Lorneville activists want judge to overturn Saint John council’s decision

Posted on November 15, 2025 by brucewark

A map from council documents shows zoning for the proposed Spruce Lake Industrial Park following a council vote in July. Photo: Submitted

By: Andrew Bates, Local Journalism Initiative Reporter. Source: Telegraph-Journal October 31, 2025 and updated since.

Three citizens opposed to rezoning land for the expansion of Saint John’s Spruce Lake Industrial Park say new legal action is their “only option” to stop the project.

Adam Wilkins, a member of the Save Lorneville community group, told Brunswick News he and two other people have served the City of Saint John with an application for judicial review regarding council’s decision to approve rezoning and municipal plan amendments for a 510-hectare parcel of land adjacent to King William Road.

The city is in talks to acquire the land from the province to expand the Spruce Lake Industrial Park in an effort to create development-ready properties and encourage industrial growth.

Brunswick News viewed the application, which was filed with Saint John Court of King’s Bench in October. Wilkins, Chris Watson and Shayne Galbraith, as applicants, are asking a judge to overturn council’s decision, arguing councillors breached procedural fairness by failing to approach it with an “open mind,” and that it contravened parts of the city’s municipal plan.

“It was our experience, and it was quite apparent, that this was a decision that was already done before going through the actual process,” Wilkins said last month, adding, “This is the only option we had to continue to push back from a legal perspective.”

The allegations in the application have not been tested in court. The City of Saint John has declined comment, according to spokesperson Sarah Peiser, saying the matter is before the courts.

Year-long process

The vote to approve rezoning in July came as part of a year-long process that began in June 2024, with a public hearing postponed in October to establish a series of task force meetings last winter, before public hearings in May and June 2025.

About 120 residents spoke against the project during the public hearings. Their concerns included loss of wetlands, environmental effects, as well as potential flooding and impacts on groundwater wells.

The city’s rationale for the proposal includes a “critical shortage of development-ready industrial lands” in Saint John. At the public hearings, Spruce Lake Industrial Park general manager Ian MacKinnon said his organization had received expressions of interest on possible projects including a data centre and a green manufacturing project, which could generate millions in tax revenue annually.

(Earlier this month, proponents of a data centre in the industrial park held a public meeting during which they disclosed the centre would generate 190 MW of its own power while using an additional 190 MW from the NB Power grid.)

Provincial approval

A provincial environmental impact assessment review for the project to clear “pad-ready” land on part of the site wrapped up in August, when the province approved the expansion of the industrial park with 23 conditions, including a requirement to complete a stormwater management plan, monitoring plans for groundwater, surface water and wetlands, and an environmental management plan.

The notice of application for judicial review details the city and province’s steps in developing the project, meetings of the task force committee, and comments from councillors and Mayor Donna Reardon about the project both in media and to residents.

The applicants argue these is evidence that some councillors had a “closed mind” regarding the project and that failing to proceed with an open mind is a breach of procedural fairness.

Wilkins told Brunswick News the city “didn’t fairly balance concerns” brought up at the public hearings or make changes, and said there was a “quite clear bias towards approving the project.”

When asked about the decision to postpone the initial public hearing and assemble the task force, Wilkins, who had been the co-chair of the task force, said that questions wouldn’t be answered or promises would change week to week, adding that “every step of the way, it was not giving answers, not respecting the community.”

He said this differs from the normal course of how a municipality would proceed with a project because of the “sheer enormity” of the project area and developments regarding wetlands and old growth trees in the area.

The application alleges that the plan “will lead to the destruction of vast amounts of wetlands, old growth and mature forest, and remove climate resilience benefits,” and suggests that the expansion is “incompatible with both the character of the neighbourhood and the broader land objectives of the city.”

This story from Brunswick News was written by local journalism initiative reporter Andrew Bates with additional updates from Warktimes.

To read CBC coverage of provincial approval for expansion of the Spruce Lake Industrial Park, click here.

For CBC coverage of the public meeting on November 5th by proponents of a data centre in the expanded industrial park, click here.

For the Warktimes story on a possible link between the data centre near Lorneville and the gas/diesel plant near Centre Village, click here.

Posted in economic development, Environment, LJI stories | Tagged , | Leave a comment

‘Fed up’ Mi’kmaw allies to stand shoulder to shoulder for treaty rights rally Saturday in Halifax

Posted on November 13, 2025 by brucewark

By: Rosemary Godin, Local Journalism Initiative Reporter. Source: Cape Breton Post
November 12, 2025

Nova Scotians are concerned about the provincial government agreeing to consider a golf course on the lands of West Mabou Beach Provincial Park which was designated as a protected park in 2001. Golf developer Cabot has twice attempted to plan an 18-hole golf course on this site, only to be rejected by the provincial government in 2018 and 2023. Photo: Ian Nathanson/Cape Breton Post file. Rosemary Godin, Local Journalism Initiative Reporter

A coalition of Mi’kmaw, settler groups and communities from across Nova Scotia will gather at the Halifax Commons this weekend in a movement called “Shoulder to Shoulder.” The rally is being held to call on the provincial Tim Houston government to respect Mi’kmaw rights, follow democratic processes and stop selling off Nova Scotia to corporate interests.

Events in Cape Breton are a catalyst for the gathering.

“If you live, work, play or pray in Nova Scotia, we want you there,” say Mi’kmaw land defenders Glenda Junta of Eskasoni and Michelle Paul of Acadia First Nation. “We’re standing in solidarity with all resistance movements in Nova Scotia. We want to hear your voices.”

Both women are spending time on Hunter’s Mountain in Cape Breton defending the land from forestry operations.

Saturday’s gathering is being led by Mi’kmaw rights holders and in solidarity with all the land defenders at Tqamuoweye’katik/Hunter’s Mountain. Organizers are inviting all concerned citizens to join them in demanding accountability from the Nova Scotia government on Saturday at 12 p.m.

Mi’kmaw Land defenders have been working to protect traditional medicinal sites on Hunters Mountain in Cape Breton since September. Some have constructed small camps near the logging roads where they say they will stay until the issue of clearcutting is resolved peacefully. Many supporters will take part in a “Shoulder to Shoulder” rally of Mi’kmaw and settlers taking place this weekend in Halifax. Photo: Aaron Beswick, Saltwire

Frustration growing

The Shoulder to Shoulder Rally comes out of a groundswell of frustration and public outcry from all corners of the province.

Organizers say that since January 2025, the Houston government has made numerous controversial changes to provincial legislation and governance, including the lifting of bans on uranium mining (March 2025) and fracking (February 2025), consolidating power over municipal development, a willingness to allow private development in protected areas, and changes to the Crown Lands Act that experts warn could infringe on Mi’kmaw Treaty Rights and criminalize legal protest.

Maggy Burns, executive director with the Ecology Action Centre, says Nova Scotians are “fed up.”

“This rally comes after months of growing unrest over the Houston government’s disregard for Mi’kmaw Rights, environmental safeguards and democratic processes. We’ve seen thousands of people from all corners of the province rallying in the streets, organizing in their communities, signing petitions, contacting their elected officials and more. This is the next step in a growing movement to take back our future from wealthy corporate interests and ensure that everyone living in Mi’kma’ki can truly thrive,” she says.

