On Wednesday, November 15 Cranbrook’s Northwest Grill posted on their Facebook page that they too have been impacted by promises and payments by Mr. Gould, who paid for an $8,000 meal with cheques from an account with no funds available.
This comes just days after the Kimberley Dynamiters announced that they had not received any money from the $7.5 commitment promised by Mike Gould, and Kimberley Minor Hockey said it was adversely affecting their ability receive other donations.
Owner of Northwest Grill Jolene Salanski told the Townsman that Gould had arranged a celebratory banquet to be held at her establishment on October 14 to honour the news of his donation. He made reservations for 50 people, and around 30 to 40 people showed up.
“He promised to pay for staff wages, all the food, liquor, basically the whole bill, gratuity for the staff all that kind of stuff,” said Salanski.
Gould told all in attendance that evening that everything was fully paid for upfront, and the bill wound up being $8,000. Gould provided cheques to cover the bill but there were no funds in the accounts at the banks that issued the cheques.
Salanski said that as soon as the Dynamiters found out he had not paid the bill they had a conference call with Northwest Grill and came immediately the day after to pay their portion of the bill.
“So I do some of the money coming back in from it but I’m still out majority of the bill,” Salanski said. “There was only some of them [the Dynamiters] here but they took it upon themselves to take the money out of their own pockets to help me out which is absolutely amazing and they’re a great community organization in helping out others.
“Michael Gould told them that it was paid for but it wasn’t and as soon as they found out they came and paid their portion right away without hesitation which is absolutely awesome.”
Salanski has had correspondence with Gould but, now nearly a month without receiving anything from him, has contacted the RCMP. They confirmed that they have launched an investigation but as it is ongoing, they are unable to provide the name of the person or restaurant in question.
“Right now we’re still conducting an investigation looking into what possibly transpired to have this incident occur, we haven’t approached the Crown with regards to any charges yet but we are definitely looking at different criminal code options but we haven’t submitted our report to crown yet,” saId Cst. Katie Forgeron.
The Townsman was unable to reach Mr. Gould for his response as of press time. Mr. Gould has not been charged, tried or convicted of any offense, and he is presumed to be innocent.
