Budget passes, shared services calculations to be reviewed
Tantramar council passed a number of budget resolutions this week, setting capital and operating budget spending as well as tax rates for the municipality.
2024 tax rates for Tantramar, per $1000 of assessed property value
- Former town of Sackville: 1.5389 (down 0.0095 from last year)
- Former village of Dorchester: 1.5415 (down 0.0225 from last year)
- Former Sackville LSD: 0.5625 (0.974 w/ provincial portion, up 0.05 from last year)
- Former Point de Bute LSD: 0.7637 (1.1752 w/ provincial portion, up 0.05 from last year)
- Former Dorchester LSD: 0.6411 (1.0526 w/ provincial portion, up 0.05 from last year)
The slew of motions also included one that commits council to reviewing how it divvies up the fiscal responsibility for some of the services that are deemed ‘shared’. As treasurer Michael Beal explained to council, when the cost of running the municipality is allocated to the different areas, the share covered by former Local Service Districts (LSDs) is calculated at 90 percent, a decision made by the provincial consultant who was hired to create Tantramar’s first budget.
“The shared service model says that as you go further from the central core services, the local service districts should pay less for some of those shared services. The 90% was chosen by the province, and we don’t know why that was chosen,” said Beal. So staff recommended, and council approved, taking on the task of evaluating that shared services rate.
“Should it be 90? Should it be 80? Should it be 100? It’s not a quick analysis,” said Beal. “It’s going to take some time.” The analysis will take place sometime in the first half of 2024, and will present an opportunity for council to discuss the fairness of the municipality’s tax system.
Council says no to DIY air filter project
In a 5 to 4 vote on Tuesday, Council turned down a $3200 funding request which would have seen about 20 new Corsi-Rosenthal indoor air filtration boxes built for the region’s non profit organizations. The $3200 would have also gone towards refurbishing about 10-15 of the existing boxes in town, which are located in church halls and other community spaces, such as the Sackville Visitor Information Centre.
Funding for the project was recommended by Renaissance Sackville, which has a $25,000 budget from the town which it uses to support a wide variety of community development projects. Each project it recommends must then be approved by town council, but it is rare for council to reject a Renaissance Sackville recommendation.
Corsi-Rosenthal boxes are “do-it-yourself air filtration units,” according to project organizer Dave Thomas. They are constructed from a standard box fan, four MERV-13 furnace filters, some cardboard, and duct tape. The boxes are a lower cost alternative to portable HEPA filters.
Councillors Bruce Phinney, Josh Goguen, Matt Estabrooks, Debbie Wiggins-Colwell and Barry Hicks voted against the motion, with Mayor Andrew Black and councillors Mike Tower, Allison Butcher and Deputy Mayor Greg Martin voting in favour.
Dorchester village office rehab, fire hall planning to begin
The village centre of Dorchester is going to see some changes in the coming years, if plans passed as part of Tantramar’s budget 2024 recommendations Tuesday night come to fruition. On Tuesday, council approved a staff recommendation to spend about $25,000 cleaning up the mold problem in the old village office building which has been closed since February. Staff will then look into moving the Dorchester Public Library from a rented space into the town-owned building at the village centre.
The town has also budgeted to begin design of a new fire hall for Dorchester which could be built by 2026. The fire hall will include some space that could be used as a municipal office as needed, but with no regular staffing in place.
Local councillor Debbie Wiggins Colwell said after the meeting that she thought moving the library was “an excellent idea”, but hoped the municipal office planned for the fire hall would open regularly to serve area residents. “That’s been very important, to have her our village office open,” said Wiggins-Colwell. “Even if it was a half a day, five days a week… [We] very, very much need it.”
Council allotted $1.5 million in the 2024 capital budget to go towards the projects.
