Community News Archives » Page 8 of 178 » CHMA, Voice of the Marshes

Vogue Cinema on course for tax sale in January, with nearly $70k in taxes owed

The Vogue Cinema in downtown Sackville, NB. Photo: Erica Butler

The Vogue Cinema is headed for tax sale this January, unless owner Jeff Coates can make good on nearly $70,000 in back taxes owed to the provincial government.

The provincial Finance and Treasury Board posted an Expression of Interest on the property at 9 Bridge Street in an attempt to contact Coates.

A tax certificate from the board shows that Coates’ numbered company owes $69,236.37 in unpaid taxes as of this month. The 2024 tax levy on the property was $7,509.79.

At tax sale, the bidding on the building will start with the amount owing to the province. The earliest the theatre could go up for sale would be January 2025. Before that, the property will continue to accrue taxes and fees, meaning the minimum bid could be closer to $78,000 by the time it goes up for sale.

But any liens on the property will be dissolved by the tax sale. That means that more than $65,000 in debt owed to the Canada Revenue Agency could disappear. The debt was registered against the property in 2022, and dates back to money owed as of 2017, according to registration documents available through Service New Brunswick.

Coates’ numbered company is also the subject of a bankruptcy filing by the Westmoreland Albert Community Business Development Corporation, who say Coates owes them about $76,000.

On June 4, the Court of King’s Bench ruled the company bankrupt, after a hearing where Coates did not appear.… Continue

Councillor says elected DECs help keep party politics out of education, defends legal spending

A battle over policies meant to protect the rights of trans kids in the New Brunswick public school system extended into the courts earlier this year, with two Charter challenges against the provincial government’s changes to Policy 713: one led by the Canadian Civil Liberties Association, and one by the Anglophone East District Education Council (DEC).

Now a new court battle has begun with its roots in the Policy 713 controversy: Minister of Education Bill Hogan is taking the Anglophone East DEC to court to seek its dissolution. That means the Tantramar family of schools could find itself under the direct leadership of the province, instead of an elected council.

According to a report by CBC’s Shane Magee, the case for the dissolution of the DEC will be heard by Moncton’s Court of King’s Bench on November 14, nearly a month after a provincial election slated for October 21.

CHMA spoke with Anglophone East DEC councillor Kristin Cavoukian last week to learn more about the council’s position in both its case against the province, and the provincial case against the DEC. We started off asking Cavoukian about a recent DEC decision to pursue an appeal of Judge Tracey DeWare’s decision to deny the council legal standing in its Policy 713 case.

“Our lawyers believe that some errors were made,” says Cavoukian, “and that an appeal is a worthwhile thing to do. None of us are ready to give up on this fight yet.”… Continue

Lesley Crewe takes ‘Death and Other Inconveniences’ on tour, with stops in Sackville and Amherst

Lesley Crewe is the author of sixteen novels, including The Spoon Stealer, Nosy Parker, and Relative Happiness, which was adapted into a feature film in 2014.

Originally from Montreal, Crewe has lived most of her life in Cape Breton, Nova Scotia.

Crewe’s latest book is Death and Other Inconveniences, and the writer is now on tour through the Maritimes, coming to Sackville and Amherst this Wednesday, July 17th.

Local reader and fan Judith Cane called up Crewe to talk with her in advance of her stop in Sackville:

Crewe will be at Tidewater Books on Wednesday, July 17, from 2pm to 3:30pm, to sign books. Then she’ll be at the Four Fathers Memorial Library in Amherst at 7pm Wednesday for a reading and signing.

… Continue

New doctor coming to Port Elgin, full time nurse practitioner for Tantramar

Horizon’s director of primary health care for Zone 1, Richard Lemay, had some good news to share on Wednesday evening at a public meeting about health care held in the Port Elgin Regional School. Lemay told the crowd of about 70 people that Horizon has signed a contract with a new physician to work at the Port Elgin and Region Health Centre starting sometime in early 2025.

