By Craig Westcott
Despite a lack of comprehensive permanent funding from any level of government and the vagaries of Newfoundland's tourism industry in the aftermath of the Covid-19 pandemic, the foundation that manages the Colony of Avalon archeological site in Ferryland managed to keep on keeping on last year with plans in place for improvements next year.
At the foundation's annual general meeting last month in Ferryland, board chairman Mike Harrington saluted the contributions of the board members, who are all volunteers, and thanked the Colony’s executive director, Kate Pitcher, for all the work she does in managing the operations and keeping the staff well motivated.
Surprisingly, one of the first things Harrington had to do in presenting his annual report was explain why the meeting was so late this year. The foundation usually holds its AGM later in the year anyway with a review of the previous year's financial statements, meaning the figures under review are more than a year old. This time they were a little bit later than that.
"We rescheduled several times, in case you didn't notice," said Harrington. "I'll note that the reason for the two postponements for this AGM was that the financial statement was not complete, that's why both times we had to reschedule. We received the final financial statement yesterday (December 14), believe it or not."
All told, the Colony took in some $430,569 in revenue and grants in 2023, but spent $482,934, leaving a deficit of $52,365.
The Colony's biggest source of revenue, as in previous years, came from sales at the gift shop – some $123,748, Harrington noted, adding that is "almost 29 per cent of the total. That's sales, not profit, obviously."
The Colony also received some $87,860 in unrestricted grants from the federal and provincial governments. That's money it is free to use to fund its operations as it sees fit. It also received some $57,242 in restricted grants. Those are monies that have to be spent on specifically identified projects, such as repairs or enhancements to the Colony's premises.
The Colony got some $45,032 in student employment grants in 2023, and significantly, solicited $61,579 in donations, which marked a 422 per cent increase over the previous year.
Some $36,335 was taken in by way of admission fees paid by tourists, which also marked an increase, about an 11 per cent over the amount collected in 2022.
The Colony was able to earn some $1,977 in interest thanks to a smart financial move. The Foundation took advantage of a federal Covid program that allowed businesses and organizations to borrow up to $60,000 and as long as they paid back $40,000 of it by the end of 2023, they could keep the remaining $20,000.
"It was too good a deal to pass up," said Harrington. "So, we did that, and we did not spend any of that money, we just stuck it in a savings account and that's the interest that we earned on it."
Another source of revenue for the Colony turned out to be a bit of a puzzler for the foundation's board members, namely $9,272 in "miscellaneous" revenue, most of which was said by the accounting firm to represent an overpayment of Harmonized Sales Tax.
"We only recently learned about this," Harrington said. "And we'll be reviewing it with the accountant. So right now, this is a bookkeeping entry, and if correct, and if we can convince the CRA that it is correct, which is not always an easy task, we likely won't get it credited back to us until likely 2025. So, we have to explore that some more."
On the expenditure side, the Colony paid out $260,534 in salaries in 2023 to the 21 people who worked at its archaeological digs, laboratories, gift shop, and tourism operations. That was about 54 per cent of the operating costs, Harrington pointed out.
The other big cost was the gift shop, which spent some $100,106 on goods for reselling to tourists.
Insurance coverage cost the Colony $20,091, while utilities were another $15,936.
On a positive note, the Colony finally has high speed internet, and at a cheaper price than it had been paying for the slower service it endured previously.
"So hopefully, now, we'll be spoiled by our high-speed internet," Harrington joked.
Another positive note was that interest costs on long term debt fell in 2023 to $1,856 compared to $3,053 the year previously. That because the foundation managed to pay off one its two long term loans from the Celtic Community Business Development Corporation.
"The second one will be paid off in the spring of 2026," Harrington said. "And while we like CBDC, we look forward to not sending them a cheque anymore."
After accounting for all items, the Colony's deficit in 2023 was $41,967. Its total value net assets stood $123,863, and it finished the year with cash resources of $48,026, money which was used going into 2024 to pay operating costs.
“As you've heard me say many times before, and I'm going to repeat it again," said Harrington, "we are a non-profit, and we prove it every year."
The end of the chairman's report on the financial statement ended, as it had started, with a wrinkle.
"Normally at this point we would ratify the selection of the accounting firm for fiscal year 2024," said Harrington. "However, as I said earlier, we received the fiscal year 2023 financial statement yesterday, mid-day, and while the whole board has seen it and accepted it, and we had seen a draft prior, as a board we really need to sit down and explore the reasons for why it was so late, and have some further discussions with the accountant and also to get some more information on this HST overpayment issue, which was a late breaking revelation to us. We only heard about it in the last couple of weeks. So, I think we must postpone the decision on who our accountant will be for next year."
As for the 2024 season, which will be reported on officially next December, Harrington was able to give a brief overview that showed things are looking up.
"Visitation was up (17.36 per cent) in 2024, and participation (in programs) was up significantly," he said. "So, thanks to Kate and the staff for providing the best visitor experience in Newfoundland and Labrador."
The total number of paid admissions in 2024 came to 3,259, compared to 2,639 in 2023, 2,530 in 2022 and 1,472 in 2021, numbers that reflect the effect of the Covid-19 pandemic on the Colony and tourism generally.
"Overall, we're not back to pre-Covid numbers, which I think is a reflection of the general tourism situation on the island,” Harrington said. “And of course, this year we had the Argentia ferry situation (in which the new ferry was delayed coming into operation) and a threatened Air Canada strike that didn't help matters either. But the trend is up, which is good."
The cost of operations again exceeded revenues in 2024, Harrington said, but the foundation did manage to get meetings with funding officials in the provincial government and with a couple of federal representatives to talk about future possibilities.
"And while the meetings were encouraging, in the end they haven't really contributed to the bottom line," Harrington admitted. "There is an ongoing effort among heritage organizations to press the Province on increasing CEDP (Cultural Economic Development Program) funding... All heritage organizations get CEDP funding, as do some arts organizations. Arts funding went up in the past few years, heritage funding has not gone up in the past few years. Actually, it hasn't gone up in over a decade. So, there is an effort to press that, and if you're ever talking to your MHA, bring it up, please."
