Shawn Mesheau has a long career on Sackville town council, first elected to council in 1998 and serving off and on for nearly 12 years, most recently as the mayor of Sackville, elected just 18 months ago in May 2021. Mesheau is running for mayor of Tantramar in part as a continuation of the commitment he made as mayor of Sackville, and also because he believes the coming years will involve difficult decisions for the new council which he says will require strong leadership.
CHMA’s David Gordon Koch has interviewed all three mayoral candidates for Tantramar. Listen to his interview with Shawn Mesheau here:
CHMA is compiling all its election coverage in one place, for your convenience. For more candidate interviews and other local elections coverage, click here.
TRANSCRIPT:
CHMA: I’m speaking to Shawn Mesheau, currently the mayor of Sackville. He’s running for the position of first mayor of the new town of Tantramar. Mayor Mesheau, before you became mayor of Sackville, you served for a number of years as town councillor. For listeners who might not be familiar, can you introduce yourself and include any previous involvement on council?
Shawn Mesheau: Sure. Well, I was born and raised here in Sackville. After college, I spent about five, six years in the Fredericton area, came back to Sackville, transferred here through Atlantic Wholesalers, and worked with Atlantic Wholesalers for several years, until they left town. My formal training is in accommodation, food and beverage management. And I worked managing Pizza Delight here in town for a few years, and actually was owner of Ducky’s for a couple of years, and sold it to the Wheatons. I spent about 12 years with Gordon Food Service in Amherst, and also Blugenics here in Sackville for a couple of years. And now I work part-time at the Independent grocer.
[I’m] married to Angela, who is also from the area. She’s from the British Settlement area, she has operated a business here in town for about 30 years. And I have one son, Luke, who’s 33. He lives in Dieppe.
My involvement with council actually began back in ‘98. Terms then were three years, so I served from ‘98 to 2004. And I chose to kind of get out of it at that point in time, and got back in in 2012, and served until 2016. At that time, I was working at Gordon Food Service, and I was a supply chain analyst there, and the days were quite full and I just couldn’t make that commitment to council, especially working [outside] of town. But as things changed, a by-election came up in December 2018. And I ran for that successfully and have been involved in council, I guess, overall, come this January, it will be 14 years.
CHMA: And what made you decide to run again, and in particular for the position of the new mayor of Tantramar?
Shawn Mesheau: Well, I guess first of all, I made a commitment to a four-year term for Mayor of Sackville. But it’s about ensuring that we mitigate this amalgamation in a way that will see us seek out the best opportunity and options for the new community. And I think we need to have strong leadership around the council chambers. It’s not just the mayor, we have to have strong councillors because we will be facing possibly some difficult choices as we look at services and the ability to deliver services in the new community. Those type of decisions might be tough and may not always be decisions that are well received. But we need to be kind of a unit that is prepared to tackle amalgamation and pull us together as a new community.
One of the biggest challenges, I think, is going to be communication, right? We need to hear from every corner of this municipality. The ward system will provide that, but at the same end to understand the services, how it’s affecting people in, let’s say Dorchester, British Settlement, Midgic, Aulac, you know, we have to get an understanding and we need to bring folks to the table and be part of that. And I think that’s something that, you know, I’ll revert back to my days as a councillor in Sackville, we used to have a very robust Advisory Committee system, where we had Parks and Recreation and et cetera. And I think that will be an important part of ensuring that we’re getting those voices at the table, and we’re actually hearing from citizens. These folks, the folks who would be involved in these committees are the outreach, they’re the people that can reach into their communities and their areas, and pull out of it what those areas feel needs to be taking place. And I think that that, that’ll be an important part.
Public safety is going to be really a key thing, policing is one of our most expensive items. And when we are looking at our municipal policing service agreement, and also a provincial policing service agreement that Dorchester has in place, and then provincial policing service agreements for the local service districts, we’re going to have to figure out, you know, I know the province is going to start tackling this in 2023, but we’re going to need to start sorting out what type of policing model is going to best suit our needs. And how that will look. So, you know, those are some things that I’ll be encouraging council to take on. As you know, council are the ones that are making the decision. And, and I’ll be, you know, be encouraging that type of approach.
CHMA: And, and I guess, having been exposed to the first part of the amalgamation process, you see that as an asset, you can kind of guide the council into the into the next part of this, of municipal reform.
