Mount Allison University students Katia Mckercher, Naia Noyes-West and Mara Ostafichuk, and Council of Canadians campaigner Mark D’Arcy, November 19, 2016.
Sackville Town Council has voted to oppose the Energy East pipeline!
Sackville, No Energy East has just posted, “Tonight the Town of Sackville Town Council voted on the motion to oppose the Energy East pipeline and it received the majority vote. The motion to symbolically oppose the Energy East pipeline has been passed!”
The motion states, “Be it resolved that the Town of Sackville request that the Government of Canada protect the health and safety of our communities by denying approval for the Energy East pipeline.”
In November 2016, the New Wark Times reported, “Students at Mount Allison University are hoping to persuade Sackville Town Council and the governors of the university to oppose construction of the Energy East pipeline. The students launched their campaign under the supervision of Professor Brad Walters who teaches a course on environmental activism. The students plan to set up information tables on campus in the coming weeks and talk to people about why they should oppose Energy East. They’re also distributing anti-pipeline materials from the Council of Canadians.”
Fredericton-based Council of Canadians campaigner Mark D’Arcy gave a presentation to Professor Walters’ class a week before the students selected their group projects.
Then late last year, D’Arcy wrote, “A very straight-forward request to Sackville councillors was made tonight [December 5, 2016] by Mount Allison University students. Sackville is one of the most vulnerable communities in New Brunswick to climate change and the extraction and burning of tar sands bitumen only increases the problem of climate change.”
The vote on the resolution was delayed until February so that town council could gather more information and hear from the other side on the issue.
Earlier this month, D’Arcy highlighted in this campaign blog eight “alternative facts” TransCanada made to Sackville Town Council in opposition to the resolution. Among those alternative facts, TransCanada’s Patrick Lacroix told councillors, “The Town of Edmundston supports Energy East. They continue to have concern with the route. We are committed to continuing to work with them on that. But they are supportive of the project.” D’Arcy corrects the record by stating, “The City of Edmundston, NB has not taken a yes or no position on Energy East, and is actively going through the submission process with the National Energy Board as an intervenor.”
And more recently, we encouraged Sackville residents to contact their local councillor and the mayor to voice their support for the resolution.
Congratulations to the Mount Allison University students, Mark and all involved in moving this resolution forward!
#NoEnergyEast
