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00:00The plan is not closed till the locks goes on the door.
00:16The fishery and Trapassi have been linked since the 1500s.
00:20The fishery is the reason early settlers came here.
00:23Now, 400 years later, the fishery continues to be the town's main industry.
00:29In the 1980s, the people of Trapassi built their future around this plant, operated by
00:34Fishery Products International.
00:37Predictions from the federal government were encouraging.
00:40Federal scientists said the fish stocks were healthy, and Trapassi residents thought their
00:45future was secure.
00:46It was later learned that the scientists were wrong.
00:50The cod stocks were in serious trouble.
00:53The federal government cut quotas, and as a result, Fishery Products decided to close
00:58three plants in Galtus, Grand Bank, and Trapassi.
01:04Trapassi will die overnight.
01:06There's nothing left on a UIC in welfare.
01:11And, like, we're a very, we were a very prosperous little town, you know, who gave a lot to the
01:18public purse.
01:20And we never had to, like, look for anything from the public purse because there was always
01:25work.
01:26But if this should happen, they're talking about nothing for Trapassi on a UIC in welfare.
01:33Fishery Products says its decision is final.
01:36The plant will close.
01:37The provincial government will finance an extension of the notice period, meaning the
01:42plant will stay open until 1991.
01:45But that's little comfort to people like Angus Herdery.
01:48He moved back here from Toronto in 1982.
01:52He got a job at the plant, built a new home, and planned to remain in Trapassi.
01:57Well, myself and Joyce had been married for, what was it, about four years at the time.
02:05And we had a little boy, and we wanted to move back here before he started school because
02:11I grew up here, and it's a small community, and I figured it would be a better place to
02:17bring up the child.
02:19And the plant was working good at the time, and it was supposed to be working good at
02:24the time, and I wanted to have a place where I could own a home.
02:28In Toronto, I could never see myself owning a home because I worked in construction there,
02:33and the prices were astounding to me at the time, although now they look like nothing.
02:39But basically, I moved back because of the child, because of the way of life here.
02:44For Angus Herdery and hundreds like him, there are now two choices, leave and look
02:49for work somewhere else, or stay in Trapassi and hope that a job can be found there.
02:55But this is the image people fear the most.
02:58This man is on a make-work project.
03:00He is being paid to split rocks and move them.
03:04His name is Paul Curtis, and he says if you can't get a job at the plant, there is little
03:08else to do.
03:09I'm down here and I was picking up a few rocks, that's the way it's going, I'm working
03:14on the program.
03:15And what do you do with the rocks?
03:16Well, they're going to put them out in the farm, you know, when they get to build it
03:19for us.
03:20Do you think this is meaningful work, do you enjoy doing this, or would you rather have
03:24another job if there was one available?
03:25I'd rather have a job, ma'am, of getting big money, you know, but when you haven't got
03:30big money, well, you only have to go for small money, right?
03:33So there's really nothing else here for you to do?
03:35There's nothing else for her to do now, ma'am, the plant is closed up, I'm sure.
03:38Well, that's closed up, but, you know, it is what it is.
03:42The federal government says it is committed to retraining, and will make available millions
03:47of dollars to help fish plant workers find new jobs.
03:51But many people don't understand how that program will work.
03:54They say they're already trained to work in the fishing industry, and they don't believe
03:59other jobs will be available.
04:01We're already a well-trained workforce, simple as that, there is nothing they can retrain
04:07us to do here.
04:08What, you know, fishery has been here for hundreds of years, since Trapassi came into
04:13being.
04:14The Portuguese used to fish out of here, I think that's where it got its name, but right
04:18now, there is nothing.
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05:26About a 20% employment rate in Newfoundland now.
05:34We have all kinds of trained people.
05:36So jobs were so easy, fine, why aren't these people working?
05:41I'm sure they want to work.
05:44So you have no hope at all for when government says that these people could be retrained
05:49to do other jobs?
05:51Well, we can retrain them, but retrain them for what?
05:55You know, if somebody could tell me what we would retrain our people for, I would jump
06:03at the chance, but I can't.
06:05We have talked about everything.
06:06I can't see anything else because our people are fully trained in the fishery.
06:12Keith Halloran considers himself one of the lucky ones.
06:16He's a trawlerman with FPI.
06:18Although he will no longer work out of Trapassi, he will work as a trawlerman with FPI in Marystown.
06:25I was in St. John's to meetings and was sitting in the hotel room and about one o'clock that
06:29morning I got a phone call saying the plant was closed.
06:33I think everybody here figured, well our six trawlers were going to go because we had six
06:36of the oldest boats in the fleet.
06:39But when I got the news that the plant was gone, well I said now, here's where six trawlers
06:42gone and the plant is gone so we'll have to get a double whammy.
