Local governance reform minister Daniel Allain to meet privately with elected officials in Sackville Friday
Local government minister Daniel Allain is coming to Sackville town hall this Friday to meet with councillors and representatives from Sackville, Dorchester and surrounding areas, but the meeting will be closed to the public.
News of the private meeting with Allain was shared Monday night at Sackville town council’s monthly discussion meeting, after Councillor Bill Evans prompted Mayor Shawn Mesheau to mention it. The mayor had just finished his update on municipal reform without mentioning the meeting with the minister, when Evans chimed in to ask if he planned to mention it.
“Minister Allain’s office has reached out and has requested a meeting with members of council, members of Dorchester council and the other members who participate on the elected officials Advisory Committee,” replied Mesheau. “It won’t be a public meeting. It’ll be a private meeting with ministers.”
Secrecy has been a hallmark of the amalgamation process so far. Though the appointed facilitator for the process, Chad Peters, is authorized with creating a new budget and employment structure for the new Entity 40, he is not authorized to speak with media. And ever since the forced amalgamation was announced, neither Allain nor Peters has held a meeting open to citizens of the future Entity 40.
That doesn’t sit right with some town councillors.
Councillor Sabine Dietz told council on Monday that she would sit out the meeting in protest.… Continue
The housing crisis in Sackville is growing and needs action, says group to town council
If there were any Sackville town councillors not aware of the developing crisis in housing in the region, that was put to an end on Monday night, after a presentation to council by the Tantramar Affordable Housing Initiative.
Sackville residents Reggie Beal, Ashley Legere and Alice Cotton gave an an eye-opening presentation on the situation being faced by some Sackville families, including testimony from Legere and Beal, who are both facing loss of their current homes.
“It’s very scary,” Beal told council. The home he’s been renting is being sold, and Beal needs to leave. But he says that after 6 months of looking, he can’t find an affordable place to go, even with a full time employment income. Beal works at Rose’s Independent alongside Mayor Shawn Mesheau, who said he’s familiar with Beal’s predicament. “It is an emotional situation,” said the Mayor Monday. “And it affects more people than we realize.”
Ashley Legere is a Sackville resident and Wellness Navigator with Ensemble Moncton. She found out this past weekend that she has three months to find a new home after the house she is renting was sold. The irony of her situation wasn’t lost on Legere. “My job is to literally find housing for individuals who are experiencing homelessness,” she told council. “And I’m going to be probably the first Wellness Navigator who is also going to end up homeless.”… Continue
Access denied: NB’s Ombud says a report on Sackville’s fire department—and the recommendations stemming from it—should remain secret
It’s been just over a year since veteran journalist Bruce Wark published the first in a series of articles looking at allegations of harassment and bullying in the Sackville Fire Department.
Wark spoke with a number of current and former firefighters, who told him that although they had brought their concerns to the town’s senior management, they went nowhere and no actions were taken to address them.
Since then, the town of Sackville has taken some actions. At the end of April 2021, the town announced it was hiring Montana Consulting to do “a comprehensive workplace assessment of the Sackville Fire Department and its operations.” At the same time it noted that changes would be coming to the bylaw governing the fire department.
In September 2021, Montana handed over their report—containing 20 recommended actions—to town of Sackville CAO Jamie Burke. Montana also presented on their findings and recommendations to Sackville council and firefighters, and town staff say that work on implementing the recommendations is ongoing.
What are those 20 recommendations, and what’s inside the report and presentations discussing them? All of that remains confidential.
That bothers Bruce Wark, a longtime journalist (and occasional contributor to CHMA’s Tantramar Report), former journalism professor, and Sackville resident. Shortly after the town announced the Montana report was complete, Wark sent a request under the New Brunswick Right to Information and Protection of Privacy Act (RTIPPA) to the town’s clerk, Donna Beal, asking for access to the report.… Continue
Lorne Street Phase III approved for funding
The third phase of the Lorne Street Floodwater Mitigation project is now approved for funding from the federal and provincial governments.
The agenda package for Monday’s Sackville town council meeting includes discussion of a letter from New Brunswick’s Regional Development Corporation informing the town that just over $4 million in funding towards the project has been approved.
The province is contributing just over $1.8 million, and the federal government is chipping in just under $2.2 million. The town of Sackville share of the project is slightly under $1.5 million.
Plans for Phase III of the flood mitigation project include two new stormwater retention ponds, one in the old Pickard Quarry, and one behind the community gardens on Charles Street. These two ponds would more than double the storage capacity for freshwater in the town, which should be enough to accommodate rainfall from a one-in-100-year storm.
The project also includes about a kilometre of ditching to help drain the Charles Street pond into the Tantramar River when the tide allows.
What’s not included are new aboiteaux to help drain stormwater into the Tantramar River. That will require further cooperation from the provincial government, this time the Department of Transportation and Infrastructure, which owns and operates the aboiteaux along the Tantramar River.… Continue
Talking Sackville’s new 4-day workweek pilot, coming this summer
Listen here to Tantramar Report for Friday, April 8, 2022:
Sackville considers getting its first EV
The town of Sackville is getting in the electric vehicle game.
