Our Organization
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Walter Brown, Chair
Walter Brown has a long history of community service in Fredericton. He represented Marysville on Fredericton City Council 1989 to May 2008, and served as deputy mayor and mayor. Mr. Brown was Chair of the City’s Planning and Priorities Committee, as well as a member of the Development and Finance and Administration committees. He chaired the Negotiations Liaison Committee, and served as a member of the Superannuation Board. He was the City’s appointee to the Union of Municipalities of New Brunswick.
Mr. Brown was appointed Chair of the New Brunswick Provincial Capital Commission in January 2007. He is dedicated to bringing greater pride in and awareness of the diversity of New Brunswick’s culture and heritage. As Chair, Mr. Brown and the Commission members will work with stakeholders and the various levels of government to protect and promote the capital region’s unique role as the seat of government and second home to all New Brunswickers.
Mr. Brown and his wife, Deanna, have four daughters and many grandchildren.
Edouard Allain, Vice-Chair, Executive Committee and Board Member
Edouard Allain’s community involvement includes volunteering with les Jeux de l’Acadie, Sports New Brunswick and Dialogue New Brunswick. Most recently, Mr. Allain has taken on the responsibilities as Vice Chair of the Capital Commission. He also served on the original Capital Commission study group in 2003.
Educated at St. Thomas University, the University of New Brunswick Fredericton, and at Université de Moncton, Mr. Allain taught school for 19 years before he started a 13-year career as assistant general manager of the Fédération des enseignants du Nouveau-Brunswick. In the years before his retirement, he acted as that organization’s general manager.
Somewhat retired, Mr. Allain continues to work in education as a labour relations consultant and as a liaison officer for group insurance for the Fédération des enseignants du Nouveau-Brunswick. He lives in Fredericton with his partner, Thérèse Leboutillier. They have four children and six grandchildren who occupy more of Mr. Allain’s time than does his golf game.
Raymond Murphy, Secretary-Treasurer, Executive Committee and Board Member
Representative for Union of Municipalities of New Brunswick
A long-time resident of the Village of Rexton, New Brunswick, Raymond Murphy served his community for 32 years as a teacher until he retired in 2000. As well, he was a Village councillor from 1986 to 2002, and served as Mayor of Rexton from 1994 to 2004. Mr. Murphy has been Executive Director of the Union of Municipalities of New Brunswick since 2004. Mr. Murphy was born in Rexton and, except for an absence of ten years, he lives there still. He and his wife Claire have two children, Toby and Daniel.
Mr. Murphy is the Secretary-Treasurer of the New Brunswick Provincial Capital Commission Board of Directors. He also served as Chair of the official celebrations for the New Brunswick Day Committee, held in Rexton 6 August 2007.
Eric Allaby, Board Member
Eric Allaby of Grand Manan Island has spent much of his life on, under and around the sea. He taught industrial drafting and spent several years as an underwater archaeologist before turning to the fishing industry full time. He worked as a diver for the herring weir fishery throughout the years. Mr. Allaby is an accomplished marine artist. He credits his success with brush and palette to his study of physics which, he says, helps him to understand the interplay of light and water, light and colour.
Mr. Allaby has been involved in public life for many years. He represented the Grand Manan area riding for two decades until his retirement from politics in 2006.
Carmel Brun, Executive Committee and Board Member
Carmel Brun, née LeBlanc, was born and brought up in Cap-Pelé. She attended the Normal School in Fredericton before completing her studies in Home Economics at the Université de Moncton. Mme Brun began her teaching career in Miramichi where she taught French as a second language for two years; she then moved to the Polyvalente Louis-J. Robichaud in Shediac where she taught Home Economics for the next 30 years.
Mme Brun was twice elected to municipal council in Shediac and to the Beauséjour Regional Health Authority. She now sits on the board of Regional Health Authority A, she is a member of the board of the Georges-L. Dumont Hospital Foundation, and she volunteers on several other committees. Mme Brun lives in Shediac where she and her late husband raised their two children, Natacha and André.
Frank Carroll, Board Member
Mayor Frank Carroll started his career in municipal politics in 1971 in the Village of McAdam, which lies on the southernmost boundary of the capital region. In the 38 years since, he has been mayor for a total of 28 years, deputy mayor for six, a councillor for one, and has spent only three years away from the village offices. He has been teacher, vice-principal and principal of McAdam High School, and is still teaching there part time.
Mayor Carroll is involved in the promotion of the International Lakeland Trail concept, a 267-kilometre scenic route between Bangor, Maine, and Fredericton, New Brunswick. He has worked unceasingly for the preservation of the historic McAdam train station, for a community forest, for district policing, professional development in education. He also vocally supports the longstanding role the men and women of McAdam have played in the military.
