Category: New Brunswick

The Sackville Public Library is too small, and local leaders are looking to fix that with a bigger, better space to serve a growing local population.

The current library is “a far cry” from the 8,200 square feet recommended by the provincial library service, said board chair Merrill Fullerton.

With the basement of the library only accessible by stairs, that leaves the main floor of the small building to host the library’s books, public computer workstations, circulation desk and programming areas.

“We’re only talking about usable space of about 2,600 [square feet],” Fullerton said, “so we’re a fraction of where we should be.”

The target of 8,200 square feet comes from a needs assessment by the provincial library service based on Sackville’s 2021 census population of 6,099, according to Fullerton.

The province said it cannot share the needs assessment with CBC News because it is a draft document.

Fullerton recently presented the board’s case to Tantramar council, requesting the municipality’s help in addressing the need for more accessible space.

While New Brunswick’s public libraries are run by the province, local municipalities are responsible for the facilities, and local library boards serve to advocate for the community’s needs.

“This is [the municipality’s] building,” Fullerton said. “And they have been very gracious and generous over the years in terms of keeping it maintained.”

But now it’s time to start figuring out what a larger facility might look like, he said.

Larger, multipurpose space preferred

The Sackville library board is open to any proposal that would meet its space and accessibility requirements, said Fullerton, including private partnerships or leasing opportunities.

Currently, the municipality leases space for the Dorchester Public Library from the non-profit Westmorland Historical Society.

The board’s preference, Fullerton said, is “to see us be an anchor tenant as part of a larger facility that can serve other needs in the community, whether that’s the farmers’ market or theatre or arts or performing arts.”

“I think there’s some real, interesting potential to see a multi-use facility emerge,” Fullerton said.

Multipurpose building a recurring conversation in Sackville

A new multipurpose municipal building has been a topic of conversation in Sackville for decades, said Tantramar Coun. Michael Tower, who sits as a liaison on the Sackville Library board.

The idea has come up every few years around the council table, but because of the high probable cost and the difficult question of locating such a building, it “never really got off the ground,” Tower said.

In recent years the Sackville Farmers’ Market has been pitching the idea of a new multipurpose municipal building as it searches for a permanent year-round location to host Saturday markets.

Market chair Greg Burton said the market participated in a rough construction estimate for a building in 2021, and council voted to form a committee to work on the problem in 2023.

Ultimately, the proposition “doesn’t make sense for the town to invest in something solely for the Farmers’ Market.”

“The market can’t do it on its own,” said Burton, who welcomed the library board’s push for it as well.

Board open to fundraising

The current library building opened in 1984 after a grassroots funding campaign, and Fullerton said today’s board is also open to helping fund the new building.

“We have the ability to fundraise right now,” he said, “once we know what this is going to look like.”

“We really need to hear officially from [the municipality] on where they see this going and how that can tie in to some other community needs.”

“This is going to be many years in the making, we recognize that … but we want to see that officially get underway.”

Decisions on any future library or multipurpose building projects “will be on the new council,” Tower said.

With municipal elections just two months away on May 11, the veteran councillor said it’s not appropriate for the sitting council to take on a major new project.

But the library’s current size limitations may be a hard issue to avoid, Tower said.

“With Sackville’s population still growing, I think the new council would have to give great consideration towards doing something.”

Source: CBC New Brunswick

The board of trustees for Saint John’s public libraries is calling for more security after its branches have seen an increase in safety-related incidents which have, in some cases, left staff afraid to be at work.

“That’s the hard part because we are a community area where people come to either read or take part in some of our programs,” said Johanne McInnis, who chairs of the board.

“We should be a safe environment for our patrons as well as our staff.”

McInnis sent a letter to Saint John council asking for more security funding for the three public library branches — one each on the east and west sides of the city and a central branch uptown in Market Square.

The letter was a part of the city council’s Feb. 9 agenda and is currently being reviewed by city staff. The city said in a statement that staff did not have additional comment to share at this time.

The frequency of incidents, McInnis said, grew in 2025 and has so far continued in the early months of 2026.

“The fact that these are escalating at such a high rate just in the last year is what caused the board of trustees to go back to the City of Saint John and look for a larger budget for security services,” she said.

McInnis said library management has tried different mitigation strategies, including procedures for reporting violent incidents and monthly safety talks.

