What did the Montana consultants recommend for Sackville Fire & Rescue?

Posted on February 19, 2026 by brucewark

While the Montana Consulting Group’s full workplace assessment of Sackville Fire & Rescue is cloaked in secrecy, its 20 recommendations are almost an open book.

The recommendations have not been officially made public, but former Sackville CAO Jamie Burke told Warktimes in 2022 that most are reflected in the new fire department bylaw passed by town council nearly four years ago.

In 2021, firefighters also received an oral briefing on the recommendations and several, including Kevin Scott, took detailed notes.

“We know what the 20 recommendations are. We know how many recommendations were implemented. We know how many haven’t,” he wrote on his Facebook page on February 7th.

Scott, who now volunteers with the fire department in Point de Bute, has been posting what he calls “A Daily Dose of Montana” on Facebook ever since.

His “daily doses” along with changes in the bylaw make it clear the consultants recommended shifting power and control away from the volunteers while placing it in the hands of the fire chief and CAO.

Key recommendations

—firefighters became part-time employees with higher wage rates.

— as employees, they are subject to the town’s social media use policy which bans any commentary that would reflect badly on how the town is run.

—firefighters must refer any media requests for information or comment to the fire chief.

— Montana also recommended that the town clarify the fire chief’s roles and duties.

Judging by his Facebook posts, Kevin Scott is especially concerned about a recommendation that under the town bylaw, all personnel issues would fall under the sole jurisdiction of the fire chief or the CAO.

“Let that one sink in for a minute!” Scott writes.

“Who does a firefighter go to when the issue is with both the CAO and the chief? When the two have each other’s backs, it makes for frustrating situations!” he adds.

“It’s frustrating to know how many issues that have been going on at the fire department over the last 10 years or more, that council has never been made aware of.

“Why is the position of the CAO so powerful that they don’t have to inform council of issues going on with the town?” he asks.

Other recommendations that were followed

—the old fire department constitution and internal bylaws, which gave firefighters the right to elect their own officers as well as a say in the hiring of new members, was eliminated and a formal hiring process was put in place.

—standard operating guidelines developed over the years by the firefighters were replaced by policies and procedures written by the chief in consultation with firefighters and the CAO and approved by town council.

—the grievance committee, which had never been set up, was replaced with a complaint procedure requiring volunteer firefighters to discuss their complaints with the chief and then, with the CAO.

Recommendations not followed

Kevin Scott points to one Montana recommendation that appears to be based on the consultants’ interviews with firefighters.

“This recommendation talks about following up during meetings on issues that were brought up through the chain of command or directly to the fire chief or the CAO to ensure accountability,” he writes.

“As a firefighter at Sackville Fire & Rescue, quite often we would bring up issues that would never get resolved or followed through and this recommendation was to help prevent that from happening,” he adds.

“Problem is, it hasn’t been implemented yet, which means the accountability is not there. It is one of the most important components of a fire scene, yet not important enough for the fire station?”

Scott says a key recommendation on favouritism within Sackville Fire & Rescue hasn’t been implemented either.

The Montana Consultants called on the town to revise the bylaw to establish formal rules to apply to all firefighters equally and if a complaint arises, there should be a meeting to discuss how to proceed with an investigation.

“Considering how many firefighters publicly stated this was happening within the fire department, I am disappointed that this recommendation hasn’t been implemented,” Scott writes.

“In my opinion, one of the more important recommendations from the Montana report was that the CAO should get feedback from firefighters, officers and other town employees who regularly interact with the fire chief. It was also considered that it should be done at least every three years. Many firefighters first met the CAO, who’s been in that position for over three years, after the 12 dropped their pagers off at town hall last month,” Scott writes.

“This is one of the easiest recommendations to implement and one of the more important ones. Had this been done, we probably wouldn’t be having this conversation,” he adds. “Could have saved the taxpayers a lot of money had this recommendation been implemented.”

For previous coverage, click here.

Posted in Sackville Fire & Rescue, Town of Sackville, Town of Tantramar | Tagged | 2 Comments

Former Sackville councillor calls for release of Montana report & suspension of fire chief pending results of investigation

Posted on February 16, 2026 by brucewark

Former Sackville Town Councillor Ken Hicks says he hasn’t heard yet whether Tantramar will release the 2021 Montana Report on the turmoil within Sackville’s fire department.

Hicks wrote to town council and CAO Jennifer Borne on January 21st formally requesting the release of the report after a dozen firefighters turned in their pagers on January 5th taking themselves off active duty.

That brought the number available to respond to emergencies to about 18, well under half the department’s full complement of 43.

Sackville commissioned the Montana Consulting Group to conduct a workplace assessment after Warktimes reported in April 2021 that about 17 volunteer firefighters had resigned over a five year period and that their resignation letters complained about persistent bullying, favouritism, harassment, sexism and safety violations in Sackville Fire & Rescue.

Public statements

Hicks also posted two public statements on his Facebook page, one of them, an open letter addressed to the mayor, council and administration, calling for the immediate suspension of Sackville’s fire chief pending the results of an investigation being conducted by a law firm in Saint John.

