By Mark Squibb/December 9, 2021
Bay Bulls and Witless Bay both voted on a quote from Clean Harbours Initiative earlier this month, but while one council enthusiastically welcomed the initiative, the other passed.
The motion first appeared on the agenda for the November 8 Bay Bulls public meeting.
“This is a group that been going around Newfoundland, and cleaning up various harbours,” explained deputy mayor Jason O’Brien. “It’s a great environmental initiative.”
What council did not find so great was the $5,440 price tag.
Councilor Shannon O’ Driscoll motioned to deny, and councilor Jason Sullivan seconded the motion.
“I think we need to deny this at the moment, just for the fact that we’re still trying to burn out our budget for this next year and to this incur this cost is something that we don’t really want to take on right now,” said Sullivan.
Councilor Keith O’Driscoll noted that the port is a federal port.
“They have a harbor authority, so that’s kind of there baby,” said O’ Driscoll.
The very next night, Witless Bay council unanimously approved the initiative.
“The Clean Harbour Initiative is an initiative started by a local Newfoundland man going around to different areas of the province and taking ocean trash and other debris that has been cast to the way side for years, into our lovely oceans and beautiful scenery and onto out beaches,” explained councilor Jacob Hayden, who made the motion. “He’s going to come up and do an assessment just to tell if it’s worth him coming back in the future to do a full cleanup of the harbour.”
Deputy Mayor Lorna Yard seconded the motion and shared her enthusiasm for the project.
“I think it’s a really exciting initiative,” said Yard. “Initially I didn’t know a whole lot about it, until I looked into what he does. I think it’s really good seeing we have a globally significant seabird reserve right off our shores. I think this will be a really good news story for our town.”
Council voted unanimously in favor of the motion.
Councilor Ralph Carey added that should the clean up go ahead, it would be worthwhile to invite Mobile High School students to participate, as their studies require, they get a certain number of volunteer hours. Councilor Alex Troake added his support to the motion, saying it would be good for both the community and the seabird ecological reserve.
The quoted price was not mentioned in the meeting.
