Category: Daily News

A development agreement put in place twenty years ago is limiting development of the former Pizza Delight property on Mallard Drive, and so Tantramar council is being asked to take a step towards dissolving the agreement at its next regular meeting in May.

Lori Bickford of the Southeast Regional Service Commission’s Plan 360, was on hand at Monday’s Committee of the Whole meeting to present the proposal on behalf of the owner of the vacant property, numbered company 734163 NB Inc., owned by Rashid Tufail.

This is the second planning change sought by Tufail. In 2023, the owner sought changes to allow for drive-thru restaurants in the zone, something that the former town of Sackville had banned in 2001. Council approved of the change in September 2023.

The development agreement applies to two properties on Mallard Drive. Both the Home Hardware and Pizza Delight properties share a single development agreement created in 2004. But its the vacant Pizza Delight property that is limited by the current agreement.

“You’ll notice that the Pizza Delight building remains vacant at this time,” Bickford told council. “Under the agreement, the only use that would be permitted within that building would be a single restaurant.”

While other uses are permitted in the highway commercial zone, explained Bickford, the Pizza Delight property development agreement is much more restrictive, and can only be changed with a lengthy bylaw amendment process at town council.… Continue

A historic property in Memramcook is in the process of being sold by the provincial government.

According to Memramcook mayor Maxime Bourgeois, the Memramcook Institute is being acquired by Heritage Developments, a Moncton based property company that also owns the former Moncton High School property in downtown Moncton.

A provincial spokesperson told CHMA by email that the transaction is ongoing, and further details about the price, or any protections for the buildings may be released once the agreement is completed.

“I’m very, very happy, to be quite frank,” says Bourgeois. “Obviously with some concern just because we are losing some control on the future of the building.”

With the province on the deed for the large property—which completely surrounds the Monument-Lefebvre National Historic Site on rue Centrale in Memramcook—Bourgeois says local public opinion gave the community some control over its fate. On the other hand, he points out, despite a number of attempts to make something happen on the site, it has sat empty since 2012. “It’s such an important and imposing property in the downtown core of Memramcook,” says Bourgeois, “that it really was sort of dragging the municipality down.”

“I’m very happy that a local business owner decided to step forward and clearly wants to invest time, money, and energy in making something with this building,” says Bourgeois. “It’s also very comforting that they’ve been in constant communication with us, presenting their vision from the get go, wanting to establish a good relationship with the municipality.”… Continue

A garage sale at the Tantramar Civic Centre raised money for two community groups while at the same time tackled the persistent problem of mounds of household goods being left on the curb as the university year ends. 

The event, called Dump and Run was organized by EOS Eco-Energy and the Sackville Rotary Club. Mount Allison University Students were invited to drop their stuff off, or arrange for volunteers to picked it up.

Bill Evans, president of the Rotary Club, said sometimes graduating students have a hard time dealing with the things they’d amassed over their time in Sackville. 

“Their household effects were too big to take or carry on the plane, they would often just dump it at the end of the driveway, and leave town,” said Evans. 

Within the first five minutes of opening, more than 100 people showed up at the garage sale, according to Evans. Over $1800 was raised with EOS Eco-Energy and the Sackville Rotary splitting the profits.

The groups plan to hold another Dump and Run next year.

Meanwhile, at the Pickard Quarry nearly 30 people from the Tantramar Outdoor Club and Chignecto Naturalists Club hauled away about 15 bags of garbage plus four bags of recyclables on Saturday.

Kate Fraser was there picking up garbage with her two children and husband.… Continue

New Brunswick Education Minister Bill Hogan is warning members of the Anglophone East District Education Council (DEC) that they may face personal liability for what he calls, “improper use of public funds”.

The warning comes in a letter dated April 16, which is part of a series exchanged this month between Hogan and Anglophone East district chair Harry Doyle, stemming from the DEC’s legal challenge to Hogan’s revisions to policy 713, which they say would force them to violate Canada’s Charter of Rights.

On April 2, Doyle and the DEC filed a notice of preliminary motion in the Court of King’s Bench, seeking an injunction to prevent Hogan from dissolving the DEC and repealing its policy on the implementation of Policy 713, two things the minister had threatened to do in past letters to the district.

On April 5, Hogan wrote to the school district, asking for details of the costs incurred in preparing the court filing, and questioning the authority of the district to spend its money on a legal action.

On April 11, DEC chair Harry Doyle replied, declining to provide the cost information, and outlining the chain of events in the year since Hogan and Premier Blaine Higgs first announced their review of Policy 713, which had been approved in 2020 with the goal of protecting the rights of LGBTQ+ students in the public school system.… Continue

The Department of Transportation and Infrastructure closed down Route 106 between Dorchester and Sackville just over two weeks ago, on April 1, due to a damaged culvert with a collapsing road around it, caused by runoff from heavy rain.

Since then, drivers in the know have been taking an alternate route between Sackville and Dorchester, via Woodlawn Road and King Street. But those not familiar with the area, have had more difficulty.

Tantramar councillor Debbie Wiggins-Colwell lives not too far from the main intersection where the 106 passes through the heart of Dorchester, where DTI has elected a large sign warning of a road closure in 4.6 kilometers.

Wiggins-Colwell points out the obvious problem. “We’ve got no detour signs,” she says, slightly exasperated. “We’ve got all kinds of ‘road closed’ signs, but not telling people where to go.”

Wiggins-Colwell says numerous drivers have found themselves driving the 4.6 kilometres up to the actual road closure, where the 106 crosses Two Mile Brook, in search of directional signage showing them where to go, only to discover they have to turn back.

When she’s called DTI about the problem Wiggins-Colwell says she’s been told that the department has just run out of detour signs. “Which just doesn’t make any sense to me,” says the Tantramar councillor and former village mayor. “I know roads have to be fixed, but please tell people where they have to have to detour… This is very confusing for everybody.”… Continue