Saint John is ready to be the economic centre of New Brunswick. The companies knocking on our door - DP World, Americold, NextGen, J.D. Irving's $1.1 billion expansion - represent exactly the kind of opportunities New Brunswick desperately needs to diversify our economy and secure our future.

We want these projects to succeed. We want to be the industrial hub that drives provincial growth.

But here's what must change: We will no longer be New Brunswick's sacrifice zone while we power everyone else's prosperity.

The Saint John advantage

The wealthiest, most prosperous places in the world are trade conduits - and that's exactly what Saint John is. Our deep-water port, strategic location, and established infrastructure make us a natural gateway for Atlantic Canada's economic future. Look at Singapore, Rotterdam, Hamburg - these cities became wealthy by being smart about how they leverage their trade advantages.

But here's the difference between prosperity and being devoured: The world's successful port cities didn't just say yes to everything. They said yes to the right things and no to industrial activity that would destroy their competitive advantages. They built diverse economies where businesses wanted to locate, not just for jobs, but also for the quality of life, not despite it.

"They need Saint John to save New Brunswick's economy. We need them to protect our families while we do it."

Breaking the pattern of disrespect

For too long, the approach to industrial development in Saint John has been "take it or leave it" - accept the impacts without compensation, or watch the economic opportunities go elsewhere. This is a false choice and has created a pattern where Saint John residents bear the full burden of provincial economic development strategies while benefits flow beyond city limits.

Here's what we're finally understanding: Many of us would call their bluff, and Saint John's advantages could attract industry that provides good-paying jobs without disrespecting our community. Our deep-water port, strategic location, and infrastructure are exactly what many companies need. The difference is finding industry partners that see protecting the community as part of doing good business, not an obstacle to profits.

We moved here knowing certain industries exist, and we accept that reality. But we don't have to accept impacts that could be easily mitigated (and aren't) or tolerate expansion that treats residents as expendable.

This ends now. Our advantages are permanent. Respectful industry wants what we have. Disrespectful companies can be replaced.

"Saint John's advantages don't leave. Bad actors can."

The province has the regulatory power to protect Saint John families but chooses not to use it. While approving billions in industrial development that benefit the entire province, they've failed to establish basic standards for protecting the communities that host these projects.

How has J.D. Irving been able to expand as dramatically as they have in recent years without the province insisting on measures that might have mitigated the pulp mill's expansion into residential neighbourhoods? What about AIM? The province approved it all. The province sat quietly while Saint John residents dealt with the consequences.

City Council fights with municipal tools while the province, which has all the regulatory authority, sits quietly and refuses to represent Saint John residents.

No expansion should be approved until existing impacts are properly addressed and future protections are guaranteed.

The Saint John standard

Every major industrial project should come with mandatory community investment that directly addresses impacts:

Direct Impact Mitigation: Sound barriers for rail noise, air quality improvements, traffic flow solutions funded by the companies creating these impacts. To date, we haven't fully dealt with the impact of train horns alone, much less the broader operational noise and pollution from heavy industry.

Neighbourhood investment: Parks, recreation facilities, housing assistance programs in affected areas - substantial investments scaled to project size.

Buffer Zones That Work: Proper separation between industrial operations and residential areas, designed, developed, and maintained, if necessary, at company expense with transparent monitoring.

Local Economic Integration: Companies commit to hiring locally and contributing proportionally to infrastructure costs through modern planning tools like development cost charges that cities like Moncton already use, or regional development charges like Halifax has implemented.

"If you want to benefit from Saint John's advantages, you invest in Saint John's future."

Leadership that delivers

City Council is trying to fight for the right things - look at their efforts on Wolastoq Park and other issues - but they shouldn't have to. City Council has limited municipal powers while the province controls industrial permitting, environmental assessment, and the regulatory framework that could actually protect residents. Saint John lacks the modern, robust planning tools and taxation regimes already in place in most communities in other provinces to adequately plan for the immediate and long-term financial and social impacts of heavy industry.

Why are we forcing City Council to fight battles they can't properly win when the province has been sitting silently, refusing to use the tools they actually have?

The province approved J.D. Irving's massive expansion without demanding community protections. The province continues to approve new industrial projects without requiring impact mitigation. The province created this mess and refuses to fix it.

