The outgoing mayor of Port aux Basques says he and his council were frustrated by their failure to acquire a home owned by the federal government and used to house RCMP officers.

The town learned that two homes used for that purpose were no longer needed and were being sold. Council saw them as an opportunity to recruit health care professionals to the town.

Through a lengthy process, the town was led to understand that they would be able to acquire at least one of the homes for a dollar.

Brian Button, who led the town through the devastating aftermath of Hurricane Fiona, chose not to run in this year’s municipal election.

Button says it was an issue that he and his council were eager to put to bed before this week’s municipal election, but he told VOCM Open Line with Paddy Daly, their hopes were recently dashed.

“Lo and behold, we get a call back saying that this deal is no longer going to be put on the table, and if we want the home, it was then valued at $200,000 and the town would have to pay that, and we had until  Friday to do so.”

He then reached out to their former MP to impress on the province’s representative in the federal cabinet that they needed to get the deal done, but he says they did not hear back from Joanne Thompson. He believes politics are at play now that the riding has switched to Conservative

“The only thing that I can narrow it down to, we had the deal done when the community was carrying the red banner, and after the election the district changed…and we’ve had the deal pulled out from under us from the federal government.”