‘It's inhumane': Longtime residents of Fredericton-area motel forced to relocate
About two dozen residents of the Airport Inn inn just outside Fredericton have been told to move out as soon as possible, leaving the longtime tenants worried and upset.
The hotel, in Lincoln, N.B., has been without water and electricity for the past few days after it was shut off for safety reasons.
Heather Lantz, who lives in the inn, says she's 'devastated.'
'I don't think it was fair what she did,' Lantz said, referencing the landlord.
According to a letter provided to Global News, the hotel manager informed residents last Saturday that they have to move out.
While the building is a motel, for many residents, it's been home.
Leon Cormier has lived there for 11 years.
Story continues below advertisement
'We were like family,' he said. 'It's tough. I mean, we're all friends.'
View image in full screen
Leon Cormier is one of two dozen residents of a Fredericton-area inn being forced to move out. Anna Mandin/Global News
He said many tenants like himself are retired and on fixed incomes — meaning they don't have money for first and last month's rent for a new unit on such short notice.
Get daily National news
Get the day's top news, political, economic, and current affairs headlines, delivered to your inbox once a day. Sign up for daily National newsletter Sign Up
By providing your email address, you have read and agree to Global News' Terms and Conditions and Privacy Policy
He also doesn't know if he can afford rent anywhere else or if he can even afford a moving van.
'It's a hard thing to swallow to be out on the street… Where am I going to go at 74 years old?' he said.
Global News made multiple attempts to contact the manager, Yingchun Su, including knocking on the office door, calling the phone number included in the letter, contacting another hotel owner and reaching out to a society where someone named Yingchun Su is listed as a treasurer.
Story continues below advertisement
But the landlord did not respond.
According to New Brunswick's Public Safety Department, 'significant safety issues' were identified in the building earlier this month.
When proper correction actions weren't taken by deadline, the power was disconnected due to safety risks posed by what the department said was 'a number of significant electrical issues.'
It says the province's housing corporation will assess tenants and place them on the housing wait-list based on their needs.
Meanwhile, tenants are left in the dark — in unlit rooms and with uncertain futures.
'It's inhumane,' said Cormier.
— With a file from Rebecca Lau
Try Our AI Features
Explore what Daily8 AI can do for you:
Comments
No comments yet...
Related Articles
Global News
an hour ago
- Global News
B.C. logging industry needs to do more to cut wildfire risk, report finds
British Columbia's forestry industry isn't doing enough to help prevent cut the risk of wildfires, a new report has found. The report, released Thursday, caps a two-year investigation by B.C.'s Forest Practices Board, and concluded that much of the problem is based on outdated rules and unclear responsibilities. The probe looked at forestry activities between 2019 and 2022 in the Sea to Sky, Chicotin and Peace regions, specifically in interface areas deemed 'high' or 'extreme' wildfire threats. The wildland-urban interface is a roughly two-kilometre area where human development, such as homes and infrastructure, meets or intermingles with wildland vegetation. 'It's been a well-known area of concern in the province for making communities safe from wildfire,' Keith Atkinson, chair of the Forest Practices Board, told Global News. Story continues below advertisement 'Is our work helping or hurting risk reduction in the wildland-urban interface?' 2:01 New UBC research shows threat to rivers, oceans from wildfires Among the report's key findings was that important fire hazard assessments at forestry sites were often late or incomplete. Get breaking National news For news impacting Canada and around the world, sign up for breaking news alerts delivered directly to you when they happen. Sign up for breaking National newsletter Sign Up By providing your email address, you have read and agree to Global News' Terms and Conditions and Privacy Policy Fewer than a quarter of such assessments were completed on time, while 30 per cent didn't meet legal content standards, according to the report. The report also raised concerns about fire abatement work at logging sites, a process that includes chipping, piling and burning debris to reduce fire risks. It found that while a majority of operators are meeting their obligations, about one-third of the cutblocks the board reviewed failed to meet their legal requirements or else needed more work to comply on time. It also raised concerns about the current Wildfire Regulation, which allows companies to leave logging debris on sites for up to 30 months, meaning flammable debris can be on the ground through multiple fire seasons. Story continues below advertisement 'In today's environment, we know the risks are high, we know the climate, the drought conditions really bring attention to that risk as being too high, and we think that should change,' Atkinson said. 'Policies should change to require them to abate that problem as soon as possible.' Municipalities, meanwhile, are not currently included in the province's legal definition of interface zones. 'This omission undermines risk reduction and can contribute to fuel hazards sitting unabated near communities for multiple fire seasons,' the report concludes. 'Fuel hazards closer to the interface must be assessed and abated sooner.' 4:06 B.C.'s 2025 wildfire season forecast It also notes that maps of legally defined interface areas, which lay out how and when forestry companies must do fire hazard assessment and abatement, aren't available to the public, making it hard to verify and enforce compliance. Story continues below advertisement Forest Practices Board is making five recommendations it says would encourage the forestry industry to more actively reduce wildfire risk, modernize guidelines and improve coordination. Those include setting new proactive fire management objectives for the interface zone, rather than simply preventing new hazards, and speeding up fire hazard abatement timelines to 'as soon as practicable' rather than the current 30 months. 'Right now, a licensee can operate but just don't increase the risk of hazard,' Atkinson said. 'We're really saying you need to reduce that risk… If you are going to go in there and do work, part of the result should be a reduction in risk, not just the status quo.' The board is also calling on the province to update the legal definition of the wildland-urban interface to include municipalities and other high-risk populated areas, and make those maps public. The province should also create a publicly accessible hub of wildfire risk reduction plans, and revise and update its 2012 fuel hazard abatement guidelines, the board says.
