Now that we've burned our boats...
The Report of the People's Commission on Unemployment, Newdoundland and Labrador

Publisher:  Newfoundland and Labrador Federation of Labour, St. John's, Canada
Year Published:  1978
Resource Type:  Article
Cx Number:  CX775

This report analyzes unemployment in the context of the political and economic history of the Newfoundland and Labrador.

Abstract: 
This report is the fruit of public hearings undertaken throughout Newfoundland between December 1977 and March 1978. The people's Commission studied and documented the effects of unemployment in the province, which has the highest jobless rate in Canada.

This report analyzes unemployment in the context of the political and economic history of the province. However, this is not a 'dry' analysis. It gives the effects of unemployment a 'human face'. The stories of youth, women, older worker, and migrants to other parts of Canada are told to stress the real and painful effects of being unemployed. The report describes in some detail Joey Smallwood's great plans for industrial development and the subsequent dislocation and misery when those plans failed. As well, the report describes how the social institutions set up in Newfoundland to deal with the problems of unemployment have only tended to reinforce the dependency of the unemployed.

A central theme of the book is that the 'underdevelopment' of Newfoundland's own sources of wealth is directly related to the 'over development' of other parts of Canada or other countries' multi-nationals. Newfoundland is a province with great resources - the forests, the sea and the mines. Solving the fundamental problems related to their use will determine whether or not thousands of Newfoundlanders are condemned to lives of dependency and uncertainty.

The commission notes that 'as unemployment and underemployment increase, social benefits that generations of people fought for are restricted and cut back.' It therefore calls upon all political parties, provincial and federal, to shape political and economic structures 'that will better meet the needs of all our people.'

NOTE: Also available at the above address, a 28 minute video- tape entitled DESPAIR. It is an interim report presented in April of this year to the Federation of Labour by the Commission. It refers to the French-named Baie d'Espoir, now pronounced "Bay Despair" by Newfoundanders.



Table of Contents:

Preface
Chapter One: Introduction and Perspective
Chapter Two: The Faces of Unemployment
Chapter Three: The "Real" Unemployment Rate
Chapter Four: Causes and Consequences
Section One: Underdevelopment
a. History
b. Unemployment and Underdevelopment
c. Government Programs and Regional 'Disparity'
d. Job Location and Worker Mobility
Section Two: Regulating the Unemployed
a. Income Support Systems - Unemployment Insurance and Welfare
b. Job Creation - Make Work Programs
c. Minimum Wages and the Working Poor
Chapter Five: Observations and Conclusions
Observations and Conclusions
Appendix
List of Commissioners and Assistants
Schedule of Hearings
List of Formal Briefs
Technical Notes
Recommended Readings