Community members speak out about their environmental and political concerns
A proposed natural gas plant in Tantramar has received backlash from residents over its potential impacts on the environment and community. In July 2025, NB Power contracted US-based company ProEnergy to construct a natural gas plant on a 20-hectare site between Centre Village and Midgic within greater Tantramar. The plant would begin operating in 2028, and be able to generate up to 500 megawatts of electricity. Since the July 2025 announcement noting the site had changed from Scoudouc, to Tantramar, community members have organized meetings and attended informational sessions to raise their concerns, which range from political to ecological.
“It was just dropped on us,” says Alice Cotton, co-owner of the Café Tintamarre in the Sackville Visitors Information Centre, “No one had a chance to absorb it, or understand it.” Mikko McGregor-Corson, an Honours biology student and organizer with Divest Mt. A, first learned of the project from a Facebook group called “Stop the Tantramar Gas Plant.” McGregor-Corson believes the plant could have harmful effects on migratory species in the Chignecto Isthmus, an ecological corridor that contains Tantramar and the surrounding area. “Very blatantly,” says McGregor-Corson, “it will affect the environment poorly.”
While ProEnergy’s representatives initially promoted the involvement of Indigenous stakeholders, citing the North Shore Mi’kmaq Tribal Council as a “minority equity holder” in July, an investigation by local journalist Bruce Wark in his blog, The Warktimes, alleged this was not the case. According to the CBC, any Mi’kmaw investment is pending an impact review; no commitments have been made. Some community members have also questioned NB Power’s decision to extend reliance on fossil fuels, rather than develop renewable sources of energy, with McGregor-Corson stating, “putting a gas plant goes against the values of the community, and it’s going to put us behind on provincial, national, and international climate targets.”
NB Power has argued that the plant would lower provincial emissions by 250 000 tonnes per year by acting as a backup generator for wind and solar energy. Furthermore, NB Power spokesperson Elizabeth Fraser described over email to the CBC that the chosen site “offers the best opportunity for timely project delivery and cost savings over other potential locations.”
The involvement of ProEnergy has also added to the controversy surrounding the proposed plant. “It’s a big mistake at this point to actually have a U.S. company build and operate this,” says Geoff Martin, an assistant professor in Mt. A’s political science department. According to Martin, since the Trump administration currently holds a “predatory attitude towards their supposed allies,” they could demand that the U.S. corporation shut off power to Canada. “There isn’t necessarily a whole lot our governments can do about it,” Martin says, “at least in the short term.”
Martin suspects the choice of site “may be an indication that the Liberal Party of New Brunswick doesn’t think they can be competitive and win Tantramar any time soon, and that they’re more or less conceding this seat to Megan Mitton and the Green Party.” In his view, Tantramar could be a “sacrifice zone,” meaning an area that pays “the environmental price for the availability of electricity that will benefit everyone else.”
Tantramar area residents voiced their concerns to NB Power and ProEnergy representatives at two open-house sessions in mid-August, where they were told that recording was not permitted. In an interview with former CHMA reporter Erica Butler following the meetings, Tantramar MLA Megan Mitton called for a more thorough environmental impact assessment.
McGregor-Corson expressed a similar view, pointing out that current assessments do not consider ecosystem-level or human health risks. “I’m studying a kind of pollution in the migratory shorebirds right now, which are called PFAs, which are also known as forever chemicals, and those are emitted by gas plants like these,” says McGregor-Corson, “So they would certainly increase the rates that we see in the birds, and in other animals, and in humans.”
Around 50 people gathered to protest the plant at Bill Johnstone Park on Saturday, September 13, and many have signed letters and petitions to the provincial and federal government. Another protest is planned for October 21 at the NB legislature in Fredericton. “I think the government thought they could just walk in here and do this, and I think there’s actually very good resistance against it and well-researched resistance,” says Cotton.