The groundswell of protest began in earnest in September when Mi’kmaw land protectors turned their attention to Hunters Mountain where clearcutting of trees was threatening traditional Indigenous hunting and healing medicinal grounds. Since that time, the provincial government enacted a law making it illegal to interfere with trucks on logging roads.

In response, Mi’kmaw land defenders constructed small camps on the mountain where they say they will stay until the issue is resolved peacefully.

In the midst of growing public concern, organizers say their message is one of unity and hope.

“We can build a better future for our communities,” says Nina Newington, president of Save Our Old Forests (SOOF). “But only if we work together. Houston’s arrogant disrespect for Treaty Rights and democracy, his attempts to reverse the progress we have made – all this has brought us together – Mi’kmaq and settlers, city dwellers and rural people. We’re building a movement dedicated to a livable future for all.”

Coxheath, Mabou concerns

Of recent concern to many people in Cape Breton (Unama’ki) is a proposed mining project at the Coxheath Hills site. Photo: Coxheath Hills Wilderness Recreation Association/Destination Cape Breton

A proposed mining project at the Coxheath Hills site near Sydney is a recent concern for many people in Cape Breton (Unama’ki) as well as a surprise proposal that the government is looking to build a golf course near the protected lands of West Mabou Beach Provincial Park.

“Nova Scotians care deeply about protecting our beloved natural spaces, and we won’t stand for a government that’s intent on moving us all backward on conservation. If the government refuses to lead on protecting our environment and communities, then the people of this province will band together,” warns Margaret MacDonell, organizer with Save West Mabou Beach Provincial Park.

Organizers of the Shoulder to Shoulder Rally say they are urging communities to stand up and have their voices heard.

“We’re coming together to protect Mother Earth from destruction,” says Kukuwes Wowkis, a Mi’kmaw land defender at Hunters Mountain.

“It’s so crucial for us to protect the lands for the next seven generations, for my grandchildren and yours, before it’s too late.”

Sarah Trask, organizer with Safe and Responsible Resource Development (SARRD), is concerned that the government is taking decisions that will leave Nova Scotia wide open to exploitation of its waterways, forests, homes and health.

“We stand together unified to address the numerous problems with the current N.S. government. Tim Houston and his government lifted the evidence-based ban on uranium exploration and mining without any consultation with the Mi’kmaq or communities.”

She said the present government is showing a destructive pattern of lack of consultation, lack of transparency, removing environmental protections and putting the health and safety of Nova Scotians and our environment at risk.

Aligned efforts

Also taking part in the rally on Saturday will be the Centre for Environmental Justice Society.

“We are here in solidarity with our grassroots grandmothers, water protectors and land defenders. As Black Loyalists our responsibility to this land is one that is sacred. We are here to show our aligned efforts in creating a safer, cleaner and just world. We are here to speak our truth and point out where communities have been forgotten once again,” said Vanessa Hartley.

Hartley is an eighth-generation Black Loyalist descendant, born and raised in the African Nova Scotian community of Shelburne, and is a long-time environmental advocate.

UPDATE: CBC reported on Thursday, November 13th that Premier Houston told reporters the West Mabou golf development would not proceed because it was not in the best interests of Nova Scotians. To read the online CBC report, click here.

This story was written by Rosemary Godin, the Local Journalism Initiative Reporter for the Cape Breton Post.

Posted in Indigenous affairs, LJI stories, Nova Scotia Government | Tagged , , | 2 Comments

Mt. A. prof draws parallels between Confederation Bridge & Tantramar gas plant

Posted on November 12, 2025 by brucewark

Mario Levesque at his book launch last week in the lobby at Convocation Hall. Photo: Sarah McCracken

Mount Allison Politics Professor Mario Levesque says research on his latest book taught him a number of important lessons that could be applied to the proposed 500 MW gas/diesel plant that NB Power wants built on the Chignecto Isthmus.

Levesque wrote the 389-page book, Environmental Governance in the Gulf of St. Lawrence, with co-author Peter Clancy, political science professor at St. Francis Xavier University in Antigonish. It was officially launched last week in Mount Allison’s Convocation Hall.

The book contains eight case studies including one on the building of the Confederation Bridge to Prince Edward Island as a public-private partnership (P3) between the federal department, Public Works Canada, and the private company Strait Crossing International. The process began with an intense preparatory period from 1986 to 1993 followed by several years of construction. The bridge opened to traffic on May 31, 1997.

In an interview with Warktimes this week, Levesque said one similarity with the gas plant is that the heavily debt-laden NB Power wants to minimize its financial risks by having the private U.S. company PROENERGY build the generating plant.

“So, NB Power is saying let’s let this private contractor take the risk for cost overruns or anything else,” Levesque says, adding that in return, NB Power will help steer the project through the approval stages.

“So like with the Confederation Bridge, the federal body, Public Works Canada, which was in charge of building it, made sure to clear all the approval processes, to get everything out of the way to get the bridge built, to get ‘er done, as they say.”

Levesque adds that in the process, Public Works Canada marginalized environmental concerns about the potential effects on the lobster fishery for example, or on migratory birds, while releasing limited information just before public consultations and not really answering people’s questions.

“We see the same thing here with the gas plant, right? The only reason they’re doing the public consultations is that they need to check the box that says ‘we must consult’. Hastily called meetings with the release of limited information. It was the same situation with the building of the Confederation Bridge, and it’s the same thing that’s playing out here.”

‘Ramming it through’

“So with the gas plant, when I saw it start to take shape and the way the consultations were going, I knew right away, it’s a done deal. They’re ramming it through. And, it’s unfortunate because it’s an erosion of our democracy.”

At the same time, Levesque says he’s encouraged by “the phenomenal job” opponents of the gas plant are doing in raising environmental awareness about the project as they push back against it.

He points to the big protest they held last month at the legislature in Fredericton when Premier Holt addressed them, but says she must have known then that her government had already ruled out a comprehensive environmental assessment.

“It’s good that she’s willing to listen, but it shows that when their mind’s made up and this project is going ahead, nothing’s going to deter it,” he says.

‘Triple bottom line’

Mario Levesque & co-author Peter Clancy (L) with the book it took them 10 years to write. Photo: Sarah McCracken

“So for me, there’s always a triple bottom line when I look at projects. I look at public health, environmental health and economic health,” Levesque says, adding that governments put a priority on economic interests first as does the corporate sector.

“And, that’s the case with the gas plant here, they want to push it through. The fact that we’re finding out quite late in the process that they want to couple it with a plant on PEI and that’s not done at the last second. They’ve known this for years. This is carefully orchestrated and they’re playing it out like a fine violin.”

Levesque points out that creating as many jobs as possible was the priority when the Conservative government led by Brian Mulroney was pushing the “fixed link” to PEI.

He says a tunnel would have been cheaper and more environmentally friendly, but would have employed fewer workers. So, the government did not tell Islanders that a tunnel had already been ruled out when 60%, who voted in a plebiscite, favoured the “fixed link” many believing it would be a tunnel.

‘Follow the money’

In the case of the gas plant, Levesque asks who could benefit financially.

“When you’re doing policy analysis, follow the money,” he says. “Who are the financial interests involved here.”

