On today’s show, Tantramar’s public works staff worked to repair a watermain break on Tuesday which resulted in a boil water advisory that’s still in effect for residences and businesses on and off Main Street between Mackol Avenue and St Paul’s Anglican Church. CHMA spoke with Tantramar public works superintendent Michelle Sherwood to get some more details.
Plus in briefs, Beale and Inch Construction has applied to rezone their York Street property to an industrial designation, Sackville’s first COVID-19 wastewater spike seems to have dissipated, and Amherst police arrest a man with a truck stolen from Truro.
On today’s show, we get an update on the imminent completion of the Lorne Street Stormwater Mitigation project, as local reporter Bruce Wark speaks with Tantramar Public Works director Jon Eppell after this week’s council meeting.
Plus in briefs, former village of Dorchester bylaws are not accessible to Tantramar staff and residents, putting the municipality in contravention of the Local Government Act. And Mount Allison has hired Dr. Richard Isnor as its new Provost and Vice-President, Academic and Research.… Continue
Director of Corporate Services Kieran Miller in council chambers. Photo: Erica Butler
In a special meeting Wednesday afternoon Tantramar council approved spending $5200 a year for the next four years on a scholarship aimed at future doctors and nurse practitioners, with the understanding that those who benefit from the scholarship will in turn commit to practicing in Tantramar.
According to Tantramar Community and Corporate Services director Kieran Miller, the scholarship was started by Memramcook-Tantramar MLA Megan Mitton who is contributing $2500 per year.
The scholarship is administered through the New Brunswick Medical Education Foundation, which hosts dozens of similar scholarships, all with “return to service” conditions that require scholarship recipients to practice for a period of time in specific jurisdictions.
Miller told council Wednesday that for every year of scholarship funding students receive, they will be asked to commit to a year of local practice.
She credits Mitton with planting the seed for the project, and creating the scholarship in the first place. She says the Tantramar contribution will grow the scholarship amount, making it more attrative to potential candidates. “Medical school tuition is very expensive,” says Miller, “so if you can offer a higher scholarship, it’s more incentive to apply.”
During Wednesday’s meeting, councillor Allison Butcher called the project “fabulous” and asked how the scholarship would be promoted. Miller said the New Brunswick Medical Education Foundation has a promotion campaign, and the municipality would also share information on its platforms.… Continue
Wastewater testing involves taking samples of sewage and testing for viral loads of SARS-CoV-2, the virus which causes COVID-19. Sewage surveillance has been used as an early warning system for infection levels, because COVID-19 can be detected in wastewater even before symptoms develop in people.
The municipality started collecting samples in February through an autosampler installed on the Crescent Street lagoon, purchased with funding from New Brunswick Public Health.
Recently, the data from the tests started to show up on the national website, so town engineer Jon Eppell took the opportunity to update council on the project at their meeting on Monday.
“One little pet project we’ve had on the go is the COVID-19 wastewater monitoring dashboard that we spoke to council about last fall,” said Eppell. “It took a while for them to have sufficient data to actually put it on the dashboard. But it is now available… I encourage you to go have a look.”
The data shows a 7-day rolling average of the viral load in the town’s sewage, and does not directly indicate numbers of cases of COVID-19. The Sackville viral load remained well below 50 for February, March and April, but rose sharply by the end of May.… Continue
Tantramar clerk Donna Beal answers a question about the revised loitering bylaw up for consideration. Image: Municipality of Tantramar Youtube channel
At their meeting on July 9, Tantramar council will be asked to once again consider a new loitering bylaw for the municipality, but with key changes after a previous version was voted down on June 11.
Town clerk Donna Beal told council changes were made to “ensure they are capturing what the discussion by council indicated that they would like to see in this bylaw.”
This time, the bylaw has been renamed “A By-Law Relating to Loitering and Soliciting in Tantramar,” with the word “begging” replaced by “soliciting.”
And instead of banning soliciting, the new bylaw proposes to ban repeated soliciting after a negative response, and also bans soliciting in a way that might obstruct or impede traffic. Curiously, it also proposes that street musicians be exempt from both those provisions.
The new bylaw, if approved, also includes the repeal of existing Sackville and Dorchester bylaws, one of which is available online, and the other which is inaccessible due to contamination.
The previously rejected bylaw outright banned asking for money in public places, and left in outdated references to door-to-door book sellers.
Part of Tantramar’s proposed new bylaw, including changes from previously rejected version.
