![\"A](\"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.chmafm.com\/welcome\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/06\/Screen-Shot-2023-06-22-at-10.05.45-PM.png?resize=720%2C514&ssl=1\")
Christina DeHaas and Jeff MacKinnon of the Tantramar Pedway Group presenting to council. Image: Youtube screencap<\/p><\/div><\/figure>\n<\/div>\n
Currently, the group has secured a private donation of $1 million to put towards the pedway project, and also has a commitment from Algonquin Bridge, a division of the AIL Group, to build the project at cost, which was estimated at about $3 million a year ago.<\/p>\n
DeHaas says other funding possibilities are available, but there\u2019s a commitment needed from the town. \u201cThe way to move forward is for council to direct staff to explore the capital funding opportunities that leverage this million dollar commitment that we currently have,\u201d said DeHaas.<\/p>\n
Dehaas and the Pedway Group are asking the town to take over ownership of the pedway project, including assigning staff to look into funding opportunities, committing to maintaining and insuring it, and also entering into a land use agreement with the Department of Natural Resources, who own the Trans Canada Trail lands.<\/p>\n
This is not the first time there\u2019s been a million dollars available for this project. DeHaas told council that 15 years ago Sackville lost out on $1 million in funding that ended up going to PEI\u2019s cycle trail infrastructure. \u201cWe can\u2019t lose this incredible donation a second time and the window of opportunity is running out,\u201d said DeHaas.<\/p>\n
DeHaas told council that funding through the Trans Canada Trail organization would mean no capital investment required by the municipality, but there is a caveat. \u201cThe Trans Canada Trail is willing to try again by funding construction and longer term maintenance if the trail remains non-motorized in perpetuity,\u201d said DeHaas.<\/p>\n
Trail non-motorized in theory, but used by ATVs<\/h2>\n
Technically the trail is now deemed non-motorized, but there\u2019s either a lack of maintenance or an excess of vandalism of the signage and gates that would inform and keep ATV drivers out. MacKinnon told council that about 10 years ago, when NB Trails was taking care of maintenance, the trail was truly non-motorized. Now the group is asking Tantramar to negotiate a land use agreement with the Department of Natural Resources, and to take over responsibility for keeping the signs and gates in place.<\/p>\n
\u201cThere was very little there that Trails NB did, they simply did a few good things really well. They had some signage in place, they had some gates, and it was obvious that it was a non motorized trail,\u201d said MacKinnon. \u201cNow you go out there and it\u2019s not obvious\u2026 I do have friendly conversations with a lot of ATV drivers that I encounter on the trail. And they\u2019re just not aware.\u201d MacKinnon said there are low cost options that could reestablish the non-motorized status of the trail if Tantramar takes over under a land use agreement.<\/p>\n
The need for non-motorized status is where there is a potential conflict with another group who presented last week: Quad NB, whose local group is the Tantramar ATV Club. Quad NB president Jacques Ouellette requested council write a letter of support for ATV access to the Trans Canada Trail from Donald Harper Drive on towards Midgic, and offered to take on getting the funding to maintain it. He told councillors he wanted to twin the trail, to allow for parallel ATV and pedestrian and cyclist use.<\/p>\n
![\"A](\"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.chmafm.com\/welcome\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/06\/Screen-Shot-2023-06-22-at-10.07.08-PM.png?resize=656%2C515&ssl=1\")
Quad NB president Jacques Ouellette presenting to Tantramar council. Image: Youtube screencap<\/p><\/div><\/figure>\n<\/div>\n
\u201cWe\u2019re asking for your support to make it a multi-use trail,\u201d said Quad NB president Jacques Ouellette. \u201cThe way it works elsewhere in the province, when it becomes a multi use trail, the local club is responsible for the maintenance and any costs related to the trail once it\u2019s correctly built.\u201d<\/p>\n
But the cost to build a twinned trail is not clear. Ouellette says that Quad NB has built parallel, multiuse trails in collaboration with the Acadian Peninsula V\u00e9loroute, a massive network of 310 kilometres of paved bikeways connecting towns and tourist attractions on the Acadian Peninsula. But Tantramar ATV Club president Don Green told Warktimes that twinning the trail would be impractical, and Plan 360 Regional Trails coordinator Marc Leger echoed that concern, estimating such a project could run in the tens of millions, due to the nature of the rail bed and the landscape it runs through.<\/p>\n
