More than a year after the municipality of Tantramar sent a letter to the Department of Transportation and Infrastructure (DTI) requesting that the department allow ATV access on a number of streets in Sackville and Dorchester, DTI has responded with a ‘no’.
But a local ATV group is not giving up on plans to give its members access to downtown Sackville and the village square in Dorchester.
The original request from the municipality of Tantramar came after council passed a motion from Councillor Debbie Wiggins-Colwell in January 2024.
The municipality wrote to district engineer Vincent Roussel of DTI, requesting permission to allow ATVs on sections of Main and Bridge Streets in Sackville, and also Cherry Burton Road, route 106, and Woodlawn Road in Dorchester. The letter, signed by Mayor Andrew Black, read, “this is the first step in what we know is a lengthy process at potentially allowing ATV’s on additional roads within our Municipality. Before exploring the option of additional ATV use, Council is requesting permission from the Province for access.”
In December 2024, the municipality sent a follow up letter to then new minister of DTI, Chuck Chiasson. Then this May, 16 months after their original request, Tantramar received the negative response from the province:
“The maximum length for an ATV run along a public road is one (1) kilometre unless it is a low traffic volume road. In that case, a five (5) kilometre ATV run could be approved. The definition of low volume road is less than 200 annual average daily traffic flow (AADT). There is currently no updated AADT for Woodlawn Road in the DTI GIS. Even if the AADT is unknown, the ATV run along Woodlawn Road, unfortunately, is over the five (5) kilometres limit. Other than the trails along Route 2, it seems that there is no other way to get into Dorchester as per DTI’s requirements other than from this existing Route 2 ATV Trail. Also, Route 106 is also two (2) kilometres, and would have more than 200 AADT.”
Jason Tower is the president of the Tantramar ATV club, part of Quad NB. Tower says he wasn’t phased by the 16-month timeline for the municipality to get a response from DTI. In fact, “the response came quicker than we expected,” said Tower, noting he had been told it could take two and a half years for an answer.
Regardless of how long it took, “it wasn’t the response we wanted,” says Tower. But the club is not giving up, and is already working to find a solution that meets the criteria DTI outlined in their response.
“We were thankful that the town took the initiative,” says Tower, noting Wiggins-Colwell’s effort. “We’re grateful for that.”
“We’re working on a plan to meet the criteria of the roads we want to use,” says Tower. “So we’re still going to have try to maintain the same goal, just a different route to get there.”
This time, instead of asking Tantramar to seek approval directly with the provincial department, Tower will ask the municipality for a letter of support, and then bring that, along with proposed routes, to Quad NB’s Trail Coordinator Vance Johnson, who will in turn approach the province.
Currently ATVs and quads are allowed to use two sections of road in Sackville, on Wright Street and Mallard Drive, which allows off-road drivers access to many of the businesses around exit 504. But ‘variety is the spice of life’ as they say. “Everybody wants to go to different places, because after a while you want change,” says Tower.
Opening up further access could have positive economic spinoffs for the town and the village, says Tower, because ATV drivers tend to travel. “We have a lot of guests from PEI and Nova Scotia that come to visit our area on a regular basis,” he says. The Tantramar ATV Club is also part of a five club partnership along with Memramcook, Dieppe, Shediac and Cap Pelé, with a total of 3300 members between them, says Tower. Setting aside the 400 local members, that leaves 2900 members who may want to visit Sackville or Dorchester, he says.
“The economic spin-off that is there would be huge,” says Tower. “When we have an event, the hotels are full, campgrounds are full, businesses are getting busy.”
Tower is hoping to increase the positive associations with ATVs and side-by-sides (which are larger ATVs that accommodate a driver and passenger, side by side.)
“The ATV community has evolved,” says Tower. “ATVs and side-by-sides have risen in price a lot. The typical side-by-side now is between $30,000 to $60,000… So people that are out driving machines of that price typically aren’t out ripping and tearing. They’re respectful.”
“You’re going to get a few bad apples,” says Tower, “but typically the bad apples, they’re not registered, they’re not insured and they have no trail passes. They’re going to do it anyway, so we can’t change that.”
“Hopefully people can see that it’s a positive sport,” says Tower. “We’re trying to change the stigma.”
Tower says he will bring proposed routes for ATV access to downtown Sackville and Dorchester at a future Tantramar council meeting.
