Wayne Cave filleted cod at the Fishery Products International (FPI) plant for 20 years. He took pride in his work and still boasts that he is the best performer in the plant.
“We were the best catch of any kind of fish that was landed here,” Cave said. “We were on top. We had the best yield, the best of anything out there.”
Trepassey was the crown jewel of the Newfoundland and Labrador fishery, a place where the fish plant paid performance bonuses and overtime was unlimited. People built a comfortable life in a small town with shops, clubs and restaurants.
“It was like a small town,” Pennell said. “We had everything you could ever want here.”
By the late 1980s, however, Atlantic fever was on the decline. Changes in technology and increased demand from global markets led to a dramatic increase in fishing pressure, which in turn led to an epic collapse in the cod population.
On October 7, 1991, Wayne Cave went to work at the Trepassi plant for the last time. The next day there were locks on the doors.
“I remember the day,” he said, looking across the water at the site of the old plant. “This job meant everything to me.”
People took to the streets in protest. They asked the FPI to keep the plant open. They demanded that the provincial government take it over and find a new operator. They demanded that the federal government do more to compensate workers.
They ended up with a revolving door of fly-by-night companies taking government subsidies in exchange for new factories in the former fish factory. There was a dental equipment company. Another made jewelry boxes. One made light bulbs, another bottled water. One even wanted to make frozen dim sum.
Some made an honest effort. Others simply took the money and ran. Today there are none left.
Without steady work, about 400 people left Trepassey in the first five years after the plant closed. Cave watched his friends and family leave for St. John’s, Toronto, and Fort McMurray until, in 1992, he pondered a difficult question—is it worth staying if you have to be on welfare to survive?
For most people, the answer was no. But Cave couldn’t bring himself to leave.
“This is my home,” he said. “Where else are you going to go and settle in so well? Fast cars, fast cities, more money? No, it wasn’t for me.
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