Listen to Tantramar Report for the following stories:

Capturing the Northern Lights above the Tantramar Marsh

Hobby photographer Shawn Chapman spends a lot of time with his camera pointed at the night sky, in hopes of capturing the aurora borealis, or the northern lights.

Recently, Chapman took some remarkable photos of the aurora over the Tantramar Marsh. The images show bands of vibrant green, red, pink and violet glowing along the horizon and up into the night sky. The images are so stunning that we couldn’t resist calling up Shawn Chapman to hear more about what went into capturing them. Listen to Tantramar Report to hear that conversation. Check out Chapman’s photos on his Facebook profile.

Council meets tonight with budget and flyers bylaw on the agenda

Tonight at 7pm, Sackville town council will meet for their regular monthly meeting and be asked to approve the town’s 2022 budget.  The town is looking at a 6.9% increase in tax base for 2022, and is asking to leave the tax rate the same and use the extra revenue to cover increased costs in areas such as policing, insurance, and a new recreation subsidy program.

Changes proposed by councillor Sabine Dietz to make the budget more climate friendly have not been incorporated into the draft circulated with the council agenda on Thursday afternoon. At CHMA’s councillors roundtable on Thursday, Dietz said there was more than one way to achieve what she hoped, which was to start incorporating different, more climate-aware thinking behind the town’s operations. Dietz said she would be addressing the issue at tonight’s meeting.

Council is also considering some spending motions at their meeting tonight. They will be asked to approve the replacement of a damaged thermal imaging camera for the fire department, at a cost of $12,650. They will consider giving the Rural Health Action Group an immediate $5,000 to kickstart their work on recruiting health care workers, which is in addition to the $10,000 proposed in the 2022 budget. They will also be asked to approve a $12,500 study on a new concrete skatepark for Sackville.

There’s also a new flyer distribution bylaw up for consideration, which would make it a by-law infraction to deliver flyers to a home with “no flyers” signage, and require flyers to be delivered to front steps instead of being placed in driveways.

Councillor Michael Tower told CHMA’s councillors roundtable that he felt the new opt-out bylaw would work. “I like the way we’re doing it,” said Tower. “There are people out there that like the flyers. I like the flyers, but I don’t like them laying in driveways and ditches and the side of the road.”

Council will also be asked to approve the closing of two streets temporarily in support of Moonlight Madness events on November 19 and December 3.

And finally, council will look at housekeeping changes to their own remuneration bylaw and hear final readings of an annual bylaw renewal to set the rate for the Business Improvement Area levy, which raises about $25,000 for Mainstreet Redevelopment, the downtown Sackville BIA.

CUPE strike continues into second week

Schools remain online this week as the lockout of striking CUPE school support workers by the province continues.

Hospitals, on the other hand, are slowly returning to normal after the province issued an emergency order on Friday forcing striking health care workers back to work. Horizon issued a statement saying the network “will begin to resume patient and client’s surgeries, procedures and appointments, however it will take time to work through the waitlists.”

Hours before the premier and attorney general Ted Flemming announced the mandatory order forcing health care workers back to work, labour leaders visited the CUPE picket lines in downtown Sackville to lend their support to the cause.

George Leaman of the Bakery, Confectionery, Tobacco Workers and Grain Millers union led the crowd in chants as they marched a loop along Main Street.

Linda Silas, president of the Canadian Federation of Nurses Union told Warktimes that she was showing support for CUPE workers and their right to collective bargaining. New Brunswick nurses have rejected two tentative agreements that have come out of negotiations between the NBNU and the province.

Danny Légère, president of the New Brunswick Federation of Labour, and former president of CUPE, said that wages in the public section in New Brunswick haven’t kept up with inflation. He told Warktimes that workers have been falling further and further behind.

30 new cases in Zone 1 on Sunday

There were thirty new cases of COVID-19 in Zone 1 on Sunday, bringing the active case count in this zone to 188. Twenty-three of the new cases in Zone 1 are under investigation and seven cases are contacts of previously confirmed cases. Province-wide, there are 473 active cases of COVID 19. Fifteen people are in hospital, with nine of those in an ICU.

Football Mounties win on Saturday, now preparing for semi-finals

The Mount Allison Mounties football team finished their AUS regular season with an 18-to-2 win over the Bishop’s Gaiters at Alumni Field on Saturday.

The Mounties finished the regular season in second place in the AUS. The team will again host the Bishop’s Gaiters this coming Saturday, in an AUS Semi-Final game at Alumni Field.