Category: Daily News

The cans and bottles have been piling up quickly this month at Wheaton’s All-in-One recycling depot in the Sackville industrial park. Since April 1, consumers who return their beverage containers have been getting their full deposit back, doubling the cash payout on a bag of cans and bottles. That means that in the months leading up to the change, people were holding back, waiting for April 1.

CHMA dropped by Wheaton’s to find out how the depot is faring, now that New Brunswick has embraced a full deposit return:

“As you can see, we’re a little backed up right now,” says Wheaton, pointing to piles of bagged cans and bottles inside and outside the depot. “A lot of people were holding off that for the last two, three months. And so then they all, of course, come in at once.”

Wheaton says it took some budgeting to bridge the few months that business dropped off, but at least the return was predictable. “We knew that it would be up again in April,” he says.

So far this month Wheaton says he’s averaging 80,000 to 100,000 cans per week, when before the changes to the system he would see 35,000 to 40,000 cans per week.

Wheaton says it’s still not clear if the full deposit return will make an impact on how many redeemables get returned overall.… Continue

Alice Cotton is a very excited these days, but also a little bit scared. The market coffee vendor and her partner Peter Stephenson have just signed a lease with the municipality of Tantramar for 200 square feet inside the Sackville Visitor Information Centre (VIC), where they will be opening Café Tintamarre this summer.

“It’s a big step for us to move from little vendors at the Farmers Market to having a cafe,” says Cotton. “We’re very excited.”

The new location will be seasonal, along with the VIC itself. Cotton says the couple is aiming to open the cafe when the VIC reopens for the season on May 1. Before that, there’s an estimated $4,500-$5,000 in plumbing, electrical, and flooring work to be done. In consideration of the leaseholds improvements that Cotton and Stephenson will make at their own expense, town staff recommended a nominal rent of $1 per month for their first season, from May 1 to December 31. If Café Tintamarre returns in 2025, then Cotton and Stephenson will pay similar rent to the other occupants at the VIC, the Craft Gallery and Robert Lyon Graphics.

Tantramar council approved of the lease proposal on April 9, with two councillors, Barry Hicks and Matt Estabrooks, voting against.… Continue

Camilo Mora and Mariana Buitrago are cornering the market on sweet treats in Sackville’s downtown. The couple opened  Sweet Yummyland at 28A York Street just over a week ago, and are moving their ice cream business The Ice Cream Coop into the downtown core next month. 

“I think it…generates a bit of foot traffic for the town, with people coming in to enjoy ice cream, and then they can visit some of the stores around town as well without having to walk as much,” said Mora. 

In past summers, the ice cream stand was set up on Lorne Street beside the Sackville Commons.

Sweet Yummyland is stocked with old fashioned, hard-to-find and unique candies as well as tried and true favourites.

“We’re trying to find sort of different variations of sweets. We also have sort of sugar free candy and sort of some healthy alternatives,” said Mora.

He plans to sell ice cream from the store, as well as from the family’s ice cream stand.

“We just got approval from Council last Tuesday, I believe, to move the Coop to the park,” said Mora.

“So the Coop will be moved to Bill Johnstone Park, it will be located between the bandstand and the library. And if all goes well, we should have it up and running for the first or second week of May.”

On Saturday afternoon a group of kids gathered outside Sweet Yummyland eating sweets.… Continue

The municipality of Tantramar has published a new guide for residents, including a map, a high level budget breakdown, and general information on how the newly amalgamated municipality works. The guide also includes information on council meetings, including how residents can participate in them.

But it leaves out some key information. The guide says that residents are welcome to attend council meetings, but mistakenly indicates that only those who are on the agenda may address council.

In fact, Tantramar’s bylaw allows for two ways that residents can address their council. Residents can request a spot on the agenda seven days in advance, for a public presentation of up to five minutes. Or, residents can “sign in at the door” of a meeting, in order to make a two minute presentation to council.

While the bylaw does not specify a cut-off time for residents to sign in at a meeting, Tantramar staff have established a rule requiring residents to sign in before the meeting is called to order. In the case of the frequent closed meetings that precede Tantramar council’s public meetings, that means residents must show up an hour to 30 minutes before the 7pm start time for the public portion of all regular council meetings.

The omission of information about sign-in-at-the-door presentations comes shortly after one Sackville resident had a disappointing experience in her effort to address council.… Continue

The province of New Brunswick is putting $7.8 million towards three new sites for collaborative care clinics in the province, and Sackville is one. The province says Horizon has allocated $766,000 of the funding to operating the Tantramar primary care clinic which it opened in September 2023.

During a legislative committee hearing last week, Health Minister Bruce Fitch shared the funding news under questioning by Memramcook-Tantramar MLA Megan Mitton. Fitch said Horizon had allocated $1,122,500 to a Sussex clinic, and $4,013,000 to one in Fredericton North. He also said there was about $2 million in the budget for capital improvements for the three clinics. It’s not clear how much of that, if any, would be spent in the Tantramar clinic, which is leasing space in the Tantramar Health Centre, a privately owned building across the parking lot from the Sackville Hospital.

Mitton told CHMA she had advocated for the funding of the Tantramar clinic in the lead up to the budget’s release, and is “hopeful that this will move things along a lot faster.” The current clinic operates just a few days per week with two part-time doctors on staff, one of whom is near retirement.

“People are really struggling and suffering because of their lack of access to health care in our community,” said Mitton.

CHMA reached out to Horizon this week for details on how the $766,000 will be spent, but the health authority wasn’t willing to share any further information.… Continue