People need to unite to save coastal communities, says FFAW rep

"Our coastal communities are in trouble. They are dying."

That's what Dave Decker of the Fish, Food and Allied Workers (FFAW) told participants at last week's Fishery Symposium in Bonavista.

The secretary-treasurer of the FFAW says it might be difficult to see, especially when coming into a town like Bonavista where so much work and restoration has gone on in recent years.

However, he says, Bonavista and other coastal communities are in trouble because their foundations are in trouble.

When Decker began work with the union in 1990, his territory was from Francois to Harbour Deep, all along the west coast and including southern Labrador.

Since then Harbour Deep, Big Brook and Petite have been abandoned - with their citizens moving elsewhere - and Grand Bruit is in the process of resettlement.

"That's four communities in that time period alone closed and we hear of them one by one. Make no mistake, our communities are dying,"

Decker says his home community, Ship Cove, is another example of a community dying slowly. His 83 year old mother still lives there most of the year but moves into St. John's with Decker during the winter.

He says an example of what his mother and other people in dying communities go through was brought home to him recently during a telephone conversation.

It was 7:30 p.m., he says, and his mother noted she was going to bed then because there wasn't another light to be seen in the community.

What has to be done?

Decker says what the Bonavista Area Chamber of Commerce is doing by holding the Fishery Symposium, is the type of thing that needs to be done elsewhere. People have to talk about what is happening with their communities if a solution is to be found, he suggested.

"If we look at this in terms of the Bonavista Peninsula, there are over 200 fishing enterprises on this peninsula. Over 40 of them are vessels over 40 feet and about 180 less than 40 feet. That is about 300-400 people employed in harvesting.

"Looking in terms of revenue what comes in from harvesting, there is only a small portion actually going into labour, the rest goes into expenses.

"But that money circulates very fast into the community, because any harvester knows they don't get to hold on to their money very long. For many, the money is spent before they even bring their catch into the wharf"

Decker says there are several processing plants in the area, with the Ocean Choice International (OCI) plant at Bonavista being one of the larger ones. There's also an OCI plant at Port Union and a family-owned processing enterprise at Plate Cove.

He notes there were 522,000 hours of employment in these plants this year, which is a tremendous amount of amount of employment in the region, and all from fish harvested in the region.

"However, if we don't start learning to speak to each other as a community and look at ourselves as a whole instead of just units of fishery, tourism, service sector and others, then we are not going to find a way out of this mess," says Decker.

Government absence

A question that has to be asked, he says, is where the provincial government is in regards to coastal communities?

"We can speak all we want but the reality is that actions speak louder than words and the reality is there is nobody from provincial government here today, which is entirely unacceptable."

Decker wasn't alone in his displeasure about the lack of participation from the provincial government. Many participants voiced their dissatisfaction that Minister Tom Hedderson, who was invited and previously agreed to attend, didn't show up or even send a representative from the Department of Fisheries. (see related story Page A3)

Decker says considering Newfoundland and Labrador in terms of Gross Domestic Product (GDP); one has to wonder where the perception is and what drives in terms of government.

He gave figures from 2006 showing oil and gas revenues at 34.6 percent of GDP in the province.

"The reality is that most of that never ever touched our shores. A lot of it goes straight from the Grand Banks to the US market. Some of it comes into Placentia Bay, is put in a trans-shipment terminal and comes back out again for shipment to the market."

Decker says there is no doubt oil and gas is a huge opportunity for the province, but it is not by itself going to be the province's salvation if it is not taken and used wisely in terms of building power for renewable resources.

The fishery GDP in 2006 is 1.9 percent and labour is 7.1 percent. That employment, says Decker is in coastal communities

"That 7.1 percent is what drives coastal communities on the Bonavista Peninsula, the Northern Peninsula, the Baie Verte Peninsula, and others. That's where these people are and that 7.1 percent is what drives these economies. The difference is that 7.1 percent is a renewable resource while oil and gas are non-renewable resources."

Unfortunately, Decker says we think ourselves, and have taught our children that the fishing industry is not the place to be - that it is something they should not get into; that they can better themselves elsewhere.

Decker recalled leaving school, taking an accounting course and going to work in an office. A year later he realised it wasn't what he wanted to do with his life and he went fishing instead.

A great job

"In terms of fishing I had no regrets. It was a great job.

"By the way, if I talk to harvesters, I don't hear them complaining about their jobs. I hear lots of other people complaining, but not the fishers."

He says fishers don't complain about the quality of their jobs.

The problem is, he said, their incomes are "unacceptably low."

Decker says there probably would not be a fishery at all if it was just in terms of income. It is the quality of the job that keeps harvesters fishing.

Income is also a problem today for plant workers, Decker says. He attended a meeting recently with Minister Hedderosn and two Port Union shrimp plant workers. It wasn't a good year for the workers, says Decker, and many of them are facing some rough choices.

"The reality of their situation - and it didn't take long to see this - is that in terms of their income and expenses, they have two choices. Barring help from family and friends, they have the choice between buying drugs they need in terms of their health or to put food on their table.

"The answer (from the minister) was clear, 'There is nothing we can do.'

Decker says he brought these people to meet with the Minister because he felt that he, as their FFAW representative, couldn't articulate their pain. He felt the Minister should hear directly from the workers.

"But still the answer was that there was nothing we can do.

"If we look at the landed value of our product, down over $100 million, it adds up to a lot of pain in our communities. We see the export value down over $200 million; that comes right out of our communities."

Decker says government knows coastal communities are in trouble; it's not a secret. He says the people who lead this province in personal bankruptcy are over 55 years old and live in rural Newfoundland. Those statistics speak to what is happening.

He says the return of investment in the fishery is just not there to re-invest into the enterprises and that is another problem affecting coastal communities

"The question is how do we engage ourselves in terms of finding solutions? The only chance we have is to do this type of meeting all around the province, because we have to work together as a community.

"Whether you are a teacher, a health care worker or you work in tourism; if you are a politician, working in maintenance on the roads or whatever, we need that inter-connectivity. It doesn't matter is you are the skipper of a boat, in a crew in a large or small boat or if you are a plant worker, the reality is we are a community and we are a community in trouble.

"It's not a situation where one part of our community or province is in trouble, our community as a whole is in trouble. We have to understand that if one part of our community suffers, we all suffer."