Resettlement Again?
Rural Newfoundland, 1996
There has been no government resettlement of people in Newfoundland
for 25 years. But as soon as the northern cod moratorium happened, there
was talk about people leaving small communities. Some of the talk sounds
a lot like what was said about resettlement in the 1960s.
Since the cod moratorium, many people have gone away. People have
packed up and left small communities. Some have left the province. With
no fishery, many people have had to live on TAGS funding, money that
is running out. The make-work projects dried up a few years ago. In
many places, roads, schools and water lines are in need of repair. People
have lost some of the services they fought hard for in the past.
Many people have ideas about what should be done. Governments talk
about new kinds of jobs. Letters to the editor in newspapers say there
is no life for small fishing communities now. Articles in newspapers
have urged people to move away.
Some people say resettlement can be many things. Does closing small
schools push people to resettle? Here is what a woman wrote in a letter
to The Evening Telegram
in 1996.
The government did an injustice in the 1960s with resettlement. Now
they are forcing the same on us. If our children are moved out of their
community, the government is really herding us toward a central location-the
community to which our children are bused.13
This woman felt that losing a school would mean losing other things.
If people lose the services they depend on, they may feel that the place
where they live is not a good place any more. The closing of a school
or a hospital, or a road left in bad repair, reminds people of a past
when people had to move or put up with no services at all.
Resettlement brings out strong emotions in Newfoundlanders. These strong
feelings can be found in the pages of The Pilot, a newspaper in Lewisporte.
In February, 1996, the newspaper printed articles and letters about
a rumour of resettlement. The rumour came from Change Islands. This
is a small community close to Fogo Island. You can only get there by
ferry.
|