Letter to the Editor -
Dear Editor:
This is in response to the story carried on CBC's Here and Now on July 21, as well as the Telegram and other local papers, of senior citizens being evicted from a camp site at Lewisporte Junction.
The Danny Williams government is spending millions of our tax dollars advertising for people from other provinces and countries to come to our fair province to enjoy their holidays and spend their money enjoying our beautiful scenery. At the same time they are stopping thousands of Newfoundlanders from enjoying the same things, by forcing them to remove their campers and cabins and not providing any alternative.
Lewisporte Junction is only one site - there are many of these across the Island of Newfoundland and most of these campers are senior citizens.
On my way from Deer Lake a couple of weeks ago I talked to a senior who lives in a retirement home. He was selling his camper that was in a gravel pit where people have been camping for over 40 years. Now, Environment and Conservation Minister Charlene Johnson is telling them they have to go. These are people who built this province with their sweat and blood, provided the minerals for the mills in other countries, provided the food from the ocean to feed the people of the world, provided the timber to keep foreign-owned paper mills operating and our one remaining mill which has timber rights to approximately one-third of all forested lands on this island which is Crown land are refusing the vast majority of applications for cabins, they want our timber to make money for a Montreal-based company, but don't want to give anything in return.
So, I am asking Ms. Johnson and our premier, because it seems he is the only one that can stop this, what are our retired citizens supposed to do? Haven't we earned the right to enjoy this province that we have built or are we supposed to stay home and twiddle our thumbs? I thought the people of the province owned the land, but apparently not so.
If Minister Johnson had put some thought into this, she could have given these campers and cottages a year to make an application to see if they could get their plot legally, or if not, try to make other arrangements, but instead she came out of the gate like a bull at the rodeo, giving these long-time campers 60 days to get out or else. It wasn't very compassionate.
Mr. Premier, we are supposed to be living in a free country. This has to stop.
(Retired) Capt. Wilfred Bartlett
Brighton
wilfbartlett@hotmail.com
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