Folks who frequent the Community Spirit Park in Harbour Main will be glad to hear the Town is looking at expanding the parking lot.

The goal is to widen the driveway on the back of the ballfield and make a new parking lot area on the bank.

Staff say the work will cost somewhere in the ballpark of $40000 to $50,000, and may be completed in phases.

A tender has been issued, and work is expected to start this fall to be ready for next spring.

The park is home to a playground, sports field, and ballfield.

Given that the Town of Harbour Main boasts a surprising number of softball stars, including Donny Cleary, John Gorman, Brad Ezekiel, and Sean Cleary, along with up-and-coming athletes Halle Joy, Lila Buckle, Mark Corbett, Ty Boland, Aaden Buckle, Claire Strapp, and Carson Dalton, upgrades to the parking lot will likely be enjoyed by generations yet to come.

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Premier Tony Wakeham has pressed ‘delete’ on his promised referendum on a new Churchill Falls deal. Once in government, he pressed ‘pause’ on the MOU of the Liberal administration, needing it as a framework for a revised deal. Now that too is deleted. All along Mr. Wakeham claimed there was plenty of time and we need not be in a rush in negotiating a deal. Now it is ‘fast forward’ and there are timelines in place. What has changed?

According to Wakeham, it was cancelled due the feds’ involvement, the political climate in Quebec and favourable market opportunities – or something like that. It sounds vague to me and feels dismissive. It is certainly not self-explanatory. Are we being pressured by the other parties to get it done quickly? There is an African saying, “The times are urgent, let us slow down.”

The purpose of the referendum was to give the people a direct vote on the Churchill Falls deal, to approve or reject it. This would avoid partisan politics, allowing this vote to be the final word. This would prevent a repetition of the consequences of the 1969 contract in which the public had no say, and the whole process was controlled by the government.

While governments claim to endorse the principle that resources belong to the people, rarely does a government invite voters to have a say in major resource developments. This government had done so loud and clear by promising a referendum on the new Churchill Falls agreement. Now it has been cancelled.

You don’t cancel a referendum. You make it happen. Was it ever a serious choice? Are we ready to implement a referendum? If a referendum was called now, is there a plan – nuts and bolts – in place to make it happen? One of the drawbacks of a referendum is that the electorate can reject the deal. What then? Not a scenario a government wants to face.

Instead of a referendum, the House will meet to debate and review the tentative Churchill Falls energy agreement. What difference will the debate make? If there is a vote – along party lines – the government can simply rubber-stamp its existing deal.

In spite of cancelling the referendum, Mr. Wakeham wants to hear from the people of the province. A few people talking to their MHA is not exactly the voice of the people.

Will this be another ‘top-down’ performance in which government just goes its own way, arrogantly excluding others? Will politicians ever learn from history how governments keep making mistakes because they don’t listen? Perhaps members of government should read or reread the report on the Muskrat Falls inquiry. It concluded the government was determined to proceed with the project ‘through the lens of political bias and unrealistic optimism.’ It refers to ‘concealed information’ and making efforts ‘to narrow consultants term’ to forestall an independent review while producing reports to favour the undertaking.

Among the report’s recommendations, two are relevant to the current negotiations: (1) To ensure independent monitoring of large capitol projects; (2) To require independent expert evaluation and well-defined risk assessments before sanctioning any public capitol project exceeding $50 million.

Without a referendum or some other form of engagement, citizens will be unable to engage in a meaningful debate or have a say about a new Churchill Falls deal. We were promised we would have a say. How will this happen?

Everett Hobbs,

CBS

The post Let us have our say appeared first on The Shoreline News.

By Ivan Morgan

There’s an old expression that says 80 percent of success is simply showing up. I wish I had understood that better in my youth. In my dotage I try to make people see the truth of it.

That’s especially true in politics. If someone has a campaign, show up. If you have opinions about stuff, voice them. Don’t be silenced. Show up, be counted.

It’s true for protests. If you feel strongly about something, and someone is organizing a protest, show up. Be heard. Can’t physically show up? Make yourself heard anyway. Will you achieve your goal? Maybe not. But energy breeds energy. Showing up is better than not.

A group of people – NL Proud on Facebook – are trying to organize a protest against the Wakeham Tories Churchill Falls MOU. They want to gather on the steps of the Confederation Building on September 14^th – that’s the day the Tories are opening the House for a special session to “debate” the new deal. In fact, what they will be doing is rubber stamping it, part of their fast-track plan, banking on most of us not caring.

It would be great if 10,000 people showed up, but it’s a Monday morning. Labour Day has passed; everyone is back to the grind. School is starting. People have lives.

Can’t make it? I think it’s imperative that you speak out in any way you see fit. 

What about this new deal? We know the Tories want it. We know Quebec wants it. We know the federal Liberals want it. Do we? We were promised the ability to have a say, and the Tories seem to be poised to break that promise.