Richard Lemay, Horizon’s director of primary health care for Zone 1, after a public meeting in Port Elgin on July 10, 2024. Photo: Erica Butler

The clinic lost its full time nurse practitioner this spring, and has been operating with an NP working just two days a week. That NP will wrap up their work in Port Elgin on August 31 this year, leaving a gap with no primary care provider based out of the clinic for several months. Lemay says Horizon is working to fill the gap, and is still not sure how long it will be, because it’s not yet clear exactly when the new physician will start.

“The plan is for that person to probably be here, early 2025, after Christmas,” said Lemay. “We can’t share any more details right now because he has to share information with his patients right now to inform them first. But probably this fall, we’ll be able to tell you exactly when the person is going to start. And we’ll keep you informed.”

During the Q&A session of the meeting, one resident asked about the longevity of the contract for the physician, which prompted Dr.… Continue

Listen in: Community Health Care Meeting in Port Elgin

Community healthcare meeting at Port Elgin Regional School, July 10, 2024. Photo: Erica Butler

About 70 people gathered in the gymnasium of the Port Elgin Regional School on Wednesday evening to hear from and ask questions of a number of health care officials from Horizon and Medavie Health Services. The meeting was hosted by Memramcook-Tantramar MLA Megan Mitton.

Presenters included:

Richard Lemay, Horizon’s director of primary health care for Zone 1
Dr. Ravneet Comstock, family physician and primary care lead for Horizon
Ginette Pellerin, Vice-President, Extra-Mural Program Operations, Medavie Health Services
Jean-Pierre Savoie, Vice-President, Ambulance New Brunswick, Medavie Health Services
Martine Des Roches, Vice President, NB Health Link, Medavie Health Services

Here’s the full audio of the presentations and the Q&A that followed:

… Continue

Water quality monitoring in New Brunswick faces an uncertain funding future

“Everything is connected to water,” says Brittany Cormier, executive director of EOS Eco Energy. “And we are as well.”

Every summer since 2019, EOS sends out people into the brooks and streams of the region’s watersheds to observe and record conditions. The teams measures things like pH, temperature, and dissolved oxygen, and they also observe wildlife, plant growth, and check for eutrophication, or excessive algae growth.

But because there’s several watersheds inside EOS territory, these water quality monitoring teams have been working on a rotating basis around the region, one year visiting the Cape Tormentine peninsula, another going to Dorchester and Rockport, and another going to sites in the Tantramar River Watershed.

Image from Integrated Watershed Management Plan for Chignecto Area Watersheds, February 2024

Cormier says that plan was a good start. “It helped us get a bit more of a snapshot of the local streams and rivers,” says Cormier. But this year, EOS’s water quality team will start a new program. “We just made the decision this year to go forward with an annual water quality monitoring plan,” says Cormier. “We chose 12 sites across those three areas, and we’re going to commit to those.”

It’s one of the recommendations in EOS’s new Integrated Watershed Management Plan for Chignecto Area Watersheds, which it published in February. Committing to fewer sites, but doing monitoring annually, will give a better picture of what’s happening in watersheds from year to year, and it will more quickly build up the ten years of data that’s needed to establish a baseline for the region.… Continue

Council preview: procedure changes, skipping summer meetings, loitering bylaw on the agenda

Tantramar Council is taking a step closer to following its own procedural bylaw.

Council meets tonight, with a closed session starting at 6:30pm to discuss two matters. After that, the public meeting begins, with an agenda that looks different than past meetings of council.

Tuesday’s meeting agenda includes a section entitled, “Mayor and Councillor Statements and Inquiries”. It’s the first time the section has been included in a meeting since the amalgamation of Tantramar 18 months ago, despite the fact that it is included in the Tantramar procedural bylaw, one of the first four founding bylaws of the newly amalgamated municipality.

On May 14, Councillor Debbie Wiggins-Colwell asked to make an observation before the regular meeting of council adjourned, but was told she could not by CAO Jennifer Borne, Clerk Donna Beal, and Mayor Andrew Black, who told her she could not speak because her item was not on the meeting’s approved agenda.

