Sight-seeing around the harbour

Boats are a common sight here in Lewisporte. Lewisporte in the past was an important port for many cargo boats and oil tankers. The town's location in central Newfoundland makes it an ideal place to act as a distribution centre for surrounding communities. Lewisporte is approximately the half-way point on the TransCanada highway around the island between Port-aux-Basque at the south-westernly tip of Newfoundland and St John's, the provincial capital at the other bound at the south-eastern tip. Ships in the habour in the past contained various goods for Labrador and oil for the airplanes in Gander. However two events since have changed the shipping industry in Lewisporte. First was the construction and completion of a road connecting the province of Quebec to Labrador. Second was the diversion of international Europe bound flights from the Gander airport to St John's. The few remaining ships seen now in the harbour are mainly oil tankers which go between Lewisporte and Labrador. (Here is a photo of the cylindrical oil reservoirs in town formerly used to temporary store oil until it could be shipped to neighbouring communities.)

Oil tankers to Labrador

Of the few small towns I have lived in or visited here in Newfoundland, many share the same story of a prosperous past, but a fragile future. In the past, things evolved slowly and steadily so small local industries could be competitive. With the modern economy, the industries which survive now are the ones which are multinational and which have more capacity and capital to adapt to the rapid changing times. For the people who have settled on this island now having established roots and sentimental connection to their communities, these people struggle to find ways to continue to stay and sustain themselves in the place they have come to know as home.  

Having grown up in the cities, I was never really preoccupied by the going and coming of new industries, because the industries usually come to us (and if they don't, our infrastructure can support smaller but diverse industries to sustain the economy). Unfortunately I learned that here in smaller towns, they don't have the same infrastructure for diverse industries, and thus, when one industry falls, it greatly impacts the town.

One of the main challenging issues small towns struggle with is to seek new ways to encourage economic development to increase the town's financial well-being, but also to foster family and community bonds. 

The economic development strategies includes attracting new venture, and more importantly, re-attracting the young people from the town who head off to the big cities for higher education. From various conversations, it seems that re-attracting the young people is an extremely important objective. Sure, any young people will bring talent and increase consumption once they start families, but nothing beats having family back. The communities here really value family ties. (I will write about family ties in another post soon.) Maybe with advancing communication and technology, in the future, more people can work virtually allowing more young people to return to their home towns.