Troubles persist in Sackville fire dept. in spite of recommendations in pricey Montana report

Posted on May 8, 2024 by brucewark

Nearly three years after consultants submitted a $31,500 report with 20 recommendations on how to end the turmoil in the Sackville Fire Department, multiple sources tell Warktimes that morale still remains low among volunteer firefighters.

The former town of Sackville hired the Montana Consulting Group to investigate working conditions after Warktimes published reports in April 2021 revealing that persistent bullying, favouritism and the flouting of safety rules had led to the resignations of about 17 volunteer firefighters over a five-year period.

In a sworn affidavit submitted to New Brunswick’s Court of King’s Bench in March, Tantramar Councillor Bruce Phinney says that volunteer firefighters have told him that the workplace problems have not been resolved.

The affidavit adds that the firefighters themselves haven’t been provided with any follow-up since the Montana recommendations were first presented to them in September 2021.

Phinney filed his affidavit in his unsuccessful attempt to persuade a judge to order the release of the Montana recommendations.

Mr. Justice Jean-Paul Ouellette ruled that the recommendations could not be made public under New Brunswick’s Right to Information and Protection of Privacy Act because they concerned personnel matters that must remain confidential.

New bylaw

Former Sackville CAO Jamie Burke

Although the recommendations have never been released publicly, former Sackville CAO Jamie Burke told Warktimes in 2022 that most are contained in the new fire department bylaw that the town passed nearly two years ago.

That new bylaw gave more power to the fire chief and CAO:

—the old fire department constitution and internal bylaws, which gave firefighters the right to elect their own officers as well as a say in the hiring of new members, was eliminated.

—standard operating guidelines developed over the years by the firefighters were replaced by policies and procedures written by the chief in consultation with firefighters and the CAO and approved by town council.

—the grievance committee, which had never been set up, was replaced with a complaint procedure requiring volunteer firefighters to discuss their complaints with the chief and then, with the CAO.

The new bylaw complaint procedure directs aggrieved firefighters to the chief with an appeal to the CAO

—firefighters became part-time employees with higher wage rates. (Treasurer Michael Beal says current hourly rates for firefighters in Tantramar range from $15.30 to $17 while non full-time secretary/treasurers, chiefs and deputy chiefs have an additional honorarium that ranges from $1,000 to $4,500. He emphasized that these rates are under review. Fire Chief Craig Bowser is classed as a manager level 3 with a salary scale ranging from $70,473 to $93,964 as of January 2023.)

— as part-time employees, firefighters are subject to the town’s social media use policy which bans any commentary that would reflect badly on how the town is run

—firefighters must refer any requests for information or comment from the media to the fire chief.

Other recommendations

It’s understood that the Montana consultants made several other recommendations including:

—clarify the town’s expectations regarding the role and duties of the fire chief

—provide proper training for each firefighter and for each supervisor

—the chief should conduct firefighter performance reviews on a timely basis as determined in consultation with the CAO

—the CAO should get feedback from the firefighters at least every three years regarding the performance of the chief.

Final note

Warktimes helped Councillor Phinney prepare his court case seeking public release of the 20 Montana recommendations.

To read Phinney’s pre-hearing court brief, click here.

To read the Town of Tantramar’s response, click here.

To read Judge Ouellette’s decision, click here.

As the court documents show, the Montana recommendations were discussed by Tantramar Town Council in a closed meeting on March 12th, two weeks before Phinney’s court date on March 28. Councillor Phinney did not provide any information to Warktimes on the Montana recommendations.

Posted in Town of Sackville, Town of Tantramar | Tagged , | 1 Comment

Distraught former councillor shares painful stories of health-care ‘failures’ at public meeting

Posted on May 1, 2024 by brucewark

Sabine Dietz addressing the public health care meeting in Sackville last week

“I’m here to bear witness,” former Sackville councillor Sabine Dietz said last week as she stood before senior officials from the Horizon Health Network and an audience of about 400 local residents at the Tantramar Civic Centre.

“I’m shaking and I’m exhausted from how I’ve had to deal with the system,” she said, adding that her family’s ordeal began on January 23rd when her 85-year-old mother went to the emergency room in Moncton suffering from chest pains before being taken to Saint John for heart surgery.

“We’ve been lucky as a family that there’s always been somebody with her,” Dietz said.

“She’s always had a family member there and you will not imagine how many failures of the system we caught and some that we couldn’t catch,” she added.

“The failures are manyfold — they go from prescribing the wrong blood thinner, to the waiting time in the ER for an 85-year-old who has pain in her chest, to lack of staff in Saint John to start the rehab right after the operation.”

Dietz praised doctors and nurses who took time to listen, but criticized bureaucrats for imposing a revolving-door policy for medical staff in the Moncton hospital’s intensive care unit.

“I don’t know how I can be more angry with the system forever circulating doctors, family doctors, through an intensive care unit where there’s no…continuity of care,” she said.

The harried ICU staff had no time to listen, she said, and failed to recognize that her mother was delirious when she asked them to stop all care, a decision the family quickly got reversed the next day.

‘Lumps of meat’

“There is really no recognition that there’s more than a body that’s lying there, more than a body that needs care, but actually the mind that needs care,” Dietz said.

“I have seen patients being treated as lumps of meat.  I’ve seen my mother treated that way,” she added.

“Any of us who have gone through that are injured by that system,” she said.

“There is an intense lack of listening to the next of kin throughout the system [and] there’s a lack of supporting next of kin.”

Dietz said her mother’s rehab treatment is scheduled to end on May 2nd and no one knows what will happen after that.

“I don’t know if she’s going to going to stay in Moncton or coming to Sackville. I have no idea,” she said, adding that the hospital’s wait-and-see attitude is painful for both her mother and her family.

‘Scared out of my wits’

“After she comes out of the hospital, I don’t think I want to go there because we all know what long-term care looks like and I’m scared out of my wits,” Dietz said.

She stressed that she does not blame medical staff, but does blame politicians and bureaucrats for fiddling with the health-care system and neglecting to recognize and fix its many failures.

