March 2002
by Barry Stagg
This has all the pathos and sadness of any fin de siecle drama. An epoch-that of the fecundity of the Grand Banks of Newfoundland- is being played to a pathetic close. These clashes among Newfoundlanders are symptomatic of the fatal scarcity of the Newfoundland codfish. Modern technology is overtaking the fish plant culture of small towns but this battle is just a bit of domestic unrest after the international war for the cod was conceded years ago by Canada.
The failure of Canada to assert control of the Grand Banks led to an orgy of resource destruction. All countries trawling and dragging on the Banks, including Canada, share in the blame for this ecological Armageddon. That Canada had company in this awful thing does nothing to absolve it of blame. It makes the moral indictment of our country that much more emphatic, for it shows the degree to which our rent-seeking elite compromised our natural resources in exchange for a fleeting consolidation of their privileged condition. In short, office workers- high and low- got careers and pensions out of their selloff of the foundation of the Newfoundland fishery. It was akin to burning the boat's timbers to warm your hands while still at sea. Surely, even Smallwood's invocation to 'burn your boats' stopped short of that suicidal approach.
The conversion of Newfoundland into a federal fiscal protectorate has been underway since April 1, 1949. Getting the fishery out of the economy and into the history books was one brutally effective way of simplifying the bureaucratic arithmetic for the paymasters operating out of Ottawa. Getting career political staffers like Brian Tobin elected to Parliament went a long way toward converting the job from a political process to one of simple management. Once the government class in Newfoundland was big enough and dependent enough on federal transfer loot, the battle was won. No more confusion about how to make a good, steady living. There was only one certain way: to have your pay cheque drawn from the government accounts.
Newfoundland is the most unionized province in the country, purely because it has the highest proportion of government paid workers- teachers, nurses, employment counsellors, etc. The interests of the government classes are the same- keep the cash flowing. When the fishing industry is whittled down to the same sad ethos- keep the wintertime cheques coming and make a little work in the summer- the economy is as much a federal protectorate as those of the aboriginal Bantustans called variously Nunavut, First Nations and so on.
The fishery in Newfoundland is going to revive only if private business builds it up again. The businesses may be as big as multi-national FPI or as small and local as a few fishermen supplying a boutique market for sea urchins-the Ray Guy variety are supposedly most favoured by urbane Japanese connoisseurs.
Statist legislation mimicking Soviet era Bulgaria is not going to do anything for FPI, fishing or Newfoundland's reputation, other than confirm that the local Nomenklatura are ferally protective of their government privileges. Fisheries Minister Reid can push the Peter Principle to its most elastic limit and will still end up with a financial farce in wait for the next broom-wielding provincial election.