Back on June 11, Councillor Josh Goguen expressed concerns about both the loitering and begging components of the original bylaw. He told council Monday that he was happy with the changes, and it appeared to him that staff had taken other bylaws like those of Moncton and Amherst into consideration.… Continue
Dorchester village municipal office, May 2023. Photo: Erica Butler
As Tantramar clerk Donna Beal had the chance to explain several times during the municipality’s recent outreach meeting series, the job of town clerk involves being the custodian of all official documents for the municipality. In Tantramar, that job is a little more complicated, because it involves bylaws and policies for three entities: a former town, a former village, and a new municipality. Or at least it does in theory. While the documents for the town of Sackville and municipality of Tantramar are under Beal’s direct care, those of the former village of Dorchester are out of her hands, and have been since shortly after amalgamation in January 2023.
In mid-June, CHMA requested a copy of the Dorchester bylaw “relating to Loitering and Begging”, since it was proposed for repeal and replacement with a new Tantramar-wide bylaw. Two days later, clerk Donna Beal responded via email to say that, “all former Village of Dorchester files are currently in decontamination and staff have no access to these files at this time.”
Tantramar CAO Jennifer Borne later wrote, “the former Dorchester Municipal Office closed on or around January 30, 2023 under workplace health and safety we lost access to everything within the office.”
The ongoing issues put the municipality in contravention of Section 75 of the Local Governance Act, which says that bylaws must be available for public review in the office of the clerk during normal hours.… Continue
On today’s show, we talk with Tantramar Community and Corporate Services director Kieran Miller after council unanimously approved four years of contributions to a scholarship for future doctors or nurse practitioners who pledge to work in the region.
Plus in briefs, route 106 between Sackville and Dorchester has reopened to traffic, and council has approved the final transaction in a multi-million dollar upgrade to an ageing aboiteau, completed by the New Brunswick Department of Transportation and Infrastructure in May. … Continue
Amlamgog chief Rebecca Knockwood and Parks Canada representative Julie Leblanc share a proud moment after cutting the ribbon on the revamped Muin Medicine Trail, off Bernard Trail in Fort Folly. Photo: Erica Butler
A crowd gathered at the head of the Fort Folly Muin Medicine Trail on June 21 to mark National Indigenous Peoples’ Day, and celebrate the trail’s new Mi’kmaq language audio interpretive panels.
Chief Rebecca Knockwood told the crowd that the inclusion of Mi’kmaq language on the trail is a fundamental part of the process of bringing back the First Nation’s culture and identity.
Amlamgog cultural coordinator Nicole Porter organized the event, which was held at Amlamgog for the first time. Porter led the crowd in a prayer, and accompanied Amlamgog youth who drummed the Mi’kmaq honour song.
CHMA spoke with Amlamgog land manager Michelle Knockwood, who coordinated the trail upgrades through a partnership with Parks Canada.
The Muin Medicine Trail dates back to 2011, and included text panels in French and English. Bringing Mi’kmaq language to the trail is “something I’ve wanted for a very long time,” says Knockwood. “And it’s so nice that it’s finally come to fruition.”
Amlamgog land manager Michelle Knockwood looks proudly at a new English-Mi’kmaq bilingual interpretive sign on the Muin Medicine Trail. The panel also features audio versions of the interpretation. Photo: Erica Butler
Knockwood is particularly excited that Amlamgog youth and visitors will be able to hear spoken Mi’kmaq (recorded by Elsipogtog elder Kenneth Francis) and follow along with text on the panels.… Continue
On today’s show, we tackle some of the topics that came up at this week’s Tantramar council committee of the whole meeting, including the return of a confidentiality policy and a loitering bylaw that were previously voted down by council. The policy and bylaw have been revised and will be back for another vote by council on July 9.
Plus, Sackville saw a steep increase in COVID-19 viral load in wastewater in the most recent data posted to Canada’s national COVID-19 wastewater monitoring dashboard. The most recent data comes from samples taken in early June.
And Tantramar council will meet again today for a special meeting to discuss two ‘in camera’ items, as well as make decisions on payments for the completed aboiteau project by DTI, awarding a roughly $480,000 contract to replace two sewage pumps, and something called the Tantramar Medical Education Scholarship.
On today’s show, we take you to Amlamgog First Nation’s National Indigenous Peoples’ Day event on Friday, as leaders celebrated a new addition to their Muin Medicine Trail. The trail now features audio and text interpretive panels in English and Mi’kmaq, something Chief Rebecca Knockwood says is a fundamental part of the process of bringing back the First Nation’s culture and identity.
Plus in briefs, Tantramar celebrates the induction of ‘Rolly’ Norman and Nev Garrity to the Sackville Sports Wall of Fame in a ceremony tonight, and Nova Scotia Public Health is alerting people to a potential exposure to Hepatitis A at an Amherst Tim Horton’s in the first two weeks of June. … Continue
