News Release
Office of the Official Opposition

Foote says Parkers Cove situation is representative of government neglect in many rural areas

November 1, 2005

"There are hundreds of communities throughout this province that are facing the same problems as Parkers Cove, " said Foote. "The Williams government has done nothing over the last two years to help the people of rural Newfoundland and Labrador. Stripping away jobs, increasing fees for government services, mismanaging the fishery and placing no priority on rural development is having a detrimental impact on the small communities that make up our province. Unless government is willing to take steps to deal with the situation facing these areas of the province, the population decline will continue to the point that many communities will be erased from the map."

The Deputy Mayor of Parkers Cove, Harold Murphy, spoke with the media this morning about the future prospects of his town where workers are being forced to move out of the province in search of work. He stated that closures of government offices and highway depots and the crisis in the fishery are having a serious impact on the ability of the town to survive. According to Mr. Murphy, more than 30 men have left his community in search of jobs leaving their families behind, resulting in a 16% drop in the town’s population. The question is how long it will be before the families leave to join them, making that percentage of population decline that much higher.

"Over time, the consequences of government neglect will become evident. In June of this year, government issued a document entitled "Demographic Change" which gave the population decline we can expect in this province over the next 15 years. As an example, it cited an 18 per cent population decline in the Schooner economic zone which is on the Burin Peninsula where Parkers Cove is located. Instead of trying to prevent this from occurring, the government seems resigned to accept these numbers as inevitable. The result will be a population of seniors in rural areas, health care costs will rise, infrastructure will not be sustainable and many other problems that may in the end be more costly for government to address than if they took action now to help make rural Newfoundland and Labrador viable.

"Government continues to talk about having a plan for rural areas of the province, yet nothing has materialized to date and it is the people who live in these communities who are suffering. Since obviously no plan exists, it is time for government to develop a strategy to revitalize rural communities and stop the raping of our most important resource for the benefit of other provinces and other countries. Others continually look to our people to supplement their workforce knowing how hard they work and how desperate they are to find employment.

"MHAs in government who represent rural areas need to speak up for the people who elected them and stand up to the Premier, letting him know what is happening in the hundreds of small communities around this province and demand action. Until Premier Williams and his government admit that their actions to date have caused further hardship on rural areas of the province, I fear that things will not improve. This government continues to point fingers at the federal government for not putting more federal jobs in this province and focusing on centralizing the jobs in the larger provinces. I fully support this criticism of the federal government, but I wonder why our provincial leaders do not see the irony in taking such a position when they treat rural Newfoundland and Labrador in the same manner by focusing all their efforts on the urban areas of the province? The mismanagement has to end and an enhanced rural development strategy must be initiated immediately if communities like Parkers Cove are to survive in this province."

Media Contact:
Jeff Mackey
Caucus Communications
Office of the Official Opposition
709-729-6427