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

Tantramar waits to hear if province will come up with more $ for final phase of flood control project

Posted on November 27, 2023 by brucewark

Tantramar Town Engineer Jon Eppell

The fourth and final phase of Sackville’s Lorne Street flood control project has hit a financial snag that threatens to stop or delay construction of a new aboiteau that would discharge stormwater into the Tantramar River.

Town Engineer Jon Eppell told council today that the project is almost $790,000 over the $2.4 million budget that the provincial department of transportation and infrastructure (DTI) allotted for it last spring.

He said the lowest construction bid from the Fredericton company Caldwell & Ross came in at just over $2.8 million and that design and construction services from the engineering firm Englobe would add another $186,000 bringing the aboiteau’s total cost to just over $3 million plus HST.

“We are waiting to hear back from the province how they wish to proceed, whether they can find additional funding,” Eppell said, adding that he hoped to have more information to present at council’s next regular meeting on December 12th.

The town was hoping to have the new, double-gated aboiteau in place by March 31st as the final phase in a project that Sackville councillors authorized more than seven years ago.

The $13.8 million three phases of the Lorne Street project — cost-shared among all levels of government — involves an extensive network of pipes, ditches, control structures and ponds designed to gather, store and discharge flood water from major storms into the Tantramar River at low tide.

Eppell told council today that Phase III should be completed next month when the flood ponds in Phases II and III are connected via culverts, ditches and pipes installed, in a tricky operation, under the CN Rail tracks.

He said that even without a new aboiteau, the existing system and old aboiteau could still cope with major storms.

“Once we get retention pond three connected to retention pond two, yes we can handle a one-in-100 year storm,” he said.

Eppell added that if a storm were prolonged, the town could deploy its already-established portable pump system.

“So, it would just be a delay in discharging that water into the river system,” he said.

The newly built pond three in the Sackville industrial park behind the community gardens on Charles St.

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

Sackville protesters hear “I Grant You Refuge” written 10-days before Palestinian poet dies in Israeli air raid

Posted on November 19, 2023 by brucewark

Janet Hammock reading “I Grant You Refuge” in Bill Johnstone park one week ago

One week after about 250 people gathered in Bill Johnstone park to call for a ceasefire in Gaza, the uninterrupted killing continues with more than 13,000 deaths and tens of thousands of injuries.

During last Sunday’s rally, retired Mt. A. music professor Janet Hammock read a poem by the 32-year-old Palestinian writer Hiba Abu Nada who was killed in her home by an Israeli air strike on October 20th.

“This is why poetry matters, and why poetry speaks to us so poignantly as we try to let into our hearts the atrocity of this war,” Hammock wrote later in a comment to Warktimes.

She told those gathered in the park that Nada’s poem, “I Grant You Refuge,” had been translated from Arabic to English by Huda Fakhreddine, a professor of Arabic literature at the University of Pennsylvania.

1.
I grant you refuge
in invocation and prayer.
I bless the neighbourhood and the minaret
to guard them from the rocket

from the moment
it is a general’s command
until it becomes
a raid.

I grant you and the little ones refuge,
the little ones who
change the rocket’s course
before it lands
with their smiles.

2.
I grant you and the little ones refuge,
the little ones now asleep like chicks in a nest.

They don’t walk in their sleep toward dreams.
They know death lurks outside the house.

Their mothers’ tears are now doves
following them, trailing behind
every coffin.

3.
I grant the father refuge,
the little ones’ father who holds the house upright
when it tilts after the bombs.
He implores the moment of death:
“Have mercy. Spare me a little while.
For their sake, I’ve learned to love my life.
Grant them a death
as beautiful as they are.”

4.
I grant you refuge
from hurt and death,
refuge in the glory of our siege,
here in the belly of the whale.

Our streets exalt God with every bomb.
They pray for the mosques and the houses.
And every time the bombing begins in the North,
our supplications rise in the South.

5.
I grant you refuge
from hurt and suffering.

With words of sacred scripture
I shield the oranges from the sting of phosphorous
and the shades of cloud from the smog.

I grant you refuge in knowing
that the dust will clear,
and they who fell in love and died together
will one day laugh.

