Mt. A’s new library will be part of the community because ‘it’s the right thing to do’

Posted on March 19, 2024 by brucewark

Artist’s rendering of multipurpose athletic complex Mt. A. is planning to build on Lansdowne St.to serve first as a temporary library, and then an air-conditioned, recreational facility

Mount Allison University is planning an $85 million dollar library renovation that could provide more reading, research and recreational opportunities for members of the wider Tantramar community.

“We heard loud and clear the comment about community and we always have been part of the community for well over 180 years,” Robert Inglis, Mt. A. Vice President (Finance and Administration) told Tantramar Town Council during a special meeting today.

“We’re not doing this because we heard this from the community, we’re doing it because it’s the right thing to do,” he added.

“We’re part of the community and we’re physically showing that we are.”

Inglis was referring to plans for a new community entrance to the R.P. Bell Library on York Street as well as the construction of a new building behind the Mt. A. athletic centre that will initially serve as a temporary library while the old building undergoes renovation, but could then become a multipurpose sports complex.

“It’s not just sticking a door [to the library] on the York Street level,” Inglis said.

“That hill, that area will be fully re-imagined related to accessibility, re-imagined having some accessible parking that can be near the entrance,” he added.

“The multipurpose sports complex is a wonderful opportunity for our community,” Inglis said.

“Maybe we get more activities coming to Sackville because of it, particularly in the summer,” he added, “and that’s going to be a huge recreational asset for our community.”

He was responding to Mayor Andrew Black who noted that many members of the public don’t know they can use the Mt. A. library’s services such as by borrowing books and getting help with research partly because the entrance to it isn’t visible from the street.

“Having that community entrance facing right downtown into Sackville, I think is going to be a wonderful addition to it,” Black said.

Artist’s conception of the community entrance floor in the new Mt. A. library

6-year project

Inglis said construction of the temporary library, that will later become an athletic complex, is scheduled to begin this summer. If all goes as planned, the interim library on Lansdowne Street will open in two years.

Renovation of the existing library is slated to begin in the summer of 2026 and plans call for the new building to open in the fall of 2029.

Last year, the federal and provincial governments announced $36 million in funding for the new library.

To read more about Mt. A’s plans for the project, click here.

Note: Inglis explained that plans call for the existing Lansdowne parking lot to be used as a staging area for construction of the new interim library. He said the nearby Lansdowne soccer field will be used temporarily to create even more parking spots. “We do have a little bit of a parking issue on campus and so, we didn’t want to make this project make the parking issue worse. In fact, this will probably make it better.”

Artist’s conception of the on-campus entrance to the new R.P. Bell library

Posted in Mount Allison University | Tagged | 2 Comments

‘Order please’ — Tantramar mayor shuts down public presentation on Gaza

Posted on March 12, 2024 by brucewark

Sarah Kardash attempting to address council as members of Sackville Ceasefire Now turn their backs

About 40 members of a group calling for an immediate ceasefire in Gaza turned their backs on Tantramar Town Council tonight as their spokesperson Sarah Kardash tried, but failed, to make a two-minute presentation.

“No, you cannot. No, you cannot,” Mayor Andrew Black told her.

As Kardash continued to ask to be put on council’s agenda, Town Clerk Donna Beal said, “Clear the gallery.”

“Israel is starving children in Gaza to death,” Kardash said.

“It’s order in the court,” Black declared as he banged his gavel.

“Order please. We’ll move to clear the gallery folks,” Black added as he called for a recess.

He then left the council chamber followed by Deputy Mayor Greg Martin and Councillors Barry Hicks, Matt Estabrooks and Josh Goguen.

Councillors Allison Butcher, Bruce Phinney and Michael Tower stayed in their seats.

Councillor Debbie Wiggins-Colwell was not present at tonight’s meeting.

All but three members of Tantramar Town Council left the room along with Town Clerk Donna Beal. CAO Jennifer Borne remained in her seat as did most other members of the town staff

Kardash and members of her group remained standing with their backs turned for about two more minutes, then gathered up their coats and belongings and quietly left the room.

In all, council proceedings were interrupted for just over five minutes.

Outside the chamber, Kardash told reporters she had arrived at town hall at 6:10 p.m. to find a closed-door meeting of council already underway.

She says that when that in-camera session ended at around 6:40, she asked the town clerk to be put on the agenda for a two-minute presentation when the public portion of the meeting was set to resume at 7 p.m., but was told that council had already approved tonight’s agenda and that it couldn’t be changed.

Kardash says she asked the clerk to show her where it says on the town website that members of the public have to show up an hour early to be put on the agenda for a two-minute presentation.