“But regardless of everything that we’ve tried to put in place, it is a rattling effect when someone comes in and very disruptive and sometimes a little scary,” she said.

“We feel at this point that we don’t want to risk anyone getting harmed, be they patron or otherwise.”

Province says safety incidents increasing in major cities

Saint John police spokesperson Staff Sgt. Shawna Fowler said in a statement that police responded to public safety-related calls a total of 48 times across all three branches in 2025 — the previous two years it was between 37 and 39.

Police responded 39 times to the central branch in 2025. So far in 2026, police responded to the three branches a total of nine times. Those are the calls that needed “outside intervention.”

In total, McInnis said that 179 incidents were documented in the past year. She said she couldn’t give specifics but said 45 incidents in 2025 and 15 this year so far involved “intolerable” or “unacceptable” behaviours.

Those include drug use or paraphernalia in the library, disruptive behaviour, refusing to leave the library when asked, verbal or physical harassment and others, including criminal acts according to the library’s conduct policy.

The central branch does have Commissionaires security. But the guards can only work in an observational capacity and can’t intervene if need arises, McInnis said.

She said the municipal board of trustees will be meeting with city staff in the coming week to discuss the request and next steps.

Libraries in the province fall under a provincial department — the New Brunswick Public Library Service — but, according to the department’s website, “participating municipalities are responsible for providing and maintaining library facilities.”

“[Funding] usually falls to the municipalities because we usually have a memorandum of understanding when a library is set up in a city, village or a town for that matter,” McInnis said.

“And that’s basically who provides the funding for our operational day-to-day budget.”

CBC News contacted the library directors of both Fredericton and Moncton’s libraries, but requests were referred to the Public Library Service.

Communications officer Rebecca Howland said in a statement that libraries have seen an increase in the frequency and severity of incidents in the larger cities.

Howland would not provide an interview but said Moncton’s libraries saw 21 “intolerable” incidents — mostly verbal abuse — since library reporting policies changed in 2025. Fredericton saw 27 and Saint John’s main branch 26.

Roughly a quarter of both Saint John’s main branch and Moncton’s libraries involved “physical violence.” Ninety per cent in Moncton and 42 per cent in Saint John involved verbal abuse.

A nationwide problem

Libraries across the country have been facing similar public safety challenges for years.

Mary Chevreau, executive director of the Canadian Urban Public Libraries Council, said that libraries nationwide have been seeing issues steadily increase since 2017.

Previous reporting showed sharp increases in security incidents in 2022 and 2023 in cities like Toronto and Winnipeg.

Saint John’s uptown-based library is also surrounded by businesses that have in recent years seen increases in criminal behaviour, which have been attributed to the growth in the city’s homeless population.

Chevreau said increased homelessness along with increases in fentanyl use have been factors around the country and that libraries, being open spaces, feel the impacts.

“Libraries play into this because we are still one of the most welcoming, most open spaces available to anyone within our community,” she said.

“We don’t ask questions. They don’t have to spend money — they can come in and get warm.”

McInnis said that for Saint John — specifically the main branch with the highest number of incidents — its centralized uptown location makes it a target.

Both Chevreau and McInnis say this has resulted in library staff having to respond to these issues. Chevreau said in many libraries this has meant library staff having to administer naloxone in overdose situations.

For Saint John, McInnis says, this has meant staff have been trained to de-escalate conflicts that can become violent.

“But there’s only so much staff can do before it could become dangerous,” she said.

Chevreau said that while these incidents are the current reality of libraries, they aren’t the majority of incidents. She doesn’t want people looking at libraries as unsafe spaces and encourages people to visit their libraries.

“You will find a very beautiful space where you can relax, you can read, you can learn, you can develop a community,” she said.

Source: CBC New Brunswick

New Brunswickers can now access free radon test kits at libraries across the province.

The provincial government is partnering with the New Brunswick Research and Productivity Council and NB Lung to provide the free kits, which include a 90-day test and information about radon gas.

The province says radon tests should be conducted during the colder months, when people typically keep their windows and doors closed.

The New Brunswick Research and Productivity Council will analyze the tests and provide the results.

“Our team of radon-certified scientists have been working hard over many years to ensure that families across New Brunswick have access to reliable, accurate radon testing,” said Diane Botelho, the council’s CEO and executive director, in a news release. “We don’t just test; we educate, guide and feel the duty to help protect our communities.”