At its meeting on Monday April 11, Sackville town council will vote on a proposal to replace its bylaw enforcement vehicle, currently a 10-year-old Ford hybrid, with a fully electric car.
The move to go electric comes after a recommendation from the Mayor’s Roundtable on Climate Change in their review of Sackville’s 2022 capital budget.
Climate Change coordinator Kirsty Mrazek told council on Monday night that staff compared three different electric models in terms of price, and the Chevy Bolt EUV came in cheapest, at just under $39,000, including taxes and $10,000 in rebates from the provincial and federal governments.
The report did not include costs over the life of the vehicles, but according to CAA’s driving cost calculator, the fuel cost for the new EV will be considerably cheaper than its hybrid predecessor. For a generous 30,000 kms per year, the Chevy Bolt EUV costs about $660 in electricity, at current rates. A Ford Escape Hybrid going the same distance would rack up about $3000 in gas charges at today’s prices, according to the CAA online tool.
While staff are recommending an EV to replace the bylaw enforcement vehicle, they are not doing so for another vehicle replacement.
A twelve-year-old Ford 150 truck from the Parks and Facilities department is due for replacement, and staff are recommending a hybrid to replace it, instead of a fully electric truck.… Continue
Nearly double the repaving planned for 2022 as town engineer Dwayne Acton says farewell
The town of Sackville will be repaving nearly twice as many streets this year, thanks to a 2021 top-up from the Canada Community Building Fund, also known as the gas tax fund. Though the Community Building Fund can be used for a variety of infrastructure projects, Sackville council and staff opted to put the money solely towards road paving projects.
The town has nearly a million dollars to spend on road projects this year, with just over $423,000 coming from this year’s gas tax fund, and just over $410,000 coming from the top-up handed out to municipalities last year. Another nearly $100,000 is leftover from previous gas tax budgets.
At Monday’s special council meeting, outgoing town engineer Dwayne Acton responded to a question about whether this year’s generous list of project would put Sackville ahead of schedule in road paving. “Not necessarily ahead of schedule,” said Acton, “but it definitely can go a long ways in adding additional streets to our paving list.”
“Over the last probably eight years we’ve done a fair amount of repaving which definitely helps in the community and in our residential streets,” said Acton.
The original list of paving projects that was put out to tender will need to be adjusted slightly, because even the lowest bid came in above the amounts budgeted back in 2021. Acton told council that cost increases are not uncommon between budget estimates and actual bids, and that the paving industry is dealing with increased supply costs.… Continue
‘They feel abandoned’: Local task force criticizes Higgs government’s handling of COVID-19
Listen here to Tantramar Report for April 6, 2022:
How Sackville got turned down for a fifth representative in Entity 40, and other amalgamation updates
Sackville council’s municipal reform committee met Wednesday night for a short meeting with about ten people in attendance, two of whom were Sackville town councillors.
Councillors Bill Evans and Sabine Dietz recapped the work of the committee so far but agreed it would not likely meet again in the near future, as most of the decisions that the committee was concerned with have now been finalized by the province. Dietz said the conversations around issues like the opposition to the forced amalgamation and influence on the structure of the future Entity 40 are now moot.
“Whether there will be democratic representation or not, and what the ward boundaries may be, that is all done,” said Dietz. “This committee can no longer… There’s no point in having conversations about that, because there’s not going to be any influence on any decisions being made.”
Dietz and Evans both agreed it would be unlikely for another meeting of the committee to be called anytime soon, but both also commented on the role the committee has played and could still play as a place for public feedback to be shared.
“The only remaining purpose, as I see it,” said Evans, “is as a forum for members of the public to ask questions interactively.” Evans noted that members of the public are limited in their ability to comment at regular council meetings. (At monthly special council meetings, there is a 15-minute period at the end of the meeting where the public can ask questions for “clarification purposes of information shared with Council.”… Continue
New water deal with Mount A means one more utility worker for town of Sackville
On Monday night Sackville town council approved a five year agreement with Mount Allison University to oversee the school’s water distribution system. Though the school uses the same water supply as the rest of the town, the system within the school is currently tested and managed by University operations personnel, and is a “black box” as far as the town goes.
Public works superintendent Michelle Sherwood told council Monday that under the new agreement, qualified town staff will run the testing and oversee any repairs to the school’s water system. For that service, the school will pay the town of Sackville $82,000 per year, enough to hire an additional staff member in the public works department.
Sherwood said that in addition to providing the resources for another staff member, the new agreement will give the town more control over what happens with town water as it flows through Mount Allison’s distribution system.
Councillor Bill Evans was supportive of the new agreement, which he described as a win-win, similar to the arrangement whereby Mount Allison’s IT department provides services for the town. “In that case, Mount Allison university gets to hire an employee and we get the benefit of everybody in computing services. In this case, the town of Sackville will hire an additional employee with the certification that we already need,” said Evans.… Continue