“If you want talk to me about the problems or my family about all the problems in the system,” she told officials from Horizon, “I’m happy to talk about it.”

Horizon CEO Margaret Melanson thanked Dietz for sharing her story.

“I’m very apologetic for the deficiencies in our system that led to the issues and the anxiety and upset that you and your family have experienced.”

Melanson said she’d be happy to follow-up after the meeting and arrange for Dietz and her family to speak to Horizon’s patient representative.

“Really, it’s only by bringing forward these concerns that we can take action and obviously, address them,” she said.

To listen to Sabine Dietz’s story click on the media player below:

Posted in Health care | Tagged | 1 Comment

MLA Megan Mitton presses Horizon to extend access to family docs and lengthen ER hours in Sackville

Posted on April 28, 2024 by brucewark

MLA Megan Mitton organized Thursday’s public health care meeting at the Tantramar Civic Centre and set the tone by calling lack of access “unacceptable”

Memramcook-Tantramar MLA Megan Mitton opened Thursday night’s public meeting on health care by thanking senior officials from the Horizon Health Network for attending.

But she also made it clear, as she spoke for many of the approximately 400 people in the audience, that the health care system is in crisis.

“I’ll be the first to say that the lack of access to health care for many people in New Brunswick is completely unacceptable and sometimes it causes terrible outcomes,” Mitton said.

“I know there are people in this room, in our community, who are suffering because they don’t have access to health care and because, over time, our health-care system has been allowed to crumble.”

Last summer, Warktimes published government statistics revealing a steady rise in vacancies for family doctors in the province with official figures showing that nearly 74,000 New Brunswickers did not have a primary care provider such as a family doctor or nurse practitioner.

NB Health Link, the privately run agency responsible for providing access to health care for people without a primary care provider, has nearly 12,000 people on its waiting list in southeastern New Brunswick alone with 962 waitlisted in the Tantramar region.

At the same time, emergency room (ER) service at the Sackville Memorial Hospital is restricted to eight hours per day (8 a.m. to 4 p.m.) with many patients experiencing long wait times when the ER is open.

Positive steps

“There will be some things tonight that are positive,” Mitton acknowledged.

“We have secured $776,000 to go to the Tantramar primary care clinic,” she added.

“But that is not enough. That will not meet the needs of everyone in our community.”

She was referring to the clinic that operates three days a week in the building across the parking lot from Sackville’s hospital, but so far its primary care services are restricted to the patients of three Sackville doctors and a nurse practitioner who closed their practices last year.

“It’s scary,” Mitton said.

“I have people who come into my office. They don’t know where to go to get their prescriptions filled. They don’t have access to health care. They don’t know where to go and I’m really worried about the health outcomes as a result.”

More clinic services on the way

Richard Lemay, Horizon’s director of primary health care for the Moncton area

Richard Lemay, the Horizon official in charge of primary health care for the Moncton area, told the meeting that the $776,000 that Mitton mentioned will be spent expanding services at the Tantramar clinic.

He said a nurse practitioner will join the clinic in June to supplement the services of the two part-time doctors and two nurses who are already there.

“We’ve also posted a second nurse practitioner position,” he added, “so we’ll see if we have any luck in recruiting a second person.”

Lemay said Horizon plans to add six new positions to the clinic that he hopes will be filled by this summer.

They include a full-time dietician, full-time pharmacist, an administrator, patient navigator, a social worker and a part-time respiratory therapist.

He said Horizon is hoping to get money from the province to expand the clinic’s physical space so that it can hire additional staff in 2025/26 including a physiotherapist, occupational therapist, rehabilitation assistant, licensed counselling therapist, another administrator and a speech-language therapist.

“So, as you can see, there will be close to probably 20 people working in this clinic.”

Possible extension of ER hours

Christa Wheeler-Thorne, head administrator for both the Moncton Hospital and Sackville Memorial outlined tentative plans to extend ER hours to 10 p.m. in Sackville by the fall.

But she cautioned that the extra six hours would depend on Horizon’s success in recruiting more ER doctors.

When will I get a family doctor?

Sackville resident Heather Estabrooks asked a key question

During the public question period, Sackville resident Heather Estabrooks said she hasn’t had a family doctor or nurse practitioner for almost five years.

“I’m looking to have some sort of insight into when I could actually expect a physician or nurse practitioner for primary care,” she said as the audience applauded.

“That pretty much depends on how quickly we can recruit new people to come into our clinic,” Horizon’s Richard Lemay answered.

“It’s hard to predict, but we have a new nurse practitioner coming in June, so hopefully we can see more people, but it’s really hard to predict,” he said.

“I’d like to give you a more precise answer, but for now, it depends on how many new providers come to help us.”

“So, what should someone do if they haven’t had a doctor for five years and they need access to care?” MLA Megan Mitton asked.

“What should someone do if they need a prescription filled and they don’t have a doctor?”

“This is a hard one to answer,” said Ravneet Comstock, Horizon’s chief of family medicine for the Moncton area.

“I would like to say, ‘This is the number you call and here you can get the help you need,’ but I can’t say that and the majority of our province, I think unfortunately pretty much everywhere you go, this question is being asked,” she added.

Comstock said patients without doctors should knock on all the doors available including any walk-in clinics they can find and NB Health Link even though there’s a long waiting list.

“The other thing is, holding onto hope,” she continued.

“I really do believe that in the next few years, in the next few months, you’re going to see much more uptake at this clinic,” Comstock said, adding that as the Sackville clinic’s support staff grows, it will become more attractive for doctors to move here.

No real answer

When asked later what she thought of the answer she was given, Heather Estabrooks was blunt.

“The answer was really not an answer,” she said.

“My question was, ‘When could someone in my situation expect to be guaranteed some sort of primary care contact, whether it was a doctor or nurse practitioner,” Estabrooks added.

“The answer was, ‘We’re working on it,’ so there is no time frame.”

To listen to an audio recording of the meeting from CHMA 106.9 FM, click here.