06:48But even though we had four trawlers transferred to Marystown, I guess it's helped some of
06:53the people, like the trawlermen for example, but it's no help whatsoever to the plant
06:57workers and we've got probably 38 or 40 trawlermen, that's including the guys that were leaving,
07:02because they had no chance of getting a job this year.
07:05And even with the plant getting to 20 weeks this year, there's still going to be around
07:09150 people not getting work.
07:11Keith Halloran blames the federal government for the fisheries crisis.
07:15He says Ottawa mismanaged the stocks and if the fishery is to recover, the federal government
07:21must be willing to stand up to the foreigners.
07:24I think they'll get to 20 weeks this year.
07:27But once 1991 comes and everybody's expecting a reduction in the quota, and the only way
07:33that I think we can come out of it with 20 weeks next year is if the foreign allocations
07:36are cut back.
07:38And the federal government is going to manage the resources.
07:41For example, just last fall we had an American scallop trawler that ran the Navy ship.
07:47I mean, who was managing the stocks?
07:49Is it going to be the foreigners or is it going to be our own government?
07:52And right now it seems like just the foreigners.
07:54I mean, Canada, you go on the mainland, you hear those Newfie jokes.
07:58And as far as I'm concerned, if you go to the foreign countries, Canada is just a joke
08:01in regards to the fisheries.
08:03Because the federal government is doing absolutely nothing to control it.
08:06The long-term future of Tripassi and surrounding communities will largely depend on the actions
08:11of the federal government.
08:13The people here are united in their stand.
08:16They feel Ottawa must get tough with foreigners and must take whatever action is necessary
08:21to save the cod stocks.
08:23The first thing right now they should do is call the sea herds.
08:29Because right now there's about, they say about 4 million of them out there.
08:35Some people say they eat 35 pounds of fish a day.
08:38Some people say 15.
08:40Regardless of what they eat, they eat so much but they destroy a lot more of it.
08:47While overfishing and mismanagement are blamed for the crisis in the East Coast fishery,
08:52some people here still feel the federal scientists are wrong
08:56and that this year's quota should have been higher.
08:59I mean, right now, in all the areas where the boats are fishing,
09:03there seems to be more fish there than ever there was.
09:05Now what the scientists are basing their evidence on, that's something I don't know.
09:09And, you know, really I don't think that very many people do know.
09:13I mean, they're doing different tests and what they come up with
09:19or how they come up with the answers, you know, I really don't know.
09:25I mean, as far as the company is concerned, with Vic Young and the board of directors,
09:31I mean, they made their money on the backs of the workers in those communities.
09:35I mean, people here lost their lives on the boats working for the company.
09:39The people dedicated their lives in those communities
09:42to make sure that the company survived.
09:45And now because the higher-ups and then the big wheels that call them with the company
09:50figure, well, we're not making enough profit, we're going to shut them down, you know.
09:53But they're not starting to think that they're going to shut down whole communities.
09:57For example, with this plant here in Sevesi, we're talking
10:00inside 12 communities, effectively, right to St. Mary's Way, you know,
10:03to Riverhead, St. Mary's.
10:05It's our heritage, and yet they turn around and they give it to foreign fishing fleets.
10:11They've got Russian boats in or after Turbot that are,
10:14because there are no Newfoundlanders available to catch it.
10:16They're a bunch of bloney.
10:21I was going to say something else, but no.
10:23It is nonsense when they turn around and they, it's like,
10:28what's that guy, Leslie Harris said, you know,
10:30they let the Europeans get a 10% bycatch of cod.
10:34Cod is the one that's supposed to be so scarce.
10:36Yet you talk to the skippers, I have a brother that's a skipper on a boat.
10:39He said the cod is numerous, numerous.
10:42There's one skipper out in Trappistia, he,
10:45the last three trips he's been out,
10:48he's had to come in after a week each time for loads.
10:51Cod, cod is numerous.
10:53The flounder is scarce, yes, but not the cod.
10:55So the shortage isn't out there that everyone seems to believe?
10:59Not, well, I've never been out on a dragon myself,
11:02but according to, listen to the skippers and the crew on the boats,
11:06but no, the shortage that they're talking about is not there.
11:09It's, there's no need of coming down this low.
11:13It is just not there.
11:14It's mismanagements and the federal government's part
11:17is what caused all this crisis,
11:19even though he moderately said there's no crisis,
11:22but there is and it's his own government that caused it.
11:25When it's announced that the main industry in a small town is about to close,
11:30it sends shockwaves through the entire community.
11:33When the plant closes in Trapassi, more than 600 people will be out of work.
11:38Well, I have a son.
