28 | Business World Magazine |
January 2014
better. He also saw, however, that such
communities were largely overlooked at
a federal level. Because of this, the New
Deal contained an unprecedented promise
of municipal funding in the form of Gas
Tax revenue sharing. Baldly, the revenue
sharing was a way to inject funds into
municipalities for their use in sustainable
initiatives.
In Corner Brook Newfoundland &
Labrador, however, sustainable thinking
had begun fifty years before the federal
government stepped up to the plate. The
forward planning process for this idyl-
lic coastal community - which is tucked
away in the Bay of Islands, off the Gulf
of St. Lawrence - began in 1955, and was
intended then, as it is now, to provide pol-
icies for the overall physical design and
development of the city. Corner Brook’s
preexisting concern with sustainable ini-
tiatives was bolstered by the New Deal,
because in conjunction with Gas Tax
revenue sharing (of which $82.3-million
over five years was earmarked for munic-
ipalities in Newfoundland & Labrador)
the federal government instituted a policy
aimed at addressing climate change and
assisting the development of healthier,
less costly and more sustainable commu-
