On a picturesque Newfoundland peninsula that is home to about a dozen Airbnb vacation rentals, 874 residents opt to govern themselves and pay no property taxes.
And they are not alone.
The province said there are 120 unincorporated areas, which are communities without a municipal government structure. About 20 percent of the estimated 520,000 residents in Newfoundland and Labrador live in local service districts with a limited number of municipal leaders, or unincorporated areas, which have no municipal officials. In these areas, residents pay for specific services they want, like garbage collection.
“We have to pay a garbage fee, and that is, I think it’s $200 a year now, to have our garbage picked up every week,” said Joyce Morgan, who lives in the unincorporated area of Port de Grave.
“We pay for fire protection with the town of Bay Roberts. That’s $100 I believe,” she said during a phone interview with The Epoch Times. “All the street lights are privately paid for,” she said, and residents have their own septic systems.
It’s often a selling point for properties in the province. The listing for a property currently for sale on Bell Island in Conception Bay boasts “no property tax.” Another listing on NL Classifieds for lots in St. Jude’s states: “One of the big advantages to building here is the yearly fee of $300 for services. That’s right no property taxes!”
Morgan said she has lived in Port de Grave all her life and has never paid municipal taxes.
The roads are looked after by the province, and there is a hospital 20 minutes away, with a larger one about an hour’s drive. There is no local school, so the children are bussed to a nearby town to attend classes.
”There’s very few children on the peninsula anymore,” Morgan said. “It’s more of a seniors place. And there’s a lot of Airbnbs.”
Residents also travel when they need to buy food or other items, as there are no downtown businesses in Port de Grave. “The only thing you can purchase in Port de Grave on the peninsula is a postage stamp.”
When a task needs to be done, residents form a committee, such as the one that has been running the Christmas Boat Lighting, a major attraction in the area.
“I’m chairperson of that committee, and I’ve been chairperson since day one,” Morgan said. “I was the one that started it. I’m very proud of that.”
The event, in its 26th year, has become a major tourist attraction, running during December to coincide with the holidays.
“We could have up to 40,000 people come in during that month. So that’s a big influx of people, and they come from everywhere.”
The numbers were even bigger during COVID, she said.
“Traffic was bumper to bumper. We had 50,000 plus come to visit us, because you didn’t mix with anybody else. You drove around, or you walked around in your own bubble.”
The event has been running since 1999 and begins on the second Friday in December, running until Jan. 6. About 50 to 60 boats display lights during the seasonal event.
‘God’s Country’
When asked why she has stayed in the area so long, Morgan said, “It’s God’s country, and it’s a very nice place to live.”It’s also something that could be an example to other communities across the country, said Devin Drover, who is a Newfoundland resident as well as Atlantic director and general counsel for the Canadian Taxpayers Federation.
“Some of these towns really think that if they have to have a municipal property tax, and they need to offer programs and services, other people in unincorporated municipalities should have the same responsibility,” Drover told The Epoch Times in a phone interview.
He doesn’t consider that attitude fair.
“The [unincorporated] model empowers individuals to have more control over their finances, rather than paying a blank cheque to a mayor, or a mayor’s office, to decide how their money should be spent,” he said.
He said the Port de Grave community still manages to offer programming for the area.
“They pull off a great tree lighting every year. I always encourage people locally to attend.”
Some of the approximately 50 boats in the harbour of Port de Grave, N.L. are lit up for Christmas on Dec. 16, 2021. The annual boat lighting has been ongoing for more than 20 years. The Canadian Press/Paul Daly
A crab pot Christmas tree is seen in front of St. Mark's Heritage Church in Bareneed on the Port de Grave Peninsula, N.L. on Dec. 16, 2021. The Canadian Press/Paul Daly
They also manage to do it without a “central government controlling those decisions,” he said. “The local residents can do it themselves without having to have expensive elections, having to divide the community, and having to basically have one person or a council making those decisions.”
Residents are also empowered to work together on projects they find interesting.
“When people have the ability to choose what to fund, it really shows what is most important to people.”
