Tantramar council has voted to move ahead with the addition of LED street lights to 27 rural locations in former Local Service Districts of the municipality.
The cost for 2025, which includes work to extend electricity to some locations as well as rental and electricity costs paid to NB Power, will be covered by this year’s Council Initiatives budget, but its still not clear how the cost will be covered in 2026 and beyond.
Currently, street lights in Sackville and Dorchester are covered by non-shared transportation budgets. If council chooses to keep it that way, then former Local Service District areas of the municipality would eventually need to cover the cost of the new streetlights, which is expected to be about $11,000 per year. That could amount to about a half-cent rise in tax rates for former LSDs.
But Treasurer Michael Beal told council it also has other options when deciding on the 2026 budget this fall. Council could choose not to go beyond the five-cent-per-year rate increases already underway in former LSD areas. Or council could choose to make all street lighting a shared expense by all taxpayers in Tantramar, which would likely have a much smaller impact on the tax rate.
“From a financial perspective, we’ll have to evaluate those things when we implement them in the 2026 budget,” Beal told council on Tuesday. “Is one of the options to raise the taxes a half a cent, three quarters of a cent, to fund the street lights? Yes, it is. Is one of the options to have it out of the increase that’s already happened? Yes, it is.”
“That would all have to be looked at during the budget process, and where the assessments are, and what we need to operate the municipality,” said Beal.
Beal told council that the shared and non-shared budget breakdown was originally created by the province when it amalgamated Tantramar along with a number of other municipalities in the province. The tax rates in former LSDs upon amalgamation were well below what was needed to cover the rural portion of the shared budget. But to prevent major tax hikes, the province limited rate increases. “The act that said they can’t go up any more than five cents [each year], unless a new service is provided,” said Beal. While the streetlights would be considered a new service, it will be council’s discretion how to cover the cost.
“Those discussions will all happen this fall through the budget process,” said Beal.
Mayor Andrew Black also brought up one other concern that some rural residents have regarding the new street lighting plan. Black said a resident from Point de Bute contacted him with concerns. “They live in the country,” said Black.”They don’t really want to have a whole bunch of lights, and so they would recommend that they don’t want that street light in that particular location.”
Beal told Black that because the lights are essentially rented from NB Power with no term commitment, its relatively simple to get rid of them if there are complaints from local residents.
When council first discussed the list of 27 possible streetlights in June, public works director Jon Eppell told council that neighbouring residents had not been consulted about the proposed list of locations, because the street light technology was not expected to cause significant light pollution.
“These are strategic locations that are intersections, and the street lights would be shining on the streets, not on the properties,” said Eppell. “They are also LED lights, like we have out here on Main Street, that don’t have a lot of light pollution. They point quite directly down, so there shouldn’t be a lot of light pollution to the adjacent property.”
While staff did not consult with neighbouring residents about the lighting locations, they did evaluate the need for the lights according to standards used by the New Brunswick Department of Transportation and Infrastructure. The analysis looked at factors like road geometry and number of nighttime vs daytime collisions, and concluded the lights were not warranted.
Locations for newly approved streetlighting
- Route 106 and Cherry Burton Road, 200W
- Route 106 and Woodhurst Road, 200W
- King Street and Woodlawn Road, 200W, two poles, extend 2nd power
- British Settlement Road and Barren Ground Hill Road, 200W, extend 2nd power
- British Settlement Road and Green Road, 200W, extend 2nd power
- Route 935 and Old Hospital Loop Road, 200W, extend 2nd power
- Route 935 and Barren Ground Hill Road, 200W, extend 2nd power
- Route 935 and Green Road, 200W, extend 2nd power
- Route 935 and Lower Rockport Road, 100W, extend 2nd power
- Pond Shore and Upper Aboujagane Road, 200W
- Route 933 and Babcock Road, 200W
- Route 940 and White Birch Road, 100W, two poles, extend 2nd power
- Route 940 and Cookville Road, 1 X 100W, 1 X 200W, one pole, extend 2nd power
- Route 940 and Midgic Station Road, 200W, extend 2nd power
- Route 940 and Goose Lake Road, 200W, four poles, extend 2nd power
- Goose Lake Road and Sears Road, 200W, extend 2nd power
- Goose Lake Road and Brooklyn Road, 200W
- Jolicure Road and Luciphy Road, 200W
- Etter Ridge Road and Aulac Road, 2 X 100W, extend 2nd power
- Etter Ridge Road and Point de Bute Road, 100W, extend 2nd power
- Lower Rockport Road Near civic 369, 100W X 2, five poles, extend 2nd power
- Route 935 Near civic 639, 100W, extend 2nd power
- Route 935 Near civic 288, 2 X 100W, one pole, extend 2nd power
- British Settlement Road near civic 52-64, 1 X 150W, 1 X 100W
- Point de Bute Road Near civic 125, 2 X 100W
- Carter Cross Road Near civic 71, 1 X 100W
- Carter Cross Road Near civic 39, 2 X 100W
