Sackville asked for financial contribution to care for the dying in southeast NB

Posted on October 8, 2019 by brucewark

Tammy Rampersaud

The Town of Sackville has been asked to contribute $9,700 to help build a hospice in Moncton. The 10-bed, bilingual facility would serve about 120 people each year who are dying in southeastern New Brunswick.

The request for the donation came during Monday’s town council meeting from Tammy Rampersaud, the deputy mayor of Riverview who is helping raise money from municipalities in Westmorland, Albert and Kent counties on behalf of the registered charitable organization, Hospice Southeast New Brunswick (Hospice SENB).

“It’s all based on population,” Rampersaud told council. “So, the ask to Sackville is $9,700,” she said. “If you were so generous and willing to grant that money to the campaign, it could be done in one year, two years, all the way up to five years.”

She explained that although the two hospitals in Moncton have 13 beds for palliative care to serve dying patients, there is no hospice in southeastern New Brunswick dedicated solely for that purpose.

“Everybody wants to die with dignity, in privacy, and [with] some compassion,” Rampersaud said. “I’m not saying you don’t get that in the hospital, but it surely is a different experience in a hospital,” she added.

A note on the Hospice SENB website refers to surveys showing that 75% of Canadians would prefer to die at home or in a hospice rather than in hospital.

“In 2017, The Moncton Hospital reported that 10% of its palliative patients died at home, while the remaining 90% died in hospital,” the website says. “That is a much higher rate than the national average of 70%.”

Rampersaud cited figures, that also appear on the website, showing that hospice care is much cheaper than hospital care for the dying.

Hospice would serve children

Rampersaud said that one of the 10 beds would be set aside as a pediatric room, the only one in Atlantic Canada.

“I, being a Mom, really, really, appreciate that,” she added.

She said the Lions Club donated the land for the hospice while the federal and provincial governments have each contributed $1 million toward the $5 million cost of the building.

Aside from soliciting contributions from municipalities, Hospice SENB is also encouraging donations from private individuals.

“They are going to break ground in the spring and [are] hoping to have the building built before the end of the year next year,” Rampersaud concluded.

For more information on the Hospice SENB capital campaign, click here.

Local group ‘100% behind’ hospice campaign

Meantime, the Chair of the Tantramar Hospice Palliative Care Organization (THPCO) says the group enthusiastically supports the campaign to build a hospice in Moncton.

Stephen Claxton-Oldfield says a $9,700 contribution from the town of Sackville would be a good investment.

“A residential hospice in Moncton would serve the folks in the Tantramar region,” he says. “Our local group is 100 per cent behind Hospice Southeast New Brunswick in terms of getting this residential hospice built.”

Claxton-Oldfield, who is a professor of psychology at Mount Allison, says THPCO is an advocacy group that aims to raise public awareness about end-of-life care.

“We’re not looking to build a hospice in Sackville and we’re not raising money for that,” he adds. “We’re more about promoting end-of-life care services and resources.”

THPCO ‘wall’ last May at Sackville Farmers Market (click to enlarge)

THPCO holds events to raise public awareness, such as one last May to mark National Hospice Palliative Care Week.

Visitors to the Sackville Farmers Market were given an opportunity to pick up a piece of chalk and complete the sentence, “Before I die, I want to…”

“The idea behind the wall is to get people to reflect on death and life and share their hopes, dreams, and wishes in a public space,” Claxton-Oldfield is quoted as saying on the THPCO website.

“Doing so can help bring clarity to the things that are most important in people’s lives. By market’s end, the wall was completely full of people’s aspirations!”

Posted in Health care, Town of Sackville | Tagged , , , | 5 Comments

Beauséjour NDP candidate Jean-Marc Bélanger says Canadians need change and social justice

Posted on October 1, 2019 by brucewark

Federal NDP candidate Jean-Marc Bélanger outside the Vogue Cinema on Bridge St.

Jean-Marc Bélanger, the New Democratic Party candidate in Beauséjour, says his work as a professor of social work motivated him to run in the October 21st federal election.

During an interview last week, Bélanger said that his teaching helped him identify how social policies, such as the drastic cuts that former Ontario Premier Mike Harris made to welfare in 1995, directly affected the clients that social workers serve.

Bélanger added that, as a result, he always tried to get his students interested in politics.

“In trying to motivate students that way, it also dawned on me during this federal campaign to say ‘well, maybe I have the opportunity now for the first time in my life to present myself as a candidate,” he said. “We need a change. We have to make choices towards that change and this was my choice, now is the time to be active, to do it and to come into politics.”

NDP principles and values

Bélanger said he chose to run for the NDP because he agrees with the principles and values in its party platform.

“I’m talking about social justice,” he added. “I’m talking about acceptance of everybody, diversity, equality, equity. All of these basic principles that put us into trying to work towards a society that’s helping each other as opposed to competing against each other for who’s going to have a larger piece of the cake,” he said.

Title page of NDP platform

“These values are also very much in line with the social work profession and a lot of other helping professions as well,” he said. “They’re values that our community needs to cherish and develop.”

Bélanger points, for example, to sections of the NDP platform entitled “Taking better care of each other” and “Making life more affordable for everyday people.”

Among other things, they promise to extend drug and dental coverage to everyone; remove barriers for people living with disabilities; improve mental health and addictions services; end homelessness within a decade, partly by investing in more social housing; launch a pilot project for a basic income to end poverty; develop a universal childcare program; strengthen public pensions; raise employment insurance benefits and ensure that more workers qualify for EI; and, develop a free post-secondary education system.

To read these sections of the NDP platform, click here and here.

NDP and the Greens

When asked how the NDP differs from the Green Party, Bélanger acknowledges the similarities in their positions on fighting climate change and protecting air, land and water, but maintains that the NDP platform is just as strong on the environment as the Green one is.