Levesque points to the lobby work that has been done by former Liberal Premier Brian Gallant on behalf of a company that may be involved.

New Brunswick’s lobbyist registry shows that earlier this year, the former premier met with both the infrastructure minister and the CEO of NB Power on behalf of Aecon Group Inc., a big Ontario-based company that handles the construction of energy projects including natural gas plants.

(Gallant did not respond to a request for comment from Warktimes in September.)

Future fracking?

“There’s no social license to build diesel plants anymore, so they’re framing it as using natural gas from the U.S. But there’s a little clause in there that if need be, they can use diesel fuel. Well, who’s going to supply the diesel fuel?” Levesque asks.

“There’s only one supplier in New Brunswick, that’s in Saint John, that’s the Irvings. So, I mean, they stand to make a fair bit of money by supplying things, I would think,” he says.

“This is a roundabout way to get a diesel plant built, basically, is what it is. Because we don’t have a local supply of gas here. The only supply we have is in the ground, shale gas.

“So this could also be seen as a way of getting the infrastructure put in, and then in a few years afterwards, five or seven years, they say, ‘well, we’ve got a plant here that needs gas. We need to develop the gas industry.’

“So I would say in a few years, let’s look. I would not be surprised if the moratorium on shale gas is lifted and we see aggressive shale gas development, fracking here throughout southeastern New Brunswick, all over the place for sure.” Levesque concludes.

Posted in NB Power, New Brunswick politics, Town of Tantramar | Tagged , , | 5 Comments

Green leader links Centre Village gas/diesel plant to Lorneville data centre

Posted on November 10, 2025 by brucewark

NB Green Party leader David Coon speaking in the legislature last week

New Brunswick’s Green Party leader says he’s convinced there’s a direct link between the proposed 500 MW gas/diesel plant near Centre Village and the Lorneville, artificial intelligence (AI) data centre that was announced less than two weeks ago.

“It’s very clear,” said David Coon who attended a public meeting last week in Lorneville that was hosted by the U.S. firm VoltaGrid and its partner Beacon AI Centers of Calgary, the two companies that are  planning to build the AI data centre.

“The revelation that was made at the Lorneville meeting was that besides the 190 MW gas generating plant they’re going to build in Lorneville, they’re going to ask NB Power for another 190 MW because the AI brain they’re building there uses 380 MW of power,” Coon said today in a telephone interview with Warktimes.

“So, they need 190 MW from NB Power, which NB Power does not have to spare. Where are they going to get it?” the Green leader asked.

“They’re telling us they’re all worried about people using more electricity because of an increase in population and charging electric cars and all this. So, where are they going to get it? Well, the only place they could possibly get it is from the new gas plant in Tantramar.”

Coon also points out that NB Power seems desperate to bring the PROENERGY gas/diesel plant online in 2028, the same year that the proponents of the AI data centre are planning to get their project up and running.

Gov’t & NB Power deny any connection

Both provincial Energy Minister René Legacy and NB Power told Brunswick News there is no connection between the two projects.

The newspapers quote Legacy as saying his understanding is that the Tantramar gas plant has been discussed since 2023 or earlier while the data centre is more recent.

For its part, NB Power is standing by statements it made last month when VP Brad Coady told the legislature’s public accounts committee that a surge in population growth in 2023 made him realize that the utility would run short of power by 2028.

Legacy also told Brunswick News that he won’t block NB Power from selling electricity to AI data centres even though they use huge amounts of power.

In 2023, the Higgs government passed a law banning NB Power from selling electricity to any more cryptocurrency data centres after two companies won approval for them in the Grand Falls area.

But according to Brunswick News, Legacy argues that data centres are needed in Canada to protect our sovereignty.

“Across the country, we are building capacity to make sure that we protect our data and it belongs to us and it’s on our territory,” the newspapers quote him as saying.

‘Ridiculous’

“That’s simply ridiculous,” Coon responds, adding that the CEO of the Texas-based VoltaGrid told the public meeting last week in Lorneville that his company wanted to build the AI data centre here because of its super-fast fibre optic system with a direct connection to New York City.

He also rejects the energy minister’s assertion that a data centre would promote economic development.

“Texas decided to go out and encourage these AI brains to be established in their state,” Coon says, “and now, as a result, municipal and state politicians are all raising the alarm about the impact on power rates and the lack of power supply and the fact that this is driving power rates up because they’re having to build new power sources for them,” he says.

“The big opportunities for economic development are involved in decarbonizing the economy in New Brunswick and the shift to smart grids, to renewables, to storage, to demand-side management, to wind and to solar,” he adds.

“These are the tremendous opportunities that exist here to transform our heating systems across the board to heat pumps and so on. So those are the kinds of economic development opportunities that should be seized,” Coon says.

“It’s just ironic that today Prime Minister Carney is in the province, he says, to speak about his buy-Canadian policy. And here we have NB Power lining up to buy power from an American energy company and sell power to an American AI company.”

To read an online CBC report on the Lorneville meeting last week, click here.

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

Premier Holt wants revival of NB mining industry

Posted on November 9, 2025 by brucewark

By: John Chilibeck, Local Journalism Initiative Reporter. Source: The Daily Gleaner October 28, 2025

Susan Holt in the NB legislature last week

New Brunswick Premier Susan Holt is upset that the province’s once-thriving mining industry has gone quiet and wants to see a new mining strategy start paying off by next year.

Most mining projects in Canada in recent times have taken 20 to 30 years to develop from the discovery of minerals, to digging them up and selling them, but Holt says her Liberal government will streamline the process to get projects off the ground.

She is pushing for revived mining activity in New Brunswick in 2026.

“There are short-term benefits to be realized here, but the ultimate goal is long-term benefits for New Brunswickers,” the premier told Brunswick News on October 27th following her participation in a panel discussion at New Brunswick’s 50th annual exploration, mining and petroleum conference in Fredericton.

“We want something that is going to generate opportunity and prosperity for New Brunswickers for years and years and years and generations to come as we used to see from our history as a mining community.”

Holt has no illusions that machinery will be firing by next year, digging up rocks to extract gold, copper, tungsten and the like.

But she said she still wants to see the industry contribute to New Brunswick’s economy.

“I don’t have the forecast of whether that’s a 20% or a 50% increase in 2026, because some of the activity we’re going to see next year is the development activity to restart this mine or that mine,” she said.

“It’s the activity of investment in that head office or that setup and that training for those people who are doing some of the pre-work. 
But that’s all new money to our economy that we didn’t have yesterday, and that’s more good-paying jobs for New Brunswickers.”

Declining activity

During her talk on the panel in front of geologists, mining executives and investors, the premier said it was only a few generations ago when 7% of New Brunswick gross domestic product was through mining activity near Bathurst and other bustling sites where miners had highly paid jobs.

Today, it is less than 1%, with the only really significant production being the salt mines near Sussex.

Holt told the crowd her interest was piqued last February when she and her team were in Washington, D.C., for talks about the punishing U.S. duties on New Brunswick’s softwood lumber exports.

She said a representative of a law firm that she didn’t name told her there was also great interest in developing the province’s mineral deposits. The province has 13 of the 34 listed as critical by Ottawa.

“I realized we had something valuable to offer we weren’t selling,” she told her audience at the Fredericton Delta.