City Hall's message to the province should be simple: Use your actual authority or stop approving projects that hurt our residents. No more municipal band-aids for problems you have the power to prevent.

The most infuriating part? neighbouring communities want all the jobs without any burdens, yet they're inserting themselves into OUR conversation. Zero impacts, all benefits.

Even many of the workers at these facilities commute in from outside the city - they collect the paychecks while we live with the noise, pollution, and traffic.

Message for those neighbours: No impacts, no equal voice. You don't get industrial traffic through your neighborhoods at night - you don't get equal say in our decisions.

And no one should be surprised when groups like the Friends of Lorneville fight industrial development in their neighbourhood. Without any protections or ground rules for industrial operation anywhere around here, they're expecting to see another pulp mill, oil refinery or who knows what next door, which would destroy their neighbourhood like those facilities have diminished the livability of others.

We live here with those industries, but it doesn't mean we like it, and it definitely doesn't mean we want more of it in the middle of our city. All parts of Saint John feel vulnerable because the province has created a free-for-all where industrial development can happen anywhere without community protection.

"We want to power New Brunswick's growth. We just want to be protected while we do it."

What happens next

Saint John City Council needs to make crystal clear to the province that our continued role as the centre of industrial development depends on:

• Mandatory protective legislation before any new major industrial approvals

• Existing industries addressing current impacts before expansion permits are granted

• Community benefit infrastructure investments that ensure those who bear the impacts share in the benefits

• Enforceable environmental and quality of life standards that protect families across our city

The province needs Saint John's industrial capacity to compete economically. We're ready to deliver that capacity. But the era of Saint John residents subsidizing provincial economic growth with their health and quality of life must end.

Some residents work in heavy industry, but most of us stay here for other reasons—and those jobs don't define what the majority of us value.

The choice is clear

Contact your city councillor. Tell them you support Saint John embracing its role as New Brunswick's industrial centre -- with full protection for residents and loud leadership from City Hall.

Contact your MLA. Tell them Saint John is ready to power provincial growth, but only with guaranteed protections for our families and neighbourhoods. Tell them to stop forcing City Council to fight battles with municipal tools when the province has the regulatory and legislative authority to solve these problems properly.

We elect MLAs to write laws. Write laws to protect your voters.

We want the pulp mill expansion to succeed. We want Lorneville Industrial Park to thrive. We want Saint John to be the economic powerhouse New Brunswick needs. We just demand that our families be protected while we deliver New Brunswick's economic future.

The choice isn't between jobs and quality of life. It's between Saint John continuing to power New Brunswick's economy while being treated as expendable, or Saint John embracing our economic leadership role with the protection and respect our families deserve.

That's a future worth fighting for

- and it's time to make it happen.

The pattern repeats itself in Saint John: industry expands, neighbourhoods retreat, another piece of our city vanishes. JDI's withdrawal from the Wolastoq Park rezoning came with a familiar complaint: "Saint John Council is placing unreasonable conditions on our ask."

Unreasonable? What's unreasonable is expecting residents to accept the steady erosion of neighbourhoods without protection. Without buffer zones.

Wolastoq Park matters. The Wolastoqiyik name means "the beautiful river" - a site significant for centuries, offering premier views of the Reversing Rapids. Indigenous history. Settler history. Our history.

Even more critically, the park currently serves as a natural buffer zone between heavy industry and the surrounding neighbourhood. JDI's proposal would remove this protective buffer, pushing industrial activity directly into a beloved residential area. City staff themselves acknowledged this, noting that if the parking lot were approved, "the park will no longer function as a buffer between heavy industry and the adjacent residential community."

Define buffer zones now - before the next expansion

We can't wait until after the next industrial disaster to protect our neighbourhoods. The time for clear, enforceable buffer zone legislation is now – before another inch of Saint John is sacrificed.

JDI has transformed entire neighbourhoods in recent years. When did residents have their say? Where are the protections ensuring industrial operations don't encroach further into residential spaces?

Pleasant City Street, 2018: Two incidents at the Irving refinery. First, an explosion injuring 36 workers. Then, a leaking butane pipeline forcing evacuations. This wasn't an isolated incident - a deadly explosion at the same refinery in 1998 killed a worker, and despite safety recommendations, the facility exploded again 20 years later.