Bélanger also points to the NDP’s historic partnership with organized labour as a basic difference.

“The labour movement has been at the root of NDP platforms and programs since the beginning,” he says referring to the party’s founding in 1961 in partnership with the Canadian Labour Congress.

“Usually, who do you see on the picket lines with workers on strike or lockout?” he asks. “It’s mostly NDP members and supporters who are there.”

Bélanger refers to three recent controversies that he argues also show differences between the two parties.

National unity

“The Greens don’t have a clear position on national unity,” he says in an apparent reference to a CBC report that Green candidate and former NDP member of Parliament Pierre Nantel declared in a radio interview that he favours independence for Quebec as soon as possible.

In August, the NDP expelled Nantel from its caucus after learning he was planning to join the Greens.

According to the CBC, a Green party statement said that the party does not exclude candidates who support Quebec sovereignty and Green leader Elizabeth May claimed later there’s a difference between a sovereignist and a separatist.

Abortion

Bélanger says the Greens don’t have a clear position on a woman’s right to choose a legal and safe abortion after Elizabeth May told the CBC that even though she is personally pro-choice, her party would not prevent Green MPs from trying to reopen the abortion debate.

The CBC reported that within hours, the Greens issued a statement saying there is “zero chance” that a Green MP would reopen this issue.

Conservative minority

Bélanger also refers to Elizabeth May’s statement last July that she would support a minority Conservative government if it were willing to take serious action on climate change.

“So that raises doubts about the sincerity of their social platform,” he says, adding that the NDP is serious about its commitment to work on behalf of ordinary people.

“The NDP is not trying to finish in third place,” he says. “We’re battling to form the next government.”

For a CBC analysis of the various positions taken by the NDP and the Greens over supporting a minority government, click here.

Personal background

NDP candidate Jean-Marc Bélanger

Bélanger, who lives in Grande-Digue, has taught social work at several universities including Université de Moncton, Wilfrid Laurier, Laurentian and Algoma where he is currently on leave during a non-teaching term.

He also served in the 1970s as a social worker in Campbellton and in the 1980s in the mental health unit of the Georges Dumont Hospital in Moncton.

From 2011-2015, he was co-ordinator of the Francophone Health Network of Newfoundland and Labrador.

Since the mid-1990s, Bélanger has conducted extensive research in connection with an Ontario prevention program designed to help improve outcomes for children in poor neighbourhoods. He has published a wide range of academic studies on child development and social problems such as homelessness and poverty.

He says he’s running in Beauséjour as a candidate for social democracy.

“The social democracy idea,” he adds, “is to work with people, to work together so that we can move as a society in such a way that our aspirations for ourselves and for our children can be met.”

To read Jean-Marc Bélanger’s candidate biography, click here.

To read the full NDP platform, click here.

Posted in Federal Election | 1 Comment

Beauséjour People’s Party candidate Nancy Mercier running against UN agendas that she says threaten Canada

Posted on September 29, 2019 by brucewark

People’s Party candidate Nancy Mercier campaigning at Sackville Fall Fair last Sunday

Nancy Mercier, the People’s Party candidate in the federal riding of Beauséjour, acknowledges that her party isn’t the same as the others and that its “common sense” platform is very controversial.

“We are a very different party and we are doing things very differently,” Mercier said during a telephone interview last Monday. “We’re controversial only because every other party is following the UN’s agenda and we are going against it.”

When asked what she meant by the UN’s agenda, she said that certain agreements ratified by the United Nations open the way for a new global political order in which Canada would not only lose its sovereignty, but also face the threat of domination by radical Islam.

“In terms of globalism, we’re looking at a one-world government, a one-world state in that sense, a one-world army and we would no longer be sovereign,” she said, adding that Canadians would also lose their democracy.

Agenda 2030

Mercier referred specifically to the United Nations 2030 agenda for sustainable development. It was adopted by all 193 UN members in 2015 and outlines 17 goals that include ending poverty and hunger, protecting the environment and fostering peace.

In a news release last June, the federal government said it had committed $59.8 million over 13 years ($4.6 million annually) to work towards implementing the 17 goals and was setting up a website to foster public engagement in what it called a 2030 Agenda National Strategy.

“For now, we’re trying to fill agendas that have been put together by the United Nations,” Mercier says.

Nancy Mercier with People’s Party leader Maxime Bernier

She adds she’s planning to produce her own videos letting people know what the UN is doing and “to demonstrate what this agenda really is and the dangers that we think it is.”

To read the People’s Party platform plank on a foreign policy that does not follow what it calls the UN’s “corrosive globalist agenda,” click here.

Mercier says she’s also concerned about maintaining Canada’s identity and preserving Canadian values, all of which she says are undermined by official policies of multiculturalism.

She explains that Canada was founded as a Western society by the British, French and the native peoples who were already here.

“What Canada has been founded upon, that has been our country up until very recently,” she says. “We want to keep things the way that they were.”

She explains that means everyone should identify as Canadian first and adopt the Canadian values of individual rights and equality.

“We’ve got a diversity of people living here from Asia already. We have many Muslims that are here already and have been here for a very long time. We have people from all over the world that have been here for a very long time and yet we’ve all very well integrated together. We all like this idea of a polite society that Canada is known for. We’re very giving, we’re very open,” Mercier says. “We want to maintain those things,” she adds.

“Currently we have a lot of the political, radical Islamists that are coming into the country. They’re starting some of their own political parties,” she says. “Where we keep state and religion separate, they rule under religion only. They want to bring that system here,” she adds. “It’s a very, very dangerous ideology…It’ll make communism and fascism, as far as I’m concerned, look like a day at the park so to speak, compared to what Sharia Law really is.”

To read the People’s Party platform plank on Canadian identity and preserving Canadian values and culture, click here.

