Category: Community News

Jason Tower loves his job helping feed and take care of Mount Allison students. Tower has been the president of Local 1440 for 17 years, representing 45 people who work in dining services at Mount Allison University.

But Tower and his members are in for a period of uncertainty now, after having received termination notices from Aramark Canada Ltd., the company that the university has contracted to deliver its food and dining services to students.

The university issued a Request for Proposals (RFP) for a new dining services contract in the fall, which closed on December 11. Tower says he and his co-workers had heard the process was open, but also that “we really didn’t have too much to worry about, because they were happy with the service they were receiving.”

Then in January, Tower heard Aramark has lost out on the RFP. On February 23, the company fired all its Mount Allison employees effective April 30, saying its contract with Mount Allison was ending on the same date.

The university says its required public procurement process is still not complete, and has not announced who will take over the contract to feed students on campus.

Tower and the members of Local 1440 are no strangers to sporadic work in the summer months. They normally get laid off in April, and then are called back to work events throughout the summer, starting with Convocation in early May.… Continue

The Tantramar region had its second visit from a provincial opposition leader this week when Liberal party leader Susan Holt visited Sackville on Thursday to meet with Tantramar council, tour the Drew Nursing Home, and talk to health care workers. Earlier in the week, Green leader David Coon hosted a town hall event at the Sackville Commons.

Like Coon, Holt’s tour of the province is focussed on health care, which she says will be the key issue in this year’s election, on or before October 21. “Accessing healthcare is the number one issue we hear from New Brunswickers everywhere,” says Holt. “They either don’t have a doctor, a clinic or a primary care home, or they don’t have confidence that if they went to the ER, they would be able to get served.”

CHMA caught up with the Liberal leader after she met with Tantramar council Thursday morning.

“The purpose of the tour is actually to take the pulse on our healthcare system, face to face with people who work in health care,” says Holt. “And because I’m here doing that, I always like to take the opportunity to connect with mayors and councils to really understand what’s going on, on the ground.”

Councillors shared a number of concerns with Holt, including access to primary care and emergency services at the Sackville hospital, concerns over freshwater flooding and the risk of tidal flooding of the Chigecto Isthmus, open access to information, and the state of rural roads.… Continue

“Really the reason for getting around the province is to hear where people’s thinking is, what their experiences are, and what they think should change and would help,” said Green Party leader David Coon on Tuesday night. About 50 people gathered in the Sackville Commons on Lorne Street to hear from Coon and Memramcook-Tantramar MLA Megan Mitton on ‘Healing our Healthcare’.

Coon is on a small tour of the southeast this week, meeting healthcare workers and patients during the day, and hosting town hall sessions in the evening.

Participants shared a wide range of experiences and concerns, from the challenges of working in a long term care facility, to concern over the possible deterioration of trans health care, and the continued use of glyphosate in New Brunswick forests. Many expressed their frustration in not being able to access primary care, or urgent care at the Sackville Memorial Hospital.

“There was so much great engagement tonight,” Cool told CHMA. “I really appreciated people coming out and participating in that way.”

Coon said there are significant reforms needed to help the health care system meet New Brunswick’s needs.

“We need restructuring,” said Coon. “We need to change the way the management takes place, we need to change the funding models, to ensure that we can get actual team-based, multidisciplinary care in the system to take people off the waiting list.”… Continue

April 8 is going to be a special day in New Brunswick, as a rare total solar eclipse darkens the daytime sky. While Sackville won’t be in the path of 100% totality for the eclipse, residents do have one distinct advantage for observing this astronomical event: Mount Allison’s Gemini Observatory.

CHMA stopped by the observatory last week to meet with associate professor Catherine Lovekin, and find out more about what to expect on April 8.

To call the upcoming eclipse a rare event is an understatement, says Lovekin. “The last total solar eclipse that was visible in New Brunswick was in about 900 AD,” says Lovekin. “It’s been more than 1000 years. So this is a really, really exciting thing.”

While the path of totality stretches across a wide swath of New Brunswick, Sackville sits just outside that path. “We’re going to get about a 99% total eclipse,” says Lovekin, “which means it’s still going to be amazing and really cool to see, but we’re not going to have that period when the moon is completely in front of the sun, and it blocks out enough of the sun’s light that you can see the corona.”

There might also be some obstacles to a clear view of the eclipse, says Lovekin. According to historical weather records, April 8 has been cloudy about 80% of the time in Sackville.… Continue

A potentially life saving measure that can reverse the effects of an opioid overdose could be harder to get in the region soon. 

Ashley Legere offers training and free intranasal naloxone kits to groups, businesses, and anyone else interested in knowing how to administer this life saving treatment. Each training session comes with two free intranasal naloxone kits. But the problem is, her access to free kits is ending on March 31, 2024, with no extension in sight.