Ontario Premier Doug Ford. Photo: Wikipedia

Holt recounted that at another meeting shortly after, on this occasion with Ontario Premier Doug Ford, she became convinced New Brunswick was missing out.

Ford told her about his desire to develop the vast mineral wealth in the Ring of Fire in northern Ontario and the possible construction of thousands of kilometres of permanent roads to replace increasingly unreliable ice roads.

“Good heavens,” she remembered thinking of her province’s relatively small footprint of 73,000 square kilometres, more than 10 times smaller than the behemoth that is Ontario.

“In New Brunswick, nowhere is hard to reach. Everywhere within this province is accessible within a few hours.”

Four more mines

Natural Resources Minister John Herron, who participated in the panel discussion and was beside the premier when she talked to Brunswick News, said he was following closely what his boss had instructed him to do.

He used the October 27th event to announce the Liberal government’s framework for a comprehensive mineral strategy.

The full-blown version will be delivered in the new year, with legislation introduced to encourage more mining.

“I’ll be audacious enough to suggest that we’ll have three, if not four, mineral sites having a high degree of activity on them this time next year,” Herron told Brunswick News.

The minister specifically named Mount Pleasant, where Adex Mining wants to develop North America’s largest deposit of tin and biggest known reserve of indium; Sisson Brook, the site Northcliff Resources wants to turn into an open-pit tungsten and molybdenum mine; and several properties in the old Bathurst mining camp, home to vast stores of copper, nickel and lead.

“So we’re going from no mines, except for the salt mine, to four additional sites of having economic activity. I think that’s a pretty significant change.”

Mining skeptics

Earlier, however, there were skeptics among the audience.

Wayne Lockhart, an experienced geologist and owner of Lockhart Exploration, asked the premier and the minister on the stage why so little was being spent on the mining section in the Department of Natural Resources and Energy Development – less than 10% of its overall budget (indeed, the 2025 Liberal budget earmarked $11 million for mining in the natural resources envelope of $141 million).

“We should spend more money in the mining sector than on wildlife protection!” Lockhart shouted, with the crowd roaring in approval.

Holt replied that her government had tough spending choices to make and promised people more money for health care and other priorities.

“I have limited dollars to play with,” she said.

This story from Brunswick News was written by Local Journalism Initiative Reporter John Chilibeck 

Posted in economic development, LJI stories, New Brunswick government | Tagged , , , | Leave a comment

Gas plant concerns dominate community meeting in Upper Sackville

Posted on November 7, 2025 by brucewark

Stop Gas Plant organizer Terry Jones (L) sits next to fellow organizer Juliette Bulmer

Fears and concerns about the proposed 500 MW gas/diesel plant on the Chignecto Isthmus dominated a community feedback session that the town of Tantramar held last night at the Music Barn in Upper Sackville, a location that is only a few kilometres away from where the American company PROENERGY has been punching an access road through the woods to get to the gas plant site.

“Can somebody explain why putting 10 diesel generators and natural gas generators in the middle of an ecosystem is going to help us with the economy other than as a tax draw, a couple of years of local employment and then on top of all that, what are we doing with all the greenhouse gases we’re going to be producing every year?” asked Terry Jones, one of the local organizers of the Stop the Tantramar Gas Plant Group.

Jones, whose property would be the closest one to the proposed gas plant, also expressed concerns about the wastewater effluent that the plant would discharge into the local environment.

“I’ve got a gas plant in my backyard, which means my property value is going down,” she said, “but my property assessment is not going to go down based on this disaster that’s going to be pouring shit into my property.”

Tantramar CAO Jennifer Borne, who was the host at last night’s meeting, said she knew concerns over the gas plant would come up there.

“A lot of your questions are best directed toward provincial authorities and higher authorities,” she said, adding that municipal administrators don’t have influence with higher levels of government.

Borne said the town is trying to arrange for NB Power to make a presentation to council while the municipality’s Climate Change Advisory Committee is also hoping to moderate a session with NB Power where the public would be able to ask questions.

Tantramar CAO Jennifer Borne

Coalition organizer Juliette Bulmer asked about the potential effects on groundwater supplies since the gas plant could use up to seven million litres of water per day when it is operating at peak capacity.

“We’ve just gone through a drought. Lots of people have already had problems with their wells and farmers too,” she said.

“Does Tantramar have a water management plan to protect quality and quantity of water?”

Borne replied that the town has been working with Veolia, the company that manages its municipal water systems and has been in constant contact with the province over issues of water supply during the drought.

“But the thing is, do you have a water management plan?” Bulmer asked, “because if there is no opposition strong enough to stop this gas plant, they will literally suck the water out of the land. They will. It’s not a matter of if or when, but they will. So you need a plan.”

“So anything like that, you know, we are certainly even as we build for responsible growth within Tantramar, we are looking at system capacity with any of our systems that we manage through engineering and public works,” Borne answered. “So certainly a piece to consider and criteria to have within those assessment plans.”

“So the question is, can you guarantee that we will have water in our wells, clean water to drink? Where will it come from?” Bulmer persisted.

“That wouldn’t be something that I would have the answer on,” Borne replied, adding that Bulmer could check with the provincial department of environment and local government.

“The thing is, it’s not up to us to check. We’re residents, we pay taxes,” Bulmer responded.

Borne pointed out that Sackville and Dorchester have municipal water systems, but the former local service districts (LSDs) do not.

“It’s a user pay system, so anyone in those areas with the water supply would pay for the water service. Anyone that’s on a well and septic system, the responsibility is on the homeowner, unfortunately, to make sure that their systems are maintained.”

Mayor Andrew Black

Mayor Black explained that the former LSDs still come under provincial jurisdiction when it comes to things like water and roads.

“But the municipality can push and say, ‘Look, we need something done,'” he said. “I can contact ELG (environment & local government) and say, ‘What can be done if the water is all gone, who’s responsible, who’s going to pay for it, who’s going to make sure that people are OK?'”

Black added he guesses that the province would probably say to take the issue up with PROENERGY, but that the town could keep pushing and say that’s not good enough.

“I know that doesn’t answer the question particularly, but at least from the government side of things, there are opportunities for us to be able to reach out,” he said.

Sackville resident Meredith Fisher called on everyone present to set a deadline of January 1st to gather all the research and information needed to oppose the gas plant.

“Do we want to live in an environment that’s compromised?” she asked.

“No, no, no,” members of the audience called out.

“Does anybody want their children and grandchildren and our environment here compromised?” Fisher asked again to another chorus of “nos.”

“Make the deadline January 1st, we collect all our information,” she said.

“This is going to change everything. Is that what we want here? We don’t want it. I’m sure we don’t want it.”

Sackville resident Meredith Fisher

Posted in NB Municipal Reform, NB Power, Town of Tantramar | Tagged , | 5 Comments

Docs reveal business dealings between PROENERGY & Tribal Council on Chignecto gas plant

Posted on November 5, 2025 by brucewark

PROENERGY Canada President John MacIsaac answering questions on October 14 at Tantramar Town Council

Documents released this week by NB Power do not support claims that the Mi’kmaq had agreed to invest in the 500 MW gas/diesel plant that NB Power wants built on the Chignecto Isthmus near Centre Village. The documents do show, however, that Indigenous investment was possible and legal steps were taken to make it happen. They also suggest that NB Power was contemplating a project that could eventually be expanded to 800 MW.

