PROVIDENCE BAY—The property containing the Michael’s Bay townsite was the scene of high drama when the land was seized by the federal government on behalf of the Belgian government as the proceeds of crime. The question of what will now happen to the land remains well up in the air, with rumours as yet unconfirmed or denied despite repeated requests to the government agency in charge for clarification in that regard, but as to the chattels (the various parts and pieces of equipment on the property) the hammer has clearly come down on that question with a recent auction held in the Providence Bay arena.
“We had to hold it in the arena because the feds wouldn’t let us hold it on the property itself,” said veteran auctioneer Norm Morrell, who was charged with the disposal of the assets. “There was a Mountie watching the whole process as we moved everything to the arena. He had a checklist and was marking things off as we went.” With a fast closing deadline imposed by Public Works Canada the auctioneer’s work crew were definitely under the gun.
In the end things worked out well for those attending the auction as the weather on the day would have made the auction a washout. As it was, everything could be pretty much dealt with under the shelter of the arena roof and there were plenty of people who turned out for the deals.
“It was one of the bigger ones,” admitted Mr. Morrell, whose experienced eye estimated that there were between 400 and 500 people in the crowd. “They were a pretty good crowd too,” he added.
As to the fate of the chattels, there was another success story. “You couldn’t have filled two garbage cans with what was left over,” said Mr. Morrell. Not bad considering that six large trucks were kept shuttling for 12 straight hours to bring the materials to the Providence Bay arena. “It was a bit of a nightmare getting all the stuff over to the arena,” admitted the auctioneer, who quickly added that when it came to the auction itself “I had a lot of fun doing it. We did ‘A Okay’.”
Mr. Morrell’s next challenge is the June 16 Tom Morphet auction on Morphet’s Sideroad. “There will be a lot of great stuff going there,” he said. “Come on out and check it out.”
