In the 1950's, Premier J.R. Smallwood made an announcement that up to 200 settlements on the island of Newfoundland alone had no great future in store for them. The government would offer financial assistance to families who wanted to leave the isolated harbours and bays ofNewfoundland. At first, a maximum of $150 was offered but it later increasing to $600.The government however had a clause that stated all households in a community had to agree to relocate before the $600 was paid. It was estimated that over 7,000 abandoned their communities between 1954 - 1965 and a total of 110 settlements faded into history. With the success of Smallwoods resettlement scheme the federal-provincial resettlement program started in 1965 administered by the Department of Fisheries. This program asked for %90 of the settlers to agree to move and was later dropped to %80. Regulations stated each household was eligible for a grant of $1,000 plus $200 for each dependent. In addition, the program paid some moving costs, and up to $3,000 for serviced building lots. By 1975 ,148 more communities ceased to exist and 20,000 people resettled elsewhere.The program soon became unpopular because the promises of jobs never happened.The government dropped services to those who refused to move when the population of a community dropped below a certain level.The jobs never did materialize and today we have a different name for the resettlement program.We call it outward migration. However this time around no money is offered and the people simply board up their homes and migrate to Canada.
Photos of resettlement________________________________________________
7 comments:
Hi Wayne! I found your site over at Fark... Love those photoshop contests :)
I'm originally from Gander, but now live in Ottawa with my mainlander hubby.
Thanks for sharing some history about our province...
hi nancy,thanks for dropping by.i recently joined fark and l like the photoshop contests also.
hundreds of houses where moved similiar to the ones in the photo tracy.some lost in the process.only the people in the cementary stayed behind.
Nice post. I would like to see more photos like the ones that you placed there. All four of my grandparents were part of communities that were resettled. It is sad when you think that we have generation upon generation buried in the ground of a forgotten land.
1) What do you mean "migrate to Canada"? Newfoundland is already in Canada.
2) Do you think resettlement was solely in Newfoundland?
3) Or in the province of Newfoundland and Labrador?
i must be comming off sounding like another character on the net,he calls himself "LABRADORE" and has seperated from the province of NL. no i know the resettlement program also took part in coastal "labradore" but not on the scale as the island.
There were just as many places resettled in Labrador, given the number of places to resettle in the first place, as in Newfoundland.
Of course, many places in Labrador had already resettled themselves without a government program for decades, without invoking an existential crisis or a great deal of hand-wringing.
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