Friday, March 07, 2008

Resettlement statistic for Groais Island, 1963

Annual Report with List of Places Vacated, 1963

DEPARTMENT OF PUBLIC WELFARE

(Newfoundland and Labrador)

Reference has been made in previous years to the Centralization Programme which is administered by the Social Assistance Division. Financial assistance may be granted to a maximum of $600.00 per family in order to assist families to move from isolated settlements to a more centralized area where public services, schools, medical care, etc., are more readily available.No assistance may be granted to an individual unless the head of the household of every family living in an isolated community signs a petition agreeing to move and requests financial assistance from this Department. The regulations state that assistance may be provided any family who moved from an isolated settlement not more than two years before the signing of the petition. ...The breakdown of places either vacated or in the process of being vacated is listed below:

(N.B. There follows a surprizingly long list of communities. To see the full list click here. Among the list is the following entry for The Grey Islands).

Places Vacated : Groais Island

No. of Families : 8

That was in the '60s.

In the '80s when there was no longer any livyers remaining, writer John Steffler wrote The Grey Islands. It is now considered a classic of Canadian poetry. John Steffler currently holds the post of Canada's Parliamentary Poet Laureate.


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The unabridged audio edition of The Grey Islands by John Steffler (narrated by John Steffler, Frank Holden, Janis Spence, Deidre Gillard-Rowlings and Darryl Hopkins) is available from rattlingbooks.com