Migrants and refugees

Mercier also refers to the Global Compact for Migration (GCM) that the UN General Assembly endorsed in 2018. A federal background document says Canada played an active role in developing it.

Mercier says the GCM opens our borders to migrants and refugees, especially from countries in the Middle East.

Nancy Mercier’s PPC candidate photo

“When you look at the total number, they’re saying ‘look, you’ll take in as many as we tell you to take in,'” she says.

“We don’t agree with that and we think that’s very dangerous because nobody’s being looked at, nobody’s being vetted, they’re just basically saying ‘bring them in,'” she adds.

“I think there’s a real danger there because of all the wars that have been going on with all the different Islamists which are the terrorist networks of Jihadis,” Mercier adds, “such as the Muslim Brotherhood, Boko Haram and Hamas,” she says.

“There’s so many of them. I can’t remember them all off the top of my head, but suffice to say that they’re terrorist networks and how do we know the regular folk that do need the help, that really are the refugees, from the ones that are the terrorists if we’re not doing any sort of vetting?” she asks.

To read the People’s Party platform plank on refugees, click here.

Climate change

Mercier acknowledges that the People’s Party position on climate change also differs sharply from the other parties fielding candidates in Beauséjour.

“Again, all the other parties are following UN agendas, the Paris Accord or the climate change talking points that is also part of the UN agenda.”

Mercier is touring the riding in her PPC campaign motor home

Mercier says that while her party recognizes the importance of solving environmental problems such as cleaning up water pollution, it does not believe in “alarmist” claims that greenhouse gas emissions are causing catastrophic climate change.

“They’re basically telling our children that we’ve got less than 12 years to live, the whole world is coming apart,” she says. “I see that in terms of removing hope from people,” she adds.

“Every storm there is, whether it’s raining or snowing or blowing or whatever the case may be, oh my goodness, you know, it’s the end of the world, and we see that as alarmism,” she says.

“We absolutely do not believe and never would impose a tax on anyone to pay to change the climate,” she adds. “We think that’s absolutely silly.”

To read the People’s Party platform plank on global warming and environment, click here.

Personal background

Among other things, Mercier’s candidate biography describes her an an Interfaith Pastor/Minister and Naturopath who runs her own charitable, religious and educational organization.

Mercier herself explains that she sustained a spinal cord injury in a car accident 25 years ago that left her paralyzed.

Pastor Nancy Mercier in a photo from her Interfaith website

“I’m a quadriplegic from that and I worked for pharmaceutical companies at the time and so was well aware of the many side effects of the medications,” she says, adding that she was lucky to have the same team of doctors that were treating actor Christopher Reeve at Case Western University in Cleveland.

“I was only 23 years old at the time and the doctors said ‘look, at this age, if you want to have a nice, long, healthy life, stay away from as many medications as you can.'”

Mercier says that as a result, she began spiritual and physical studies eventually becoming certified, registered and licensed in the holistic spiritual arts. She now practises as an Interfaith Minister and Naturopath.

“In the past five years,” she says, “probably about 80 per cent of what I do is spending time in palliative care. I assist people who are passing over especially if they have no loved ones and are alone.”

Mercier says her interest in politics began as she faced obstacle after obstacle in getting building permits for a hospice care centre in Shediac as well as improvements for caregiver quarters in her home. Blocked at every turn by regulations and bureaucracy, she got interested in political change and especially the Conservative leadership race which Maxime Bernier lost narrowly to Andrew Scheer in 2017.

When Bernier established the People’s Party of Canada, Mercier says she became a founding member and then, when no one came forward as a candidate in Beauséjour, she decided she would run against the United Nations inspired agendas of the other parties.

“It means so much to me that we have true change in this country,” she says.

To read Nancy Mercier’s People’s Party biography, click here.

To read the entire People’s Party of Canada platform, click here.

Posted in Federal Election | Tagged , , | 2 Comments

Hundreds rally in Sackville demanding government action on climate change

Posted on September 27, 2019 by brucewark

Hundreds of climate strikers rally at Mt. A. before marching downtown to Bill Johnstone park

The academic quadrangle at Mount Allison University rang with chants today as hundreds of mainly young voices rose in unison: “What do we want? Climate justice! When do we want it? Now!”

As striking students waved placards with messages such as “If we love our planet, why are we wrecking it?” and “I want you to panic,” the voices rose again, chanting: “Water is life, Water is sacred, Stop the pipeline, Stop the hatred.”

The climate strikers then marched down York Street on their way to Bill Johnstone Memorial Park.

Climate strikers on York St. led in this photo by 10-year-old Eamonn Scott waving various signs including, “There Is No Planet B” and “End Capitalism” (click to enlarge)

Today’s march and rallies were organized by the Sackville Youth Climate Crisis Coalition (SYCCC) whose members include students from the town’s middle and high schools as well as its university. The Sackville climate strikers were joining millions of others from across Canada and around the world in a global protest.

Climate strikers listen to SYCCC demands on all three levels of government

After the strikers reached the park, Tess Cameron, a student at Tantramar Regional High School, read a series of Coalition demands that included federal legislation imposing a 65% cut in greenhouse gas emissions by 2030, reaching zero emissions by 2040; government rejection of all new fossil fuel extraction or transportation projects and the elimination of subsidies to fossil fuel companies.

TRHS student Tess Cameron reads SYCCC demands on all levels of government

The Coalition called on the New Brunswick government to stop resisting the federal carbon tax; to maintain a moratorium on fracking and to prevent resource industries from exploiting land and people for their own profit.

Finally, it reminded Town Council of its commitment to review its 10-year Sustainable Sackville plan and called for “clear and consistent communication” between the newly implemented municipal roundtable on climate change and the citizens of Sackville.

To read the entire list of demands from the Sackville Youth Climate Crisis Coalition, click here.

