Public meeting on fracking set for Sussex

The province of New Brunswick has added a new element to its review of its moratorium on fracking, public meetings. So far, just one has been announced to take place this Tuesday evening at the Sussex Lions Club. So this is an engagement with the people of Sussex, a consultation with the folks who are the closest to where natural gas development has been happening in New Brunswick for a lot of years. Holt is referring to headwater exploration, formerly corridor resources, just outside of Sussex. The company produces gas from 32 wells during the winter months when prices for natural gas are higher. Some New Brunswickers are hoping to see the development stop there. Mark Darcy has been running a letter campaign calling for public meetings on the moratorium review since it was announced at the end of August. For an issue this size, you need meaningful public consultation. It's only fair, since we had these public meetings back in 2012, it's only fair that they do this again Prior to a decision, and we can hear all sides. Darcy says that in addition to the Sussex meeting, he'd like to see more scheduled in the province and with more advance notice. The province announced the Sussex meeting with just seven days notice on social media. The meeting information is stored on a new privately registered website called naturalgasdialogue.ca. But so far, there's nothing about the meetings included on the province's own website for its fracking moratorium review. A lot of people don't even know that the government is thinking about this decision. I get people coming by my information table every week, and they haven't heard about it. And they certainly don't know a decision being made in January. This is just about fairness, democracy, and it's about the need. The premier says more meetings are coming, but not until the government's working groups have gathered more information. Once we can share that information with New Brunswickers, then we can engage with them to say, what do you think about this information? We're all learning what the economic case, what the environmental case looks like today. Then we can take their reaction to it and incorporate that with the questions that they told us they had through the surveying that we've done. The meeting notice says space is limited at the Sussex Lions Club, and those interested should register in advance.