Editors
Epoch Times
I was shocked to read a column in your paper on April 14 by Brian Giesbrecht entitled “ It’s time for Struggling Remote First Nations To Opt For The Smallwood Solution.”
No , it’s not time for First Nations to use a Joey Smallwood disastrous policy of Industrialize Or Perish hatched in the 1930’s , and thrust upon the Newfoundland population in the middle 1950’ through the 1960’s and still negatively affecting Newfoundland today
I have written your columnist to alert him I intended to write this letter . He responded with —“ I agree that I massively oversimplified a complex subject. “
You can say that again !
Perhaps the only thing in common is the word ‘remote ‘ and even that is not entirely accurate because of the nature of the economic enterprise that was common in rural Newfoundland vs its absence in rural, remote First Nations communities to which the columnist refers, namely the inshore fishery.
I experienced first hand as a teenager the geography, history and culture that was about to be attacked . Later my summer employment as a social worker in rural Labrador and Newfoundland while attending university brought me face to face with the economic, social and cultural havoc the Smallwood policy caused.
Later, I was to be confronted with the Smallwood policy failure as a member of the Newfoundland Legislature representing a rural riding , as a Minister and as Premier.
Smallwood had this crazy notion of a reduced fishery , our major industry, and the introduction of large heavy industry, most of which failed. This was foreshadowed in his book of 1930 “ The New Newfoundland “ and his leadership in the negotiation of The Terms of Union with Canada highlighted by the fact that most of the meaningful jurisdiction of the fishery was transferred to the mandarins in Central Canada . Hence , a resettlement policy——one that your columnist erroneously thinks could be applied successfully in other parts of Canada involving the First Nations.
Canada is the second largest country by area on the planet. Attempts to introduce ideas from one region to another are fraught with danger——- and in this case would inflict an economic and sociological failed policy from an egoistical first Premier of Newfoundland on the First Nations of Canada , all with their own differences of geography, history and culture.
While from a distance such a policy might seem like a success it was in reality a public policy failure.
Honourable A. Brian Peckford P.C.
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Author: brianpeckford
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