The town announced on January 16th that it had hired VanBuskirk Law to investigate the fire department workplace:

Hicks says he worries that the investigator will only be looking into breaches of the Workplace Harassment and Violence Policy of 2023 and that therefore, the investigation might be too narrow to deal with issues in the years before that policy was adopted.

In his Facebook posts, he accuses the town of failing to act on recommendations in the Montana report. The report itself and its 20 recommendations have never been made public on the grounds that New Brunswick’s right to information law prohibits the release of records and recommendations made by an investigator “in relation to a harassment investigation or a personnel investigation.”

New Brunswick’s Ombud and a Court of King’s Bench judge both agreed the town was right to withhold the report and its recommendations.

“We already paid for a workplace audit in 2021, and we already had the roadmap to fix this,” Hicks wrote, adding that Mayor Black now says that the Montana Consulting Group did not conduct a full-scale investigation in 2021 only a workplace assessment.

“The decision to start an actual investigation only now, after losing twelve firefighters, points to a catastrophic delay in leadership and a failure to act on known information,” Hicks writes.

In his open letter, Hicks says town council needs to play a more direct role in overseeing the fire department.

“I suggest a council led fire service oversight committee made up of three councillors and a firefighter representative to track and ensure implementation of the outstanding [Montana] recommendations,” he writes.

More managers

“Adding more management layers and ‘People and Culture’ managers now is just an expensive way to build a wall of protection around the Fire Chief and the CAO,” Hicks says, referring to the town’s announcement on January 13th that it had added a new position called Tantramar Fire Service Manager of People & Culture to its management ranks and would be recruiting a Director of Protective Services to oversee Tantramar’s three fire departments.

“We don’t need more six-figure salaries, we need accountability for the individuals who poisoned the well in the first place,” Hicks writes.

“The 12 firefighters are the solution, not the problem. These firefighters didn’t step away because they stopped caring about their neighbours, they stepped away because the toxicity at the top made it impossible to do their jobs safely.”

To read Ken Hicks’s open letter to mayor, council and administration, click here.

This is the first in a series on the crisis within Sackville Fire & Rescue. Next, what we do know about the Montana recommendations.

Posted in Sackville Fire & Rescue, Town of Sackville, Town of Tantramar | Tagged , , | 8 Comments

5 days of EUB hearings bring out demonstrators & experts debating complicated issues

Posted on February 13, 2026 by brucewark

Demonstrators march against proposed gas plant in Moncton on Thursday. Photo: Juliette Bulmer

About 30 demonstrators marched Thursday outside the Moncton hotel where the Energy & Utilities Board was holding hearings on NB Power’s plan for a 500 MW gas/diesel plant near Centre Village.

Midgic resident Juliette Bulmer says the demonstrators also spent about an hour inside the hearing room.

“Hotel staff tried to calmly stop us, but we just left all our signs outside the room and quietly and respectfully walked in and sat down,” she says.

“We knew we had a right to be there.”

On Friday, NB Power lawyer John Furey questioned witnesses Jeffrey Palermo and Dustin Madsen, both of whom were hired by Public Intervener Alain Chiasson.

Palermo, an energy consultant based in Boca Raton, Florida, has filed EUB testimony suggesting that NB Power’s forecasts are wrong and the utility does not need electricity from the gas/diesel plant.

In his evidence, Madsen, an accountant based in Calgary, questions whether NB Power’s decision to invest in a gas plant, owned and operated by an American company, is financially prudent.

Closing arguments

The EUB will meet again on Thursday, February 19th in Saint John to hear closing arguments from NB Power and various interveners.

The EUB has also scheduled additional hearing days from March 31 to April 2 to consider NB Power’s tentative agreement to sell 100 MW of gas-plant power to Nova Scotia.

Demonstrators chanted “No gas plant, No gas plant” as they marched in Moncton on Thursday. Photo: Juliette Bulmer

Two technical issues

(1) Many of the arguments this week in Moncton revolved around complicated technical issues about how much electricity NB Power needs to meet customer demand and how best to supply it.

The EUB heard that NB Power adheres to North American standards for the expected risk of days per year in which available generation may not meet demand.

That standard, called Loss of Load Expectation or LOLE, is set at 0.1 days per year — about 2.4 hours annually, or one day in 10 years. LOLE is a planning benchmark used to determine how much dependable capacity the system must have.

NB Power argues that to stay within that standard, it needs 400 MW of power from the proposed gas/diesel plant, particularly during winter peak periods.

Critics, including the Conservation Council of New Brunswick (CCNB), contend that if NB Power needs that electricity, grid-scale battery energy storage systems combined with wind and solar would be a cheaper way to supply it.

(2) This brings in a second technical issue known as Effective Load Carrying Capacity, or ELCC.

ELCC measures how much dependable capacity a specific power resource or asset contributes toward meeting the LOLE standard. In other words, it estimates how much that resource reduces the risk of supply shortfalls during peak demand.

NB Power argues that batteries and renewables provide less ELCC than firm gas generation, especially during prolonged winter peak conditions.