The response? Irving bought and demolished 20 homes. A reactive buffer zone created after the damage. The penalty? A $200,000 CAD fine. That's it. 36 injuries and a neighbourhood erased for less than the price of a modest home.

And this pattern continues. The Irving Pulp and Paper mill has experienced multiple fires, including a "serious incident" in 2009 where a molten sulphur tank caught fire, leaking hazardous gases and forcing the evacuation of dozens of workers. Train derailments carrying hazardous materials like spin acid and molten sulphur have occurred repeatedly.

Without buffer zones, we're losing our city piece by piece.

Rejecting the "growth at all costs" false choice

The Chamber of Commerce claims Council's decision is "a test of Saint John's readiness to embrace growth." Their supporters call it "a terrible decision" because Council "doesn't understand what's necessary to help the city."

This rhetoric presents a false choice: unlimited industrial expansion or economic death. It's intellectually dishonest.

When Philip McGarvey asks, "don't the Irvings own that property?" he demonstrates exactly the oversimplified property rights argument threatening our city's future. Ownership doesn't grant unlimited rights to harm surrounding communities.

And let's be clear about who benefits. Despite the industrial footprint in our city, data shows that Heavy Industry contributes only 9% of the total property tax revenue while taking up significant space and creating substantial risks for residents. Residential taxpayers shoulder 63% of the burden while living with the consequences of industrial activity. Not ideology, not politics - that's the math.

The real choice isn't between industry or no industry. It's between responsible growth with buffer protections and quality of life improvements versus unrestrained expansion that sacrifices neighbourhoods. Our local Chamber members should know better.

The real costs of inadequate protection

The 2009 Conservation Council study found lung cancer rates in Saint John were 82% higher than national rates for women, 98% higher for men. "Chemical dusting" of neighbourhoods gets dismissed as normal while the province declares these releases "low risk." Ask residents living with these conditions if they feel safe.

We cannot continue to be the province's industrial dumping ground. Short-term industrial expansion without buffer protections creates long-term problems that cost more to address.

Pleasant City Street proves this – a crisis that could have been avoided with proper buffer zones from the beginning.

Look at Lorneville right now – residents are so worried about industrial plans near their homes that they've organized, put up placards, and are digging in for a fight. With proper buffer zone legislation, they could put their placards down, knowing their community has guaranteed protection. Their anxiety reflects the same concerns communities across Saint John share.

Every space converted to industrial use without buffer protection means lost housing potential, lost business opportunities, lost public spaces, and lost health. We're sacrificing both our city's future and our residents' wellbeing when we allow industry to operate without proper boundaries.

Mandated buffer zones: Non-negotiable protection

We need clear, enforceable buffer zone legislation that establishes permanent protection before any further industrial expansion is permitted. This isn't optional.

Our civic emergency services are already stretched, with the Saint John Fire Department providing emergency backup to industrial facilities like Point Lepreau Nuclear Station. Despite these formal arrangements, the city's fire resources must prioritize residential areas, highlighting the need for stronger preventative measures.

Buffer zone requirements must:

1. Define minimum distances between industry and homes

2. Require industry to maintain green buffer zones at their expense

3. Establish air and water quality monitoring in buffer areas

4. Create transparent violation reporting

5. Implement meaningful penalties for violations

Buffer zones aren't anti-industry – they're pro-community.

The real stakes: Our city is disappearing

This isn't anti-industry posturing. It's about protecting our city's future with proper buffer zones.

The Fire Department assessment is blunt: "The city of Saint John is 3 industrial cities merged into one... unlike any other community in the province."

The Simms brush factory is gone – a historic building leveled for parking. No buffer zones protected this heritage.

Some existing industrial operations can be grandfathered in, but we must draw the line now. No more unfettered expansion without proper buffers. Our city is dying away fast, and each neighbourhood lost is gone forever.

Time to act: Protect Saint John now

Council's role isn't rubber-stamping land use changes based solely on ownership. Their job is protecting citizens with clear buffer zones between industry and homes.

One resident's warning should echo: "Once something is gone, it's gone forever." Without buffer zone protection, we're losing our city piece by piece.

Today it's a park becoming a parking lot. What's next? Which neighbourhood loses its protective buffer zone? Which potential development site becomes industrial wasteland?