Warktimes asked NB Power for the documents after PROENERGY Canada President John MacIsaac told Tantramar Town Council last month that they would substantiate his claim that the Mi’kmaq had agreed to be a minority equity partner in the project.

“I would invite you to fact-check me,” MacIsaac told Councillors Allison Butcher, Bruce Phinney and Michael Tower when they accused him of making false claims about Indigenous participation.

“I stand by what I said,” he added as he urged councillors to file a freedom of information request for documents that PROENERGY submitted to NB Power in response to its request for proposals (RFP) to build the gas plant.

“What I said was from the outset, when we started proactively very early with Indigenous conversation back in 2024, and I would invite you to fact-check me…by going back and submitting an access to information (request) for the supporting documents that accompanied our response to the RFP,” MacIsaac repeated.

PROENERGY slide on display during two public information sessions in August claim NSMTC is a minority equity partner in the gas plant project

What the documents show

One of the documents NB Power sent to Warktimes was a seven-page Letter of Intent (LOI) signed on August 6, 2024 by Jim Ward, general manager of the North Shore Mi’kmaq Tribal Council (NSMTC), Scott Dieball, senior vice president at PROENERGY and Mike Alvarado, president of WattBridge, a subsidiary of PROENERGY.

Sackville resident Logan Atkinson, who is a retired lawyer and academic, analyzed the Letter of Intent and says it raises many serious questions.

The letter does suggest that if the American company and its subsidiary won the bid to build the gas plant, NSMTC and its seven-member First Nations would form a limited partnership.

“While it isn’t clear in the document, the assumption is that this limited partnership would be the Tribal Council’s investment vehicle,” Dr. Atkinson writes in his analysis.

“I would like to know if that partnership has been formed yet.”

He also points to a paragraph that states: “NSMTC will take the lead role in the ‘duty to consult’ with Indigenous rights-holders and will diligently work to secure ‘free and informed consent’ from its own Member communities and any other First Nation communities who may be impacted by the Project.”

“This means that, at the moment this Letter of Intent was signed, the seven-member First Nations had not given free and informed consent,” Atkinson writes.

“In that circumstance, absent some subsequent development, it is impossible to claim that the NSMTC was an equity partner. This is important,” he adds.

‘Irrelevant’

Atkinson also points to a provision that says the parties agree to form a new corporation to own the project if the bid is successful and that they will sign a shareholders’ agreement.

“Is this Letter of Intent still in effect?” Atkinson asks pointing to a paragraph that says that once signed, the LOI would remain in effect until the “earliest” of several things.

“The earliest date at which the LOI would terminate has already passed, i.e. December 15, 2024. Was it extended? Or has the new corporation already been created? If so, who are the shareholders? Is NSMTC a shareholder?” he asks.

The Letter of Intent also states that it is non-binding.

“So, unless something else has happened since, the thing is irrelevant,” he concludes.

During a public Q&A in August at the Civic Centre in Sackville, Tristan Jackson, who works with the NSMTC, revealed that the seven chiefs who govern the Tribal Council had not yet agreed to invest in the project in spite of PROENERGY’s claims.

Four days later, the chiefs of the nine Mi’gmaq First Nations in New Brunswick issued a news release saying they hadn’t made any decision on whether to invest in the project and that the gas plant could not go ahead until it undergoes a rigorous, Mi’gmaq-led, rights impact assessment.

An even bigger gas plant?

Brotman Generating Station in Rosharon, Texas, has similar components and layout as the proposed project that PROENERGY is proposing to build in Tantramar. Image from Environmental Impact Assessment document

The gas/diesel plant that NB Power wants built would generate 400 MW of power, but would actually have a 500 MW capacity.

The Letter of Intent states that the NB Power request for expressions of interest (REOI) refers to an eventual total of 800 MW for the gas plant project and that both PROENERGY/WattBridge and the North Shore Mi’kmaq Tribal Council grant each other a “Right of First Refusal to negotiate together such potential future agreements similar to this LOI and Project Agreement…for additional capacity beyond the first 400MW up to 800MW.”

When Warktimes asked NB Power spokeswoman Elizabeth Fraser for an explanation of the 800 MW figure, she replied: “I would suggest reaching out to PROENERGY on this one.”

So far, neither John MacIsaac, nor PROENERGY spokesperson Chris Evans have responded to my requests for comment on this story.

NSMTC letter of support

The second document that NB Power sent to Warktimes is from the North Shore Mi’kmaq Tribal Council signed on August 7, 2024  by General Manager Jim Ward.

It states that the Tribal Council has entered into an “exclusive partnership” with PROENERGY and its subsidiary WattBridge and that the Council “commits to providing full support in Indigenous Relations, access to low-cost financing, and technical support.

“In recent years, and in vetting proponents for this specific opportunity, NSMTC has assessed numerous technologies, builders, and owner-operators of facilities similar to the 400-800 MW simple cycle turbine and synchronous condenser packages specified in this REOI (request for expressions of interest).”

The document says one key consideration that led NSMTC to select PROENERGY/WattBridge as an exclusive partner was scheduling and cost control factors “achieved through vertical integration from manufacturing operation.”

The document goes on to say that the U.S. company “can both deliver the assets with cost certainty on a predicable schedule and can do the same as needed in the future for plant expansion up to 800 MW or more.

“These attributes align with NSMTC’s goals of environmental stewardship and supporting a range of scenarios with respect to renewable penetration in the energy mix.”

NSMTC’s document promises to deliver community support:

Excerpt from NSMTC document

To read the Letter of Intent document, click here.

To read the North Shore Mi’kmaq Tribal Council document, click here

To read NB Power’s Request for Expressions of Interest (REOI), click here.

For earlier coverage, click here.

Posted in Environment, Indigenous affairs, Town of Tantramar | Tagged , , | 7 Comments

Tantramar council approves property tax rates that will raise $83K in new revenues next year for pricey fire dept. radios

Posted on November 3, 2025 by brucewark

Councillor Bruce Phinney opposed tax increases

Property tax rates in Tantramar will be going up next year in the three former local service districts (LSDs), but will stay steady in Sackville and Dorchester at just over $1.53 per $100 of assessment ($1.5350.)

In a 7-1 vote today, council approved municipal tax increases of five cents per $100 of assessment in the former Sackville and Dorchester LSDs with a slightly lower increase in the former Point de Bute LSD of just over four cents ($0.415).

The increases in the former LSDs will help pay for shared municipal services such as fire and police protection, administrative services as well as parks and recreation programs.

Councillor Bruce Phinney voted against the increases arguing that with rising costs for everything else these days many residents can’t afford them.

“Let’s show the people that actually we really do care and that actually we want to not put more burden on them,” Phinney said after moving a motion calling for no tax increases next year.

His motion was soundly defeated opening the way for a second one moved by Councillor Michael Tower and seconded by Councillor Greg Martin that will impose tax increases on the former LSDs while maintaining the present tax rate in Sackville and Dorchester.

