Bay Bulls asking Witless Bay for a helping hand

By Craig Westcott/December 23, 2021

Bay Bulls council is requesting financial help from Witless Bay to pay for upgrades to the Bay Bulls Regional Lifestyle Centre (BBRLC).

“The Bay Bulls Regional Lifestyle Centre is a regional facility that serves the Town of Bay Bulls, Witless Bay, Tor’s Cove, Burnt Cove, and Bauline,” said Mayor Neil O’Brien. “The BBRLC requires upgrades to be completed in 2022. The Town of Bay Bulls will be submitting an official request to the Town of Witless Bay to make financial contributions to those upgrades.”

Council seemed to have few reservations about making the request. Councilor Keith O’ Driscoll made the motion, and councillors Jason Sullivan and Shannon O’ Driscoll seconded it simultaneously. O’Brien said that as he saw Shannon’s hand first, she would be noted as the one who officially seconded the motion.

Councilor Sullivan did however make his thoughts known.

“I think everyone realizes the burden the taxpayers of Bay Bulls have for the entire region,” said Sullivan. “Just two weeks ago, we had the hot water give out, and it cost us $17,000. It’s a regional building and we have a right to ask for help to keep it going.”

The motion was carried unanimously.

Witless Bay council approves some, defers some and denies some

By Mark Squibb/December 23, 2021

Witless Bay town council had a number of home construction applications, and a couple commercial applications, to consider at the last regularly scheduled meeting of council held on December 14.

Council was in receipt of an application for a home on Dunn’s Lane. Councilor Jacob Hayden made a motion to defer the application until council received more information from the town planner.

“We’re sort of curious on a couple of points so rather than move forward, or move backward, we just wanted to double check some things that were unclear,” explained councilor Ralph Carey.

Next up was an application to build a home on O’Brien’s Road. Carey made a motion to deny the application.

“There is a planning report on this, and the background is several, several pages, and the conclusion is that the subject property is not capable of meeting the current requirements of residential roads,” said Carey.

Council unanimously voted to deny the application.

Next was an application to grub three lots on Dean’s Road.

Jacob Hayden moved that council deny the application, based on the recommendation of the town planner, saying that each lot ought to have been applied for individually.

Another application to build a home on Dunn’s Road was approved, following publication of a notice of variance. No complaints were received by the town.

The home will have to be built in compliance with ServiceNL’s requirement’s for onsite water and septic systems and provide a satisfactory onsite drainage and gradient plan, along with installation of a culvert that meets municipal standards.

After a short discussion about a reservation between the property line and the edge of the road, which was not marked on the drawing before council but was included in the application, the motion was approved unanimously.

The town also unanimously approved a request for a resident to develop an outdoor market along the Southern Shore highway.

A discretionary notice had been published, and no concerns were raised.

Another application for a home along the Southern Shore Highway was rejected at the recommendation of the town planner, at least until a revised application can be completed and a revised site visit held.

Council was also in receipt of a request to rescind a previous application to build a home. But, so far as council was concerned, the application never existed in the first place.

“There is no application on file in the name that the correspondent indicated,” said Carey. “Thank you for your inquiry. When we’re given a request, we can look into it. But right now, there is nothing on the names that this person mentioned.”

Witless Bay council makes moves to reinstate Crown Land Reserve

By Mark Squibb/December 16, 2021

Things in Witless Bay have come full circle.

A 2020 decision to rescind a decision made in 2014 to petition the Department of Environment & Conservation to establish a Crown Land Reserve along the southern coastline of Witless Bay has itself been rescinded by the newly minted council.

The 99-hectare reserve would begin at the first section of Crown Land located south of Mullowney’s Lane, and extend south to the end of the Witless Bay boundary for a width of 450 metres.

The original motion to create the reserve was made in July of 2014. Ralph Carey, who was a councilor at the time, seconded the motion. The council of the day, with the exception of councilor Rene Estrada, voted in favour of it.

