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Sackville Festival of Early Music celebrates its 20th year with ‘all the feelings’

The Eybler Quartet (left to right: Julia Wedman, Patrick Jordan, Margaret Gay, and Patricia Ahern) being introduced by SFEM co-directors, Alex Dobson, Jimin Shin Dobson, and Christina Haldane. Photo: Shawn Bostick

The Sackville Festival of Early Music kicked off Wednesday with a presentation at the Brunton Auditorium by the Eybler Quartet, who also open the festival concert series on Friday.

CHMA spoke with festival co-director Christina Haldane about this 20th year of the Sackville Festival of Early Music.

The SFEM is an “exciting and engaging musical experience that will entice ‘all the feelings’,” says Haldane, referencing the Eybler Quartet presentation on Wednesday, which explored the role of emotions in musical performance and composition.

“This is a special repertoire,” says Haldane, of the festival’s focus on music from the Medieval, Renaissance, and Baroque periods. Haldane says the program will “provide an opportunity for you to learn more about this rich and diverse repertoire from the early European art music scene,” says Haldane, “and a chance to enjoy some exciting musicians who bring this music to life on stage.”

In addition to the concert series, SFEM continues its tradition of incorporating education in its mandate, perhaps fitting for a festival housed in a music school. “Creating opportunities for meaningful educational experiences for young learners is central to the Sackville Festival of Early Music and its activities,” says Haldane.

The members of the Eybler Quartet (Julia Wedman, Patrick Jordan, Margaret Gay, and Patricia Ahern) arrived in Sackville Tuesday night, and by 8:30 Wednesday morning “were straight into our schools in the region to lead some educational sessions with our youngest learners.”… Continue

Tantramar council okays Estabrooks’ request for a draft ‘tall grass’ bylaw

Tantramar council has approved a motion asking staff to come up with a draft bylaw “to regulate tall grass or vegetative growth within Tantramar.”

Councillor Matt Estabrooks brought the motion forward in response to concerns he has heard from residents about possible fire hazards of long, dried grass near buildings, issues with long grass providing habitat for rodents, and the effect of unkept lawns on neighbouring property values.

In a slide presentation to council on Monday, Estabrooks said the Local Government Act’s dangerous or unsightly provisions do not cover lawns, and cited some other municipalities with lawn bylaws including Moncton, Riverview and Dieppe. Estabrooks said the intention of the new bylaw would be properties inside residential zones, “not farmer’s fields, or woodlands and fields without housing on the outskirts of our communities.”

Estabrooks also said he is “not necessarily convinced that a length measurement of grasses on residential lawns is a necessary component of this bylaw.”

“I feel discretion is critical in this area of the bylaw,” said Estabrooks. “I’m sure staff will determine how to quantify ‘unkept’ when or if they’re in research stage for us.”

Both Moncton and Riverview have bylaws that establish lawn height limits, but Dieppe recently amended its bylaw to remove a 20 cm height restriction, noting that Canadian case law suggests that “aesthetic criteria for lawn maintenance are arbitrary and unconstitutional.”… Continue

Crowd shows up to support call for priority on built heritage in Tantramar

Heritage advocate Meredith Fisher got up to address Tantramar council shortly after 7pm Monday night with a gallery full of about 35 supporters.

Fisher told council she wanted them to make heritage a priority in their upcoming strategic plan, and emulate places like Wolfville, Nova Scotia, where she says the town has been “reaping economic and social benefits” from its heritage by-laws.

Fisher reminded councillors that built heritage is fleeting. “Once lost, heritage is never replaceable,” she said, “and the community loses its sense of place, distinctiveness and aesthetic value.”

Fisher said that residents were full of ideas on how to preserve and protect the town’s built heritage, including the creation of a heritage advisory committee to “work with council to help create a sensible, practical heritage bylaw and to help implement a strategy.”

“It is vitally and urgently important to consider our heritage as a top level strategic planning goal,” concluded Fisher, “because it is our heritage that binds us together and defines us as a community more perfectly than anything else.”

