Community News Archives » Page 45 of 179 » CHMA, Voice of the Marshes

Another round of MASU’s Green Investment Fund means another $20k for sustainability projects in Tantramar

In 2013-14, the Green Investment Fund helped with the installation of Sackville’s first EV charger at the Visitor Information Centre. Photo: Erica Butler

Back in 2009, the students of Mount Allison voted to chip in $10 each per year towards a Green Investment Fund (GIF). Since then, students have collectively funded dozens of sustainability projects at the school and throughout the Tantramar region. Over the years the GIF has funded solar panels on the shed at the Tantramar Regional High School, the replacement of halide light bulbs with LED alternatives on the Mount Allison campus, and the purchase of acres of degraded forestland for long-term restoration, among other things.

Issac Acker is a fourth year Biology student, and the Sustainability Coordinator for the Mount Allison Students’ Union (MASU). With the deadline for this year’s funding applications approaching next week, CHMA spoke with Acker to find out more:

The GIF collects roughly $20,000 each year, depending on student enrolment, and that pot of money can go to a number of small projects, or one large project, says Acker. It all depends on “the quality of the projects that have been submitted, and what the sustainability committee decides,” he says.

And the projects are open to anyone in the community. “That’s what I love about this project,” says Acker. “It’s not so much just based solely on campus, but we can reach out to many different nonprofits and other organizations in the greater area.”… Continue

Unpacking the Tantramar budget: tax rates up in LSDs, down slightly in town and village

If anyone thought that the amalgamation of a town, a village and three different local service districts (or parts thereof) would simplify things, a peek into the budgeting process might change their mind.

On January 6, the province finally provided Tantramar staff with a budget document outlining overall revenues and expenses for the amalgamated municipality. At the time, Mayor Andrew Black called the document ‘incomplete’ because it lacked any detail about how the numbers would break down among the former entities, including naming which former municipality would have which tax rate.

The document was created by transition facilitator Chad Peters and approved by local government minister Daniel Allain, and includes five different tax rates, though it took a further request to the department of local government to determine which area will pay which rate.

It turns out that rates in Tantramar will either go up or slightly down for 2023, depending on where you live:

Residential tax rates for Tantramar in 2023 and 2022. Data: NB Department of Local Government

The former town of Sackville and village of Dorchester will both see their rates go down slightly, with a less than 1% difference. That doesn’t mean those folks will pay the same in taxes, because on average, assessments in both Sackville and Dorchester have gone up significantly, by just over 10% in Sackville and just under 15% in Dorchester village.

Tax base (total assessment values) for Tantramar in 2023 and 2022.

… Continue

Garnet and Gold is back with High School Musical opening tonight

*Breagh Langille and Ashton Leal are the leads in a new production from Garnet and Gold Musical Theatre Society.* *Photo contributed*

Garnet and Gold Musical Theatre Society, also called G&G, is a Mount Allison University student group that traces its history back to 1932 “as an offshoot of the Mount A Choral Society.”

Since 1987 the group has staged a production annually, except during the 2020-21 season, because of COVID-related public health measures or restrictions.

Now they’re back with a production of High School Musical On Stage, the theatre version of the 2006 Disney Channel TV-movie.

The show kicks off tonight and continues until Saturday at Convocation Hall. Tickets are available on Eventbrite.

On Monday, CHMA spoke by videoconference to some of the students behind the new production, to learn more.

Here’s that conversation with Ashton Leal and Breagh Langille, who are playing the lead roles in High School Musical On Stage, along with producer Amanda Godin:

… Continue

Desmond Cole comes to Mount A and brings some questions about how schools handle Equity, Diversity, Inclusion and Accessibility

Writer and journalist Desmond Cole. Image: Mta.ca

Equity, Diversity, Inclusion and Accessibility, or EDIA for short: It’s become a standard acronym and feature of policy making in institutions like Mount Allison University. But what EDIA means, and what it accomplishes in terms of the needs of people on the ground at those institutions, are questions that Canadian author and activist Desmond Cole will be asking in a talk tonight at Mount Allison University.

Cole is a journalist, activist and author based in Toronto. His work focuses on anti-racism and the struggle against state violence, including the practice of carding. His 2020 book, The Skin We’re In: A Year of Black Resistance and Power won the Toronto Book Award and the OLA Evergreen award.