Contact your councillor today. Support creating meaningful buffer zone legislation. Our neighbourhoods need protection now – before another Pleasant City Street disaster proves we waited too long.

The buffer zones we establish today will protect Saint John's future. Without them, we're just waiting for the next industrial expansion to erase another piece of our city.

The recent debate over converting Wolastoq Park has surfaced a troubling refrain: "They own the land, they can do what they want with it."

At first glance, this seems like a straightforward property rights argument. But in Saint John, where industrial ownership extends far beyond active industrial sites, accepting this principle would effectively surrender control of our city's future.

A Warning from Experience

Look at our history: CentraCare, the TB Hospital, Alms House, Saint John Industrial School for Boys - sites of historical significance now under industrial control. Each remediated, each held in reserve, each representing a space that could be converted to industrial use the moment it becomes convenient.

Each sold at bargain prices by a province eager to offload maintenance costs and environmental liabilities - a pattern that continues to shape our city's development.

Even the Simms brush factory, which in a healthier city might have become waterfront condos with a cafe and cocktail bar pumping tax revenue into city coffers, was demolished to expand industrial parking. Each time, the justification was the same: "They own the land."

The Invisible Empire

Stand anywhere in Saint John and look around. That natural viewpoint you love? That patch of green space where your kids play? That old building you've always thought would make great apartments? Chances are, they're owned by industrial interests. The Irving Nature Park, Brown House playground, Sheldon Point, plus properties at virtually every important intersection and on every block uptown - all could theoretically become industrial sites if we accept ownership as the sole criterion for land use.

"Have they not taken enough?" one resident asked at council. This isn't hyperbole - it's a serious question about our city's future.

The False Promise

"If you don't like it, you could have bought it when it came available," defenders argue. But this ignores reality. When CentraCare closed, who else could afford the millions required for demolition and soil remediation? More importantly, why did we have to sell it? These were public assets, owned by all of us through our government. Their sale to private interests wasn't inevitable - it was a choice that prioritized short-term financial gains over long-term public benefit.

The same pattern repeats across our city - properties accumulate in industrial hands, then that ownership becomes justification for future industrial use.

The Hidden Costs

Every space that converts to industrial use represents:

• Lost potential for housing development

• Lost opportunity for new businesses

• Lost public spaces that make neighborhoods livable

• Lost tax base from alternative development

• Lost buffer zones between industry and residential areas

We're already seeing the impacts. As one council observer noted, "The concentration of heavy industry has already deterred other business." Each industrial conversion makes our city less attractive for the diverse development we need.

"Even staff have said that if this parking lot is approved, the park will no longer function as a buffer between heavy industry and the adjacent residential community." This isn't speculation - it's the assessment of our own city officials.

A Better Way

Other cities prove there's a better approach. When Emera came through in 2006, they didn't tell people to "give their heads a shake" or threaten to take their ball and go home. They provided $5.3 million in community benefits for their $350 million project - recognizing that being a good corporate neighbour means more than just owning land.

The Real Stakes

This isn't about opposing industry. It's about protecting our city's future. The Saint John Fire Department's own assessment states, "...the city of Saint John is 3 industrial cities merged into one...” unlike any other community in the province. Do we really want to make this situation any more extreme?

As resident David Ryan noted at council: "Precedent is something council considers. Last year, this council rejected a daycare on Starburst Lane off River Hill Drive due to traffic concerns. If precedent means anything, traffic concerns at Simms Corner should be paramount in your decision-making."

Time to Choose

Council's role isn't to rubber stamp land use changes based solely on ownership. Their role is to protect the long-term interests of all citizens and ensure that land use decisions serve the broader community's interests.

If we accept "they own it, they can do what they want" as the final word on land use decisions, we're not just surrendering one park - we're surrendering our right to shape our city's future.

Today it might be a park becoming a parking lot. But once we establish that ownership trumps all other considerations, what's next? Which neighbourhood loses its buffer zone next? Which potential development site gets permanently converted to industrial use next?

"Once something is gone, it's gone forever," as one resident reminded Council.

It's time to reject this oversimplified property rights argument and demand better. Our city's future depends on it.

Council votes on this proposal on February 24th. Contact your councillor before then and tell them to protect our city's future by voting no on this proposal.

