Category: Community News

A group of Tantramar area residents are gathering signatures for a petition in support of maintaining French Immersion in the province. Organizer Lori Ann Roness says the petition is not just focussed on French Immersion, but on asking the government for the required supports to improve education outcomes in English learning as well.

“First, it asks the Department of Education to cease its pursuit of the framework,” says Roness. “It asks the department to maintain and enhance the existing French Immersion program and make it accessible to more students, with the long term goal of building meaningful bilingualism, not just reducing French to that capacity of being able to order a hamburger.”

The petition also ask the Department of Education to “strategically address the current challenges that exist across all facets of the education system,” says Roness. That includes more teachers, more support staff, and more educational health professionals says Roness. “There needs to be a lot more attention paid to basic things like having kids receive timely educational assessments right now. Some kids are waiting upwards of two or three years to be assessed, and this impacts their ability to have specialized learning plans and EAs and other types of educational support,” says Roness.

Roness and a number of other Sackville residents attended a public consultation session hosted by the Department of Education last month.… Continue

The 16th annual Winterfest kicks off this week on Thursday, Feburary 9, with after school sledding on the hill behind Marshview Middle School, a morning pickle ball session at the Mount Allison Athletic Centre, and skating at both the Tantramar Civic Centre, and Dorchester’s outdoor rink on School Street. It’s a fitting first day for the longstanding winter festival which is being offered for the first time in the brand new municipality of Tantramar.

Tantramar recreation director Matt Pryde says it was a bit of a challenge getting events across the municipality in the first post-amalgamation Winterfest, because planning typically starts months earlier. “Most of the planning happens before Christmas,” says Pryde, “when we were still technically working for the town of Sackville. But we were able to incorporate a few activities in Dorchester.”

Hear Matt Pryde on Tantramar Report:

In addition to the Thursday evening skate, Dorchester Village Square will be home to one of the ice sculptures created during Winterfest by artist Richard Chaisson, and the Dorchester outdoor rink will host a pickup game of hockey on Saturday morning.

Pryde says one of the most popular parts of Winterfest are the fireworks on Friday evening. “Before that show, we have music and hot chocolate and things like that a Bill Johnstone Park, that tends to be quite popular,” says Pryde. “The other one that’s quite popular is our Family Day at Beech Hill Park on Saturday afternoon, where we have sleigh rides and sledding and snowshoeing and things like that.”… Continue

Two men charged with the murder of Upper Cape resident Jamie Leard were in court Monday for the first day of a voir dire process before their trial, which is set to begin on April 17, 2023.

Henry Pottie and Sean Patterson are accused of killing Jamie Leard on May 25, 2021 in or around Upper Cape, where Leard lived. Pottie and Patterson are being tried for first degree murder.

Voir dire hearings are like a trial within a trial, where the admissibility of evidence is considered by a judge. While the hearings are open to the public, there is a publication ban on the information and evidence presented during the voir dire hearings, until the jury in the actual trial begin their deliberations.

The New Brunswick Court of King’s bench has scheduled about 4 weeks for the voir dire hearings in Pottie and Patterson’s case. The trial is expected to last about 8 weeks, from April 17 to June 9, 2023.

RELATED:

Pottie now represented by Toronto-Saint John criminal lawyer Nathan Gorham

Patterson and Pottie now face joint charge of first degree murder

RCMP charge two with first degree murder

Family and friends mourn loss of Jamie Leard, after remains found

… Continue

On Thursday afternoon a group of Sackville conservationists and guests gathered in the Tantramar Wetland Centre to celebrate World Wetlands Day, by exchanging notes on how each aims to document, learn about, and protect wetlands in the region.

Representatives from Birds Canada, the New Brunswick Invasive Species Council, Ducks Unlimited and the Canadian Wildlife Service, as well as staff and volunteers from the Tantramar Wetland Centre, were on hand to talk about some of their projects. And local politicians including mayor Andrew Black, and councillors Debbie Wiggins-Colwell, Bruce Phinney, and Michael Tower were there to listen. The whole thing was organized by Tantramar climate change coordinator Brittany Cormier and manager of tourism and business development Ron Kelly Spurles.

World Wetland Day is special for the Tantramar area this year, because of the town of Sackville’s recent designation as a Wetland City by the international Ramsar convention on wetlands. Sackville is now one of only 43 on the list of cities recognized for “exceptional efforts to safeguard urban wetlands for people and nature,” by the Ramsar convention, and the first Ramsar city in North America.

The walls of the Tantramar Wetland Centre are stacked with racks of hip-waders and snowshoes, and the room is filled with science stations, student art work, and a display featuring an actual wooden aboiteau. Coordinator Lena Gallant started out as a high school student volunteer at the centre, and now runs programs throughout the week for school groups and others from around New Brunswick and Nova Scotia.… Continue

Last week, the Town of Amherst announced it had installed two EV ‘fast-charging’ stations behind Amherst town hall, just off Laplanche Street. In a news release, the town says the project cost about $23,000, an eye-popping number for anyone familiar with a Sackville-based project approved last year that will see a single fast charger installed for a much higher cost.

“The main difference between the two projects,” says Tantramar climate change coordinator Brittany Cormier, “is really summed up to the type of EV chargers and the electrical infrastructure, especially for our project.”

Most charging stations installed these days are either level 2 or level 3. Level 2 is slower, charging a car in anywhere from four to 8 hours, depending on conditions. Level 3 is much faster, using a different technology to charge cars in anywhere from 30 minutes to one hour.

While the Amherst project involves two level 2 chargers, downtown Sackville will be home to a level 3, or DC fast charger. In addition to being faster than a level 2 charger, level 3s are also much more expensive, and often require electrical infrastructure upgrades. Tantramar is buying a Flo charger, compatible with NB Power’s network, for a cost of $58,650.… Continue

It’s interview season for Mount Allison students as they line up plans for jobs and internships for the end of the school year. This year, students will have one more tool available to help make sure they make a good impression: the Dress to Impress professional closet.

While companies never ask interviewees to dress a certain way, program coordinator Brianna Green says it’s “somewhat of an unspoken rule,” that interviewees will be judged by how they look and what they wear.

Green is Mt A’s first generation post-grad intern and the driving force behind Dress to Impress. The idea came from a previous student who had seen it in action elsewhere, but it’s a first for Mount Allison. “A lot of students don’t have access to professional clothing,” says Green, “especially within Sackville,” where retail clothing options are extremely limited.

The Dress to Impress closet opened this week, and is located in the basement of the Mount Allison chapel. It works on a ‘open door’ basis, meaning from 8am to 9pm daily, students can take their time on their own to find what they need. When they do, they sign out the item. But it’s not a library, per se. “It’s just primarily for our inventory purposes.… Continue