Shawn Mesheau: Yeah, yeah, I think what it is, it’s more so being open minded. You know, this hasn’t been an easy process. People don’t like change. And so how do we do that? How do we get better at this? How do we ensure that we are looking at opportunity. And I think those are the things we have to focus on. Let’s put aside the negativity, right? Let’s put our energy into moving our community forward.
One thing I’ve had the opportunity to do is talk to other mayors and how they have handled or how they work through this. One of the first phone calls I made as the white paper was released, where I saw what’s going to happen here for our communities, I spoke to Adam Lordon, the mayor of Miramichi and talked about how they worked through amalgamation. Right next door, Memramcook went through amalgamation in the ‘90s. Back in August, I was invited to the Atlantic Mayors Congress, and I had the opportunity to speak with the mayor of the town of Portugal Cove-St. Philip’s in Newfoundland, Carol McDonald, and also the CBRM mayor in Nova Scotia, Amanda McDougall, and talked about how amalgamation affected their communities. And they both said, you know, it’s tough, it’s tough. It’s going to be tough for the for the first few years, but they are better off for it after those initial kind of four or five years, they are better off for it.
CHMA: Now, there’s a few local issues that that we’ve been watching at CHMA. Housing is near the top of the list here. People often refer to housing as a provincial issue. But we’ve also seen examples of municipalities trying to take the lead on the housing file. The City of Moncton, with its Rising Tide initiative comes to mind. We’ve heard stories of renters losing their homes, struggling to find a place to live. What do you see as the town’s possible role in protecting housing affordability and availability?
Shawn Mesheau: Well, you know, sometimes what you have to do is is not reinvent the wheel, you have to look at what’s going on around you. Most recently, Amherst is taking some very positive steps in that. I have a meeting actually coming up Wednesday afternoon with Mayor Kogon in Amherst, just to talk about, you know, the Chignecto Isthmus and other issues including housing and some of the initiatives that they’ve taken as a council in regards to how they can help mitigate the homelessness and housing issues. That’s something that’s being addressed at the regional service commission level, something that hopefully what will happen is that we’ll have a little more opportunity to influence how it’s dealt with in our communities. And I think that’s the biggest thing. Right now, we don’t have that. The province is kind of guiding the ship. And I think we need to be there in order to kind of pull it through. But you have to understand what your needs are first. And that’s something that’s going on, right, that we’re out there to understand what the needs are in the community. I initially had a call when Minister Fitch was the Minister of Social Development. And he said, you need to identify that, you need to identify what the needs are in your community before we can help determine where the money, what monies might be available to help you there. I have a meeting coming up this week with ONB [Opportunities New Brunswick] in regards to housing, and what role they might be able to play in housing, because if we are going to grow as a new municipality, if we are to be economically vibrant, we have to have housing, and it has to–in my mind–has to be housing at all levels. So those are some of the key things that, when it comes to housing, that we need to work on. And ones that the new council can sink their teeth into and put it out in front and then say, okay, we need to create this and add this as a budget item. No different than what we did with, that Sackville town council did with the hospital and identifying a line item of $10,000 towards initiatives for recruitment, et cetera. So I think the opportunity exists, it’s just that we have to know exactly what it is we need to achieve before we can actually flip the switch and get it rolling.
CHMA: Now the next issue I wanted to talk about was transparency and openness. The town of Sackville has received some criticism for a lack of transparency over, for example, the Montana report on the Sackville fire department, which hasn’t been released, the code of conducts complaints also come to mind. Can you talk about your philosophy when it comes to transparency of local government, and how you respond to those kinds of criticisms.
Shawn Mesheau: Well, you know, I guess when I look at transparency, it comes down to exactly what somebody’s definition is of transparency. You know, if someone isn’t getting the answer they want, then sometimes they say, you’re not being transparent. And I think that’s what we have to get at here is the fact that, you know, I’m not going to go back into that situation, it’s been dealt with by the Town of Sackville, it has been dealt with by the council of Sackville. And it was identified that things needed to be done. And it is a human resources matter. I know if I was part of a work that was being done and I was an employee in a business that was having this done, I don’t think I’d want what is going on with me HR-wise, out in front of everybody’s hands. You know, but…
CHMA: That’s a reference to the Code of Conduct complaints for Counc. Bruce Phinney, correct?
