Some permits not worth a fight, says Seymour

By Mark Squibb / June 9, 2023

Carbonear councillor Malcolm Seymour says he has a message for his fellow councillors.

“Stop wasting taxpayers’ money,” said Seymour.

After The Shoreline reported last week that Seymour and councillor Danielle Doyle were divided over the right way to handle a resident who persisted in building a deck without getting a permit from Town Hall, Seymour called the paper to say the point of his objections was to save taxpayers’ money.

Doyle, and other councillors had argued the Town had no choice but to follow due process, which ultimately led to council issuing an order for the deck to be removed.

“We’re a small community, and we’re not big when it comes to money,” Seymour said this week. “I know we have rules and regulations, and we have things we have to go by. But when Mr. (Chris) O’Grady and Mrs. Doyle and Mr. (Ray) Noel spoke about this in the conversation we had, they weren’t letting me speak to explain myself properly. They kept interrupting.”

Seymour said his main concern was the length of time spent on the file — time he didn’t think was worth the meagre return.

“It’s been a year-and-half, and we’ve wasted taxpayers’ money by having people behind the scenes, like the CAO and secretaries and everyone else, drafting letters, sending letters, and going to a lawyer to get a stop work order drafted. And it takes a year-and-a-half for us to come up with this?” said Seymour. “And what are we going to get from it? This gentleman is going to come in, and say he’s going to say, ‘Here’s my $15 or $20,’ or whatever it’s going to cost (for a permit), and all this money we’ve taken in the last year-and-a-half, all this taxpayers money wasted, we’re going to gain $15 from it.”

Seymour said that rather than chase people for permits, he would rather the Town dropped the matter after a certain amount of time.

“Nothing should go past six months,” said Seymour. “Why not let it go? We’re not getting any further ahead with it… Somewhere along the line, we have to draw a line — how much money are we going to spend to get $15 in return?”

Seymour, who described the applicant as a prominent figure in town well known to council, said the public meeting was the first time he had discussed this specific application with fellow councillors, but that since that meeting, he has spoken with both Mayor Frank Butt and Deputy Mayor Sam Slade.

“We’re a small town, but we have a great future if we just take that future by the hand and lead it in the right direction,” said Seymour. “If we’re going to keep dragging our toes on a patio and deck… and waste all this money and all this energy on one little item, where are we going to go with this town?”

Seymour said he hopes to revisit the issue again at council.

“I went on council to represent the people, I didn’t go on council to waste taxpayers’ dollars,” said Seymour.