The utility contends that the province’s highest electricity demand typically occurs on frigid winter mornings, when solar output is minimal and wind generation can be variable, making dependable capacity during those hours especially critical for meeting the LOLE standard.

Critics, such as the CCNB, argue that rapid improvements in technology have made battery energy storage systems backed up by wind and solar a more cost-effective way of providing peak power quickly when needed.

To read Erica Butler’s CBC coverage, click here.

Photo: Juliette Bulmer

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EUB hears conflicting testimony on proposed gas plant

Posted on February 12, 2026 by brucewark

Toby Couture testifying today in an online hookup

New Brunswick’s Energy & Utilities Board heard expert testimony today on battery energy storage systems (BESS) from Toby Couture, a graduate of Mount Allison University who went on to earn advanced degrees from the Université de Moncton and the London School of Economics.

Couture, who now runs his energy consulting firm E3 Analytics based in Berlin, Germany, said he’s been working in the energy sector for about 20 years advising governments, power system operators and other clients on all five continents.

“I think it’s quite clear that the power system and the energy system as a whole is undergoing quite rapid and profound transformation,” Couture told NB Power lawyer John Furey who spent more than an hour attempting to have him disqualified as an expert witness.

Among other things, Furey noted that Couture co-wrote a paper in 2007 for the Conservation Council of New Brunswick on energy self-sufficiency and was appearing today as an expert witness for the CCNB making him more of an advocate than an expert.

“You continue to believe that it’s important to transform the way that we use and produce energy?” Furey asked.

NB Power lawyer John Furey

“I think for anyone who works in the power sector, the only constant is change,” Couture replied.

“We’ve seen that going back to the emergence of early stage hydro power, the emergence of coal and thermal power plants, nuclear in the 1950s and 60s to gas turbines in the late 80s and early 90s to today,” he said.

After the EUB rejected Furey’s arguments and accepted him as an expert witness, Couture went on to argue that grid-scale batteries combined with renewable sources such as wind and solar could provide electricity more cheaply than the proposed 500 MW gas/diesel plant in Tantramar which would cost at least $3.5 billion over 25-years.

Couture also rejected arguments that batteries wouldn’t be able to provide enough power to prevent blackouts during winter cold snaps pointing to large-scale battery installations in the UK, China and California.

To read Couture’s written evidence, click here.

NB Power experts

Earlier in the day, the EUB heard testimony from Bruce Tsuchida and Jill Moraski, two members of the Brattle Group, a big American consulting firm that NB Power hired to assess the proposed gas/diesel generating plant.

Brattle Group Energy Associate Jill Moraski

While Tsuchida testified that battery energy storage could be seen as an alternative, he added that to the best of his knowledge, it would not be as reliable as combustion turbines.

Moraski testified that the consultants found the gas plant to be a prudent investment because of NB Power’s projections forecasting the need for additional electricity, the tight supply from neighbours including Hydro Quebec, the emergence of data centres, projected increases in the number of electric vehicles and population growth in New Brunswick.

“One primary reason was a pretty rapid growth in the customer base. I don’t know if unprecedented is the word, but certainly unexpected,” she said.

Tsuchida and Moraski acknowledged that they based many of their conclusions on figures and forecasting assumptions supplied by NB Power.

To read the Brattle Group report, click here.

Posted in NB Power, Town of Tantramar | Tagged , , , | 4 Comments

Former utility exec says NB Power’s proposed gas plant is 20 years out of date

Posted on February 11, 2026 by brucewark

Former utility manager Tim Hicks

A former senior manager with one of the largest electricity companies in the U.S. says NB Power should not be pushing a 500 MW gas plant as a solution to its energy needs.

“There are ideas for the environment that are better than building a gas, obviously carbon-based combustion power plant,” Tim Hicks said during a presentation to Tantramar Town Council on Tuesday.

“I worked as a senior manager for Southern California Edison in grid modernization. I gained a lot of knowledge there. I’d like to share a little bit of that with you,” he said.

Hicks returned home to Sackville three years ago after spending many years out of the country. He joined the local group Seniors for Climate Change – Tantramar after learning about the proposed gas plant on the Chignecto Isthmus.

He told council there are better solutions to meeting energy needs including what’s known as “time-of-use” or “time of day” power rates that would encourage NB Power customers to save money by shifting some of their electricity consumption to times when there’s less demand on the grid.

“At night, there’s very little power consumption,” he said, adding that about 20 years ago, for example, utilities in Ontario and California introduced cheaper, variable rates to encourage customers to run appliances such as dishwashers or clothes dryers during the night-time hours or very early in the morning.

“Typically, between 4 and 9 in the evening is when everybody’s consuming power,” he explained, and rates then could be more expensive, something like 28 cents per kilowatt hour while rates from 7 a.m. until 4 p.m. could be around 15 to 18 cents.

The real savings could come during the night-time hours (9 p.m. to 7 a.m) when he said NB Power could charge only six cents per kilowatt hour.

NB Power out of date

Smart meter. Photo: NB Power

“My question is why is it acceptable for NB Power to be more than 20 years or almost 20 years behind in this technology, in this simple solution and now they’re rushing to build a power plant,” he said.

