Border to New Brunswick (Photo: Sam Saulnier/Facebook)
The mayors of Sackville and Amherst say their towns are not benefiting from the Atlantic bubble due to excessive delays travellers are facing entering New Brunswick.
“The spirit of the Atlantic bubble is to make the movement of individuals living within the four provinces – New Brunswick, Nova Scotia, Newfoundland and Labrador and Prince Edward Island – simple and easy so people living within the bubble can do business and socialize,” Amherst Mayor David Kogon said in a statement released Thursday.
“That simply isn’t happening. People are experiencing one to two hour waits when they are trying to enter or re-enter New Brunswick from Nova Scotia and that is negatively impacting our businesses. The bubble is supposed to help stimulate the economy and it is not doing that. It is having the opposite effect.”
“It is the inconsistency in crossing that is of most concern,” Sackville Mayor John Higham said. “Essential workers came through fine before the bubble, but now they do not know what awaits them on any day.”
Kogon noted how an Amherst businessman recently told him one of his employees who lives in New Brunswick has quit and a second employee has threatened to do so given the lengthy border delays.
Kogon and Higham said they don’t understand why residents living in the Atlantic Bubble have to fill out paperwork each time they need to cross the provincial border.
The mayors have asked for a meeting with Premier Blaine Higgs to discuss the difficulties and find possible solutions.
