Latest news with #DonnaReardon
CTV News
3 days ago
- Business
- CTV News
Mayor says Irving Oil refinery investment welcome in Saint John
Saint John's mayor said he's pleased with Irving Oil's plan to spend $100 million on upgrades to its Saint John facility. It's a move the company said will ensure future growth for the nation's largest oil refinery. Dubbed the FCCU Revamp Project, the multi-million-dollar investment in the refinery will maximize its performance, efficiency, and reliability. The modernization project is being privately funded. 'It's always good to get those sorts of investments,' said Mayor Donna Reardon. 'We have 325,000 barrels a day that are being refined, and that's that creates our GDP.' Reardon said the upgrades like will improve refinery emissions and the overall environmental impact. The privately-funded upgrade project will bring in roughly 675 skilled workers, primarily from Atlantic Canada, Irving said. 'Work will be completed in a phased approach over the summer and fall, beginning this month,' said a news release from Irving. The tradespeople supporting the project will generate an estimated $3.5 million in direct and indirect economic spinoffs in New Brunswick, said the release. 'In addition, the total workforce hours on the project represent the equivalent of more than 140 annualized jobs,' the release said. It wasn't long ago Irving's future in Saint John appeared uncertain. In 2023 the company underwent a strategic review that included a potential sale. The review was completed earlier this year reaffirming their commitment to Saint John. President of Canadians for Affordable Energy Dan McTeague said the investment by the oil giant leaves no doubt where Irving's future will be. 'Making a decision of that magnitude means that Irving is serious, not just about getting oil from certain places, but now it can pretty much access oil from anywhere around the world from light to heavy oil,' McTeague said. With Canadians focused on producing more energy within the country, McTeague said the upgrades will help Irving Oil position itself for the future, even if it includes pipelines. 'Our bread and butter really relies on the viability of the oil and gas sector,' said McTeague. 'If we can produce it and sell it to the rest of the world, as we are doing with the United States, as we are doing with eastern Canada, that could only mean a greater potential in terms of turning things around and making Canada that much more attractive for, not just domestic, but also foreign investment.' McTeague said the upgrades could attract more foreign investment and help strengthen the Canadian refinery was established in 1960. With files from CTV's Sean Mott. For more New Brunswick news, visit our dedicated provincial page.
CBC
6 days ago
- Business
- CBC
Spruce Lake vote delayed again after opponents wrap up concerns about expansion plan
A vote on the proposed expansion of the Spruce Lake Industrial Park was delayed again Tuesday night after Saint John council heard the last of 75 people who lined up to speak against the project. The only people left to appear at a public hearing are those who support the expansion, which the city is spearheading to drive economic growth. The hearing on the rezoning needed to get the expansion underway began May 12 and, with so many people wanting to speak against the plan, has spread over three nights so far. It will continue June 16 at council's regular meeting. The proposed expansion is aimed at attracting medium or light industry that's clean and non-emitting to the industrial park in the rural Lorneville area of southwest Saint John. After the latest round of speakers, Mayor Donna Reardon said that in her 13 years either as a city councillor or the mayor, she has never seen anything like the response the Spruce Lake proposal has received. "Lorneville residents, there's seven to eight generations," she told reporters."They've lived there for a long time. "They have a community down there and they know each other. They work together. So it's not a surprise that they would come out within this force. I'm not surprised at all to have them here. And I think their voices need to be heard." Normally, public hearings happen within one council meeting," Reardon said. "We would hear both sides, we would have an opportunity to ask questions, and then we would make that decision based on our comments, so that's fair ball," she said. "If you're hearing only half of the story — you really need to have the other to get the balance and to make a proper decision. And we need some time to do that." She said she's not surprised Lorneville residents have come out in force to comment on the industrial park plan. "I'm not surprised at all to have them here. And I think their voices need to be heard." The chamber and lobby were filled as they were the previous two nights with 80 to 90 people, most of them opponents concerned about how the expansion will affect the environment and the quality of life in the rural community. The decision to continue the hearing later in June, when supporters are to speak, was met with anger from people who'd expected a decision by the end of the night. Adam Wilkins, co-chair of the Lorneville Community Liaison Committee, which aimed to find a path forward between staff and Lorneville residents, said he suspects the delay was premeditated. "There didn't seem to be many people here supporting the project, and I'm not sure if they were already tipped off that this was gonna happen, but it really seemed like a premeditated plan by council to push it," he said. Wilkins also said the 75 people who have spoken were a "great representation" of the community's concerns. Dozens of questions read to council Resident Barbara Gilliland came with a list of 70 questions, which she read one by one to council. The questions, broadly, were about the need for the proposal, the impacts, and how the impacts will be mitigated. Wilkins, the last Lorneville resident to speak, took aim at city staff in his address over the proposal that came from the task force meetings. "If a proposed project is so amazing, so generationally transformative and so without risks, then shouldn't the project sell itself?" Wilkins said. "Shouldn't [city staff] not feel the need to author a 100 page report that goes out of its way to purposefully deceive, disparage and discredit Lorneville and the members of the task force?" he asked, referring to comments in the city's updated plan. Reardon interjected and said she would not have speakers "bad mouthing staff". Councillor accused of bias Wilkins and others also aimed criticism at Coun. Brent Harris over a blog post published on the councillor's website on May 15 that community members perceived as support for the project. Wilkins accused Harris of "leaking" information about what will come in the park should the rezoning application move forward. In his post, Harris talked about the expansion's "transformational" opportunities and balancing them with Lorneville concerns. Harris wrote of the positives of the expansion but said he would continue to listen. In an earlier version — captured and saved by Wilkins — Harris said the city had received two letters of intent, one for a data centre and the other for a hydrogen ammonia processing facility. Lack of information about potential developments is a key reason community members are wary of the expansion. Harris later changed the wording of his original post to "advanced manufacturing processing facility," and said his original post was a mistake. But Wilkins was suspicious. "Why is he privy to that, or why is he allowed to leak that information that puts that out into the public, when the community spent 11 months trying to understand what actually would be coming and how we can ask questions and figure that out," Wilkins asked. Reardon said supporters will not have more than three nights to express their positions and wants time for staff to address community concerns. "There were 70 questions tonight," she said. "We've kept a track of questions and concerns over the last two meetings. Those are the things that councillors were looking to have answered by staff."
