Rewind & Review

2008 might be remembered as the year when the world's economy went into a tailspin. While there were repercussions from the resulting credit crunch on the Northern Peninsula and in Southern Labrador, it may be 2009 before anyone knows the full impact of what might happen, especially in the fishing industry. The following is an overview of the year's major stories in words and photographs:

January 7

Port au Choix's shrimp plant workers were ensured job security for at least five years following negotiations between Fishery Products International's (FPI) Newfoundland processing plants and Ocean Choice International (OCI), Dec. 20.

High Liner Foods Incorporated purchased FPI's marketing and secondary manufacturing operations while OCI got FPI's primary operations, which include shrimp, scallop and groundfish operations.

January 14

In its annual report for 2006-07, Labrador-Grenfell Health outlined its serious financial challenges to the Department of Health during several presentations, aimed at achieving a balanced budget.

The provincial government agreed and provided the health authority with $3.9-million in stabilization funding to reduce its deficit to $845,520. Expenditures for the fiscal year amounted to $127-million.

January 21

A new executive was formed following a meeting to save the Northeastern Snowmobile Club, The group, responsible for trails between Main Brook, Croque, St. Julien's, Conche, Roddickton, Bide Arm and Englee, didn't sell enough trail passes to consistently groom much of its trail system. The major issue highlighted during the meeting was that many communities considered the club to be too Roddickton-oriented.

January 28

A committee of concerned citizens from Roddickton vowed to prevent a plan to open up Tickles, an ecologically sensitive area, to roads and commercial logging. Located 10 km west of the community, the diverse array of ponds, streams, and old growth forest is a pristine playground which should be preserved, the committee said.

February 4

The Auditor General slammed Labrador-Grenfell Health's spending practice following a report into the health authority's spending and not having fully integrated the two authorities it replaced 21 months prior. LG Health's accumulated operating deficit increased 26 per cent to $34.1-million between 2003 and 2007, despite the amalgamation, designed to save money, while the authority's total debt doubled during the same period to $21-million.

February 11

Roddickton residents converged on a public meeting that resulted from the Department of Natural Resources' proposed five-year plan, signalling its intentions to open up logging outside the 150 metres of the Tickles. The annual allowable cut (AAC) in forestry management area 18, north of Hawkes Bay, is 80,000 metres. The ACC is calculated as sustainable harvest, allowing the forest to regenerate at an equal pace to cutting.

February 18

School students in St. Anthony and Port Saunders protested the cancellation of high school hockey because of a disagreement over registration between School Sports Newfoundland and Labrador (SSNL) and Hockey Newfoundland and Labrador (HNL). After the contract expired, HNL presented a new contract to SSNL, demanding high school hockey players register with their local minor hockey associations, run by HNL, before they can play for their high schools.

February 25

Fisheries Minister Loyola Hearn rolled out new rules for combining fishing licences, permitting Independent Core licence holders to buy out fellow fisherman and double up their quotas for 'predominant fisheries'. In 3K, the Department of Fisheries and Oceans (DFO) lists cod, shrimp and snow crab as predominant fisheries, while in 4R, DFO lists lobster, cod and shrimp.

March 3

Humber-St. Barbe-Baie Verte MP Gerry Byrne was convinced the recently announced federal budget could spell the end of Employment Insurance (EI). The budget contained a provision to turn EI management over to an independent Crown corporation, dubbed the Canada Employment Insurance Financing Board (CFEIB), which would set EI rates intended to operate on a break-even basis.

Mr. Byrne accused the federal Conservatives of long considering the EI program as an "unnecessary subsidy to seasonal workers."

March 10

Ten Conche residents were slapped with 52 charges for allegedly netting salmon following a July 8, 2007, convoy of law enforcement officers that sealed off the community by road and water, searched homes, seized boats, outboard motors, cars and an all-terrain vehicle.

"They're making criminals out of some hardworking fisherman," Conche Mayor Gerry Bromley said. "This illegal fishing, I won't call it poaching, I see it as a revolt against them taking away the culture of rural Newfoundland and giving it to tourists. Then they wonder why rural Newfoundland is dying."