Six years later, in January of 2020, the council of the day rescinded that motion. According to the Town’s published minutes, then mayor Derm Moran said the department did not approve the request. He also said that private property was included in the 99 hectares and that while the property owners would have access to their land, they would not be able to build there on it.

During the November 18, 2021, public council meeting, Carey, who has returned to council, brought forward a motion to rescind the motion of January 2020. The request to rescind it, along with a number of other requests to rescind other motions, came at the behest of a resident whom council would not identify.

Carey said that while he was well versed in the history of the matter, he knew the other councilors would want some time to read up it before voting.

A request to rescind another motion, that had been made in March of 2020, was also put on the backburner by Carey. That motion, which also came at the behest of the same unidentified resident, was that council write the Department of Municipal of Affairs requesting the removal of the reserve from the Town’s Municipal Plan.

Both motions were listed back as back on this week’s agenda, and council was ready to rescind both.

“We need to meet with the province in the new year to find a solution for this that’s good to everybody, but what we need is a balance that, while it may not be totally in the interest of all the residents or interested parties, it should achieve a balance that is sound and supportable for the whole community,” said Carey. “So, we need to move forward on this, and we need to make the motion to rescind.”

The motion is near the heart of a battle that has raged for the past decade. Private landowners are concerned that the land reserve would impede access to their private properties, including the ability to build upon their own land. Meanwhile, a number of activists, including Deputy Mayor Lorna Yard, have protested development in and around the coastline as they fear development would encroach on Ragged Beach and the surrounding ecological reserve.

Council voted unanimously to rescind both motions, which in theory reinstates the actions of the 2014 council to declare a Crown Land Reserve.

Bay Bulls councilor rejects 'good news budget'

By Mark Squibb/December 16, 2021

The Town of Bay Bulls has approved a new budget and tax structure for 2022, though not unanimously.

Mayor Neil O’Brien introduced the budget that is balanced at $3.4 million. Residential property tax remains unchanged at 4.5 mils, the commercial property tax remains at 14.75 mils. The minimum property tax is $400, minimum vacant land tax is $200, and the direct sellers’ tax is $250. All those fees are the same as this past year. The minimum business tax will be $450, up $50 from this year.

An eight percent discount will be provided to residents who pay taxes in full before the due date of June 30, 2022.

Mayor O’Brien asked Town manager Jennifer Aspell to give a ‘Reader’s Digest’ version of the budget for the benefit of residents tuning in.

“So, there’s a number of good things to say about this budget,” said Aspell. “There’s no mil rate increases at all. Across the board now, some fees have increased. So, no mil rate increase does not mean that people do not see an increase to their property tax bill in 2022. It really depends on their individual property assessment.”

She noted that for those constructing a commercial building, the town will charge an application fee once someone applies, but there will be no additional permit fee.

One of the big questions ahead of the budget was how a newly minted council would handle the controversial question of the ‘craft tax.’

In 2020, the former council increased the home-based business tax from $375 to $450, and hit a number of business owners who had previously not been taxed.

Some of those businesses belonged to folks knitting crafts at home.

The craft tax, as it became known, hit a nerve with crafters and non-crafters alike, some of whom came out to the council chambers to argue the tax with council face-to-face. Their arguments that selling crafts on Facebook did not make them businesspeople, along with admonitions that council best mind its own business, were of no avail. The tax remained.

It still remains, with some revisions however.

“There have been changes to the home-based business tax structure,” explained Aspell. “There are now three categories of home businesses.”

The first is a light-industry home based business tax and will include handmade articles such as clothing and crafts. Those folks will be taxed at $150 annually. Next up is medium industry home-based businesses, which includes studios, salons, spas, photography, private day care, and pet grooming. Folks operating those business out of their home will be taxed $300. A final category targets larger operations that don’t fit in either of the first two categories. Those folks will be taxed $450 annually.

The new budget also introduced a general retail category for storefronts such as clothing stores, sporting goods, craft shops, and gift shops. Those will be levied a business tax at 5 mils. The commercial property tax for those stores will remain the same.

One fly in the ointment was the provincial government’s decision to deny council’s request to be exempt from Own Source Revenue requirements.

