GANDER BAY, N.L. – A Gander Bay man is concerned over extensive delays to a Crown land request that has now gone on for over three years.
Rodney Torraville’s brother Wade has owned a cabin on Weir’s Pond for the past 12 years. Due to personal reasons, Torraville has been working on behalf of his brother Wade to obtain this grant.
According to Torraville, the family has done extensive work around the property through the years, including land clearing, putting in a road for a rectangular lot and doing some work on a bridge near Weir’s Pond.
But the efforts to get ownership of the Crown land their cabin rests on has been an uphill struggle that, Torraville says, has left him with unanswered questions, immense frustrations and theories of backdoor collusion.
“They’ve (Crown Lands) been telling us for a while now they’d get this done, but they’re still dragging their heels on it,” said Torraville. “There’s no sensible reason that this grant should not have been allocated by now.”
In the emails forwarded to The Beacon from Torraville, comments were made by Gander’s Crown Lands division in emails dating back to 2016 that an answer on the family’s grant request would be made in the immediate future. Similar responses were provided well into November of 2017. Yet, the application continues to remain in limbo.
Through years of correspondence between Gander’s Crown Lands administrations office and Torraville, Torraville has become concerned that other cabin owners are using the land in question for storing lumber and as access to Weir’s Pond. He believes these factors are the main obstacle in the delays and lack of answers with this grant.
In an emailed response from the Department of Fisheries and Land Resources, the department stated it does not comment on individual applications, but that a consistent backlog of applications has delayed many of their Crown land applications.
“We’ve been told that many times that this grant would go ahead and now we can’t even get returned phone calls,” said Torraville. “My brother’s been leasing that land for so many years – he’s entitled to a grant like anyone else.”
On Feb. 14, 2018 the department announced a new initiative to improve Crown land services and eliminate application backlog. This announcement included the implementation of a toll-free inquiries line to deal with requests and information regarding Crown Lands requests. Also, a 90-business day service standard was set to ensure all applicants will receive a response within that time frame.
In their emailed response, the department stated that 3,091 applications were processed in 2017, and between April 1 and June 22 of 2018, 467 applications have been processed.
