Sackville mayor Shawn Mesheau looks back on an ‘interesting’ year, and looks forward to some R&R
Sackville Mayor Shawn Mesheau started off in local politics as a town councillor in the mid 90’s, and served off and on until elected mayor in May 2021. Just six months into his tenure, the province announced the amalgamation of Sackville and surrounding communities, and another round of elections in late 2022. Mesheau ran for mayor of Tantramar in those municipal elections, and came second of three candidates, garnering 922 votes, or about 36% of ballots cast.
CHMA called up Mesheau in mid-December to reflect on his time in office, and the tumultuous year in local politics:
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Burke resigns, Beal pinch hits, and Sackville barely acknowledges the change
Sackville town council met this week for their first public meeting since approving the resignation of the town’s CAO, Jamie Burke. Councillor Sabine Dietz, the human resources liaison for council, acknowledged the resignation at the beginning of Tuesday’s meeting:
“Mr. Jamie Burke, CAO for the town of Sackville, gave his letter of resignation at a special meeting of council on Thursday, October 27, 2022. Council has accepted Mr. Burke’s resignation letter, and council has appointed Michael Beal as acting CAO, effective November 2, 2022 and ending on December 31, 2022.”
No further comments were offered by council members on the resignation of Burke, who has served as CAO since April 2020, and before that as the town’s manager of corporate projects for six years. The silence was in contrast to this spring, when the resignation of then town engineer Dwayne Acton garnered kind words from a number of councillors, the mayor, and then-CAO Jamie Burke.
As Dietz explained, Burke’s resignation was discussed at a special meeting of council at noon on October 27, with all of council but for Bruce Phinney and Ken Hicks in attendance, along with Jamie Burke and town clerk Donna Beal. The town’s bylaws require that the agenda for all special meetings is posted at least 48 hours in advance of a meeting “on the Town’s Webpage and through whatever other reasonable means to notify the public are available.”… Continue
Hefty raises on the way for new Tantramar mayor and council
There are big changes ahead for how mayors and municipal councillors are compensated in New Brunswick.
In the new town of Tantramar, the salaries for mayor, deputy mayor and seven town councillors will be roughly triple that of current salaries for Sackville town council. That’s according to numbers published recently by the department of local government.
The new mayor of Tantramar, to be elected on November 28, will make about $47,000 per year, that’s a $32,000 raise compared to the current Sackville mayor, who gets about $15,000 per year.
Councillors in the new town will get $23,650 per year, an increase of $15,000 over the current rate of compensation for Sackville councillors, which is about $8,000.
Tantramar’s deputy mayor, elected by the new council sometime after November 28, will make just over $28,000. That’s roughly $19,000 more than the current Sackville deputy mayor.
Tantramar is larger than Sackville both by population and physical size. The new municipality has a tax base of just over $1 billion. The 2021 tax base for the town of Sackville was about $662 million.
While the province has ultimate authority in all municipal matters regarding the new town of Tantramar, the recommendation to triple salaries came from the local elected officials advisory committee, which is made up of:
- Sackville mayor Shawn Mesheau
- Sackville town councillor Matt Estabrooks
- Dorchester deputy mayor Robert Corkerton
- Dorchester mayor Debbie Wiggins-Colwell
- Pointe de Bute LSD representative Mary Ellen Trueman
- Pointe de Bute LSD representative Greg Martin
- Sackville LSD representative Chris Milner
- Dorchester LSD representative Matt Beal
So far, all but Mary Ellen Trueman, Chris Milner, and Matt Beal have put their names forward as candidates for November 28 elections.… Continue
Updated: Government holiday for Queen’s funeral Monday, Mt A to remain open
NOTE: This story was update Wednesday, September 14, 2022 with further information from Mount Allison University.
The government of New Brunswick is joining the federal government in declaring a holiday for Monday, September 19, 2022.
The day is being called a National Day of Mourning in honour of the death of Queen Elizabeth last week. A government news release Tuesday afternoon says the holiday will, “honour the Queen and pay respect to her life of service to Canada and to the Commonwealth of Nations on the day of her funeral.”
Government offices and schools in New Brunswick will be closed for the day, but the provincial government did not extend the holiday across the board, leaving all other organizations and private companies to decide whether or not they remain open.
Unless specified under their contracts, workers will not be eligible for statutory holiday pay.
The holiday is a one-time event, not for annual recognition.
Mount Allison to remain open
Mount Allison will remain open on Monday, September 19, during a national day of mourning for Queen Elizabeth called by the provincial and federal governments.
University president Jean Paul Boudreau said in an email Wednesday that after “leadership discussions” on Tuesday, the school has decided to remain open, and classes and all other activities will continue as scheduled.… Continue
Sackville to replace another community police officer without reviewing position
Sackville’s community policing officer has left her job after one and a half years.
Lise Babineau started as Community Program Officer (CPO) at the height of the pandemic, in October 2020. According to her monthly reports to council, the CPO visited schools and delivered a substance abuse prevention program called Botvin Lifeskills Training. Though various councillors had requested that Babineau come talk about her work at council, she never appeared in a public meeting.
In presenting a public safety report to council in April, Councillor Andrew Black said that RCMP Sergeant Paul Gagne called Babineau “highly competent and committed” and said that she would be “sorely missed by the department and the town.”
Babineau’s position is not included in the RCMP union contract, but is negotiated as an additional position under the town’s Municipal Police Services Agreement (MPSA). The town of Sackville budgets $90,000 for the position, plus $3,250 for project expenses.
At April’s meeting, Councillor Sabine Dietz asked CAO Jamie Burke about whether or not the town intended to replace the departing CPO. Burke responded yes, and explained that the RCMP had already reached out to him to confirm the hiring process that would be used.