Health Canada’s Substance Use and Addictions Program (SUAP) has been providing funds to St. John Ambulance to run the Reaching Home program that provides training and intranasal naloxone to Legere and as well as many others across the country.

“It is of the utmost importance,” says Legere, because it can reverse the effects of an opioid overdose.

“Opioids are respiratory depressants,” she says. “The opiates in your system are depressing your respiratory system and Narcan [a brand name for naloxone] just goes in and enables you to breathe again.”

The opioid crisis is here in New Brunswick and in this area. The Department of Health says in the first half of 2023, there were 23 related opioid related deaths in this province, though it notes the data is still under review and is subject to change.… Continue

The region’s public libraries have a new resource to help people make their homes more energy efficient. Patrons of the Dorchester, Port Elgin, Sackville and Dieppe public libraries can now borrow one of five new energy efficiency kits put together by EOS Eco Energy.

The kits are designed to help households learn where they could be wasting energy, and include simple tools like a shower timer, thermometer, and lightweight New Brunswick flag ideal for checking for drafts at windows and doors. There are also some tools which are harder to come by, such as a kilowatt meter and a heat imaging camera to find cold spots in walls and ceilings.

EOS Eco-Energy director Brittany Cormier says the kits come with instructions for how to use all the tools, and are meant to be accessible. “Nothing like you have to take a course on,” says Cormier. “They’re all very easy, user friendly, and accessible items.”

CHMA stopped by the library to find out more about the project.

The kilowatt meter looks similar to a timer for electrical lights and appliances. The device plugs into an outlet and then an appliance can be plugged into it, and it displays the energy usage for that appliance.

“This is something that we use with our school energy efficiency lesson plans,” says Cormier, referring to another project that EOS is completing as their funding year draws to a close on March 31.… Continue

According to the province of New Brunswick, there’s one kilometre of road for every 49 people in the province. And as any New Brunswicker knows, some of those kilometres are in better shape than others.

A group of residents from the Murray Corner area are meeting with Minister of Transportation and Infrastructure Jeff Carr this week to ask that he consider some much needed repairs on their corner of the New Brunswick road network, route 955, which runs from Cape Tormentine to Mates Corner.

Stephen Robb is a resident of Little Shemogue in the municipality of Strait Shores. He operates Loella’s Country Market, right on route 955, and that’s put him at the centre of a community push to draw attention to the state of roadway.

During the high tourist season, Robb says he and his staff heard repeatedly from customers saying, “how awful the road is, and why aren’t residents up in arms about how bad this road is, and how unsafe it is?” The feedback prompted Robb to set up a petition in Loella’s, which collected hundreds of signatures over the past summer. Now Robb is helping organize the next step, a meeting in Fredericton with Minister Carr on Tuesday, February 27.

To prepare, Robb has been documenting the road’s condition with photos and measurements. He says in many places the shoulder is eroded and lane widths can be as little as 7 feet.… Continue

Another building is gone in downtown Sackville.

10-14 York Street, the building next to the former Joey’s Pizza and Pasta, was demolished on Thursday and is now a large pile of rubble.

The building sustained smoke and water damage during the April 2023 fire that destroyed the neighbouring Joey’s building, another part of the Hanson Block, built in 1927.

10-14 York has been home to a number of businesses over the years, and at the time of the Joey’s fire, Estheva Spa and Live Bait Theatre occupied the two storefronts. 

The building is owned by Moncton restauranteur Sam Kim, who owns Kimganae Korean BBQ on Mountain Road. Kim told CHMA that he is still in the planning stages of replacing the building, but he expects eventually to build a similar structure with commercial space on the ground floor and apartments upstairs. … Continue

The Sackville RCMP have released a composite sketch of a suspect involved in a sexual assault in Sackville in October 2020. The assault took place near Mount Allison, and the victim was a Mount Allison university student who reported the incident to police in January.

Sergeant Eric Hanson of the Sackville RCMP says the force brought in a forensic sketch artist from another province to create the sketch, which has been released in hopes that “somebody may recognize that person and be able to provide us with some information as to his identity.”

A police news release says the individual has a slim build and is approximately five feet eleven inches tall. The sketch shows a relatively young, bald, white man, wearing a surgical mask, with a tattoo of a sword on his face. Hanson is hopeful that some of the unique identifying features of the man will increase the chances he can be identified.

Hanson says the assault involved someone threatening a Mount Allison student with a knife. There’s no reason to believe the attack is related to any other incidents, says Hanson, “however, it is very concerning and very scary for the victim. So we’re hoping that the public can help us try to identify who this person is.”

Hanson says it’s not unusual for victims of violent assaults to delay reporting incidents to the police. … Continue