Dr. Donald Farrell, Board Member
Donald Farrell, MD, has been an active volunteer for over 40 years, participating on several boards, including the Canadian Ophthalmological Society, the Villa Madonna Retreat House, the Vision Health Research Council, and the Shakespearian Festival. He has served as chair for many organizations - medical, educational, recreational and cultural – and has been particularly involved with those organizations dedicated to prevention of blindness and to helping people who are blind. Dr. Farrell has received a number of awards and recognitions as a volunteer; most recently, he was made honorary member of the national board of directors of the Canadian National Institute for the Blind.
Dr. Farrell has an ophthalmologic practice in Saint John. At one time, he was owner and vice president of the (AHL) Saint John Flames, and is involved with several private companies in the real estate business. He is an avid sailor and teaches celestial navigation. As a conscientious art collector, he strongly supports New Brunswick artists.
He has four children and three grandchildren. He and his partner, Donna Black, live in Saint John.
Alex Forbes, Board Member
Representing the City of Fredericton
Alex Forbes is the City of Fredericton representative on the Board of Directors. As a City planner, he has held a number of senior positions over the years. He has been active in his professional associations, too, as vice president of the Canadian Institute of Planners, president of the Atlantic Planners Institute, president of the New Brunswick Association of Planners and Secretary of the Atlantic Planners Institute.
Mr. Forbes is a keen student of history and has a broad knowledge of the history and evolution of the provincial capital. He has been involved in a number of projects involving heritage preservation, including the history and architectural legacy of Alexander “Boss” Gibson of Marysville. Mr. Forbes holds Masters degrees in Business Administration and in Urban and Rural Planning, and an Honours degree in Economics and Political Science.
Originally from Prince Edward Island, he and his wife Stacey and their son Ian share a home that once belonged to one of the Marysville cotton mill overseers.
Judy Hawkins, Board Member
Judy Hawkins was an educator in the Province of New Brunswick for 35 years. She was Department Head, Guidance, a guidance counselor, a university lecturer, a school teacher and, for many years, an art teacher to very fortunate young students. Ms. Hawkins has long been involved with the Department of Education’s peer helping programs, with the New Brunswick Teachers Association, and the New Brunswick Art Council. She is trained in conflict resolution, suicide prevention, crisis response training, and reality therapy.
Among her education activities, Ms. Hawkins is particularly proud of the Muriel McQueen Fergusson Youth Chapter for which she was faculty advisor to the students united to eliminate violence. For ten years, she worked with the students at Fredericton High School who developed a manual on how to start such a chapter and who encourage other schools to start chapters. She worked with students on peer helping, peer tutoring, and with a group of young women who drafted the high school’s sexual harassment policy.
Ms. Hawkins’s community involvement has let her to sit as executive or member on various committees and boards dedicated to the betterment of peoples’ experience of community. She was the president of the Muriel McQueen Fergusson Foundation, Co-Chair of the provincial Caring Partnership Committee, and was a member of the New Brunswick Human Rights Commission for two terms.
Ms. Hawkins, in her retirement, has become a marathon runner.
Jean Lanteigne, Board Member
Representing the Association francophone des municipalités du Nouveau-Brunswick
Jean Lanteigne studied business at the Université de Moncton and stayed on after graduation as executive secretary to the university's Faculty of Arts. During his time there, he founded Ciné campus and organized many arts and culture related activities. He returned to the Acadian Peninsula three years later where he worked in several business sectors for 17 years.
Mr. Lanteigne was director of community development services for the Collectivité ingénieuse de la Péninsule acadienne from 2002 to 2006. In 2007, Mr. Lanteigne took the position of director general of the Fédération régionale acadienne des pêcheurs professionnels in Shippagan.
He has also been involved in many community activities including school district affairs, the l'Enfant Jésus de Caraquet hospital board, and the vice presidency of the Société santé et mieux-être en français du Nouveau-Brunswick, founding president of the Théâtre populaire d'Acadie and of the Corporation des Chalets de la Plage de Bas-Caraquet.
Mr. Lanteigne was elected councillor for the Village of Bas-Caraquet in 1995, and mayor in 2001. He was vice-president of the Association francophone des municipalités du Nouveau-Brunswick from 2002 to 2004 when he became the president and as such, the association nominated Mr. Lanteigne to be its representative on the board of the New Brunswick Provincial Capital Commission.
Mr. Lanteigne is the father of four sons.
Eric MacKenzie, Board Member
Representative for the Official Opposition of New Brunswick
Eric MacKenzie is a community leader with 40 years experience in leadership, negotiation, partnership building, project development and management, and fundraising. He holds a Master of Education, was director of the New Brunswick Teachers Federation and the New Brunswick Teachers Association, and was a member of numerous associated committees. He is a former high school teacher and sat as a Member of the Legislative Assembly of New Brunswick for four years.