‘Genocide in Gaza’

“This is our fourth time coming to council since December, over and over again, asking them to engage with us, asking them to lift up our voices, to raise our voices calling for a ceasefire to end the genocide in Gaza,” Kardash said.

“What more do we have to do to convince this council that this issue is an important one to residents in this town and that we need them to act, to show us that they’ve got the courage, the heart, the moral clarity to stand up as many other municipal councils have, as many other mayors have across Canada and the United States, and do the right thing?” she asked.

“It’s literally the bare minimum that they can do.”

Mayor cites rules

Mayor Black told reporters after tonight’s meeting that council’s procedural bylaw requires members of the public to show up early to ask for their presentations to be put on the agenda before council approves it.

“The procedural bylaw says that you have to show up before the council meeting starts,” he said.

“The council meeting started at 6. They showed up at 7 to do a two-minute presentation so the council meeting had already started, we were in recess,” Black added.

“The bylaw is very clear that you have to come before [the public meeting] and then request and then you get two minutes to speak.”

When asked if it wouldn’t have been possible to amend tonight’s agenda with unanimous consent to allow a two-minute presentation, Black said members of the ceasefire group should have known that council has shown no interest in their request for a letter to the prime minister.

“They’ve been here three times before and there was no discussion, nobody put a motion forward and so, again, they came to potentially ask the same thing and nobody said anything,” he said.

Black said he did not wish to talk about his own views on Palestine and as for a motion calling for a ceasefire, he was clear:

“I don’t have an interest to bring it forward.”

To read the latest news release from Sackville Ceasefire Now, click here.

Posted in Town of Tantramar | Tagged , | 15 Comments

Toronto-based company, Circular Materials, to manage Tantramar blue bag collection starting in November

Posted on March 11, 2024 by brucewark

Circular Materials was founded by 17 of Canada’s leading food, beverage and consumer products manufacturers, restaurants and retailers. Reps from those companies sit on its board of directors (Graphic: Circular Materials website)

Tantramar Town Council is expected to endorse changes to the weekly collection of garbage, organic materials and blue-bags that would put Canada’s leading producers of packaged products in charge of its recycling program.

Under the new plan, the Toronto-based company Circular Materials would organize the collection of blue-bag recyclables everywhere in Tantramar starting on November 1st.

The company’s board of directors represents 17 of Canada’s leading food, soft drink and consumer products makers as well as fast-food restaurants and grocery stores.

Town Engineer Jon Eppell is also recommending that the Southeast Regional Service Commission (SERSC) take over managing the collection of clear-bagged garbage and green-bagged organic materials in Sackville and Dorchester starting on February 1st, 2025 and in the former local service districts three months earlier on November 1st.

Blue bags

“Homeowners optimistically will not notice any difference; they will continue to have their blue bag picked up every second week,” Eppell said during council’s committee of the whole meeting last month.

He added, however, there may be some small changes in what Circular Materials will accept in blue bags. The company will have complete control over what can go in the bags and what can’t.

“Things like styrofoam may not be accepted,” Eppell said, although he added, he wasn’t sure yet.

“Circular Materials will start to do some communications out to residents to specify what is supposed to go in the bag,” he said.

Clear and green bag

Southeast Regional Service Commission HQ in Moncton (Slide shown to council during SERSC presentation in December)

Eppell said collecting garbage and organic materials regionally makes economic sense for both municipalities and the waste hauling companies.

“Currently, Sackville has waste collection about three-and-a-half days a week and Dorchester has about a half-day a week,” he said, adding that co-ordinating regional routes would allow haulers like Miller Waste to reduce costs by using their equipment and workers more efficiently.

“So, if we were able to provide five days of collection for the same size crew, week in, week out, and allow them to use their equipment for say, five or more years, then it would be more attractive to them.”

Eppell said he saw only one potential public relations problem because Tantramar would need to be in step with waste collection practices in other municipalities.

“Right now, we’re one of a few that does the spring and fall cleanup,” he said.

“Other areas do allow a large, bulky item whether it be furniture or an appliance with the waste pickup, so every second week.

“So, I think where this may move is to a bulky item collection every second week rather than the spring and fall cleanup.”

Pros and cons of blue bag program

Sebastian Hultberg, SERSC director of solid waste services addressing Tantramar council on Dec. 4

During a special meeting of Tantramar council in December, the service commission’s director of solid waste services presented the pros and cons of participating directly in Circular Materials’s blue bag program by overseeing collection of recyclable materials.

Sebastian Hultberg said that if Tantramar chose to opt-in, the company would provide an annual subsidy of $31.37 per household. (With Tantramar’s 2,565 households that would amount to about $80,000).