11:40He works as an electrician, his wife works in the office.
11:43I don't know where they're going to turn,
11:46where they can get employment here,
11:50whether it's here for an electrician or even for an office worker.
11:54Florence Pennell and her husband Gordon
11:56operate the Trapassi Motel and Tourist Home.
11:59The business has provided them with a comfortable income
12:02over the past 20 years.
12:04Although the fish plant is not scheduled to close until next year,
12:08Florence Pennell says her business is already suffering.
12:11Well, all business in Trapassi is going to suffer the plant closing.
12:15It's like the bottom has dropped out of it all.
12:19In the summer, for two months, July and August, we'll have the tourist.
12:24But from the fish plant, we get the engineers,
12:27where draggers will come in from Marystown, Catalina and other places.
12:32With trouble, we'd have other engineers,
12:34the electricians that would come to repair the boats.
12:37We had all kinds of salesmen that came,
12:39but we never saw salesmen since Banklost,
12:42like electric locks, furniture men.
12:46So all businesses really slackened off.
12:51While Trapassi businesses are already feeling the effects
12:54of the impending plant closure,
12:56community leaders are now worried about what will happen to schools in the area.
13:01Declining enrollments could mean fewer teachers,
13:04and there is concern that educational training will suffer as a result.
13:08But it seems like now we have better schools,
13:12and it's possible we could even lose some of our good teachers.
13:16If children start to move out, then the enrollment will decline,
13:21and it'll be a cut in our good teachers,
13:24which means a lot of our children, or my grandchildren,
13:28won't get the same education that we got.
13:31If you take our own situation here in Trapassi,
13:34with the possibility of plant closure,
13:37we have a push factor in the sense that
13:40your parents are without a job, possibly,
13:44and the pull factor might be that there might be a job
13:48at some other point, God forbid Toronto or wherever,
13:51that they may have to move.
13:53The high school students in Trapassi
13:55are well aware of what plant closure will mean.
13:58It's openly discussed in the classrooms,
14:01and some students have been active in efforts to save the plant.
14:05Von Sutton and Adele Waddleton
14:07are members of the Student Council Executive.
14:11You know, people don't want to see our livelihood
14:14be replaced by something else.
14:17Do the students here fear that will happen?
14:19Is it something they are worried about to some extent?
14:24Well, you know, it affects all of us.
14:27Some of them are worried about it, I guess.
14:29So you're making some worry more than others,
14:32and some people are prepared, you know, to face it,
14:34if in actual fact it does happen,
14:36which we're not going to look at yet.
14:40If a plant closes, well, we're hoping that it won't,
14:43I see a lot of changes occurring in our schools
14:47because, well, no doubt people will be leaving
14:50in search of employment in other places,
14:52and enrollment is going to drop, and then teacher layoffs.
14:56And because of that, there'll be less programs
14:59happening in school, and I know now, recently,
15:02like people going away in basketball tournaments
15:04and hockey tournaments in various rinks and that.
15:07It's going to be cut out, and a lot of extracurricular activities
15:10are going to be dropped.
15:12I see it affecting the younger people more,
15:14more so than the senior students,
15:16because we'll be leaving in June,
15:17and the grade 7s and 8s will be here
15:19to take the brunt of everything.
15:21Do you feel you're one of the lucky ones now that you,
15:23you know, this is your last year of school,
15:25you've got something else to go on to?
15:27Well, I consider myself lucky because a lot of people,
15:30well, the people in grade 12, a lot of their parents
15:32do work on the plant, some of them, both parents.
15:35And, well, I'll be kind of indirectly affected
15:39because my mother's teacher, my father, has retired.
15:42So I won't be directly affected because of the plant closure.
15:45So if I do go on to university, my parents,
15:48like if my parents were working on the plant,
15:50I wouldn't have to rely on their income to help me out.
15:53For the people of Trepassi, the closure of the FPI plant
15:56is extremely difficult to deal with.
15:58They continue to search for answers
16:00and hope that somehow their plant can be saved.
16:03But people in the industry say that's unlikely.
16:06The plant is scheduled to remain open in 1991,
16:10but if the quota is reduced again next year,
16:131990 may be its final year of operation.
16:16For Trepassi, time is running out.
16:19Well, we can only fight and try to keep it there.
16:24But if we just give up...
16:27I know Fort Sloan, when they come out,
16:29said we were going to shut down.
16:31Well, I said, this is it.
16:33You know, I'm going to have to go again.
16:35But not now.
16:37I think I'd rather stay and fight
16:39because if we fight, we have some chance.
16:42♪♪
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18:22Well, some people, I guess, you know, some people look at it and say,
18:25well, you know, we can't see how the government can let it close.