Cole’s talk is the third instalment of the President’s Speaker Series, and takes place in the Crabtree Auditorium, across from the Ralph Pickard Bell Library, starting at 7pm Tuesday. The talk is open to anyone, though masks are required on campus. For those who can’t make it in person, the talk is also available online through Microsoft Teams by registering with the organizers.

Hear Desmond Cole on CHMA’s morning show with Nana Ofori-Amanfo and Erica Butler, previewing tonight’s talk, sharing about his journey to activism, and what he says to folks who deny systemic racism.

… Continue

Deluge in the den? Flood risk assessments offered free to homeowners with basements

An environmental non-profit in Sackville has announced a free program that’s meant to offer peace of mind to area residents worried about how their homes will stand up to flooding conditions.

EOS Eco-Energy is offering the “home flood risk assessment program” for houses with basements, particularly in the Memramcook, Tantramar and Strait Shores regions of southeast New Brunswick.

The program is meant to help homeowners identify how vulnerable their homes are to basement flooding in an age increasingly marked by climate chaos. There are also $100 rebates available for participants to help cover the cost of home improvements.

The organization is encouraging people to sign up before the next big rain or winter thaw.

“Neighborhoods weren’t developed back in the day thinking about so much rain and so much runoff,” said Amanda Marlin, executive director of EOS Eco-Energy, in an interview with CHMA.

Twenty per cent of homes across the country are at risk of flooding, according to the federal government.

And the risks are getting worse with the acceleration of climate change caused by human-generated greenhouse gas emissions.

Listen to the report that aired on CHMA on Thursday, January 19, 2023:

… Continue

Angry overflow crowd confronts education minister over French immersion reforms, commandeers public consultation

*Attendees give a standing ovation to a French immersion teacher at a rowdy public consultation in downtown Moncton on Thursday, January 19, 2023. Photo: David Gordon Koch*

Planned education reforms appear to have stirred a hornet’s nest, if a public consultation meeting in downtown Moncton is any indication.

On Thursday night, the Department of Education held a public meeting at the Delta Beauséjour Hotel over the planned changes to French-language education for anglophone students in New Brunswick.

Listen to the report that aired on CHMA on January 23, 2023:

Around 6:30 p.m., when the session was slated to begin, there were still dozens of people waiting in a line that extended from the conference room down the staircase to the lobby.

*Participants wait in line at a public consultation at the Delta Beauséjour Hotel in downtown Moncton on Thursday, January 19, 2023. Photo: David Gordon Koch*

When the conference room reached capacity, workers removed wall panels to add extra space for more tables and chairs. More than 300 people reportedly attended.

Things got rowdy when the session finally got started, about 45 minutes later than planned, as the overflow crowd heckled Minister of Education Bill Hogan and deputy minister John McLaughlin.

Hogan even threatened to shut down the event, but attendees appeared to call his bluff as they began making speeches at mics positioned in the back of the room.

It was a change of plans for organizers. The consultation was supposed to be a World Café, a method that involves small groups discussing an issue, before delegates present the main points to the larger crowd. … Continue

Years of planning and a salmon dinner lead to major public funding commitment to future of Ralph Pickard Bell library

The Ralph Pickard Bell library just took a giant step closer to a renewal project that has been in the works for years. On Tuesday afternoon, dignitaries, media, and members of the Mount Allison community gathered for a joint announcement from the provincial and federal governments of a combined $36 million in funding to help make the renovation a reality.

Provincial post-secondary education minister Trevor Holder, Mount Allison Dean of Libraries Rachel Rubin, federal minister of infrastrucutre Dominic Leblanc, and Mount Allison president Dr. Jean Paul Boudreau. Photo: Erica Butler

MP for Beauséjour and federal minister of infrastructure Dominic Leblanc announced $26 million towards the project coming from the green infrastructure stream of the Canada-New Brunswick bilateral infrastructure agreement. “There were a number of hundreds of millions of dollars that had not been allocated in the existing Canada-New Brunswick agreement,” said Leblanc after the announcement on Tuesday. “This is one example of the decisions that we made with the government of New Brunswick to access that funding, to do important infrastructure projects around the province.”

Leblanc says the project fits under the green infrastructure stream since the renovations will make the Ralph Pickard Bell Library “world-leading in terms of its environmental footprint.”

