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‘Our little community’s dying’: Isolation prompts Newfoundland town to ask province for ‘resettlement’
Little Bay Islands used to be just another prosperous settlement on the Newfoundland coast: Ample jobs at the local crab processing plant, streets jammed with children, dances at the Orange Hall — and all of it within surroundings befitting a tourism ad: Cosy wood houses facing onto an iceberg-dotted Atlantic.
Now, the crab plant is long gone, every shop in town is shuttered and the population has plummeted to 72 from a one-time high of almost 800. Aside from a toddler and a pair of young teenagers, virtually the only islanders left are a few dozen widows and seniors, many of whom don’t have the money to leave.
“We all know our little community’s dying,” said one Little Bay Islands resident who preferred to remain anonymous. “One time, I’d say there was probably seven or eight stores here; you could go and buy whatever you wanted. Now, you can’t even get a soft drink.”
It is why, earlier this month, the nearly 200-year-old community applied for “resettlement,” a 60-year-old program in which the province issues everyone a cheque to leave town before cutting the power, suspending the ferry service and leaving nature to take its course. (Adam Norman/Wikipedia; Emerald Zone Corporation/Regional Economic Development Board)
Newfoundland franchise owner trades in family KFC dynasty for healthier fare
Renee Marquis had a dream, a vision really, to open a chain of family restaurants. To give customers healthy, tasty, home-cooked fare — with lots of fruits and vegetables — and packed with down-home Newfoundland goodness and everything else she wasn’t offering in her day job as the owner of 10 KFC (aka Kentucky Fried Chicken) restaurants scattered around the province.
“We have beautiful wild produce in Newfoundland, we’re surrounded by the ocean. I want to give people a fresh option, not just haul something out of a freezer or open up a tin and charge premium price for junk food.” (Photo: Paul Daly for the National Post)
Why do you want to climb an iceberg? Because it’s there, of course
On a Wednesday afternoon in St. John’s, N.L., Justin Emberley saw a 45-metre iceberg floating less than 100 feet from shore in Quidi Vidi Harbour. He called up his friend, Kevin Le Morzadec, a French citizen doing his Ph.D. on the subject of glacier modeling in Newfoundland, and said, “Let’s climb it.” And climb it they did. They put on their wetsuits and life vests, threw their ice picks and clamp-ons in their bags, jumped in the frigid ocean and swam to the iceberg. The National Post’s Kristin Annable spoke Thursday to Mr. Le Morzadec, as Mr. Emberley listened nearby. (Photos: Jerry Curtis)
Wayward puffin getting a lift back to Newfoundland
A Hudson, Que., woman has been playing host to a special guest — one that is desperately trying to get home.
But it looks like the bird — a six-month old Atlantic puffin — is booked on a morning flight to Newfoundland on Thursday.
The puffin has been paddling around the bathtub of Lindsay D’Aoust’s home since Dec. 15, the day it was found in downtown Montreal.
A veterinary technician spotted it, but how it got to Montreal remains a mystery. (Photo: Peter McCabe/Postmedia News)
![An unlucky porcupine leads the charge to colonize Newfoundland. The creature with the quills, naturally, was a porcupine, and yet not just any porcupine, but the first and only porcupine to be spotted — dead or alive — in Newfoundland.“It is not uncommon to drive down the road in Labrador and see a porcupine, living or dead,” says Shelley Moores, a senior wildlife manager with Newfoundland and Labrador’s Department of Environment and Conservation.“But this is the first time we have ever had a report of a living or dead porcupine on the island. In fact, we have never had a report of a living porcupine on the island — only [the] report of one dead porcupine.”](http://24.media.tumblr.com/tumblr_ltq7pnuJob1qze0z6o1_1280.jpg)
An unlucky porcupine leads the charge to colonize Newfoundland. The creature with the quills, naturally, was a porcupine, and yet not just any porcupine, but the first and only porcupine to be spotted — dead or alive — in Newfoundland.
“It is not uncommon to drive down the road in Labrador and see a porcupine, living or dead,” says Shelley Moores, a senior wildlife manager with Newfoundland and Labrador’s Department of Environment and Conservation.
“But this is the first time we have ever had a report of a living or dead porcupine on the island. In fact, we have never had a report of a living porcupine on the island — only [the] report of one dead porcupine.”
Crash course in a $1.5-million car
This wasn’t Zahir Rana’s first crash. And it probably won’t be his last. But when the 56year-old exotic car mechanic, salesman and race-car driver from Calgary spun off the road and into the salty North Atlantic during the internationally renowned Targa road race in Newfoundland last Thursday, his pride took a bit of a beating. So did his $1.5-million, bumblebee yellow Ferrari, though not very badly, he tells the Post’s Sarah Boesveld from his shop, ZR Auto in Calgary. He hopes a video of the crash, which he posted on YouTube just hours after it happened, will inspire people to learn from their mistakes, pick up and move on. It’s already gleaned more than 1.5 million views.
