By Vicki Hogarth and Nathalie Sturgeon

Meet the Saint John-St. Croix Candidates on CHCO-TV

CHCO-TV and the Municipal District of St. Stephen hosted a Meet the Candidates Night at the Garcelon Civic Centre on Friday, ahead of the federal snap election taking place on April 28th.

With the campaign season moving quickly, our goal was to give voters in the riding of Saint John–St. Croix the opportunity to hear directly from the candidates—on the issues that matter most to our region.

Participating in the event were:

Andrew Hill for the New Democratic Party

Gerald Irish for the Green Party

Karen Ludwig for the Liberal Party

John Williamson for the Conservative Party

Keith Tays of the Libertarian Party was unable to attend due to illness.

The event followed a structured format: opening remarks, a timed Q&A session, and closing statements — all designed to keep the evening fair, informative, and engaging. Candidates answered questions submitted by the public and vetted by CHCO-TV on a wide range of topics — including the rising cost of living, the trade war and U.S. relations, affordable housing, climate resilience, Pharmacare, and ferry access to Campobello Island.

Each question was timed, with equal opportunity to respond. Throughout the night, candidates remained respectful and focused, and the audience mirrored that tone — contributing to what was a meaningful and civil discussion about the future of our riding.

The event is also available on our TV channel and streaming on CHCO-TV's website and YouTube channel as Wednesday, April 16th.

Now, it’s up to you, the voters, to make your voices heard on April 28th—and help shape the future of Saint John–St. Croix.

New Brunswick prepares for wildfire season

The New Brunswick government is asking the public and local governments to prepare for wildfire season. 

In February, the federal and provincial government announced about $40 million in funding to build up New Brunswick’s wildfire prepardness, which included the launch of FireSmart, new equipment like tanks, hoses, drones, trailers and upskill training for personnel. 

"Realistically, we cannot prevent all wildfires, but we can do things to mitigate their impact on us, and our communities, and increase our resilience to wildfires," said Minister John Herron of the Department of Natural Resources and Energy Development.

Last year, according to Herron, fire fighters were mobilized 27 times and 180 personnel were sent to assist on wildfires – saying New Brunswick escaped the more brutal wildfire seasons seen elsewhere. 

For FireSmart Coordinator Roger Collet, fire safety and preparedness begins at home.

The program provides tips about how to mitigate your property, which all are available online. 

"We are already working on an even bigger year in 2025," said Collet. "Part of the $40 million federal and provincial funding that the minister mentioned has been allocated to Firesmart to help make our community more resilient to wildfires."

About $15 million of that was directly allocated to FireSmart over four years.  

Which also includes a component for local governments to build resiliency plans around wildfires. Municipalities can apply to have a resiliency plan done on the FireSmart website. 

"These resiliency plans will also indicate what mitigation can be done to make these important parts of the community more resilient in the event of a wildfire," said Collet.

Collet said local firefighting teams are actively communicating and working with the department to be prepared for future wildfires and kits including equipment will be sent to also help. 

In 2023, an area in Stein Lake in Bocabec saw one of New Brunswick’s worst forest fires in a decade, burning more than 500 hectares. 

CHCO-TV asked about an after action report that the department said back in December was not completed following the 2023 Bocabec wildfire  – in which documents revealed the government failed to issue an Alert Ready during the fire – to see what lessons had been learned moving forward. 

Officials now say that the report is near completion and is expected to be released in the spring.