Two of New Brunswick’s provincial ministers also attended Tuesday. Minister of Health and Mount Allision alumnus Bruce Fitch was there, along with Post-Secondary Education minister Trevor Holder, who announced New Brunswick’s contribution to the project.

“I’m incredibly proud to announce today a $10 million commitment from the provincial government to support the programming needs here at Mount Allison University,” said Holder, to applause from those gathered.… Continue

Sackville parents heading to Moncton Thursday to weigh in on planned demise of French Immersion program

Education minister Bill Hogan in an online Q&A hosted by the department on Monday, January 16, 2023. Image: Screencap

Some Sackville parents are making plans to head to Moncton Thursday night for a consultation session hosted by New Brunswick Education minister Bill Hogan, to discuss his plan to phase out French Immersion and move to a universal conversational French program for all Anglophone students in the province. The plan is set to launch in September for kindergarten and grade one students.

Valmai Goggin is planning to attend the session at the Delta Beausejour at 6:30pm, hoping for a chance to weigh in on the government’s plan. Goggin is concerned that the province’s proposed “innovative immersion” program will not just be bad for her own children’s French language success, but bad for the province in general, and its reputation as a bilingual province.

“This is not an immersion program and its outcomes will not be comparable to the outcomes of the current French Immersion program,” says Goggin who has two young kids, one who started immersion this year, and another who would start school under the new system. “This new ‘one size fits no-one’ plan removes choice and manages to simultaneously decrease the amount of learning available to students,” says Goggin. “So I’m extremely unhappy and [Monday’s] Q&A online session did nothing to alleviate my concerns.”

On Monday night, Hogan took to Youtube for about 30 minutes for a Q&A to kick off a brief series of consultations.… Continue

Varma looks to start conversations and connect generations with Sackville: A Visual Snapshot

Artist Indu Varma standing in front of her new work at Sackville Town Hall. Photo: Erica Butler

From a distance, Sackville’s newest piece of public art looks fairly straightforward in design, but to really appreciate Indu Varma’s ‘Sackville: A Visual Snapshot’, one really needs to get up close and personal.

CHMA decided to do just that and met the artist outside town hall, where her new ceramic sculptural work is installed:

“I wanted the images of our past in Sackville to be in front of us,” says Varma. “History for the most part lies in books and archives and museums. But I wanted it to be in front of us so that when people look at these images, they mean something to them, they can connect with it. And they can start conversations which will connect generations.”

Detail from Sackville: A Visual Snapshot, by Indu Varma. Photo: Erica Butler

Sackville: A Visual Snapshot is a mosaic made up of dozens of individually created tiles depicting various images from the cultural and natural history of the Sackville area. Varma used image transfer, painting and glaze work to create the tiles. There’s an image of the old Stedman’s storefront from Main Street, maps showing where a ferry used to cross the Tantramar Rivera, as well as images of railway bridges and covered bridges on the marsh. People figure prominently in the mix.

“The people that you see are not people that were significant in terms of they weren’t politicians, or they weren’t people who were significant in the role that they played.… Continue

Rare birds ‘very far’ beyond usual northern limits

The Great White Egret is found across South America year-round, and they range widely across Central and North America, reaching as far north as Canada, but they normally go south in the winter. Photo: Alain Clavette

Bird enthusiasts are bewildered by two rare feathered specimens that have taken up residence in Sackville.

A Great White Egret has been hunting for fish among the cattails of the water retention pond for weeks.

The majestic heron-like bird is found across South America year-round, and it ranges widely across Central and North America, reaching as far north as Quebec and New Brunswick.

Tantramar would normally be far beyond its northern limit at this time of year.

Listen to the report that aired on Thursday, January 12, 2023 on CHMA:

The other unusual avian is a Green-tailed Towhee, a kind of sparrow normally found in Mexico and the southwest United States and known by its rust-coloured crown and yellow-green wings and tail.

It has been spotted for weeks near the Tantramar Wetlands Centre, behind the high school.

Both of the so-called “vagrant birds” are far beyond their normal range, but sightings have been reported as recently as Thursday on the website eBird Canada.

For more on this story, CHMA reached out to some local bird experts.

Beth MacDonald is a lab instructor in the biology department of Mount Allison University, where she also teaches ornithology, the study of birds.

Birds often land in the wrong part of the world after getting blown off course by a storm, and young birds are susceptible to flying off in the wrong direction, she said. … Continue

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