Listen to Tantramar Report for the following stories:
Horizon announces closure of acute care at Sackville Memorial Hospital
Horizon has informed local leaders of plans to temporarily close inpatient acute care at the Sackville Memorial Hospital. The network plans to convert all inpatient beds at the hospital to transitional care beds for patients who are waiting for long term care placement. In a letter send Friday evening, Horizon VP Eileen MacGibbon says that “going forward, Sackville patients who require acute care will be transferred to Horizon’s The Moncton Hospital.”
Members of Sackville’s rural health action group are encouraging local individuals and groups to get creative and make homemade cards, art works, posters, cartoons, poems, or notes that express appreciation for the work of hospital staff. They’ve set up a box at the entrance of the Sackville hospital where these expressions of gratitude can be dropped. They will then be exhibited in the hospital during the Christmas holiday season. Check the full web story here.
Historic Henderson Block to come down tomorrow, causing Bridge Street closure
Despite the cold, Bridge and Main in downtown Sackville were crawling with people on Friday night for the final night of Moonlight Madness. But the intersection will quiet down considerably early this week, at least in terms of traffic.
A historic building, the Henderson Building, built in 1900, will be demolished, and to make that operation safe, the town has agreed to close down Bridge Street near the intersection with Main. For more, listen to Tantramar Report, or check the web story here.
On the agenda for Sackville town council
Sackville town council meets tonight for its special monthly meeting. Council will meet at 5pm for a closed discussion of a human resources matter, a legal matter, and to hear the RCMP’s monthly report. Then at 7 p.m., council will convene for a busy public agenda.
Mount Allison VP Robert Inglis will be presenting an update from the university, likely outlining the schools January plans which were announced last week and include returning to full capacity in classrooms.
A number of citizens will be presenting, including Dr. Ross Thomas of the Sackville Footbridge Working Group, and Susan Gourley on the town’s animal control bylaw. Gourley has presented before with concerns about cats killing birds in her yard.
Sackville artist Indu Varma will also be presenting on something called Sackville: A Visual Snapshot.
Council will also hear recommendations from their Climate Change Advisory Committee.
The agenda was finalized and distributed Thursday, and so does not include any discussion of the recently announced move by Horizon to close acute care at the Sackville hospital.
One item which is bound to take up considerable time is local governance reform. The province recently announced plans to amalgamate Sackville with Dorchester and surround local service districts. The town of Sackville has since said they stand by previous statements, and that the town will oppose a forced amalgamation. This will be the first time council publicly discusses the amalgamation plans.
The full agenda to tonight’s meeting is available here, along with links to watch the meeting. To attend in person, contact town clerk Donna Beal for pre-registration.
Mitton asks for opportunity to hear witnesses on local governance reform
Memramcook Tantramar MLA Megan Mitton is asking for the province’s local governance reform committee to discuss the massive restructuring plan in the legislature’s Law Amendments Committee, where witnesses can be called to speak to the bill. Currently, no witnesses will be able to comment formally on the bill, and the government is also moving to limit the amount of time that can be spent discussing the bill. According to their own press release, the government’s bill introduces “the most significant changes to the local governance system in 60 years.”
National Day of Remembrance and Action on Violence Against Women
Today is the National Day of Remembrance and Action on Violence Against Women. It’s also the anniversary of one of the country’s worst acts of violence against women: the Montreal Massacre.
In the late afternoon of Dec. 6, 1989, a man arrived at the École Polytechnique in Montréal armed with a semi-automatic assault rifle. In a calculated rampage, he killed 14 women, before killing himself. The 14 women were:
Geneviève Bergeron
Hélène Colgan
Nathalie Croteau
Barbara Daigneault
Anne-Marie Edward
Maud Haviernick
Maryse Laganière
Maryse Leclair
Anne-Marie Lemay
Sonia Pelletier
Michèle Richard
Annie St-Arneault
Annie Turcotte
Barbara Klucznik-Widajewicz
Memorial services are being held today throughout the country. In Sackville, town council will commemorate the day with a moment of silence, and today at Tweedie Hall, in the Mount Allison Student Centre, people are invited to drop in for a moment of quiet contemplation and reflection. Tweedie Hall will be open on a drop-in basis from 4:30 p.m. to 6:30 p.m., as a space to grieve, honour, and remember.
More voices from the Social Action Fair
St. Thomas University social work students Erica Gould, Shelley Young, and Samantha Denny exposing and challenging Indigenous stereotypes at the 2021 Social Action Fair. Photo by Erica Butler.
On Friday, we brought you some voices from the Social Action Fair which took place on Wednesday in Sackville. Today we bring you some more talking about harmful stereotypes of Indigenous people, the value of harm reduction, and Indigenous pathways for mental health.