[ISL] On the problematic future of Newfoundland's Bay de Verde

[rfmcdonald]

The Newfoundland village of Bay de Verde had a devastating day yesterday, when the Quinlan Brothers' fish plant there was destroyed by fire. The owners are promising to rebuild, which is good.

There's hope for the future in the Newfoundland fishing community of Bay de Verde, where the company that owns a fish processing plant razed by a dramatic fire Monday says it plans to rebuild.

Officials with Quinlan Brothers, who met with town representatives Tuesday, made the announcement while touring the ruins of the plant that had employed 700 workers at the peak of the season.

Company executives Wayne Quinlan and Robin Quinlan and longtime plant manager Barry Hatch, who appeared to be visibly shaken by the tour, turned down interview requests, but said they will rebuild "bigger and better than ever."

In a statement late Tuesday afternoon, Quinlan Brothers said it will still buy seafood from harvesters.

It is working on a plan to divert the seafood to other processing plants, which should result in some work for people normally employed at the Bay de Verde facility.

"The company is working round the clock to put in place arrangements with other producers to add capacity, increase shifts, etc. that will ensure the seafood landed is processed in a timely and high-quality manner," said the statement.

"The company's staff at Bay de Verde will be co-ordinating the transition of workers together processing facilities and they will keep in touch with the workforce to inform them of these developments as they are established."

This episode brings to mind how the eastern Prince Edward Island community of a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Souris,_Prince_Edward_Island">Souris never recovered from the 1993 Usen fish plant fire. There, they did not rebuild. Without reconstruction, I cannot expect a much smaller community will do nearly as well as the larger Souris.