Not a good time to move to Wabush, former mayor says
Ron Barron says the premier's growth strategy is insensitive to mine workers who lost jobs
Part of Newfoundland and Labrador's strategy to reverse population decline includes the Home For Good campaign, aimed at enticing people to move to the province because of opportunities in the oil and mining industry.
But the former mayor of Wabush says he won't be inviting new residents to his town anytime soon.
"I guess [Paul Davis is] speaking positively about what's happening here and what could happen in the province, but that's not what's happening here," said Ron Barron in an interview on CBC's Labrador Morning.
Premier Paul Davis's 10-year strategy has been met with some backlash. Davis said specific policies related to the growth plan will be unveiled in the coming weeks.
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"The industry that we've worked in for the last 50-plus years is up and down, and now we're in a downturn," he said.
"If you look at what was said in that report, there are 7,400 people working in the mining industry in this province in 2014. I'd like to see those numbers today because they're going to be a lot less."
Barron said over 500 employees lost jobs at Wabush Mines, and he estimates that for every loss, three additional jobs are affected.
"So you're looking at probably about 2,000 jobs plus in the Labrador West area that have been effected."
Downward spiral
In the last year and a half, Barron said, local shops and grocery stores have begun to close, and a number of industries have ben impacted.
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I don't think there's any better place in the world to bring a family and raise them, but now is not the time to do that.- Ron Barron, former Wabush mayor
"I'd love to bring anybody to Lab West because I don't think there's any better place in the world to bring a family and raise them, but now is not the time to do that."
Barron said many people who came to work in the iron ore industry prior to 2014 have since lost their jobs and are now saddled with high mortgage payments and unable to move away.
"Government came in and offered training programs, but most people couldn't avail of those because they'd lose everything they had," he said.
"They couldn't go to school for nine months to get retrained, they had to work to try to find employment to maintain a lifestyle that's compared to what they had. It's probably going to get a lot worse in our area over the next little while."
Potential for improvement
Barron compares today's situation with the early 1980s, when hundreds of homes were boarded up and people moved elsewhere. But he doesn't think circumstances are that dire just yet.
Mining, he said, is an unpredictable industry and conditions are bound to improve in the future.
"I'm very positive in thinking that mine will reopen … I know that we can be a viable business, we've showed it in the past and there's no reason why we can't continue to do that in the future," he said.
However, Barron said he feels conflicted when asked by new hires if they should move to the town.
"There's no guarantees ever that you're ever going to keep a job that you have, but to go into an area now that's starting to get depressed with the markets. I'd be a bit leary."