Hicks said he understands why New Brunswickers are reluctant to sign up for the so-called “smart meters” that are needed to implement “time of use” pricing.

“There is a history of blunder after blunder after blunder and I can understand why the public has not trusted NB Power and maybe why they’ve delayed this because they oppose smart meters because they don’t trust NB Power to implement properly,” he said.

“An electric company has a monopoly. They own the wires and they own the towers,” he added, pointing to a conflict-of-interest when utilities generate and sell their own power.

“In California, they removed the power production from the business of providing electricity. They removed that conflict of interest, plus they incentivized power production to be green.”

Council support

Councillor Allison Butcher

“I think you’re kind of preaching to the choir here,” said Allison Butcher, one of several members of council who thanked Hicks for his presentation.

“We hear you. We are with you,” she said, adding that sometimes the town feels powerless to influence NB Power and the province.

“Unfortunately, as a municipal government, we have said we don’t agree with it [the gas plant], but I’m not sure it matters to them.

“So, I thank you for continuing to beat the drum.”

NB Power Plan

Meantime, St. Thomas University Economic Professor Andrew Secord asked NB Power about introducing “time of use” rates during this week’s Energy & Utilities Board hearings in Moncton.

Vice President Brad Coady replied those rates could come “as early as April 1, 2028,” but he cautioned it would depend on several factors including EUB rulings on how electricity rates are designed and the time that would be needed to educate customers.

Posted in NB Power, Town of Tantramar | Tagged , | 1 Comment

NB Power reluctant to say how much Isthmus gas plant would cost as EUB hearings begin

Posted on February 9, 2026 by brucewark

Demonstration organized by Action Cap-Acadie outside EUB hearings in Moncton. Photo: Juliette Bulmer

About 20 demonstrators chanting, “Hey, Hey, Ho, Ho, the gas plant has got to go,” marched outside the Moncton hotel today where the Energy & Utilities Board was about  to open five days of hearings on NB Power’s plans for a 500 MW generating plant on the Chignecto Isthmus.

The demonstration was organized by Action Cap-Acadie which had invited everyone to “stand with us to protect our land, our health, and a clean-energy future.”

After the hearings began, various interveners spent the day quizzing five NB Power executives about their proposal to pay an American company to build, operate and eventually decommission the gas/diesel plant in Tantramar.

NB Power panel was cross-examined by interveners during the 1st day of hearings. L-R: Kevin Wright, Jordan Russell, Brad Coady, Darren Clark, Jonathan Pollock

St. Thomas University Economics Professor Andrew Secord asked the NB Power executives for a “ballpark figure” on what the gas plant would cost the utility over its projected 25-year lifespan.

NB Power Vice President Brad Coady seemed reluctant to answer.

“We’re not the builder of the project, we’re not the owner of the project, so we don’t know the full capital cost,” he said, suggesting nevertheless that NB Power did have “a good line of sight” on what it might cost every year.

“We do think it’s a significant amount of money, if I could say it that way,” he added.

EUB Chair Christopher Stewart

“I’m not sure you answered Dr. Secord’s question,” EUB Chair Christopher Stewart said. “I think he was asking if you could give him some kind of ballpark number.”

“We can’t say on the record what it would cost us per year,” Coady answered, finally adding that over its lifespan, the capital cost of the plant would amount to more than a billion dollars.

He said NB Power would also have to cover the U.S. company’s operating and financing costs including return on equity and return on debt, plus any insurances.”

Although Coady didn’t mention it at today’s hearing, NB Power would also be required to cover the costs of burning diesel fuel and imported natural gas.

Dramatic exchange

PCIC Intervener Chris Rouse

Chris Rouse, intervener for the Protect the Chignecto Isthmus Coalition questioned the NB Power panel about their contention that 400 MW from the gas plant would be used to generate electricity that is needed in New Brunswick, with an additional 100 MW for sale to Nova Scotia.

New Brunswick’s 400 MW would be generated by eight gas turbines (8 units) with two additional ones (2 units) generating power for Nova Scotia. (Each unit would generate 50 MW: 8 x 50= 400 MW; 2 x 50 = 100 MW).

Brad Coady repeated today what he has said at various public meetings: The province could run short of power unless it gets that 400 MW from the proposed gas plant.

But Rouse pointed to a chart from an NB Power document that appears to show half of the 400 MW could be exported undermining NB Power’s claim that without that power, New Brunswickers could face rolling blackouts starting in 2028.

NB Power chart with the financial details blacked out

Coady responded that the table was created to show various ways of thinking about how NB Power could lower the cost of satisfying the province’s need for 400 MW.

“Just to make sure there is no confusion in the room, there is now only one expansion toll agreement, one contract for offtake with our neighbours,” he said referring to the tentative export deal with Nova Scotia for 100 MW.

“But the table says four units for in-province,” Rouse responded. “You just told us at the very beginning that this 400 MW was for in-province. This table is only showing 200 MW for in-province.”

“Again, just to make sure there’s no confusion, this was just two options,” Coady answered.

