Front Page Archives » Page 16 of 167 » CHMA, Voice of the Marshes

A man in a toque, standing outside in the winter with a VIA Rail train in the background.

Parliamentary petition calls for federal investment to keep passenger rail outside central Canada

A public transportation advocacy group says that if the federal government doesn’t make key changes and investments, passenger rail outside of Central Canada is doomed.

That’s why Transport Action, and its regional affiliate Transport Action Atlantic, are calling for Canadians to sign a parliamentary petition demanding measures to preserve and grow passenger rail service in Canada. Over 4500 Canadians have so far signed the petition, which closes April 7, and is sponsored by Taylor Bachrach, a member of parliament from BC, and NDP transport critic.

Tim Hayman says that the current trains being used to run The Ocean are at the end of their useful life, and may not be viable much past 2030. The Transport Action Atlantic president says VIA is ready to go with the long process to procure new trains, but needs a substantial funding commitment from the federal government to start the process. The alternative, says Hayman, “is potentially the end of all passenger rail service outside of the Quebec City—Windsor corridor, which is obviously a situation we don’t want to find ourselves in.”

Transport Action’s petition is calls for a federal commitment in this year’s budget towards renewing the long-distance fleet. It also calls for the government to give passenger rail, and VIA Rail itself, some legal standing, much like its counterpart in the US, Amtrak.

VIA is a crown corporation but has no rights over any of the rail network it uses to transport passengers in Canada.… Continue

Tantramar Poet Laureate Laura Watson is working at bringing writers together

Tantramar Poet Laureate Laura Watson at her kitchen table. Photo: Erica Butler

April is Poetry Month, and to celebrate CHMA sat down with Tantramar’s Poet Laureate Laura Watson in the kitchen of her Sackville home.

… Continue

Fire department recommendations to stay under wraps, Phinney off the hook for court costs

Tantramar councillor Bruce Phinney outside of the Moncton courtroom where a judge heard his application for the release of the Montana report on the Sackville Fire Department. Photo: Erica Butler

Tantramar councillor Bruce Phinney had his day in court Thursday, as he brought his request for the public release of 20 recommendations about the Sackville Fire Department to a judge in New Brunswick’s Court of King’s Bench.

But Judge Jean-Paul Ouellette didn’t see fit to order the release of the recommendations, saying that he felt that New Brunswick’s Right to Information and Protection of Privacy Act (RTIPPA) was very clear in requiring town clerk Donna Beal not to disclose the information because it would reveal “the substance of records made by an investigator… in relation to a harassment investigation or a personnel investigation.”

The report in question was a workplace assessment of the Sackville Fire Department conducted by Montana consultants in the summer of 2021, after a series of allegations by volunteer firefighters of harassment and bullying were reported by local journalist Bruce Wark.

Phinney’s brief on the matter argued that the report was in fact not a personnel investigation, but an assessment of the management of the department.

Although he has yet to publish his decision on the matter, Judge Ouellette indicated on Thursday that he planned to uphold the town’s position, that the full Montana report as well as all of its 20 recommendations were fully protected under New Brunswick’s RTIPPA law.… Continue

Council considers extending rink subsidy to high school teams

A number of Tantramar councillors are throwing their support behind the possible expansion the town’s new rink fee subsidy program to include high school hockey, at a cost of between $3,200 and $11,000.

Staff are recommending against expanding the program, which in its current form is expected to cost the municipality about $43,000 in discounted fees to Sackville Minor Hockey and the Sackville Skating Club.

Director of Active Living Matt Pryde told council that the new discount program replaces the Recreation and Sports Subsidy Pilot Program, which provided registration fee rebates directly to parents, in an effort to increase access and enrolment in high-cost sports.

Pryde told council that due to the competitive nature of high school hockey, where kids have to try out to make the teams, the program wouldn’t have the effect of expanding the number of kids able to register, which is why high school teams were not included in the original subsidy program. The two high school hockey teams have about 18 players each, said Pryde.

Pryde recommended against including the high school teams in the program, but his report presented two other options for council: to either give the teams discounted fees for their practice times, which would cost the town about $3200, or extend the discount to both games and practices, which would cost the town about $11,000.

