Water and sewer shut-off notices sent to 100 accounts for outstanding debts
Shut-off notices for unpaid water and sewer bills have increased in 2022 compared to last year.
But the overall figure is lower now than before the pandemic, according to data from the Town of Sackville.
“In June a review of outstanding water and sewer accounts were completed, and we have begun the process of issuing shut-off notices to accounts with overdue balances,” says a staff report to council from the latest public meeting.
That includes 100 water and sewer accounts, which together owe roughly $59,260.
That’s an increase compared to last year, when the shut-off list included 92 accounts worth a total of about $54,400.
Shut-off notices are issued for any account owing at least $250 more than 90 days past due, according to town treasurer Michael Beal.
In response to queries from CHMA, he noted there were no shut-off notices issued in 2020, when the COVID-19 pandemic hit New Brunswick.
In 2019, shut-off notices were issued to 130 accounts totalling more than $69,000; the previous year there were 131 accounts that received shut-off notices for debts worth about $96,000.
Beal couldn’t immediately confirm how many water and sewer accounts have actually been shut off due to outstanding debts. However, he could only recall one recent example, which he said involved a vacant property.… Continue
‘Hugely disappointed’ in Higgs’ health shake up, says rural health group co-chair John Higham
John Higham is not very hopeful about the shake-up in New Brunswick health care announced last week by Premier Blaine Higgs. In fact, the former Sackville mayor and co-chair of the Rural Health Action Group says he is “hugely disappointed” in Higgs’ announcement on Friday that he is firing Horizon CEO John Dornan, dissolving Horizon and Vitalité boards, and shuffling his cabinet ministers around to put Bruce Fitch in charge of health and Dorothy Shephard in charge of social development.
Higham has been involved in defending health care services in Sackville since the “first significant threat” to the hospital took place while he was mayor, in February 2020. Since then, the overarching issue he’s observed is that “health services have just been divorced from community needs and desire to help.” Higham felt the work he and the other volunteers of the Rural Health Action Group have done in the past while was working towards changing that.
“We saw some great progress in the last few years,” Higham says, “particularly with our collaboration with Horizon and with Dr. Dornan’s understanding of what he saw in rural [health], and what was required. And now I just don’t see any of that. I’m really frustrated with this announcement.”
Here the full interview with John Higham here:
Sackville man sentenced in drug trafficking case
Listen to Tantramar Report for Thursday, July 14, 2022.
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Online ‘inventory’ takes stock of natural features in Sackville and its watersheds
Sackville and its two main watersheds, Carters Brook and Joe Brook, boast nearly 71,000 “natural assets” covering more than 12,000 hectares, according to a new online dashboard.
Natural assets include everything from wetlands, lakes and rivers to forests, fields and soil. Over the past year, staff at the Town of Sackville have been working with the not-for-profit Municipal Natural Assets Initiative on the so-called natural assets inventory.
Town councillors saw the results of that work at last week’s public meeting of council, during a presentation by Amy Taylor, CEO of Green Analytics, a company that provides technical support to MNAI.
Speaking at Sackville Town Council on Tuesday, July 5, Taylor explained that natural assets can help mitigate the effects of climate change.
Online ‘inventory’ takes stock of natural features in Sackville and its watersheds
Listen to Tantramar Report for Monday, July 11, 2022:
The latest offering from the Black Duck team, Oystërhead Tavern, opens today
The Black Duck on Bridge Street in Sackville has gone through a number of changes over the course of the pandemic, as co-owners Al Barbour and Sarah Evans tried to adapt to the steady stream of changes in public health rules and people’s habits. And today, the popular eatery reopens anew again, this time as Oystërhead Tavern.
CHMA dropped by the restaurant this week to find out what’s in store from Barbour himself:
Barbour says that Oystërhead is run by “the same Black Duck team, working out of the same building,” just under a new name. With asthetic changes inside the restaurant, the name Oystërhead—part homage to English heavy metal band Mötorhead, and part nod to the fresh oysters on the menu—seemed more fitting that the Black Duck, says Barbour.
There won’t be significant menu changes since the cafe moved to lunch and evening service earlier this year. “It’ll be a similar menu to what we’ve been running,” says Barbour.
