{"id":1845,"date":"2025-08-26T17:39:56","date_gmt":"2025-08-26T20:39:56","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/standrewswharf.com\/?p=1845"},"modified":"2025-08-26T17:39:56","modified_gmt":"2025-08-26T20:39:56","slug":"letter-to-the-editor-how-did-the-market-wharf-get-here-the-courier","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/standrewswharf.com\/?p=1845","title":{"rendered":"Letter to The Editor: How did the market wharf get here? – The Courier"},"content":{"rendered":"

Letter to The Editor: How did the market wharf get here?<\/a><\/p>\n

As a frequent visitor of the Saint Andrews Market Wharf and patron of Market Square, I find myself drawn into the highly contested debate of the Market Wharf project. It\u2019s hard to believe a mayor dependent on a tourist driven economy, vocalizing in a town meeting those that don\u2019t live in Saint Andrews aren\u2019t financially invested, and therefore their opinion on the project has no weight, may be true, but their tourists dollars do.<\/p>\n

How did the Market Wharf get here?\u00a0 Let\u2019s review the Council minutes the past five years for answers, which has led to more questions:<\/p>\n

2020:<\/b>\u00a0Funding secured with 70 percent in government grants.\u00a0 The Chief Administrative Officer confirms Market Square is a separate project from Market Wharf, with its own funding allocation. The then Deputy Mayor [Brad Henderson] suggests acquiring a design plan for Market Square to assist in decision making.<\/p>\n

2021:<\/b>\u00a0Then Mayor [Doug Naish] noted an Environmental Impact Assessment was a condition of funding. Council decided on a concrete design for the Wharf and Market Square would have armour stone. No final design plan selected in order to proceed.<\/p>\n

2022:<\/b>\u00a0Due to COVID-19, the engineering firm advised project estimates have increased 30 per cent.\u00a0 The town council stated they couldn\u2019t afford the extra $3M out of their budget for the project and wouldn\u2019t burden the town\u2019s future with such a debt load.\u00a0 The Deputy Mayor and Council openly stated their preference to revamp and expand Market Square for the potential business opportunities it would present.\u00a0 The town then approves an amendment to the Regional Development Corp. of New Brunswick to include the Market Square repairs based on climate change adaptation and repairs to Market Wharf pier with steel wrappings, seemingly now joining the two projects together.<\/p>\n

2023:<\/b>\u00a0In September, the engineering firm presented Council five design options.The council expresses concern with the firm, and entertains the idea of obtaining a second engineering firm\u2019s option at the cost of another $100,000, [but did not occur].<\/p>\n

2024:<\/b>\u00a0Design finally approved, and it\u2019s noted the\u00a0grand<\/em>\u00a0expansion of Market Square will be asphalt. By the end of year, Department of Fisheries and Oceans (DFO) and Ducks Unlimited became the latest hurdle.<\/p>\n

A lengthy summary, that could essentially be summed up by inaction and indecision from for the better part of six years moving forward with the \u201curgent\u201d need to replace Market Wharf.<\/p>\n

Viable options have seemingly been presented then turned down, either due to an unwillingness to lose access to the wharf for a season, or the project didn\u2019t fit into the heritage feel for the town\u2013 which is a question in itself. Is Market Square designated as part of the heritage buildings?\u00a0 The town promotes overwhelming support for the project based on approximately 5 per cent of the town participating in a vote.\u00a0 One cannot help but wonder why it feels this project is suddenly being pushed so hard.\u00a0 Is the driving force the desire to expand Market Square, where the only known plan is an asphalt design?\u00a0 The CAO had been sounding the alarm on the deadline to use the approved funding for years, and now at the 11th hour, there\u2019s a push to get the project underway.\u00a0 The council states they will not proceed if the tenders come in over budget, which typically results in \u201cunexpected\u201d overruns that balloon project\u2019s budget.<\/p>\n

So I, like the residents of St. Andrews, awaits the outcome of this seven year ordeal, and how it will fit into Canada\u2019s prettiest town.<\/p>\n

\u2014 Shane Alexander<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Letter to The Editor: How did the market wharf get here? As a frequent visitor of the Saint Andrews Market Wharf and patron of Market Square, I find myself drawn into the highly contested debate of the Market Wharf project. It\u2019s hard to believe a mayor dependent on a tourist driven economy, vocalizing in a ","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":1846,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"iawp_total_views":16,"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-1845","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/standrewswharf.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1845","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/standrewswharf.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/standrewswharf.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/standrewswharf.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/standrewswharf.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=1845"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/standrewswharf.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1845\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1847,"href":"https:\/\/standrewswharf.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1845\/revisions\/1847"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/standrewswharf.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/1846"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/standrewswharf.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=1845"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/standrewswharf.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=1845"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/standrewswharf.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=1845"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}