Many people have felt that Sackville is a lost cause due to the dominance of the woke, socialist types who are against diversity of thought. There is also a lot of confusion as to why some projects get approved and some don’t. The so-called ‘climate lens’ is not used in some cases such as the recent AIL plastics manufacturing plant. The government spending and property taxes are way too high. However due to the recent amalgamation of Sackville with the surrounding areas of Dorchester, Midgic, Aulac, etc a window of opportunity is open for people wanting to make significant changes in direction for Tantramar.
Matt Estabrooks and Bruce Phinney recently voted against having another EV charger which is estimated to cost over $72,000 to taxpayers. Subsequently they ended up winning their elections. Matt even beat Sabine Dietz who is mostly responsible for pushing this agenda. One argument against the Town buying the charger is that other municipalities have received EV chargers at minimal cost as many auto companies are willing to put in EV chargers to encourage more sales of electric vehicles. Hydrogen vehicles are also a possibility which would make these EV chargers obsolete. Matt also made the point that if you are putting in a charger to attract tourists there should be measurements in place to track the success of this goal. But whenever you suggest accountability for government many of the councillors scurry like rats back into their holes. This lack of accountability is typical for these types of green projects.
Bill Evans decided not to run again which is also a very positive sign.
Jamie Burke has left his position early as CAO and will be replaced by Jennifer Borne. Jennifer was chosen over Jamie by Daniel Allain, Minister of Local Government. Strangely some of the current councillors still sang his praises in the November Town Hall Council meeting, considering the various scandals, excessive in-camera meetings and a veil of secrecy that existed during his tenure.
Shawn Mesheau also lost his position as Mayor. In a sense Bonnie Swift running for Mayor was the spoiler. She ran after seeing the dysfunction and lack of proper notification to residents for new developments. She didn’t really want or need to run for Mayor at this point in her life. Mesheau presided over a lot of the problems such as Jamie Burke’s purported tyrannical stranglehold on information flow coming out of the Town, and lack of adequate disclosure to residents for upcoming developments. He also requested an independent review after Jennifer was chosen over Jamie as CAO and called the process fundamentally flawed. Shawn was also accused of having a conflict of interest since his brother Peter Mesheau works at AIL (the manufacturing plant that requested the by-law change in the Walker Road industrial zone in order to allow the plant to avoid using town water, sewer and requiring any nearby fire hydrants).
Most of the existing councillors at the time, especially Bill Evans and Jamie Burke pretended that the by-law adjustment was just a generic text amendment and was done for the entire industrial zone, with no connection to Mike Wilson or the manufacturing plant. The above image proves otherwise.
Debbie Wiggins, Josh Goguen, Barry Hicks and Greg Martin (by acclamation) also won the elections in their respective wards. It is unknown as to how these councillors will react in the new council but there is hope that they will be able to think independently, speak out when they don’t have enough information and not cave to groupthink. In an encouraging sign, none of them appear to be involved with EOS Eco-Energy.
Andrew Black will still remain a challenge as the Mayor, considering that he walked out on the process of deciding the future CAO by quitting the subcommittee. Fortunately, the mayor only gets a vote when the
rest of council is tied, so his position may be more symbolic than meaningful.