Based on the 2016 census, the provincial government requires the town collect an average of $1,047 in taxes from each person in town to meet the provincial government’s quota.

“So, overall, it’s a good news budget, for sure,” said Aspell. “We would certainly like to reduce the mil rate across the board, but we had requested, as most people know, an exemption to our own source revenue accountability requirement to have our per capita rate reduced so that we could reduce the mil rate and that request was not granted. So, we have worked around the budget as much as possible to make sure that the implication is minimal, if at all. I don’t think there were any negative implications here at all.”

When it came time to vote on the budget, one councilor made it clear that he could not support it for a very specific reason.

“One thing is the point about the craft tax,” said councilor Jason Sullivan. “Even though it’s reduced to 150 bucks, I still have a  struggle taxing anyone doing crafts at their kitchen table.”

Sullivan said he made a promise to residents that he would not support a ‘craft tax,’ and for that reason he would not support the budget.

Following some discussion, councilor Shannon O’ Driscoll made it a point to clarify that the businesses was not a ‘craft tax.’

“The home-based business tax is what we are talking about, and people refer to it as a ‘craft tax,’” said O’Driscoll. “I just wanted to clarify that there is no actual ‘craft tax’ as such. It is a home-based business tax, and we wanted to be fair, across the board, to all home-based businesses.”

With the exception of Sullivan, council voted in favour of both the budget and the tax structure.

Mistaken Point fossils featured in at Royal Ontario Museum

By Patrick Newhook/December 16, 2021

 Provincial Environment Minister Bernard Davis is delighted that visitors to the Royal Ontario Museum’s new permanent gallery will get a chance to examine the historic fossil record of Newfoundland, namely some of the fossils from the Mistaken Point Ecological Reserve near Cape Race.

 The Royal Ontario Museum unveiled the Willner Madge Gallery, Dawn of Life, this month featuring almost 1,000 fossil specimens representing over four billion years of evolution from the earliest microbes to the dawn of dinosaurs and mammals. Exceptional Canadian fossil deposits of great scientific significance, including from the UNESCO World Heritage Site at Mistaken Point Ecological Reserve, are among the specimens on display.

 The Mistaken Point Ecological Reserve is one of four UNESCO World Heritage Sites featured in the new gallery. Inscribed as a UNESCO World Heritage Site in 2016, the reserve is located on the south coast of the Avalon Peninsula and is home to the world’s oldest, large, complex multicellular fossils, representing the remains of soft-bodied creatures that lived 560 to 580 million years ago.

 Mistaken Point’s fossils of multicellular life, such as the standing frond Charniodiscus procerus from 575 million years ago during the Ediacaran Period, are included in the new gallery.

 “Congratulations to the Royal Ontario Museum for their work on the new gallery, Dawn of Life,” said Davis. “This permanent gallery details the global history of environmental changes and mass extinctions and will help us better understand our environment and how our ecosystems first began. We are proud that fossils from Mistaken Point Ecological Reserve will help tell the story of early life and evolution on Earth.”

Bay Bulls mayor offers apology and explanation

By Mark Squibb/December 16, 2021

Bay Bulls Mayor Neil O’Brien opened the December 13 public meeting on Tuesday by apologising for his behaviour during the previous council meeting, held on November 8.

“I’d like to take this opportunity first to apologize first to the people of Bay Bulls, my fellow council members, and town staff, for my deportment and etiquette at the last public meeting, on November the eighth,” said O’Brien. “On that day, I had travelled after rearranging my work schedule so I would be able to participate in the meeting. I never got any sleep, so I took over the counter medication to try and get some rest that day. This caused a complication with a new medication I had just started the previous day before leaving home, which left me very incoherent and unable to participate in the meeting. Moving on, I take full responsibility for my actions and I can assure my fellow councillors, town staff, and the people of Bay Bulls that I will make every effort to ensure that this will never happen again.”

During the November meeting, Deputy Mayor Jason O’ Brien took over the mayor’s chair after O’Brien was unable to continue with the meeting.