'It was a huge shame and a major setback': Public meeting on Canada Day power outage in Saint Andrews to be held

A string of power outages, on days you wouldn’t expect one, reached a tipping point in Saint Andrews, N.B., this week.

The latest outage on Monday came in the middle of the town’s most important annual event: Canada Day festivities.

The outage happened just before 1 p.m. all around town.

“My reaction was, ‘You’ve got to be kidding me, not again,’” says Mayor Brad Henderson, citing several other recent power failures on calm days.

Business owner Jodie Mundie was in the middle of her downtown restaurant’s “biggest day” when the outage shut down her lunch hour rush.

“It’s very disappointing as a business owner,” says Mundie. “There were a lot of unhappy people here on Canada Day that we would typically serve. We just couldn’t.”

NB Power says it will organize a public meeting on the topic soon, but no date or location has been confirmed by the utility.

“Many of the outages in recent months have been caused by wildlife,” the company said in a written statement. “(NB Power is) working to identify root causes and measures that we can put in place to help prevent this in the future.”

Mayor Henderson says the town was in contact with NB Power about power outages prior to Monday’s latest incident.

“It’s these sunny day/no wind power outages that people are really getting frustrated with,” says Henderson. “It was one of the largest Canada Days I ever recall. And then to have an incident like this happen, and see thousands of people leave your community that would’ve stayed in your community and help support a local business, restaurant or experience an event, it was a huge shame and a major setback.”

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