Retrenchment and Regeneration in Rural Newfoundland 9781442679320

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RETRENCHMENT AND REGENERATION IN RURAL NEWFOUNDLAND Edited by Reginald Byron

Set against the background of momentous economic changes over the last decade, this collection of essays looks at the economic, political, and social circumstances that have led to the current crisis in rural Newfoundland. In this timely work, twelve social scientists explore outporters' ways of coping with economic uncertainty, the choices that they are now confronting, and the consequences of these choices in terms of sustaining livelihoods into the next generation and beyond. Offering both general overviews and specific case studies drawn from recent research, the volume provides insight into the political economy of Newfoundland, the collapse of the fish stocks, and the effects of the crisis on outporters' occupational choices and migration decisions. Thought-provoking and rich in detail, this collection is the first to examine the interconnected problems and opportunities in rural Newfoundland in light of global economic and social changes. REGINALD BYRON is Professor of Sociology and Anthropology in the School of Social Sciences and International Development at the University of Wales, Swansea.

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EDITED BY REGINALD BYRON

Retrenchment and

Regeneration in Rural Newfoundland

UNIVERSITY OF TORONTO PRESS Toronto Buffalo London

www.utppublishing.com University of Toronto Press Incorporated 2003 Toronto Buffalo London Printed in Canada ISBN 0-8020-3539-6 (cloth) ISBN 0-8020-8413-3 (paper)

Printed on acid-free paper

National Library of Canada Cataloguing in Publication Retrenchment and regeneration in rural Newfoundland / edited by Reginald Bryon. Includes bibliographical references. ISBN 0-8020-3539-6 (bound). ISBN 0-8020-8413-3 (pbk.) 1. Newfoundland and Labrador - Rural conditions. 2. Rural development - Newfoundland and Labrador. 3. Cod fisheries - Social aspects - Newfoundland and Labrador. 4. Cod fisheries - Economic aspects - Newfoundland and Labrador. I. Byron, Reginald HN110.N4R482003

307.72'09718

C200 2-905944-5

The University of Toronto Press acknowledges the financial assistance to its publishing program of the Canada Council for the Arts and the Ontario Arts Council. University of Toronto Press acknowledges the financial support for its publishing activities of the Government of Canada through the Book Publishing Industry Development Program (BPIDP). Publication of this book has been supported by the International Society for the Study of Marginal Regions.

Contents

Contributors

vii

Introduction

3

REGINALD BYRON

1 The Moral Economy of Retrenchment and Regeneration in the History of Rural Newfoundland 14 SEAN T. CADIGAN

2 A Decade of Uncertainty and Tenacity in Northwest Newfoundland 43 CRAIG T. PALMER

3 Why Fish Stocks Collapse: An Interdisciplinary Approach to the Problem of 'Fishing Up' 65 BARBARA NEIS AND ROB KEAN

4 No Clearcutting in My Backyard! Competing Visions of the Forest in Northern Newfoundland 103 JOHN OMOHUNDRO AND MICHAEL ROY

5 The Professionalization of Inshore Fishers 134 MATTHEW CLARKE

6 Women's Rights, Community Survival, and the Fisheries Cooperative of Fogo Island 158 BONNIE J. MCCAY

7 In the Beginning: Region, Crisis, and Occupational Choice among Newfoundland's Youth 177 DONA LEE DAVIS

vi

Contents

8 Moving Back and Moving In: Migration and the Structuring of Bonavista 199 PETER R. SINCLAIR

9 Does Community Really Matter in Newfoundland and Labrador? The Need for Supportive Capacity in the New Regional Economic Development 226 J.D. HOUSE

Contributors

Reginald Byron, Professor, School of Social Sciences and International Development, University of Wales, Swansea Sean T. Cadigan, Director, Public Policy Research Centre, Memorial University of Newfoundland Matthew Clarke, graduate student, Department of Sociology and Social Anthropology, Dalhousie University Dona Lee Davis, Professor, Department of Anthropology, University of South Dakota J.D. House, Professor, Department of Sociology, Memorial University of Newfoundland Rob Kean, graduate student, Department of Sociology, Memorial University of Newfoundland Bonnie J. McCay, Professor, Department of Human Ecology, Rutgers University Barbara Neis, Professor, Department of Sociology, Memorial University of Newfoundland John Omohundro, Professor, Department of Anthropology, State University of New York College at Potsdam

viii Contributors Craig T. Palmer, Senior Instructor, Department of Anthropology, University of Colorado Michael Roy, Executive Director, Centre for Forest and Environmental Studies, College of the North Atlantic, Corner Brook, Newfoundland Peter R. Sinclair, Professor, Department of Sociology, Memorial University of Newfoundland

RETRENCHMENT AND REGENERATION IN RURAL NEWFOUNDLAND

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Introduction REGINALD BYRON

Retrenchment and Regeneration in Rural Newfoundland draws attention to two critical states of affairs. The collapse of the cod fishery and the imposition of moratoria on fishing for cod and other fish species by the Canadian government in the early 1990s removed or greatly weakened the economic mainstay of many of Newfoundland's rural communities. Since then, the people in these communities have endured a prolonged period of uncertainty. The first term in the title of this book, retrenchment, is imported into the lexicon of economics from military usage: it refers to digging in behind protective earthworks to establish, or hold, a line of defence. In its more everyday sense, it means to cut down on expenses, and to consolidate and conserve resources while awaiting better times. This is an apt metaphor for understanding the responses of rural Newfoundlanders to the economic conditions of the past decade. The second term, regeneration, is used in a double sense. First, it refers to the capacity, in the abstract, of these communities to revitalize or rebuild their economic foundations. Second, the term refers more concretely to the means by which this actually happens: to the ability of individual families to continue to provide - or find new ways to provide - the means for their children to make a productive living, either within the locality or elsewhere. This book asks how the current crisis came about, how people have coped, and what the future might hold for the next generation of rural Newfoundlanders. For more than four centuries, the economy of Newfoundland was based on the cod fishery. Settlement patterns reflected this history. Most of Newfoundland's people were dispersed in scores of small coastal communities, called outports, conveniently situated for the fishery but frequently isolated and accessible only by sea - and sometimes only

4 Retrenchment and Regeneration in Rural Newfoundland

seasonally at that. The climate and soils are, on the whole, not suited to intensive agriculture, and the interior of the island remained largely unpopulated. There was little urbanization beyond StJohn's, the island's governmental and commercial capital. The remoteness, small size, and narrow economic specialization of the outports has always meant that for them the operation of the principles of the market and of representative government have been imperfect. Fishing families have had little practical alternative but to sell their labour and fish to the merchant or fish-processing plant with a local monopoly, to the fishing family's predictable disadvantage. The difficult geography and the sparse, scattered settlement pattern also affected governance: the creation of counties or districts with substantial devolved powers and responsibilities with democratic accountability never occurred, as it did elsewhere in North America and Western Europe; a monopoly on public policy was, and continues to be, held by the provincial government in St John's. Booms and busts in the fishery have a long history in Newfoundland, as they have in other places round the North Atlantic. Unlike fishing communities in the British Isles or Scandinavia, for example, which have more favourable geography, milder climates and more fertile soils, better communications and easier access to larger labour markets, Newfoundland's outports had — and still have - a very limited capacity to weather downturns in the fishery. Alternative ways of making a living in such communities were scarce, and cash was in chronically short supply. From the earliest days of the fishery, the spectre of starvation loomed in lean seasons: merchant capital and public relief had to be deployed frequendy in the outports to carry the fishers and their families through periods of distress. The non