Supreme Court Justice Laura Mennie ruled that a government decision four years ago that Gordon and Juanita Hull were not permanent residents of the Little Bay Islands was unreasonable and ordered the matter to be reviewed by the current municipal and provincial affairs minister, Krista. Lynn Howell. It’s a complicated situation that also involves two other high-profile politicians. Justice and Public Safety Minister John Hogan, a barrister in private practice at the time, was appointed in 2018 by the government as an independent adjudicator to consider the Hulls’ appeal, while Andrew Parsons, the current industry, energy and technology minister, was minister municipal affairs.
Partial victory
Mennie’s decision is a partial victory for Gordon and Juanita Hull, who have lived in nearby Springdale for the past six years. They had argued that they should be considered permanent residents of Little Bay Islands under the community’s relocation policy because they moved to Springdale for medical reasons and continued to own and maintain their home on Little Bay Islands. According to provincial policy, residency is not lost if “the individual was temporarily absent for medical reasons documented by a physician’s note satisfactory to the minister.” The community of Little Bay Islands, in Newfoundland’s Notre Dame Bay, resettled in late 2019. (Garrett Barry/CBC) Gordon suffered a stroke nearly two decades ago, and as his health deteriorated, the couple decided to rent accommodations in Springdale, which offers easier access to medical care. To be eligible for relocation funding, people had to meet the definition of a permanent resident for the period from February 2016 to June 2017, a time frame known as the qualifying period. The Hulls did not return to Little Bay Islands after leaving in October 2016, but continued to insure their home and pay property taxes, electric and cable, according to court documents. In an affidavit, the Hulls admitted their absence from the Little Bay Islands, and Juanita’s driver’s license listed her as a Springdale resident. But they also included a letter from their family doctor, confirming that they had moved to Springdale for medical reasons.
The appeal is dismissed
However, Parsons notified the couple in October 2018 that they were not eligible to receive relocation cash because they did not meet the definition of a permanent resident as set out in the relocation policy. But the Hulls, who have lived on the Little Bay Islands since they were born in the late 1940s and raised three children there, appealed. “Had it not been for the concerns of my husband’s ill health, we would still be living in our Little Bay Islands home,” Juanita Hull wrote in her plea. But after hearing the appeal, Hogan ruled against the couple. “(Gordon’s) condition will not improve and therefore the Hulls’ absence from the Little Bay Islands is not temporary. Similarly, (Juanita) Hull cannot benefit from the section 1.D.(ii) exception because her absence is also permanent,” Hogan wrote. The Hulls, with the financial backing of their son Jamie, hired Corner Brook attorney Dean Porter to challenge the matter in court.
Hogan made “four mistakes”
In her written ruling, Mennie said Hogan “made four errors” in reviewing the case and that his conclusion, which was accepted and subsequently became the Parsons decision, “did not meet the standard of reasonableness and must be overruled “. In his report, Hogan wrote that the couple “now resides in Springdale,” but Meany said that claim is not supported by the facts. “All that can be gleaned from their comments is that they moved to Springdale to be closer to medical services,” Mennie wrote. “A move may be permanent or temporary. The applicants’ intention in any case could not be ascertained from their affidavits. However, the judge proceeded on the basis that the applicants’ move was permanent without considering other possible interpretations.” Second, using the adverb “now” to frame his report, Mennie said, suggests Hogan was focusing on a timeline outside of the residency period. “The individual’s circumstances at the time of the decision (ie the independent reviewer’s decision) are not relevant,” Mennie wrote. The judge also said it was not proper for Hogan to consider the nature of Gordon’s medical condition, writing: “Whether Mr. Hull’s medical condition was temporary or permanent was irrelevant to the question of his residency status.” Hogan’s fourth error, Meany wrote, related to an appeals meeting he had with Juanita Hull over the phone in the summer of 2018. John Hogan is the Minister of Justice and Public Safety for Newfoundland and Labrador. In 2018, while a lawyer in private practice, he was hired by the provincial government as an independent adjudicator of Hulls’ housing appeal. (Garrett Barry/CBC) In his report, Hogan writes that Hull referred to the move to Springdale during the phone call as “permanent” and suggests that may have influenced his final conclusion about residency status. That would be improper, he wrote, since Hogan should not have relied on facts that accrued after the date of the department’s original decision. “Given the evidentiary limitations, as indicated by the auditor, his consideration of anything said at the appeal hearing was error,” Meni wrote. The errors, when taken as a whole, “cannot be characterized as minor in nature,” he added.
“I got hurt”
The Little Bay islands were resettled and public services, including the government ferry, ended in late 2019, less than a year after the town’s 55 permanent residents voted overwhelmingly to close their town. The government paid between $250,000 and $270,000 per permanent household, but Gordon and Juanita were excluded from the entire process. “I was hurt and I thought we were being discriminated against [against]” Juanita told CBC News in December 2019. Juanita Hull and her son Jamie were contacted by CBC News on Wednesday, but declined to comment until the matter is fully resolved. The case is the latest test for a resettlement program that has tapped into the psyche of generations of Newfoundlandists and Labradorians as the province struggles to provide services to remote and sparsely populated communities. In a statement, a spokesperson for Municipal and Provincial Affairs said the department was reviewing the decision and could not comment further. Read more from CBC Newfoundland and Labrador