Roots of climate change

Climate strikers also heard from a series of speakers including Helen Yao, a second year Mt. A. student who spoke for Zero Hour, which she described as a youth-led global climate justice movement.

Mt. A. student Helen Yao spoke for the Zero Hour movement.

“We must address the real roots of climate change,” Yao said. “I am talking about patriarchy, racism, colonialism, capitalism and all the ways we have chosen to systematically exploit the land and the people.”

She listed a series of things that she said were not sustainable including waging overseas wars for resources and building economic systems that turn natural resources into commodities and that put private profit ahead of human wellbeing.

“Ignoring the part fossil fuel companies play in our political systems and our education systems is not sustainable,” Yao added.

Indigenous water protectors

The rally also heard from Rowan White, a first-year Mt. A. student who described herself as an indigenous water protector.

“We talk a lot about Greta Thunberg, but how many of you are aware of all of the indigenous water protectors serving around Canada and even speaking to the U.N.?” White asked.

Mt. A. student and indigenous water protector Rowan White addresses today’s rally

“If we’re going to take any sort of action to fix the climate, we need to start with the protectors of the land,” she said, adding that the federal government loves to talk about such things as reconciliation with indigenous peoples, while also building an oil pipeline through their sacred lands.

“I want to speak to Mt. A. specifically,” White continued. “Mt. A. loves to say it’s a liberal college that we value and include everyone,” she said, adding that the university’s routine acknowledgement that it occupies indigenous land means nothing without direct action.

“Anyone can say that they support their indigenous students, but putting all of your money into fossil fuels doesn’t match your words,” she said in an apparent reference to Divest MTA’s demand that the university drop its investments in the top 200 publicly traded fossil fuel companies over the next four years.

“I challenge all of you to look up indigenous issues where you are and all over your country,” White told the rally, “because it’s your voices that will help ours to save our climate.”

Placard placed today beside the gazebo in Bill Johnstone park

Posted in Environment, Mount Allison University, Town of Sackville | Tagged , , , , , , | 6 Comments

Local candidates on helping students, climate change and — their favourite pizza toppings

Posted on September 26, 2019 by brucewark

L-R: Conservative Vincent Cormier, Green Laura Reinsborough, NDP Jean-Marc Bélanger at Mt. A. all-candidates forum

Three of the five people running in Beauséjour appeared Wednesday evening at the federal riding’s first all-candidates forum, held at Mount Allison University.

Liberal Dominic LeBlanc, who is recovering from surgery in a Montreal hospital, and People’s Party candidate Nancy Mercier missed the forum, which was organized by the students’ union and attended by about 200 people.

Conservative Vincent Cormier positioned himself as someone who believes in the values of hard work, thrift and persistence; the Green Party’s Laura Reinsborough identified the climate crisis as the campaign’s key issue; and New Democrat Jean-Marc Bélanger emphasized the importance of being an advocate for the oppressed and vulnerable.

Conservative Vincent Cormier

In his opening statement, Cormier appealed directly to many in his audience.

“As a student, I know your pains and your struggles,” he said. “I had to quit university because I didn’t have the money,” he added, “but I came back and I graduated at the age of 29, two kids, full-time job.”

Vincent Cormier

On the issue of support for students, Cormier said later that he favours interest-free loans and rebates for graduates who stay in the province rather than the free tuition advocated by his opponents.

“Everything that is given for free is not respected,” Cormier said, adding that he values the things in his life most that he worked hard for and earned on his own.

Cormier closed with a traditional Conservative warning about growing government debt and said that while issues such as fighting climate change, supporting students and improving health care are all important, the government should not be borrowing more money to finance them.

“To borrow money to address our current needs is not only immoral, it is totally irresponsible and it is stealing from the future generations,” he said with an added warning that the country can’t afford the promises in the other parties’ platforms.

Green Laura Reinsborough

In her opening statement, Reinsborough said she was born and grew up in Sackville and, after spending a relatively short time in Toronto, she has chosen to raise her family here.

“So this election, the single biggest issue has been and will be the climate crisis,” she said. “That is the core of why I have chosen to step up and make a change at the federal level.”

Reinsborough repeated the Green promise of free tuition for post-secondary students and relief of existing, federal student debt.

Laura Reinsborough

“We firmly believe that a public that is informed, that is skilled, that is well educated is something that benefits us all,” she said, adding that colleges and universities are important institutions for building a strong, green-economy workforce.

“We know that even in an incredible institution like Mount Allison University, it is difficult to actually fill up the number of spots available,” Reinsborough said. “There are not enough people being able to access education and we know there are ways that we can put solutions in place so that is not a barrier.”

Reinsborough ended by saying that Beauséjour “can go Green” especially since the riding already has two Green members in the provincial legislature. “We need to send Green MPs to Ottawa this election in order to avert the worst of the climate crisis and in order to build that green future that we know is possible,” she concluded.

New Democrat Jean-Marc Bélanger

The NDP’s Bélanger told the forum that during his career first as a social worker and then as a professor of social work, he met many people, including students, who want things to be better for Canadians and that’s why he’s entering politics now.

“After a lot of thinking and reflection, I felt that the opportunity was here to advocate for the most oppressed, underprivileged and vulnerable people of our society,” he said.

Jean-Marc Bélanger

Bélanger said the NDP believes the government needs to invest in people, later pointing to the party’s promise to implement a universal prescription drug plan as well as national dental coverage partly financed by higher taxes on corporations and the rich.

He said an NDP government would eliminate interest payments on student loans, for an average saving of about $4,000 per student. He added that the NDP would start working toward establishing a post-secondary education system with no tuition fees.

“So that our children and young adults can go from kindergarten to a university career without having to get into the workforce already in debt,” he said.