Posted in Health care, Town of Sackville, Town of Tantramar | Tagged , , | 1 Comment

Tantramar moves ahead on wilderness park in the heart of Sackville

Posted on April 23, 2024 by brucewark

One of the ponds on the 20-acre quarry site where more than 80 species of birds visit or nest every year. More than 20 kinds of mammals can also be found here along with frogs, turtles, garter snakes and several species of small freshwater fish. See 2017 report by Richard Elliot & Kate Bredin

The Town of Tantramar is moving ahead with the development of a municipal park in Sackville’s old Pickard quarry.

The park will include a network of walking trails looping around quarry ponds, a 5-6 car parking lot off Charlotte Street, a wheelchair-accessible lookout and a footbridge crossing a small waterfall.

“The concept of the park would be a natural trail surface, a single-track, natural surface,” Matt Pryde, the town’s recreation director told Tantramar council at its meeting yesterday.

He explained that the town will use the $40,000 allocated for the park in this year’s capital budget to construct the small parking lot and a wheelchair accessible trail leading to a lookout over a cliff face and pond.

He said the Tantramar Outdoor Club would develop the walking trail network with the help of Marc Leger, trails co-ordinator for the Southeast Regional Service Commission and Tantramar Heritage Trust will design interpretive panels on the history of the quarry as well as its function nowadays as part of Sackville’s flood control system.

Pryde added that the town is hoping to receive money from the Atlantic Canada Opportunities Agency (ACOA) and New Brunswick’s Regional Development Corporation to build the waterfall bridge and replace old metal, safety fences with wooden, farm-style ones.

Rough map

Council saw this rough map showing the looping trail network in red, the parking lot off Charlotte St. (bottom left), the small, wheelchair accessible lookout area near the waterfall bridge. A second park entrance off Quarry Lane is marked in yellow (centre right) with an additional lookout at the top of the map

Pryde said staff are still working out estimates for the total cost of the project which could be completed over the next two to three years.

The town allocated its $40,000 share of the costs after hearing a presentation last September from Richard Elliot on behalf of the Tantramar Outdoor Club.

To read Matt Pryde’s notes on his presentation to town council, click here.

Posted in Environment, Town of Tantramar | Tagged , | 1 Comment

NB Green leader calls for more local decision-making & greater investment in final report on his health-care tour

Posted on April 21, 2024 by brucewark

Green leader David Coon answering a question in Sackville on February 27th during a stop in his health-care tour of the province. He was accompanied by local Green MLA Megan Mitton

New Brunswick Green Party leader David Coon has renewed his call for major investments in health care combined with more local say in decision-making.

“Granting greater autonomy to local managers and engaging local citizens on community health boards would ensure primary healthcare is community-driven and responsive to local needs,” Coon writes in his final report on the findings of his “Healing Our Healthcare Tour” of the province in February and March.

“The same applies to hospitals, where staff are forced to operate in silos, responding to remote managers rather than working collaboratively with local hospital administrators,” he adds in the report released today.

Coon, who visited community health centres and nursing homes accompanied by deputy Green leaders Megan Mitton and Kevin Arseneau, reports that during a town hall in Richibucto, a local doctor called for substantially more health-care spending in line with recommendations in a report from the New Brunswick Nurses Union and the New Brunswick Medical Society which called for a $600 million investment in the first year.

“Both seniors and their care providers continue to be challenged with inadequate support,” Coon writes.

“Nursing homes face challenges in attracting and retaining qualified registered nurses and personal support workers, exacerbated by inadequate budgets and the rising costs of living. Effective efforts to recruit and retain staff at all levels are vital for the long-term sustainability of senior care.”

Local inititatives

The Green leader’s report refers to a local initiative in Saint John that linked the main community health centre with smaller satellite centres as well as with health professionals at St. Joseph’s Hospital.

“This initiative resulted in a collaborative network of multidisciplinary healthcare teams, significantly enhancing primary healthcare access for thousands in Saint John who would otherwise lack a family doctor,” Coon reports.

“In Rogersville, the local health clinic collaborated with a diverse team of health professionals operating from a nearby heritage home rented by Horizon Health to provide community-based health services,” he adds.

“In both instances, these interconnected and interdependent healthcare teams were established through the proactive efforts of dynamic local healthcare managers. It’s baffling that the Department of Health doesn’t recognize these initiatives as potential models for improving primary healthcare access elsewhere.”

Coon’s report also highlights the Nursing Home Without Walls project in Port Elgin that operates out of a local nursing home.

“The work of the staff is increasing the quality of life for seniors, ending loneliness and isolation, addressing care needs, and helping seniors to stay in their homes longer,” Coon writes.

“This community-based effort holds significant promise to support seniors at home through[out] New Brunswick, but requires adequate funding to match the success of the impressive initiative in Port Elgin.”

Coon concludes his report with a call for greater provincial investment in community-based health care.

“The goal for the Green Caucus is to ensure all New Brunswickers have access to proper healthcare, where they need it and when they need it. As Greens, we believe the solutions exist to heal our healthcare system. We just need the political will to implement them.”

To read Coon’s final report, click here.

For coverage of the town hall he held in Sackville, click here.

Upcoming community meeting

Mail out from MLA Megan Mitton on this week’s health-care meeting with Horizon Health

Posted in Health care, New Brunswick politics, Nursing homes | Tagged | 2 Comments

Dozens renew their call to ‘axe’ the federal carbon tax in ongoing border protest

Posted on April 13, 2024 by brucewark

A few dozen protesters gathered today in the parking lot at the Nova Scotia Visitor Information Centre and along the TransCanada highway calling on the federal government to “axe” its carbon tax on fuels.

Traffic crossing the provincial borders sped by normally with many motorists — especially truckers — honking their horns in support.

On April 1st when the current series of protests began, the RCMP closed the highway for several hours after about 50 cars had pulled over on the shoulder.

‘Holding the line’

Carbon tax protester Kevin Hicks says he’s “holding the line for a better future.”

“We’re just here holding the line for a better future for the kids,” said 54-year-old Kevin Hicks as he stood beside the highway waving a Canadian flag.

