Lloyd Hayden, president of the Baie Verte and Area Chamber of Commerce, attended last week’s public consultation on regional governance held at College of the North Atlantic in Baie Verte.
He said the benefit of shared services is immeasurable.
“An economic development officer for the full region, engineers for the full region – that could lead to a mentality of what’s good for Springdale would be good for Baie Verte and is good for La Scie and so on …” he said.
“I think we should be sharing services and sharing people to provide those services.”
Without an economic development officer for the region, Hayden believes opportunities are being missed.
Baie Verte fire chief Lorne Head says he sees a regional approach to fire services as a positive step, especially for small communities.
“We can work together on calls, especially on our highways for (motor vehicle accidents),” he said. “It would also be great if we could start doing training together. At least we would know then what the neighbouring communities have in training when we go to assist them or when they come to assist us.”
Head remembers when Baie Verte needed the assistance of other communities’ fire protection services when the town lost its department to a fire.
“What goes around comes around,” he said. “We may need to call on them today, but they might need to call on us tomorrow.”