Newfoundland and Labrador

F

Services

Service industries make up the largest sector of Newfoundland and Labrador’s economy, contributing approximately three-fifths of the GDP. Service industries are largely concentrated in St. John’s and include such activities as banking and finance; insurance and real estate; government services; and retail and wholesale trade.

Tourism is an important part of the service sector in Newfoundland and Labrador and is of growing value to the economy. Visitors are attracted to the province’s majestic coastal scenery, its parks and vast wilderness areas, and its numerous historic sites, including the early Viking settlement at L’Anse aux Meadows. St. John’s is a popular port of call for cruise ships during the summer cruise season.

G

Electricity

Newfoundland and Labrador has vast waterpower resources, which are still largely undeveloped. High humidity, low evaporation, and ample precipitation result in a high rate of runoff into ponds and lakes, which endow the province with large natural reservoirs. Virtually all of the province’s power comes from hydroelectric plants.

The province’s first hydroelectric plants were built in the early 20th century, initially to light St. John’s and to drive the street railway, and then to power the pulp and paper mills. The first overall plan to develop the province’s waterpower came with the creation of the Newfoundland and Labrador Power Commission in 1964. By far the largest is the complex at Churchill Falls on the upper Churchill River in Labrador. Its first three generators began producing power in 1972, and the entire complex, with 11 generators, was completed a few years later. The major power plants on the island of Newfoundland are at Deer Lake and at Baie d’Espoir.

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Most of Newfoundland and Labrador’s electricity is produced at the Churchill Falls complex, with domestic demand consuming less than one-third of the total production. The rest is exported, mainly to Québec, which has a contract to buy excess power generated by the facility at below-market prices. The resale of this power for large profits by the province-owned utility Hydro-Québec has been a persistent source of friction between the two provinces.

Plans are currently in place to develop the lower Churchill River at two potential sites, Gull Island and Muskrat Falls. In 2002 the provincial governments in Newfoundland and Labrador and Québec announced they had reached a consensus on principles to guide negotiations to develop the Gull Island site.

H

Transportation

The sea long served as the traditional highway for the people of the province, who live mainly in settlements on the coasts. Until the 20th century almost all travel was along the coasts, with inland travel limited mainly to small numbers of hunters and trappers. In northern areas during winter, travel by dog team was common.

A railroad across Newfoundland opened in the late 19th century, and it provided an essential means of transportation and development on the island until the mid-20th century. The main route of this railroad, built on narrow gauge track and measuring 880 km (547 mi), was permanently closed in 1988 due to high maintenance costs and the comparative slowness of the trains; it was replaced by a modern and efficient bus service. Most of Labrador’s railroads were built to serve its iron-mining complexes. The Labrador and Québec North Shore Railway, a privately owned railroad, runs south from Schefferville, Québec, in the Ruth Lake region, through western Labrador to Sept-Îles, Québec. A branch line runs west to the Wabush Lake mines.

The province’s highway system expanded slowly. Until the 1950s, when a modern road-building and road-improvement program was implemented, most roads were narrow and unpaved. Today, Newfoundland has about 13,100 km (about 8,100 mi) of highways and rural roads. The main artery on the island is a 900-km (560-mile) portion of the Trans-Canada Highway, which runs from St. John’s in the southeast to Channel-Port aux Basques in the southwest. Most coastal communities are linked to one another and to the Trans-Canada Highway. Labrador has some roads along the coast of the Strait of Belle Isle and around mining towns. The Trans-Canada Highway does not pass through Labrador. However, efforts are underway to improve the Trans-Labrador Highway, a gravel road connecting the Happy Valley-Goose Bay region to Labrador City and further west to the highway system in Québec.

The Canadian National Railways operates a fleet of coastal passenger-freight steamers that call at various ports in Newfoundland and Labrador and steamships that ply to and from other Canadian ports. Some private shipping companies provide regular passenger and freight service between Newfoundland, the mainland, and the British Isles. There is ferry service between Cape Breton Regional Municipality on Cape Breton Island, Nova Scotia, and Channel-Port aux Basques (year round) and Argentia (summer).

Transportation by small aircraft, including ski- and float-equipped airplanes, is essential in isolated areas of the province. Large airports are located at Gander, in central Newfoundland; at Goose Bay, in Labrador; and at St. John’s. These airports were of strategic importance during World War II (1939-1945). From 1945 through the 1950s, they were important as refueling points for transatlantic flights. Since then, the development of nonstop transatlantic jet service has greatly reduced the traffic at Gander and Goose Bay, although Gander remains an important stopover point for some international flights. Other airports are at Stephenville; on the west coast of Newfoundland; Deer Lake, also in the western part of the province; Torbay, near St. John’s; and Labrador City.

IV

The People of Newfoundland and Labrador

A majority of the people of Newfoundland and Labrador are of English and Irish ancestry, followed by smaller numbers of Scots and people of French descent. In 2001, 2.9 percent of inhabitants were indigenous peoples, including Inuit and Montagnais-Naskapi.

A

Population Characteristics

According to the 2001 national census, the population of Newfoundland and Labrador was 512,930, down by 10.8 percent from the 1991 figure of 568,474. In 2001, 58 percent of the people lived in urban areas, and the rest lived on farms or in small logging, mining, and fishing villages called outports. The population density of Newfoundland and Labrador is the lowest of any Canadian province, at 1.4 persons per sq km (3.6 per sq mi). More than 30 percent of the people live in or near St. John’s.

In 1991 Labrador had a population of 30,375; by 2001 the figure had declined to 27,864. The iron-mining district around Wabush Lake accounted for about two-fifths of the total population. Labrador City grew rapidly in the 1960s and continued to grow in the 1970s, but its population declined in succeeding decades. Other centers of population in Labrador are along the southern coast and in the Happy Valley-Goose Bay region.

The province’s population grew slowly from 12,000 in 1763 to 202,000 in 1891. By 1935 it totaled only 290,000. Mainly because of a high rate of emigration, the rate of population growth over this long period was barely 1.1 percent per year. Sustaining the province’s population was a high birth rate—historically the highest in Canada. At the 1951 census the population was 361,416. Between 1951 and 1961 the growth rate was 2.7 percent per year, but after 1961 it fell back to former levels. Since the mid-1990s, the population has steadily declined, as the birth rate has fallen and people continue to leave the province in search of better opportunities. Between 1996 and 2001, Newfoundland and Labrador lost 7 percent of its population. During the same period, Canada’s total population grew by 4 percent. The population decline is especially significant in rural areas.