“The taxes keep going on top of taxes upon taxes and we can hardly afford to live today,” he added.

The price of gas, groceries, it’s just rough times.”

Hicks has been taking part in the border rallies since they began two weeks ago.

“I’m 54 with five kids and three grandkids and they’re hardly making it today. It’s sad to see the homeless out there and the amount of starving people because nobody can afford to live. They’re pushing people to the streets.”

Hicks says he works on roofing and siding and lives in his 5th wheel trailer parked in his sister’s Amherst yard because he can’t afford his own apartment.

He scoffs at Prime Minister Trudeaus’ repeated assertion that eight out of 10 households receive more in the quarterly carbon tax rebate than they pay in added fuel costs.

It’s a point that Nicole Kitsko, who lives in Oxford, N.S., also scoffs at.

“Trudeau is full of shit,” she says.

Nicole Kitsko holds a protest sign with a blunt message

“The rebate is nothing compared to the cost of everything going up because of the carbon tax,” Kitsko says, adding that as a single mother, she no longer qualifies for the child tax benefit because her son is 19, yet he can’t get the GST rebate either.

“He’s been working full-time since he was 15 and just worked 100 hours in the blueberry industry and they took half his pay,” she says shaking her head.

“It’s the way we get taxed.”

When asked if she’s planning to vote for federal Conservative Leader Pierre Poilievre, who promises to rescind the carbon tax if he becomes prime minister, Kitsko shakes her head again.

“I’m not sure I believe in our voting system anymore,” she says.

‘Globalist agendas’

Greg Campbell (L) and Darrell Hudson question the “globalist agenda” of the “one percenters” who make up the world’s elites

Over near the barbecue tent, Greg Campbell from Wolfville, N.S. and Darrell Hudson, who runs a haskap farm in Nova Scotia’s Musquodoboit Valley, are engaged in lively conversation.

The two, who met today for the first time, also question the effectiveness of Canada’s electoral system while they worry about the “globalist agendas” of the world’s elite classes who gather every year in Davos, Switzerland for the World Economic Forum to promote “sustainability” while supporting the United Nations and its World Health Organization.

“It’s all tied in, it’s all about making money through monopolies and glad-handing one another,” Campbell says.

“We need to stand up against that and say, ‘OK, a transition [to a greener economy], but we need to be all involved in consenting.'”

Campbell argues that the federal government is using the carbon tax as a ruse.

“They’re telling us the carbon tax is going to make a difference and they’re trying to pressure us — they come right out and say it — they’re trying to ‘incentivize’ us to buy electric vehicles and to stop using fossil fuels,” he says.

“Yeah, maybe that can be done, but the way they’re doing it is by punishing us.”

People are already going hungry, he says, others are losing their homes because they can’t make their mortgage payments and the carbon tax will make things worse.

Campbell also dismisses Pierre Poilievre’s carbon tax promise as a Trojan horse to get him elected as yet another, out-of-touch and unaccountable prime minister.

“Stephen Harper was as bad as Trudeau,” he says, “these politicians are living in ivory towers, we need to start taking back power for the people, we need to be attending municipal council meetings and educating people on how our systems have been compromised by the UN and like organizations and how we’re not really living in a democracy anymore.”

For his part, Darrell Hudson questions the purpose of the federal carbon tax rebate.

“They’re taking money from the poor with this carbon tax and they’re giving it to the people that are more poor and they’re making us all poor,” he says.

“The only people that I see that are getting more money back than they’re giving are people that are already on welfare and they don’t have a car and they’re being supported by the government, so that would be a sure vote for them,” he says.

“It’s all about votes and if they can make us reliant on them and expecting that $200 or $300 HST and carbon tax, all these rebates that they’re taking from us, then we’ll be on board with them because we’ll need them and from what I see, that is a communism tactic, I believe that we’re creeping into communism and I think that’s the end goal, to muzzle us all and have us under their control.”

Hudson says COVID lockdowns and vaccine mandates were also examples of coercive control.

“COVID kicked it all off and divided us like never before.”

‘Taxed on tax’

Kim Dickson stands beside her truck in the parking lot at the N.S. Visitors Info Centre

“We’re getting taxed beyond what we can handle as a society,” says Kim Dickson who works as a home support worker in New Brunswick.

“We’re being taxed on tax now, have you seen the receipts?” she adds.

“Our official mandate here today is to axe the carbon tax.”

Dickson laughs heartily when asked how she would respond to those who say we need the carbon tax to fight climate change.

“Whatever we do is not going to fix the problem we don’t have,” she says.

“One tree is enough to remove our carbon dioxide,” she adds.

“One tree can sustain me for 40 years and look at the trees all around us. Canada is three percent I think of the world’s carbon emissions, so we don’t even have any emissions problem.”

Dickson also maintains that climate change is a natural phenomenon and that the scientists warning us about it are trying to cause panic.

“What they do to us is control by fear,” she says.

“Make sure you watch your five o’clock news. That’s why I asked who you were with. If you were CBC or CTV, we probably wouldn’t be having this conversation.”

Kim Dickson’s truck also warns against COVID mandates as a form of coercive control

Posted in COVID-19, Environment | Tagged , | 6 Comments

FACT CHECK: Inaccurate, misleading, incomplete statements on Gaza war by members of Tantramar council

Posted on March 31, 2024 by brucewark

Dr. Tanya Haj-Hassan, a pediatric intensive care physician who works with Doctors Without Borders, sent this photo of ER treatment of Gaza children to Democracy Now: https://www.democracynow.org/2024/3/28/gaza_msf

Tantramar Town Council once again rejected a call last week to write a letter to Prime Minister Trudeau asking Canada to press for a stop to the massacre in occupied Gaza. Warktimes reported what members of council had to say and published a word-for-word transcript of their remarks. Given the scale of what the International Court of Justice found to be a plausible genocide, I’m publishing a “fact check” calling attention to inaccurate, incomplete or misleading statements from some members of council. 