Global News
5 hours ago
- Global News
Black bear finally freed of lid that was stuck on its neck for 2 years
For at least two years, a Michigan black bear traipsed around the forest, a blue barrel lid wrapped around its neck, as state wildlife experts tried to track it down. The bear was first spotted on a trail camera as a cub back in 2023, but it remained elusive. It occasionally turned up on other trail cameras, but disappeared just as quickly. View image in full screen A trail camera on private property in Hillman, Mich., captured this photo of a black bear with a lid stuck on its neck. Handout / Private Resident via DNR The uncomfortable saga came to an end this spring, according to a press release chronicling it, when a resident in Montmorency County spotted the 110-pound bruin on a trail camera roaming his wooded acreage and alerted the Michigan Department of Natural Resources. Story continues below advertisement With the landowner's permission, the DNR set up a cylindrical trap and lured the bear inside. Once captured, staffers were able to sedate the animal and free it from its plastic burden before it woke up and was released back to the woods. View image in full screen In this image provided by the Michigan Department of Natural Resources, DNS staffers, from left, Angela Kujawa, Sherry Raifsnider and Miranda VanCleave work to remove a lid from the neck of an immobilized black bear near Hillman, Mich., on June 3, 2025. Michigan Department of Natural Resources via AP View image in full screen In this image provided by the Michigan Department of Natural Resources, wildlife biologist Angela Kujawa collects data from an immobilized black bear after a lid was removed from the animal's neck near Hillman, Michigan, on June 3, 2025. Michigan Department of Natural Resources via AP 'It's pretty incredible that the bear survived and was able to feed itself,' state bear specialist Cody Norton told The Associated Press. 'The neck was scarred and missing hair, but the bear was in much better condition than we expected it to be.' Story continues below advertisement View image in full screen In this image provided by the Michigan Department of Natural Resources, the neck of a black bear is shown after a lid was removed after two years on June 3, 2025, near Hillman, Mich. Michigan Department of Natural Resources via AP According to the DNR, the blue lid matched those used to cover large 55-gallon barrels, which are popular among rural landowners and hunters to hold grain and feed used to attract bears. Get daily National news Get the day's top news, political, economic, and current affairs headlines, delivered to your inbox once a day. Sign up for daily National newsletter Sign Up By providing your email address, you have read and agree to Global News' Terms and Conditions and Privacy Policy Though Michigan permits bear baiting, the law limits the use of bait containers to private land and requires that any openings be either under one inch or over 22 inches wide. In this case, while it's not clear how or where the bear got the lid wrapped around its neck, the opening did not comply with local bear baiting laws. View image in full screen A DNR drone photo of the black bear after the lid was removed from its neck. Michigan Department of Natural Resources 'Container openings of a certain size can result in bears and other wildlife getting their heads or other body parts stuck in them, leading to injury or death,' Norton said in a statement.
Global News
6 hours ago
- Global News
‘It's inhumane': Longtime residents of Fredericton-area motel forced to relocate
About two dozen residents of the Airport Inn inn just outside Fredericton have been told to move out as soon as possible, leaving the longtime tenants worried and upset. The hotel, in Lincoln, N.B., has been without water and electricity for the past few days after it was shut off for safety reasons. Heather Lantz, who lives in the inn, says she's 'devastated.' 'I don't think it was fair what she did,' Lantz said, referencing the landlord. According to a letter provided to Global News, the hotel manager informed residents last Saturday that they have to move out. While the building is a motel, for many residents, it's been home. Leon Cormier has lived there for 11 years. Story continues below advertisement 'We were like family,' he said. 'It's tough. I mean, we're all friends.' View image in full screen Leon Cormier is one of two dozen residents of a Fredericton-area inn being forced to move out. Anna Mandin/Global News He said many tenants like himself are retired and on fixed incomes — meaning they don't have money for first and last month's rent for a new unit on such short notice. Get daily National news Get the day's top news, political, economic, and current affairs headlines, delivered to your inbox once a day. Sign up for daily National newsletter Sign Up By providing your email address, you have read and agree to Global News' Terms and Conditions and Privacy Policy He also doesn't know if he can afford rent anywhere else or if he can even afford a moving van. 'It's a hard thing to swallow to be out on the street… Where am I going to go at 74 years old?' he said. Global News made multiple attempts to contact the manager, Yingchun Su, including knocking on the office door, calling the phone number included in the letter, contacting another hotel owner and reaching out to a society where someone named Yingchun Su is listed as a treasurer. Story continues below advertisement But the landlord did not respond. According to New Brunswick's Public Safety Department, 'significant safety issues' were identified in the building earlier this month. When proper correction actions weren't taken by deadline, the power was disconnected due to safety risks posed by what the department said was 'a number of significant electrical issues.' It says the province's housing corporation will assess tenants and place them on the housing wait-list based on their needs. Meanwhile, tenants are left in the dark — in unlit rooms and with uncertain futures. 'It's inhumane,' said Cormier. — With a file from Rebecca Lau