“NB Power’s thinking never deviated from about 400 megawatts, or in this case, eight-unit option for a total of 376 megawatts net to the system. That’s been our base-case-thinking all along,” he said.

The EUB hearings continue Tuesday at the Delta Beauséjour in Moncton starting at 9 a.m.

For Erica Butler’s, CBC coverage, click here.

Posted in NB Power, Town of Tantramar | Tagged , | 2 Comments

130 scientists & academics call on Premier Holt to suspend proposed 500 MW gas plant

Posted on February 8, 2026 by brucewark

Susan O’Donnell. Photo: NB Media Co-op

Energy activist and Adjunct Research Professor Susan O’Donnell says NB Power’s proposal to burn more fossil fuels shows it’s stuck in the dinosaur age.

“It’s like NB Power management are lumbering along in an alternative universe where’s there’s no climate crisis,” she writes in an e-mail to Warktimes.

O’Donnell was commenting on a letter signed by 130 New Brunswick scientists and professors asking Premier Holt to suspend NB Power’s proposed gas/diesel generating plant on the Chignecto Isthmus.

O’Donnell helped organize and circulate the letter calling on Holt to ask NB Power to issue tenders for an electricity battery storage project instead and redirect investments to renewable sources and energy efficiency.

Among other things, the letter points out that the gas/diesel plant would be built and operated by the Missouri-based company PROENERGY at a time when Canada should be reducing its dependence on the United States.

It also warns that the project would make New Brunswick dependent on fluctuating prices for shale gas piped in from the U.S.

The letter says that the gas plant would threaten human health as well as the health of 165 rare or protected animal species while emitting an additional 900,000 tonnes of greenhouse gases that contribute to climate change.

In her e-mail, O’Donnell disputes NB Power’s claim that it will run short of power by 2028 because of population growth.

“Planned data centres are driving growth projections,” she writes.

“We need to be talking as a province about what kinds of industrial and community development we want that respect the limits of a finite planet and ensure a sustainable future.”

To read the letter to Premier Holt and the names of those who signed it, click here.

Posted in climate change, Mount Allison University, NB Power, Town of Tantramar | Tagged | 29 Comments

EUB accepts NB Power’s new evidence; hearings begin as scheduled next week

Posted on February 6, 2026 by brucewark

EUB Chair Christopher Stewart

The New Brunswick Energy & Utilities Board is allowing NB Power to submit additional evidence about its deal with Nova Scotia to sell 100 MW from its proposed 500 MW gas/diesel generating plant near Centre Village.

Board Chair Christoper Stewart made his ruling to accept the new evidence after an online hearing on Friday that lasted more than 90-minutes.

“This situation is not ideal,” Stewart said, “but we must deal with matters as they emerge.”

He was referring to NB Power’s decision to submit the additional evidence one week before EUB hearings were set to begin in Moncton.

The EUB must decide whether the gas plant would be a prudent investment for the public utility and whether it would be needed to avoid electricity shortages beginning in 2028.

Stewart said those hearings will be held next week in Moncton as planned, but the EUB will give any interveners a couple of extra days at some later date if they request additional time to deal with the new evidence.

Public Intervener Alain Chiasson had argued during Friday’s hearing that it would be unfair to allow NB Power to introduce its new evidence next week.

Chiasson, who will be opposing the proposed gas plant, said he and his experts would not have time to analyze and question the “hundreds of pages of new, complicated evidence.”

In his ruling, however, Board Chair Stewart suggested that all intervening parties could have expected the additional evidence. NB Power indicated in its original filings that it was looking for a customer to buy 100 MW from the plant.

Documents show it now has a tentative 10-year deal to sell that electricity to Nova Scotia’s Independent Energy System Operator.

The EUB hearings are set to begin at 9:30 a.m. on Monday at the Delta Beauséjour in Moncton.

To read a summary of NB Power’s new evidence, click here.

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Tantramar councillors concerned about height of snowbanks in downtown Sackville

Posted on February 5, 2026 by brucewark

Councillor Barry Hicks

Several members of Tantramar Town Council expressed concern about the timely removal of snowbanks in downtown Sackville on Monday during a 20-minute discussion of public works standards for clearing snow and ice.

Council members were responding to Town Engineer Jon Eppell who said curb side snowbanks more than 18 inches high are removed about 72 hours or three days after a storm has ended.

Councillor Barry Hicks, Sackville’s former superintendent of public works, suggested snowbanks should be removed long before they reach that height.

“Passengers cannot get the door open or exit the vehicle with an 18-inch snowbank and when you add in the six-inch rise of the curb, it brings it to 24-inches,” he said.

“It is impossible for persons with mobility issues, senior citizens, parents with babies or small children to exit their vehicles in the downtown core with snowbanks that high,” Hicks said, adding that people are forced to walk into traffic to get to a pathway cleared by a downtown business.

“This is a safety issue for everyone,” he said.

Age friendly

Councillor Bruce Phinney

Councillor Bruce Phinney agreed, suggesting that snow-clearing standards have changed over the years.

“There has not been a direction to change anything,” Eppell responded. “I’m not aware that this is different from what used to be done.”