Hiba Abu Nada’s poem appears in “Protean Magazine” (Click on photo to go there)

Posted in Arts | Tagged , | 3 Comments

Tantramar council adds extra RCMP officer in confusing vote

Posted on November 16, 2023 by brucewark

Treasurer Michael Beal

Tantramar Town Council appears to have rejected a recommendation from the RCMP as well as from Treasurer Michael Beal by voting to increase the number of full-time officers in the Sackville detachment by four instead of three.

In their presentation to council on Tuesday, RCMP officials recommended three additional officers for Tantramar under a new municipal policing service agreement (MPSA).

That would bring the number to 13, up from the 10 officers who policed the former town of Sackville.

The RCMP said it would also bring the total cost next year to $2.3 million up from $1.8 million.

Treasurer Michael Beal, who agreed with the RCMP recommendation, told council that Tantramar was being billed for only eight officers instead of 10 apparently because of vacancies caused by illness and problems recruiting new members.

He said under a new MPSA with Tantramar, the RCMP would have up to a year after the contract starts to bring the full complement up to 13. (The RCMP is hoping to have the new contract in place on April 1, 2024.)

Beal warned that adding an extra officer could cost an additional $170,000, although he acknowledged it’s unlikely the RCMP would be able to recruit one until sometime in 2025.

However, if they managed to do it, he said, the town would either have to raise taxes or make budget cuts.

Councillor Allison Butcher moves her orphaned motion

In a motion seconded by Councillor Barry Hicks, Councillor Allison Butcher moved to increase the number of officers in the new contract to 13.

Councillor Matt Estabooks (again, seconded by Barry Hicks) moved to increase the number to 14.

In a confusing turn of events, Mayor Black said the original motion had been amended even though council did not vote to amend it.

It pushed ahead instead to approve the Estabrooks motion by a vote of 8 to 1 with Butcher casting the only nay vote.

Now her motion sits unnumbered and orphaned on the list of motions that council considered:

Posted in RCMP, Town of Tantramar | Tagged | 4 Comments

Tantramar Council ends air filter saga by nixing $3200 grant

Posted on November 15, 2023 by brucewark

Dave Thomas, third from left, helps build a Corsi-Rosenthal box at the Sackville Commons. (Photo: Shoshanna Wingate)

Community volunteer and Mt. A. professor Dave Thomas says he’s disappointed that Tantramar Town Council has rejected his request for a $3,200 grant to build simple, indoor air filters that protect against COVID-19 and flu viruses as well as allergens and other airborne threats such as smoke from forest fires.

“Here’s a situation where a member of our community is willing to donate a lot of time and some money to try to make spaces healthier and safer for our community members and that there would be so much objection to something like that, is very surprising to me,” Thomas said today in a telephone interview.

He was commenting on the objections raised by councillors last night before a majority voted to reject the $3,200 grant that had already been approved by the independent, community development organization, Renaissance Sackville.

The 5-4 vote came after discussions at three previous meetings starting on September 25th.

In today’s interview, Thomas responded to each of the objections expressed last night:

Councillor Josh Goguen: There’s so many things that I don’t like about this application just because of the way that it’s being funded and I kind of dug into this organization and I’m kind of iffy about it to start off. And not only that, the aspect of the amount of garbage that’ll be going into the landfills because you’re adding four, kind of filters, on the side, so they’d have to be replaced. If they were coming back with saying that ‘OK, we’re adding a HEPA filter, like an actual industrial-size one that you just replace, a small filter, the footprint is smaller,’ I know it might do the same as this, but just because of that I just can’t approve it.

Dave Thomas: Protect Our Province New Brunswick is a group of advocates, or volunteers, or activists, whatever you want to call them, from all over the province of New Brunswick that have formed an ad-hoc or informal group where we tackle all kinds of things. So, one of the things we do is try to encourage the building of Corsi-Rosenthal [C-R] boxes and air filtration in general. Another thing that members of the group have done has been to make rapid [COVID] tests and masks available to people in their communities who need them and who can’t afford them. Another thing that members of the group have done is educational. So, blasting out on social media and through press releases and other ways of information for New Brunswickers about COVID, but also about indoor air quality and making our indoor air better. Another thing they’ve done is through Freedom of Information requests, they’ve found out all kinds of interesting things about the New Brunswick government’s response to COVID and tried to publicize this and let people know about it. So, it’s been an advocacy group since the beginning of COVID to try to inform and help New Brunswickers understand and grapple with the effects of COVID.

