A 23-year-old testimonial plaque acknowledging the sister-city relationship between St. Albert and Mount Pearl, Newfoundland and Labrador, was recently recovered from the Sturgeon River by city staff.
City staff are unsure how long the plaque was in the river or how long it had been missing from its pedestal in MacMillan Park, but staff are working to find more information said Mayor Cathy Heron, as well as city spokesperson Cory Sinclair.
The plaque, which is dated July 2000, reads, “Two trees symbolizing the friendship of our communities — City of Mount Pearl, NL (and) City of St. Albert, AB.”
In 2000, members of the two city councils visited each other's stomping grounds as a way to commemorate the beginning of the inter-municipal relationship, which one former councillor and past chair of the St. Albert and District Chamber of Commerce, Lynda Moffat, says began through a federal government program.
Moffat, who in 2000 was the chair of the Chamber of Commerce, said she, along with then-mayor Paul Chalifoux, then-councillor Margaret Plain, and then-director of economic development for the city, Larry Horncastle, took a trip to Mount Pearl, N.L., to see what St. Albert could learn from their cross-country counterparts.
“It was absolutely extraordinary,” Moffat said. “I came back from there just filled with enthusiasm and good ideas and having met wonderful people.”
Mount Pearl was incorporated as a town in 1955 with a population just under 2,000 and held its first election later that year. In 1988, it was the third municipality in Newfoundland and Labrador to be given city status, and as of the 2021 federal census, Mount Pearl's population is about 22,500, which makes it the second biggest city in the province.
Mount Pearl, like St. Albert, is located just outside the capital city of the province, St. John's.
Moffat said she thinks the potential for a sister-city relationship between the two cities stemmed from both municipalities facing similar challenges given their proximity to a major city, such as possible amalgamation, but also because the municipalities were in similar positions for economic growth.
“One thing that I remember, very distinctly, is having a meeting, almost a two- or three-hour-long meeting, with their economic development people, and I was so, so, so impressed with them,” she said. “They were just an amazing team of economic development people.”
Moffat said a few months after the trip Mount Pearl sent their own delegation of councillors and mayor and economic development staff to St. Albert.
“I learned more about St. Albert (hosting them) than I had ever learned living here,” she said.
The Mount Pearl team was given a tour of the city's trail network via golf cart, a tour of the St. Albert Grotto near the St. Albert Catholic Church on St. Vital Avenue, and were able to take in a night of entertainment at the Arden Theatre with a host of local performers and musicians.
Lucy Stoyles gave an equally fond review of the 2000 trips, as well as another trip in 2010.
Stoyles, who served as a Mount Pearl city councillor for 25 years before being elected to represent the constituency on the provincial level in 2021, said she remembered being treated “like royalty” on her first visit to St. Albert in 2000.
“We've had a very good connection with St. Albert ever since the initial contact,” Stoyles said. “We've done a lot more economic development than we'd ever done prior to being paired as a sister city.”
She also said Mount Pearl's city government was inspired by St. Albert's public art, and even commissioned multiple pieces of art after one of their visits.
Another memory Stoyles shared was how and why the plaque recently recovered from the Sturgeon River came to be.
“Well, what we did back then was, they came to Newfoundland and planted a tree, and when we went up there they did the same thing,” she said.
“We didn't have a whole lot of statues and St. Albert had a lot of outdoor stuff — your weather is a lot better in the summertime than our Newfoundland weather — so when we came home we started doing art in the park and stuff like that. So when we went to St. Albert they planted a tree, and I was there for the seed planting and everything.”
Stoyles last visited St. Albert on official sister-city business in 2010, and since then the relationship has seemingly fizzled with the passage of time and the added complications of the COVID-19 pandemic.
However, Heron says the finding the plaque again could be a symbol that the two cities should try and re-kindle the partnership.
“I just feel like it's a symbol to do something,” she said. “I think it's probably worth exploring how we can spark that renewed friendship.”
“If you had (asked me about it) two weeks ago, before this plaque was found, I probably would not have given it much thought,” she said. "I think there's probably (an opportunity for) exchanges of marketing, economic development ideas, maybe downtown revitalization type work ... historical exchanges, reconciliation conversations ... I just think it's a really good idea to connect with people in our own country.”
Heron said she plans to try and contact Mount Pearl's current mayor, Dave Aker, to see if any of St. Albert's cross-country counterparts would want to attend an event of sorts to reinstall the plaque near the Children's Bridge just north of St. Albert Place.
The Gazette was unable to reach Aker, who, like Heron, was first elected as a councillor in the fall of 2009, and is currently serving his second term as mayor of Mount Pearl.