According to the province, one-in-four New Brunswick homes have high radon levels, with radon exposure being the second-leading cause of lung cancer in Canada.

“With this program, New Brunswick is poised to be a leader in preventing preventable lung cancer as the first province to implement free access to testing,” said NB Lung president and CEO Melanie Langille. “High radon in a home is fixable, but you must test to know if your radon is high.”

According to Health Canada, radon is a radioactive gas that occurs naturally when the uranium in soil and rock breaks down. It is invisible, odourless and tasteless. High radon levels in homes can have a negative impact on a person’s health.

Source: CTV New Brunswick

Nearly 100 library workers across three school districts in New Brunswick are once again fighting for their jobs.

Layoff notices went out Friday, just before the Thanksgiving weekend.

It’s the latest move in a months-long battle between the provincial government and the Canadian Union of Public Employees.

“I guess they want to go and fight this out for a third time,” said Theresa McAllister, president of Local 2745 of the Canadian Union of Public Employees.

That fight began after the original layoffs in April, when the districts said they had to make up for a $43 million budget shortfall from the province.

In July, the New Brunswick Labour and Employment Board sided with the workers and found the government violated its duty under labour laws to bargain in good faith, negotiating contracts knowing layoffs were looming.

The province was ordered to reverse library staff layoffs and a decision to reduce the working hours of school administrative assistants.

But after weeks of the government failing to comply, the Court of King’s Bench stepped in and ordered the workers be reinstated.

Instead, the province applied for a stay of the labour board decision but failed just days before the new school year. Emails began popping up in library worker inboxes that afternoon, advising them to return to their old jobs.

McAllister said she believed that after all of that, the workers would be safe for the remainder of the school year. The union planned to hold a vote on Oct. 16 on the new tentative agreement.

But just before the long weekend, the province sent out notices of layoffs that will be issued once the collective agreement is ratified.

“We thought we had the guarantee of hours and weeks, but they are not agreeing with that,” she said. “So all the people that were originally laid off at the first round are now being placed back into layoff.”

McAllister said she is now in meetings to discuss next steps.

A statement from Anglophone West School District spokesperson Paul MacIntosh said that 26 library workers and 83 administrative assistants are affected by the recent staffing decisions.

“Individuals who are laid off from these positions will all have the opportunity to exercise staffing rights within their collective agreement to secure other positions within the bargaining unit,” the statement said.

“It is the intention of ASD-W to not continue with library hours when they are in a legal position to do so. All the impacted administrative assistant positions will be reposted as vacancies with the new associated hours.”

CBC News asked for an interview with Education Minister Claire Johnson, but the request was turned down, as were all other CBC requests for Johnson since June.

In August, Finance Minister René Legacy said in a statement that “should a stay not be granted, government intends to proceed with the layoffs of the library workers again once we are legally in a position to do so.”

The statement went on to say that in an effort to improve reading and math scores, the province wants to see more resources in the classroom, and those plans “do not include library workers as they do not provide direct support to students.”

McAllister disagreed with those comments, and so did a report from Child and Youth Advocate Kelly Lamrock last month, slamming the province’s budget ‘fiasco’ that led to the layoffs.

Lamrock said the government talking points “had a dubious relationship with the truth,” and the department had no plan to steer more resources into classroom teaching, while the cuts deprived teachers of resource staff they’d relied on.

The government message “seemed more designed to gaslight than to illuminate,” the report said.

According to documents obtained by CBC News after a right to information request, the layoffs were the result of a calculation that was rushed through without considering the impact of the losses on the schools, staff or students.

CBC News requested records, including communications, correspondence, email attachments, reports, memos, and minutes related to the elimination of library positions. It specifically requested the research, planning and rationale behind the decision.

In the 150-page package, there were letters from staff, parents and community members urging the government to reconsider.

There were also media requests, internal discussions about how to handle them, and pages counting up positions, hours and salary totals, but no similar accounting of the impact on students and their learning.

McAllister said members are dealing with a lot of mixed emotions, and called this latest layoff a “kick in the teeth.”

“They say they’re always looking for consistency and less movement and the impacts on the kids,” she said. “Hogwash. If they cared, they wouldn’t be doing this.”

Source: CBC New Brunswick