“Well, it seems that things are not getting done very fast then,” Phinney said, adding that he cleared snow at Mount Allison University for almost 40 years.

He said he now has a problem getting over snowbanks in downtown Sackville.

“And, if we’re an age-friendly community, we need to put in place what’s needed for the seniors,” he said.

‘High standard’

Mayor Andrew Black said that during his 10 years on council, snow removal has been a recurring concern.

“Every single year we have complaints about how the snow is removed or not removed,” he said, adding that some winters are worse than others.

“I would also say that when you have such a high standard of snow removal, like I believe we do in Tantramar, any slight slip makes it look like it’s highly catastrophic,” Black said.

“I do want to highlight that we are pretty fortunate with the snow removal that we do have here.”

Councillor Josh Goguen

Councillor Josh Goguen said he also agreed with Councillor Hicks because of his experience picking up his spouse who works downtown.

“She’s fallen quite a few times trying to get over the snowbanks or I’ve had to pull out and try to get to one of the clearings so she could get in.”

Councillor Michael Tower said children sometimes have a hard time getting to school because of high snowbanks, but said later he gets a lot of comments from people who are happy that the main roads are plowed before they go to work.

“So you have to take the good with the bad and we get an awful lot of good,” he said.

To read Town Engineer Jon Eppell’s written presentation to council on snow and ice clearing standards, click here.

For information on the latest proposal to get an age-friendly community designation for Tantramar from the province, click here.

Posted in Town of Tantramar | Tagged , | 2 Comments

UPDATE: Nova Scotia signs up to buy power from Tantramar gas plant

Posted on February 3, 2026 by brucewark

PCIC’s Barry Rothfuss interviewed by CBC reporter Erica Butler

This article was updated on February 4, 2026 to include NB Power’s responses to a series of questions. (See below)

Members of the Protect the Chignecto Isthmus Coalition (PCIC) are reacting with anger and disbelief after NB Power filed new documents yesterday outlining significant changes to its plans for a 500 MW gas/diesel plant near Centre Village.

“They’re throwing a wrench into the whole process,” says PCIC co-founder Barry Rothfuss.

He was referring to Energy & Utilities Board (EUB) hearings on the gas plant project that were set to begin next week.

“They have not been transparent in any of this,” Rothfuss says, adding that NB Power argued it needed EUB approval for the project by April 2nd or the American company PROENERGY and its subsidiary WattBridge would cancel the contract to supply, install and operate 8-10 gas turbines for 25 years.

NB Power’s newly filed documents reveal that its board of directors approved a new June 2nd deadline in mid-December. And three months before that, the board authorized management to enter into an agreement to sell 100 MW of electricity from the gas plant to Nova Scotia.

“I always had the feeling this artificial deadline of April 2nd was nonsense,” Rothfuss says.

He adds that he suspects NB Power filed the documents showing the sale of power to Nova Scotia as a way of persuading the EUB that the gas plant makes financial sense.

“These are the games that they’re playing with the numbers,” he says. “I think they realized their numbers didn’t add up.”

NS deal

The heavily redacted or blacked out documents appear to outline amendments to the contract with the U.S. company PROENERGY/WattBridge for the building, installation and operation of  10 gas turbines — eight to supply 400 MW to NB Power and now, two more to produce 100 MW for Nova Scotia’s Independent Energy System Operator (IESO).

The non-profit IESO announced yesterday it had signed a “term sheet” that would give Nova Scotia an option to buy 100 MW from the Centre Village gas plant for a 10-year term once a final agreement is reached.

Meantime, the EUB has now removed the new NB Power documents from its website because they were filed after the deadline to submit evidence.

It will now be up to NB Power to file a motion by noon on Thursday asking the EUB for permission to file its additional evidence.

If it does that, the EUB will hold a hearing on Friday morning that would allow interveners to comment. If the EUB does allow the utility to file additional evidence, next week’s hearings could be delayed to give other parties, such as the public intervener, the Conservation Council of New Brunswick and the Protect the Chignecto Isthmus Coalition, time to prepare their responses.

NB Power responds

Warktimes e-mailed a series of questions to NB Power on February 3rd. NB Power responded on February 4th. Questions are in bold type with NB Power’s answers in italics:

1. Why is NB Power filing these documents less than a week before EUB hearings were set to begin on February 9th?

The Renewables Integration and Grid Security (RIGS) Project was always a 500 MW project, and the Environmental Impact Assessment (EIA) identified it as such. In documents supplied to the New Brunswick Energy and Utilities Board (NBEUB) in October we indicated a partnership opportunity with a third party was being pursued, and we only recently reached an agreement with IESO Nova Scotia.

2.  How does NB Power respond to the Protect the Chignecto Isthmus Coalition (PCIC), which is an intervener in the EUB hearings, when it calls this “a non-transparent, last-minute attempt to keep the proposed RIGS gas plant approval afloat — at the expense of fairness, due process, and public accountability?”

The hearing is an important part of the independent regulatory process, and next week we will be answering questions from interested parties. NB Power will continue to respect the regulatory process, and the New Brunswick Energy and Utilities Board’s (NBEUB) commitment to ensuring a fair process is followed to determine the rates New Brunswickers pay for power. 

