Category: Front Page

A Sackville man was sentenced to a total of seven years in prison on Monday, for three sets of drug and weapons crimes dating back to April 2021.

39-year-old Colt LeBlanc was in a Moncton courtroom, where he agreed to facts laid out by federal and provincial Crown prosecutors, outlining three separate search and seizure incidents in 2021, 2022, and 2023.

LeBlanc’s sentence also includes a 10-year prohibition on possessing weapons, a DNA test, and the forfeit of more than $155,000 in cash that was seized by police during the incidents.

LeBlanc’s lawyer Michel Des Neiges said his client had spent most of his life without troubles. Des Neiges said LeBlanc, “had a pretty normal childhood” and that he, “did well in school, and played sports, and was getting along with his young adult life.” But in the last few years, said Des Neiges, “things have gone sideways.”

Des Neiges told the court that LeBlanc was planning to join programs while in the prison system, and intended to seek work as a carpenter once he is eventually released. Des Neiges said that LeBlanc, “does not want this to be dead time for him.”

The judge offered LeBlanc the opportunity to address the court, but he refused. As crown prosecutors read the facts behind his charges, LeBlanc mostly nodded his agreement to the judge.

There were no victim impact statements read at the hearing.… Continue

About four years ago, Tom Skabar noticed a gap in the level of basketball being offered to teen girls in the area. So he, with Brad Blenkhorn, founded the Junior Mounties Basketball Club.

“I thought it would be a worthwhile venture to develop a program that kind of forged a connection between the varsity athletes here who have so much to offer and to the aspiring young women who are hoping to be them someday,” said Skabar.

“And then it kind of took off from there.”

The program has three aged-based teams for girls in Westmorland and Cumberland counties. Skabar coaches the under-18 team, co-founder Brad Blenkhorn coaches the under-16 team, and the under-14 team is coached by Keira Dyck and Madison Bennett, who both participated in the program in its early years. 

Sykora Hussey goes to Amherst Regional High School. She plays on its basketball team, and the Junior Mounties U18 team.

“With high school, since we’re [Division Two], the level isn’t as high as (it is) for Junior Mounties,” said Hussey. “We play against a lot tougher and rougher teams with Junior Mounties. So I feel that it helps us build our skill and our mindset better.”… Continue

Spring is in the air in Sackville.

This week, the Little Plant Nursery and Open Sky Greenhouses opened for the season at their shared School Lane location, formerly Anderson’s Greenhouse. On Saturday, the Sackville Farmers Market will return to its summer location at Bill Johnstone Memorial Park. And on Sunday, the Sackville Community Garden will host its second annual plant swap and sale at its location on Charles Street.

CHMA spoke to garden organizing committee member Sarah Evans, who says that the garden is benefiting from recent changes in the neighbourhood.

“The new water retention pond trail is all behind the garden,” says Evans, “so now when you’re working there, it’s sort of like you’re surrounded by people walking their dogs and their kids… It’s amazing

Evans says garden members are working on improving the accessibility and flow of the site. Work on the retention pond also created a new cleared area where the gardeners are going to try something new. “We’re going to use [it] as sort of a communal garden,” says Evans. “Instead of getting a plot where one person will take care of it, or a family will take care of it, we’re all going to take care of this, whoever wants to can show up, pitch in, and then take some of the harvest.”

The Sackville Community Garden has been at the Charles Street site since about 2008, says Evans, and features about 25 plots where members grow vegetables individually or in groups.… Continue

The Anglophone East District Education Council has agreed to give up its Charter challenge of the province’s Policy 713, if the Minister of Education promises to leave the District’s policy on student names and pronouns alone. But it doesn’t appear that Minister Bill Hogan will take them up on the offer.

On Thursday evening, Hogan reiterated his intention to dissolve the Anglophone East District Education Council, if the council doesn’t immediately stop its court challenge to the province’s changes to Policy 713. Hogan said in an emailed statement that the DEC leadership has “left me no options but to commence the process for dissolution of the Anglophone East DEC.”

