Higher education, higher costs: Inflation, student debt and university funding
Listen to Tantramar Report for Monday, June 13, 2022:
Urban/Rural Rides aims to buy hybrid vans with wheelchair ramps to help ‘isolated’ rural residents
A volunteer-driven transport organization that serves southeast New Brunswick hopes to purchase a fleet of wheelchair-accessible hybrid minivans.
“Our service is designed to improve the quality of life for people with little or no access to transportation,” said Kelly Taylor, executive director of Urban/Rural Rides NB, during a recent presentation at Sackville town council.
Urban/Rural Rides NB is a charitable organization that offers transportation services for “a fraction of the cost of a taxi.”
It started off in 2014 in Salisbury and Petitcodiac, when it was known simply as Rural Rides.
It has grown in size to include the Tantramar region since 2017, and throughout Westmoreland and Albert counties since 2018.
In Sackville, the group completed 210 rides last year, Taylor told town councillors.
This year, its services expanded to officially include communities in the Fredericton area.
Its clients include seniors, people with moderate disabilities, low-income people and newcomers. But the group doesn’t have the ability to transport people in wheelchairs.
Now, they hope to buy more than a dozen vans retrofitted with wheelchair ramps, with financial assistance from Ottawa.
The goal is to have one vehicle each of the 13 “entities” in southeast New Brunswick that will be created as part of local governance reforms that are currently underway.… Continue
‘There is a complete absence of accessible transportation’: Volunteer-driven group hopes to buy vans with wheelchair ramps
Listen to Tantramar Report for Tuesday, June 7, 2022:
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Sackville non-profit raises funds to protect, restore ‘forgotten’ Wabanaki forest
Community Forests International, a non-profit based in Sackville, has launched a fundraising campaign to purchase and restore 2,500 acres of forests in New Brunswick and Nova Scotia.
The Wabanaki Forest, also called the Acadian Forest, historically spans the Maritime provinces, the Gaspé Peninsula and parts of New England.
It includes a mix of northern adapted species, such as spruce, poplar larch and birch, along with southern adapted species including oak, pine, maple and hemlock.
But this unique forest is endangered, according to CFI.
A media release announcing the Forgotten Forests campaign says that “scientists have affirmed what Indigenous communities already knew — that most of the Wabanaki forest has been drastically altered.”
“The small remnants of this forest that remain intact today are often on hilltops and in hard-to-access ravines, where forest clearing could not easily reach.”
For more on this story, CHMA spoke to Craig Tupper, CFI’s forest program manager.
Tupper and his colleagues have been searching for remnants of the Wabanaki Forest — usually found in corners of larger properties — lining up sales agreements with landowners.
The group also plans to purchase and restore areas that have already been harvested, “actively managing younger forests back to their full ecological potential to augment their ability to sequester carbon and adapt to climate change.”
CHMA’s David Gordon Koch asked Tupper about efforts to locate those remnants of the Wabanaki forest.… Continue
Historian tells the story of the Tantramar River dam, and the organization that built it
Listen to Tantramar Report for Thursday, June 2, 2022:
Residents fear that a proposed quarry could destroy the tiny village of Calhoun. But it’s not a done deal. 
An old two-storey house between Moncton and Sackville may soon become the site of a rock quarry.
But area residents want the provincial government to overturn a decision that paves the way for the quarry project, which they believe could destroy the rural village of Calhoun. Several quarries are already concentrated in the area near the community.
Listen to the audio report that aired on CHMA on May 30, 2022:
“Of course we need aggregate for roads, for buildings,” said Pierre Doucet, an outspoken opponent of the project. “But there are four quarries currently operating, and they’re not on the verge of running out of material.”
Doucet lives on the other side of the Trans-Canada Highway, in Memramcook, but grew up in Calhoun.
His father fought against quarry projects for more than 30 years before he died; his 80-year-old mother still lives in the small rural community.
People in the community learned about the plans last May, according to Doucet.
A public notice stated that the provincial government was considering a rezoning application to allow for “intensive resource development.”
A petition opposing the project garnered more than 200 names, and close to 30 people attended a public hearing via Zoom to voice their objections, he said. … Continue
UPDATE: Car abandoned in Bay of Fundy was stolen the previous night: RCMP
This story was updated on June 1, 2022, to include information from the Sackville RCMP.
An abandoned car found in the Bay of Fundy had been stolen the previous night, according to police.
The Hyundai Elantra was found partially submerged near Rockport, about 25 minutes south of Sackville, on Friday, May 27.
“This vehicle was stolen from Dieppe the night before,” Cpl. Brian Villers of the Sackville RCMP said in an email on June 1. The soaked sedan was reported by a Lower Rockport resident.
“It had been submerged at least to the windows at high tide and hence there was nothing for our Identification Section to examine,” he said. The vehicle was towed from the scene.
Sackville Fire and Rescue were also dispatched to the scene, according to Deputy Chief Mike Green. In an email, he said “the tide was going out and the car was on the mudflat.”
The person who called emergency services about the vehicle had already waded out to the car, and found that nobody was inside.
Green added that when the RCMP showed up, the Mounties checked the plate and told firefighters they were no longer needed at the scene.… Continue
Overturn decision paving the way for rock quarry, Calhoun residents tell province
Listen to Tantramar Report for Monday, May 30, 2022:
UPDATE: Dump truck incident on Lower Walker Road ‘could have been fatal,’ says WorkSafeNB
This story was updated on June 1, 2022 to include new information from WorkSafeNB.
A seatbelt may have saved the life of a dump truck driver whose vehicle flipped onto its side last week, according to WorkSafeNB.
The driver escaped with minor injuries, but the incident could have been fatal.
The emergency call came in around 7:30 a.m. on Tuesday, May 24, Cpl. Brian Villers of the Sackville RCMP said in an email last week.
The vehicle flipped onto its side, trapping the 58-year-old driver in the cab of the truck. The incident took place at a worksite located at 132 Lower Walker Road.
The driver was extracted from the truck, and taken to hospital via ambulance with minor injuries, according to Villers.
Ambulance NB and Sackville Fire and Rescue also attended the scene. No other vehicles were involved in the incident, according to Sackville fire chief Craig Bowser.
A spokesperson for WorkSafeNB provided a statement about the agency’s investigation on June 1.
“An experienced worker was operating a dump truck when the wheel [sank] into freshly bulldozed material” and the vehicle flipped, Laragh Dooley said in an email.
“The worker suffered shoulder and collarbone injuries. Fortunately, the worker was wearing a seatbelt – otherwise this could have been much more serious, even fatal.”
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Caribbean Corner
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