not the CAO and not the mayor, and how do the supervisors make their judgment about this councillor, if everything is kept secret?”

Martin also points out that councillors are not employees of the town* so this investigation, conducted by Montana Consulting Group of Moncton, was not directly related to internal staffing or personnel issues that should be kept confidential.

*New Brunswick’s Local Governance Act states: 84.1 (1) A member of council is not eligible for appointment as an officer of the local government or for employment with the local government, including an appointment or employment for no remuneration, at any time while the person holds office as a member of council.

Municipal Codes of Conduct

Municipal government is one of Professor Martin’s main areas of academic expertise. He says the province has required municipalities to adopt Codes of Conduct partly to compensate for lengthening the time between elections from three years to four.

“I think the longer you make the term, the less role there is for voters to adjudicate misbehaviour or councillor performance,” he says.

“Until 1977, we had a two-year term, then we had a three-year term until 2004 and now we’ve gone to a four-year term and the longer the term gets, the less the role for voters and the greater the role for administrative law practices like Codes of Conduct and investigations, which are expensive.”

Martin says more frequent elections give voters the chance to reward or punish the councillors who represent them.

“I personally think New Brunswick should go back to a three-year term because that’s really more democratic.”

Village vs. town

Martin says that in the Wiggins-Colwell case, there may have been differences in how things are done in a small village like Dorchester versus the way they’re done in a larger town like Sackville and now, the even larger amalgamated municipality of Tantramar.

“The smallest villages in New Brunswick don’t have very much in the way of staff, they depend a lot on community volunteers and the councillors often are very much ‘hands-on’ in terms of the day-to-day affairs of the municipality.”

In larger places, Martin says that the roles of councillors and staff are more sharply defined and separated.

“There are these old adages of municipal government like, ‘the council steers and the staff rows,'” he says.

“And there’s another adage that comes into play here too, which is, ‘if you want expertise, you appoint people, if you want representation, you elect.'”

Martin says it can be hard for those from small municipalities who are suddenly thrust into larger ones where things are done differently and he wonders how much training on the roles of councillors and staff the councillors received before, as in this case, the Code of Conduct came into play, an outside investigator was hired and a long list of violations were cited at a public council meeting.

“Does it really require a public shaming to get the message across?” he asks.

Posted in Town of Tantramar | Tagged , | 3 Comments

Secret trial based on secret report finds Tantramar councillor guilty of violating Code of Conduct

Posted on December 11, 2023 by brucewark

Shep at the centre of Code of Conduct storm

The Town of Tantramar is refusing to release a $19,000 investigator’s report outlining the reasons why Councillor Debbie Wiggins-Colwell allegedly violated seven sections of Council’s Code of Conduct.

Wiggins-Colwell, the former mayor of Dorchester represents ward one, which includes the former village in the newly amalgamated municipality of Tantramar.

No details of the seven violations were disclosed in a disciplinary motion passed by Wiggins-Colwell’s council colleagues on November 14th — only vague references to sections of the Code that mention “respecting the decision-making process,” “adherence to policies, procedures and bylaws” and “improper use of influence.”

A Warktimes investigation has confirmed that the violations relate to the restoration of the Shep sandpiper statue in Dorchester’s village square last April and to a lesser extent, the disposal of surplus tables from the Veterans Community Centre in February.

Wiggins-Colwell says she was given an opportunity to read the investigator’s report compiled by Montana Consulting of Moncton, but was not allowed to keep a copy and instead, was given a bare-bones summary to prepare her defence which council heard behind closed doors.

“If the mayor and CAO had listened to what I was trying to explain to them, this whole thing could have been resolved without the need for an investigation that ended up costing more than the new Shep,” Wiggins-Colwell says.

“I promised when I was running for my seat on the new council to do my best to get Shep back in time for the Sandpiper Festival and that’s what I was trying to do,” she adds.

Info requests denied

When Wiggins-Colwell filed a formal request for a copy of the Montana investigator’s report under New Brunswick’s Right to Information and Protection of Privacy Act (RTIPPA), the town turned her down on the grounds that the results of a personnel investigation must remain confidential.

Bill Steele outside his jail in Dorchester

Warktimes received the same response as did Dorchester businessman Bill Steele who filed the original Code of Conduct complaint alleging that Wiggins-Colwell had no authority to arrange for the creation and installation of a new Shep statue when the project had not been approved by Tantramar council.

Now, Steele, who operates the Dorchester Jail Bed & Breakfast a stone’s throw away from the statue, says he should have the right to read the investigator’s report.

“They gave her a slap on the wrist and I’d like to know why,” he says referring to council’s requirement that Wiggins-Colwell attend training sessions “to better understand her roles and responsibilities as an elected official.”

