Most of you have probably heard of community resettlement
here in Newfoundland, and some of you have even been resettled.
Since well before the downturn of the fishery in the 1990s, the Newfoundland government has been
resettling financially burdensome outports around the Province. It offers to
buy the homes on the condition that the residents move to a larger, less isolated, and easier to serve communities. But, the question is, what's the heart and soul of a community worth?
Today, we visited a couple of resettlement communities just east of
Rose Blanche. Port aux Basque Marine Excursions took eight of us on tour. George
was the skipper of Miss Georgia, and Donna was along as deck hand and
interpreter. Donna lived the resettlement experience and has vivid adult
memories of leaving the outport of Petites 20 years ago.
Petites was our first stop, and Mother Nature hasn't been
kind to the ghostly outport. The sun, wind and rain have ravaged the unmaintained
buildings as you can see from the pictures.
It doesn't take long
for the roofs to start leaking. The leaking roofs lead to rot, and then winds and snow take the final blows to knock them down. But until that happens, the old
places are monuments to those that were born in the bedrooms, educated in the school, wed in the church,
and in some cases buried in the cemetery.
Speaking of the church, there's a movement
lead by John and Julia Breckenridge to save the Old Bethany United Church.
Our next stop was the more recently resettled community of
Grand Bruit. It still had a couple of holdouts living there, and to my
surprise, some houses still were supplied with electrical power from the grid.
After getting over that surprise, I learned they had cellular phone coverage as well.
As a result, many of the houses were still being maintained and used as
seasonal residences. It's still a pretty little outport, divided by a waterfall
running through the middle of town and into the sea.
Speaking of education, without doubt, all eight of us on the
excursion today learned a great deal about the resettlement of communities here
on the Rock. Thank you to Port aux Basques Marine Excursions and the people we
spoke to in and around each community about their past and present.
Postscript
There's so much more to say about our excursion along the
coast.
Cruising the coast of Newfoundland by boat is very different
from driving the province by car. The beauty of the rugged coastline cannot be
captured by camera even though we tried.
We saw a caribou up close while he grazed on the smallest of
islands. He really had nowhere to hide and took the viewing in stride. From his
point of view, this lonely caribou seemed to find a boat full of tourists something
of interest.
The fine folks at Port aux Basques Marine Excursions did an
excellent job providing safe and comfortable passage up the coast. The meals
were wonderful and the information professional and friendly. They did an
outstanding job. Thank you Mandy, George and Donna.
If you're thinking of seeing Newfoundland from the water, give these folks a try, and you'll have a day to remember
If you're thinking of seeing Newfoundland from the water, give these folks a try, and you'll have a day to remember