Councillor Josh Goguen said he was torn over the options, and pointed out that high school hockey teams, unlike Sackville Minor Hockey, were bringing in revenue from ticket sales at games.… Continue

Council discusses petition signed by 226 calling for an appeal to feds on Gaza violence

Vigil participants gather at town hall in February around clothing symbolizing the thousands of children killed in Israel’s continuing assault on Gaza. Photo: Bruce Wark

Tantramar Council had its first ever open discussion on Monday about a longstanding request from local group, Sackville Ceasefire Now.

The discussion came about after a petition signed by 226 people was presented by assistant clerk Becky Goodwin, requesting, “that Tantramar Council write a letter to the Right Honourable Justin Trudeau, Prime Minister of Canada, to request that the federal government call for an immediate and permanent ceasefire in Gaza, the release of all hostages, and an increased flow of humanitarian aid.”

A report on the petition listed two options for council: either write the letter or don’t. There was no staff recommendation, because as Goodwin told councillors, the issue is one of governance, and it was up to Mayor and council how to proceed.

In the end, councillors spent about ten minutes discussing the Sackville Ceasefire Now request and then moved on without a resolution either way.

According to explanations from staff at the end of the meeting, there was no option available to councillors on Monday to start a formal response to the request. The only response possible can only happen at council’s April 9 meeting, or at any future regular meeting of council, when any councillor can submit a notice of motion. That motion would then appear on council’s agenda the following month for discussion and a vote.… Continue

Local ice cream and coffee businesses look to new locations on municipal property

The Sackville Visitor Information Centre on Mallard Drive. Photo: Erica Butler

Two small local businesses are interested in setting up shop on municipal property this summer.

The Ice Cream Coop, which moved to Lorne Street in 2022 and changed owners in 2023, is looking to make a move back to Main Street, in the Bill Johnstone Memorial Park between the Sackville Public Library and the bandstand. Before 2022 the Coop was located on the other side of the library building, in the parking lot of the Kookie Kutter.

A proposed agreement presented to council on Monday would see The Ice Cream Coop owners responsible for electrical upgrades and liability insurance, as well as paying $200 per month to rent the space for their summer season.

On the other side of town on Mallard Drive, Sackville Farmers’ Market coffee purveyors Deus Ex Macina are looking to set up a seasonal cafe inside the Visitor Information Centre (VIC). Pete Stephenson and Alice Cotton have proposed to do about $5000 in plumbing and electrical work to carve out a 200 square foot space inside the VIC, alongside The Craft Gallery, Robert Lyons Graphics, and the town’s summer tourism staff.

Tantramar staff are calling the first year of the VIC agreement a pilot, with a token rent of $1 per month in consideration of the necessary renovations. The agreement specifies that rent in future years would be on par with the other tenants in the building.… Continue

Murder charges withdrawn, replaced with single manslaughter charge for Sackville man

Second degree murder charges against two Sackville men in the stabbing death of Shawn Mitton on March 16 have been withdrawn, and replaced with a single charge of manslaughter.

Tyler Murphy and Dylan Murphy appeared in Moncton provincial court on Wednesday morning with members of Shawn Mitton’s family present in court. Prosecutor Denis Sawyer withdrew the charge against 22-year-old Tyler Murphy, and replaced it with a charge of manslaughter. Murphy will remain in custody and return to court in six weeks time, on May 13, to allow time for the crown to release disclosure and for his lawyer to review it.

The charge against Dylan Murphy was withdrawn, and the 20-year-old was released.

Manslaughter is a homicide committed without intent to kill, through either unlawful act or criminal negligence. It carries no minimum sentence, unless committed with a firearm.

Shawn Mitton was found by police on March 16 shortly after 7:45pm, lying on the side of Lorne Street in Sackville suffering from apparent stab wounds. The 44-year-old father of four was transported to hospital where he died as a result of his injuries.

‘A family man’

According to his obituary, Mitton was “a family man who loved spending time with his sons. Whatever his sons were involved in, he was in 100%, announcing at their hockey games, outings in the woods, or enjoying an impromptu meal over a campfire.”