We all should care. There are a growing number of people who say the Wakeham Tories’ new agreement with Quebec isn’t good enough. Maybe it is and maybe it isn’t. My sticking point, as I wrote last month, is they campaigned on a promise to give us a say.

What do you think? That’s what’s important. Are they afraid we won’t accept it? Read that line again. Who is working for who?

This is a very important decision. I did a straw poll of people I know, and most of those whom I asked think Wakeham’s Tories got elected on the promise of a referendum. There seems to be a lot of pressure from forces outside this province to get this deal signed ASAP without us having a say. Why?

If you’re one of the people who is not keen on the deal, or one of the people who wants a say on this deal, you need to show up. We all need to show up on this issue. Maybe not on the Confederation Building steps on a Monday morning, but somehow.

There are lots of ways of being heard – of showing up. We need to e-mail Tory MHAs. We need to Facebook them. We need to let the media know. We need to not be ignored, not this time, not on this issue.

In my lifetime I have seen governments cave in to public pressure. Not often but it can happen. It needs to happen now.

Pressure, real pressure, will not be ignored. You might think your little text or call doesn’t mean much. Just like 10 people on the steps of the Confederation Building don’t mean much. But hundreds and thousands of such actions matter. Thousands of such messages will get attention.

Showing up matters. Speaking out matters. We are being denied a basic democratic right that we were promised.  

The Wakeham Tories were not given a mandate to cut a deal with Quebec and sign off on it. They were given a mandate, by us, to cut that deal and let us vote on it.

What does one say about a group of politicians who break such a fundamental promise? Don’t show up, don’t speak out and those politicians will have their answer.

The premier, the Tory party, the federal Liberals, and Quebec do not seem to want you to have your say. They are banking on you not caring enough to speak out, not caring enough to get involved, not caring enough to send a message, not caring enough to show up.

Care.

Ivan Morgan can be reached at ivan.morgan@gmail.com

The post Show the politicians that you care appeared first on The Shoreline News.

By Mark Squibb

The CBS U15 Girls CL Strikers have had a season for the record books, capturing provincial gold after a nearly perfect season.

“These girls have had a pretty incredible season,” said manager and team cheerleader Tracy Whyte. “They played 22 games in total, and won 21 and tied one, so no losSes this whole season, which is pretty incredible.”

The team bested Corner Brook in the provincial gold medal game on August 23.

“It was 1-0,” said Whyte. “So, it was an incredible game of soccer, you truly had no idea what way it was going to go, but our girls dug in, and at minute 76 we got a goal, and that’s what won the game.”

Six of the 16 girls on the team have been playing together since U13 soccer, while others were playing together for the first time.

“They’re a super good group of kids, that are all very different, but they gelled so well,” said Whyte. “It made them the super team that they were. I think they feed on each others’ differences, and it made them the better for it.”

Whyte also credits the team’s success to the positive coaching styles of head coach Jen White and assistant coach Susan Duggan.

“Everybody was treated the same,” said Whyte. “They all had equal opportunity, so the team grew as a unit rather than relying on two or three players… It was really empowering to watch.”

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The Town of Paradise will move ahead with the construction of two new forcemains along St. Thomas Line when funding becomes available, council has decided.

Back in November of 2025, the Town hired RV Andersen to the tune of $54,625, HST included, to evaluate alternatives to twinning the St. Thomas Line forcemain while coordinating road improvements.

The report, received by staff in June, recommended the design and construction of two new forcemains and new storm sewer systems and a road upgrade, including curb and gutter. The report only considers the approximately 1.75 kilometres of St. Thomas Line containing the forcemain.

The work is expected to cost some $12-14 million.

Council voted to adopt the report and will put the plan into action once funding becomes available.

“I like that we have this final report and we’ll have it ready to go when we have the funding options available,” said councillor Erin Furlong.

The study was necessitated by numerous system failures over the years, including a major malfunction in 2019.

The post Paradise forcemain project awaiting money appeared first on The Shoreline News.

The Town of CBS is applying for $5 million from Ottawa for design work to bring its wastewater treatment plant up to federal effluence standards.

The funding, if approved, will be funnelled through the provincial government. The Town will be on the hook for $1.360 million, net of the HST rebate, as well as any project costs above the approved budget.

Ward 3 Councillor Gerard Tilley said the application represented “step one” of the goal to upgrade the plant.

Councillor-at-large Joshua Barrett added the Town cannot afford to upgrade the facility without funding from the provincial and federal governments.

Council approved a motion to apply for the money during its September 1 public meeting.

“The overall project has some huge number estimates to get to the finish on this, but it’s something that’s not only legislated, but something that we’re keen to do,” said Mayor Darrin Bent. “I think the next phase would be to get funding for engineering and so forth, so we know which way we’re going, which is important… I know we’ve had neighbouring communities and others talk about the millions upon millions of dollars that it cost them and we know how many millions upon millions of dollars it will cost us as well at the end of the day, but it’s something that we are working towards and something that our residents would like to see us get to.”