Treasurer Michael Beal said maintaining the present tax rate in the former town and village, instead of lowering it slightly, will raise an additional $83,373 that will go toward purchasing new TMR portable radios for  the Sackville fire department that will cost about $10,000 each.

Treasurer Michael Bea that will cost about $10,000 each.

Councillors Tower, Martin, Allison Butcher, Josh Goguen, Debbie Wiggins-Colwell as well as Mayor Andrew Black mentioned the need for radios which are considered safer.

Treasurer Beal explained the new, more expensive TMR radios wouldn’t trigger an explosion when firefighters press the push to talk button in situations where there are gases or combustible materials.

Sackville Fire Chief Craig Bowser told council that some of the current TMR radios his department uses are not safe.

“They are not even designed for the fire service, they’re not heat (proof), waterproof, none of that,” he said.

“There is a need to transition our whole operations of Tantramar fire service to TMR,” he added, “and to do that, we want to ensure that our firefighters are safe and operating off of safe comm (communications) in any type of environment that they’re in and to do that safely, we need to operate off the TMR system which would be the intrinsically safe, high-end-priced radios.”

Dorchester Fire Chief Greg Partridge

Chief Greg Partridge of the Dorchester Fire Department had a slightly different reaction when he was asked about the need for the new, TMR radios.

“We were the last in New Brunswick to sign on to this TMR,” he said, adding that the province gave them radios that weren’t suitable for the fire service.

“They were not high heat and not intrinsically safe,” he said.

“So, we have to carry two radios,” he added.

“It’s a pain in the butt, but it’s not a huge deal. My issue is the price of these radios. Now that the whole province has bought into this, these radios can just keep going and not stop.

“I think there should be an investigation to tell you the truth. $10,000 for a radio? It’s just absurd.

“Do we need them this year? No, we don’t need them this year as far as I’m concerned. It’s just an inconvenience to use a two-radio system and the radio that we have, that they (the province) gave us, you pretty much have to put it in your jacket to keep it away from the heat compared to what we’ve been using all along.”

Tantramar council has yet to formally approve the purchase of the new, pricey radios, but the extra revenue to pay for some of them next year is now in the operating budget.

Note: Councillor Barry Hicks was absent from today’s special council meeting.

To learn more about the province’s promotion of the TMR radios, click here.

To read a transcript of Chief Bowser’s report on the TMR radios at the October 27th, committee of the whole meeting, click here.

An earlier version of this story said, incorrectly, that the extra $83,373 was coming from the tax increases imposed on the former LSDs. In fact, that money is coming from maintaining the present tax rate in Sackville and Dorchester. Treasurer Beal presented a chart showing that lowering the tax rate in Sackville and Dorchester slightly while increasing the rates in the former LSDs would raise a total of 18, 302, 286 while maintaining the present tax rate in the former town and village would raise $18,385,659. The difference between the two figures is $83,373. To view his chart, click here.

Posted in Technology, Town of Tantramar | Tagged , | 8 Comments

Premier, cabinet ministers, skip out of legislature avoiding reporters & questions on gas plant

Posted on November 2, 2025 by brucewark

By John Chilibeck, Local Journalism Initiative Reporter. Source: The Daily Gleaner
October 31, 2025

Premier Holt addressing gas plant opponents last month outside the NB legislature. Photo: Warktimes

Premier Susan Holt shunned reporters after closing debate on the throne speech Friday, a document that stated her Liberal government had “worked hard to earn the trust of New Brunswickers through transparency,” in its first year in power.

Traditionally, after the throne speech debate is over, New Brunswick’s premier speaks to reporters in the legislature’s grand foyer, just outside the House. The speech outlines the government’s vision for the year.

And normally after House proceedings are finished, the press gallery asks to interview several cabinet ministers. It’s a common practice stretching back decades.

On Friday morning, reporters from Brunswick News, CBC, Radio-Canada, Acadie Nouvelle and CTV requested to talk to a number of politicians on a variety of issues. The government’s handler jotted down the requests and relayed them back to the House and its antechambers, where the politicians were, as he normally does.

Gas plant questions

Brunswick News requested to speak to Holt about her comments on Thursday that she had “questions” about NB Power’s proposed gas plant that’s raised concerns in Tantramar, without enumerating what those questions were.

  • The news agency also asked for Health Minister John Dornan, to respond to Horizon Health Network’s bleak assessment of overcrowding at its hospitals;
  • Environment Minister Gilles LePage about his plans to study herbicide spraying on Crown woods next year, a hot topic among environmentalists and timber companies;
  • Public Safety Minister Robert Gauvin on the recent controversy over a civilian oversight board for the RCMP in the Moncton area, where municipal politicians are upset about ballooning police costs;
  • and Local Government Minister Aaron Kennedy to talk about long-promised property tax reforms, especially for seniors worried about being displaced from their homes.

The request was for five different cabinet ministers.

Initially, government spokesman Bruce Macfarlane said the premier would scrum with reporters. But about 10 minutes later, Katie Beers, her press secretary, told the media she wouldn’t be coming out and had already left the building. The same was true of all the cabinet ministers.

Beers said Holt wasn’t appearing because no journalist had requested to interview her specifically about the throne speech, which spoke of her government’s accomplishments and its plans for next year. The speech had already been widely reported when it was first delivered more than a week ago.

Opposition leader pounces

PC leader Glen Savoie, NB legislative assembly. Photo: Stephen MacGillivray Photography & Video
http://www.stevemacphoto.com

Glen Savoie, the interim leader of the Progressive Conservatives, pounced.

“Are you surprised? We saw this happen all summer. This is a government that tries to evade responsibility and transparency at every single turn,” said the Saint John politician who leads the biggest opposition party in the House.

On Thursday evening, the premier held a Facebook Live session for one hour in which she answered pre-submitted questions from New Brunswickers. People voted beforehand to choose their favourite questions.

“It is extremely helpful for us to know what’s on your mind and what questions you’re asking because they are sometimes different from the questions the media is asking,” Holt said at one point.

“We make ourselves available to media, we make ourselves available to you to hear your questions and to learn from what you want to know to make sure we can get you the information you’re looking for and that we’re doing the work that you want us to be doing on the things that matter most to you.”

Savoie said he didn’t bother listening to her talk, now a regular feature about once a month.

“You mean her personally scrubbed opportunity to put her lines out without her ever being asked a legitimate question by a reporter? No, I don’t watch those.”

Brunswick News asked Beers whether she would formally respond to Savoie’s criticisms, but she declined comment.

“We don’t answer to everything they say.”

Mitton: ‘completely unacceptable’

Tantramar MLA Megan Mitton addressing an anti-gas plant meeting in August at the Midgic Baptist Church. Photo: Warktimes

Megan Mitton, of the small opposition Green party, wasn’t impressed with the Liberal no-show.

“It’s completely unacceptable, and it flies in the face of the claims of transparency and accountability. It’s really disappointing. We can’t have a strong democracy without having the media be able to ask questions directly to the premier and to cabinet ministers. And, so, I’m pretty shocked to see no one show up from the government.”

It wasn’t the first time the Holt government has been slammed for ignoring reporters.

During an opposition grilling in question period last week, Holt said all the ministers and her caucus members were “prepared to speak on the work that they’re doing and available to speak to media upon request.”

