Listen to Tantramar Report for the following stories:

Dorchester mayor: “We’re all in this together now”

Dorchester mayor Debbie Wiggins-Colwell is not especially worried about loss of identity for her community of Dorchester in the wake of proposed amalgamation with neighbouring Sackville, Point de Bute and surrounding areas. But she does have other concerns, mostly about unknowns in the process that is slated to begin in the New Year, after local government minister Daniel Allain gets his proposed amendments through the provincial legislature.

CHMA spoke with the Dorchester mayor on Wednesday to hear more about her and her community’s reaction to Allain’s plan. Listen to Tantramar Report for that conversation, and keep an eye out for a web story later today.

Climate Change Engage program looking for youth interested in small projects

While both coasts of Canada are seeing big impacts from climate change in the form of massive rainfalls washing out roads and bridges, there’s work afoot in the Memramcook-Tantramar region to enact change on a smaller scale.

Catherine Priemer grew up in Sackville and is now attending Mount Allison University, in her fourth year of a geography and environment program. Priemer is coordinating a small funding program in the Memramcook Tantramar region to help youth with projects that address climate change. Some projects are already funded, but Priemer is looking for more to help support, with funding from the Sackville United Church.

Priemer spoke with Tantramar Report about the Climate Change Engage program. To get in touch with Priemer, email catherinepriemer -at- gmail.com

COVID update: active cases on the rise for 10th day in a row

The active case count in New Brunswick has climbed for the tenth day in a row, to 743 active cases on Thursday, the most since October 21, five weeks ago.

95 new cases were reported yesterday with 28 of those in Zone 1. 15 of the new Zone 1 cases were not immediately connected to travel or previous cases.

The number of people in hospital has also shot up to 54, the highest it’s been in five weeks. One of the people in hospital is under 19, and 18 people are in an intensive care unit.

Many of the COVID-19 cases in hospital are there due to two outbreaks discovered this week at the Moncton Hospital which is affecting four of the hospital’s 16 units.

On Wednesday, there were 26 patients in the Moncton hospital with COVID-19. Six of those cases pre-dated the outbreaks, and 20 cases are linked to the outbreaks.

Infectious disease specialist Dr. Gordon Dow told reporters Wednesday that the cases are Delta variant, which has a shorter incubation period of about 5 days. That means that new cases could continue to appear for about five days, even after units have been locked down.

Dow said the infections at the Moncton hospital are a sign of the high rate of transmission in the surrounding community. “The single biggest thing that predicts whether your hospital is going to get COVID is how much COVID is in your community,” said Down. “You can think of our hospitals a bit like the canary in a coal mine. If there’s a lot of COVID in your community, your risk of an institutional outbreak is high.”

For more on the Moncton Hospital outbreak check the web story here.

Zone 1 is currently experiencing another institutional outbreak at the Dorchester penitentiary, which may have peaked.

Correctional Service Canada reported no new cases at the penitentiary in the past two days. There are 54 inmates and six staff members currently infected with COVID-19. Spokesperson Shelley Lawrence says staff are isolating at home, and extra measures are being taken to prevent further spread in the medium security unit where the outbreak is happening.

15% of New Brunswick kids scheduled for COVID shots

As of Thursday morning, more than 8,300 appointments were booked for children aged five to 11 to receive their first dose of the pediatric COVID-19 vaccine. That’s about 15% of the eligible population of roughly 54,000 children.

Parents can sign up for appointments online at clinics being offered across the province. The Sackville Visitor Information Centre will host clinics on December 5th, December 11th, and December 12th. About 120 people have registered for the Sackville clinics so far.

The National Advisory Committee on Immunization recommended two doses of the new paediatric vaccine for COVID 19 on November 19, 2021. The shot is about one third the dose of the Pfizer BioTech vaccine for people aged 12 and up, and doses are recommended to be given at least two months apart.

Tucker breaks provincial swimming record

Sackville Swim Club member Ella Tucker has set a new provincial record in swimming. Tucker swam the 50 metre breaststroke in 57.55 seconds at a meet last weekend in Sussex, breaking the provincial record in the 50 metre breaststroke for the PARA SB7 classification. She broke the previous record of 57.93 seconds, set in 2013 by Christine Bois.

Annual parade of lights is back for 2021

The Sackville Fire Department has announced it’s bringing back the annual parade of lights event that was cancelled last year due to the pandemic. On Saturday, December 4th, starting at 6pm, emergency services vehicles bedecked in Christmas lights and sounding their sirens will make the rounds through town. More information is available at the town of Sackville website.