"Resettlement was people inspired”

Decks Awash, vol. 05, no. 01 (February 1976) Page 52

Pat Canning, at 60 odd, has spent most of his life in the public service. In one of the surprise votes of the 1975 provincial general election, incumbent P.C. heavy-weight Leo Barry was defeated by Mr. Canning, an old-time Liberal.

This year will mark Mr. Canning's 24th year as a MHA for the people of Placentia Bay, including the west side of the Burin Peninsula. Decks Awash asked him about those years, and, in particular, the resettlement program. His answers, which follow in an edited form, provide a slightly different viewpoint on the program and its merits.

"The right impressions and the wrong reports have been given about resettlement in Placentia Bay. You will read that the Government turned the people out, cut off their facilities, or didn't improve their facilities, and left no alternative for the people but to get out. This story isn't true.

"As long as I can remember young people, and entire families, have been leaving. In 1929 my family of eleven; mother, father and 9 children sat at the table in Merasheen for Christmas dinner; in 1939 my mother and father sat alone. Every one of us, except one, left; the one who stayed, married and settled in Merasheen Island. That's the history of an awful lot of families in the area.

"All the government did was assist in relocating the people; it was already happening when the Government came into business in 1949. Perhaps personally, I could be blamed for encouraging the people; I represented the district and I often told the families it was too bad they weren't near bigger schools and better services. Anybody who knows Placentia Bay knows the resettlement idea was in progress right down through the years.

"In Placentia West we made big strides to get facilities to the larger settlements like Woody Island, Harbour Buffett, King's Island, Merasheen, Flat Islands (Port Elizabeth). We got them electricity with diesels; we established fish plants; we had a salt and fresh fish operation at Merasheen; we gave them decent local roads. But while we were doing this, they lacked other things, for instance, they couldn't get nurses and doctors to stay in the area. There was a hospital boat, The Lady Anderson, in the area, which worked well for about two years. The things we could do for the communities to try and keep them there was done on a par with the mainland.

"There were a lot of communities in the Placentia Bay area which resettled without any influence from the Government. For instance, Sound Island was clearing off about two years after Confederation; Rams Island, which was renamed Iona, disappeared as far as the population was concerned; St. Ann's was gone by 1950 or 1951; Chandler's Harbour had cleared out.

"When the Government did start to give assistance to people who resettled, there were families who wanted to stay, but there was pressure of sorts on them then. I tried to get people in different communities in my district to organize committees to decide where they wanted to go and look for whatever help they hoped to get. But they didn't. The Port Elizabeth move into Red Harbour was really the only organized moving that we had.

"The families fell into three groups. (1) The people who were getting along, but had money enough to move. They went to Placentia and St. John's, they went to Burin, North Harbour, Southern Harbour, Arnold's Cove and Come By Chance. (2) The group of people who did fairly well, who were improving their homes and way of life; they were very reluctant to leave, they held on. (3) The ones who weren't making a living, who spent a considerable time on relief, who couldn't afford to leave, even though they wanted to. This last group of people began to pressure the government for help.

"We had to help the people who came to us asking for help. Once the government got into this, the momentum that had always been there, picked up and people started to go in a rush.

"We had come to a serious situation; for instance, we just couldn't get teachers to go to the islands. There were people from the islands who would go to University and get their 4th or 5th grade, and even they wouldn't go back to their homes to teach.

"The Placentia Bay people were fine people, and that is why I think they left the islands, because they couldn't see any advantages in staying there. I think the biggest concern was getting their children through the schools and making sure they made a good life for them and their children."