Most Asked Questions

No cheque is worth giving a kid cancer

Dr. Chris Arsenault’s speech at the Voice of the People Rally at the New Brunswick Legislature on Oct 20th, as published Nov. 3rd by Brunswick News as an Opinion piece:

I’m a family doctor in Fredericton, and I am mad. I’m mad that I’m writing this instead of looking after my patients, because of the threat this government’s plans pose to our health.

We health care providers in New Brunswick are barely keeping our heads above water. Several economic proposals for our province – the Sisson mine, Tantramar gas plant, Lorneville data centre and fracking – will add more sickness to an already overburdened medical system.

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NB Power Accused of Non-Transparent, Last-Minute Maneuvering in RIGS Gas Plant Review

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

Tantramar, New Brunswick — Feb 3, 2026
(written by Lisa Griffin)

NB Power is facing mounting criticism over what interveners describe as a non-transparent, last-minute attempt to keep its proposed RIGS gas plant approval afloat — at the expense of fairness, due process, and public accountability.

Just one week before the oral hearing is scheduled to begin on February 9, NB Power filed a package of late evidence at the New Brunswick Energy and Utilities Board (EUB), introducing a previously undisclosed commercial arrangement — a potential Expansion Tolling Agreement tied to the RIGS project.

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There are energy alternatives – the Tantramar RIGS project is not the answer

Commentary: Telegraph Journal – Dec. 18, 2025
By Lisa Griffin

A Sunday, December 14 Brunswick News article quoted Premier Susan Holt claiming there are “no alternatives” capable of meeting New Brunswick’s electricity needs by 2028. That statement is misleading and risks locking the province into an outdated, harmful decision that can still be avoided.

New Brunswickers want reliable power – but they also want clean air, protected wetlands, safe drinking water, and a future that does not mortgage public health for short-term convenience. These goals are not mutually exclusive. Suggesting that fossil-fuel peaker plants are the only solution is both inaccurate and irresponsible.

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Older Canadians rallying for climate action

By Muriel Jarvis,  Seniors for Climate  (Telegraph Journal Apr 15, 2025)

Ten million Canadians, according to Statistics Canada, were over 60 years of age in 2023. That’s 26 per cent of Canada’s population. You might think of this age cohort as retired, traveling, or otherwise not doing much. Think again. Almost 20 per cent of Baby Boomers (born between 1946 and 1965) are still working, 40 per cent volunteer, and, critically, almost 80 per cent vote, according to Elections Canada, compared to almost 54 per cent of 18-to-34-year olds.

Seniors for Climate is a national movement of older Canadians rallying around the idea that we have the social power, time, resources and skills to make a difference on climate change and to do it for the sake of our children and grandchildren. We are gathering in communities across Canada this Earth Day, April 22. In New Brunswick, Seniors for Climate organizers from Saint Andrews, Moncton, Sackville, Saint John and Fredericton are inviting climate concerned citizens from across the province to join us Tuesday, April 22, rain or shine, in Fredericton where we will gather at city hall and the New Brunswick Legislature.

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From fossil to future: A collective call for renewable energy in Atlantic Canada

On Wednesday, NBASGA was one of the co-signers of a letter signed by 28 groups in the Atlantic provinces, demanding that government leaders focus on growing renewable energy infrastructure instead of further fossil fuel development – including LNG and shale gas. The letter was sent to all the Premiers and Members of Parliament of the Atlantic Provinces, plus Trudeau, Guilbeault and Wilkinson.

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Solidarity Statement Calling for Government to Respect the Right to Free, Prior, Informed Consent for Fracking in New Brunswick

Premier Higgs is pressuring Wolastoqey and Mi’kmaw leaders in NB to allow fracking by threatening to withhold funding, and promising future, speculative funding derived from fracking in the province, and NBASGA is seeking signatories to a Solidarity Statement calling for the government of New Brunswick to cease attempts to coerce consent to fracking in traditional and unceded territories of the Wolastoqiyik and Mi’kmaq people in the province.

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Mi’kmaq Matters Podcast: Blaine Higgs Uses the F-Word

Episode 223 of the Mi’kmaq Matters Podcast:  Glenn Wheeler interviews Jim Emberger of the New Brunswick Anti-Shale Gas Alliance about Premier Higgs’ goal to start an LNG industry and revive fracking in New Brunswick.

“If Blaine Higgs tries to start fracking in New Brunswick once again, he’s very likely to see the same resistance from First Nations and other land defenders that rocked the province nearly a decade ago.”

Listen to the Podcast here.

 

 

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Climate goals can’t be met if N.B. expands gas production

by Jim Emberger | Commentary Telegraph Journal, 28 June 2022

A recent Brunswick News editorial admitted Canadian fossil fuel companies might not profit on the misfortunes of the war in Ukraine (“Think long-term on resource projects,” June 17). That should have been a foregone conclusion.

Europe’s search for natural gas to replace Russian supplies logically pointed it toward nations that could fill its needs immediately. Many European nations also stressed that their climate crisis plans to reduce gas usage as quickly as possible were still in effect.

Canada would take years to become a European supplier, by which time there may no longer be a demand. Large fossil fuel projects are also generally planned for 30-year lifespans to recoup the massive financial investment involved. So, investors in Canada would risk their investments becoming stranded (essentially, lost) if the Europeans stick to their climate pledges.

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Guilbeault is Simply Doing His Job

by Jim Emberger – Letter to the Editor, Telegraph Journal & Daily Gleaner

A recent editorial in Brunswick News accused the Minister of the Environment, Steven Guilbeault, of misfeasance, because he isn’t promoting Canadian fossil fuel exports to Europe.  Besides displaying a lack of understanding of the climate crisis, the editorial argument is without merit.

To begin: Guilbeault is the Minister of the Environment. Protecting the environment is his primary mandate.  He doesn’t work for the industry promoters that run the Natural Resources ministry.

Next: the overarching threat to the environment everywhere is the climate crisis, referred to in Guilbeault’s Mandate Letter as an, ‘existential crisis’, the solution to which is to stop using fossil fuels.

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NBASGA Comments on Civilian Review Report on 2013 Kent County RCMP raid

PRESS STATEMENT

Fredericton (Nov. 15, 2020) – After seven years, the Civilian Review and Complaints Commission for the RCMP has issued its Final Report on the RCMP raid on indigenous people and shale gas protestors in Rexton, Kent County, in 2013.

It’s appropriate to immediately state that ‘justice delayed is justice denied’. Except for those who were there, few may remember much about the event beyond pictures of burning cars.  Many who testified as eyewitnesses may read this report and marvel that some of its conclusions directly contradict their testimony, more often than not simply because there was no video evidence.

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