Winnipeg Free Press

Winnipeg Free Press (Newspaper) - March 24, 1996, Winnipeg, Manitoba 0 Canada a yearlong rediscovery of our country Section Maureen email a5 Extron onions John and Peggy Fisher like living in a world without a Way of life is gone in newfoundland9 praying for an act of cod by Randy Turner staff reporter port just above a Bay that has fed inhabitants of this land since Henry Viii was a a Man stands in a tiny Hall that is painted like a Rainbow in yellow and Blue but Glide Collins wonders if Newfoundland will Ever find its pot of Gold now that the fish Are Collins is holding firm to a bottle of Beer and a Hope for the future but sometimes it int so its affected when asked about the death of the codfish everything has slowed Down Here its you look around in the Small communities now and most of them Are theres nothing to Collins takes a pull on his a then anybody comes from Newfoundland knows that their life is going to and change he its always changed but never like this people Are going to have to learn new skills if they want cod has fuelled a Way of life in Rural Newfoundland for particularly in the Bonavista a place so Beautiful it could make a Post card in 1991 the year before the moratorium began the cod Industry was Worth about accounting for 40 per cent of All fish landed off Cana Das most Easterly Island Northern cod was to fishermen what wheat was to Prairie farm ers and Oil to Alberta towns like port Rexton and which hug the Northeast Ern lived off the hundreds of men like their fathers and and As their sons someday hoped thousands More worked in the fish plants dotting the newfound land the cod Industry directly employed almost now they Are almost All on a quiet Winters some locals rehearse a Short play writ ten by Collins that very the play is much like the Church Hall itself warm and a Little it Speaks of times gone not so Long when port Rexton was alive with they Are simple scenes a Young Man trying to steal a kiss on a summer stroll neighbors sharing a laugh waiting for their unemployment cheques at the Post now these for the most can Only be found in Collins a Way of life is gone in new Collins no doubt about the retired teacher is the curtain is about to Rise on a new Era thousands have already left the Rock by the ferry Load in the last two some have retrained and found work on the but there is still a generation of born and raised in the who seem they live on Faith and Feder Al compensation waiting for something that May never come a second for 500 fishing has been a Way of life in this it has been explained Scott a Newfoundland Many people out there who Are in the and Arent in the Are looking at the moratorium and hoping it will go away hoping that the fish will come Back and hoping Well be smart enough to do the right things so they dont go away it reminds Strong of a bumper sticker he read Back in Alberta during the Oil drought of the 1970s give me another Oil Boom and i Promise i wont piss it away in a Bay where they still look for the end of the they dont ask the lord for this is and they Pray for an act of i j i the Strain is etched in the face of Alex sipping Coffee at his Kitchen As he describes How it All went his 35yearold eyes seem and he constantly stops to Bury his head in his nobody believed Fowlow nobody believed there be no More it should have never that the sad thing about it should have never went this those big they could just scoop it then the plants wanted More follows voice trails and the Kitchen in his Small House in East Trinity is silent save for the children playing in another Alex Fowlow worked at a fish Plant in nearby which once employed up to people full Catalina was one of 219 fish plants one in every com it seems that employed More than they were the heart of most Rural it seems like such a waste these daggers actually used Grinders that would mulch Mil Lions of tonnes of cod that were considered too Small to they would Park in lines on the Atlantic above the spawning grounds and literally scoop off the Ocean in the quota for cod was by after years of the oceans cupboards were there still Are other fish for the the Overall fishery Gross last year actually equalled Prescod years largely due to the skyrocketing Price of crab and but those numbers Are deceit since the bulk of the Money is going to Only those in the smaller crab the Revenue has not replaced the for worked in the Plant for eight like about other he survives on a thin slice of a compensation program called the Atlantic ground fish strategy some Call it free Between about and a others will Tell you some newfound Landers Are making More Money on compensation than they Ever did fishing and its but to Helen the Feder Al Money is a hate it she when asked if she despised the hate it with a anyone out looking in might think its a great but youve got to come in and live youre grateful for the but youd give the world for a for the living on tags Means living on a plus what Helen draws on unemployment insure she lost her Job at a local restaurant when it closed last when everything was it was a Good Way of Alex there was no we we rent Rich before but All the Bills got now we pay the Bills at the end of the week and theres not a Day goes by when the follows dont consider leaving the but where would they go what would they do like thousands of others in the they Are caught Between the Rock and a hard the vast majority