Canadian corporations at home and overseas under scrutiny in new book by Mount Allison professor
Listen to Tantramar Report for Thursday, September 1, 2022:
More private delivery will worsen health-care crisis, critics say
“All options are on the table” for the health-care system, including more services delivered by the private sector, according to Premier Blaine Higgs.
But his remarks about health-care reform this week have prompted critics to warn that privatization will only worsen conditions in the public health-care system.
Listen to the report that aired on CHMA on Thursday, August 25, 2022:
“There’s a recruitment and retention issue here in this province,” said Susie Proulx-Daigle, head of the New Brunswick Union, which represents several thousand health-care professionals in the province.
“Introducing the private sector is only going to take away professionals out of the public system,” she said.
Higgs made the remarks at a media conference in Moncton on Monday, flanked by three other premiers: Ontario’s Doug Ford, P.E.I.’s Dennis King and Nova Scotia’s Tim Houston, all of them Tory leaders.
“For me, you know, all options are on the table to understand what are best practices,” he said.
However, that doesn’t mean patients will have to pay more money out of their own pockets for better health care services, he said.… Continue
First Busker Fest a success given short timeline, plans for next year under consideration
Rough estimates are that about 1000 people attended the first Sackville Busker Festival last weekend.
One day of the festival was rained out, but from Thursday night to Saturday night, Bridge Street hosted a number of buskers and local performers, as well as vendors and a mini Japanese summer festival put on by Mount Allison’s MASSIE students.
“I was very happy with how it went,” says organizer and Downtown Sackville Business Improvement Area (BIA) vice president Wendy Epworth. “The performers were pleased, and the spectators. Everyone really seemed to have positive comments and enjoy themselves.”
Epworth says the downtown Sackville BIA has not yet met to discuss future plans, but she’s already thinking of ways to improve the festival in the future. She says she’d like to see more performers and additional events for kids on the street. And she’s definitely made note of the need for washrooms, which was something the short timeline didn’t allow for this year.
“We only had about a week to put out the entire event,” says Epworth. The festival was funded by ACOA’s Revitalize Main Streets Initiative, and althoght the BIA applied to the program in April, they didn’t receive approval of funding until mid-to-late July.
The company that booked the performers was Premier Entertainment Group, the same company that runs the Halifax International Buskers Festival.… Continue
How much is your rent? New project aiming to grow capacity for non-profit housing wants to know
There’s a dearth of information when it comes to housing—especially rental housing—in areas of New Brunswick outside of the three big cities. But Peter Corbyn is hoping to change that, and he’s looking for help from Sackville renters.
Corbyn is a consultant working for the New Brunswick Non Profit Housing Association on a housing asset data map. He’s gathering information on housing costs, vacancies, suppliers, and basically anything that can help support further development of desperately needed affordable housing options.
“We need to come close to doubling our number of housing starts in the province relative to the 1990s,” says Corbyn. “And we’re facing a number of challenges to get there.”
Corbyn cites changing demographics leading to a reduction of skilled tradespeople in smaller communities, the rise in prices of construction and real estate, the pandemic in general, and the influx of new people moving to the province. Corbyn’s project will attempt to gather information to help smaller communities get in a better position for developing and financing affordable housing.
One component of Corbyn’s research is the gathering of accurate rental market data, especially for communities with populations under 10,000, for whom data is not currently published. “The average or median market rental rate in any given community in rural New Brunswick, whether it’s Charlotte County, Kent County, even Sackville, the peninsula, Carleton County… The rental rates are assumed to be the same for all of those regions,” says Corbyn, “which as we all know is not the case.”… Continue
From the archives: Going back in time at the Joggins Fossil Cliffs
Listen to Tantramar Report for August 9, 2022:
From the archives: An interview with Del Wheaton, one of the latest inductees to the Sackville Arts Wall
Listen to Tantramar Report for Monday, August 8, 2022:
From the archives: ‘Everything changes on a dime’ — celebrated pianist Janet Hammock on musicianship, John Cage and deep listening
Listen to Tantramar Report for Friday, August 5, 2022:
From the archives: Sackville housing cooperative has provided homes for more than three decades
Listen to Tantramar Report for Thursday, August 4, 2022:
… Continue
Sappyfest is back! The art and music festival prepares to transform Bridge Street this weekend
The pilons will go up this evening for a planned closure of Bridge Street between Lorne and Main Street to prepare for the return of Sappyfest to downtown Sackville.
CHMA spoke with Sappyfest volunteer, board member and past chair Jeska Grue about what’s in store for the weekend-long music and art festival.
Grue says the large tent that serves at the main stage for the festival goes up Thursday night, and set up will continue on Friday. The first mainstrage show is Friday night with Julie Doiron, Kelly McMichael, Tough Age, and Hot Garbage.
Shows will also take place at the Sackville Legion, Ducky’s, the Vogue Cinema and the Mount Allison Chapel. Struts Gallery is also a focal point with art on exhibition, an artist panel discussion, and local busking favourite Harris McSheffery performing at the weekly Friday BBQ.
Struts is also hosting the Phonoautomat on Saturday afternoon, billed as “a miniature, instant recording booth where you can record up to five minutes of anything you like and walk away with physical copies on cassette to share with friends and family.”
The shows and events run through to Sunday night, when the festival wraps. Scroll down for the full schedule listing (subject to change) or check out sappyfest.com.
Grue says she expects several hundred attendees this year. “It may be a little bit smaller than our last in-person festival,” says Grue. “People have a lot of commitments this summer and a lot of traveling going on, but we will have quite a few people around.”… Continue
‘I don’t agree with the sanction’: Fundraiser to cover lost pay following reprimand against town councillor
A fundraiser has collected more than $1,400 for a Sackville town councillor.
“I don’t agree with the sanction,” said Wendy Alder, who launched the campaign.
“I don’t know the rules… But I know, for example, in the normal workplace, you couldn’t suspend somebody and then still expect them to work, which is what they’ve done.”
Alder launched the GoFundMe after town council voted to sanction Councillor Bruce Phinney earlier this month over code of conduct violations.
The reprimand includes a two-month suspension of Phinney’s salary.
Town council hasn’t disclosed the nature of the code of conduct violation, or the identity of the complainant, but CHMA has attempted to piece together the story in this report.