It’s true that parts of the C-R box cannot be reused or recycled and would need to go to the landfill. That’s true. The cardboard on the filter can be taken off and recycled, but parts of the filter would need to go to the landfill. For me, that’s a small price to pay for the benefits of the air filtration units if you think about all the places that are currently using either HEPA filters or furnace filters (the C-R boxes use MERV-13 furnace filters). At the university, in our schools, in our hospital, probably in some of the town’s buildings, they’re all using these filters and yes, parts of them have to be thrown out. But again, in my view that’s something worth doing in order to make sure that these indoor spaces are safe and healthy for members of our community.

A Corsi-Rosenthal box at Sackville’s Visitor Information Centre

Councillor Barry Hicks: I will be voting against this also. To my knowledge, these are not CSA approved. There’s not enough information on them. I will be voting against it.

Dave Thomas: It’s true, this is a do-it-yourself version of the air filtration unit. They’re not for sale in stores and so, they haven’t gone through a process of certification. But what I would say is the people who created the boxes, such as Richard Corsi, dean of engineering at the University of California, have done extensive testing on them. They’re very effective. They’re just as effective and in some cases, more effective than a quality HEPA filter you can buy at the store. This information is freely accessible online. They’re not government approved because they’re not for sale and they’re not being marketed and commercialized, but they are an effective, homemade, do-it-yourself remedy and much cheaper than commercial brands.

Councillor Bruce Phinney: I’ll be voting against it as well because I believe that actually the people who will be receiving them [the C-R- boxes] the not-for-profits as we’ve been told should be approaching whoever they’re renting from to get the landlords to do whatever they have to do to make the air quality better. And, at $80, supposedly is what they cost, I think the not-for-profits can take $80 out of their budget and buy one of these things.

Note: At their meeting on October 24, councillors were told that the C-R boxes cost $120 each and that Thomas’s group planned to build 16 new boxes and another 15 to replace existing ones.

Dave Thomas: There have been cases over the past year and a bit where I’ve worked with community organizations that have paid for the supplies themselves and I’ve just volunteered my time to come in and work with people to build them. So, it is true that in lots of cases, the group could be paying for this itself. On the other hand, there are certainly cases of organizations I’ve worked with so far, and I’m sure there’ll be more in the future, that don’t have this kind of extra money sitting around for something like this, especially if they need more than one. If they operate in a large space like the Sackville Commons, it’s a good example where for a space like that you actually need more than one, you need a few or several and for organizations that need more than one and which are on a very tight budget, this would be a way to make sure those non-profits get the boxes into their spaces and have healthier spaces for the people who use them.

Richard Corsi in 2022. (Wikipedia Photo: UC Davis College of Engineering)

Shoshanna Wingate, a board member at the Sackville Commons, has worked with Dave Thomas building C-R boxes.

She says both Corsi and Jim Rosenthal called attention to their project on Twitter giving Sackville international publicity.

“It’s a shame that council is unable to support a community project to keep the citizens of our town safe during a pandemic,” she says.

“I must ask why they did not invite Dave Thomas to present to council or answer questions,” she adds.

“It boggles the mind that councillors did not seek the input of an applicant, yet rejected the application for lack of information.”

Councillors Matt Estabrooks, Josh Goguen, Barry Hicks, Bruce Phinney and Debbie Wiggins-Colwell voted against the $3,200 grant while Mayor Andrew Black, Deputy Mayor Greg Martin and Councillors Allison Butcher and Michael Tower voted in favour.

Posted in COVID-19, Technology, Town of Sackville, Town of Tantramar | Tagged | 18 Comments

Sackville protest calls for ceasefire in Gaza & an end to Canada’s support for Israeli war crimes

Posted on November 12, 2023 by brucewark

Rally organizer Sarah Kardash addresses protesters in Bill Johnstone park.

About 250 protesters took part in a peaceful march and rally in Sackville today to call for an immediate ceasefire as Israel continued its war with Hamas in the Gaza Strip.

Sarah Kardash, one of rally’s main organizers, called on Canada to end its support for the Israeli assault on the besieged Palestinian enclave.

“Israel is committing genocide in Gaza and ramping up violence against Palestinians in the West Bank,” she told people who had gathered in Bill Johnstone park.

“We oppose and condemn the war crimes committed by Israel with impunity and in clear violation of international law in the Gaza Strip and the West Bank. There is no justification for what Israel is doing or for the Canadian government’s support for it.”