have been working on the boats or in the fish plants All their most dropping out of High school to Treyve raised families they own their but 20 and 30 years Many Are the follows say they cant afford to leave but there not sure if they can afford to its depressing when you have nothing to do Day in and Day Alex i it just gets to you after a wondering what youre going to do the its a big is it better to move or should you stay you have to think about this i j j most newfound Landers speak of the Day former fisheries min ister John Crosbie announced the cod moratorium july with the same Wistful regret As the Day Kennedy was Ive never Felt so a sense of Don recalled you could feel your its like somebody reached in and Tore your stomach i remembers tears tears coming Down your face because your whole life was just taken from under four years trem Blett is mayor of the town of one of hundreds of fishing communities sprinkled along the provinces kilo metres of jagged Tremblett is a but now Hes got even More Tremblett keeping Street lights on a sign of Hope the fish Are gone and now the people Are in newfoundlands population plunged by Between july 1993 and october 1995 a rate of 90 people a the biggest problem i got is our younger people moving away and our educated trem Blett theres no future for them so there moving they had a Way of that been taken away from them a lot of them see no Choice but to move of this is not a new phenomenon on the if its a Way of life to its also a Way of life to newfound Landers have been going Down the Road for a Long offered a technical manager for nautical data International based in we built the skyscrapers of we built the sky scrapers of there Are More newfound Landers in places like fort Macmurray and Sudbury than there Are in but there Are fears now the exodus will Only get stories of population drops in Rural Newfoundland Are com last two towns Only a few Kilometres from Bonavista lost both All their councillors and even their town clerks due to what statistics keepers Call almost every the eco nomic Strain in these communities is starting to surface most notably in pothole covered simply the Bills to fix them cannot be paid by the Small num Ber of people left but Tremblett refuses to save Money by turning off the towns Street i cant do the Young mayor that a sign of like were Losin if were cutting those were cutting the Hopes of the but if we can keep those lights on and keep our Snow equipment running and keep our roads theres still a sign of it will take More than hard times to empty this weve been Here for 500 years and we laugh about Strong we have laughed at our poverty and we have laughed at the harshness of this the City of Johns the foggiest City in he but in the words of an old Newfoundland Friend of mine the Odd Feller likes and in another 500 years Well still be if you drop and Well still laugh about j j j John Fisher might be one of those Odd a self confessed Yuppie from Fisher and his wife Peggy packed up their two Young boys and moved to port Rexton a few years they Wake up every morning to an Oceanside View that would Cost a few Hun dred thousand dollars in but the Fishers bought their Home and lot for to said it was like walking into another id gone Back 100 but a Doest live in the he does the vast majority of his work by compute fax and Ive attended meetings All across the country some Days without Leav ing he says of the work he does from his three Storey dream r the Fishers friends Back in Ontario thought they lost but Fisher says it was his Urban exis tence that was making him stir i found that All that predictability in my he Ive got what i want Fisher i like my total loss of i like to go to the store and they my my is Worth something they place a value on living things Peggy nods in its sort of a stress free environment she my kids walk out the i dont have to worry about Arent strangers in this part of the j j j Back in a come from As they like to Call asks Don Tremblett a simple question what will it be like the Day the cod return he begins his answer by telling the stranger that every summer he boards his boat to net Lump a North Atlantic he Doest make a dime at but that not the you the thing about it its a Chance to get on the Tremblett you cant experience the feeling when you put your nets aboard the you untie from the and out to the fishing grounds to set your what a feeling to be behind the wheel again and do what youve been doing All your the fact that youre Back on the when Spring air you cant youve got a sense of usefulness his eyes grow wider now and he Don Tremblett can see the i cant imagine what its going to be like when he the moratoriums get Back at the its too much now to in longing for that Day to to be up there on the to see fishermen come with their gear and Sittin for be like Givin them in till be like an old car Battery that worn some mornings it some mornings it when the moratorium is Over and the fishery comes till be like taking that old Battery and hooking a big old Generator up to youll see the life some Thill be a Brand new Ball game this Rock is a strange so Many want to yet so Many must it is a Beautiful and bar Ren and the Promise of a better tomorrow has rarely been by most it is the poorest place in a big so you wonder Why these peo ple stay at you wonder if there is reason to As so Many newfound Landers most of you wonder Why you want to stay ;