“The town loves Debbie and the town loves Shep,” Steele acknowledges.

“I’m just that guy from Toronto causing shit again, but it’s in my blood, I’ve got to speak up about things. This wasn’t right.”

Shep’s twisted story

Before municipal amalgamation, the Village of Dorchester paid about $15,000 for the installation of a new viewing platform for Shep and stairs leading up to it, but had not allocated all of the money needed to replace the wooden statue that had rotted so badly it had to be removed.

The Village Council requested that $60,000 be set aside in Tantramar’s first budget for a new, more durable Shep, but the province did not include it.

Kara Becker addressing Tantramar council on March 14th

On March 14, Kara Becker, a former deputy mayor of Dorchester, appeared before Tantramar council asking it to collaborate with citizens so that the statue could be restored in time for this year’s Sandpiper Festival and the return of the migrating shorebirds to the Bay of Fundy in August.

Although Mayor Andrew Black said he understood the importance of the statue and the desire to get it back, Becker complained later that there was no follow-up from the town and when she e-mailed to ask about citizens donating to the project, she received this response from CAO Jennifer Borne:

At this time Tantramar is not able to accept financial donations or any donation that requires a tax-receipt post-reform as a result of the formation of a new entity. In addition to this, Tantramar Council has not accepted this particular project.

Meantime, Monty MacMillan, the artist who created the original Shep, said that although he couldn’t do the replacement work himself, he knew an artist who could.

“So, I got a call from Debbie,” says painter and sculptor Robin Hanson during an interview with Warktimes at his workshop, art gallery and historical theme park in French Lake, near Oromocto.

“She asked me, ‘Do you think you could help out in any way?'” Hanson says.

“I was interested because it was a community project and she had taken the time to discuss it with her community.”

Hanson says Wiggins-Colwell visited him twice at his gallery and brought with her the metal beak, legs and feet from the original Shep.

“I couldn’t use the beak,” Hanson says, “but I could use the legs and feet if they were modified to make them look more realistic.”

Robin Hanson poses in his workshop with Shep last March

After Hanson had created the new fibreglass Shep, which stands nearly eight feet high and weighs nearly 300 pounds, he says the story went viral in the national media and that’s when he received a phone call from Mayor Black who told him to remove the photo from his website and return the steel legs and feet.

“I wanted to stay clear of controversy, so I took the photo down,” Hanson says.

“I told him, ‘You can have them back (the legs and feet) when the sculpture is finished, when I’ve made them look better,'” he adds with a smile.

Hanson says a Moncton-based organization called Fundy Biosphere Region* paid the full $9,300 cost of the statue.

” I certainly didn’t make any money on it, but I thought, as a New Brunswicker, the migrating shorebirds is an incredible story and I wanted to help the community,” he says.

He also created two small paintings of Shep and granted Tantramar the right to use them freely for promotional purposes.

Turning the tables

Councillor Debbie Wiggins-Colwell

“The Montana investigator said I did not commission the new fibreglass Shep and I did not violate the Code of Conduct when I spoke with Robin Hanson,” Wiggins-Colwell says.

“I approached things the way we always did in Dorchester. I was afraid Shep’s feet and beak were going to the dump, so I salvaged them in hopes of reducing the cost of a new statue,” she adds.

“When the whole thing blew up into  national news, we had groups coming forward offering to pay for the statue and that’s what happened. Thanks to my efforts, the new Town of Tantramar did not pay one cent for it.”

Wiggins-Colwell says she’s especially concerned about damage to her reputation, both from the allegations concerning the Shep statue and ones about the distribution of surplus tables from the Veterans Community Centre.

“To me, it feels like I was used as a scapegoat because people in Dorchester were very upset over how this whole thing was handled,” she says referring to concerns about rumours last February that the VCC kitchen might be torn out to make way for Bob Edgett’s Memorial Boxing Club.

There were also local concerns about the disposal of chairs in a dumpster behind the VCC.

On February 22, the town convened a meeting with the volunteer groups who use the Centre, to reassure them that the VCC kitchen would remain and the surplus furniture, including heavy tables, would not be consigned to a dumpster.

Wiggins-Colwell went to that meeting.

“The investigator said the only thing I did wrong was that I attended a meeting (uninvited) with the volunteers at the Veterans Centre,” she says.

“I went to that meeting because it’s my duty as councillor to represent my community. That’s what I was elected to do. I don’t understand why I wasn’t invited,” she says, adding that she herself  has served as a volunteer for the Greater Dorchester Moving Forward Co-op.

After the meeting, Wiggins-Colwell called long-time Dorchester resident, Macx MacNichol who says he showed up at the VCC before 9:00 the next morning.