Background

In nearly six months of fighting, 32,600 people have been killed in Gaza, including 14,000 children. More than 75,000 have been injured, with thousands more buried under rubble and increasing numbers dying of malnutrition, dehydration and disease.

“It is without precedent in modern times,” says famine expert Alex de Waal, “and I can’t emphasize that enough. If we look at Gaza in comparative historical perspective, it is the worst and it is entirely man made.”

Waal, who is executive director of the World Peace Foundation, was interviewed last week on CBC Radio’s The Sunday Magazine. He is the author of Mass Starvation: The History and Future of Famine.

In an earlier interview on Al Jazeera, he said: “Nothing is comparable in terms of the speed and concentrated effort devoted to destroying what is essential to sustain the life of people. Nothing compares to Gaza.”

‘How would this be allowed to happen if the world knew?’

The bodies of Palestinians killed in Israeli strikes are buried in a mass grave after they were transported from al-Shifa Hospital to Khan Younis in the southern Gaza Strip on November 22, 2023. Photo: REUTERS/Mohammed Salem

Speaking from the Rafah border crossing with Egypt on Friday, James Elder of the United Nations International Children’s Emergency Fund (UNICEF) pointed to Israel’s refusal to let humanitarian aid into Gaza.

“There are hundreds and hundreds and hundreds of trucks, you know, five miles from where I am now. You could get hundreds and hundreds of trucks within 10 minutes, if that border crossing was open in the north, to those people who are cut off. That’s an important thing to remember,” Elder said.

“When I’m on the street [in the north], every person, the first thing they want to tell me, in English or Arabic, is, ‘We need food. We need food,'” he added.

“They are saying that because their assumption is the world doesn’t know, because how would this be allowed to happen if the world knew?”

Council Fact Check

A Palestinian man carries a child following Israeli strikes on houses in Rafah in the southern Gaza Strip, October 17. Photo: REUTERS/Ibraheem Abu Mustafa

Debbie Wiggins-Colwell was the only member of council who spoke in favour of sending a letter to Trudeau. “At least it’s a little bit that we could do to show our support.”

Councillors Barry Hicks, Matt Estabrooks, Josh Goguen and Deputy Mayor Greg Martin remained silent.

The four others who spoke agreed that, as Mayor Black put it, “this really is not within our jurisdictional responsibility to do.”

Yet many municipal councils in both the U.S. and Canada have done just that. While it’s clear municipal councils do not set foreign policy, their members are always free to speak out, individually or collectively, on matters of concern to their local constituents. (See also the municipal list compiled by the National Council of Canadian Muslims.)

Ceasefire confusion

Councillor Michael Tower argued that “the federal government has already said they want a permanent ceasefire.” But in fact, Trudeau and his ministers have carefully avoided the word “permanent,” preferring the term “sustainable” instead. Meantime, Israel has vowed from the beginning to fight as long as it takes to destroy Hamas and achieve “total victory.”

On December 12, Canada voted in favour of a UN resolution calling for “an immediate humanitarian ceasefire,” which is not the same as the “permanent ceasefire” that Tantramar council was asked to push the prime minister for. Global Affairs Canada issued this statement on the UN resolution, which referred to an earlier four-day “humanitarian pause” in November:

“The recent pause in hostilities saw the release of more than 100 hostages and allowed for greater humanitarian access to affected Palestinian civilians. Canada regrets that this pause could not be extended and continues to call for much-needed fuel, water and other humanitarian aid to reach Palestinians in Gaza.” [Emphasis added]

Arms to Israel 

Councillor Michael Tower

Councillor Tower also stated that the federal government has “already said they’re going to not sell any more weapons to Israel.”

Yet arms experts explain it’s not that simple. The Reuters news agency cites a letter from Foreign Affairs Minister Melanie Joly acknowledging that Canadian companies can continue their military exports to Israel as long as they have existing military export permits (see report in Defense News. written by longtime journalist David Pugliese).

Furthermore, Project Ploughshares–the independent peace and disarmament group sponsored by the Canadian Council of Churches–expressed disappointment at this “significant weakening” of Canada’s promise to stop arms exports to Israel. It also noted that in the two-month period “following the onset of Israel’s military operation in Gaza, Global Affairs Canada approved more than $28 million in military exports to Israel” — a figure about equal to “the total annual value of Canada’s arms exports to Israel at their peak in 1987 at $28.7 million, followed closely by $27.8 million in 2021.”

Councillor Tower also claimed that the war is unpopular in Israel and that the Israeli people do not want war. The day after Tower’s comments, however, the Israeli newspaper Haaretz published a column by veteran journalist Gideon Levy that began with this bitter observation:

Israel wants war. More and more war, as much as possible, and perhaps even more…Israel wants war. Now it is being said explicitly, without pretense and without whitewashing. As much war as possible in the government’s words, as much war as possible in the opposition’s words. More of this war even from the mouths of the protesters in the squares, who are certainly not crying out for the opposite. They only want a halt in the war to release the hostages and kick Benjamin Netanyahu out, and then as far as they’re concerned we can return to the killing fields forever…One can argue that if we don’t destroy Hamas, the war will continue forever, and anyway it’s a war for peace. But one cannot buy this when there’s no strategic plan behind the lust for war. So what remains is the bare truth: Israel simply wants war. Left and right and center too. Everyone.

Hamas is to blame

Councillor Bruce Phinney

Councillor Bruce Phinney admitted that: “We don’t know exactly what’s been going on in that area for however long it’s been going on,” but then added that moving a motion to write a letter to Trudeau would be taking sides and blaming Israel, not Gaza.

“Hamas was the one that started it on October 7th,” Phinney said referring to the Hamas-led terrorist attack in which 1,139 people were massacred in Israel. The dead included 695 Israeli civilians (36 of them children), 71 foreign nationals and 373 members of the Israeli security forces. About 250 Israeli civilians and soldiers were taken hostage.

