EV charger proposal for Dorchester back at council this week, after delay
A project that was delayed by council at their meeting on October 10 will be back up for consideration at a special meeting on November 1. Councillors voted to add the item to this week’s special budget meeting agenda in order to make sure it can be completed before the end of this year’s fiscal year on December 31.
At Tantramar council’s October 10 meeting, town staff brought forward a proposed project to install two Level 2 EV chargers beside the Dorchester Veterans Community Centre (DVCC), something which climate change coordinator Brittany Cormier said would be a “cost efficient, timely and effective way of increasing Tantramar’s electrical vehicle charging infrastructure.”
The project would be partially funded through NB Power’s Plug In NB program, and cost the municipality about $9500 on top of the rebates available. Cormier told council that staff saw the DVCC as a “valuable location” for the chargers based on access to a power connection, ownership by the town, and “high visibility for both accessibility and security.” Cormier also cited “the proximity to amenities, restaurants, shopping, museums, the public library and gorgeous green spaces right on the valley, seeing the river and the train passing by.” The DVCC is on Main Street, near access to the Station Road Marsh Loop Trail and about a 5-minute walk from the village centre.… Continue
Meet the candidates: Bruce Phinney, running in Ward 3 (Central Sackville)
Sackville town councillor Bruce Phinney was born in Sackville into a military family. They lived in Germany and Nova Scotia before settling in Oromocto in 1962. After returning to Sackville in 1977, he began a career spanning four decades in facilities management at Mount Allison University.
Listen to CHMA’s Meet The Candidates interview with Bruce Phinney, which took place at CHMA studios on November 15, 2022.
Phinney is running for Ward 3, where residents will elect four councillors from a pool of nine candidates, including Phinney, Michael Tower, Allison Butcher, Virgil Hammock, Alice Cotton, Sahitya Pendurthi, Josh Goguen, Charles Harvey, and Sana Mohammed. All candidates have interviews on CHMA, except for Charles Harvey who declined, and Sana Mohammed, who hasn’t responded to an interview request.
CHMA is compiling all its election coverage in one place, for your convenience. For more candidate interviews and other local elections coverage, click here.
TRANSCRIPT, Bruce Phinney November 15, 2022
CHMA: Bruce Phinney, thank you so much for joining us today.
Bruce Phinney: My pleasure, Erica.
CHMA: For those who might not already know you, tell us a bit about yourself.
Bruce Phinney: I was born in Sackville in 1955. That makes me 67. I grew up in Oromocto—my father was in the military. Then I moved here to Sackville in 1977, and in 1978, I started working for [Mount Allison University]. I worked for the University for 42 and a half years.… Continue
Councillors discuss whether or not they intended to suspend Phinney’s health benefits
There was some disagreement at Sackville Town Council on Monday as to whether the suspension of the health benefits of a councillor who was found to be in violation of town council’s code of conduct was properly approved.
Local journalist Bruce Wark reported last week on Councillor Bruce Phinney’s surprise at discovering the suspension of his health plan while visiting a pharmacy to fill some prescriptions.
During question period on Monday, Wark asked council about the specifics of the motion to suspend Phinney’s pay, and why the motion read aloud on July 12 differed from the motion as printed in the approved minutes from the same meeting.
CAO Jamie Burke told Wark that the suspension of Phinney’s benefits, though not specifically mentioned, was implied in the phrasing of the motion that was read.
“The commonly understood legal definition of remuneration income moods includes benefits,” said Burke. “So what’s happened, I guess, is that we’ve got a little error in the minutes that were approved, although the meaning of the motion doesn’t change.”
Councillor Michael Tower read Phinney’s suspension motion on July 12, and on Monday said he would not have done so had he known that the councillor’s health benefits were included.
“The benefits were mentioned during our discussion, and I didn’t agree with that part of it,” said Tower.… Continue
Allain dismisses Sackville council concerns and affirms appointment of Jennifer Borne as Tantramar CAO
Note: This story was updated at 5:45pm to include comments from Sackville councillor Michael Tower.
Local Government Minister Daniel Allain has turned down Mayor Shawn Mesheau’s request for an independent review of the process behind hiring a new Tantramar CAO. In a letter to council this week, Allain said he was sticking with his appointment of Dorchester CAO Jennifer Borne to head up the staff for the new municipality of Tantramar. The only other candidate for the job was Sackville CAO Jamie Burke.
Mesheau wrote to Allain about two weeks ago after Sackville town council asked him to do so at their regular July meeting. Mesheau called the process which resulted in Borne’s appointment “fundamentally flawed”, and asked for a meeting with Allain and a review of the whole process by an independent HR consultant.
The minister and the mayor met last week, and this week, Allain sent his reply to all councillors expressing his “confidence in the recruitment process leading to [his] decision to appoint Jennifer Borne to the role.”
Allain’s letter mentioned the province’s contract with Jennifer Murray Consulting of Moncton, whom he said were “responsible for overseeing a biased free [sic] recruitment process leading to a fair and objective evaluation of candidates.”
The letter reads, “The position advertisement, essential qualifications, competencies, and candidate evaluation grid were based on an objective assessment of the position requirements and all candidates were assessed based on the established criteria.”… Continue
Councillors express dismay at under-representation; ask for a single Sackville ward with reps at-large
On Thursday evening, Sackville’s municipal reform committee met for a third time, with a narrow mandate of providing input on whether Sackvillians would elect their future Entity 40 representatives at large, or in up to four separate wards.
But before they got to that question, councillors sounded off on a previous decision made by the province, to forego its own representation-by-population guidelines and allot just 50% of representatives to the former town of Sackville, which is home to 68% of the population of the new Entity 40.
Right off the bat, Councillor Allison Butcher asked Deputy Mayor Andrew Black if there was any chance of changing what she called “a skew as far as population goes?”
“No,” said Black. “That has been decided. That meeting that we had on the 15th, whatever decision was made at the end of that night with the advisory committee that was there, that decision was final.”
It’s become a theme of the municipal reform process so far: rushed decisions made in private meetings, with no substantive engagement with councils, much less the general public.
It was enough for Butcher to forego her usual attempts to put a positive spin on her comments: “At the risk of sounding really, really jaded, it probably doesn’t matter what I think should happen with the four councillors representing the 7000 people,” said Butcher, “because I’m starting to feel like it doesn’t matter what we think.”
Black told the committee that after a 1.5 hour meeting on February 15 with provincially appointed facilitator Chad Peters and the eight appointees to the provincial advisory committee, there was a consensus reached among all members, including himself and Mayor Shawn Mesheau.… Continue