Shawn Mesheau: Well, no, you were talking about the Montana report, right? So the Montana report is an HR matter. And Human Resources matters… It’s no different from working where I work now at the Independent Grocer, you know, that’s… My relationship with my employer is my relationship with my employer and vice versa. And if there’s something happening there, then it gets dealt with, with the employer and the employee. And the thing is, that’s where we have to look at this, if people weren’t happy, if there’s members of the fire department who are continuing to be unhappy with how things turned out, then, you know, that’s something that they have to raise with their managers. And, and I think that’s where we have to look at here, is the fact of, you know, what somebody’s definition of transparency? In my mind, since 1998, I think we’ve been very forthcoming, as a municipality. And I would hope that in the future, as this new council, and the next council continues to do that, that we are engaging, that we are informative. You know, each councillor has a role to play in that. Every person that’s going to be elected, you know, we talked about communication? Well, communication falls to us as individual elected officials. We need to be connecting with our community, and we need to be talking to people within our community. I have the opportunity every day to have a conversation with people in my community. And it’s my job to ensure that the information is being shared. And, you know, that’s important. But there is going to be pieces of information that can’t be shared, that legally can’t be shared. And I think that’s where we have to kind of help people understand, you know, what can and cannot be [shared].
CHMA: Okay, fair enough. Moving now to local business and economic development. The province has mandated the Southeast Regional Services Commission to take on economic development. In the context of all the reforms and changes that we’re seeing right now, in these circumstances, should Tantramar have its own business development activities in your view?
Shawn Mesheau: Well, the services, you know, and it’s been yet to determine exactly how those services will look, because they’re in their infancy, and there will be committees struck with each of these new services and economic development is one of them. This isn’t to replace what is already happening, this is it to enhance what is already happening. When it comes to business development and economic development, it takes the right team in order to bring that together. And I think that’s where the commission can bring that team forward. And also there’s differences. There’s differences between rural and a city and when it comes to their economic drivers and what they’re doing. And that’s been something that has come to the forefront with the regional service commission, in the fact that when they were looking at economic development before the white paper was released, they seem to be focused more so on that tri-community area. And there was a lot of mayors around the table, including myself and the mayor of Dorchester and mayor of Memramcook and the mayor of Port Elgin that were concerned that it wasn’t looking at rural New Brunswick.. it was just looking at the tri-community area.
CHMA: The Metro Moncton area.
Shawn Mesheau: Yeah, so like Moncton, Riverview, Dieppe. And, you know, that’s been something that’s been echoed by the regional mayors. And, you know, so what we have to do is that we have to figure out, you know, what council will have to do, we’ll have to figure out what the next steps are. And, you know, and how to be part of that discussion at the regional service commission level, and then in turn, seeing how can they help us enhance our delivery and working to create economic growth in their in our area? And I think that’s going to be key. Right now, our biggest task and I’ve said at the beginning, is this transition. Yes, we have to keep our finger on the pulse of what else was going on, but we’re gonna need a while to get to know each other, right? It’s a new relationship. And we need to get, you know, we were close already, our communities are close, however, we really have to get to know each other.
CHMA: So, because of the changing nature and uncertainties around municipal reform, the town’s role, the town of Tantramar’s role in supporting local business is uncertain. Or do you have examples of things that you think that Tantramar should be doing, one way or the other? Or that someone should be doing, if it’s not Tantramar, perhaps the commission?
Shawn Mesheau: I think what it comes down to is that you have to do proper land planning, people coming in need to understand where they can situate a particular type of business, we have to understand the nature of what’s available for employees. If someone is looking to set up shop here, and they’re looking for 40 employees, what’s the skill set? So we need to have an understanding of all those pieces. And that’s something that can be done locally, that we can sort out, we can get that information and put it in place, so that we are geared to be as effective as we can, if somebody comes looking, right?
And then how can the Regional Service Commission, through their economic drivers with that group, how can they enhance that? It’s no different, you know, when Moneris Solutions was located here. I was one of the first employees there. In fact, I took the first call at that business. And one of the things was is to get an understanding of the drawing area. Guess what, it’s not just people who live maybe in Sackville, there’s people in Dorchester, outside areas, there’s people in Memramcook because they needed a bilingual workforce, there’s people in Dieppe, Moncton, et cetera. And I think we have to have an understanding of that, we need to play a role in that. Because we can’t be letting somebody else drive our economic growth, we need to drive that but we also need help driving it.
CHMA: Okay. Now switching gears to climate change, obviously a big issue for the Tantramar area because of sea-level rise, flooding and hurricane Fiona, as we saw, underlining the significance and giving us a hint of things to come. Should the town of Sackville have, excuse me, should the town of Tantramar have, as currently is in place in Sackville, a climate change advisory committee, in your view? And should the town continue to support a climate change coordinator for the municipality?
