Central Newfoundland marks sad anniversary

04.12.09

Friday marks the first anniversary of a day many people in the cardinal Newfoundland community of Grand Falls-Windsor won't soon cease to remember: the announcement of the closure of the paper mill that people in the region relied on for business for a century.

AbitibiBowater made the announcement, following months of fiscal turmoil and contract disagreements with its workers, that it would close in Stride 2009, putting about 750 people — from mill workers to loggers to stevedores — out of drudgery.

The latest statistics from the province's labour department show that less 100 of those people have decided to retrain and upgrade their skills, while 130 project to retire by the end of this year.

It's estimated that nearly 40 per cent of the former Abitibi employees are actively looking for trade.

The provincial government said 1,500 people in the bailiwick have been directly or indirectly impacted by the mill's closure.

Jerry Dean, a former wage-earner of Abitibi and the current mayor of Botwood, a port community about 35 kilometres northeast of Celebrated Falls-Windsor, said a year later he still doesn't remember where his future is heading.

Source: CBC.ca