18:29You know, a lot of people, I guess, are still in shock, you know.
18:32I mean, they don't know what to do or where to go.
18:35In regards to going to the mainland, I mean,
18:37I worked on the mainland years ago and I got relatives up to now.
18:41I mean, for me, for example, to leave here to go to Toronto
18:44for eight or ten dollars an hour,
18:46I mean, I might as well stay home here and go on welfare.
18:48The only people that can do anything about this
18:52is the politicians and AHWA.
18:55And they have to have the political will to save the fishery.
19:00And that's the only way the fishery in Newfoundland can be saved,
19:04or Atlantic Canada.
19:06Following the announcement of plant closures early this year,
19:09the communities involved have banded together.
19:12Last month, they came to St. John's for a demonstration
19:15at the Confederation Building.
19:17And among the hundreds of protesters,
19:19there was a delegation from Sapassi, led by Mayor Rita Pennell.
19:24They're hoping that a united front
19:26will mean greater pressure on the federal government.
19:29There is a sense of urgency in this,
19:31and that we may not, we may not,
19:35have a quote for 1991, the three fishery problems planned.
19:40So I say that we've got to keep fighting stronger and harder
19:45because if the Harris Commission recommends further reduction in fish quarrels,
19:57then we just may not be around for 1991.
20:02Fish plant workers from Galtus, Grand Bank, St. John's, and Trapassi
20:06know they're fighting an uphill battle to keep their plants in operation.
20:10They came here on February 9th to listen to provincial politicians
20:14and federal trade minister John Crosby.
20:17During his last visit to Trapassi,
20:19John Crosby received a standing ovation.
20:22But now the times have changed.
20:24The people of Trapassi say they don't want federal handouts.
20:28They want to keep their jobs in the fishing industry.
20:31Two questions I would like to ask is,
20:33two of them are to be added together,
20:36and that is, will you give up today,
20:39today you, the people of Grand Bank, Galtus, Trapassi, and St. John's,
20:44that you will stand tooth and nail to keep our plants open,
20:47and if you give us that commitment,
20:50will you give us a second commitment,
20:52that if one of our plants close, that you will resign?
20:58I've done all I can, and I have done all I can,
21:01and I'll continue to do all I can.
21:03But as to resigning, I have done resigning,
21:08and I will continue to do so.
21:13It would be very damaging for you if I wasn't up here to help fight for you.
21:18Why have you accepted the European overfishing?
21:21Would I take in a more stringent stand than what you have taken?
21:24Why are you, as a representative in the federal government,
21:28yourself and Mr. Marooney, giving away Newfoundland to foreigners
21:32and the people who work here, why?
21:38The government has not accepted foreign overfishing.
21:41The government is doing everything possible to see that foreign overfishing ceases.
21:49Just as we are attempting to see that domestic Canadian overfishing ceases as well,
21:55when it comes to overfishing,
21:57we are doing and we are undertaking every possible measure
22:01to try to reduce or have the European community cease its overfishing.
22:06We've done everything that's practical and responsible.
22:09We have no way of unilaterally extending our jurisdiction beyond 200 miles
22:14because no other country is going to accept this,
22:17and Canada hasn't got the military power to enforce it if it did attempt that.
22:22We're not going to start, we are not going to start
22:26betraying and warring the European community
22:29because that would hurt too many other Atlantic and Asian peoples
22:33who have exported here to the European Union.
22:36After weeks of calling on the federal government for action,
22:39Fish Plan workers now appear to be cautiously optimistic
22:43that something positive can be done.
22:55NTV Newsday, coming up next on Canada's Superstation, NTV.
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25:02Bernard Belcourt became the new fisheries minister.
25:06Three days after his appointment, he came to the province
25:09and met with the workers affected.
25:11I think that we have to listen to them
25:14and look at it the way they live this.
25:19And I guess they find comfort in the fact that
25:23they seem to realize that, indeed,
25:28we are sensitive to the plight of those people
25:31as a government in Ottawa, and we care.
25:34And we're going to try to work with them to find a way.
25:37We found that he was very down-to-earth, honest,
25:42and very interested in what people had to say.
25:46He listened very carefully.
25:49And at the end, as he said, there's no miracle,
25:54but he did his sandest to help Miss Amanda.
25:58And we're very proud to have him as the minister of fisheries,
26:02and we're hoping that he'll do good for Miss Amanda.
26:05And I'm glad I came because I'm learning a lot of things.
26:09But I'm also meeting people who are quite realistic
26:12and quite responsible.
26:14And, you know, I listen to them.
26:17And I think that in devising a solution,
26:22it will not be one that I alone
26:25or only one level can design of government.
26:30We've got to do this all together,
26:32and that's what I will be attempting to do.
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