Stephenville: Forestry is finished, but the town is just getting started

In Stephenville, Nfld., all that's left of the pulp mill that employed nearly 300 people for 25 years is an empty paper storage shed and a few administrative buildings.

When Abitibi Consolidated announced it was closing its Stephenville mill in December 2005, locals already knew the impact such a big shutdown could have on their small town. The small community on Newfoundland's west coast had already seen major employers close their doors and abandon the town twice in 50 years.

The first closure came in 1966, when the U.S. Air Force closed the air base that had transformed a small farming town of 500 into a regional hub of over 7,000. Losing the base meant losing thousands of jobs, but the town managed to move forward. Then, in 1977, Labrador Linerboard Limited shuttered its Stephenville mill, putting hundreds more locals out of work. Still, the town pushed through, and in 1981 the mill reopened, having been converted to newsprint by its new owners, Abitibi Consolidated.

Tom O'Brien, the mayor of Stephenville, was elected in 2005, shortly after Abitibi Consolidated announced the mill was being shut down permanently. He spent his first year in office scrambling to keep the community going, even as unemployment rates soared as high as 20 per cent.

"People used to say that mill was our biggest asset," says O'Brien. "We're hoping to prove them wrong."

Moving on

Larry Smith, the manager of the local airport, has watched the boom and bust cycle since he moved to Stephenville in 1967. Smith says that despite the loss of the pulp plant, the town is faring well. "Everyone is shifted out of forestry. The mill is torn down, and we're moving on," Smith says from his office at the old U.S. air base. 

But for many Stephenville locals, moving on has meant moving west. After Abitibi shut down and the local forestry sector collapsed, many skilled workers packed their bags and headed to Alberta to find work.

"Stephenville is doing quite well because those of us with skills to offer somewhere else in the country have followed the work," says Brent Fradsham, a former mill worker who moved to Fort McMurray to work in the oilsands.

Fradsham and his family have officially moved out of Stephenville and made Fort McMurray home, at least for now. But some Stephenville locals are maintaining - or even building - homes in Newfoundland with the money they earn in Alberta's oil patch.

"It's brand new money, made here in Alberta, going straight into the economy in Newfoundland," says Fradsham. 

"It's basically Alberta that's keeping Stephenville going."

The boom

According to O'Brien, that money is driving the local economy. The Bay St. George Chamber of Commerce says many local business owners have been reporting record sales. Construction is booming, and local building supply dealers say they're having a hard time keeping up with demand.

New subdivisions are going up on the edge of town, and real estate prices in the area are steadily creeping up.

"The number of new houses is just astronomical," says Cathy Whalen, a nurse at the local hospital. "It's pretty amazing to think that even after all the troubles, the town is actually growing." 

Whalen raised her family in Stephenville and has stayed in town, even though her husband and two of her daughters have moved to Alberta to work.

Nicole Holwell is a 29-year-old raising two young girls in Stephenville. She grew up in Stephenville and is hoping to stay and raise her own daughters in the town she knows so well. "People really seem to love it here, and they'll make sacrifices to stay," Holwell explains. "Think of all the people going away to work in Alberta, just so their family can experience life in a safe, close-knit community."

Finding balance

Money flowing in from Alberta may not be a long-term solution for Stephenville, but it's helping keep the community stable as it tries to evolve and find its footing in a new economy.

Mayor O'Brien and the local council have spent the past two years trying to find that path forward. "The way I see it, we have two choices," O'Brien says. "We can either cry and whine about what happened yesterday, or we can stay positive and work towards having a stronger community and future. We're focused on keeping our town strong."

The community has spent the last two years trying to rebuild the local economy. Municipal committees are working with the province, trying to draw in new businesses and create jobs locally. The mayor is even hoping to make the few buildings Abitibi left standing available to new businesses that set up in the community.

The town has had some success drawing in new employers, but the hourly wage workers earn at the town's new call centres and small offices can't compete with the soaring hourly wages workers can earn in Alberta.

The Stephenville International Airport, the last legacy of the boom years, is still operating, but even there, the town can't catch a break. All the travelling workers catch their flights back to Alberta from the airport in neighbouring Deer Lake, bypassing Stephenville's world class airport facilities and leaving the longest runway in Atlantic Canada empty.

Nobody in Stephenville expects the forestry industry will ever feed the town again, but there is some hope that the oil and gas exploration that's happening off the coast could create some spin-off jobs in the community.

The focus now is on developing a business strategy aimed at bringing in small and mid-size businesses, the idea being that when one industry faces hard times, the community will have more than one business to rely on. In the meantime, the construction boom is creating some new high-paying jobs, and the summer tourism season is keeping local businesses busy. 

The mayor of Stephenville is convinced the town will make it through the tough times. "For years, people have been saying that Stephenville is going to suffer a slow death and fade away," O'Brien says. "But we're resilient, and we're dedicated, and we always pull through."

Lloyd Pretty, a local artist who has made a career out of painting dramatic Newfoundland landscapes since 1978 agrees. "I think Stephenville is Newfoundland's best-kept secret," he says. "I can't imagine living anywhere else other than right where I'm at."