CBC
22-05-2025
- General
- CBC
Saint John greenlights two areas for transitional housing for 54 people
Social Sharing Saint John council has approved a plan for "green zones" to tackle the city's growing homeless population and reduce the number of encampments around the city. The pilot project aims to bring 54 individual transitional housing units to two sites — one off Thorne Avenue and the other nearby on Egbert Street, a small side street off Thorne Avenue. Both are near the Atlantic Superstore and the Church of England Cemetery. On Tuesday night, council voted in favour of the city recommendation to designate the two areas "pilot sites." City staff, Mayor Donna Reardon and various organizations also presented the plan at a media event Wednesday morning. Reardon said it's a significant step. "This strategy reflects our commitment to a people-centred, human-rights-based approach, ensuring that every resident has access to safe, supported and sustainable housing," she said. "The sites are city-owned properties providing legally sanctioned, safe transitional housing for individuals experiencing homelessness." Saint John first announced green, yellow and red zones as a part of its Housing for All strategy in July 2024, in a city-led response to the growing homeless population. Cara Coes, the city's senior manager of community support services, said at Tuesday's council meeting that the 12 Neighbours charity group will be operating the green zones and running their "Neighbourly" project on the sites in order to "rapidly deploy" transitional housing. The two green zones will each have two courtyards, Coes said, that will have individual units for at least 13 people each. Every unit will have a bed, locking doors, heat, lights and internet. Both green zones will be staffed 24/7 and will have shared washroom, laundry, kitchen and multi-purpose facilities. 12 Neighbours also runs a tiny home community in Fredericton. "Each of the units are also equipped with an Android tablet," said Marcel LeBrun, the organization's founder. "That gives people access to services, but also entertainment and things like that ... having communications and those things is very important." LeBrun said people living in the units will be able to live there for free to start. WATCH | 'We all need a warm, dry place we can put our head down' Saint John launches long-awaited green zones to tackle homelessness 8 minutes ago Duration 1:58 "There's no charge to begin with," he said. "We are in discussions between the province and the city about transitioning to moving to paying something because that's part of housing stability. So part of housing stability is you have to learn to pay rent." Future residents will be chosen from the city's co-ordinated access system — a system run by a group of agencies that identifies where to place individuals according to need. The separate courtyards, Coes said, will also allow separation for different needs — such as a wet versus dry courtyard. The plan is to open the Egbert Street site in August and the Thorne Avenue site in December. In March, the Human Development Council said there were 276 people experiencing chronic homelessness in the city. Last June that number was 159. Reardon said the green zones are a result of funding from federal and provincial governments of $3.5 million announced earlier in the year. Plans for other zones not finalized In the Housing For All plan's early stages, green zones were planned to be areas in the city that would allow encampments and would have services such as frontline staff, electricity, heat and garbage pickup. The plan also includes yellow and red zones that haven't been finalized. Yellow zones, according to the plan, are areas that would allow encampments at certain times and red zones are "high risk areas" such as public parks, where encampments wouldn't be permitted. The new green zones will be near the overnight shelter on Rothesay Avenue. The roughly 60-bed shelter — which Coes said will now be a permanent overnight shelter — operated as an out-of-the-cold response during the winter. The sites will also be close to an existing encampment near the rail line that crosses Thorne Avenue near the Superstore. Coun. Gerry Lowe — who represents the ward the zones will be in — was the only councillor to vote against the staff recommendation on Tuesday night. "I like the idea of the green zones," Lowe said. "But the location bothers me as a councillor that has to deal with that area. The amount of break-ins there for the last year have been bad, and the garbage that's left behind," he said. Lowe said he wishes red zones were announced first to have an idea of what areas will have tents removed.