The premier added that she had made herself “available at a drop of a hat consistently to every media outlet that asks, as our schedules can allow, because we also have to do work at the same time.”

Cabinet ministers, she said, were sometimes too busy to do interviews.

Politicians use social media

Thomas Bateman, a political science professor at St. Thomas University, said there was nothing unconstitutional about the premier shunning journalists, pointing out that open debate happens in the House, where protections for MLAs are at their greatest.

However, he said the expectation of a modern parliamentary democracy was for politicians to speak openly to reporters.

“This escapade today seems to be out of the norm. But it’s not unusual for government to proclaim transparency all the time and yet not practice it.”

Professor Thomas Bateman. Photo: St. Thomas University

The academic said all governments require secrecy to formulate, debate and refine policy proposals before they’re announced to the public because “privacy breeds candour, and candour usually improves the quality of discussion regarding government matters.”

But he added that governments couldn’t dwell in the private realm all the time because they’re accountable to the assembly and voters.

“Every single government, when it comes into office, says they’re going to do politics differently,” Bateman said. “When it commits itself to more availability, more transparency, more honesty, and so on and so forth, it’s just asking for it when it opts not to do so.”

Like other observers, he’s noticed politicians nowadays frequently ignore the traditional media in favour of going directly to the public on social media.

He said it amounted to “message discipline trope versus accountability through the free flow of questions and answers.”

“The big development in Canadian politics, but it’s really western democratic politics, is each party’s single-minded messaging,” he said. “The party’s backrooms formulate very concise, pithy messages that they want the voters to hear. And that becomes the great code. It is the North Pole for communication with the public.

“It’s a tight, concise message, and governments really try not to be put off that particular approach. Spontaneous scrums are designed to put the government off their message. That’s what accountability and questions and answers are all about.”

– This story from Brunswick News was written by Local Journalism Initiative Reporter John Chilibeck with files from Barbara Simpson.

Posted in LJI stories, New Brunswick government, New Brunswick politics | Leave a comment

Tantramar council agonizes over whether to raise taxes

Posted on November 1, 2025 by brucewark

Treasurer Michael Beal talks taxes at Tuesday’s special council meeting

Tantramar Town Council spent about 40 minutes Tuesday discussing next year’s operating budget, but could not come to a consensus on whether to hold tax rates steady or raise them to make up for a provincially imposed property assessment freeze.

“Setting the tax rate is council’s prerogative. It’s one of the things council gets to do,” Treasurer Michael Beal said after a presentation that lasted more than an hour. It concluded with a slide showing four options.

When Councillor Allison Butcher pressed him for a recommendation, Beal said he would favour something close to Option 4 which would mean tax increases for Sackville, Dorchester and the former local service districts (LSDs) that would raise nearly $240,000 in additional revenue.

In referring to his table, Beal explained that Option 1 would continue on the same path that council has been following since amalgamation in 2023: a slight decrease in municipal tax rates for Sackville and Dorchester with five cent increases per $100 of assessment in the Sackville and Dorchester LSDs and an increase of just over four cents in Point de Bute LSD ($0.415).

Option 2 would mean no increases in municipal tax rates next year.

Options 3 would mean five and four cent tax increases in the LSDs while Option 4 would mean two cent increases in Sackville and Dorchester with five and four cents in the LSDs.

Budget cuts

Beal explained that the town could balance its budget without tax increases and cuts in services partly because he eliminated a $250,000 transfer to the capital reserve fund — money that he said would help pay for future capital expenditures.

He also reduced the budget for council initiatives from $50,000 to $20,000 and did not include a $50,000 request from public works for additional asphalt street patching.

Beal said he had shifted $150,000 for the purchase next year of new radios for the Sackville fire department from the operating budget to capital, thereby reducing the money available for other capital projects.

He said the additional revenue from Option 4 would give the town more choices such as, for example, putting the radios back into the operating budget leaving more money for other capital projects.

Assessment freeze

Mayor Andrew Black

Mayor Black lamented the one-year provincial freeze on property assessments.

“The decision was made without asking any municipalities if this was a good idea,” he said, adding that the financial crunch on local governments will only get worse as prices for everything continue to rise.

“I think it’s important to note that the finance department and staff have had the foresight to slightly decrease our taxes in Sackville and Dorchester over the last couple of years so that we can attempt as staff and council to keep our taxes at a reasonable level,” he said.

“There are municipalities across the province who have dropped their tax rates drastically over the last couple of years and are now going to be struggling to attempt to deliver the services that they can because there’s an assessment freeze so we are going to be in a better position because of fiscal foresight by staff and I want to just make that point that I want to give kudos to administration and finances for doing that,” Black added.

Councillors weigh in

Councillor Barry Hicks said he favoured Option 2, no increase in taxes, adding that the town contracts out projects that could be done in-house.

“I feel we can generate some extra money there,” he said.

Councillor Josh Goguen

Councillor Josh Goguen noted that the question of whether to raise taxes is definitely a loaded one especially with an election looming next May.

“At first, I was kind of going towards Option 2 because I wanted to keep everything status quo,” he said, adding, however, that he was concerned about removing the $50,000 for street patching and also saw the importance of new radios for Sackville’s fire department.

“I think I’m more leaning towards Option 4,” Goguen said.

“If we make a communication strategy to be able to say this is what your tax dollars are going to, I think it’ll help the residents kind of swallow that pill a bit more,” he added.

“Is it the best option, no, but is it what the municipality needs? I would say yes,” Goguen said.

Mayor Black agreed that municipal costs are rising.

“It’s important to recognize that just as everybody in the province of New Brunswick and arguably across the nation is facing increases in every aspect of their life, that directly impacts municipalities as well,” he said, adding that the cost of asphalt for patching has doubled.

“That’s just one thing, but every cost that the municipality faces is going up,” the mayor said, noting that the expensive fire department radios are needed to maintain public safety.

Black noted that the assessment freeze is only supposed to last one year, so the financial outlook may change in 2027, but in the meantime he said, it might make sense either to keep tax rates the same or maybe bump them up a little bit.

Councillor Bruce Phinney

Councillor Bruce Phinney said he favoured no tax increases.

“Maybe it’s time for us to really hold things as they are, tighten our belt and find ways of being able to still provide the services that we do,” he said.

“There’s a lot of people that are not in the position to be able to afford the increases,” he added.

Councillor Debbie Wiggins-Colwell said she was leaning to Option 4 raising taxes, but added she agreed with Councillor Hicks that the extra $240,000 in revenue should not be spent on contracting out services.

She suggested the extra revenue should go toward the road patching budget and the new radios for Sackville fire.

Councillor Michael Tower said he found it hard to go with Option 4.

“The idea of putting up the tax rate that much doesn’t sound right to me,” he added.

He suggested that taxes have been high in the past because the municipality put so much money into its capital reserve fund.

He said he might be able to go with the smaller tax rate increases in Option 3, but also agreed with Councillor Hicks that the town should not be contracting out as much work as it does.

Treasurer Beal showed a slide on how much extra homeowners would pay per year and per month if tax rates went up one cent and one-and-a-half cents on homes assessed at $150,000, $300,000 and $450,000:

“Nobody wants taxes to go up. Everybody would like to pay less for everything,” said Councillor Allison Butcher, adding that municipal costs are rising.

