Wednesday mid afternoon: The storm outside seems to be abating, hard slog walking to and from the shops. Have done some shoveling to allow egress and ingress both front and back but will wait a little before further snow removal.



So this seems as good a time as any to touch base on the SLM Inc/Ray Whalen slash Bill Prankard Evangelistic Association {BPEA} slash True North Aid {TNA} operations in Nain.

When the Whalen’s came to Nain some years back they decided they needed a place to stay/operate out of. It coincided with the then school principal leaving town so they put in an offer to buy that home and land.
To raise money for the purchase BPEA became involved with a big fundraising drive down south. Lots of stuff was said about Nain, some of it upset locals and they voiced their concerns in regional media. I did not become involved and the concerns raised escape me at the moment.

So the money was raised and the home purchased. It sits in a prime location with the front of the house overlooking the old dam and what is called Environmentally Protected Area {EPA} here in Nain. EPA is land that cannot be developed on, it is green space and for the enjoyment of everyone. The rear of the house fronts Middle Path Road. An oxymoron maybe but there you have it.







A couple of years pass and the next thing is that the Whelan’s have purchased, in another private transaction, the land to the right of them, or in the case from the rear to the left. This land is of triangular shape, being wider at the road end, and also has one side as well as the front butting up to EPA. The only building on this lot was a shed structure.
These properties were initially for the Whalen’s/SLM Inc work and are registered in that name with Ray and his wife as sole directors as far as I can tell.

Top right shows the house overlooking the old dam with the extra lot next door.
Second and third left show the road end of house as well as the lot next door.




Rays lot for personal home below.

A couple of more years pass, the town opens up more land in the new subdivision.

Ray applies for and is granted two further lots. These are in Rays name; one is in the residential section and is yet to be developed. The other is in the industrial section and has a 40 x 60 foot warehouse that was constructed this year.

According to this interview Ray did with CKOK Ray intends building a home for his personal use on the undeveloped lot and intends to use the warehouse as a business venture. This conflicts with what his original intentions were for this building, that being to store all the goods that would be brought in for all these give a way’s to the public.

In roughly the same time frame as the above two lots were acquired Ray/SLM Inc applies informally to council to build a 5,000 sq foot “Community Center” on the triangular land next to his home which is in a residential zone. {The one that is now his home but will be an unknown use entity when Ray builds his new personal home up in the new subdivision}.

This structure is too large to meet the local building regulations for that size lot, so Ray applies for re zoning of the land. This would entail Ray/SLM INC having to acquire 10 feet x the front width of the lot of the EPA land.

I am not privy to all the finer points, but it seems council asked Ray to submit detailed plans and a formal application for the “Community Center” so that council can go through the formalities of re zoning EPA land which I understand requires input from outside engineers/consultants and to hold public hearings and requires the applicant to pay all costs.

There seems to be a hold up in Ray responding to this request.

Rays warehouse below.

Applying for and going through the process of re zoning EPA land does not guarantee the applicant will be granted the land or the permission to build the “Community Center” in that location.

EPA lands are there for a reason, they need to be protected within reasonable bounds.
If my memory serves there has been a president set already in Nain.
A citizen applied for re zoning to increase the size of their lot into a EPA land in another section of town. This was turned down by council without getting to the hearing stages.

Ray/SLM Inc had another choice for his “Community Center”. That is the lot where he built the warehouse. Or he could have put in an application for a building that better suited the lot dimensions without wanting to despoil our EPA lands.

Once one gets approved it would be doubly hard to stop further applications for re zoning into EPA lands being sort, and triply hard in rejecting them.

In going through the writings and videos of the BPEA site there seems to be no reference to SLM Inc in Nain. Rather Ray and his wife are referenced at regular intervals. I have not given it a thorough search so maybe there is nothing to it.



Later:



Arrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrgggh. I new going through the BPEA site would be detrimental to my sanity.



If these people are not the epitome of sleaze then then I do not know who are. Get a gander at this video, no problem desecrating the memory of the deceased, their loved ones, the culture that these low life's have not one iota of deference for. It is a fundraiser video produced by True North Aid with no thought nor caring into where they are or who they offend.



Apart from the seriousness of the above, note the reference to the ARCTIC again in the accompanying videos. The little doughwacker is just up the hill within sight of the community fer shit sake.