We welcome the opportunity to explain the business case to support the development of this essential project in an open and transparent forum. These agreements do not change the 500 MW project that was filed with the NBEUB.

3. How does NB Power respond to PCIC’s claim that the NB Power filing came after the EUB processes were complete rather than being disclosed openly and in a timely manner?

The Renewables Integration and Grid Security (RIGS) Project was always a 500 MW project, and the Environmental Impact Assessment (EIA) identified it as such. In documents supplied to the New Brunswick Energy and Utilities Board in October we indicated a partnership opportunity with a third party, and we recently reached an agreement with IESO Nova Scotia.

4. How does NB Power respond to the PCIC’s contention that interveners have now been confronted with documents that fundamentally alter the RIGS project and that NB Power rushed the hearing process with an April 2nd deadline only to now reveal that it knew in December that its has secured an extension of its contract with PROENERGY until June 2nd.

This matter will be discussed next week during the New Brunswick Energy and Utilities Board hearings.  

5. How does NB Power respond to the following statement from PCIC: “Interveners argue that this pattern reflects a troubling lack of transparency and respect for the regulatory process — one in which key deals are negotiated behind closed doors and revealed only when earlier assumptions and evidence are increasingly called into question?”

(In effect, PCIC is saying that the numbers weren’t working for the tolling agreement involving 400 MWs and now, at the last minute, NB Power seeks to sway the EUB with amended figures involving the sale of an extra 100 MWs to make the RIGS project more financially viable.)

The Renewables Integration and Grid Security (RIGS) Project was always a 500 MW project, and the Environmental Impact Assessment (EIA) identified it as such. In documents supplied to the New Brunswick Energy and Utilities Board (NBEUB) in October we indicated a partnership opportunity with a third party was being pursued, and we recently reached an agreement with IESO Nova Scotia and provided updated documents to the NBEUB to be transparent. NB Power respects the regulatory process and timelines, and the NBEUB’s commitment to ensuring a fair process is followed to determine the rates New Brunswickers pay for power. 

To read NB Power’s summary of its additional evidence, click here.

To read a news release from the Protect the Chignecto Isthmus Coalition, click here.

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

Serious health concerns, lack of consultation: AWI founder slams NB Power’s proposed Isthmus gas plant

Posted on January 31, 2026 by brucewark

Barry Rothfuss of AWI and the Protect the Chignecto Isthmus Coalition (PCIC)

Barry Rothfuss fought back tears during an interview at the Atlantic Wildlife Institute (AWI) on Friday.

“I’m sorry, it shouldn’t be this hard. I was awake in the night trying to decide whether to tell you this,” he said as he struggled with his emotions.

Rothfuss is executive director of AWI and co-founder of the Protect the Chignecto Isthmus Coalition (PCIC) that is fighting against NB Power’s plans for a 500 MW gas/diesel generating plant near Centre Village.

“I was born with a heart defect, a bicuspid aortic valve,” he says and, after another long pause, he describes how, in 2013, he was hired to investigate the deaths of  7,500 migratory songbirds that flew into a burning gas flare at the Canaport LNG facility in Saint John.

He was there because AWI is the only organization in Atlantic Canada certified to deal with threats to wildlife and to suggest ways of mitigating damage when it occurs.

“I was responding to an event where I was trying to do good,” he says, adding that during his investigation he was exposed to particulate matter from the burning gas.

“My heart was susceptible to that pollutant,” he says. “It had a direct impact on the functioning of my heart. I now have to live with heart failure.”

Rothfuss takes several prescription drugs to keep him alive.

“Now, I’m having a gas plant brought to my backyard,” he says. “It’s not just me. It’s anybody out there who has similar types of health conditions, and particularly elderly people.”

He says if the gas plant is built only 4.5 kilometres from AWI, he will have to shut the place down.

“Again, the issue isn’t just me,” he says. “There are tens of thousands of people who have been exposed to similar types of plants around the world and who are dying from this type of technology being thrust upon them without their ability to discuss it.”

Lack of public consultation

Signs at the site where contractors have removed trees & constructed a road

Rothfuss accuses NB Power and the U.S. company PROENERGY of deliberately bypassing regulations that require public and Indigenous consultation early in the planning stages before a project is designed and before a draft Environmental Impact Statement (EIA) is produced.

“All of their internal documents were advising them to consult the community and they ignored it,” he says, adding that the announcement of the gas/diesel plant on July 14th came as a complete surprise to the people in Centre Village, Cookville and Midgic.

“Contracts had already been signed and we had no input,” he says.

“We were left in the dark. We were lied to and, again, literally lied to, at least as far as Indigenous involvement was concerned,” he adds.

He says that the government issued permits enabling PROENERGY to build a road to the site.

“Permits to go in and clear trees before any of this was discussed, to destroy habitat before any of our concerns were addressed,” he says.

Rothfuss points out that neither NB Power nor PROENERGY  have used the words “Chignecto Isthmus” in their public communications.