Early on, Mr. MacKenzie urged the creation of a provincial capital commission for New Brunswick. He has been involved in establishing provincial infrastructure projects, and initiating and directing heritage and memorial projects. As a board member of the NBPCC, he was chair of the Provincial Cenotaph Committee (2007) and is chair of the Holocaust Memorial Committee. Additionally, Mr. MacKenzie recently was voted to the executive committee of the National Capital Commission.
Mr. MacKenzie is a member of the United Services Institute and has been a director of Partners for Youth, a non-profit organization providing at-risk youth with activity-based programming. He has been recognized with a gold award from the United Way of Greater Fredericton, and he was awarded the Queen Elizabeth II Golden Jubilee Medal in 2002.
Alan Polchies Jr., Executive Committee and Board Member
Alan Polchies Jr. is a member of the St. Mary’s First Nation, Wolastoqiyik. Born, raised and schooled in Fredericton, Mr. Polchies continued his studies at Humber College in Toronto where he lived and worked for thirteen years.
Mr. Polchies sits on the Band Council at St. Mary’s First Nation and is the community planner for St. Mary’s. He is involved actively in the three levels of government; he serves as a board member for St. Mary’s First Nation Economic Development Corporation; he sits on the board that oversees the Duke of Edinburgh Awards; and, is a member of the Board of Directors of the Capital Commission.
Mr. Polchies is highly active in community affairs, working on such events as the annual powwow, fostering spirit in the community through events days for band members, especially the elders, and promoting programs for youth initiatives.
Mark Ramsay, Board Member
Mark Ramsay is deeply involved in civic affairs in New Brunswick, as Councillor and since 2001 as Mayor of Campbellton, as a fundraiser for community events, and as a member of several committees for festivals and outdoor activities. Mr. Ramsay oversees the operation of Larry’s Gulch, the internationally known salmon-fishing lodge on the Restigouche River. He is a member of that river’s watershed management committee and served on the Sugarloaf Park advisory committee. He is president of the Cities of New Brunswick Association and chaired the Restigouche County Mayor’s Forum. Mr. Ramsay has many years of experience in the hospitality industry and as a coordinator of special events. He enjoys hunting, fishing and snowmobiling, and is a long-time member of the Lions Club.
Mr. Ramsay lives in Campbellton with his wife Monique. They have a son and a daughter – André and Nathalie, her husband François and their daughter Maeve.
Marie-Pierre Simard, Board Member
Marie-Pierre Simard of Edmundston, New Brunswick, is a Canadian Certified Counsellor with a BA in psychology and philosophy as well as a MEd specializing in counselling. Ms Simard has worked as a career counsellor, a case manager and as a research and planning officer. Currently she is special project manager for the Community Adult Learning Services Branch in the Department of Post-Secondary Education, Training and Labour.
Ms Simard has contributed to the development of New Brunswick’s Francophone and Acadian community through the Société des Acadiens et Acadiennes du Nouveau-Brunswick where she served as Chair, the Forum de concertation des organismes acadiens and the Table de concertation sur l’immigration francophone au Nouveau-Brunswick. Ms Simard has sat on numerous boards such as the Société nationale de l’Acadie, the Fédération des communautés francophones et acadienne du Canada and the Société santé et mieux-être en français du Nouveau-Brunswick. In 2005, Edmundston Municipal Council awarded her a certificate of community recognition for her many achievements.
Her determination, ambition and varied professional and personal experience make Ms Simard a valuable asset for the New Brunswick Provincial Capital Commission and for all New Brunswick.
Jean-Yves Thériault, Board Member
Jean-Yves Thériault is probably best-known in New Brunswick for his long association with le Village historique acadien, from overseeing its creation to guiding its progress as Assistant Director and then Executive Director for many years, as well as for his formidable work in the development of the Shippagan Marine Centre. He has worked in accounting, financial analysis and administration for most of his career.
Mr. Thériault has an equally strong commitment to community and has served in several different capacities with a wide variety of organizations related to economic development and support to business on the Acadian Peninsula. He also served on related tourism and heritage committees, with Scouts, and with leisure groups. He is one of the founders of the French-language newspaper, L’Acadie Nouvelle.
Mr. Thériault has received honours for his volunteer work in economic development and was named Volunteer of the Year by L’Association des Corporations locales du Développement économique des Province Atlantiques, and Administrator of the Year by the Conseil économique du Nouveau-Brunswick.
In his spare time, Mr. Thériault enjoys tennis, golf, cabinetry and travel, among many interests.