“Our youth are facing incredible challenges in their generation,” Bélanger said. “Climate change is very scary.” He added that as young people press governments for action on climate change, it’s important for politicians to listen.

Pizza anyone?

One of the most interesting exchanges of the night happened after Mt. A. politics professor Mario Levesque, who was serving as moderator, asked the candidates: “What’s your favourite pizza topping?”

“Green peppers,” said Laura Reinsborough as the audience laughed. “I love that question because it brings me back to growing food in my Dad’s garden here in Sackville in our backyard.”

Mt. A. politics professor Mario Levesque

Reinsborough went on to talk about how growing their own food is a strength in rural communities where people are connected to the land. She went on to mention that she works for Food For All NB, a provincially funded organization that helps make sure people have enough to eat.

“So many people do not have access to food on a regular basis,” she said. “Food is an entry point into those bigger conversations about health, environment, economy, and the irony of it all is that we have enough food to feed everybody,” she added. “What are those barriers that are actually preventing that?”

Jean-Marc Bélanger also drew laughter when he ducked the pizza topping question saying it gave him a chance to talk about “our social safety net.”

The NDP candidate referred to the growth of food banks starting in the early 1980s and he questioned why an affluent country like Canada needs them. “Why are people struggling?” he asked. “Why can’t we have better access to good quality food?”

Bélanger said it’s “totally inappropriate” that people can’t always get healthy food. “Food banks are not enough, our social security system should be really revamped,” he said.

For his part, Vincent Cormier replied that his favourite topping is pineapple.

The Conservative candidate said the question gave the candidates a chance to relax and be themselves.

“Look around you here tonight,” he told the audience. “We’re in this together whether we want to admit it or not,” he said.

“We need to help ourselves; we need to share,” he added, before telling the story of how people in his small community of Saint-Paul worked together to build a hockey rink.

“And that’s what we can do in Beauséjour if we all work together and if we all respect that we have different needs.”

As for his love of pineapples on pizza, Cormier said: “Don’t ask me why. They just taste good, and they also make a nice mix for a drink.”

Posted in Federal Election | Tagged , , | 1 Comment

Beauséjour Conservative candidate Vincent Cormier on economy, immigration & climate change

Posted on September 25, 2019 by brucewark

Conservative candidate Vincent Cormier at Sackville Fall Fair on Saturday

Vincent Cormier, the Conservative Party candidate in Beauséjour, says the riding needs to send someone to Ottawa who will listen to what people are saying and then, defend their interests.

“If we go by the surveys that are out there now, the economy is clearly number one,” Cormier said during an interview Saturday at the Sackville Fall Fair.

“We have young graduates, good, young, smart kids that try to start in life, but due to the high level of taxes that they pay, due to student debt, due to the fact that our economy is not that strong and there’s not necessarily year-round employment, they head elsewhere,” he said, adding that his own son is now living in Calgary.

The Conservative candidate said it will take time to reverse things, but there are steps that could be taken.

“We have to reduce the amount of taxes we’re paying, we have to quit spending money,” Cormier said.  He added that the government needs to concentrate on making Beauséjour an attractive area for business investment so that new employers could provide good-paying jobs.

He also said that while he understands the need for New Brunswick to attract immigrants to fill labour shortages, there should be a proper balance.

“Why do we have so many people on unemployment and we’re bringing immigrants in?” Cormier asked, adding that we need to start talking about how to strike what he called “a happy medium” between creating employment for local people while encouraging more immigrants to settle here.

Carbon tax, no solution for climate change

Title page of the Conservative climate change plan that stresses green technology, not taxes. To read the plan, click here.

When asked about efforts to fight climate change, Cormier said he recognizes it’s an important issue.

“We all have to do our share,” he added. “Each voter is responsible for that.”

But he strongly disagrees with the carbon tax that the federal Liberals brought in.

“If we look at the fact that Canada’s total carbon emissions on the planet are 1.8%, I think it would be a more practical approach to penalize the countries that are contributing the most to this carbon emission total,” he said, mentioning that the top three emitters are China, India and the United States.

“Why penalize average Canadians that are trying to put food on their table for something that we don’t carry the big bulk of the responsibility [for]?” Cormier asked.

“I’m not saying we need to walk away from it [climate change],” he added. “Our government should be challenging those countries…to address their problems.”

He suggested private industries could be encouraged to expand the efforts they’re already making to reduce greenhouse gas emissions adding that the manufacturers of transport trucks, for example, have made significant advancements.

“The carbon emissions on those vehicles, a lot of them put out less emissions than your typical car [and] a lot of people don’t know that,” he said.

Personal background

Vincent Cormier’s candidate photo

Cormier said he’s lived in Beauséjour all his life and grew up on a farm doing chores with three brothers and a sister in the small town of Saint-Paul north of Moncton.

“I had a chance to go pick berries, I was 10, 11 years old,” he said, “at five cents a box, that’s what we were being paid.”

Cormier said his childhood taught him the values of hard work and responsibility, values that stood him in good stead as a manager and entrepreneur in manufacturing and construction.

“I retired at 56 and after six months at home, I got bored, the fire was still burning, I didn’t know where to put all that energy, so we partnered up with another gentleman and now we’re doing housing in First Nations communities.”

Cormier’s candidate biography mentions Personalized Building Solutions as the company he co-founded that specializes in First Nations housing developments. His Conservative Party biography also mentions Cormier’s involvement in a consulting firm in Dieppe called NuFocus Strategic Group.

To read his full biography, click here.

Traditional Liberal riding

Cormier acknowledges that federal Liberals have an almost unbroken record of winning in Beauséjour. (In 1997, voters elected NDP candidate Angela Vautour, but Dominic LeBlanc re-captured the riding for the Liberals in 2000 and has held it ever since.)

When asked whether LeBlanc’s absence from the campaign as he recovers from cancer surgery will make a difference to Conservative chances in Beauséjour, Cormier says it’s hard to say.

