Find your fireplace across the Westmorland region.

All four fuels are genuinely in play here, and the right call usually comes down to where you sit in the region. In Moncton and Dieppe, where Liberty Utilities runs natural gas lines through most established neighbourhoods, gas fireplaces and inserts are a convenient, mainstream choice with no fuel storage to think about. Out toward Sackville, Salisbury, and the more rural stretches, wood remains the backbone fuel—sugar maple and yellow birch both burn hot and clean in a modern CSA-certified stove, and DNRED district permits keep firewood affordable if you're cutting your own. Pellet stoves are a strong middle option regionwide, with Groupe Savoie and Shaw Resources both distributed locally, and they suit anyone who wants wood-like heat without splitting and stacking. Electric fireplaces work well as a supplemental unit in a bedroom, basement, or add-on room almost anywhere, but with average winter lows near -13.1°C, they're not sized to carry a home through the coldest stretch on their own.

Yes, in nearly every municipality. Installations go through your local municipal building department—Moncton, Dieppe, Riverview, and Sackville each handle their own permitting—and any wood appliance install needs to follow CSA B365, the national installation code that governs clearances, venting, and chimney construction. Most insurers in the region also require a WETT inspection on wood stoves and inserts before they'll issue or renew a homeowner's policy, so it's worth building that into your timeline even if the municipality doesn't require it outright. Gas installations need a licensed gas fitter and a separate gas-line permit if you're extending service from the street. Electric fireplace installs usually skip the permit process entirely unless you're hardwiring a built-in unit that needs a new circuit. The dealers we help homeowners find typically handle this paperwork as part of the project rather than leaving you to sort it out solo.

WETT stands for Wood Energy Technology Transfer, and it's the certification most Canadian insurers rely on to confirm a wood stove, insert, or chimney was installed to code and is safe to operate. In the Westmorland region it comes up constantly—whether you're insuring a new install, renewing a policy on an older stove, or buying a home that already has one. A WETT-certified inspector checks clearances to combustibles, chimney condition, and hearth pad sizing against CSA B365. If you're installing a new wood appliance, most local dealers will arrange the inspection as part of the job; if you're buying a home with an existing stove, it's worth getting one done before you close so there are no surprises with your insurer.

Not everywhere, which matters if gas is the fuel you're picturing. Liberty Utilities runs mains natural gas through most of Moncton, Dieppe, and parts of Riverview, so a gas fireplace or insert connection is usually straightforward there. Once you get out to Shediac, Sackville, Salisbury, and the more rural pockets of the region, mains gas service thins out fast, and a gas fireplace there typically means running on propane instead—same appliance in most cases, different fuel line and tank setup. It's worth confirming service at your specific address before you fall in love with a particular gas unit; a local dealer can check this in a few minutes and steer you toward propane conversion if mains gas doesn't reach your street.

Costs vary by fuel and by how much venting or gas-line work is involved. A wood stove or insert install, following CSA B365 and including a WETT inspection, typically runs $4,000-$9,000 CAD, with full chimney construction for new-build homes pushing higher. Gas fireplaces, inserts, and stoves generally land around $5,000-$12,000 CAD depending on whether you're extending a Liberty Utilities line or converting to propane. Pellet stove or insert installs usually fall between $4,000-$7,500 CAD. Electric fireplaces are the outlier on price—$200-$3,000 CAD for the unit itself, plus $400-$1,200 CAD in labour for anything beyond a simple plug-and-play placement. The region and fuel pages above break these numbers down further with local retailer pricing.

Most retailers and service techs are based in Greater Moncton but travel regularly out to Shediac, Sackville, Salisbury, and the smaller communities along the Petitcodiac and the Strait. Expect a modest travel charge for the farthest calls, and expect scheduling to tighten up once the first hard frost hits—booking your annual chimney sweep or gas inspection in late summer or early fall, ahead of the -13.1°C stretch of winter, keeps you off the waitlist. For rural properties further from the main service routes, it's worth asking your installer about spare igniter parts or a battery backup for a gas unit, since a Maritime winter storm can delay a return visit by a day or two.

Wrong question—and the industry's favorite way to confuse you. More BTUs isn't better if the fireplace cooks you out of the room you spent thousands to enjoy. Think in terms you can verify: how many square feet the unit heats, whether it's primary or backup heat, and whether you want it running overnight. Those three answers size a fireplace correctly every time.

In my own home, the room with the fireplace has never been the same—it became the social hub. Game nights, holidays, date nights after the kids are down: the fire is where the house gathers. There's a reason people in this industry joke that we're really in the romance and entertainment business. You won't wonder whether you'll use it; you'll wonder how the room worked before.

Ideally, yes. A fireplace project involves vent pipe, gas line, electrical, and often tile or stone. Hire three or four separate trades and you own the liability and the game of telephone between them. One company selling and installing means one accountable party, start to finish—ask about factory training, on-time completion records, and what happens if an inspection fails.

Wood wins outright—no electricity, no moving parts, just fuel and a match, and a radiant stove keeps heating with the grid down for weeks. Gas is a close second: battery-backup ignition runs the fireplace fine without power (the blower stops, but radiant heat keeps coming). Pellet is the one to check carefully—most models need electricity for the auger and fans, so ask about battery backup.