[LINK] A St. Pierrais problem

[rfmcdonald]

North of the equator, the people of Saint Pierre et Miquelon, an island group located off the Newfoundland coast, aren't doing nearly as well as their Falklands counterparts, with an economy that has been decidedly unproductive since the collapse of the cod fisheries. Some Saint-Pierrais want France to renegotiate seabed and fisheries rights with Canada.

Xavier Bowring points to the row of rusting, 19th-century cannons that overlook the harbour of this tiny French territory and jokes: "We'll use these to defend ourselves from an attack by Canada."

Then he says, "We don't want a war with Canada. We only want discussions, so we can have a piece of the resource -- a piece of the pie."

Bowring is an outspoken member of a citizens group on St-Pierre-Miquelon -- the French archipelago off the coast of Newfoundland -- that since February has galvanized many of the 6,000 residents here behind a passionate campaign for a new economic arrangement with Canada.

[. . .]

For most of the 20th century the islanders prospered off the East Coast cod fishery, not as fishermen but as merchants who processed fish and who served the foreign fishing fleet that used St-Pierre as a refuelling and resupply base.

"The big money was made here by merchants selling food, fuel, and lodging to Spanish, Korean and Japanese boats," said Gilles Borotra, a local businessman who co-owns one of the islands' last remaining fish plants.

"We had 25 bars, 14 nightclubs, and the town was filled with foreign fishing crews. There was lots of traffic in the streets. Now there are only three bars and one nightclub and almost all the hotels are closed. Everybody's in financial turmoil."

The collapse of the cod fishery in 1992, and Canada's decision to ban the foreign fleet from inside its 200 mile limit, put an end to St-Pierre-Miquelon's prosperity.

Only the occasional fishing trawler now comes to St-Pierre, and the territory relies increasingly on handouts from Paris, which the town's Mayor Karine Claireaux says amount to as much $166 million every year.

Paris not only sends money but also civil servants -- police, customs officers, technocrats -- to help run the local government and provide services. More than a third of the population are now expatriate bureaucrats from France, who come on two-or-three year assignments and then return home. The big money here now is not in business, but in a well-paid government job.

[. . .]

[D]reams of a new future fuelled by petroleum wealth are hampered by the fact that St-Pierre-Miquelon's offshore rights are confined to a small sliver of seabed -- 2.5 miles wide and 200 long ---- known derisively here as "the baguette."

Awarded two decades ago by a U.N. commission, France has a looming legal deadline of May 13 to appeal the boundaries of "the baguette."

Islanders want either an enlarged French economic zone in which to exploit petroleum resources, or at least the right to share with Canada revenues from undersea natural gas fields believed to lie across French-Canadian offshore boundaries.

Saint Pierre et Miquelon, as the islanders note, isn't such a large constituency-- fewer people than could fit in a soccer stadium--as to be unignorable by French politicians, and that change is probably unlikely. Still, there's hope.