Gaultois residents vote against resettlement

Residents of theisolated south coast community of Gaultoishave voted against relocation, with the vote failing to reach the required 75 per cent majority.

Votes were received from every eligible permanent resident of Gaultoisand were counted Friday, according to a press release from the provincial government. Sixty-four per cent of residents voted in favour of relocating from the tiny island settlement in Hermitage Bay on Newfoundland's south coast, short of the needed 75 per cent required to relocation to proceed.

The results were tallied by an independent third party Friday, and were expected to be shared in early May.

"With the results of the vote not meeting this threshold, the provincial government's consideration of the relocation request will now cease," the press release said.

Gaultois Mayor Gordon Hunt wouldn't agree to a recorded interviewFridaybut said he did expect the vote to fail.

Gaultoisresidents have voted against resettlement twice before, when the threshold to resettle a communitywas 90 per cent voting in favour. The community began the process again in April 2022 after the threshold fell to 75 per cent.

Relocation would havecostNewfoundland and Labrador roughly $10 million to resettle and close the community, but that expenditure would have beenrecovered through savings in about a decade, mostly from ending the costly and heavily subsidized ferry service.

Those are the findings of a cost-benefit analysis carried out by the provincial government and obtained this week through an access-to-information request by CBC News.

The government will not entertain the prospect of relocating a community unless there are real savings to taxpayers to be had, and that appearedto be the case for Gaultois. In order to meet the government's threshold for government-funded resettlement, there must be a net savings to the province of at least $10 million over 20 years.

Big net savings predicted, but won't be seen

The cost-benefit analysis estimatedthe net savings over two decades for Gaultois at nearly $14 million.

There are fewer than 40 households in Gaultois, and each was eligible for between $250,000 and $270,000 in compensation, depending on the number of people occupying the residence. That compensation is now off the table after residents voted to stay.

The price tag to compensate registered homeowners would havebeen just over $9.8 million.

Adults who are non-property owners there are 10 of them would haveeach received $10,000.

There are two commercial properties in Gaultois, and the owners will be paid twice the assessed value of their enterprises. A department official said the assessments had not yet been completed.

Bottom line? The department estimatedthe cost to resettle Gaultois at $10,051,000. However, taxpayers would haverecovered that amount in 10 years through savings.

Agovernment-funded ferry service connects Hermitage with Gaultois and another isolated community, McCallum, farther along the south coast.

The Gaultois run will continue as a result of the vote.Discontinuing the ferry run would have saved governmentnearly $940,000 annually, according to the study.

The closure of Victoria Academy, with an enrolment of five students, would havealso broughtannual savings of $250,000.

There would also be smaller savings negated by the vote, such as health care, capital works projects and municipal operating grants.

As for the ferry service to McCallum, Transportation Minister Elvis Loveless said it will continue, but "there will be a different plan for McCallum."

Read more from CBC Newfoundland and Labrador