At the same time however, he warned that Circular Materials would expect to see steady improvements in reducing contamination rates for recycled packaging.

He said the company is aiming to get such contaminants as food waste down to only 3% from Tantramar’s current rate of about 20%.

Hultberg warned that if those rates failed to show steady improvement, Circular Materials could impose stiff financial penalties.

In the end, councillors, worried about hefty costs, decided to forego the subsidy and allow Circular Materials to manage the collection of blue bags on its own.

In 2021, New Brunswick followed the lead of several other provinces by changing its regulations under the Clean Environment Act to require big companies to take responsibility for recycling the paper and packaging they use for their products.

When the province called for expressions of interest, Circular Materials was the only company to come forward. Municipalities then had the choice to continue collecting the blue bags and receive the Circular Materials subsidy of $31.37 per household, or opt out and let the not-for-profit, producer-run company run the collection program on its own.

Tantramar chose to opt out to avoid potential financial penalties if it was unable to show steady improvements in reducing contamination rates from about 20% down to the 3% target Circular Materials has set.

Hultberg explained that Circular Materials pays for its recycling program with fees charged to consumers who buy packaged products.

“So, when you buy this (packaging) in a grocery store, you’re not going to see it on your receipt, but every little item will include a small, small charge that will go toward the main industry stakeholders,” he said.

For a 2018 CBC report on the problem of contaminants in recycling, click here.

To read a report on plastic packaging in Canada’s grocery stores, click here.

Posted in Town of Tantramar | Tagged , , | 3 Comments

Greens set to challenge Higgs on health care in this year’s election

Posted on March 7, 2024 by brucewark

Green Party leader David Coon addressing Sackville meeting last week on health care

New Brunswick’s Green Party leader will be campaigning on the need for big changes to the health care system in this year’s provincial election.

“Certainly health care is going to be the issue in the election, there’s no question about it,” David Coon told reporters last week during a meeting attended by about 50 people at the Sackville Commons on Lorne Street.

He said the province needs major investments to solve a wide range of problems including the chronic shortage of family doctors and nurses, long wait times in hospital emergency rooms and the lack of adequate home care.

“People are stressed and people are upset and people have had terrible experiences in the system and they want to see change,” Coon said.

Provincial tour

The Green leader was in Sackville as part of his province-wide tour speaking to health-care workers about the problems they’re facing.

“A physician and an ER nurse the other day were telling me, ‘We’ve got patients in the hospital who could go home if we knew they had home care that could support them, but it doesn’t exist. It wouldn’t be safe without that, so they’re going to a nursing home,'” Coon said.

He added that personal care home-support workers are choosing to go into the schools as educational assistants because they can earn more money there.

“I heard the finance minister say the other day, ‘We’ve got almost $250 million surplus projected and we have to spend it in the next five weeks.’

“So, I got thinking, ‘Well, why don’t you take a chunk of that and turn it into recruitment bonuses for those working in our health-care system and the long-term care sector?'” Coon said.

“What a difference would that make in terms of morale and start maybe sending us back on the track to recovery.”

‘Black hole’ budget

Green leader David Coon answers a question as local Green MLA Megan Mitton looks on

During his half-hour address and later during a question and answer period, Coon criticized past Liberal and Conservative governments for systematically cutting health spending beginning in the 1990s and then centralizing management of the system in two regional health authorities that respond, he says, poorly to local needs.

“Government after government after government has just seen the problem as the black hole of the health-care budget,” Coon said.

“That’s what they’ve been focussed on,” he added, “not the health-care system, but the budget.”

Coon said that instead of building relationships based on mutual respect with those working in the system and listening to their ideas for improving it, provincial governments have pinched pennies trying to save money.

He said he finally realized how serious this was a couple of months ago when the provincial party leaders were invited to address the association or college that represents family doctors.

“After the premier spoke, a family physician got up and said he wanted the premier to know he’d never felt so disrespected in his career as a family physician and the place exploded in applause,” Coon said.

“Wow, OK, so that’s got to change.”

Health Link, ‘a joke’

MLA Megan Mitton

Memramcook-Tantramar MLA Megan Mitton spoke about local issues including the lack of evening and overnight emergency room services in Sackville and the problems local people, who have lost their family doctors, are having getting access to the new health clinic near the hospital.

“I just sent a letter to the minister of finance and the minister of health calling on them to expand funding for the clinic,” Mitton said.

“What we need is primary care access in our communities, not just there, we also need it at the Port Elgin and Region Health Centre which is such a cool pilot project that they’ve never repeated elsewhere, but is actually a health-care clinic in a school.”