Yet the Israel-Palestine conflict did not start on Oct. 7.  According to Amnesty International, “Since the [Israeli] occupation began in June 1967, Israel’s ruthless policies of land confiscation, illegal settlement and dispossession, coupled with rampant discrimination, have inflicted immense suffering on Palestinians, depriving them of their basic rights.” Most of the world’s countries, including Canada, agree the continued occupation is illegal under international law and call for a homeland for the Palestinians, the so-called two-state solution that Israel now says it will never support.

Israel and Egypt have imposed an economic blockade on the movement of people and goods into and out of the Gaza Strip since Hamas took over in 2007. Many, including Human Rights Watch, describe Gaza as the “world’s largest open-air prison.”

How could it happen?

Councillor Allison Butcher

Councillor Allison Butcher appeared torn between her expressed belief that municipalities have no role to play in foreign affairs and her concern about “standing up for ceasefires, for releases of hostages, for humanitarian aid to get through.”

She mentioned restrictions on the emigration of Jews fleeing Nazi death camps during World War Two, a possible reference to Canada’s refusal to accept Jewish refugees as well as its decision to deny entry to 907 of them aboard the ship MS St. Louis, which was also turned away by Cuba and the U.S. After the ship returned to Europe, 254 of its passengers died in the Holocaust.

“When you hear about that [restrictions on Jews], at this point, and you look back and you think, ‘Gosh, how could people have allowed that to happen?'” Butcher said.

“I think to send a letter to our federal government to say, we as a municipality believe that the horrors that are happening there should be stopped, without us even having any idea about how to fix it, is still something that we should consider.”

But later, she told CHMA’s Erica Butler that she would not be moving a motion to send a letter to the prime minister calling for a permanent ceasefire in Gaza.

A mourner reacts while burying the body of a Palestinian child of al-Agha family, who was killed in Israeli strikes, in Khan Younis in the southern Gaza Strip, October 11. REUTERS/Ibraheem Abu Mustafa

Posted in Town of Sackville, Town of Tantramar | Tagged | 17 Comments

Sackville Ceasefire Now ‘dismayed’ at Tantramar council’s comments on Gaza & refusal to send letter to Trudeau

Posted on March 26, 2024 by brucewark

Mt. A. students, staff faculty and members of the public march to Convocation Hall on November 12 calling for a ceasefire in Gaza. Since then, the group, Sackville Ceasefire Now, has held rallies outside town hall, made presentations to council and has emailed and spoken to individual members of council

Members of a Sackville group calling for an immediate ceasefire in Gaza have rejected arguments by members of Tantramar Town Council that the issue is outside their municipal jurisdiction.

“We were deeply dismayed to hear evaluations and comments made on the genocide in Gaza by council members and mayor which lacked any meaningful research and substantive reflection,” the group says in a news release.

Sackville Ceasefire Now was reacting to Tantramar council’s decision yesterday not to write a letter to the prime minister calling for an immediate ceasefire in Gaza, the release of all hostages and an increased flow of humanitarian aid.

Their request for a letter to Trudeau came in a petition signed by 253 people that the group submitted to council on March 12th.

“We are a group of Tantramar residents united across diverse ages, faiths and backgrounds,” the release says, adding that their November rally of about 250 people calling for a ceasefire in Gaza was one of the largest in recent municipal history.

‘Emotional’ issue

Councillor Debbie Wiggins-Colwell speaking directly to Mayor Black

When council discussed the petition at its committee of the whole meeting yesterday, only Councillor Debbie Wiggins-Colwell favoured writing a letter to the PM.

“That seems like the right thing to do to help,” she said, agreeing with council colleagues who called the killings, injuries, mass displacement and starvation in Gaza an atrocity.

“At least it’s a little bit that we could do to show our support,” she added.

“It’s just so emotional that it’s even hard to talk about.”

Not our responsibility

However, Councillor Michael Tower seemed to sum things up for a majority of his colleagues when he suggested the group’s ceasefire demands should have been presented to the federal government.

“I don’t think us getting involved at that level is our responsibility,” he said.

Councillor Michael Tower

“I don’t like the killing that’s going on. It’s not good,” Tower said, adding that the federal government has already called for a ceasefire and is halting Canadian arms shipments to Israel.

He also suggested that the conflict is two- sided.

“When I hear, ‘Stop the killing,’ but then they blame the Israeli people and it’s not the Israeli people. They don’t like it either,” he said.

“So, I think this gets into a political area that I don’t think falls into our realm of governance.”

‘Contentious issue’

Councillor Allison Butcher called the ceasefire request “a very contentious issue within our community.”

She seemed torn by what she called a “complicated situation” in the Middle East, saying on the one hand that while she agreed it was one for other levels of government to deal with, it’s also a humanitarian issue.

Councillor Allison Butcher

“I don’t think that we should be calling for any other government to, — how do I say this? — to change the way that they are governing, but we should be standing up for ceasefires, for releases of hostages, for humanitarian aid to get through,” she said.

“I don’t think it’s our area of governance, but I think to send a letter to our federal government to say, we as a municipality believe that the horrors that are happening there should be stopped, without us even having any idea about how to fix it, is still something that we should consider,” she added.

After the meeting, however, Butcher told CHMA reporter Erica Butler that she would not be moving a motion to send such a letter.

Not ‘all Israel’s fault’

Councillor Bruce Phinney suggested that sending a letter to the PM calling for a ceasefire would amount to taking sides making it seem the war is “all Israel’s fault…

“Hamas was the one that started it on October 7th,” he said.

Councillor Bruce Phinney

“I know what’s happening in Gaza is certainly because Israel’s much stronger, but I truly believe that actually this kind of issue is something that should be left in the hands of the federal government and the other governments throughout the world.”

Phinney said a letter from Tantramar wouldn’t “make a big bit of difference” and that, in any case, Hamas would just keep on fighting anyway.

“I don’t agree with what’s going on, you’re right, it’s an atrocity, but that’s something that’s been going on for a long time,” he said.

“So, I think it’s best left to the hands of federal government and the other governments across the world.”

‘Muddies the waters’

“I think most people can agree that what’s going on in Gaza is atrocious, the loss of life is significant, some of the more recent atrocities around people trying to secure food and being killed for doing that is pretty extreme and pretty terrible,” said Mayor Andrew Black.