Kardash went on to list the dead and injured in the war that Israel launched after Palestinian gunmen killed about 1,200 people in southern Israel on October 7th and took more than 240 hostages:

Mohamed Ali of Citizens for Peace

Mohamed Ali, founder of the Moncton group Citizens for Peace, thanked people for attending the rally to “stand for peace, for justice and for humanity.”

As he began to read his speech from his cellphone, he said it hadn’t been an easy one to write.

“I feel a lot of pain and a lot of sorrow in my heart,” he said.

“My heart is burning watching all these images of suffering,” he added as he called for people to join hands in a moment of silence for “all of the victims in Gaza.”

After 20 seconds of silence, Ali said the powerful Israeli army was continuing its merciless massacre in Gaza.

“They have continued to commit war crimes for 40 days now,” he said, “with the discreet but real support of our government and history will remember this shameful, this shameful, position of our country.”

Ali said that although “the path of peace and justice is much harder than the path of war,” people will never give up on it.

“We will continue to fight for a better and peaceful future, for our children, for Palestinian children, for Israeli children, for all children around the world.”

He ended with chants that the rally goers echoed back to him:

“We want peace, we want justice, we want freedom for Palestine, free, free, Palestine.”

Rallygoers marching to Convocation Hall at Mt. A.

Later, the protesters began what organizers called a “march of complicity” with their first stop at Mount Allison University’s Convocation Hall on York Street where they heard Politics and International Relations Professor Lara Khattab speak about Palestinian resistance to Israeli occupation.

“Despite the fact that Palestinians are dispossessed violently from their land [and] they’re brutally killed with impunity, Palestinians continue to resist by various means and they continue to inspire us with their commitment to tell their stories, to document Israel’s war crimes and to claim their land back and their right to return to their homeland,” she said.

Khattab added that one form of resistance includes the boycott, divestment and sanctions movement (BDS) and she quoted words from its website:

“The call for boycott is a call to put pressure on Israel to comply with international law, to end the illegal occupation of Palestine, to end all forms of racial discrimination and to stop denying the right to return for Palestinian refugees. It’s a movement for justice, for equality and for freedom.”

Khattab praised her union, the Mount Allison Faculty Association, for its recent statement demanding that the federal government call for an immediate ceasefire in Gaza, end all forms of Canadian military and financial aid, including arms sales to Israel, and pressure Israel to end its illegal blockade of Gaza.

She noted, however, that the university administration did not condemn Israel’s massive violence and had not called for a ceasefire.

An e-mail from Mt. A. Acting President Robert MacKinnon to students, faculty and staff on October 11 said: “Our thoughts are with all of those affected by the ongoing violence and loss of life in Israel and Palestine” before it referred to counselling support available to anyone “impacted by this news.”

(A rally organizer pointed out that, in contrast, the university had issued a strong statement last year praising the Ukrainian people for their resistance to Russia’s invasion.)

Glenn Barrington on the steps of Scotiabank with rally organizer Simone Schmidt

“I’m a Scotiabank member, I’ll admit it right out of the gate,” said Glenn Barrington after the protesters had marched from the Mt. A. campus to the bank’s branch on Bridge Street.

“It’s a complicated world,” he added.

“But I can say that Scotiabank is one of, is the biggest bank contributor to Israeli arms production and Israeli real estate and organizations and corporations that will profit directly off of the genocide of the Palestinian people,” he said before going on to explain that the bank has a large investment in Elbit Systems, a weapons manufacturer that supplies the Israeli military.

“If you’re a member of Scotiabank, maybe it’s now the time to get your bank card out of Scotiabank,” he said.

Barrington led the protesters in the chant, “Free, Free Palestine,” before they headed up to Main Street for a rally outside Jean Coutu where organizers pointed out that the pharmacy sells SodaStream, the home fizzy water machine manufactured in Israel.

The company is on the BDS list of companies to boycott partly because of its treatment of Palestinian workers.

Next, the marchers headed to Sackville’s Town Hall where poet Marilyn Lerch promised to organize a resolution for Tantramar Council to pass calling for an immediate ceasefire in Gaza.

Marchers congregate outside Town Hall

Posted in Mount Allison University, Town of Tantramar | Tagged , , , | 20 Comments