The Newfoundland Resettlement Program and its precursor, the Newfoundland Centralization Program, constitute one of the largest government-initiated mass population movements in Canadian history. These programs brought about the disappearance of at least 250 communities, containing in all 30,000-40,000 persons. That represented about one quarter of all communities, and one-tenth of the total population of Newfoundland.
No other government-planned migration in Canada has had so extensive an impact on the population of a single province. While the Acadian deportation in the 18th century and the evacuation of the Japanese from British Columbia during the Second World War have received much attention, Newfoundland Resettlement is virtually unknown outside that province.
The first was the construction of four U.S. military bases in Newfoundland during the Second World War. Thousands of Newfoundlanders learned trades and industrial skills while working on these bases. When war ended, few were willing to return to the old ways in isolated communities.
The second event was Confederation in 1949. Partly spurred by the changes that had already occurred, it was a manifestation of the desire of most Newfoundlanders for a way of life characterized by more jobs and by the services and amenities already enjoyed by most Canadians. The leader of the Confederation movement, and Newfoundland's premier for 23 years afterwards, was Joseph R. Smallwood, who swore that he would "drag Newfoundlanders kicking and screaming into the twentieth century."
Many Newfoundlanders supported Smallwood's efforts. In the age of wind and sail, communities perched on offshore islands and distant headlands had not been isolated - they were located near the main shipping transportation routes. But with the development of roads and rail, such communities did find themselves isolated from the new lines of transportation and communication.
By the mid-1950's, thousands had already moved out of "the bay." Some simply wanted an alternative to fishing. Others wished to escape village merchants who set both the price of supplies needed by fishermen and their families, and the price paid fishermen for their catch. In such a system, few fishermen ever escaped from debt. While some moved permanently, many simply wanted to earn enough cash to maintain their homes and families in their old communities.
That program was seen by the authorities as a form of welfare assistance. It was administered by the department of social welfare. Its most significant feature was its community focus. In order for any household to receive assistance, all households in a community had to sign a document indicating that they were willing to move. Indeed, no money was provided until the last household had left.
The amount awarded any household was small, from about $300 to a maximum of $600. But when inshore fishermen earned an average of less than $900 a year from fishing, it was a significant incentive. By 1965, 110 communities had been evacuated under this program.
The provincial centralization program served as a guide, but the new federal-provincial scheme featured significant modifications. The amount of money available to those who moved was increased to $1,000 per household, plus $200 for each person in the household. Given the generally large family size in cash-poor rural Newfoundland, this constituted a strong incentive to consider moving. Furthermore, the proportion of members in each community required to "sign" that they were willing to move was reduced. Another significant change was that the program was taken out of the welfare department and entrusted to a Resettlement Division formed within the Newfoundland government.
Unlike its predecessor, the new program aimed not only at moving people out of remote communities, but also at directing where they would go. The location to which any household could move had to be approved by a committee of federal and provincial government officials. That meant that most families would receive assistance only if they moved to designated "growth centres."
The resettlement program operated from 1965 to 1975, by which time it had come into some disrepute and was quietly allowed to die. No final statistics were ever published on the total number of communities or households moved. An interim report indicated that 132 communities, containing 3,876 households and 19,197 persons, were evacuated between 1965 and April 30, 1972.
Officials who defended the resettlement program invariably argued that they were simply assisting a normal process: Newfoundlanders had been moving to larger centres for years, witness the fact that 49 communities had disappeared between 1946 and 1954. What these offficials seemed unable to grasp was that there is a considerable difference between the occasional migration of individuals and families, and the collective character of the resettlement process. Under the Resettlement Act, in order for anyone to get assistance, nearly everyone in a community had to agree to move. This meant that those who wished to move were motivated to put enormous pressure on those inclined to stay. The way in which the program was structured and administered added to this sense of pressure.
The first that most rural Newfoundlanders heard of the resettlement program was a public announcement by Premier Smallwood that hundreds of communities and thousands of persons would be resettled. Given the almost messianic regard for Smallwood in rural areas at that time, his statement was taken very seriously. As no one knew which communities might be resettled, the residents of all but a half-dozen larger centres were essentially put on alert. The result was that in almost every community, rumors soon flew that this one or that one was secretly applying for resettlement assistance.
Letters did reach the Resettlement Division requesting information and aid. As these piled up, the director of resettlement began to call public meetings in selected communities to explain the program. The very announcement of his impending arrival only heightened the collective hysteria.
At these meetings, the officials generally explained the advantages of the program in glowing terms. No attention was given to the fact that the often poorly educated fishermen who moved would have difficulty finding employment outside the fishery in the growth centres, that the best fishing grounds in most such centres were reserved for long-time residents, or that unemployment in the centres already stood at about 20 percent.
There were rumours that if one did not sign the petition now, no assistance would be available for abstainers later, if and when the 80 percent of households was reached.
There was another twist. A clause in the Resettlement Act permitted households that had moved up to one year previously to sign the petition and be eligible for assistance. As a result, many a household head who did not want to move found himself outnumbered by his several unmarried children who were working outside the community (often on a seasonal basis). Each of them constituted a household under the terms of the law, and was delighted to discover that he or she could get a windfall of $1,200 just for signing a piece of paper.
Perhaps not suprisingly, almost every petition was returned with the signature of at least 80 percent of the household heads in the community. Whether they really wanted to move is difficult to determine. Significantly, only a few of those who signed had given enough thought to where they wished to move to indicate this chosen destination on their original applications. Social researchers also found that in many cases, not one member of a dispersed community was willing to admit, after the fact, that he or she had wanted to move. When asked why they had moved, they generally offered two explainations. They moved "because everyone else was moving," and they moved "because of the children."
It is difficult to determine just who did benefit from resettlement. Certainly, there were major losers. Prime among these were the community merchants who not only lost all their customers, but also received no compensation for their shops, stores, wharfs and sheds. Many households also lost financially. For example, they lost the value of their home in the old community while frequently having to pay inflated prices for one in a nearby community where sudden demand had driven up costs.
One economic cost-benefit study estimated that it would take over 20 years for the average household head to replace financially what he had lost through moving - and that estimate was based on the assumption that he would be employed throughout that period. Whether children really did better by their parents' sacrifice is also questionable, given Newfoundland's continuing high unemployment rate. For many, resettlement was the first step in the process of leaving Newfoundland altogether in search of stable work.