Hear what our neighbours told Council at the public hearing last week:

Saint John is being asked to approve JDI's $1.1B NextGen project, yet the proposed community benefits fall far short of what this neighbourhood deserves. The latest proposed expansion promises significant economic benefits according to the company: new jobs, increased tax revenue, and environmental improvements. These could be great for our region.

But that's exactly why we need to ask: why isn't the host neighbourhood being offered benefits that match this scale of investment?

We know it can be done - in 2006, Emera provided what would be nearly $8 million in today's dollars as a community benefits package to Saint John alone for their $350 million pipeline project, which ran 145 kilometers through multiple communities. That investment created lasting improvements Saint Johners enjoy today in Rockwood Park. If Emera could provide that level of benefits to just one community along their pipeline route, what should we expect from JDI's $1.1 billion expansion that impacts our host neighbourhood exclusively?

The Hidden Price of Progress

When major industries expand, they rarely shrink back. Each project brings permanent changes to the neighbourhood landscape. The latest proposal includes converting part of Wolastoq Park into a corporate-only parking lot - this coming after JDI recently demolished the historic Simms brush factory to expand their existing private parking lot across the street.

While the park itself was established in 2004, it sits on land that has profound historical and cultural significance. As the Wolastoqiyik (Maliseet) people's name indicates - meaning 'the beautiful river' - this location has been significant for centuries, offering some of the best views of the Reversing Rapids and serving as an important site for both Indigenous and settler history.

The park was created to preserve public access to this significant space after the former Centracare facility was demolished. While JDI maintains they're preserving the "most utilized" areas of the park, this misses a crucial point: all public space has value, and once it's gone, it's gone forever.

"The neighbourhood is essentially being asked to give up public space permanently to solve a private company's parking problem."

What's Missing from the Equation

JDI promises substantial benefits to industry and the broader region: increased production capacity, jobs, and economic spinoffs. But even these deserve scrutiny. The much-touted water treatment facility isn't a voluntary community investment - it's a court-ordered requirement they're legally obligated to build.

As for the power plant, this 140MW facility's primary function will be converting wood chips to fuel for NB Power - and for perspective, the similar Colson Cove facility employs just 95 people while outputting nearly seven times more power than this JDI boiler project.

What's notably absent is proportional compensation for the host neighbourhood that will bear the daily impacts. If a $350 million pipeline project in 2006 could generate what would be $8 million in today's community benefits (about 1.5% of the project value), what should we expect from a $1.1 billion industrial expansion? Using the same modest proportion, we should be seeing at least $16.5 million in community benefits.

Instead, we're being offered a pedestrian overpass that primarily serves mill workers.

The Pattern We Need to Break

This fits a familiar pattern in our industrial communities: promised economic benefits are used to justify local sacrifices, without adequate compensation to the neighbourhoods bearing the direct impacts.

Yes, we welcome industry. Yes, we invite large projects. But not at the expense of our neighbourhood's vitality. When companies invest billions in expansion, surely they can invest meaningfully in the communities they impact.

"We're not saying no to industry - we're saying yes to responsible development that respects host communities."

The conversation itself is unbalanced - while corporations can blanket local media with full-page advertisements promoting their view, neighbourhood residents must rely on grassroots channels to make their voices heard.

When Emera needed to run infrastructure through our city, they understood that community benefits were part of being a good corporate neighbour. The precedent exists right here in Saint John. So why, for a project many times larger, are we being offered nothing more than a corporate parking lot and a pedestrian overpass that mainly serves JDI's own employees?

While JDI emphasizes its deep New Brunswick roots, the company's track record on community obligations - from environmental compliance to tax contributions - tells a more complex story. As Green Party MLA Kevin Arseneau pointedly noted about Irving's tax strategies, 'That's a lot of money that's not in schools, in our hospitals, on our roads, in our common good. Source: CBC News

A Call to Saint John Council

The NextGen project presents an opportunity for meaningful community investment. Yet the current proposal falls short of creating lasting value for the host neighbourhood. Saint John Council has a responsibility to ensure that billion-dollar projects deliver more than minimal concessions.

This project must balance economic growth with genuine neighbourhood benefit. As it stands now, it doesn't even come close. Please reject this proposal until you receive one that comes close to what we deserve.

For more information about the proposed project, visit JDI's Project NextGen website: nextgennb.com