Macx MacNichol selling cheese at the Sackville Farmers Market to support hungry students

“Two guys already in there handed the tables out to me,” he says. “There were 11, but two had to be scrapped.”

MacNichol, who is in the recycling business, says he also collected 24 chairs from the dumpster.

“They went like hot cakes,” he says. “They brought in $440 for the Dorchester Food Bank and $440  for the food bank in Sackville.”

He says that by the time the town put out a memo saying anyone could get a table for free, they were already gone.

“Then they accused me of stealing the tables, and then they went after Debbie. I guess they had to ding somebody for it,” MacNichol says.

Wiggins-Colwell says the Montana investigator found that there were no Code of Conduct violations with how MacNichol collected the tables from the VCC.

“The violations that were cited against me were not supported by the investigator’s findings,” she says.

“I don’t feel that I’m a thief or a liar and I’m disappointed that it was put across to the public that way.”

*NOTE: The website for the United Nations designated Fundy Biosphere Region describes it as a non-profit organization and a community-based initiative “comprised of individuals and representatives of various stakeholder groups, organizations and local communities working to promote the sustainable development of the region by enhancing the research and innovation capacity and by creating a forum for various groups to share information, knowledge and best practices.” No one from the organization has responded to e-mail or phone messages from Warktimes.

Posted in Town of Tantramar | 10 Comments

New Tantramar logo aims to showcase beauty, history & unity

Posted on December 1, 2023 by brucewark

Graphic designer Tanya Duffy describes the Town of Tantramar’s new logo as “a simple, clean and modern crest.”

During her presentation to town council on Tuesday, Duffy added that the logo is made up of several parts that come together to form a unified symbol.

“Each element showcases the natural beauty, history and complexity of the region,” she said before showing the new logo itself along with a slide explaining its various elements.

Duffy is the creative director of the Fredericton firm, The Details Design + Branding, that won the $60,000 contract to create the new logo while Tom Bateman of the Fredericton consulting firm, Porter O’Brien, helped with community engagement work that included conducting a survey, focus groups and interviews.

Tanya Duffy & Tom Bateman

Duffy and Bateman’s presentation pointed to the logo’s usefulness in all parts of the new town.

“The new brand does not seek to replace the identities of the communities that combine to make Tantramar, but rather to leverage the natural surroundings, identified by the residents, that make Tantramar a wonderful place to live, work and visit,” Duffy told council.

Judging by the reactions of those who spoke, the new logo was a big hit with members of council.

“I love it,” said Councillor Allison Butcher.

“Whether you live in Rockport or Dorchester or Point de Bute or Midgic or Sackville, I think that that logo is where you live,” she added.

“I sort of thought it would be divided up by areas, but I love how cohesive it is, but it’s still each of us altogether.”

Councillor Debbie Wiggins-Colwell and Deputy Mayor Greg Martin praised the logo for including all parts of the municipality while Councillor Josh Goguen said he was glad to see recognition of the Acadians and the Fort Folly First Nation.

Councillor Bruce Phinney spoke three separate times telling Duffy and Bateman how impressed he was with how the logo brings everyone together.

“The last logo didn’t,” he said.

“All I ever saw was ducks and reeds. Sorry, I’m tired of ducks and reeds…[but] now people are going to say, ‘I know exactly who’s part of Tantramar’ because of the fact that you’ve incorporated everybody in it.”

“The logo is fantastic,” said Mayor Andrew Black.

“I love how each piece of the logo is separated, one from the other, but if you look at the lines and how it all comes together, it looks separated, but together,” Black explained, adding that a slide showing the logo on a town truck “looked awesome.”

However, Virgil Hammock, retired head of the Mount Allison University Fine Arts department, describes the new logo as pretty, but “too complex.”

Hammock, who is a former Sackville town councillor, says the various parts of the logo need to be explained before they can be understood.

“You want a universal symbol,” he said pointing, for example, to the Apple logo.

Hammock said he agreed with the conclusions of a  $15,000 marketing study that the Town of Sackville received in 2020.

“If it appeals to everybody, it appeals to nobody.”

Thaddeus Holownia, an award-winning, local photographer and Mt. A research professor says he likes the colours in the logo.

“They remind me of an aerial photo of the Tantramar,” he says.

“It looks professional,” he adds. “It’s easy to be an armchair critic, but I think there are more pressing issues to discuss.”

Robert Tombs, a graphic artist and Mt. A. fine arts graduate who now serves as President of the Royal Canadian Academy of the Arts, said in a brief response to a Facebook query:

“I think it’s a decent logo and it’s nice that Sackville got a good design.”

Posted in Town of Tantramar | Tagged | 13 Comments