In February, a woman in Change Islands sent a statement to the paper.¹⁴ She said it was time for people to think about leaving. Things were bad since the cod fishery closed down. Businesses were failing. The woman said that it cost the government millions of dollars a year to keep 430 people on the island. She thought that if they asked the government for help to leave, they might get it. She spoke of a letter going around Change Islands, asking people to support resettlement. She thought people should support it. "Press on," she said. "Support resettlement."

There were many replies. In an article the next week, the mayor said that Change Islands was against resettlement. He said most people love their home, and would not leave it for any reason. He thought that people who were trying to get support for resettlement might harm the community.

On the same day, there was a letter from a woman in Change Islands. She, too, wrote against resettlement.¹⁵ She said that there were a lot worse places to live. She thought that the money used to help people stay there was money well spent.

A week later, another woman wrote:

Yes, rumours have been rampant that government will force residents to resettle with cutbacks to health, transportation, and education services. People have had to live with this fear, along with adjusting to a complete change in their way of life and cuts to the family income.

Many communities would not have survived this economic crisis; social problems were the predicted result. The silence on the water during the summer is heartbreaking. But everyone used this time to make repairs to their houses, stages and wharves, put in lawns, plant vegetable gardens, and take a family vacation—things that they never had time to do during the fishing season. When all that was completed, they started to work on the community buildings. There was always someone helping to put in a window or shingle a roof.¹⁶

The woman's letter paints a picture of hope. She sees a way of life worth keeping, even in hard times. She writes about a way of living and working that you might find in a letter from 30—or 100—years ago. But the "silence on the water" means that there are surely people who will not agree with her.

We can never know the whole story about how people felt in Change Islands in the winter of 1996. There must have been hard feelings. Some people must have worried, but kept silent. The letters and comments show how resettlement can divide communities, just as it did 30 years ago.