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2mo ago

New Brunswick Funds Lobster and Tobacco Crackdowns as Cities Advance Planning and Crime Strategy

The measures signal a shift toward tax recovery linked to stronger public-safety enforcement.

Beyond the stone that had held a plaque, Rodney Stewart sits in his excavator Wednesday, speaking with a man who arrived in a dump truck to cart off debris.
An aerial view shows St. Peter’s Field in Saint John’s north end. A group of volunteers have initiated a project to renovate the diamond, once one of New Brunswick’s finest playing fields. They are expected to find out this month whether the project will receive funding from the Jays Care Foundation.
The Moncton Vision Lands Plan, which provides guidelines for the future of 570 hectares of undeveloped land in the city, was passed by council after a public hearing April 7.
Days before it was reduced to rubble, scorch marks can be seen around the church’s entryway.

Overview

  • Provincial officials committed $667,000 for a five-member unit to investigate illegal lobster sales on land, backing up federal Fisheries and Oceans Canada and responding to industry calls for tighter oversight.
  • An eight-agent contraband tobacco team is being re-established with $1.2 million in the 2026–27 budget to investigate illicit sales and enforce laws after estimates suggested up to $82 million in lost tobacco tax revenue from 2021 to 2023.
  • Moncton council adopted a draft three-year crime-prevention plan with targets to cut reported crime and severity by 10 percent each year, and it will hold a public meeting later this month on steps such as more community policing, peace officers and added social workers.
  • Saint John is preparing a full review of its 2012 municipal plan in a two-phase process running through 2028, with about $200,000 set for the first phase after delays tied to the pandemic, a city cyberattack and urgent housing and homelessness work.
  • Residents in Lakeland Ridges are urging the province to reverse the 2026 closure of North Lake Provincial Park after 1,200 people signed a petition, as the mayor questioned savings given past upgrades and the province said it aims to transfer closed parks to local owners.