Shawn Mesheau: Most definitely. We know what’s happening. And that was a commitment that the Sackville town council made in regards to setting its priorities, which was provided through to the facilitator and to the province in regards to what the our community’s priorities were for 2023. And it was to maintain the climate change coordinator’s position. Also, the work that’s been done by the current climate change committee is important work. And this is what I was talking about initially, when we started our interview, was the importance of that feedback and input in helping guide council and staff in making those types of decisions that will benefit the entire region.
CHMA: And in terms of the impacts of climate change, and particularly flooding, what actions do you think the town needs to take to protect it from these effects?
Shawn Mesheau: Well, you know, I mean, I can only speak for Sackville, right, just on what we’ve experienced so far, but I mean, as I mentioned, Mayor Kogon and I talked about the Chignecto Isthmus. One of the concerns that was raised by previous Mayor John Higham with Mayor Kogon, was the fact that when this study is completed, it needs to take into consideration that you have two communities on either side that are exposed to sea rise, and that we need to ensure that any work that’s going to take place includes that.
On Sackville’s side of things is this fact that we also deal and continue to deal with freshwater flooding. There’s been a very detailed plan put in place in regards to how we’re going to work through that. One of those, phase three has kicked off, and you know, those important things will happen. We’re pushing right now in order to get the aboiteau upgraded. Because that will be a part in this, the one that exists behind the Public Works. Also, most recently, I’ve had meetings with representative from CN in regards to their infrastructure on the 106 just down Carter’s Turn and Queen’s Road and, and getting that kind of reworked so that it helps move that water out of that area quicker. These are all things… there’s flooding that’s happening on the other side of Dorchester in the Breau Creek area, the tracks are right up against the road there. So Dorchester gets cut off. I mean Dorchester, when it floods the 106 on this side and the 106 on the Memramcook side, they’re cut off. Their access is through Woodlawn Road, Walker Road. We work at different things to help deal with that too, and getting Walker Road upgraded and the dirt area upgraded, so that becomes more of a connector. I mean, we have a major exit there on the Trans-Canada Highway. When you talk about growth and opportunity, if we can see that infrastructure improved, there’s opportunity in the Dorchester area as well in regards to economic growth. You know, there’s space there. And, you know, we have to be looking at it kind of broader like that. And, you know, like I said, there’s great opportunity, but these climate issues and the weather issues, we have to address sooner or later.
CHMA: Absolutely. Any other issues that you’re hoping to highlight in your campaign?
Shawn Mesheau: Well, I think right now, for me, again, it’s about that communication piece, we have to be better at communication. We lost the local newspapers. And people still like print media, people I’ve been talking to like print media. And we have to continue down that road of ensuring that we’re communicating in a means and providing the information. Sometimes people don’t like what they see or hear. But at least the information is out there. And they can see it and provide their feedback.
But we will have a challenge in the next couple of years. We need people around that council chamber that are prepared to take on that challenge, who aren’t fearful of making those sometimes not popular decisions. And that’s what we’re going to need in order to move our community forward. And we have to learn not just to listen, but to hear what’s being said. And that will be important for us to be able to move things forward.
You know, this is exciting times. How often can you say in your lifetime, that you’re creating a new chapter, you’re writing a new book. You know, we have potential here. Our area has a lot of potential, a lot of good things going on with it. And so how do we accentuate that? One of the first ministers to visit us here in the town of Sackville, back in September of last year, was Minister Tammy Scott-Wallace, tourism and heritage. And, you know, she toured around, we had her into Boultenhouse and met with some Heritage Trust folks. She was just flabbergasted at the history that exists in our community. And myself and Paul Bogaard were speaking with her and we were talking about our history here and she goes: this is what we you folks need to do. What sells a community and a region better than the people who live here? And we have that opportunity. You know Exit 506 is the beginning of the Fundy coastal drive. The province is focusing on a lot of attention on their version of the Cabot Trail, the Fundy Trail, and this connects right into it. So we have a lot of opportunity and we have a lot of smart people around, and a very diverse community and region and we’re poised for big things. I really believe that.
CHMA: Okay, well, thanks for that. Anything else to add briefly?
Shawn Mesheau: That would be it.
CHMA: Well, Shawn Mesheau, current mayor Sackville, running for the position of the mayor of the new town of Tantramar, with two opponents, Bonnie Swift, and current Deputy Mayor Andrew Black, and we’ll have interviews with both of them as well. So thanks again.
Shawn Mesheau: Thanks very much.