March 17

While walking up the Conche road toward Roddickton, Gertie Bromley spotted a mother polar bear leading her two cubs near Coles Pond.

Polar bears annually follow the ice floes replenishing their fat stores with seals, often making land on the Northern Peninsula and coastal Labrador before returning to their northern homes.

Gertie Bromley of Conche followed the bears along the road for nearly two km and received just one glance.

March 24

A Flight Safety Investigation Report (FSIR) investigating the death of St. Anthony native MCpl. Kirk Noel and two other technicians during a 2006 helicopter crash near Canso, Nova Scotia found the accident was both avoidable and survivable.

The report revealed that Mr. Noel survived the crash but couldn't escape from the submerged helicopter because of blocked exists.

March 31

Daniel's Harbour Town Council, which manages the ambulance service in the area from Three Mile Rock to Bellburns, imposed major changes to the service, providing four full-time employees of the town who work 40 hours a week.

Mayor Steve Carey said the changes made the ambulance services more professional, while former attendants called it a personal vendetta.

April 7

The Canadian Sealers' Association (CSA) negotiated a deal that would see seal pelts graded by processors and fisherman paid according to quality during the 2008 hunt.

Port au Choix sealer Dwight Spence, owner of the 65-foot Cape Ashley, approved of pelt grading but was wary of the details, saying the pelts should be graded at the wharf rather than at processing plants on the other side of the Island because during the years he's seen forklifts make a mess of his work.

April 14

Holson Forest Products projected it would run out of logs at the end of the month, forcing the company to shut down its mills - putting 30 people out of work.

The Roddickton sawmill was the latest casualty of the North America-wide forest industry downturn that had seen large mills closing across the continent, including Corner Brook Pulp and Paper, which announced November 2007 it wouldn't be making their pulpwood anymore.

Natural Resources Minister Kathy Dunderdale said the Department would wait longer for answers regarding Holson Forest Products.

April 21

The mayors of St. Anthony, Roddickton and St. Lunaire-Griquet took aim at seal hunt protesters and argued their municipalities want to maintain a sealing industry that brings economic benefit during one of the slowest times of the year.

St. Anthony Mayor Boyd Noel, Roddickton Mayor Ray Norman, St. Lunaire-Griquet Mayor Todd Hedderson and deputy mayor Francis Hedderson were relieved to hear of a recent raid on the Sea Shepherd Conservation Society's protest vessel, the Farley Mowat, by the Canadian Cost Guard.

April 28

Following months of relative quiet, the Department of Innovation, Trade and Rural Development announced a $14-million forestry plan, possibly including a pellet plant at Roddickton, with Corner Brook Pulp and Paper taking another 40,000 cubic metres of Northern Peninsula pulpwood.

May 5

Many rural schools along the Northern Peninsula turned to technology to keep their students abreast with advanced subjects such as physics and chemistry.

Level three students at Conche's Sacred Heart All Grade logged onto the Centre for Distance Learning Innovation for a class - taught from Goose Bay.

May 12

A dredging operation failed to clear Parsons Pond harbour, where silt around the mouth was damaging boats.

Earlier that week Trevor Keough took his speedboat to the entrance of the harbour to check his lobster pots and was forced to wait another four hours for the tide to rise.

A five-year, $5.86-million development plan by the Parsons Pond Harbour Authority, aimed at saving the harbour and upgrading crumbling wharf facilities, was turned down in 2004 by Small Craft Harbours, the Atlantic Canada Opportunities Agency and the Department of Innovation, Trade and Rural Development.

May 20

Cow Head math teacher Jean Murphy won the Prime Minister's Award for Excellence in Early Childhood Education for her work at Long Range Academy.

Ms. Murphy was one of three teachers from Atlantic Canada and 26 across the country to win the 'Oscar of teaching', as she described, which recognizes Canada's best teachers and early childhood educators and promotes what they have achieved. The program also strives to share the teachers' innovative and successful teaching practices.