This past June, council hired Jewer Bailey Consultants to complete consulting and administration services for phase 2 wastewater treatment plant upgrades at a cost of $106,925 plus HST. Back in 2024, council hired Jewer Bailey to provide consulting and administrative work for a first phase of upgrades at the plant at a cost of $73,000, plus HST.

The post CBS can’t afford wastewater compliance without help: Barrett appeared first on The Shoreline News.

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While they spent most of the past month and a half treading their way through water woes due to failing pumps and leaking lines, at least one piece of good news floated to the surface for Holyrood councillors in August: an additional one million dollars in provincial funding was approved for the construction of a water tank.

That allowed council to call a special meeting to award the tender for the project.

The project had been initially approved in June of 2020 at a cost of $1.6 M with the federal government contributing $581,813 and the provincial government $727,267, leaving the Town to fund $145,453.

Project costs, however, soon began to rise. The acquisition of Crown land at Tank Road, the civil work required to connect the tank to the existing data system, the development of the concrete pad to support the tank, and the installation of the tank itself, along with the piping connections, proved more costly than initially thought, and so the Town went back to the Province to ask for more money. The Province complied, increasing its contribution from $727,267 to $1,866,640.

Public works committee chairman Steve Winsor said without the funding increase, the Town probably would have had to break the project into phases, which would have stretched the construction over a number of years.

“It’s a very substantial increase, and this has made it possible for the Town to proceed with and complete the project in its entirety rather than having to phase out the work and leave certain important components to a future project,” Winsor said.

While the federal contribution remains the same, the Town will pitch in an additional $126,696 to maintain it’s 10 percent cost commitment. That money will be budgeted in 2027, and will bring Holyrood taxpayers’ total commitment to about $272,000.

“Due to a variety of technical challenges with the delivery of the project, and especially considering significant increases in construction costs and material costs over the last number of years, it has taken considerable time and effort to bring this important initiative to the point where we can now confidently say that we’re moving into the final phase toward actual completion,” said Winsor.

Council voted to award the construction tender for the 500,000 gallon tank, along with the holding pad, to Greatario Industrial Storage Systems for $1,238,550 for the tank plus $1,342,050 for the pad for a total of $2,580,600, HST included.

The new water tank will double the town’s water capacity.

All the same, councillor Bruce King said residents will still need to learn to conserve water.

“Even as we move forward into the future, we still have to conserve water,” said King. “People have to still look at water as a very valuable resource.”

Mayor Laura Crawley concurred.

“It doesn’t matter how much water is in that tank, if people are draining it, and not bothering to look at the use of it, it’s no good,” said Crawley.

The mayor said the project tripled in cost since its inception owing to higher materials and transportation prices.

The post Province doubles funds for Holyrood water tank appeared first on The Shoreline News.

Approving it would have meant a change to the Town Plan and development regulations for the properties at 502 and 514 Dunns Hill Road.

“We’ve received an application, a concept plan, for a large development on the south end of Dunn’s Hill Road,” said councillor-at-large Rex Hillier in introducing the motion. “It would require a rezoning. Council has had a look at it, and we have some concerns in terms of the topography of the area and in terms of being able to accommodate a development of that size.  There’s been no study of the capacity of sanitary sewer and water distribution in that area.”

Increased traffic along Dunns Hill and Greeleytown Road was also a concern, he said.

“The feeling of council is that we’re not in a position, at this point in time, to rezone property for this particular development,” said Hillier.

In other development news, council approved a six percent deficiency in the minimum yard area at 156 Greeleytown Road.

Hillier was the only councillor to vote against approval, though unusually for him, he didn’t specify why before the vote.

“They were given all the permitting information and went ahead and didn’t landscape properly,” Hillier told The Shoreline after the meeting. “I have been involved with planning forever, and I didn’t feel I could vote to say yes to that considering other things I’ve had to do in planning. And the reason I didn’t speak to it was I had not, to that point, told my colleagues that I was going to vote against it. I missed the meeting where it was discussed, and I didn’t have a chance this evening. And from a purely courtesy point of view, I’ve always been sure that, if I was going to speak against something in council, I always told the person that was involved that I was going to speak to it. So, it surprised everybody, but I didn’t speak to it because I hadn’t told them I was going to speak to it.”

Council approved a motion to seek provincial government approval to expropriate an easement through private property at 788-794 Conception Bay Highway to provide water and sewer services to Craig’s Lane in Kelligrews.

Ward 3 Councillor Gerard Tilley declared a potential conflict of interest as he has a relative who lives adjacent to Craig’s Lane and he had declared conflict on similar matters in the past.

Council approved the re-use of the property at 23 Foxtrap Access Road as a special care home.

“This property has been in use for some decades as a personal care home,” said councillor Hillier. “It’s been sitting idle for some time, and we’ve had a proposal come forward to reuse it. We think it would be beneficial to the town, and so we’d like to move forward with that project.”

Lastly, council voted to refer two municipal plan amendments to the provincial government for further determination.

The two pieces of land are off Graham Mifflin Drive and adjacent to the CBS Arena parking lot.

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