“They won’t define this as a critical, environmentally sensitive zone within not only New Brunswick, but within the country,” he says.

“Not defined by me, but defined by a multitude of professional scientists and environmentalists and governments that have defined the importance of this particular location as being one of the most ecologically sensitive in the country. And yet we ignore that through this whole process.”

Scare tactics

Sears Sanctuary sign at wilderness property that Sackville journalist Wallie Sears & his family donated to AWI. The 160-acre property is 1.5 km from proposed gas plant site

Rothfuss also accuses NB Power of using scare tactics by warning that New Brunswickers will face power blackouts if the Centre Village plant isn’t built by 2028 and then of trying to escape regulatory scrutiny by the Energy and Utilities Board.

When that failed, he says, NB Power warned that PROENERGY would cancel the contract to build the plant if the EUB doesn’t approve it by April 1st.

“Everybody’s running around on their side of the table like Chicken Little saying that this is going to be the end of the world basically with this grid failure,” Rothfuss says “and yet we’ve never had the ability to sit down at the table at the appropriate times to discuss any alternatives to this project.

“We’ve been forced into an answer that we don’t find is in our community’s best interest, in New Brunswick’s best interest, and we’re told that we just have to swallow it and sit back and accept it,” he says, adding that as a publicly owned crown corporation, NB Power should be willing to address public concerns.

“The politics here is not giving us a fair shot to express our concerns and protect our interests,” he says.

NB Power responds

On Thursday, Warktimes e-mailed NB Power a series of questions based on the main points that Barry Rothfuss had raised in a preliminary telephone interview. NB Power responded with these answers (in italics) the next day referring to the proposed gas/diesel plant as the Renewables Integration Grid Security (RIGS) Project:

Question 1(a) The Protect the Chignecto Isthmus Coalition argue the proposed project is an example of “regulatory bypass” because everything from site selection on was done without proper community input. The PCIC says that site selection itself should have been part of an Environmental Impact Assessment process in which the affected community had an opportunity for input. Instead, the site selection process was already complete when NB Power announced the project on July 14.

NB Power’s response: NB Power takes its regulatory obligations seriously and follows the established provincial processes for all major infrastructure projects. Under New Brunswick’s legislation, the Environmental Impact Assessment (EIA) evaluates a proposed project after a preferred site has been identified. This is standard practice for large energy and industrial projects across the province. The purpose of the EIA is to assess environmental impacts, gather public input, and ensure appropriate mitigation measures are in place, not to determine which site should be chosen.

We value openness and transparency, and we understand the importance of involving and engaging the community. We will continue to address concerns and answer questions from community members throughout the EIA process. 

1(b) NB Power asked the EUB whether this qualified as a capital project and that delayed the EUB hearing on it and thereby jeopardized the contract with PROENERGY because of the April 1st deadline. The PCIC says this has created a situation where the regulator knows it has a deadline while NB Power continues to argue that unless this project is in operation by 2028, New Brunswickers could face the prospect of a utility that runs out of power with ensuing rolling blackouts. The PCIC says this is an example of creating a crisis atmosphere in order to push the project through without any attempt to gain “social license” for it first.

NB Power followed the required regulatory steps for the Renewables Integration Grid Security (RIGS) Project, including asking the New Brunswick Energy and Utilities Board (NBEUB) to confirm whether RIGS qualified as a capital project under the Electricity Act. This step was taken to ensure full compliance. The timelines for the NBEUB review were factored into the original project schedule.

The province faces a significant electricity shortfall beginning in 2028, and RIGS is designed to ensure New Brunswickers have the firm capacity required to avoid reliability risks while we add more renewables to our grid. It is important to us at NB Power to be transparent about the energy security challenges the province is facing.

2. The PCIC says that as a Crown Corporation, NB Power has a duty to take the interests of all ratepayers into consideration including community members most affected by the gas plant. They accuse NB Power of practising “bad politics” by placing industrial interests ahead of community interests.

As a Crown corporation, NB Power’s responsibility is to act in the best interests of all New Brunswickers. That means balancing affordability, environmental considerations, and reliability across the entire province, prioritizing all customer groups equally. The RIGS project was proposed because New Brunswick faces a province‑wide electricity shortfall beginning in 2028, and new firm capacity is essential to keep homes and businesses powered.

Our mandate is to ensure safe, reliable electricity for everyone, today and into the future, and to do so through open and accountable regulatory processes and being transparent about our needs and risks.

3. The PCIC says NB Power has not been honest in its claims of Indigenous support for the project.

We are committed to a respectful and transparent relationship with Indigenous communities and recognize the importance of meaningful engagement. As PROENERGY is the proponent for this project, specific questions regarding their Indigenous engagement and support should be directed to them.

4. Finally, the PCIC says NB Power never uses the term “Chignecto Isthmus” and this fudges the issue of environmental effects in an internationally recognized fragile eco-system.

NB Power understands and acknowledges the environmental importance of the Chignecto Isthmus, and the environmental characteristics of the Project will be fully assessed through the Environmental Impact Assessment (EIA) process.

Posted in NB Power, Town of Tantramar | Tagged | 8 Comments