CBC
07-05-2025
- Business
- CBC
Property assessment freeze in 2026 may force 'difficult decisions,' minister admits
Social Sharing The New Brunswick government says it hopes municipalities will be able to absorb a broad property assessment freeze in 2026 without raising tax rates on property owners. But if municipal budget figures from this year are a guide, that may be a tall order. At a news conference Wednesday, Aaron Kennedy, the minister responsible for Service New Brunswick, said he hopes municipalities will be able to scrape by in 2026 on revenue assessment increases they can generate outside the freeze and by making "difficult decisions" about how they spend money in their communities. "I appreciate their frustration with the announcement, but I think when you take into consideration that sales and new construction and major renovations is excluded from the freeze there are many municipalities that won't have a freeze in their revenues," Kennedy said. WATCH | 'You, as government, need to do something,' province told by homeowners: Will N.B.'s property assessment freeze actually help lower tax bills? 3 hours ago Duration 1:25 New Brunswick Local Government Minister Aaron Kennedy says homeowners angry with their rising property tax bills persuaded the province to freeze property assessments in 2026. But a similar freeze in 2018 was partially nullified when 41 municipalities raised their property tax rates in response. In Saint John, Mayor Donna Reardon said the city has a number of financial obligations that are already fixed for next year, including negotiated wage increases for unionized employees, that cannot easily be managed in the absence of revenue growth. "We have four unions we have contracts with and their wages won't be frozen," Reardon said. "It's difficult." Had a similar freeze been imposed in the current year, Saint John budget documents suggest the city would have had significant problems making ends meet. Saint John did experience about $2 million in increased tax revenue this year from new construction, but that is well short of what would have been needed to finance a $6.8-million increase — or 3.5 per cent — in municipal expenditures and a $2.6-million reduction in the city's tax rate in the 2025 budget. Some combination of higher tax rates and service cuts adding up to $7 million or more would have been needed to make that budget balance under a freeze this year. Kennedy said a $63-million increase in funding to local government's from the province announced in this year's budget should also help soften the blow of the assessment freeze, although he said decisions on how much of those increases each municipality will receive will be made at a later date. In 2018, during New Brunswick's last assessment freeze, 41 New Brunswick communities did eventually raise tax rates to finance their budgets that year.
CBC
06-05-2025
- Business
- CBC
Saint John council backs restricting future scrapyards to heavy industry zones
Social Sharing Saint John council is moving ahead with restrictions on the location of future scrapyards so that metal recycling operations won't be felt in residential areas. Scrapyards and salvage yards would be kept to heavy industrial zones under an amendment councillors supported on Monday night. The yards would no longer be allowed in areas zoned for medium industry, which have looser restrictions on how close industry can be to residential areas and how much a related nuisance can extend past the business's property. Mayor Donna Reardon praised the city's efforts to consider how zones may affect residents. "Because we are trying to create a balance," she said. "We don't want to have areas where there's a spread of heavy industry, medium industry, light industry … we'd like to have things more segregated so that we have just better control over them." Reardon said there is greater opportunity for growth when industrial zones are spaced out and kept away from residential areas. "They just don't work close to residential," she said. Scrap and salvage businesses can involve significant outdoor storage, heavy truck traffic, dismantling operations and potential environmental hazards. Under the current zoning bylaw, scrapyards can exist in areas zoned medium industrial, which allows developments with a lot of noise, odours and other nuisances as long as these are kept within the boundaries of the business. But a property can be too small to contain nuisances from a scrapyard, which generally involve significant heavy truck traffic, large dismantling operations and potential environmental hazards. The proposed change comes two years after a toxic fire at the American Iron & Metal scrapyard on the west side. The hazardous smoke from the fire prompted a widespread shelter-in-place order in the city. A task force later concluded the metal recycling operation was too close to homes. Since the AIM scrapyard was on port land, its licensing was under federal jurisdiction, but Reardon said the zoning amendment before council will make a difference to areas under the municipality's jurisdiction. "Because we'll have the scrapyards and recycling of the scrap metal in heavy industry — those zones would be limited," Reardon said. "It just gives us a little bit more opportunity to provide restrictions where we want to put them." When the recommended change was introduced earlier to the planning advisory committee, city staff said it was not connected to the 2023 fire. A staff report said the change would bring Saint John in line with other major cities in the province, most of which confine salvage and scrapyards to heavy industry zones. Council gave the zoning bylaw amendment first and second reading. It would still need a third formal reading for final approvals. Paula Radwan was the only councillor to vote against the change, saying she was generally in favour of the recommendation but thought fencing requirements weren't high enough. Scrap and salvage yards in Saint John have to be enclosed by fencing or a wall two metres high, but Radwan asked if the height could be raised. City planner Thomas Lewallen, who presented the recommendation to council and, earlier, to the planning advisory committee, said that it would be possible to make amendments in future zoning changes to heavy industrial areas. Five addresses in Saint John have salvage dealer licences, a staff report says. Two of those properties don't have scrapyards but are instead businesses intended for office work, staff have said.