Mitton had recently moved his new upholstery business into a space on Main Street in Sackville, and was seeing considerable success and community support.… Continue

Future of Vogue uncertain due to possible bankruptcy, but group still ‘working behind the scenes’

The Vogue Cinema is a fixture of downtown Sackville, NB. Photo: Erica Butler

The for sale sign is down at The Vogue Cinema in Sackville.

The 78-year old theatre has been officially off the market for a few weeks, but not because a deal has been closed with a buyer. A real estate agent who formerly represented owner Jeff Coates confirmed the building is off the market, and said they were not authorized to give more details about the situation.

Coates, who ran the cinema for 17 years and worked there for a decade before that, refused to comment on the current status of the beloved cinema and venue.

The listing and sale of the building could have hit complications from an outstanding debt that was registered against the property in 2022, and a bankruptcy filing last month against Coates’ numbered company (059145 NB Ltd.), which owns the property and operated the cinema.

A search on Service New Brunswick’s Land Registry Services shows a $65,057.56 debt registered against the property at 9 Bridge Street, originally owed to the Canada Revenue Agency by Coates’ numbered company. The debt was registered against the property in December 2022, but dates back to five years before that, in December 2017.

The bankruptcy filing comes from another source, the Community Business Development Corporation (CBDC) Westmorland Albert, which provides financial and technical services to entrepreneurs and small businesses in the region. The filing from the CBDC says Coates’ company owes the organization $76,251.19, and asks that the numbered company which owns the Vogue be deemed bankrupt due to unmet liabilities.… Continue

Merger sees Live Bait and Performers’ join forces to make ‘one big happy theatre family’

Ryan Slashinsky is managing director of a new, yet-to-be-name theatre group that will operate out of the Performers’ Theatre space on Fairfield Road. Photo: Erica Butler

Live Bait Theatre’s annual New Works Festival kicks off this week with workshops, readings, and performances, running through to March 28.

But this year’s festival will be a swan song of sorts for the longstanding theatre company. Live Bait and Performers’ Theatre have announced a merger to create a new theatre company for the Tantramar region.

CHMA dropped by the Performers’ Theatre space on Fairfield Road to meet Ryan Slashinki, a local performing arts teacher who is taking on the role of managing director for the new theatre company during the transition.

Slashinsky is heading up a transition team which also includes Live Bait artistic director Ron Kelly Spurles who is continuing in that role for another year. The founding director of Performers’ Theatre, Steven Puddle, had previously stepped back from the helm of the community theatre group.

Slashinsky says the time was right for the merger. In recent years both companies were populated by the same people, says Slashinski, which meant “we were finding that we were burning out people that wanted to work in the theater.” While Live Bait is a professional company with a 35-year history, the productions coming from Performers’ had grown to become “of similar quality,” says Slashinski. “Over the past 15 years, Performers’ has kind of grown up… So the time was right, to just get together and make one big happy theatre family for the people of Tantramar.”… Continue

Lansdowne Field to be converted to surface parking as part of $85 million library & athletics project

A Google maps image overlaid with locations of major changes as part of library & athletics project.

There will be big changes in central Sackville this summer as Mount Allison’s Lansdowne Field is converted to a parking lot, while the university starts construction of a new building to house an interim library and future multipurpose athletic centre on Lansdowne Street.

The school’s VP of Finance and Administration Robert Inglis shared the news with Tantramar council on Tuesday afternoon in a special meeting.

The $85 million project includes a major renovation of the Ralph Pickard Bell Library, but first the university must construct a building to house library services while that renovation takes place. The plan is to start construction on that building this summer, which means closing the existing Lansdowne parking lot next door. And that will mean one additional component to the project, Inglis told councillors on Tuesday.

Rendering of interim library and future athletic facility on Lansdowne Street. Image: mta.ca

“We are planning on improving our parking facilities by using Lansdowne Field,” said Inglis. The school’s communications department confirmed that the new parking lot is “intended as a permanent solution to address the growing need for parking on campus.” The new parking lot will be built starting this summer and is expected to open in the fall.

The Lansdowne Field is more than twice the size of the current parking lot on Lansdowne. CHMA has asked the university for details on the size of the proposed new lot, but have yet to hear back.… Continue

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‘A family man’