Posted: Monday, 1 June 2009

A very caring community

Since Europeans began settling on the south shore of Nova Scotia in the 1700s most people have found their livelihoods in the abundant resources of the forest and the sea.

Over centuries hard working people have built communities which, according to local MLA Vicki Conrad, “are very close. People here help each other. If your neighbour has a problem, people are willing to get out and help.”

The Mayor of the Regional Municipality expressed a typical sentiment. “It is a very caring community, very welcoming, very warm, very open. The sense of community here is stronger than you would find in many urban centres.”

And yet, the key generators of the jobs and wealth in the communities along the shore are in crisis. Over the last several decades both the fishing and forestry industries have been in serious decline. The global economic crash only worsened the regional economy’s prospects.

Oh man, there is a lot of pain in the fishery

“We had a fishery in this county. We had a fish plant in every port and tons of people fishing. And that’s all they ever did. My mum’s family, that’s all that family ever did. It’s been dying for a long time.”

More recently, the current crisis has caused a downturn in one of the last remaining bright spots in the industry, the lobster fishery.
“Lobstering is really what drives the fishery here, at least as far as the local community is concerned. Now, with the global downturn, it is seen as a luxury food and the market is soft, the price is down, and the cost of leaving the wharf is up.”

A journalist with experience of the current conditions in the industry commented, “Oh man, there is a lot of pain in the fishery. Not the owners, they’re having it bad, but it is far worse for the ones working on the boats. A lot of them left for Alberta when things were booming there, but now they’re completely lost and there’s a lot of poverty out there.”

Everything is going to be less next year

The Bowater Mersey mill in Brooklyn has been a cornerstone of the local economy for 80 years. Currently ownership is shared by the bankrupt Abitibi Bowater and the Washington Post. Primary operations in Western Nova Scotia include the Brooklyn paper mill which produces newsprint and mechanical printing paper; the Oakhill sawmill which produces dimensional lumber; 234,000 hectares of forest land; and the Brooklyn Power Company a biomass fired co-generation facility that generates 22 megawatts of power for the Nova Scotia grid and steam for the paper mill.

Employment has been declining for the last three decades. One mill worker noted that, “when I joined the union in the mid 1980s there were over 700 members in my local. Now there are 215.”

The Brooklyn mill has been experiencing a series of shutdowns since December 2008. In July a mill worker commented, “We’ve run 12 weeks out of the last 28. If we continue at this pace it cuts your income in half, and then throw in a little pogie. We get the maximum. But next year, when they calculate what we’re going to get for vacation pay, what we’re going to get for pogie, that’s going to be cut because it is based on the previous years earnings. Everything is going to be less next year.”

“My youngest daughter, couldn’t get a student loan to go to community college because I made too much money last year. She should be able to get one now but they base it on last year. I only worked 12 weeks this year.”

The crisis has deep implications for the families of mill workers. “My mum and dad are in their 80s. And I’ve always promised them that I would help them out, do everything I possibly could for them to see that they don’t have to go in a home, that they could spend their golden years in their own home. I’m 52, 53 my next birthday. If something happens here, if the mill closes, I’m going to have to move somewhere else to work. I’ve only got a minimal education. My dad is devastated when I say that. The first thing he says is, what is going to happen to mum and me. It’s tough. It’s a struggling issue.”

More than just mill workers and their families are part of the crisis in the forestry industry. As mayor Leefe explains, “ The forestry industry is integrated. If the paper mill is working, then the sawmills have a place to sell their chips. So long as the paper mill is operating, Brooklyn energy will be producing power, and if power is being produced, there is a place for sawmills to sell their sawdust and biomass. So, if the paper mill is closed, it creates significant challenges for our sawmills which are all intergenerational family owned businesses.

There is a common understanding in the community that the local forestry operations are sound and the downturn is more about international conditions and a bankrupt conglomerate than local productivity and competitiveness.

A local union leader says that, “it is an efficient operation that, until recently has been updated regularly, has a forestry resource that provides high quality fibre, a year-round, ice free harbour, local energy production using hydro and biomass, and a highly skilled and committed workforce.”

The mayor agrees. “I think there is a strong sense in the community that this mill as a whole basket full of assets. A great, stable workforce committed to the operation.”

Despite these local strengths the Canadian Press reported on September 18, “Hundreds of people who work at a Queens County newsprint mill will work reduced hours after Abitibi Bowater announced it will cut production in half at its Brooklyn mill.”

The last to be hired - the first to go

Beyond the direct loss of jobs in the keystone industries, people who live in the communities of the Regional Municipality of Queens have experienced the effects of the downturn.

A local clergyman estimates that over the past year, “there has been a 10 to 15% increase in enquiries to social support agencies and for social counselling.” 

“Food bank use increased last year by 40% over the previous year. Part-time workers are coming to the food bank because they are not getting the hours they used to get. They are the working poor and they are the ones who are suffering. They are the last to be hired and the first to go.”

At the same time as demand has gone up at the food bank, the contributions are changing. While donations have gone down only slightly, the type of food donated has changed. Says the clergyman, “Protein stuff, that’s the more expensive stuff. So people are probably contributing more Kraft Dinner in their Sunday offering than peanut butter.”

Download the entire report in PDF.