“The fact remains, I know Mr. LeBlanc personally,” Cormier says. “He definitely has a big challenge, but at the end of the day, the people of Beauséjour need representation and I have to forward that belief and make sure that they are represented,” he adds.

“I wish Mr. LeBlanc all the luck in the world and I pray for him, but at the end of the day, people need representation.”

Posted in Federal Election | Tagged , | 1 Comment

Green Party leader visits Sackville promising daily train service and door-to-door mail

Posted on September 24, 2019 by brucewark

Green leader Elizabeth May (L) with climate campaigner Quinn MacAskill and local candidate Laura Reinsborough at Sackville news conference

Federal Green Party leader Elizabeth May called today for the restoration of door-to-door mail delivery and daily Via Rail passenger service between Halifax and Montreal.

“We need to ensure that rural Canadians do not feel neglected and ignored,” May told a news conference outside local Green candidate Laura Reinsborough’s Beauséjour campaign office.

The Green leader explained that revitalizing Canada Post and Via Rail are key planks in the party platform.

“Under our plan, postal door-to-door service for Canadians will be reinstated,” May said. “We’re investing in Canada Post and we want to change the corporate direction.”

Aside from restoring door-to-door mail delivery, the Green platform calls on Canada Post to set up banking services and public high-speed Internet access especially in communities without banks and libraries.

The platform also advocates training mail carriers “to check on people with mobility issues or who live alone, particularly during heat waves, storms and other emergencies.”

To read the section of the Green platform called Re-imagining Canada Post, click here.

Restoring Via Rail

“In our vision of a transportation system that makes sense, Via Rail is like the backbone,” May said.

She added that a Green government would commit more than $700 million a year to expanding Via service, including making sure that passenger trains roll through Sackville on the route between Montreal and Halifax every day.

In 2012, Conservative government cuts led to a service reduction from six days a week to three and the closure of railway stations in Sackville and Amherst. (Last year, Sackville Town Council voted unanimously to support the campaign for restoration of Via service.)

During today’s news conference, May outlined plans for electrifying Via Rail and tying its services in with light rail and electric buses that connect with rural and remote communities.

To read the Green Party news release, click here.

Crucial election

Meantime, 14-year-old Quinn MacAskill, one of Sackville’s most committed climate change campaigners, told reporters that when she was going door-to-door with Laura Reinsborough recently, one woman told them she was considering not voting in this election.

“As soon as we left the house, I expressed my frustration with this because it’s such a privilege to be able to vote,” MacAskill said. “Our future depends on the results of this election,” she added, “when so many people’s lives depend on it.”

MacAskill told reporters she began taking part in strikes last March encouraging fellow students to leave school to protest against the lack of action on climate change.

“I decided to start striking because I think it’s really the only way that we can get any attention from the media, from the governments, and we need to have that attention because our future is at risk.”

MacAskill is helping the Sackville Youth Climate Crisis Coalition to organize another climate strike this Friday as part of an international series of such strikes.

“We are hoping to have a ton of people out, seeing as Mount Allison students are back, and in addition, youth across the world are calling for a general strike, meaning we want adults to strike from their workplaces in solidarity with the youth,” MacAskill wrote in an earlier e-mail to Warktimes.

May meets with students

Elizabeth May and Laura Reinsborough talking with Mt. A. students today

After their news conference, May and Reinsborough talked with Mount Allison University students in Gracie’s Café and then, during a short speech, the Green leader spoke of what she sees as an addiction.

“We’re addicted to fossil fuels,” she said. “We’re addicted to a mindset that says transnational corporate profits are more important than our survival.”

She added that breaking free of addictions is difficult at first, but gets easier with effort.

“We can have 100% renewable green electricity, we could get rid of the internal combustion engine,” May said, “but what we can’t do is be so afraid of making the changes to save our lives that we forget that survival is job one.”

As she was leaving Mt. A. to campaign in Halifax, May was asked about a plank in the Green platform calling for reforming Canada’s anti-trust laws to enable the break-up of media conglomerates.

She explained that when the major media chain Canwest entered bankruptcy protection in 2009, the bankruptcy receiver refused to allow local people to buy its newspapers, which were then sold to another chain.

“We need to be able to break up these chains,” she said.

When asked if that included breaking up the Irving near monopoly on newspapers in New Brunswick, May replied: “Of course, especially the Irvings.”

Posted in Federal Election | Tagged , , , | 1 Comment

Beauséjour Green candidate Laura Reinsborough hopes to build on provincial success

Posted on September 22, 2019 by brucewark

Green MLA Megan Mitton (L) and federal candidate Laura Reinsborough pose together outside the Sackville Fall Fair tent on Friday

Federal Green Party candidate Laura Reinsborough says she feels her chances of winning in the local New Brunswick riding of Beauséjour on October 21 are much stronger because provincial voters elected two Greens here in last year’s provincial election.

“The ice has been broken,” Reinsborough said during an interview Friday in her Sackville campaign office.

“It’s huge really to have two Green MLAs,” she added, “within a federal riding. That doesn’t exist in too many places across the country and I really feel like that has made a huge difference.”

Reinsborough says that both MLAs Megan Mitton and Kevin Arseneau are helping in her campaign, which began when she started knocking on doors three months ago.

“I go door to door and there is so much Green support; there is such an exciting momentum for the Green Party which continues to grow as we see the Green numbers grow across the country.”

Latest averages from the CBC Poll Tracker show the Green Party at 9.8% nationally, but also in double digits in both B.C. at 15.6% and Atlantic Canada at 12.7% with a minority government headed by either the Conservative or Liberal parties most likely at this point in the campaign.

Reinsborough says that if Canadians do elect a minority government, it would make a huge difference to have more Green MPs.

