What to Newfoundlander's Think

From Today's Toronto Star

Jun 15, 2008 04:30 AM
Linda Diebel
National Affairs Writer
PETTY HARBOUR, NFLD.–So this cartoon has Premier Danny Williams dropping a few bills into Dalton McGuinty's tin cup and asking his Ontario counterpart, "Know any good Newfie jokes, there Dalton?"

Likely it's the most popular cartoon taped to fridges across Newfoundland and Labrador these days. It reflects the mood of a province whose people haven't had a lot of fun being the butt of "Newfie" jokes over 59 years since joining Confederation.

Until recently, the idea of Ontario and Newfoundland trading places seemed absurd. But an April 30 report by the Toronto-Dominion bank forecasts Ontario is on track to becoming a "have-not" province and Newfoundland set for the ranks of the "haves" – at least according to this country's Byzantine formula for calculating equalization payments.

Thing is, the cartoon by Bruce MacKinnon of Halifax's The Chronicle-Herald, is funny because it isn't mean-spirited. Sure, it's a taste of payback, a bit of a giggle. But there doesn't seem to be a lot of ill will here on the Rock toward Ontarians.

"Yep, we'd help out (Ontario) if we could," said Jody Stack, on a break from stacking bins onto a forklift at the Fisherman's Processing Co-op in Petty Harbour, a hop along the Avalon Peninsula from St. John's. The crab boats were on their way home and their catch would have to be quickly iced and crated for export.

"No harm in that, now is there?" added Stack, 34, a Harbour man all his life. "Things are pretty good for us here, and it's only going to keep getting better."

Last week – another horrendously grim one for Ontario's manufacturing heartland – the Star asked Newfoundlanders about the future and whether it's time for King Ontario to take a tumble.

Uh-uh. Closing an auto plant is the same as closing a fish plant when it's the lifeblood of a community, and people have their own dreary history of seeing dreams and hard work go up in smoke, despite all efforts. They get the pain in Ontario better than most and, by and large, feel empathy.

"Sure, why not help Ontario?" seconded Gail Babstock, 52, a St. John's legal assistant in a red-hot economy. But she's cautious: "It depends on how well off we are. We've been suffering for so long we might be a little greedy at the outset of it all."

Indicators say Newfoundland is booming. While Ontario has lost 200,000 manufacturing jobs since 2002 (add another 2,000 with GM's announcement it will shut down its Oshawa truck plant next year), this province is taking the commodities boom to the bank.

In Petty Harbour, the depletion of cod stocks was devastating, but this year they're dredging the harbour, renovating the docks and the war memorial and welcoming an influx of foreigners, many arriving from Europe in top-of-the-line sailboats.

Offshore oil development is burgeoning, there's nickel in Voisey's Bay, iron ore in Labrador West and, in the capital, the money boys from away are setting up shop to work with the locals.

There's a different feel in the air. Conservative Williams was re-elected in a landslide last fall, largely because he stood up to the oil companies. Stack's a lifelong Liberal but his opinion is common: "Danny's done a real good job for us."

It just may be that a bleak chapter is ending. They're not going down the road to Ontario any more. Yes, they're still flying out on Fort McMurray specials to Alberta's oil sands, divesting whole towns in the process. Husbands, wives, kids – all gone.

But slowly, slowly, Newfoundlanders are coming home. Statistics Canada reported the population increased in the last half of 2007 for the first time in 15 years.

Also, according to StatsCan, the Gross Domestic Product (GDP) per capita went from being $10,000 below the national average in 1997 to $10,000 above the average of $46,221 in 2007 – "the largest turnaround in one decade in Canadian history." In contrast, Ontario's GDP per capita in 2007 dipped by 2 per cent to $45,121.
Still, everything's relative. Ontario's big urban centres, notably Toronto, with their financial, communications and information technology sectors are adding jobs, even as the manufacturing base crumbles.

Nobody on the Rock is counting chickens – not when the boom could be in the end, pure finance. Numbers, not real gains for people.

"We haven't seen anything yet," said Babstock. "We've been told by the premier and we're trusting him."
Three generations of her family were having lunch in a harbour-front mall, including her daughter Sheri, 31, who returned from Alberta to teach elementary school, and granddaughter, Paige, 5.

Babstock doesn't anticipate a better life for herself or her daughter, but said, "hopefully Paige won't have the struggles we've had." It's significant, too, she added, her son-in-law, a long-haul trucker since 2001, recently moved back with her daughter from Fort McMurray.

He doesn't have to be away to make a living any more.
Of course, some folks aren't too happy to see outsiders changing the face of their capital. It's not uncommon to pay $300-plus for lunch at a tony new St. John's establishment. Said one observer scornfully: "Newfoundlanders don't do that."

A person can drop a half million or more on a house. "It's the oil guys coming in from Houston, Aberdeen and Calgary," according to Babstock.

Still, on a sunny day last week, Chris Rossiter, 22, and Chris McEvoy, 21, saw their futures as "pretty bright." Both Memorial University engineering students are on work programs with Husky Energy Ltd., a company that recently announced it has regulatory approval to develop its 70 million barrels a day North Amethyst site, adjacent to White Rose off the Newfoundland coast, where Husky brings in 140,000 barrels a day.

"There's more money going into all of our programs (at Husky)," said McEvoy. "Be nice to see all of Canada do good."

But, a true Newfoundlander, he didn't stop there, concluding: "The thing is, how long is it going to last?"