Meet the candidates: Sabine Dietz, running in Ward 4 (Upper Sackville-Midgic)
Sabine Dietz was first elected to Sackville town council in May 2021, about six months before the province announced it would dissolving Sackville and creating a new, much larger town of Tantramar.
Dietz is known for asking questions during council meetings, and for her vocal opposition to the process of forced amalgamation. In her last campaign, Dietz ran as a climate change candidate, but this time she says her experience on council has taught her that she can’t be a single issue representative, and she says a big part of her job if elected will be listening to residents across Ward 4 communities, to make sure she understands their concerns.
CHMA sat down to talk with Dietz outside in the still balmy weather on November 4, 2022:
CHMA has offered to interview all candidates in all wards for the upcoming Tantramar Election. Dietz’s sole opponent in Ward 4, Matt Estabrooks, declined our request. Estabrooks explained that he has “decided to take an independent approach to getting [his] platform out this election, via social media as well as good old face to face conversation.”
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: Interview with Sabine Dietz, November 4, 2022
CHMA: For those listening who might not already know you, tell us a bit about yourself.… Continue
Meet the candidates: Andrew Black, running for mayor of Tantramar
Andrew Black was just elected for a second term on Sackville town council when the province decided to amalgamate surrounding areas and create a new town of Tantramar. After serving the past year as Deputy Mayor and taking an active role in the Union of New Brunswick Municipalities (Black was elected president of the organization last month), he decided to run for mayor of the amalgamated municipality. Black says the coming year in municipal government will be a tough one, dealing with unknowns and a new council composition.
CHMA’s David Gordon Koch has interviewed all three mayoral candidates for Tantramar. Listen to his interview with Andrew Black here:
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:
CHMA: So thanks for taking the time today, Andrew Black. Could you start by telling me a bit about yourself and how long you’ve been involved with council?
Andrew Black: Well, I’m 47 years old. I was born in Amherst, Nova Scotia. And I think it was five months old when my parents moved out west., I lived in Calgary until I was about 10 years old and moved back to the Maritimes, to Sackville, in 1985. So I’ve lived here most of my life. Graduated from Tantramar High School, graduated from Mount Allison University and my parents are both from the area.… Continue
Meet the candidates: Shawn Mesheau, running for mayor of Tantramar
Shawn Mesheau has a long career on Sackville town council, first elected to council in 1998 and serving off and on for nearly 12 years, most recently as the mayor of Sackville, elected just 18 months ago in May 2021. Mesheau is running for mayor of Tantramar in part as a continuation of the commitment he made as mayor of Sackville, and also because he believes the coming years will involve difficult decisions for the new council which he says will require strong leadership.
CHMA’s David Gordon Koch has interviewed all three mayoral candidates for Tantramar. Listen to his interview with Shawn Mesheau here:
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:
CHMA: I’m speaking to Shawn Mesheau, currently the mayor of Sackville. He’s running for the position of first mayor of the new town of Tantramar. Mayor Mesheau, before you became mayor of Sackville, you served for a number of years as town councillor. For listeners who might not be familiar, can you introduce yourself and include any previous involvement on council?
Shawn Mesheau: Sure. Well, I was born and raised here in Sackville. After college, I spent about five, six years in the Fredericton area, came back to Sackville, transferred here through Atlantic Wholesalers, and worked with Atlantic Wholesalers for several years, until they left town.… Continue
Meet the candidates: Bonnie Swift, running for mayor of Tantramar
Bonnie Swift is an environmental engineer who worked for years in Alberta, moving east to Sackville in 2010 and serving as the town of Sackville business development officer for two years. Swift describes herself as a “small town girl” from Dorchester, and says she’s running for mayor of the new municipality of Tantramar after encouragement from friends. Swift became active in Sackville politics this past year, advocating for reconsideration and public consultation of a zoning change that made way for the AIL pipe plant now under construction on Walker Road.
CHMA’s David Gordon Koch has interviewed all three mayoral candidates for Tantramar. Listen to his interview with Bonnie Swift here:
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:
CHMA: I’m speaking with Bonnie Swift. She’s one of three candidates in the race for mayor, the first-ever mayor of the new town of Tantramar. Bonnie, thanks for speaking to CHMA today.
Bonnie Swift: Thank you. You’re welcome. Glad to do it.
CHMA: First of all, can you tell me a little bit about yourself? This is your first run for a municipal council seat, isn’t it?
Bonnie Swift: Yeah, well, as far as I go, I’m a small town girl. I grew up in Dorchester. I went to high school in Sackville.… Continue
Meet the candidates: Robert Corkerton, running in Ward 1 (Dorchester)
Robert Corkerton has been serving as a councillor for the Village of Dorchester for going on 16 years now, and is currently Deputy Mayor for the village. Corkerton says he has the experience to help steer Tantramar into the first few years of amalgamation, and that he’s not running on specific issues, but rather on his record as a Village councillor so far. In an interview with CHMA, Corkerton talks about his work on the amalgamation advisory committee, the future of services like fire and police, taxes, and recreation.
Listen to CHMA’s Meet The Candidates interview with Robert Corkerton, which took place November 1, 2022, at CHMA studios:
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:
CHMA: First of all, welcome, Robert, thanks for coming.
Robert Corkerton: Well, thank you for having me here. It’s great to be here.
CHMA: Just to start off, tell me a bit about yourself.
RC: I’m a resident of Dorchester and have been for the past 20 years. I moved to Dorchester from Montreal. I’m originally from England. I live in Dorchester with my wife and I have four kids, three who attend Tantramar at the moment, and one who’s still in Dorchester.
