Higgs government attracts criticism over transit spending
On the streets of Sackville, area residents say public transit would benefit people including students and seniors.
“It would be a good investment, especially for students who don’t have cars,” said Alison Parrell, a student at Mount Allison University.
She said it could help people access services in Moncton, including medical appointments.
“It would be nice if there were something for those that don’t have any transportation,” said Susan MacDonald, who lives in Dorchester.
In that rural village, having a personal vehicle is practically a must, since public transit there is non-existent.
Public transportation advocates have criticized the Higgs government for walking away from federal public transit funding earlier in the pandemic.
Ottawa is now allowing New Brunswick to use federal funds earmarked for public transportation to pay for roads and bridges.
A town the size of Sackville should have public transport connections to Moncton “at last half a dozen times a day,” said Ted Bartlett, president of the volunteer-based advocacy group Transport Action Atlantic.
“If you don’t have a car, you can’t get to Moncton conveniently,” he said.
Aside from limited services offered by Maritime Bus, “you can stand out on the Trans-Canada with your thumb out – or you can have, I suppose, a very expensive cab ride,” he said.
Otherwise, transportation options include limited VIA Rail service and a volunteer-driven charity called Rural Rides Tantramar.… Continue
Municipal reform: Potential names for Entity 40 revealed
Tantramar or Beauséjour Township?
Those are two possible names for an area that will result from the merger of Sackville, Dorchester and other nearby communities.
The amalgamation will create a territory that’s been dubbed Entity 40, pending the choice of a new name.
Last month, the Elected Officials Advisory Committee formed a subcommittee to lead the naming process.
On Tuesday, a member of that group posted an update on social media, and asked for feedback on the potential monikers.
“We have spoken to the local historical groups and had input from the provincial topographers,” Dorchester village councillor Robert Corkerton said in a Facebook post.
The chosen name will be an “umbrella name for the entity,” and existing place names won’t actually change, he added.
“The local names of the areas in which we live are not changing, our postal addresses are not changing.”
The post included some background about the two choices. Tantramar has its roots in the French word tintamarre, meaning great noise.
“The first French Acadian settlers in the area who arrived around the last quarter of the 17th century are said to have heard great flocks of geese or maybe the incoming tide that made a great noise,” the post stated.
“They used the word tintamarre to describe this noise and, eventually, an Acadian hamlet was given the name Tintamarre before the expulsion of 1755. When anglophone settlers arrived in the region in the 1760’s, they kept the name, and after decades of different spellings, it became Tantramar in the second half of the 19th century.”… Continue
Dorchester girl dies following tragic school bus incident
A 13-year-old girl has died after falling from a moving school bus in Dorchester this week, according to the RCMP.
The incident occurred on Tuesday at 2:45 p.m., Cpl. Brian Villers said in an email.
Otherwise, circumstances leading to the tragedy remain unclear, with authorities releasing few details so far.
One parent said her eight-year-old daughter was on the bus at the time.
In a Facebook message, Janie Chappell said students saw the rear door of the bus open before a girl fell from the vehicle.
RCMP spokesperson Corporal Hans Ouellette said police believe no criminality was involved, and referred further questions to the school district and provincial Coroner Services.
In an email, Stephanie Patterson, a spokesperson for the Anglophone East School District, said “Our thoughts are with the student’s family and the Dorchester Consolidated School community.”
She said the district “remains focused on supporting students, families and staff who have been impacted by this tragedy.”
“Education Support Services remain in place, as they were yesterday, with counselling services available for any staff or students who wish to come to the school to access them,” she said.
This story was updated with additional information on April 15, 2022, at approximately 8:30 p.m.… Continue
‘Deep concern about how the pandemic is being managed’: Local task force criticizes Higgs government
The Memramcook-Tantramar Community Task Force has published an open letter expressing “deep concern about how the pandemic is being managed” in New Brunswick.
The task force is a volunteer organization in the Sackville area created in response to COVID-19.
Their letter calls on the provincial government to “provide more incentives for people to get vaccinated,” reinstate masking in schools, and provide more information in weekly updates.
“We’ve heard from people who have loved ones who are considered more vulnerable to illness, who have been saying to us, they feel abandoned,” said task force co-chair Margaret Tusz-King in an interview.
That news comes as Public Health changes how cases of COVID-19 are reported.
The province has discontinued its online COVID-19 dashboard; instead, it has introduced new weekly reports on a government webpage called COVIDWATCH.
On Tuesday, the provincial government announced another nine COVID-related deaths – that’s a reduction compared to last week, when the province reported 13 deaths.
There have now been 358 COVID-related deaths since the pandemic began.
There were 78 confirmed COVID-19 hospitalizations during the seven days that ended on Saturday.
