Tantramar Report: Mayors talk last ditch efforts to change minds about amalgamation; MAFA contracts extended two years; NB passes 10,000 COVID-19 cases to date

A man in a COVID-19 mask sits behind a desk
Sackville mayor Shawn Mesheau at council's first meeting on June 14, 2021. Image: screencap.
Erica Butler - CHMA - SackvilleNB | 17-12-2021
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Listen to Tantramar Report for the following stories:

Mayors and Mitton on municipal reform

The Higgs government’s Bill 82, An Act Respecting Local Governance Reform will become law today. The bill proposes powers for the province to radically redraw municipal boundaries in the province.

This week, both the town of Sackville and the village of Dorchester sent off last minute letters of protest to local governance minister Daniel Allain.

While the boundaries of the new municipalities to be created by the law are not included in the Act, the regulations to define them are expected to follow soon. The province had given municipalities a deadline of Thursday—just four weeks after the plan was announced—to make suggestions for changes to the proposed amalgamations.

Today on Tantramar Report, we talk with Mayors Shawn Mesheau and Debbie Wiggins-Colwell, to talk about the reform and their objections. We also listen in to the provincial legislature, as MLA Megan Mitton questions the government rushed process on the major reforms.

MAFA contract extended two years

Mount Allison University and its Faculty Association have both agreed to extend their current collective agreements by two years. The extended contracts cover full-time and part-time faculty and librarians at Mount A.

The two collective agreements signed on Thursday will run until June 2024.

The Faculty Association says 70 per cent of its members participated in an online vote to extend the contract, with over 90 per cent of those members voting in favour.

In a news release MAFA president Erin Steuter says that she is “very pleased with the level of participation in the vote” considering it took place late in the term, during the pandemic.

She touted progress on workload for faculty and librarians, referring to long-term assurance that those on sabbatical will be replaced in their absence from classrooms.

University president Jean-Paul Boudreau thanked Steuter and provost Jeff Hennessy for reaching the agreement in a letter to students and staff on Thursday. He said the agreement “highlights the collaborative spirit our campus community has demonstrated throughout the pandemic while ensuring that we support the university’s cherished academic mission.”

Sackville Farmers’ Market Christmas and New Year’s schedule

The Sackville Farmers’ Market is on this Saturday from 9 a.m. to 12 p.m. at its winter location on Lorne Street. It’s the last market before the vendors take a week off for Christmas next Saturday. The market returns the following week for a special New Year’s Eve market on Friday, Dec. 31 from 10 a.m. to 2 p.m.

COVID-19 update: new daily record and a milestone in total cases

New Brunswick set another record in daily new cases on Thursday, with 177 new cases of COVID-19 reported by Public Health.

144 of the new cases of under investigation by public health, with 27 identified as coming from previous cases, and six as travel-related.

In Zone 1, there were 33 new cases, with 29 of unknown origin.

The number of people in hospital remains fairly stable in the province, with 41 in hospital, and 15 of those in an intensive care unit.

For those watching the numbers in New Brunswick’s pandemic experience, Thursday marked a milestone: the province passed 10,000 in total cumulative cases since the beginning of the pandemic. But by far the lion’s share of those cases have happened in the last four months of the pandemic. Since Aug. 17, there have been just over 7,600 additional cases of COVID-19 reported in New Brunswick. In the previous 17 months, just over 2500 cases were reported.

Listen to the Tantramar Report below: