Celtic CBDC provided 10 loans last year

By Staff/November 4, 2021

The Celtic CBDC approved 10 applications last year and provided counselling to some 119 clients, according to figures released at its annual general meeting last month.

The organization is a not-for-profit community-based lender serving businesses and workers from Petty Harbour to Riverhead, St. Mary’s Bay. Its office is located in Ferryland. CBDC stands for Community Business Development Corporation. There are 15 CBDCs in Newfoundland and Labrador and others across Atlantic Canada. Celtic CBDC also manages the annual Youth Ventures entrepreneurial program. In its region.

One of Celtic’s earliest and most successful clients, Dianne Costello of Quality Home Care Services, which employs more than 100 people on the Southern Shore, was the guest speaker for the event. Costello started the company in her basement 15 years ago and has grown the venture into one of the biggest home care and compassionate care providers in the province, serving people from St. Shotts to St. John’s out of a newly-constructed headquarters in Ferryland.

In addition to Costello’s address, reports were provided on Celtic’s activities and financial statements.

Compared to the years prior to Covid-19, the Celtic CBDC’s activity appears to be down, but the organization was still busy, according to its numbers. The average size of loans issued for the period was $68,965. The total value of the assistance it provided during the year was $482,754.

Aside form loans and business counselling, Celtic helped seven businesses last year and helped maintain, or create some 43 jobs. It provided 10 Entrepreneurial Training Fund sessions and eight business client sessions to some 56 clients on topics including finance, management, marketing and business coaching.

Overall, Celtic CBDC has some $4.2 million in outstanding loans and investments, with about 30 per cent of its portfolio loaned to businesses in the accommodations and food services sector. Loans to fisheries enterprises make up 16 per cent of its portfolio, with arts and entertainment enterprises composing a further eight per cent, health care eight percent, and construction nine per cent.

Holyrood businessman eulogized at council

By Craig Westcott/October 28, 2021

Well known Holyrood businessman, raconteur and country music fan Brendan Hunt left a deep impression on most people who knew or met him over the years, including Holyrood Mayor Gary Goobie, who paid tribute to him at last week's public council meeting.

Hunt, who had a long and successful career in the investment business and also operated The Tea Room in Holyrood, passed away October 2 at the age of 69.  In addition to his business activities, Hunt also spent some years serving on Holyrood council in the 1990s.

"He was a trailblazer," said Mayor Goobie. "He was quite a guy in many ways. He was a builder and he was a difference maker in the business world, during his tenure on council, with the parish and in his family life."

Hunt established First Atlantic Financial in 1992 and expanded it to Ontario this past August under the banner of First Atlantic Private Wealth. 

“He and his wife Marie made incredible improvements and renovations to the former Carroll property on Northside Road, converting out buildings into beautiful dwellings and B&Bs," Goobie added. "On the southside of Holyrood they acquired the original Olaf Olsen (heritage) property in 1991 and turned it into the successful Tea Garden, which operated for many years."
During his time on council, meanwhile, Hunt was the driving force behind the creation of the Festival Grounds, Goobie noted.

"He and Marie were also very committed to supporting the church and (Holy Cross) parish in numerous ways over the years," Goobie said. "Marie was also his best friend. They were inseparable, and they were a team."

But it was Hunt's personality that particularly registered with Goobie, and many others who knew him.

"Brendan had a no-nonsense approach," said the mayor, "and never accepted the attitude that something could not be done. He was relentless in his pursuit of making things happen, both for his family and for his community."

Goobie said Hunt, whom he viewed with the utmost respect and admiration, served as a mentor during his own early years on council.

"So, I'd like to share a story that has stuck in my mind for many years," said Goobie. "It's about the Green Acres subdivision. Brendan was vexed one night at a council meeting that these residents were living in an unpaved subdivision for years, literally choking on dust from the gravel road. He said, 'You can't even hang out a pair of drawers on the line.' When we asked where the money was going to come from, his response was pretty blunt. ‘Well, there's lot of money over at the bank. Go get a loan and get it done,' he implored. And that was exactly the way he said it. Needless to say, when he got on a little rant, we weren't going to get in his way. And lo and behold, the pavement was laid sooner than later. So, when you drive down Green Acres, think of Brendan Hunt, because he was the guy who made that happen. And I could go on and on with the stories, and I'm sure many of his friends and acquaintances in our community could share many a story and pleasant laughs about this wonderful gentleman."

Goobie extended sincere condolences on behalf of the Town of Holyrood to Hunt's wife Marie and all his family, which includes four sons and a daughter, as well as grandchildren and a large circle of relatives, in-laws and friends.

Bay Bulls committee sets its eyes on museum, tourist kiosk

By Mark Squibb/October 28, 2021

Members of the Bay Bulls heritage committee hope that with a little funding, a town museum and tourist kiosk could be in the town’s future.

There is no member of council yet on the committee, so the Town’s chief administrative officer, Jennifer Aspell, provided a brief update during the October 12 public meeting.

“We’ve identified some priorities which are achievable in the short and long term, and we’ve also met with some potential funding partners to see what types of projects could be funded,” said Aspell. “Right now, the heritage committee seems to be keenly interested in a couple of things. One would be the construction of a tourism kiosk, because we currently don’t have anything in the town for tourists such as an information centre. Also, a long-term plan, because we know that there has been a lot of interest from the general public, would be to construct a museum.”

Aspell said there is a tremendous amount of heritage within the community, and the committee wants to capture and preserve as much of the town’s history as possible.

“So, the heritage committee is going to continue to meet and engage the business community and see what kind of activities the heritage committee could be taking on that might increase economic development within the town,” said Aspell.

She said the committee was not yet an independent body so that committee items would continually come back to council for consideration.

Council would of course ultimately decide which, if any, funding applications to submit.

As to Bay Bulls itself, the town name first appeared on a map drawn by Thomas Hood in 1592. During it’s 400-year history, the town, being a harbour community, was raided and attacked a number of times, but still stands firm to this day. The Bay Bulls Harbour is also a Provincial Historic Site, as it is the home of one of Canada’s earliest shipwrecks. The HMS Sapphire sunk in 1696 following an attack by a French ship during King William’s War (1689-1697). The wreck lies at the bottom of Bay Bulls Harbour.

Another week, another vacancy in Witless Bay

By Mark Squibb/October 21, 2021

The Town of Witless Bay is looking to hire a full time, paid fire chief.

If that sounds familiar, it’s because they did that just five months ago.

Maria Churchill was hired in late May, and began work on May 31, selected by L.W. Consulting from a pool of over 30 applicants.

Churchill is the latest in a string of town staff who have hung up their hats in recent months. Currently, the town has no CAO, no town clerk, and now, no fire chief.

During the October 19 meeting, in which the news of the chief’s departure became public, Deputy Mayor Lorna Yard moved that council proceed immediately with the process of hiring a new paid fire chief.

The problem is that council is unsure how to proceed.

“My question to council is, how do you want to proceed with this?” asked Yard. “(Councillor) Alex (Troke) has done some research on our previous consultant, and they don’t really owe us anything because the position didn’t work out. So, we’re basically back at square one.”

Troake said it would be best to tender the position through a consultant, but the process will undoubtedly take at least a few weeks.

Mayor Trevor Croft noted the previous consulting firm had a number of applicants, and he wondered if that list was available for council’s use.

“There may have been good candidates there that weren’t chosen for whatever reason, it doesn’t make them a bad fire chief, it just means that they weren’t chosen for that position for whatever reason,” said Croft. “Could that be the quickest route, because now time is absolutely urgent. So, would someone have seven or eight names to give us, or do we go fishing for names, is my question.”

Council met with the outgoing fire chief last week.

“We met with the outgoing fire chief last week, and we had a great discussion with her, and she gave us some really good advice,” said Yard. “It was unfortunate that we couldn’t persuade her to stay. We tried, but that didn’t work out. So, we wanted to make sure that we moved ahead with this, and do it right, so we’re not in this situation again where we can’t hold on to a fire chief.”

Yard said the town also met with members of the volunteer fire department.

“Council had a very positive meeting last night with the fire department,” she said. “They’re a very busy department. Our town is growing, all the areas that they’re serving are growing, and it’s critical that they have a paid fire chief and the support of the town, which they certainly do.”

She said that volunteers at the station told council they felt like they had little input into the hiring, and she would like to see them more involved.

Council voted unanimously to move ahead with the process.

In the previous meeting, council voted unanimously to cancel the $500 limit on the fire chief’s spending.

Bay Bulls council finds itself short

By Mark Squibb/October 21, 2021

Bay Bulls’ new council ran into an old problem right off the bat at its first meeting last week – a lack of quorum, because some councilors were in a conflict of interest.

The item on the agenda was an application for a utility shed.

Councilor Keith O’ Driscoll declared himself in conflict as he had an immediate family member adjacent to the property.

His wife and fellow councillor Shannon O’Driscoll declared herself in conflict for the same reason.

Thirdly, Mayor Neil O’Brien declared conflict, as he lives in close proximity to the property.

As three of the five councilors had declared conflict, quorum was lost, and a vote could not be taken.

The town’s chief administrative officer Jennifer Aspell said council can request ministerial approval for the remaining two members to vote on the matter.

Councillor Jason Sullivan asked if Mayor O’Brien could retract his declaration, but Aspell said he could not as he had already declared.

Sullivan joked that council ought to just let the applicant put the shed up, seeing as council couldn’t vote on the matter.

When Aspell asked if council wanted to go ahead and seek ministerial approval, Sullivan said that by the time approval was granted the shed would be built, so it didn’t matter.

“Well, that’s not really the case,” said Aspell after a pause. “There has to be a decision on this matter, so either you ask for ministerial approval for the remaining two to make a decision, or we can defer it until next month and see if it can be dealt with then.”

A recommendation was made to defer the motion, but Sullivan argued there was no point to deferring it as council will not be able to deal with it at the next meeting for the same reason.

The agenda item will be back on the agenda once ministerial approval is granted. The actual location of the property was never identified during the meeting.

Earlier in the meeting, council grappled with a similar challenge with conflict of interest. The town had received an application for a family home on Track Road Extension.

First, councilor Keith O’Driscoll inquired whether he would be in conflict, as an immediate family member lives on the same street.

Sullivan made the motion that O’Driscoll was not in conflict. He noted that if he was, his wife Shannon would be too, and council would not have a quorum to deal with the matter.

Put to a vote, council determined the couple were not in a conflict.

But then Mayor O’Brien declared himself in conflict, because he lives near the proposed construction site.

That led to Deputy Mayor Jason O’Brien assuming the chair.

After all the wrangling about who was or was not in a conflict, council denied the application due to a lack of information.

Following that motion, council unanimously approved construction of a commercial building on Winnonish Drive.

The previous council had, with permission from the provincial government, reduced the town’s complement of councilors from seven to five after numerous attempts to fill two vacancies fell short. This past election, 10 people ran for council, but the Town stuck with limiting the council complement to five positions.

Sullivan not on board with Joan for repairs to Lifestyle Centre

By Mark Squibb/October 21, 2021

During the first public meeting of the newly minted Bay Bulls council, held October 12, councilor Jason Sullivan made it known he was not impressed with the size of the cheque the town will have to cut to cover the cost of repairs to the Bay Bulls Regional Lifestyle Centre.

“The town was awarded funding back in late August, we’ve been unable to make an announcement, and still not making an official announcement, to complete upgrades to the Bay Bulls Regional Lifestyle Centre,” said Town CAO Jennifer Aspell.

She explained the funding was awarded on a 50/50 cost shared basis. The town’s contribution will be $346,765, and upgrades will include roof replacement, installation of a back-up generator, (Aspell noted there is currently no emergency warming centre in town, and that the back up generator would allow the town to offer such a centre), installation of air flow vents throughput the building and heat pumps for energy efficiency, and other upgrades.

Aspell said the Town has received approval from the Community Credit Union, and now just needs to make a resolution to sign the loan agreement.

Sullivan wished to discuss the matter before a motion was made, but Aspell pointed out that under the rules of order, a motion had to be made first in order to have a discussion.

Sullivan then made a motion to discuss the item, but quickly let council know that though he would vote in favour of the motion, he was not really for it.

“We kind of got blind-sided by this, as it is our first meeting,” said Sullivan. “I just want to make it very clear that I’m not really happy about how this building is only 10 years old and we’re pumping a million dollars into it now. So, I just want to make it clear that it’s a lot of money and we don’t take it lightly.”

The loan would be amortized over a 10-year period, with a locked in rate of 3.5 per cent over the first five years. It would be renewable after five years. Payments would by $3,400 per month during the five-year term.

Returning officer questions actions of new Witless Bay councillors

By Mark Squibb/October 14, 2021

Witless Bay returning officer Cathy Armstrong was none too impressed with an impromptu swearing-in ceremony that she says should never have taken place.

Armstrong says she was hired by the Town to work the advance polls, election, nomination process and swearing-in ceremony.

Unfortunately for Armstrong, she came aboard in the midst of a flurry of staff resignations that left the Town Hall empty.

“I guess you could say I was the last person working there,” said Armstrong.  She added that CAO Kevin Kelly, who she said was a very nice person, was the last employee to resign, leaving the job shortly after the advance poll. So, from September 14 onward, she was the town’s lone employee.

“Even simple things, like how to use the copier, I had to learn on my own,” said Armstrong.

She hired some help to count the ballots and help instruct voters on election day.

 “We had an enormous turnout of people, to the point where when we started counting the ballots, it took us right into 2 o’clock in the morning before we got them all done,” said Armstrong. “It was just a steady count.”

She said despite the long hours, election night went well, and that COVID protocols were followed and voters were patient and kind.

Wednesday morning, after not getting to bed until around 3 a.m., Armstrong said she went to the council building, called Municipal Affairs and sent in the appropriate paperwork.

Then came Thursday.

“Thursday was going to be a nice little holiday; I would finally have some time to breath — until all Hell broke lose,” said Armstrong. “On Thursday, I started getting hounded by some of the councillors, four of them, that wanted to be sworn in right away. But I was trying to explain to them that there was a window of three days that the other candidates have to decide if they want a recount. Even though there were no big margins, I still felt they had the right to have that three day (period) that was in the ruling.”

One candidate, Jacob Hayden, was out of the province, and Armstrong said she was being pressured by other members of council to swear him in through a virtual ceremony.

“They were telling me that I had to swear him in virtually,” said Armstrong. “You can’t swear someone in virtually, they have to sign that Oath of Office in front of me.”

She touched base with Municipal Affairs, which confirmed that a candidate cannot be sworn-in virtually.

Eventually, Armstrong decided to host the ceremony on Sunday, October 3, at 4 in the evening.

That was not soon enough however, for some councillors who wanted to be sworn in immediately.

She said one of them even came to her house.

“He came in very nasty, and in a shouting kind of way wanted to know where I was at,” said Armstrong. “He told me that, no way no how, that I had to swear him in right there and then.”

She said the councillor demanded to be sworn in right away because he was afraid the former council would spend all the town’s money before Sunday’s swearing in ceremony.

“He got very nasty about it, and very upset by it,” said Armstrong. “I couldn’t listen to him any more. So, I told him, ‘I am doing your swearing-in on Sunday at 4 o’ clock, and that’s it. I’m going to call all the rest of them and let them now the same thing.”

Armstrong said that the man told her he wouldn’t be home on Sunday, and insisted she do it before then.

“That night I got a message from someone, asking, “Did you know that Lorna Yard is planning a swearing-in ceremony in her living room at 1 o’clock?’” said Armstrong. “She can’t do that. She’s an elected councillor, she can’t override what I was put here to do. Who does that? I couldn’t believe it. So, then I called one of the council members, and apparently, they had been called and asked to be (there), because they were going to be swore in at Lorna Yard’s. And I said, ‘There’s something not right with this picture.’”

Armstrong said she then went to newly elected councillor Nancy Burke, and that Burke had heard of it, but wasn’t planning on attending.”

“Around 1:30 or 2 o’clock on Saturday afternoon, I got a call from a friend of mine saying that there were people entering the council building,” said Armstrong.

She said she was so disturbed, as she thought she was the only one who had a key to the building, that she phoned the RCMP.

“If anything was stolen or broken, because you know yourself that the council building is a very sacred place, there’s so much personal information held there, and no one has any business in that building unless they have authority to be there, and there’s management (present),” said Armstrong. “But there wasn’t, they just walked in, apparently got sworn-in, and did whatever they liked. So, I called the RCMP and told them the story, and told them that I just wanted it on file that I was not near that building on Saturday.”

Four members of council were indeed sworn-in that Sunday — new Mayor Trevor Croft, new Deputy Mayor Lorna Yard, and councillors Gerard Dunne and Ralph Carey, who had served on the 2013 – 2017 council.

Armstrong immediately cancelled plans to hold the ceremony on Sunday.

“I could not do a swearing-in ceremony on Sunday for the simple fact that Lorna Yard and the other three council members were after going over my head and doing something that wasn’t ethical,” she said. “I can’t understand why they did what they did… They did it for power, not to help the people they said they were going to be council members for.”

Come Monday, she phoned Municipal Affairs and was told the ceremony was perfectly within the right of the councillors who had wished to be sworn-in. She said they then asked her to simply swear in the other three at a later date.

Come Tuesday evening, Armstrong did swear-in the remaining three members of council – Alex Troake, Jacob Hayden, and Nancy Bruke.

Croft came out on top of the municipal election, earning 520 votes. At council’s first public meeting, held at 7:30 p.m. on Friday, October 8, he introduced himself as the new mayor of Witless Bay.

“It’s a bit daunting at first,” said Croft. “But you get into the swing of things. We’re after having one meeting already, and it went fairly smoothly. We’ll have another meeting on the nineteenth. So, the more I get involved with it the more comfortable I feel.”

Croft was declared mayor, while Yard, who finished sixth in the vote count, was declared deputy mayor.

The actual election of those positions, however, happened in a private meeting before the public meeting via a secret ballot, according to Croft.

He admits several members of council, himself included, wanted to be sworn-in immediately.

“I respect Cathy, and she’s done an absolutely fantastic job this entire election, but there were some issues that arose,” said Croft.  “She didn’t want to swear us in when we wanted to, so we decided, in order to get things done and get things moving as quick as possible, we went a different route… There were some issues on council, and we needed to get in as quick as we can to make sure that we didn’t fall behind. And we learned there was a lot more fallen behind than we actually thought there was. But we had to get in as quick as possible to make sure that everything was going to be worked out as quickly as possible. So, the majority of us got sworn in as early as possible, and the others that didn’t get sworn in right away got sworn in at a later day.”

He said the swearing in ceremony held on Saturday was completely above board.

“Everything was done completely legally,” said Croft. “We went to Municipal Affairs to find out the proper way to do it. They knew the situation in Witless Bay has never been easy.”

He said a commissioner of oaths came by to swear-in the councillors. As to how they got inside the building, Croft said Armstrong was wrong in asserting she was the only one with a key.

“There’s five or six keys to that building, so I think she was a bit mistaken,” said Croft. “I got my key off a past councillor. Once we were sworn in, that’s when I got the key.”

He did not provide the name of that councillor, as he said they had asked not to be named.

“Once Cathy realized the rules and regulations weren’t what she thought the rules and regulations were, that’s when everything started to move smoothly again,” said Croft. “It went a little hairy there for a little while, but it was nothing we couldn’t handle for sure.”

As for the supposed idea of a swearing-in ceremony in Yard’s living room, Croft said he had never heard of it. Yard herself was unavailable for comment, Tuesday, citing a personal matter.

Croft said one of the major issues that needs to be addressed is staffing.

As Armstrong alluded to, the town hall was unstaffed for a period of at least aa couple of weeks. Council voted during its Friday night meeting to appoint former assistant town clerk Barbara Harrigan, who resigned a few months back, to a temporary clerk’s position.

“She came out of retirement to help us out for a couple of months,” said Croft. “We’re going to be hiring somebody here soon I assume to be her assistant and get trained in. So, we’re very thankful that Barb is back, she’s going to help us out a lot.”

Croft said getting the positions of CAO and Town Clerk filled are among the highest priorities of council.

“The most important thing is to get the town hall opened up so that people can get their taxes paid and get their permits and stuff like that,” said Croft. “If we don’t have anybody in the office, we can’t get anything done, and it’s been backing up for a while, so Barb has her work cut out for her over the next couple of weeks.”

Croft said he didn’t know whether folks on the payroll, such as maintenance workers or the fire chief, had gone without pay due to the lack of staff.

“We’re on damage control right now, which we really shouldn’t be, we should be concentrating on other issues, but we have to fix all these problems before we can start making things better,” Croft said.

The first public meeting of council was short, lasting 15 minutes, with more of a focus on hitting the brakes than the gas pedal. One of the first items of business was to rescind the motion of the previous council which had issued a contract for an extension to Mullowney’s Lane. That was followed by a motion to order law firm Stewart McKelvey, which represented the Town against groups such as Yard’s that opposed that work off, to cease all activities on behalf of the town. The new council also ordered O’Brien’s Contracting, which was constructing the extension, to cease all activities on behalf of the town pending a review.

All three motions passed unanimously with no debate.

Another motion that passed unanimously was that the locks on the town hall and Puffin Centre be changed, which effectively locks out community groups that use the Puffin Centre, at least for the time being.

Councillor Jacob Hayden said it was simply a matter of council wanting to get a grasp on how many keys have been distributed to community groups, and that those who should have keys will get new ones.

The next public meeting will take place October 19.