Green told CHMA via email that a shared lease of the trail could still work, and cited the example of a former railbed trail from Oxford to Tatamagouche. The reason the club wants access, writes Green, is to help the roughly 200 club members connect to the Port Elgin section of the trail, which they currently lease from the Department of Natural Resources. \u201cThere is no direct route out of Sackville or to Sackville,\u201d writes Green. \u201cAs it is now you must travel a long detour via Memramcook and through Cap Pel\u00e9 to reach our current lease of the railbed.\u201d<\/p>\n
Quad NB requests increased access to streets<\/h2>\n
It\u2019s not just hikers and bikers that Ouellette is hoping to share space with. Quad NB also requested that Tantramar expand the access for ATVs to legally drive on the town\u2019s streets.<\/p>\n
The group already has permission to drive on parts of Wright St and Mallard Drive in order to access gas stations and amenities at exit 504. This new request would involve extending access into downtown Sackville, and to the Gitpu Gas Station on Cherry Burton Road.<\/p>\n
![\"A](\"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.chmafm.com\/welcome\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/06\/Screen-Shot-2023-06-22-at-3.15.03-PM.png?resize=594%2C493&ssl=1\")
Proposed street access for ATVs by Quad NB. Source: Jacques Ouellette, president Quad NB<\/p><\/div><\/figure>\n<\/div>\n
The Sackville request is for access all the way down Main Street to Bridge, and then up Bridge to Weldon. The Gitpu request involves access starting from King Street, heading across Buck Road, to Lower Fairfield Road, and onto Cherry Burton Road all the way to the 106.<\/p>\n
![\"A](\"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.chmafm.com\/welcome\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/06\/Screen-Shot-2023-06-22-at-3.15.52-PM.png?resize=615%2C501&ssl=1\")
Proposed road access for ATVs by Quad NB. Source: Jacques Ouellette, president Quad NB<\/p><\/div><\/figure>\n<\/div>\n
Ouellette says the first access granted in 2019 was a tester of sorts, and he feels it was a successful one.<\/p>\n
\u201cWhen we were granted the access on the first streets,\u201d said Ouellette, \u201cit was more to prove to the Council or the municipality, the citizens, that it could work\u2026 And it works, so this is why we\u2019re coming back.\u201d<\/p>\n
Allowing more street access for ATVs would mean amending the current town of Sackville by-law, and getting approval from the Departments of Public Safety and Transportation and Infrastructure. Ouellette says he is ready to start the process if he gets the support of council.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Sackville\u2019s portion of the Trans Canada Trail was the belle of the ball at Tantramar council\u2019s last regular meeting, with two public presentations asking council to move ahead with plans that would see the trail developed or maintained in different ways. The Tantramar Pedway Group and Quad NB each put in requests to Tantramar Council,…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":106,"featured_media":162908,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[57,225,2602],"tags":[27530,18777,4268,27531,27529,22107,27532,21381],"radio":[227],"origine":[274,275,277],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/canada-info.ca\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/162904"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/canada-info.ca\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/canada-info.ca\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/canada-info.ca\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/106"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/canada-info.ca\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=162904"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/canada-info.ca\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/162904\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":162911,"href":"https:\/\/canada-info.ca\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/162904\/revisions\/162911"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/canada-info.ca\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/162908"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/canada-info.ca\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=162904"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/canada-info.ca\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=162904"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/canada-info.ca\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=162904"},{"taxonomy":"radio","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/canada-info.ca\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/radio?post=162904"},{"taxonomy":"origine","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/canada-info.ca\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/origine?post=162904"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}