May 26

The school council at James Cook Memorial in Cook's Harbour learned that the Western School District (WSD) was considering closure of the K-12 school in 2010. School council chair Louise Short was also concerned that the teacher allocation formula recently announced by the province will cut the school back to 3.7 positions - down from the 4.25 positions at that time.

June 2

Bayview Regional Collegiate students and their parents watched a live video feed as the Western School Board (WSB) voted to close the school.

The vote was based on the planned redevelopment of St. Anthony Elementary into a K-12 for 2010. The decision came on the heels of a last minute campaign to save the school, which included a protest march, letter writing campaign, community meeting and two trips to Corner Brook by members of the Save our School Committee to lobby the board for a K-12 at either Truman Eddison Memorial or Bayview.

All but two school board trustees voted to close the school.

June 9

The Red Bay National Historic Site announced its plan to feature a story for the upcoming summer season entitled 'A Whaler and his Wife'.

The story was about a woman who waited 18 months before finding out what had happened to her husband, a whaler who died in Red Bay from1576-77. The story was based on a will a whaler left for his wife.

June 16

Port au Choix fishermen protested the Department of Fisheries and Oceans' decision to close the turbot fishery due to large amounts of halibut bycatch.

While DFO estimated 27 tonnes of the 106-tonne halibut quota was landed as bycatch, fisherman Monty Gould said thousands of juvenile halibut, too small to land, were just thrown overboard.

"I can't see it in my heart to watch those beautiful fish float back to the bottom dead," Mr. Gould said. "Anyone with any intelligence knows that's wrong."

June 23

Two Port au Choix fishermen were so disgusted with the Department of Fisheries and Oceans' handling of last year's turbot fishery they decided to sell their boats.

Following the DFO's decision to close the fishery, delay the closure and then reopen it again over a three-day period, John Gaslard's 35-foot longliner, the Straits Tide, and Reginald Rumbolt's 45-foot Welcome Dawn were put up for sale.

"It's not a fishery anymore," Mr. Gaslard said. "There's a bunch of school youngsters running the show."

June 30

Food Processors Ltd. in Forteau landed a contract with Sobeys stores across Atlantic Canada to sell bakeapple and partridgeberry jam outside the province.

On his visit to the Labrador Straits salmon fishing, Frank Sobey stumbled upon the jams, jellies and syrups, prompting him to have the Pure Labrador products on the shelves of his stores.

July 7

Lawrence Genge and Garfield Caines got a big surprise when they hauled up their trawl. The two small boat fishermen from Anchor Point had hooked a 400 lb. Atlantic halibut.

July 14

David Rumbolt of Mary's Harbour and Steve Hill of Marystown began a cross-country bicycle trip. The two recent graduates from Memorial University made it all the way to the Pacific Ocean.

July 21

Pond Cove resident Lyman Kennedy was thankful to be alive after the single engine Beaver aircraft in which he was travelling crashed in Northern Labrador. He and fellow outfitting guide Ned Whittle of Harbour Breton escaped relatively unscathed.

July 28

Patients and their families were struggling to cope with the shutdown of the dialysis unit at Curtis Memorial Hospital in St. Anthony. The shutdown, caused by a staffing shortage, continued until two new nurses were trained to use the facility in the early fall.

August 4

Gerard Rumbolt of Main Brook, Gerard McGrath of Grandois and Keith Pynn of Wabush rode jet-skis all the way from Labrador City to Main Brook. The three adventurers made the 450-mile journey equipped with Global Positioning Systems (GPS) and wet suits.

August 11

Taxidermists Shane and BJ Womack of Oklahoma were in Roddickton preparing a stuffed moose for Roddickton's Natural Heritage and Resource Centre. The moose will be the centerpiece of the building which will showcase the area's natural history.

August 18

Labrador Spice made its first appearance as a musical group at the Bakeapple Festival. Sheila Downer, Maisie Groves, Betty Flynn, Jenny Beals and Linda Belben made their performance at the Labrador Straits Arena in L'Anse au Loup.