Mitton said the Horizon Health Network would be holding another question and answer session in Sackville on April 16th.

Meantime, she  called the NB Health Link program run by Medavie “a joke.”

It’s supposed to provide access to health care for people without a family doctor or nurse practitioner, but Mitton said 10,000 people in this region alone are on a Health Link waiting list.

“What’s happening with Health Link is a mess,” she said in response to a question about the growing privatization of health services.

Mitton said the province is paying Medavie $33,000 a month to administer Health Link.

The company also manages Ambulance New Brunswick, the provincial drug plan and New Brunswick’s extra-mural, home-care program.

No accountability

“We’re told they’re a non-profit,” Mitton said, adding that Medavie wouldn’t answer questions about its corporate structure or executive salaries when it appeared before a committee at the legislature.

“It’s not accountable to the public, there’s not enough transparency,” she said.

She pointed out that the government awarded the contract to manage the extra-mural program to Medavie with no tendering process or request for proposals.

“They’re just giving it away,” she said. “There’s no competition.”

For coverage of local opposition to the privatization of extra-mural home care, click here and here.

Posted in Health care, Home care, New Brunswick election 2024, New Brunswick politics | Tagged , | 2 Comments

‘He seemed to know everything about everything.’ Tantramar mayor pays tribute to Wallie Sears

Posted on February 26, 2024 by brucewark

Wallie Sears (inset) covered thousands of games played on Mount Allison’s Alumni Field

Tantramar Mayor Andrew Black delivered a heartfelt tribute today to one of Sackville’s most beloved and accomplished citizens.

“Wallie Sears was one of the greatest community-minded people that you would ever meet,” Black said. “He and his wife, Norma.”

Sears, who died last Thursday at 95, was a prolific reporter and columnist whose work appeared in the Sackville Tribune Post and other newspapers in the Maritimes for more than six decades.

“If you didn’t watch sports, he was the kind of person who could convince you to watch sports because of his absolute love for people who were engaged and involved in sports in all levels in the community,” Black said.

“He was a huge supporter of anything that was Sackville or the area, not just around sports, but local politics, provincial politics — his wealth of knowledge about New Brunswick and beyond was just incredible,” the mayor added.

“He seemed to know everything about everything.”

Black pointed out that after the Tribune-Post folded in 2020, Sears continued his reporting and commentary on social media including Facebook.

First draft of history

“I was always astounded at how many stories he would cover in a week,” former Sackville Mayor John Higham said during a tribute he delivered during Sears’s funeral on Sunday at the Sackville United Church.

“And I think how many young people were just tickled pink seeing their names or their pictures in those papers from his coverage and probably a few older ones who felt the same.”

“Wallie’s impact on recording the history of Sackville cannot be understated,” said Lourdes (Richard) Fowler, a former editor of the Tribune Post in a tribute the paper published in 2019 to mark Sears’s 90th birthday.

“It has been said that journalism is the first rough draft of history, and Wallie has diligently, for decades, recorded much of it for posterity in the Sackville Tribune-Post and other newspapers across the province,” the paper quoted Fowler as saying.

“His reporting over the years helped reflect the community back to itself.”

Wallie Sears during a rally in 2021 to protest against provincial plans to cut services at Sackville Memorial Hospital

Pointed commentary

Sears wrote thousands of stories on the Mounties teams at Mount Allison University’s athletics program and thousands more on high school sports.

In one of his last Tribune-Post columns published in February 2020, he asked “why hockey is the lone sport where it’s unsafe to line up for a handshake following completion of a game.”

He observed there’s a lot of passion in other sports like basketball, but noted it would be astonishing to see a fight break out in a post-game handshake on a basketball court.

“It seems that Sackville Minor Hockey Club president David Wheaton may have it right when he says such bad behaviour is indicative of a lack of discipline beginning at home,” Sears noted pointedly.

‘Great life, well lived’

Fittingly, Mayor Black’s tribute to Wallie Sears came just a few minutes after he had issued a proclamation declaring March 28th as the town’s 10th annual Mountie Day in recognition of how much Mount Allison’s athletics programs contribute to the community.

As a co-founder and later inductee in Sackville’s Sports Wall of Fame, Sears was a tireless promoter of local sports.

And, according to Black, he was also a memorable character.

“He was the kind of person that when you met him, you remembered him forever,” he said.

“Because of his welcoming and warm attitude to people, you were always a part of Wallie’s life, [it’s] a huge loss to the community,” Black added.  “He’s a legend.”

Councillor Allison Butcher agreed.

“But also,” she said, “what a great life, well lived.”

To read Wallie Sears’s obituary, click here.

