The Park

In the 1970s Parks Canada decided the land, sea, and mountains at the base of the great Northern Peninsula would make a wonderful nature and heritage park. The provincial government agreed. Parks bring in tourists, and tourists bring in money. Parks Canada offered to move the people who lived in the small fishing villages inside the chosen area. The federal government offered new homes and money to help those who agreed to move out.

About twelve families in the tiny community of Sally's Cove refused to leave. They protested until Parks Canada agreed they could stay. Sally's Cove was given about 13 square kilometers of land. Gros Morne National Park was built around the community. Park officials assured the fishing families who stayed that the park would not interfere with their way of life. In fact, the park would bring jobs and money to local people.

More than twenty years later, Gros Morne has become a famous wilderness and heritage area. Tourists come from all over the world to admire the beautiful scenery, to hike through the mountains and to take pictures of the wildlife. As a wilderness park, Gros Morne is a great success. But according to the people who live in Sally's Cove, "the park" has not lived up to its other promises.

It's a warm September evening in Sally's Cove. The calm blue ocean meets the calm blue sky. Margaret Laing calls this a blue water day. She and her husband, Clarence, are taking their youngest son, Jamie, out to check the herring nets. Jamie is twelve. He hopes to be a fisherman like his father one day. But he's not sure if he will be able to. If you ask him why, Jamie says "the park."

All the Laing's other children have had to move away to find work. They didn't want to go fishing. In 1995 only one person from Sally's Cove had ever been hired by the park. They could have applied for jobs in the tourist hotels and restaurants in nearby Rocky Harbour. But those kinds of jobs don't pay very well. They are hard to get and not everyone is cut out for the tourist business. Clarence Laing isn't. His life is here on the water. "I don't think I'm made for going around trying to make someone else happy, make sure tourists, if they want their slice of bread they got it, and their bed is made up right," says Clarence. "Fishing, that's what I'm made for. There will be no punching a clock and begging a boss for me."

The Laings were one of the families that protested against Gros Morne. Clarence and Margaret did not want to live inside a tourist attraction. They certainly didn't want to move away. Like most of their neighbours, the Laings built their own home and their own boat. They started with a tar paper shack right on the beach. They built up as they could afford to. Everything they have or want is right here in Sally's Cove. Clarence used to fish cod. That fishery closed in 1992. But he still makes a living as a herring and lobster fisherman.