August 25

St. Lunaire-Griquet celebrated 50 years as a municipality. The two communities joined forces in 1958.

September 2

Scientists were stunned by the doubling of salmon runs in both the Torrent River and Western Arm Brook over their 2003-07 averages. No one was prepared to guess whether the trend would continue or what was causing it.

September 8

Roy and Rachel Parrill were driven from their St. Anthony home by oil seeping into their foundation. The oil appeared to be leaking through the roadbed of Grenfell Crescent.

September 15

Century-old stained glass windows at Main Brook United Church were broken by local youth. While the RCMP later laid charges, they couldn't replace the windows, which were imported from Ireland for the original St. Anthony United Church.

September 22

The driver of a transport truck carrying shrimp overturned seven km outside St. Anthony and burst into flames. While the truck was a complete loss, the driver escaped unharmed and the shrimp later continued its trip to dinner plates.

September 29

The efforts of Main Brook community leaders to get their community's fish plant operational were frustrated just after the plant re-opened. Transport Canada barred off its wharf in the community while waiting for an engineering report to be reviewed.

October 6

Roddickton and Bide Arm signed a memorandum of understanding to amalgamate the two communities into one municipality, to be known as The Town of Roddickton-Bide Arm. The provincial government chipped in a significant amount of money for infrastructure to encourage the deal.

October 14

Construction of a six-bed extension to the Ivy Durley Place continued thanks to a loan by the provincial government and fundraising in the Straits area. The seniors' residence is run by the Straits-St. Barbe Chronic Care Corporation and is located in Flowers Cove.

October 20

Three Brake brothers from Trout River launched a court challenge, stating the Department of Fisheries and Oceans had violated the Charter of Rights and Freedoms by allowing a three way buddy up system in Quebec, but only a two-way system in Newfoundland and Labrador. The case is ongoing.

October 27

St. Anthony Town Council denied the request of businessman Barry Lane for land adjacent to its new subdivision on which he wanted to build a new seniors' residence. Mr. Lane and an area businessman have been competing to build the residence.

November 3

Englee's request for a multi-species fish processing licence was denied by acting fisheries minister Trevor Taylor and Conche's request for a crab licence was approved. The decision followed the recommendations of the Fish Processing Licencing Board and led to a ceremony in Englee that the mayor described as "more of a funeral than anything" for his community.

November 10

Wilbert, Eddie, Don and Fred McGrath of Grandois discovered what appear to be large copper deposits in an old exploratory mine shaft overlooking resettled St. Julien's. The brothers got prospecting Company Eagle Ridge Minerals Ltd. to take over the exploration.

November 17

The main building for the French Shore Cabins burned down. The fire resulted in a complete loss, despite attempts by the Port Saunders and Port au Choix volunteer fire departments to douse the blaze.

November 24

Calgary-based Leprechaun Resources Inc. announced its plans to invest some $15-million to carry out oil exploration in the Parsons Pond area. The company projected there could be up to 280-million barrels of oil in the area but refused to release the report on which its figures relied.

December 1

Cpl. Darren Butt was greeted as a hero when he returned home to Pinware after serving 10 months in Afghanistan with the Canadian Forces.

December 8

Pinware mayor Neal Pike spoke was speaking out about the town's inability to afford repairs needed to prevent raw sewage from forming in cesspools in front of houses. He argued the province or the federal government should offer to foot more of the bill than the 90/10 formula currently offered small municipalities.

December 15

L'Anse au Loup refused to accept part of the costs for a recreation director position which the provincial government was offering to pay half of over three years. The position would have been shared between L'Anse au Loup and other communities in the area.

December 22

Seven residents of Norman Bay got home for Christmas after the provincial government came through and hired a helicopter to provide transportation to the community of 50 people until the ice is strong enough to support snowmobiles. Norman Bay isn't connected to any other area communities by road - the province pays for a longliner to provide ferry service in the summer and area residents use snowmobiles when the surrounding water freezes.