“We’ve been operating for 10 years and the pandemic has made us rethink some of the things that we were doing,” says Barbour. “We decided to concentrate more on bespoke food, as opposed to things like sandwiches and fast grab and go sort of stuff.”
Barbour says the restaurant will still use food from the Black Duck garden and other local suppliers. Meals will be more elaborate than what was on offer at the old cafe, but also “approachable and not particularly expensive,” says Barbour.… Continue
Loss of two doctors in Sackville emergency department related to policy change meant to help recruitment
Horizon health network has confirmed that the Sackville Memorial Hospital emergency department recently lost two doctors who had been working in the department.
Dr. Jody Enright, Horizon’s medical director in the Moncton area, says the two left emergency, “to focus on their respective family practices.”
The Sackville hospital emergency department has been closed for two additional days in the past two weeks due to a lack of physician availability. That’s on top of already reduced hours that have been in place for over a year, due to mostly to a lack of nursing staff.
The decision by the two doctors to leave the emergency department was made possible by a recent policy change at Horizon. Previously, doctors in Sackville were required to work shifts at the emergency department in order to maintain a practice in the area. Enright says that condition, “has presented a significant barrier to our recruitment efforts in Sackville, as very few candidates are interested in managing a family practice while also taking on additional duties in the [emergency department].”
Enright says the decision to remove the requirement was made “in consultation with and supported by the medical team.” She believes the change will significantly enhance the chances of “identifying, recruiting and ultimately retaining more family physicians and Emergency Department physicians in Sackville moving forward.“
John Higham, former Sackville mayor and co-chair of the Rural Health Action Group describes the decision as a positive response by Horizon, and one that has been tried elsewhere.… Continue
Capturing the Waterfowl Park from dawn to dusk
Painter Angela Thibodeau has been been getting up early and working late this summer, in an effort to catch sunrise and sunset at the Sackville Waterfowl Park as much as possible. As this year’s artist-in-residence for the park, Thibodeau’s goal is to document and share the dawn and dusk colours and activity in the wetland.
CHMA spoke with Thibodeau this week to find out more about her summer residency:
As someone who often works from photographs, Thibodeau says she is frustrated by the limitation of her digital camera in capturing the tones and colours of the light-changing mornings and evenings. “It’s always trying to correct for the low light,” she says. “So I’ll just make sketches. They don’t look like finished paintings, but they help me get to know the colours of the sunrise and sunset.”
Then three days a week, Thibodeau sets up in her makeshift studio at the Sackville Visitor Information Centre and paints.
“I make finished paintings in watercolour and bit of pencil and pen, of all different scenes in the Waterfowl Park,” says Thibodeau. “And the sky always reflects the colours that I’ve seen the morning of or the night before. I’m trying to make a body of work where all of the paintings show the park at those times of day.”… Continue
‘We didn’t sell to a corporation knowingly’: Family unaware land would be slated for rock quarry
Listen to Tantramar Report for Monday, June 27, 2022:
Mi’kmaq leaders, top adviser quit N.B. systemic racism commission
A top adviser to New Brunswick’s systemic racism commissioner announced his resignation on Tuesday, just as a group of Indigenous leaders withdrew from the controversial commission.
Robert Tay-Burroughs, senior advisor to commissioner Manju Varma, published his resignation letter on Twitter, saying he felt “troubled these last few weeks by the false pretences under which we are expected to do our work.”
He also said “it remains unclear” whether the provincial government can respect the commissioner’s independence or intends to accept her recommendations in good faith.
Indigenous groups have criticized the Tory-appointed commission, calling instead for a public inquiry, which would have the power to compel the government to produce information.
“We were skeptical of the process, we’d asked for an inquiry into the justice system in New Brunswick from the get-go,” said Chief George Ginnish of Natoaganeg, or Eel Ground First Nation.
He’s co-chair of Mi’gmawe’l Tplu’taqnn Inc., or MTI, an organization representing nine Mi’kmaq communities in New Brunswick, who announced this week they would no longer participate in the commission.
Minister of Aboriginal Affairs Arlene Dunn downplayed the level of division between Indigenous communities and the province this week.… Continue