Mayor Andrew Black

“But getting down to the brass tacks of what the ask is, this really is not within our jurisdictional responsibility to do,” he added, referring to the request for a letter to Trudeau.

“So, I would suggest that ceasefire groups band together and push really hard for the federal and provincial government, I know that some of that work is being done, and that’s where this is really going to change,” Black said.

He added that “it confuses things and muddies the waters” when the municipal level of government gets involved in issues outside its “jurisdictional responsibility.”

Then, since no other councillors seemed willing to speak, Black said, “We’ll leave it at that and we’ll move on if council’s OK with that.”

‘Democratic clarity’

In their news release, Sackville Ceasefire Now objected to members of council arguing that what’s happening in Gaza is not their responsibility.

“Members of the Tantramar Council and Mayor Andrew Black may not feel that a letter to our federal government warrants uptake due to falling outside perceived ‘municipal jurisdictional responsibility,’ but we strongly disagree,” they write.

“Hundreds of municipalities large and small across North America have participated in putting necessary pressure on their respective provincial, state, and federal governments. These actions did not ‘muddy the waters’ but provided democratic clarity at an alarming and heightened time of crisis and misery.”

To read the group’s news release, click here.

To read a transcript of the council discussion, click here.

Posted in Town of Tantramar | Tagged | 11 Comments

Mt. A’s new library will be part of the community because ‘it’s the right thing to do’

Posted on March 19, 2024 by brucewark

Artist’s rendering of multipurpose athletic complex Mt. A. is planning to build on Lansdowne St.to serve first as a temporary library, and then an air-conditioned, recreational facility

Mount Allison University is planning an $85 million dollar library renovation that could provide more reading, research and recreational opportunities for members of the wider Tantramar community.

“We heard loud and clear the comment about community and we always have been part of the community for well over 180 years,” Robert Inglis, Mt. A. Vice President (Finance and Administration) told Tantramar Town Council during a special meeting today.

“We’re not doing this because we heard this from the community, we’re doing it because it’s the right thing to do,” he added.

“We’re part of the community and we’re physically showing that we are.”

Inglis was referring to plans for a new community entrance to the R.P. Bell Library on York Street as well as the construction of a new building behind the Mt. A. athletic centre that will initially serve as a temporary library while the old building undergoes renovation, but could then become a multipurpose sports complex.

“It’s not just sticking a door [to the library] on the York Street level,” Inglis said.

“That hill, that area will be fully re-imagined related to accessibility, re-imagined having some accessible parking that can be near the entrance,” he added.

“The multipurpose sports complex is a wonderful opportunity for our community,” Inglis said.

“Maybe we get more activities coming to Sackville because of it, particularly in the summer,” he added, “and that’s going to be a huge recreational asset for our community.”

He was responding to Mayor Andrew Black who noted that many members of the public don’t know they can use the Mt. A. library’s services such as by borrowing books and getting help with research partly because the entrance to it isn’t visible from the street.

“Having that community entrance facing right downtown into Sackville, I think is going to be a wonderful addition to it,” Black said.

Artist’s conception of the community entrance floor in the new Mt. A. library

6-year project

Inglis said construction of the temporary library, that will later become an athletic complex, is scheduled to begin this summer. If all goes as planned, the interim library on Lansdowne Street will open in two years.

Renovation of the existing library is slated to begin in the summer of 2026 and plans call for the new building to open in the fall of 2029.

Last year, the federal and provincial governments announced $36 million in funding for the new library.

To read more about Mt. A’s plans for the project, click here.

Note: Inglis explained that plans call for the existing Lansdowne parking lot to be used as a staging area for construction of the new interim library. He said the nearby Lansdowne soccer field will be used temporarily to create even more parking spots. “We do have a little bit of a parking issue on campus and so, we didn’t want to make this project make the parking issue worse. In fact, this will probably make it better.”

Artist’s conception of the on-campus entrance to the new R.P. Bell library

Posted in Mount Allison University | Tagged | 2 Comments

‘Order please’ — Tantramar mayor shuts down public presentation on Gaza

Posted on March 12, 2024 by brucewark

Sarah Kardash attempting to address council as members of Sackville Ceasefire Now turn their backs

About 40 members of a group calling for an immediate ceasefire in Gaza turned their backs on Tantramar Town Council tonight as their spokesperson Sarah Kardash tried, but failed, to make a two-minute presentation.

“No, you cannot. No, you cannot,” Mayor Andrew Black told her.

As Kardash continued to ask to be put on council’s agenda, Town Clerk Donna Beal said, “Clear the gallery.”

“Israel is starving children in Gaza to death,” Kardash said.

“It’s order in the court,” Black declared as he banged his gavel.

“Order please. We’ll move to clear the gallery folks,” Black added as he called for a recess.

He then left the council chamber followed by Deputy Mayor Greg Martin and Councillors Barry Hicks, Matt Estabrooks and Josh Goguen.

Councillors Allison Butcher, Bruce Phinney and Michael Tower stayed in their seats.

Councillor Debbie Wiggins-Colwell was not present at tonight’s meeting.

All but three members of Tantramar Town Council left the room along with Town Clerk Donna Beal. CAO Jennifer Borne remained in her seat as did most other members of the town staff

Kardash and members of her group remained standing with their backs turned for about two more minutes, then gathered up their coats and belongings and quietly left the room.

In all, council proceedings were interrupted for just over five minutes.

Outside the chamber, Kardash told reporters she had arrived at town hall at 6:10 p.m. to find a closed-door meeting of council already underway.

She says that when that in-camera session ended at around 6:40, she asked the town clerk to be put on the agenda for a two-minute presentation when the public portion of the meeting was set to resume at 7 p.m., but was told that council had already approved tonight’s agenda and that it couldn’t be changed.

Kardash says she asked the clerk to show her where it says on the town website that members of the public have to show up an hour early to be put on the agenda for a two-minute presentation.