Tantramar Ward 1 councillor Debbie Wiggins-Colwell at Committee of the Whole on February 27, 2023. Image: Youtube screencap

Local reporter Bruce Wark later pointed out in a story on warktimes.com, that a section for council statements is actually included in the town’s own bylaw, despite it never being included on a meeting agenda.

Now that the section for Mayor and Councillor Statements and Inquiries is listed, it’s still not clear how the Mayor and senior staff will treat the section during the meeting, whether councillors would be required to request to speak in advance, or if they will simply be given an opportunity for statements and enquiries, as is the practice in the city of Moncton.… Continue

Another adjournment in Sackville manslaughter case

Tyler Murphy made a brief appearance in Moncton provincial court on Monday morning, and will be back in just under three weeks’ time.

22-year-old Murphy is charged with manslaughter in the death of Shawn Mitton on March 16, 2024. Mitton was found on the side of the road with stab wounds and later died in hospital. Murphy was arrested shortly thereafter.

Murphy’s defense lawyer Pierrette Allain told the judge she had received disclosure from the crown and now needed time to seek permission from Legal Aid to make an election, or choose the mode of trial for the manslaughter charge.

This was the third adjournment of the case since Murphy’s original charge of second degree murder was withdrawn and the charge of manslaughter was laid, on March 27, 2024.

Allain said she had met with Murphy Monday morning before court, to go over his options for a trial.

Family members of both Murphy and the victim Shawn Mitton were in the courtroom to witness the brief proceeding.

Murphy is now due back in court on July 26 at 9:30am, to choose the mode of trial and set a date for a preliminary hearing. He will remain in custody until then.… Continue

Hogan files for dissolution of Anglophone East District Education Council

Updated July 5, 2024, 10pm to include confirmation of filing from Department of Education spokesperson, Erika Jutras.

School may be out for the summer, but the Anglophone East District Education Council was back in action on Thursday, responding to news of an order in council approved by the provincial cabinet on May 9, 2024, authorizing Minister Bill Hogan to go to court to dissolve the District Education council for Anglophone East. By end of day Friday, the minister would make use of that authorization.

Hogan had previously threatened the council with dissolution, but the order in council shows that he has support of the PC government cabinet to pursue the dissolution.

In a statement Thursday, the DEC says they have not received “any formal notice indicating that the minister has filed the required application to dissolve the DEC with the court.”

But a spokesperson for the Education department told CHMA that could be coming soon. “The intention is to file shortly with the court to dissolve the District Education Council for Anglophone-East,” wrote communications officer Judy Winter in response to a CHMA enquiry Thursday.

It’s not clear if the court would be able to deal with the matter before the New Brunswick provincial election, due to happen in less than four months’ time, by October 21, 2024.

The DEC statement says it is prepared to “defend its integrity through all available channels”, if and when the minister “chooses to act on the May 9th authorization.”… Continue

Blind Forest Books gears up to make a move to Main Street before spring eviction

Blind Forest Books co-owner Miriam Lapp in the stacks at her York Street shop. Photo: Erica Butler

Operating Blind Forest Books on York Street in Sackville has been a dream come true for Miriam Lapp. The young tarot reader and bookseller bought the used book shop with her partner Stephen in 2017, years after having discovered its former incarnation, Rags of Time, as a “spiritual refuge” in her childhood.

But this fall, after twenty years on York Street, the shelves and stacks of books will be lugged down to a new, bigger location at 69 Main Street.

CHMA stopped in to Blind Forest Books on York Street to find out more about Lapp’s plans:

“It’s an awesome location, right next to the grocery store,” says Lapp, “even more central than we are now, if that was possible.” Lapp says the larger space behind Hedy’s Hair Care and Wild Carnivore Pet Supplies will mean higher costs, but will also allow her a dedicated space for tarot readings, and more rooms for bookshelves to peruse.

“We’re working hard to drum up the money,” says Lapp. “Could be that we’ll have to take out a loan, but I’m also finding other ways.” Lapp will offering Tarot and astrology courses, and she will be teaching yoga classes at Atlantic Yoga Therapy on Haworth Heights. https://www.atlanticyogatherapy.com

As excited as she is for the new space, Lapp is also sad to say goodbye to the York Street shop.… Continue

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