A dispute over membership in the organization that manages the Cape Tormentine Beach and Campground led to a confrontation at its annual general meeting Sunday.
Strait Shores resident and business owner Stephen Robb arrived hoping to buy a membership and vote, despite receiving a letter beforehand that he said told him he would not be accepted as a member or allowed to attend.
What happened when he reached the door is now disputed.
Robb said then-president Catherine Noonan approached him as he stood at the entrance.
“She runs right up to me and knocks me out the door and outside of the threshold,” said Robb. “And then she put her feet on the threshold and barred the door with her body to prevent me from going in.”
Phyllis Wheaton, who attended the meeting, remembers the encounter differently. She said Robb was standing in Noonan’s personal space, with his knee touching hers, and that Noonan asked him to step back.
“There was no violence there at all,” said Wheaton.
Noonan declined to describe the confrontation in detail, citing a potential legal dispute involving Robb. She said the corporation’s membership had already unanimously decided to deny him membership because of what she described as ongoing contact with the organization.
“The meeting itself was interrupted with an individual that the membership chose to deny unanimously for the ongoing contact that has been happening that is at present with our lawyer,” said Noonan.
Robb challenges membership process
The confrontation at the door stems from Robb’s disagreement with the corporation over its membership process.
Established in 1997, the Cape Tormentine Community Development Corporation oversees the Cape Tormentine Beach and Campground property. Noonan said the former ferry property was deeded to the corporation for one dollar after the federal government transferred the deed to the province.
Membership gives people the ability to vote at corporation meetings and take part in decisions about the organization. Robb argues that living in Strait Shores should give him the opportunity to become a member and have a say in what happens with the property.
“I am a community member, and I believe that I have every right to both join as a member and to vote for the future of this property, which is now a campground,” said Robb.
At the centre of his concern is the corporation’s membership approval process.
A membership provision Robb read during his interview with CHMA says membership is open to people interested in furthering the corporation’s objectives who either own property in Strait Shores or have familial ties there. According to the provision he provided, admission is still subject to unanimous approval by the board.
Robb argues that gives the board too much control over who can participate.
“They’re denying certain members access to the meeting,” said Robb. “They’re not making it widely enough available.”
Membership isn’t limited to people who live in Strait Shores year-round. Wheaton lives outside the area but owns a cottage in Cape Tormentine and has been coming there since she was a child. She purchased a membership and voted Sunday, and said her connection to the area goes beyond owning property.
“I have property and own a cottage, and I am part of the community ’cause I do help out stuff down there,” said Wheaton.
Wheaton said she was pleased with how Sunday’s meeting went and believes the board has put significant work into the organization.
Robb has also been seeking more information about the corporation’s finances, including its 2025 financial statements and more detailed information about the finances of music festivals held at the property. He has also raised questions about the corporation’s financial performance in previous years.
Noonan described a different financial concern from her time as president: keeping the organization operating.
She said the corporation was in a difficult financial position when she took over, and dealing with money owed to creditors became one of her first priorities.
“So then I started calling every creditor to ask for time to slow down things so that we could pay them back a little at a time,” said Noonan.
She said the corporation was also carrying a $40,000 COVID-era loan that had to be repaid while the board was trying to keep the campground and the rest of the operation running.
The corporation’s 2024 president’s report described efforts to rebuild its credit, improve budgeting and rebuild relationships with businesses it worked with. Noonan said the corporation’s finances have since improved and that both the campground and store were profitable last year.
That work also extended to the property itself. Last year, CHMA reported on a volunteer-led renovation of the campground store as part of efforts to revitalize the site.
“This team has worked hard after a couple very challenging years, and the membership asked us to keep fighting to keep this place alive instead of allowing it to go bankrupt,” said Noonan.
For Noonan, that work is an important part of what Sunday’s AGM represented. She worries the dispute surrounding the meeting will overshadow it.
“What happens now because of this scene, the negative outweighs all that positive hard work that the community put into this,” she said.
Wheaton also spoke positively about the work volunteers and the board have put into the organization.
Dispute continues beyond the AGM
Sunday’s meeting also brought a change in leadership, with Noonan stepping down as president. She said the corporation’s membership reached 77 following the AGM, while work continues with a lawyer on an updated version of its bylaws, now in its second draft.
Robb said he plans to continue challenging the membership process. He is preparing information for a lawyer with the intention of filing a statement of claim and said he wants a court to clarify the corporation’s powers and the rights of people connected to the property.
“What I want the court to make a clear statement about is what are the roles and responsibilities and rights of the corporation?” said Robb. “What are the rights of the residents of Strait Shores? What are the rights of campers? What are the rights of other stakeholders?”
The AGM may be over, but Robb’s challenge to the corporation’s membership process is continuing.