‘Genocide in Gaza’

“This is our fourth time coming to council since December, over and over again, asking them to engage with us, asking them to lift up our voices, to raise our voices calling for a ceasefire to end the genocide in Gaza,” Kardash said.

“What more do we have to do to convince this council that this issue is an important one to residents in this town and that we need them to act, to show us that they’ve got the courage, the heart, the moral clarity to stand up as many other municipal councils have, as many other mayors have across Canada and the United States, and do the right thing?” she asked.

“It’s literally the bare minimum that they can do.”

Mayor cites rules

Mayor Black told reporters after tonight’s meeting that council’s procedural bylaw requires members of the public to show up early to ask for their presentations to be put on the agenda before council approves it.

“The procedural bylaw says that you have to show up before the council meeting starts,” he said.

“The council meeting started at 6. They showed up at 7 to do a two-minute presentation so the council meeting had already started, we were in recess,” Black added.

“The bylaw is very clear that you have to come before [the public meeting] and then request and then you get two minutes to speak.”

When asked if it wouldn’t have been possible to amend tonight’s agenda with unanimous consent to allow a two-minute presentation, Black said members of the ceasefire group should have known that council has shown no interest in their request for a letter to the prime minister.

“They’ve been here three times before and there was no discussion, nobody put a motion forward and so, again, they came to potentially ask the same thing and nobody said anything,” he said.

Black said he did not wish to talk about his own views on Palestine and as for a motion calling for a ceasefire, he was clear:

“I don’t have an interest to bring it forward.”

To read the latest news release from Sackville Ceasefire Now, click here.

Posted in Town of Tantramar | Tagged , | 15 Comments

Toronto-based company, Circular Materials, to manage Tantramar blue bag collection starting in November

Posted on March 11, 2024 by brucewark

Circular Materials was founded by 17 of Canada’s leading food, beverage and consumer products manufacturers, restaurants and retailers. Reps from those companies sit on its board of directors (Graphic: Circular Materials website)

Tantramar Town Council is expected to endorse changes to the weekly collection of garbage, organic materials and blue-bags that would put Canada’s leading producers of packaged products in charge of its recycling program.

Under the new plan, the Toronto-based company Circular Materials would organize the collection of blue-bag recyclables everywhere in Tantramar starting on November 1st.

The company’s board of directors represents 17 of Canada’s leading food, soft drink and consumer products makers as well as fast-food restaurants and grocery stores.

Town Engineer Jon Eppell is also recommending that the Southeast Regional Service Commission (SERSC) take over managing the collection of clear-bagged garbage and green-bagged organic materials in Sackville and Dorchester starting on February 1st, 2025 and in the former local service districts three months earlier on November 1st.

Blue bags

“Homeowners optimistically will not notice any difference; they will continue to have their blue bag picked up every second week,” Eppell said during council’s committee of the whole meeting last month.

He added, however, there may be some small changes in what Circular Materials will accept in blue bags. The company will have complete control over what can go in the bags and what can’t.

“Things like styrofoam may not be accepted,” Eppell said, although he added, he wasn’t sure yet.

“Circular Materials will start to do some communications out to residents to specify what is supposed to go in the bag,” he said.

Clear and green bag

Southeast Regional Service Commission HQ in Moncton (Slide shown to council during SERSC presentation in December)

Eppell said collecting garbage and organic materials regionally makes economic sense for both municipalities and the waste hauling companies.

“Currently, Sackville has waste collection about three-and-a-half days a week and Dorchester has about a half-day a week,” he said, adding that co-ordinating regional routes would allow haulers like Miller Waste to reduce costs by using their equipment and workers more efficiently.

“So, if we were able to provide five days of collection for the same size crew, week in, week out, and allow them to use their equipment for say, five or more years, then it would be more attractive to them.”

Eppell said he saw only one potential public relations problem because Tantramar would need to be in step with waste collection practices in other municipalities.

“Right now, we’re one of a few that does the spring and fall cleanup,” he said.

“Other areas do allow a large, bulky item whether it be furniture or an appliance with the waste pickup, so every second week.

“So, I think where this may move is to a bulky item collection every second week rather than the spring and fall cleanup.”

Pros and cons of blue bag program

Sebastian Hultberg, SERSC director of solid waste services addressing Tantramar council on Dec. 4

During a special meeting of Tantramar council in December, the service commission’s director of solid waste services presented the pros and cons of participating directly in Circular Materials’s blue bag program by overseeing collection of recyclable materials.

Sebastian Hultberg said that if Tantramar chose to opt-in, the company would provide an annual subsidy of $31.37 per household. (With Tantramar’s 2,565 households that would amount to about $80,000).

At the same time however, he warned that Circular Materials would expect to see steady improvements in reducing contamination rates for recycled packaging.

He said the company is aiming to get such contaminants as food waste down to only 3% from Tantramar’s current rate of about 20%.

Hultberg warned that if those rates failed to show steady improvement, Circular Materials could impose stiff financial penalties.

In the end, councillors, worried about hefty costs, decided to forego the subsidy and allow Circular Materials to manage the collection of blue bags on its own.

In 2021, New Brunswick followed the lead of several other provinces by changing its regulations under the Clean Environment Act to require big companies to take responsibility for recycling the paper and packaging they use for their products.

When the province called for expressions of interest, Circular Materials was the only company to come forward. Municipalities then had the choice to continue collecting the blue bags and receive the Circular Materials subsidy of $31.37 per household, or opt out and let the not-for-profit, producer-run company run the collection program on its own.

Tantramar chose to opt out to avoid potential financial penalties if it was unable to show steady improvements in reducing contamination rates from about 20% down to the 3% target Circular Materials has set.

Hultberg explained that Circular Materials pays for its recycling program with fees charged to consumers who buy packaged products.

“So, when you buy this (packaging) in a grocery store, you’re not going to see it on your receipt, but every little item will include a small, small charge that will go toward the main industry stakeholders,” he said.

For a 2018 CBC report on the problem of contaminants in recycling, click here.

To read a report on plastic packaging in Canada’s grocery stores, click here.

Posted in Town of Tantramar | Tagged , , | 3 Comments