“Not only might we hold the balance of power, but in a minority government things can move a lot faster,” she adds. “Instead of having the two old-line parties bickering about this and that, we can really see that we will work together to advance important action.”

‘Climate emergency’

Reinsborough with electric car she acquired in July. She says she has driven it nearly 12,000 km at a cost of about $80 for electricity

Reinsborough, who is the director of Food For All NB — a provincially funded network for groups working on making sure everyone has enough to eat — says she decided to run for the Green Party because she sees this as a crucial election, especially when it comes to adopting policies that would avoid the worst effects of climate change.

“We know what the numbers look like. We don’t have very long to make dramatic changes,” she says.

She refers to a section of the 2019 Green Party Platform called Mission Possible, a climate action plan that outlines extensive measures for dealing with what the platform calls the climate emergency.

It includes such steps as a 60% cut in carbon emissions over the next decade partly by switching away from burning fossil fuels and relying on renewable energy sources; banning the sale of fossil-fuel powered passenger vehicles by 2030 and making electric cars more affordable; investing in passenger rail transportation networks, and launching a massive program to make buildings more energy efficient.

“We know that the transition to a green economy is not going to happen overnight,” Reinsborough says, referring to another section of the party platform. “We need it to be done with good jobs, with our health care needs taken care of and making sure everybody is part of what that future can look like.”

To read the entire 82-page Green Party Platform, click here.

Reinsborough’s mobile campaign office will soon be touring the riding

‘Conserver society values’

Reinsborough also refers to the Green Party promise to embed what it calls “conserver society values rather than consumer society values” in the transition to a green economy.

“That’s a bit of a mentality shift which I think is already happening,” she says.

“We see that people are trying to reduce their plastic consumption, they’re trying to repair their appliances rather than toss them and get a new one, we see that people are making those changes in their individual lives, in their households, in their communities,” she says.

“There are so many young people who are making those changes. This is the new way of thinking,” she adds, “and yet we need to see that our government keeps up with that.”

Reinsborough says, for example, that the federal government could require manufacturers and retailers to cut down on excessive packaging.

“That’s a role that the federal government can play to be able to move towards that conserver society which is culturally where we’re heading anyways, but we need our government to keep up,” she adds.

“This is part of why I’ve decided to run in this election.”

To read Laura Reinsborough’s Green Party biography, click here.

Posted in Federal Election | Tagged , , , | 5 Comments

Veteran Liberal MP Dominic LeBlanc unable to campaign in Beauséjour after cancer surgery

Posted on September 20, 2019 by brucewark

Photo from Dominic LeBlanc’s Facebook page

Dominic LeBlanc underwent a bone marrow transplant on Wednesday at a Montreal hospital and will not be able to campaign for the Liberals in the local New Brunswick riding of Beauséjour anytime soon.

LeBlanc, who has represented Beauséjour as a Member of Parliament for 19 years, was suffering from non-Hodgkin lymphoma, a cancer that affects the lymphatic system.

His campaign manager, Victor Boudreau, said the bone marrow transplant was supposed to have happened a month ago, but the anonymous donor required more time and the operation couldn’t be performed until Wednesday.

“It will take a few weeks for him to regain his strength and rebuild his immune system,” Boudreau said in a telephone interview.

“It’s really difficult to say when he might be able to join the campaign,” he added, “but we’re hoping for some limited participation before it ends.”

Boudreau said LeBlanc will rely on volunteers to carry his message to voters.

“The doctors still consider him a healthy young man and he’s getting back to his fighting form,” Boudreau said. “He still has fire in his belly.”

LeBlanc had been serving  as minister of intergovernmental affairs and northern affairs before resigning his cabinet posts last April to undergo chemotherapy treatments in Moncton.

According to a CBC report last month, LeBlanc was criticized for taking a flight to Montreal earlier this year on a private aircraft owned by the big forestry company J.D. Irving. He apparently needed a private flight because his compromised immune system could have made him vulnerable to infections potentially acquired on a commercial aircraft.

LeBlanc was diagnosed with lymphocytic lymphoma in 2017, when he was federal fisheries minister, but last fall he said that cancer was in remission.

“He has a pretty impressive record and he’s looking forward to continuing the work he has done in the riding for the last 19 years,” campaign manager Boudreau said today.

The Mount Allison Students Union is sponsoring the first federal all-candidates debate for Beauséjour riding on Wednesday, September 25 from 6 p.m. to 9 p.m. in the Marjorie Young Bell Convocation Hall at 37 York Street on the university campus.

Posted in Federal Election | Tagged , , , | 2 Comments

Phil Handrahan resigns as Sackville’s Chief Administrative Officer

Posted on September 11, 2019 by brucewark

CAO Phil Handrahan chastises critics at Monday’s council meeting

After more than six years on the job, Phil Handrahan has submitted his resignation as the Town of Sackville’s Chief Administrative Officer (CAO).

Mayor John Higham informed councillors in an e-mail yesterday that Handrahan’s resignation will take effect at the end of February.

Handrahan became Sackville’s CAO in May 2013 after a 30-year career with the city of Charlottetown where he had been serving as director of fiscal and development services.

Neither the mayor nor Handrahan himself have returned phone calls so the reasons for the CAO’s resignation are not clear.

Councillor Bill Evans, who serves on the town’s personnel committee, said that he’s personally not surprised at Handrahan’s departure.

“When he came here,” Evans said, “his plan was to be here for a term,” he added. “My understanding is that his intention was to be here for five years.”

Evans said he’s grateful that Handrahan, whom he described as “an experienced administrator,” actually stayed a bit longer.

“I’ve been really pleased with his professionalism and the professionalism he’s brought to the town,” Evans said, adding that Handrahan clarified the roles of town staff and council.