Dorchester councillor censured under Code of Conduct
Councillor Debbie Wiggins-Colwell had to leave Tuesday night’s meeting for one council motion that directly involved her. After two code of conduct complaints were received by the town in March 2023, council met in camera and decided to retain Montana Consulting to conduct an outside investigation. They then met again, also outside of public view, to review Montana’s findings. On Tuesday, they passed the following motion (in part):
COUNCIL HAS DETERMINED THAT COUNCILLOR DEBBIE WIGGINS-COLWELL HAS BREACHED BY-LAW NO. 2022-02, A CODE OF CONDUCT BY-LAW FOR THE COUNCIL OF TANTRAMAR BEING IN VIOLATION OF THE FOLLOWING SECTIONS:
SECTION 3.A(ii) REPRESENTING TANTRAMAR
SECTION 3.C(i) RESPECTING THE DECISION-MAKING PROCESS
SECTION 3.D ADHERENCE TO POLICIES, PROCEDURES AND BY-LAWS
SECTION 3.E(ii) RESPECTFUL INTERACTIONS WITH COUNCILLORS, STAFF, THE PUBLIC AND OTHER MEMBERS OF SOCIETY
SECTION 3.H IMPROPER USE OF INFLUENCE
SECTION 3.H(i) IMPROPER USE OF INFLUENCE
SECTION 3.I(i) USE OF MUNICIPAL ASSETS AND SERVICES
The motion included a requirement for Wiggins-Colwell to attend training “to better understand her roles and responsibilities as an elected official, including effective communication and teamwork.”
The motion passed unanimously, with just Councillor Bruce Phinney, who has been the subject of code of conduct censures by his colleagues in the past, commenting. Phinney said he would vote in favour of the motion, but only because Wiggins-Colwell had told him she would like to do the training involved.
After Tuesday’s meeting, Wiggins-Colwell declined to share details about the complaints. The former Dorchester mayor said she was “just glad it’s all over. Now we [can] all move on and make Tantramar a better place.”
The cost of picking up garbage picks up
On Tuesday, Tantramar council approved a renewed waste collection contract with Miller Waste for Sackville and Dorchester, with a 33.6% increase in costs. Town engineer Jon Eppell told council the increase could have been much worse, citing astronomical price increases industry-wide.
Garbage collection next year will cost about $117.57 per unit in Sackville and Dorchester, up from just $86.14 this year in Sackville and $110.39 in Dorchester. The total contract is worth $391,987.30 and runs until February 2025, when its expected the Regional Service Commission will take over managing garbage pick up.
Goguen gives notice for TransCanada Trail and market motions
At the tail end of Tuesday’s council meeting, Councillor Josh Goguen gave notice of two motions that he plans to introduce at council’s December meeting.
Goguen told CHMA after the meeting that the first motion had to do with asking council to make an agreement with the province to get a land use agreement for TransCanada Trail that runs through the municipality. “I feel that if we can put it in our jurisdiction, then we have control over it, and then we can do what needs to be done for the municipality,” said Goguen.
The second motion will be about creating a committee to work on a future permanent venue for the Sackville Farmers’ Market. “People have been wanting to get into a bigger building,” said Goguen, referring to council presentations from the market’s board of directors. “I’d like to see if we can direct council and have some kind of committee or something to talk about their needs and see if we can get something on the go,” said Goguen.
New deck for VIC and wastewater testing
Some other decisions by Tantramar council on Tuesday:
The Sackville Visitor Information Centre on Mallard Drive will get a new deck before the year is out. Council approved a bid from Oliver Earl Contracting to build the new deck with composite material for $37,375.00. Ron Kelly Spurles, manager of tourism and development, said the current deck needed replacing for safety reasons, and that staff recommended going with composite material over wood, due to the better durability. Kelly Spurles also said the budget for the project had been previously approved.
By the new year COVID-19 tracking data from Sackville’s wastewater should start being shared on Canada’s national COVID-19 dashboard. Council approved the purchase of an auto-sampler on Tuesday, but the cost will be covered by funding from New Brunswick Public Health.
