Saint Andrews Cancels Local Events Due to Fourth Wave

Mayor Brad Henderson of the Town of Saint Andrews said cancelling events in town due to the fourth wave of COVID-19 was the right move in order to stop the spread of the virus. "It was a hard call, but it was ultimately the right decision," says Henderson. "With the fourth wave become more problematic across the province this fall, we felt we had to play it safe by cancelling both Indulge Food and Wine Festival and Pumpkin Festival."

Henderson says local businesses have faced many challenges during the summer months having to navigate COVID-10 with what was a steady tourism season. ""We've had a busy tourism season, and we are thankful for that, but businesses definitely face staffing challenges, especially when you consider that now many businesses require additional employees to be at the door checking for vaccination cards," says Henderson. "We navigated the summer very well as a community, with very little COVID-19 public exposures being announced. I think a lot of New Brunswickers discovered Saint Andrews for the first time this year, and that could be a silver lining for years ahead with more New Brunswick travellers coming back to visit of town again."

One of ripple effects to many new people discovering Saint Andrews during the pandemic is that interest in buying property in the area has gone up, which has led to a dramatic increase in property value assessments. "Naturally, when it comes to house assessment time, it's not surprise to see house values go up when interest in the area goes up, but we were surprised this year at the level in which they jumped up. We were thinking optimistically that they might go up about 6-8%, but as a community we saw our home values go up 11.17%. That's a big jump. New Brunswick house values in general went up the most they've gone up in 20 years. My home personally went up 12%, but I spoke with some people whose home value went up 100% and 200%," says Henderson. "These assessments are done by the province of New Brunswick, but the municipality does set the tax rate. There is an opportunity--although I don't think it has ever happened--to either leave the mill rate the same or even decrease it this year."