“It hasn’t been that long since we hired Lise [Babineau], so they wanted to confirm that we would use the same process as last time,” said Burke. During the last hiring process, recreation director Matt Pryde sat in to represent the town, and Burke said the intention would be to do that again.… Continue
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
Councillors express dismay at under-representation; ask for a single Sackville ward with reps at-large
On Thursday evening, Sackville’s municipal reform committee met for a third time, with a narrow mandate of providing input on whether Sackvillians would elect their future Entity 40 representatives at large, or in up to four separate wards.
But before they got to that question, councillors sounded off on a previous decision made by the province, to forego its own representation-by-population guidelines and allot just 50% of representatives to the former town of Sackville, which is home to 68% of the population of the new Entity 40.
Right off the bat, Councillor Allison Butcher asked Deputy Mayor Andrew Black if there was any chance of changing what she called “a skew as far as population goes?”
“No,” said Black. “That has been decided. That meeting that we had on the 15th, whatever decision was made at the end of that night with the advisory committee that was there, that decision was final.”
It’s become a theme of the municipal reform process so far: rushed decisions made in private meetings, with no substantive engagement with councils, much less the general public.
It was enough for Butcher to forego her usual attempts to put a positive spin on her comments: “At the risk of sounding really, really jaded, it probably doesn’t matter what I think should happen with the four councillors representing the 7000 people,” said Butcher, “because I’m starting to feel like it doesn’t matter what we think.”
Black told the committee that after a 1.5 hour meeting on February 15 with provincially appointed facilitator Chad Peters and the eight appointees to the provincial advisory committee, there was a consensus reached among all members, including himself and Mayor Shawn Mesheau.… Continue
In a tense meeting, Sackville council turns down two motions to slow down amalgamation
Things move quickly in the world of New Brunswick municipal reform, and on Monday two Sackville town councillors took a stab at slowing that down.
Councillor Bill Evans presented his motion calling for a boycott of the amalgamation process, instructing staff and councillors not to engage in advisory committees set up by the province. Evans argued that it would be more effective to protest the forced amalgamation by making the province “do their own dirty work.”
“Remember, they’ve only got one facilitator [for] five amalgamations,” said Evans. “They can’t do our amalgamation without our help. So let’s not help them. Let’s try to shame the bully and say, maybe we can’t stop you, but we’ll be damned if we will help you.”
Right off the bat, CAO Jamie Burke reacted with a strong message of alarm. Burke said he consulted with the town’s lawyer about the motion, and was paraphrasing from that conversation when he spoke to council Monday.
Burke made that case that Evans’ motion was actually illegal, because the province has passed Bill 82, giving it the tools to impose municipal amalgamations across the province in the next year. Burke said Bill 82 also gave the province, “the right to make inquiries into the assets and liabilities of local governments affected by restructuring,” which would mean that himself and town staff would be required to cooperate with Chad Peters, the provincially-appointed facilitator.… Continue
Amalgamation process will not be public, but public will be consulted, says Mesheau
The meetings of advisory committees appointed by the province to help steer the amalgamation of Sackville, Dorchester and surrounding local service districts will not be open to the public.
Sackville mayor Shawn Mesheau says that two committees will be struck, one made up of staff, and one made up of elected and appointed representatives from each of the five areas being amalgamated. The department of local government says that the two mayors (Shawn Mesheau and Debbie Wiggins-Colwell from Dorchester) will sit on the committee, as well as Mary-Ellen Trueman from the Pointe de Bute local service district. Another two representatives, from the Sackville and Dorchester local service districts respectfully, could be appointed this week.
Mesheau says that based on a request from Sackville town council, the number of representatives on the committee will be expanded to two for each area, and Deputy Mayor Andrew Black has been selected to sit on the committee representing Sackville along with the mayor. But whether it is five or ten representatives, the meetings of the committee will be held behind closed doors.
“These aren’t public meetings,” says Mesheau. “They are meetings that are being held through the province, through the facilitator.”
The province recently appointed Chad Peters as a “facilitator” to oversee the formation of Entity 40, plus four other new entities in the southeast region, as well as the transition for Regional Service Commission 8.
Monday on TR: Mesheau talks amalgamation; surprise vaxx clinic today in Sackville; so much snow.
Monday on Tantramar Report:
As we heard last week from Sackville town councillor Bill Evans, the new facilitator appointed to head up the amalgamation of Sackville, Dorchester and surrounding areas had his first meeting with Sackville town council last week. Former PC provincial candidate Chad Peters met with council, and while many questions about the process still remain, some aspects of the process have been revealed: there will be two committees struck, one with local representatives and one with staff. The meetings of these advisory committees will not be open to the public, although there are intentions for information sharing and consultation.
On today’s show we feature a conversation with Sackville mayor Shawn Mesheau, to find out a bit more about the first meeting and the process going forward.
Plus more news and information briefs:
Vaxx clinic in Sackville today
Booster shots and kids vaccine shots are available at the Sackville Visitor Information Centre today, in a surprise clinic hosted by the regional health networks. As of Sunday night, there are appointments available all day, from 9am to 4pm, with kids appointment available from 2pm to 4pm.
About 185 people got their booster shots at a clinic on Saturday in Sackville. Corner Drug Store pharmacist Charles Beaver says the campus clinic was busy during the morning, but closed early due to the weather. Remaining patients will be able to get their shot at the Corner Drug Store this week.
As of Thursday last week, just over 39% of the New Brunswick population have received a booster or third dose of a COVID-19 vaccine.… Continue