Before Fisher got up to address council, Mayor Andrew Black made a statement clarifying something that had circulated in a letter from Tantramar Heritage Trust president Logan Atkinson in advance of the meeting. Atkinson’s letter paraphrased the mayor, saying he had advised “that Council needs to see that there is significant public support to include Heritage in the new 5 year plan.”… Continue

QUEST Canada wants to help local governments help their communities get to net-zero

“I don’t think any community has figured out how to get to net zero,” says Eddie Oldfield, senior lead of projects for Quest Canada, who are now recruiting for their expanded Net Zero Communities Accelerator Program. “Let alone our provincial or federal governments. But it does take all of us working together to get there,” says Oldfield.

With $2 million in funding from ACOA and complementary funding from individual provinces, QUEST Canada will be helping 15 different municipalities in the Atlantic Provinces create plans and undertake initiatives to help them get to net-zero emissions.

The Net Zero Communities Accelerator Program was originally piloted in New Brunswick, and towns like Oromocto, St. Andrews and Riverview have all participated. The new program includes four New Brunswick communities so far, including Salisbury, Riverview, Grand Bay-Westfield and Fredericton.

Communities participating in the Net Zero Community Accelerator program as of September 9, 2024. Screenshot: https://questcanada.org/pan-atlantic-nca/

QUEST’s work with each municipality is a bit different, depending on where they are in the process of planning towards net-zero. In Oromocto, “they had a supportive council and staff that wanted to champion the way forward,” says Oldfield, so QUEST did brainstorming exercises, in-depth action planning, and helped the town come up with a community energy and emissions plan.

“There are other communities that come to us that already have a plan,” says Oldfield, but is not being implemented. “It’s literally a plan that sits on the corner of somebody’s desk,” says Oldfield.… Continue

Janet Crawford celebrates 40 years connecting artists and collectors at the Fog Forest Gallery

There were some who thought Janet Crawford was foolhardy to open a commercial art gallery in small town like Sackville, but forty years later, Fog Forest Gallery is a well-respected East Coast gallery and fixture of downtown Sackville.

To celebrate her 40 years in business, Crawford has invited 40 of her favourite artists to a special anniversary show, Forty Years in the Forest, which opens tonight with live music and refreshments at the Fog Forest Gallery on Bridge Street.

“It’s been a good ride for 40 years,” says Crawford, who has no plans to retire anytime soon.

“I want this to be a celebration, not so much of the gallery, but of the artists and the clients… Because without the artists and without the customers, I wouldn’t have been here.”

Hear the full interview with Crawford here:

Forty Years in the Forest opens Friday from 5pm to 7pm, and continues until October 11th. Fog Forest Gallery is open Thursdays and Friday, 10am to 5pm, and by appointment.… Continue

Heritage advocates calling for support at council presentation Monday

A group of residents called Friends of Heritage will be presenting to Tantramar council at their meeting on Monday September 9, in hopes of convincing councillors that the town’s cultural and built heritage should figure into its new five year strategic plan.

The former town of Sackville scrapped its heritage bylaw in 2018, and nothing has been proposed to replace it since.

Longtime Sackville resident Meredith Fisher is helping spread the word about Monday’s presentation in hopes that residents will fill the gallery as a show of support for maintaining and protecting local heritage buildings and streetscapes.

“We’re encouraging people to come and support this,” Fisher told CHMA, “this effort to get heritage going again, or at least some kind of a profile or priority again in the town.”

Hear more from Meredith Fisher here:

… Continue

Sackville classroom helps adults improve skills and get their high school equivalency

Every year about 500 people enroll as students with South East Adult Education, in one of 22 classrooms throughout south east New Brunswick, including a full-time classroom based at the Sackville Curling Club.

Retired Mount Allison professor John Read has been president of the organization for about 18 years, and he stopped by CHMA studios to talk a bit about what the group does and why it matters:

There’s a “horrible statistic” that John Read says he doesn’t even like to mention, that about half the adult population of New Brunswick could do with some improvement in their literacy and numeracy skills. “This is becoming more and more important as there now are fewer jobs where you really don’t specifically need these skills,” says Read.

South East Adult Education president, and retired Mount Allison professor, John Read, at CHMA studios. Photo: Erica Butler

Students with South East Adult Education range from those looking to get their high school equivalency (which in Canada recently changed from the GED to the CAEC, Canadian Adult Education Credential), to those hoping to upgrade or refresh their skills in reading, writing, math or computers.

