Tantramar residents asked to weigh in for $68K brand development initiative
The new municipality of Tantramar is in the midst of a roughly $68,000 brand development initiative.
To develop the brand identity for the newly formed town, the town hired the Details Design + Branding, which is working with the public relations firm Porter O’Brien.
They’re seeking input from local residents through a survey that can be found online at TakePartTantramar.ca. The survey closes on June 30th.
Public engagement will also be taking place in-person at several locations around Tantramar beginning this weekend.
Tanya Duffy, who runs the Fredericton-based design firm, said the process will involve more than just the creation of a logo.
“A brand is more than an image, it’s a sense of identity,” Duffy said.
Listen to the interview with CHMA
The municipality, which brings together Sackville, Dorchester and neighbouring areas, came into existence on New Year’s Day, following the Higgs government’s controversial process of local governance reform.
In May 2022, a committee of local officials announced that it would be called Tantramar. Until then, it was known by the placeholder name Entity 40.
Throughout this process, there’s been a lot of talk about what the changes would mean for the identities of formerly separate communities.
Tom Bateman, a senior consultant with Porter O’Brien, noted that the goal isn’t to stop residents from calling their home community by established names such as Sackville. … Continue
Fake profiles, con artists and blackmail: Online scams proliferate in troubled times, says prof
A Sackville resident’s Facebook profile was recently duplicated, or spoofed, in an apparent failed attempt at a confidence scam.
The social media platform soon removed the fake account, after users reported the case of identity theft to Facebook.
But it’s just one of the online scams that proliferate during troubled times, according to an expert in identity theft and fraud.
“So often they’re playing on people’s emotions in their darkest hours,” said William Kresse, a professor at the Governors State University near Chicago, Ill.
Listen to the report from CHMA:
CHMA News has agreed not to disclose the identity of the man whose identity was fraudulently duplicated in the attempted scam.
The fake account appeared to be an exact double of the original, using his name, profile picture and banner photo: a picture of his grandchildren.
The spoofed account attempted to add at least some of the man’s contacts as friends. This reporter was among those who received a friend request. The spoofed account then initiated a chat using Facebook Messenger.
‘Gradient community outreach’
It started out with small talk, but the conversation quickly took a strange turn when the scamster asked about something called the “gradient community outreach support program.”
This kind of scam is well-documented online.
Typically the fake account claims that the intended victim is eligible for a large financial assistance grant worth tens of thousands of dollars, but they have to pay a fee. … Continue
Social media switch complete: Sackville and Dorchester are now @TantramarNB
It’s official, the social media accounts for the former Town of Sackville and Village of Dorchester have been retired today. The new handle for the amalgamated town of Tantramar is @TantramarNB.
Town staff have been using all three handles since the municipality officially came into being on January 1, 2023, with duplicate postings across the three accounts. But as of today, there will be one handle on Facebook, Twitter and Instagram. The town has also changed the name of its YouTube channel to TantramarNB.
At a January meeting, director of Community and Corporate Services for Tantramar Kieran Miller told council that staff allowed for a six week crossover period between the social media identities in order to allow time for followers to make the change.
“Given the large followings for Dorchester and Sackville social media, especially Facebook, we wanted to make sure that residents had enough notice of the switch and adequate time to follow the new channels,” said Miller.
There’s also a change needed for the new town of Tantramar website. Miller told council the plan is to secure a new domain name for Tantramar, and then update the former Sackville site to reflect the expanded territory of the new municipality. Former Sackville treasurer and now Director of Corporate Compliance Michael Beal told councillors he took the initiative last year to reserve some domain names to choose from: Tantramarnb.com,… Continue
Andrew Black looks back on the successes of 2022, and forward to the challenge of governing a new, bigger municipality
Newly sworn in mayor of Tantramar Andrew Black has had quite a year, starting out as Sackville deputy mayor during the final year of the town’s legal existence, and then being elected to head up a brand new amalgamated town of Tantramar.
CHMA called him up in mid-December to take a look back at 2022:
Black says for him, 2022 was marked by the growing crisis in housing, and he sees that issue as something that the new town of Tantramar will be more actively involved with in 2023. He also noted Sackville council’s year-long process dealing with local government reform in 2022, and stood by his decision to participate in that process and then step back from a hiring process he felt was unfair.
Black says there’s some good people on the new Tantramar council, and is excited to get started governing the new municipality.… Continue
Students’ union apologizes after issuing ‘misinformation,’ the latest in an election cycle marked by mix-ups
The Mount Allison Students Union has issued an apology after releasing incorrect municipal election information on social media.
It was the latest in a series of mix-ups during the municipal election cycle, which was also marked by erroneous mailouts from Elections NB and a mysterious flyer that appears to have violated the Municipal Elections Act.
The mistake meant that some students were unable to vote, according to MASU. It’s unclear how many people were actually affected.
Municipal elections took place on Monday, forming the first-ever council for the new town of Tantramar.
But some would-be student voters were led astray by “Municipal Election GOVT [get out the vote] posts on Instagram” that contained “misinformation” about election times, according to a statement from MASU.