Hurricane warning issued for eastern Newfoundland
A hurricane warning has been issued for Newfoundland’s east coast as Hurricane Maria has picked up speed and power as it churns its way north.
On Friday morning, Environment Canada issued a hurricane warning for the southern Avalon region and a tropical storm warning for the northern Avalon, Burin and Bona Vista peninsulas.
Hurricane force winds were expected to hit Newfoundland Friday afternoon, Environment Canada said. (Photo: NASA/AFP/Getty Images)
NASA says it has captured an image of a massive iceberg drifting toward Newfoundland.
Officials with the U.S. space agency said the 55-square-kilometre ice island has been slowly headed toward the eastern shore of the province since it broke off of the Petermann Glacier on Greenland’s northwest coast last August.
The iceberg, known as Petermann Ice Island-A, was originally about the size of Manhattan, but has gradually shrunk because of melting and calving — when pieces of the berg break away.
NASA said the iceberg was not likely to hit land, but would probably run aground on the sea floor just off the coast. It does pose a danger to offshore oil rigs and shipping traffic, officials said.
Bear cub that gained web fame euthanized
A bear cub that gained fame when it had its photo snapped with a Newfoundland RCMP officer has been killed because it was feared to be too friendly. Fish and Wildlife enforcement officers with the Department of Justice euthanized the bear on the weekend after it was seen going up to customers at the Copper Kettle Restaurant inside Terra Nova National Park, near Gander. It had already proved to be a traffic hazard on the nearby Trans-Canada Highway. (Photo: Cst. Suzanne Bourque and the bear cub. Handout/RCMP)
Exotic Canada Newfoundland: Where the sushi swim
Off the craggy coast of Cape Broyle on the southern shore of Newfoundland and Labrador, you can dine on fresh uni sushi — one of the top delicacies in Japan — straight off the paddle of a kayak.
It’s all part of the experience with Stan Cook Sea Kayak Adventures. However, Stan Cook Jr., who helps run the family business, didn’t quite realize it at first. It was only when a Japanese tourist started screaming: “Uni, uni!” during a tour at low tide that he truly understood the star value of the prickly urchins once commonly referred to as “whore’s eggs” by fishermen due to their propensity for ripping nets.
“She scooped up around 30 or 40 of them on the spray skirt and started cracking them open with her paddle and eating them all at once,” recounts Cook, cutting open a sea urchin and handing it around on his paddle for a taste test to our group. “She was going crazy. She was so excited, I thought she might fall out. She kept looking at them all in the water and saying ‘Stanley, it’s like floating $20 bills!’” (Photo: Courtesy of Susanne Hiller)
Senator in hospital after collision with moose
Soon-to-be reappointed senator Fabian Manning is in hospital with what officials say are minor head injuries after his car struck a moose Thursday night in Newfoundland.
“The moose just came up onto the road,” RCMP Sgt. Mike Oulette said. “It happened so quick, the driver was unable to avoid the moose.” (Peter J. Thompson/National Post)
Graphic: Moose-Vehicle accidents
B.C. woman hits moose on way to visit sister who hit moose
Kevin Libin: How equalization is a formula for stagnation
In short, the grave truth about equalization in Canada is this: the more productive and responsible your province, the lousier your access to medicine, nursing homes, schools, the justice system, day cares, and dozens of other services will be. On the other hand, the more a province proves itself fiscally careless and economically stagnant, the likelier its citizens are to enjoy the most well padded public programs on offer.
Abandoning home: One town’s crisis is summoning a ghost from Newfoundland’s history — resetlement
Resettlement. In Newfoundland, it is a loaded and divisive term, shaded by memories of bygone days and haunted by ghosts of places that no longer exist. McDougall’s Gulch, Rattling Brook, Muddy Hole, Pushthrough, Tickles, Ireland’s Eye and hundreds of other communities that were abandoned for money, for politics, for “progress” from the 1950s to ’70s because people felt like they did not have a choice. That if they did not leave, they would get left behind.
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Q & A: Newfoundland lawyer files moose collision lawsuit
They’re one of the calm gentle giants of the Canadian wilderness. But should a moose strolls in front of your vehicle, the damage could be significant, and, in some cases, fatal. This week, 40 Newfoundland residents who had been hospitalized due to moose-vehicle crashes filed a class action lawsuit against the province for allowing the moose population to surge beyond control (there are about 150,000, with about 40,000 are added to the Newfoundland population each year) and thus pose a danger to drivers. (Graphic by Andrew Barr)