“Any student can come in any time, and they can come for five hours a week or 30 hours a week, just depending on their circumstances,” says Read. “My favourite word really is flexibility. So just come when you’re ready… and try and progress at your rate.”

The program needs to be flexible, because adult lives are complicated.… Continue

Levesque talks Tantramar candidates, issues, and return of on-campus polling

With the provincial election approaching this fall, CHMA called up Mount Allison political science professor Dr. Mario Levesque to talk about the new riding of Tantramar and get his take on how the vote may play out here.

To hear the full interview, click below:

Premier Blaine Higgs is expected to drop the writ on September 19, triggering an October 21 election. But Higgs could do so earlier, triggering an election about four weeks later. Levesque sounds doubtful of that happening at this point. “I don’t see any advantage at all if he was going to call it earlier,” says Levesque, unless it were early enough to hamper the student vote.

An early September election “would create confusion among students,” says Levesque, which in turn “may sway some ridings that have a university, like ours right here in Tantramar, but also David Coon’s riding in Fredericton, and there’s the one riding in Saint John.”

Though he’s doubtful there’s any advantage, he also says he would not necessarily be surprised if Premier Higgs did drop the writ early. “He’s quirky that way sometimes,” says Levesque. “So, it could happen, but if the opposition parties aren’t ready by now, they’re never going to be ready. So I don’t see any real advantage overall.”

Incumbent advantage

Levesque says that current Memramcook-Tantramar MLA Megan Mitton has a direct advantage heading into the campaign, as the twice elected incumbent, who is “well rooted” in the riding and “well versed” on the issues.… Continue

Sackville water treatment capacity fix means diverting up to $40k from sewage lagoon fund

Tantramar public works director Jon Eppell on the rooftop garden at the Tantramar municipal office . Photo: Erica Butler

Tantramar council will be considering some more unplanned spending in the Sackville water utility, which could end up diverting up to $40,000 from reserve funds meant for the eventual upgrading of Sackville’s sewage lagoons.

Public works manager Jon Eppell told council Monday that three water pumps which push untreated water through the filtration system at the water treatment plant are underperforming, putting the town at risk of potential shortages in Sackville’s treated water supply.

“Our production has been challenged for the last year plus,” said Eppell. “We were not managing to treat enough water, or as quickly as we were expecting.”

After investigating a number of possible causes for the lack of capacity, three nearly-30-year-old pumps were identified as operating “in some cases, at perhaps less than 50% of the expected efficiency,” said Eppell.

The three low lift pumps take turns pushing untreated water from a large tank under the building through the water filters in the treatment system. From there, water is chlorinated and then goes into a treated water tank and is available for use by the town’s water customers.

Eppell says the three pumps were all installed in 1997, and haven’t seen any refurbishment since then.

The lack of efficiency has affected how much treated water is available in Sackville, which Eppell said is a potential problem, especially when there is high demand for water.… Continue

Regional commission to take over garbage collection in effort to keep prices down

For years the Southeast Regional Service Commission, as ECO 360, has been handling the disposal of the region’s garbage, compost, and recycling. But until now, the collection of all that waste has been handled by individual municipalities.

That will change in February of next year, when the commisson will take over collection of blue, green and clear bags throughout the southeast region.

At a special meeting on August 15, Tantramar council voted to approve an agreement with the commission, to allow them to proceed with contracts for collection in 2025.

Tantramar’s public works director Jon Eppell told council that the province’s forced amalgamation of municipalities in 2023, as well as major cost increases in the garbage collection industry, precipitated the move to have the commission take on the role.

After amalgamation in January 2023, the municipality found itself with multiple waste collection contracts, and mounting costs. Last year’s budget saw a 33.6% increase in collection costs, and a similar hike was in the cards for 2025. “A regional solution was very desirable,” Eppell told council on August 15. “It was a means by which we could create more attractive packages for waste collection and thereby minimize the cost… So we approached Southeast Regional Service Commission, and they expressed a willingness to take it on.”

The commission is setting up contracts in two zones, with Tantramar part of a zone along with Shediac, Cap-Acadie, Strait Shores, and Memramcook.… Continue

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