Posted in Mount Allison University, Town of Sackville | Tagged , , , | 1 Comment

Ruffled feathers: Tantramar releases secret $19K report on councillor’s code of conduct violations

Posted on February 22, 2024 by brucewark

The new fibreglass Shep with epoxy finish stands almost 8 ft high and weighs nearly 300 lbs. It was restored to its perch in Dorchester’s village square in April 2023 after a three-year absence

The Town of Tantramar has responded to complaints to the New Brunswick Ombud by releasing an investigator’s report into the contentious events surrounding the restoration of Shep, Dorchester’s unique sandpiper statue.

In a letter e-mailed yesterday to Warktimes, Town Clerk Donna Beal indicated that releasing the report into Councillor Debbie Wiggins-Colwell’s municipal Code of Conduct violations came after a review with Melanie Grant, a complaint analyst in the Ombud’s office.

Warktimes filed a complaint with the Ombud on December 11th after the town refused to provide a copy of the report on the grounds that, as an investigation into personnel matters, it could not be released under the Right to Information and Protection of Privacy Act.

The $19,000 report by investigator Philippe Morin of Montana Consulting Group is heavily redacted with most names and other identifying information blacked out to protect the privacy of the two individuals who filed Code of Conduct complaints against Councillor Wiggins-Colwell as well as the identity of witnesses the investigator interviewed.

(Bill Steele, proprietor of the Dorchester Jail Bed & Breakfast has acknowledged that he was one of the complainants while the other may have been a Tantramar councillor.)

Shep’s feet & beak

Morin’s report concludes that Wiggins-Colwell violated the Code of Conduct when she decided to take restoration of the statue into her own hands instead of going through council’s “democratic decision making process.”

It adds that her actions failed to reflect the separate roles and responsibilities of council and town administrators “when she made the decision to take on the replacement of Shep and followed through with it by contacting the artist and being involved in the creation of Shep.”

The report finds Wiggins-Colwell violated a section of the Code that requires councillors to “conduct council business in an open and transparent manner that promotes public confidence and trust, recognizing that an individual councillor cannot exercise individual authority over Tantramar” when she decided to have Shep installed on its pedestal instead of obeying orders from the mayor and CAO to return the statue’s feet and beak to the town.

Sculptor Robin Hanson poses in his workshop near Oromocto where he created Shep

(Sculptor Robin Hanson told Warktimes in December that the old beak was unusable.)

Morin also concluded that, as a councillor, Wiggins-Colwell should not have asked a municipal employee to give her the feet and beak instead of going through the CAO.

The report notes that Wiggins-Colwell told the investigator she did bring the feet back with a bird attached to them.

“There are two issues with the fact that there was now a bird attached to the feet,” Morin writes, adding, “1) Ms. Wiggins-Colwell did not bring it back to the Public Works department of Tantramar, but rather had it installed by her [husband] on municipal property without proper authorization, and, 2) the bird attached to the feet belongs to Fundy Biosphere.”

(The Fundy Biosphere Region is a non-profit organization that paid the full $9,300 cost of the statue.)

Morin found that Wiggins-Colwell violated the Code of Conduct “when she used municipal property for the benefit of Fundy Biosphere” and when she did not follow proper municipal procurement policies including a request for proposals (RFP).

Councillor’s defence

Wiggins-Colwell told Warktimes in December that when she ran for a seat on Tantramar council, she promised voters in Dorchester she would work hard to get Shep restored in time for the 2023 Sandpiper Festival and the return of the migrating shorebirds to the Bay of Fundy in August.

But, when former Dorchester Deputy Mayor Kara Becker asked council in March 2023 to collaborate with citizens to return Shep to her perch, she received little response.

“So, we just went ahead and put the statue back because it’s so important to us,” Becker told Warktimes later. “It’s pretty much the only thing we have.”

Councillor Debbie Wiggins-Colwell

“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,” Wiggins-Colwell told Warktimes in December.

“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.”

At the same time though, Wiggins-Colwell says she will be glad to take the training council ordered her to undergo in November when it upheld the Code of Conduct violations outlined in the Montana investigator’s report.

To read Philippe Morin’s redacted investigator’s report, click here.

Note: Morin’s report also delved into Wiggins-Colwell’s role in the disposal of tables from Dorchester’s Veterans Community Centre. It concluded she should not have attended a meeting of VCC users because municipal staff had not invited her. For full coverage of the tables issue, click here.

For other previous coverage, click here.

P.S. For Shep’s private thoughts amidst the continuing Tantramar hubub, see Psalm 55 KJV: “Oh that I had wings like a dove! for then would I fly away, and be at rest.”

Posted in Town of Tantramar | Tagged , , | 5 Comments

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