“We were the top producers of every type of fish landed here,” Cave said. “We were on top. We had the best performance, the best of everything there.” Trepassey was the crown jewel of the Newfoundland and Labrador fishery – a place where the fish factory paid performance bonuses and overtime was unlimited. People made a comfortable living in a small town with shops, clubs and restaurants. “It was like a small town,” Pennell said. “We had everything you could want here.” By the late 1980s, however, Atlantic cod was dwindling. 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 of the cod population. On October 7, 1991, Wayne Cave went to work for the last time at the Trepassey factory. 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 demanded that FPI keep the plant open. They asked the provincial government to take it over and find a new operator. They called on the federal government to do more to compensate workers. In the end, they got a revolving door of fly-by-night companies getting government subsidies in exchange for new factories in the former fish factory. There was a company that made dental equipment. Another made jewelry boxes. One made candles, the other bottled water. One even wanted to make frozen dim sum. Some gave an honest effort. Others just took the money and ran. There are none left today. Without steady work, around 400 people left Trepassey in the first five years after the factory closed. Cave watched his friends and family leave for St. John’s, Toronto and Fort McMurray, as he pondered a difficult question throughout 1992 – is it worth staying if you have to go 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 down? Fast cars, fast cities, more money? No. That wasn’t for me.”