Evans said the personnel committee knew about Handrahan’s decision to resign well before Monday night’s council meeting when the CAO uncharacteristically chastised a member of the public and Councillor Shawn Mesheau for raising questions about how the town evaluates the events it sponsors.

Shelley Chase, owner of Garrison Hill Entertainment

During the public question period, Shelley Chase, owner of an entertainment booking agency, asked what measurement system the town uses to calculate benefits to residents versus expenditures.

She pointed out, for example, that the town spent $9,035.50 to stage a Joel Plaskett concert that attracted 180 people. Chase said revenues amounted to only $5,750 producing what she called a “net financial loss of $3,385.”

Mayor Higham objected to her use of the word “loss.”

“It’s not a loss of money, it’s an investment by the community to deliver a service that doesn’t make a profit,” Higham said. “It’s not a loss as you described it,” the mayor added. “We’ll describe that there’s a difference between the revenue and the amount of cost attached to it.”

Higham said that similar questions arise over the town’s subsidies for the rink at the Civic Centre.

CAO Handrahan then said that it’s up to council to decide on town spending for events and besides, the town is not a profit-making organization.

“It’s not whether or not we’re making money,” Handrahan said. “We don’t charge for roads, we don’t charge 100% for the arena, we don’t charge for sidewalks, we’re not trying to make a dollar on events.”

Councillor Shawn Mesheau

After Handrahan accused Chase of not understanding what the town does, Councillor Shawn Mesheau said it’s important to evaluate municipal services.

“As  a  councillor, I would hope to get the information so that when budget time comes, that an evaluation could be done to help a determination be made in regards to a line item in the budget,” Mesheau said.

Handrahan replied that all information is supplied during budget deliberations. “And you as a former member of council know that,” he said referring to Mesheau’s previous years on council.

Handrahan added that council votes on all expenditures. “So, you’re the evaluator. You ask us what to do. We’re doing what you’ve asked us to do,” he said, adding, “You ask more questions than anybody. We answer them as best as we can to try and give you the information. To make that statement suggests that we’re just going off willy nilly spending money without a care,” the CAO said to Mesheau. “That’s unfair.”

Mesheau replied that he hadn’t said that.

“You said ‘needs to be evaluated,’ you should listen to what you just said,” Handrahan replied. “You’re implying that we’re just spending money and we don’t care.”

“Wow,” Mesheau said.

“Wow is right,” Handrahan answered as their testy exchange ended.

Posted in Town of Sackville | 3 Comments

Laffords planning big Sackville housing development for an ‘aging population’

Posted on September 10, 2019 by brucewark

Dwelling units on Waterfowl Lane similar to the ones JN Lafford Realty Inc. is planning for its new project on Wright St. and Fawcett Ave.

Sackville Town Council has passed a resolution that could clear the way for a big housing project on 22-acres of land at the ends of Wright Street and Fawcett Avenue.

Council passed the resolution during its meeting on Monday in response to an application from JN Lafford Realty Inc. for changes to the town’s zoning bylaws.

The Laffords want to build a series of single-level, multi-unit dwellings for older people as well as a nursing care or assisted living facility.

John Lafford says that in the first phase of the project, he’s aiming for 24 to 30 mainly two-bedroom apartments similar to the ones his company has already built on Waterfowl Lane and at 32 King Street.

“Those are the exact buildings that we’re going to replicate because that’s what the demand is,” he said during a telephone interview with Warktimes. “We’re not trying to step outside the box here and do something different, we’re doing what is working,” he added.

“It’s basically a village within a village, it’s just a retirement community,” Lafford said. “On those sites, you’ll have one-level living, barrier-free units for the aging population.”

Large-scale project

John Lafford addressing town council in 2018

Lafford says he’s hoping to have phase one completed next summer, although he says it may not be ready until the summer of 2021.

After that, his company is planning to build the assisted care facility that may be two storeys and then a second phase of 24-30 single-level dwelling units.

“It’s definitely a volume project,” Lafford says. “Maybe there’ll be another phase,” he adds, “and maybe we’ll get 100 units over seven to 10 years. Maybe it will only be 80.”

He acknowledges that planning is in the early stages.

“It’s very early, but very real, we’re going to be doing it,” he says. “It’s just a matter of how long it takes and when we start.”

Rezoning process

Before the Lafford project could start, however, town council would need to make several changes to its Municipal Plan, Bylaw 243 as well as the Town of Sackville Zoning Bylaw 244:

    • The Highway Commercial zone area which abuts Wright Street would need to be re-zoned as Urban Residential to allow for a combination of multi-unit dwellings and a nursing home or assisted living facility. In addition, the land for the senior/nursing care facility would need to be re-designated as Urban Residential 3 (R3) to allow for higher residential density.
    • The property located at the end of Fawcett Avenue would need to be re-zoned from Urban Residential 1 (R1) to Urban Residential 2 (R2) to permit single-level, multi-units ranging from four to six unit buildings.
    • The zoning bylaw which allows senior/nursing care facilities in an Institutional zone would need to be amended to allow such facilities in the Urban Residential 3 (R3) zone.

To read the two-page Preliminary Staff Report that was presented to town council on the Lafford application for re-zoning, click here.

Council resolution

In a unanimous vote, town council passed a resolution agreeing to consider the Lafford application; referring it to the Southeast Planning Review and Adjustment Committee for its views; setting the council meeting of October 15 for a public presentation on council’s intentions to amend the Municipal Plan Bylaw and setting November 12 at 7 p.m. for a public hearing to consider any objections.

New Lafford building nearing completion

Lafford building in the heart of downtown

Meantime, John Lafford says the controversial, upscale building for older tenants that his company is building on the old United Church property could be finished in about two weeks.

He adds that about 80% of its 35 apartments are already rented.

“Things are going just fine there,” he said.

Posted in Town of Sackville | Tagged , , , | 2 Comments