Opening and closing times for the local polling site were essentially reversed, a MASU official said in an email.
“The substance of the error was quite basic, it seems that the time was posted was “7 [a.m.]-10 p.m.” rather than “10 [a.m.]-7:30pm” (which was the accurate time),” said Suchet Mittal, VP Communications and Marketing.
“As far as I am aware, we only received one official complaint which was received over Instagram. However, we are aware that other students were also affected by the issue, although the actual numbers we have only reach 3-5 students. We predict the actual impact was closer to 10-12 students being impacted, as best we can estimate without any real data.”… Continue
Mystery elections flyer which broke rules likely came from department of local government
Elections NB didn’t send it, the town of Sackville didn’t send it… so the question is, who sent an elections flyer to addresses all over the new Tantramar municipality? While the Department of Local Government refuses to answer that question, a complaint to the New Brunswick RCMP by Elections NB may lead to an answer.
The mailer certainly appears to be a well-intentioned, if not by-the-book, correction for an earlier mistake by Elections NB. Early in October, residents in Tantramar received notices from the provincial elections agency telling them they would NOT be voting in municipal elections on November 28. That was, of course, an error, and a big one.
A mix up by a contractor handling the mail out of important election information for Elections NB meant that about 260,000 households got exactly the opposite message they should have received. The reality is, all residents of the former town of Sackville, village of Dorchester, and parts of the Dorchester, Sackville and Point de Bute local service districts, can go to the polls by November 28 to elect the first ever mayor and council for the newly amalgamated town of Tantramar.
Elections NB immediately acknowledged their mistake, but also said that a corrected mailer to the homes in question would not be forthcoming, in part due to supply chain issues.… Continue
Listen for yourself: All-Candidates Forum features 19 of 21 candidates for Tantramar council
About 120 people gathered in the gym at the Church by the Lake on Saturday night to hear from candidates in the first ever election for the new municipality of Tantramar. The event was organized by a committee led by Sackville resident Carol Cooke, who served as moderator for the evening.
CHMA broadcast the forum live, and we’ve also put together the recording of the event in four parts for anyone who missed the live broadcast.
CHMA has offered introductory interviews to all candidates in this election, and you can check them out, along with other election coverage in our Local Elections 2022 page.
Tantramar All-Candidates Forum part 1: Opening remarks
Tantramar All-Candidates Forum part 2: Moderator question
What do you see as the single, biggest challenge facing the new Town of Tantramar?
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
Meet the candidates: Andrew Black, running for mayor of Tantramar
Andrew Black was just elected for a second term on Sackville town council when the province decided to amalgamate surrounding areas and create a new town of Tantramar. After serving the past year as Deputy Mayor and taking an active role in the Union of New Brunswick Municipalities (Black was elected president of the organization last month), he decided to run for mayor of the amalgamated municipality. Black says the coming year in municipal government will be a tough one, dealing with unknowns and a new council composition.
CHMA’s David Gordon Koch has interviewed all three mayoral candidates for Tantramar. Listen to his interview with Andrew Black here:
CHMA is compiling all its election coverage in one place, for your convenience. For more candidate interviews and other local elections coverage, click here.
TRANSCRIPT:
CHMA: So thanks for taking the time today, Andrew Black. Could you start by telling me a bit about yourself and how long you’ve been involved with council?
Andrew Black: Well, I’m 47 years old. I was born in Amherst, Nova Scotia. And I think it was five months old when my parents moved out west., I lived in Calgary until I was about 10 years old and moved back to the Maritimes, to Sackville, in 1985. So I’ve lived here most of my life. Graduated from Tantramar High School, graduated from Mount Allison University and my parents are both from the area.… Continue
Meet the candidates: Shawn Mesheau, running for mayor of Tantramar
Shawn Mesheau has a long career on Sackville town council, first elected to council in 1998 and serving off and on for nearly 12 years, most recently as the mayor of Sackville, elected just 18 months ago in May 2021. Mesheau is running for mayor of Tantramar in part as a continuation of the commitment he made as mayor of Sackville, and also because he believes the coming years will involve difficult decisions for the new council which he says will require strong leadership.
CHMA’s David Gordon Koch has interviewed all three mayoral candidates for Tantramar. Listen to his interview with Shawn Mesheau here:
CHMA is compiling all its election coverage in one place, for your convenience. For more candidate interviews and other local elections coverage, click here.
TRANSCRIPT:
CHMA: I’m speaking to Shawn Mesheau, currently the mayor of Sackville. He’s running for the position of first mayor of the new town of Tantramar. Mayor Mesheau, before you became mayor of Sackville, you served for a number of years as town councillor. For listeners who might not be familiar, can you introduce yourself and include any previous involvement on council?
Shawn Mesheau: Sure. Well, I was born and raised here in Sackville. After college, I spent about five, six years in the Fredericton area, came back to Sackville, transferred here through Atlantic Wholesalers, and worked with Atlantic Wholesalers for several years, until they left town.… Continue