In a letter on April 30, Hogan called out the DEC for spending nearly $280,000 on lawyers and experts in its case against the province, and ordered the council to complete a list of four corrective actions, including dropping its case. Hogan gave a deadline of 5pm Thursday.

The day Hogan sent that letter was also the deadline that Judge Tracey DeWare had given the DEC to file their full claim on Policy 713.

In early April, the DEC had filed preliminary motions asking for a court injunction to prevent the Minister from repealing their policy and dissolving the council while the court considered their case against Policy 713. At a premliminary hearing on April 15, CBC Moncton’s Shane Magee reported that provincial lawyers told Judge DeWare they would seek to toss out the DEC’s full case, once it was filed.… Continue

Memramcook-Tantramar MLA Megan Mitton says a new memorandum of understanding (MOU) between Nova Scotia and New Brunswick to coordinate work on the protection of the Chignecto Isthmus is good news. “It shows some type of progress to governments working together,” Mitton told CHMA, “but we still need a third – we need the feds to be at the table and part of an agreement.”

The Chignecto Isthmus between Sackville and Amherst is home to the only land transportation links between the two provinces. Parts of the Isthmus are at risk of flooding due to predicted sea level rise and extreme weather associated with climate change.

The new MOU says that the two provinces will take on “pre-construction activities to ensure readiness” for one or a combination of the options outlined in a 2021 engineering study. The work outlined in the MOU includes:

• Data collection
• Preliminary design
• Final design
• Indigenous consultation
• Regulatory work
• Stakeholder engagement
• Land acquisitions

New Brunswick Minister of Transportation and Infrastructure, Richard Ames told Mitton in April that the province has allocated $750,000 in this year’s budget to go towards that work. Ames also said the province has requested $650 million from the federal government to complete the project.

Last July, New Brunswick Premier Blaine Higgs and Nova Scotia Premier Tim Houston announced they would apply to the federal government’s Disaster Mitigation and Adaptation Fund, which could cover half the project cost.… Continue

Nearly thirty people showed up at the Sackville Commons on Friday night to watch three New Brunswick punk bands. There was a cover charge, but also a pay-what-you-can option. The idea is to make these shows as accessible as possible, even to kids.

Which is refreshing according to Tantramar Regional High School Student, Seth Thomas.

“A lot of the shows we have here are at Ducky’s or bars, so if I go I’d have to go with a parent,” said Seth.

“And if I want to just hang out with my friends and go to a show, these all-ages shows are pretty awesome for that.”

This is exactly the reaction Glenn Barrington was hoping for when he started the all-ages music series in January. He wanted to provide a place for music lovers to get to gather, regardless of age. So, it isn’t just teenagers who are showing up.

“There’s been really good turnouts, somewhere around 50, 60 people have been coming out,” said Barrington.

“And a really good span of all ages… kids, teenagers, you know, people who are 20s, 30s, 40s all the way up to their, their senior ages, which is awesome.”

Barrington volunteers his time to do this because he grew up organizing and playing in bands, at shows just like this when he was growing up in Sydney Nova Scotia.… Continue

Tantramar council will vote on the fate of Dorchester’s DCS Kids Daycare at its next regular meeting on May 14. The daycare is seeking a zoning change and approval of a lease renewal, in order to keep operating at its location at the Dorchester Recreation Centre on School Street.

DCS Kids Daycare’s current lease for space at the Dorchester Recreation Centre on School Street expires at the end of June.

Active Living Director Matt Pryde told Tantramar council on Monday that the daycare’s tenancy has been “going really well”. The new three year lease would remain the same as the current one, with DCS Kids Daycare paying $750 per month in rent to the municipality, and covering things like liability insurance and provincial regulatory approval. The town will remain responsible for snow clearing.

DCS Kids Daycare started out in March 2021 inside the Dorchester Consolidated School, and then in 2022 moved to the Dorchester Recreation Centre. Owner Kirsten Weldon says it’s a “fabulous” location. “We love being right by the school, it’s so convenient,” says Weldon. “And we’ve got use of the hockey rink, and the woods, and the park is just down the road. And we’re walking distance to a library.”

Weldon has been looking for ways to expand the after school program capacity at DCS Kids.… Continue