Firearm report has Spaniard’s Bay council considering mass notification system

By Olivia Bradbury / Local Journalism Initiative

A firearm scare in Spaniard’s Bay April 14 had council thinking the next day about a better way to communicate with the public during emergencies.
The firearm scare involved an order from the Bay Roberts RCMP for residents to shelter in place. By coincidence, council was scheduled to meet the next day. Citing the incident, councillor Darlene Stamp suggested the Town purchase a mass notification service that could be helpful in the future.
While the RCMP made a post on Facebook about an armed individual being spotted in a public street and asked residents to shelter in place, many people in Spaniard’s Bay did not see it.
“It was only by fluke of Facebook that somebody heard that there was an incident happening in the town,” said Deputy Mayor Tammy Oliver, pointing out the limited effectiveness of social media.
While social media sites, such as Facebook, X, TikTok and Instagram, boast millions of users around the world, a post on any of them can only be seen if you are a follower of the person making the post or if you happen to be using the social media account at the time they make it. And only then too if you happen to notice the post among the constantly changing stream of messages being posted by others.
Acting Town Clerk/Manager Vanessa Higgins noted that Town staff were not notified of the situation. “And if we don’t get notified, we can’t notify the residents,” Higgins said.
While the shelter in place order lasted for a couple of hours, Higgins said Town staff were not made aware of the situation until 10 to 15 minutes before it was over.
Councillor Sherry Lundrigan was in Bay Roberts when the post was made. She went to the Spaniard’s Bay Municipal Centre, which houses the council chambers, to drop off something. Unaware of the shelter in place order, she found the doors locked and did not know why. Lundrigan remarked that a lot of people are not on Facebook, would not have seen the RCMP’s post, and would have been unaware anything was happening.
Following the incident, councillor Stamp did some research into a mass notification service. She told council that both Bay Roberts and Upper Island Cove use such services. The mass notifications are not only useful in emergency situations, but can be used to share newsletters, notices, information about events, and so on, she said. The service used by Bay Roberts and Upper Island Cove, which comes from the company Voyent, costs about $2,800 a year. Interested residents have to opt in by providing their contact information.
“Upper Island Cove finds it great,” said Stamp, explaining that it took a while for it to catch on as residents have to submit their phone numbers for it to work.
Mayor Paul Brazil noted that Spaniard’s Bay had considered a mass notification service in the past. However, council ultimately decided against it, at that time, as it did not seem likely the Town would get enough residents to offer their contact information to justify the cost of the service. Brazil suggested they could invite one of Voyent’s sales representatives to come to the town and give a presentation.
Deputy Mayor Oliver added the cost is less than it was when the Town first considered it.
Stamp, who is secretary of the Joint Council of Conception Bay North, noted that members of that group have discussed rising crime rates in their communities.
“We’ve got to keep up with an alert system to keep people safe,” said Stamp. “We’ve got to keep on top of that. And I think for the sake of a couple of hundred dollars a month — I mean, we spend more than that on other stuff — I think it’d be easy to get a system in place.”
Stamp made a motion that the Town contact Voyent for information about the service. It was seconded by Deputy Mayor Oliver and passed unanimously.