Councillor Allison Butcher

“Raising taxes is a frightening thing, but if someone has a $300,000 home and it goes up one-and-a-half cents, they’re paying a total of $45 more for the whole year. That’s a sweater,” she said.

“I can do without one sweater and my house isn’t $300,00o either,” she added. “We’re talking the cost of a coffee a month.”

Butcher said while it’s unpopular to favour raising taxes, it’s important for the municipality to have a financial buffer to deal with unforeseen expenses.

“For those reasons, I think Option 4 is the one I like best.”

In the end, Treasurer Beal said that when council meets again on Monday to hear a presentation of the draft utility budget, he will prepare various resolutions on the various options for the draft operating budget.

“If none of those pass, then we need to have more discussion,” he said. “If we have resolutions for four options and none of those pass, then we’re having the next meeting to talk about, ‘What do we want to do, right?'”

Note: Councillor Greg Martin did not comment during the meeting. Deputy Mayor Matt Estabrooks was absent.

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

Has peak lobster already come and gone in the Maritimes?

Posted on October 31, 2025 by brucewark

By: John Chilibeck, Local Journalism Initiative Reporter. Source: The Daily Gleaner October 29, 2025

Globe and Mail reporter Greg Mercer with a copy of his new book. Photo: Facebook

Greg Mercer had never tasted lobster quite like it.

As part of the research for his new book, The Lobster Trap, the reporter who grew up in Darlings Island just a short drive from the Fundy Coast, tucked into a meal at Restaurant Guy Savoy, a fine-dining establishment in Paris run by a Michelin-star chef.

The dinner included “delicate moulds of lobster tartare cured in lobster vinaigrette with lobster carpaccio and lobster coral pancake, all seasoned with more lobster vinaigrette.”

The bill for him and his partner came to more than 900 Euros, or $1,460.

It was a step up from a lobster roll, though Mercer told Brunswick News in an interview he still has a special spot in his stomach for the Maritime favourite, served on a grilled hot dog bun, slathered with butter and mayo.

“It was phenomenal,” he said of Guy Savoy, which is housed in the old venerable French mint near the Seine River.

“But I’ve also enjoyed lobster at a lobster boil with drawn butter. The simplest methods are still some of the best ways to enjoy lobster. It was a once in a lifetime opportunity to see lobster put on a high pedestal and how you can elevate that food almost like art.

“But I cannot afford to eat like that. Most people can’t.”

Mercer, an award-winning journalist who works for the Globe and Mail in Toronto but started his career with the Telegraph-Journal, travelled far and wide for his first book to talk to fishermen, scientists, and buyers and sellers in the global lobster industry, visiting Atlantic Canada, New England, San Francisco, China, South Korea, Ireland, England and France.

Food for the rich

At the heart of the book is a cautionary tale: lobster could become a rare food for the rich if people don’t heed some of the warning signs of a “seafood on the brink,” as the subtitle describes the crustaceans.

In France, for instance, lobster fishermen were more likely over the past few seasons to catch octopus in their traps, a creature whose population has exploded with warming ocean temperatures.

Closer to home, in places like Connecticut, Rhode Island and New York, an industry that thrived for more than a century went belly up about 25 years ago, as ocean temperatures soared and the lobster, which is extremely sensitive to temperature, became sluggish and could not cope with less oxygen in the water.

As the book outlines, those places saw a temporary glut of lobsters as the temperatures rose and hit a sweet spot before rising even further, killing them.

It’s a phenomenon that’s been observed farther north in Maine, which hit peak lobster in 2016, followed by decline. Mercer found scientists who fear the same kind of environmental crisis could befall the Bay of Fundy, the neighbouring waters that have helped build New Brunswick lobster into a $1.3-billion industry.

Lobster boom

John Sackton, Seafood Datasearch, March 2025, Province of New Brunswick (click chart to enlarge)

Over the last couple of decades, lobster landings have been excellent, encouraging young people who want to get into the fishery to pay big money for a licence.

This, the author warns, adds pressure on crews to find and sell more lobster, to pay back big debt. With the boat, gear and licence, the red ink can be over $1 million.

Mercer remembers seeing the lobster boom in the 1990s when his father would take him on weekends sea kayaking on the Bay of Fundy, where he’d watch the fishermen working their traps.

“I grew up seeing the fishery from a distance. I was never part of it, but it was always in the background. And you saw all these nice trucks showing up on the wharf and great homes being built in places like Grand Manan. And people would say, ‘oh, that’s lobster money.’ But it wasn’t really until I dug into the book, that I learned about the boom that fuelled all that.”

New Brunswick still has about 5,000 people catching lobster in boats and another 5,000 processing the creatures in plants.

Unlike the past, when most of the lobster went straight to the United States, today the market has gone global, and it isn’t unusual to find Atlantic Canadian lobster in China or South Korea.

Change regulations

He said there’s too much riding on the industry to ignore the trouble signs.

“The big question is what do we do with a warming ocean? There’s no lever we can pull that will turn that back tomorrow. Obviously, there are things we can do to fight climate change, but nothing biologists would say we can do in time to have an effect tomorrow. The things we have more immediate power to control are regulations.”

Mercer knows fishing communities are skeptical about the role Ottawa and the Department of Fisheries and Oceans play, 33 years on from the great cod collapse that transformed Newfoundland. Critics blame that disaster on officials ignoring warning signs that the fish was in big trouble.

But Mercer says the easiest way to protect lobster would be to stiffen the maximum and minimum sizes that can be legally caught.

“There’s really no reason from a conservation point of view why we should be allowing fishermen to harvest jumbo lobsters in this country, other than the market wants it, but it’s bad for the species. The U.S. has brought in these restrictions. We should follow suit.”

He said if tourists want to see giant lobsters on display in tanks in places like the seaside village of Alma near Fundy National Park, too bad.

“This comes after a century of us trying to get the biggest lobster we can, and it just becomes increasingly rare. So, if we care about the future of this species, we need to give the biggest ones the chance to survive because they produce the most eggs.”

‘There’s hope’

Mercer is less convinced that restricting licences would be the way to go, as there’s already a dispute between coastal and Indigenous communities over who should get a bigger share. Buying out even a single licence would also be enormously expensive for taxpayers.

Limiting traps and introducing a quota – never done before in Canadian waters – would lead to too much pushback, Mercer predicts.

“If you’re a young fisherman in your 20s, you’re taking a significant loan just to enter the fishery. Add the boat and your gear and on Day 1, before you’ve caught a single lobster, you have a lot breathing down your neck in terms of debt. So, they are often not going to make the best choices in terms of conservation.”

The black cover of the book gives you the impression that Mercer is pessimistic about lobster’s future. Humans, he is quick to note, have a terrible track record for seafood species in demand around the world.

But he insists there’s hope. “There are ways to improve the sustainability of this fishery, but do we want to pay the price for it? That’s the question,” he said.

“This fishery means a lot to those coastal communities, and I hope we get this right. I’m hopeful we’ll figure it out because there’s a lot riding on it. No fishery means as much to Atlantic Canada, or the whole country, as lobster.”

This story from Brunswick News was written by Local Journalism Initiative Reporter John Chilibeck.

Back cover of the book

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