That figure only reflects patients hospitalized for COVID symptoms, and it has increased by 31 compared to last week
There are nine people who are receiving intensive care, according to the latest report.… Continue
‘They feel abandoned’: Local task force criticizes Higgs government’s handling of COVID-19
Listen here to Tantramar Report for April 6, 2022:
‘People deserve a living wage’: Minimum wage increase not enough for decent quality of life, critics say
New Brunswick’s minimum wage goes up by one dollar today, to reach $12.75 per hour. And another increase is slated for October, when the minimum wage will reach $13.75.
In a video posted to social media this week, Minister of Labor Trevor holder acknowledged that “many New Brunswick families are struggling to keep up with the cost of living, and it’s getting worse.”
Until today, New Brunswick had the lowest minimum wage of any province or territory in Canada. Saskatchewan now holds that dubious distinction.
By October, New Brunswick is slated to have the highest minimum wage in the Atlantic region, against $13.70 per hour in P.E.I., $13.35 in Nova Scotia and $13.20 in Newfoundland and Labrador, according to the Retail Council of Canada.
It’s a far cry from last year’s widely-ridiculed five cent increase, based on changes to the Consumer Price Index.
At the time, Minister Holder said in a statement the policy would protect the “purchasing power of employees” while ensuring “predictability for businesses.”… Continue
Sounds of Sackville
March 26th. Ainsley, Annie and Maya. A radio show showcasing songs that connect Sackvillians to their community! Maybe it’s the song that was playing when you bought your wedding dress or the song you listen to every time you drive into town. Covid-19 has been a difficult time for all of us, maybe put a song that has been able to lift you up and keep you going during these difficult times!
Check out the full list of community submissions in this playlist:
… Continue
Schools struggle with staff absenteeism, but role of COVID-19 unclear, says teachers’ union
New Brunswick lifted all remaining COVID-19 restrictions just as students returned to classes from March Break two weeks ago.
Some parents have welcomed the end of universal indoor masking at schools.
But others have called for the mandate to remain in place until at least the end of April, with a petition that had gathered nearly 1,500 virtual signatures by Monday.
Previously on CHMA, we heard from Kathleen Gadd, a Mount Allison University graduate and mother of three children, one of the petition’s co-authors.
She warned about issues including a wave of infections hitting the families of teachers and other staff who might be vulnerable to severe COVID.
Since then, reports have emerged of high rates of staff absenteeism, particularly at schools in the Moncton region.
For more on this story, CHMA spoke to Connie Keating, president of the New Brunswick Teachers Association and co-president of the New Brunswick Teachers Federation, the union representing teachers.
Keating is also a longtime teacher who studied at Mount Allison University. In an interview on Friday, she said absenteeism is a major issue across the province.
But it’s unclear whether COVID-19 is the culprit, she said, because reliable data isn’t available.
Students renew call for Mount A to divest from fossil fuels ahead of climate strike
Climate justice activists at Mount Allison University and their supporters will be getting their hands dirty on Friday as part of student-led climate strike actions happening around the world.
Their handprints will cover a banner painted with images from the fossil fuel industry – an oil well and two smokestacks belching black smoke – and bearing the words “People Not Profit.”
“That’s what we’re trying to do,” said student activist Kate DesRoches. “Put the people over the profit, literally.”
DesRoches is a member of Divest MTA, a student activist group that campaigns for Mount A to move its investment funds out of fossil fuels.
She said there’s a tension between what students learn in the classroom about climate change, and how the university uses its money. You can listen to her interview with CHMA here:
The artwork is part of student-led actions happening internationally as part of the Fridays for Future movement.
Divest MTA is part of a movement calling for institutional investors around the world to move trillions of dollars out of fossil fuels.
Universities have multimillion dollar funds called endowments which they use to generate cash.
By the end of 2020, Mount Allison’s endowment was worth more than $170 million, according to information publicly available on the university’s website. … Continue
Self-reported COVID-19 cases decline at Mount Allison
The number of active COVID-19 cases at Mount Allison University has declined, according to self-reported case data which the university released this week.
There are currently 15 self-reported cases of COVID-19 in the university community, Mount A said Tuesday in its weekly update.
That’s a significant decline compared to last week, when the university reported a spike in cases.
Of the current active cases, eight are off-campus and seven are in residence.
The total number of cases in the university community reported since early January has reached 303, an increase of 27 compared to last week.
In its previous update, the university reported an overall week-over-week increase of 102 cases.
Public Health reports 16 deaths
Meanwhile, Public Health reported Tuesday that COVID-19 hospitalizations have shot up by 30 cases since last week’s update, bringing the total number to 129.
The number of people receiving intensive care reached 16, an increase of three compared to last week. There are five people on a ventilator, a decline of two.
The province also recorded 16 new COVID-19 related deaths over the past week, for a total death toll of 336 people in New Brunswick since the pandemic began.
New Brunswick lifted all remaining COVID-19 restrictions last week.
… Continue