CHMA: And you have some experience on the [Dorchester] Village Council.… Continue
Meet the candidates: Debbie Wiggins-Colwell, running in Ward 1 (Dorchester)
Debbie Wiggins-Colwell was elected mayor of the village of Dorchester last May, and has spent most of her year and a half in municipal politics dealing with an impending amalgamation. Wiggins-Colwell is now running for a seat on a new Tantramar council representing Ward 1 Dorchester. She’s optimistic about the potential for the amalgamation, and stresses her ability to be a voice for people in the Dorchester area.
Listen to CHMA’s Meet The Candidates interview with Debbie Wiggins-Colwell, which took place November 2, 2022, at her home in Dorchester:
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
CHMA: So thanks for having us here today, Debbie.
Debbie Wiggins-Colwell: You’re very welcome, Erica.
CHMA: Just to start off, tell us a bit about yourself.
DWC: Well, I’ve been a resident of Dorchester for over 50 years. Of course Dorchester is near and dear to my heart. I brought up three children, one special needs boy who is severely autistic. And Dorchester being a small community, for our family, they really embraced him. And I’m willing to give back now, to my village. They have done so much for myself and my family, that it’s… yeah.
CHMA: All right. And you also you have some experience on Village Council.… Continue
These are your candidates for the first Tantramar mayor and council
Nominations have closed on the first elections for a new town of Tantramar mayor and council.
There are five contests for Tantramar elections, and one ward with no contest. The candidates are as follows:
Mayor, Tantramar
- Andrew Black (incumbent Sackville deputy mayor)
- Shawn Mesheau (incumbent Sackville mayor)
- Bonnie Swift
Ward 1, Dorchester (one seat)
- Debbie Wiggins-Colwell (incumbent Dorchester mayor)
- Robert Corkerton (incumbent Dorchester deputy mayor)
Ward 2, West Sackville-Rockport (one seat)
- Natalie Donaher
- Barry Hicks
- Wendy Epworth
- Kevin J. Scott
Ward 3, Sackville (four seats)
- Allison Butcher (incumbent Sackville councillor)
- Alice Cotton
- Joshua Goguen
- Virgil Hammock
- Charles Arden Harvey
- Sana Mohamad
- Sahitya Pendurthi
- Mike Tower (incumbent Sackville councillor)
- Bruce Phinney (incumbent Sackville councillor)
Ward 4, Upper Sackville-Midgic (one seat)
- Sabine Dietz (incumbent Sackville councillor)
- Matt Estabrooks (incumbent Sackville councillor)
Ward 5, Point de Bute (one seat)
- Greg Martin (incumbent on advisory committee for Point de Bute Local Service District)
There are a total of 21 candidates for all positions, including nine women and twelve men. Ten of the candidates are incumbents, already holding seats on council or local service district advisory committees.
CHMA hopes to bring you interviews with all candidates, as well as coverage of the All-Candidates’ Forum being held at the Middle Sackville Baptist Church on November 12, 7pm-9pm.… Continue
Elections NB dumps Civic Centre in favour of Middle Sackville church for voting in first Tantramar election
A Sackville resident is concerned about the location of the polling station for the municipal election happening on November 28, 2022.
In the past, polling stations for Sackville elections have been held at the Tantramar Veterans Memorial Civic Centre, but for this first election of the new Tantramar council, the main polling station for all advanced and election day polls will be at the Middle Sackville Baptist Church across from Silver Lake. On election day, November 28, there will also be a second polling station at the Dorchester Veterans Community Centre.
Sackvillian Alice Cotton says she and some others she’s spoken to are concerned about the location at the Middle Sackville Baptist Church for two key reasons. The first has to do with the use of a church for the polling station. “The church and the state need to be separate,” says Cotton. “We just would not be voting in a church.”
The other reason has to do with accessibility. “There’s a lot of people on the other side of the highway, ” says Cotton, “who don’t have cars, who can’t make it to that poll easily.”
CHMA asks residents to share their issues for this municipal election
CHMA news is looking to gauge which issues are important to you this municipal election season. You can help us provide relevant coverage by sharing your thoughts and concerns in this simple, fast survey:… Continue
Hefty raises on the way for new Tantramar mayor and council
There are big changes ahead for how mayors and municipal councillors are compensated in New Brunswick.
In the new town of Tantramar, the salaries for mayor, deputy mayor and seven town councillors will be roughly triple that of current salaries for Sackville town council. That’s according to numbers published recently by the department of local government.
The new mayor of Tantramar, to be elected on November 28, will make about $47,000 per year, that’s a $32,000 raise compared to the current Sackville mayor, who gets about $15,000 per year.
Councillors in the new town will get $23,650 per year, an increase of $15,000 over the current rate of compensation for Sackville councillors, which is about $8,000.
Tantramar’s deputy mayor, elected by the new council sometime after November 28, will make just over $28,000. That’s roughly $19,000 more than the current Sackville deputy mayor.
Tantramar is larger than Sackville both by population and physical size. The new municipality has a tax base of just over $1 billion. The 2021 tax base for the town of Sackville was about $662 million.
While the province has ultimate authority in all municipal matters regarding the new town of Tantramar, the recommendation to triple salaries came from the local elected officials advisory committee, which is made up of:
- Sackville mayor Shawn Mesheau
- Sackville town councillor Matt Estabrooks
- Dorchester deputy mayor Robert Corkerton
- Dorchester mayor Debbie Wiggins-Colwell
- Pointe de Bute LSD representative Mary Ellen Trueman
- Pointe de Bute LSD representative Greg Martin
- Sackville LSD representative Chris Milner
- Dorchester LSD representative Matt Beal
So far, all but Mary Ellen Trueman, Chris Milner, and Matt Beal have put their names forward as candidates for November 28 elections.… Continue