Migratory workforce leaves many N.L. families without fathers

Tyson Farewell counts the number of sleeps he has left until his dad returns home to the southern Newfoundland town of Marystown.

"He lit up just like a tree," his grandmother Vivian Farewell says, recalling the last time the boy saw his father.

But after a week of having dad at home, three-year-old Tyson acts out. He doesn't understand why his father has to leave, but knows the departure is inevitable.

"He'll be saying, `Dad, dad,' going looking for him upstairs, crying," Vivian says.

"It's hard. It's sad."

Calvin Farewell, like thousands of Newfoundlanders, is a 20-and-eight father.

They're the men who work in Alberta's oilsands for 20 days, living in work camps on the outskirts of Fort McMurray.

They fly home to communities throughout Newfoundland and Labrador, often all expenses paid, where they play catch up with their wives and children for eight days.

A child's first words, another's graduation are missed because the men can't afford to skip work.

"For some reason or other, each time I do have to go away, I always miss out on something," Michael Murray says during one of his eight-day turnarounds.

"You do get lonely and you long for home."

The 59-year-old had spent nearly all of his working life at the local shipyard.

But last fall the welder found himself in a predicament that thousands of Newfoundlanders before him have faced. Murray lost his job.

'Unemployment is not my game'

The bills continued to pile, so he packed his bags and joined those Newfoundlanders working in the oilsands of Alberta.

"Unemployment is not my game," Murray says.

As mayor of Marystown and a guidance counsellor at a local elementary school, Sam Synard has seen first-hand the effects that out-migration has had on families.

"I know of many people who are now into this lifestyle who were, for the most part, from very strong nuclear families. Mom and dad were home everyday. They sat around the kitchen table every night," he says.

"All of a sudden this is a new lifestyle now where dad is gone for the majority of the time. How long can families survive like this?"

The increasingly prevalent face of the family unit in rural Newfoundland is missing something: a father.

The provincial government estimates that anywhere from three to five per cent of its workforce roughly 6,000 to 10,000 people leave Newfoundland for work. The majority of them are men.

The men go back and forth for work instead of moving their families to Alberta because, they say, they don't want to trade their relatively laid-back quality of life for the traffic congestion and higher housing prices that have resulted from the province's booming oilsands.

Marystown bearing brunt of shift

While out-migration has sapped Atlantic Canada of its workforce for years, Marystown has seen more of its men leave than many other communities.

The south coast town, which is celebrating its come home year, has lost 1,300 people 19 per cent of its population in the past decade.

The community of 5,400 and dropping was once one of the province's most prosperous towns. The construction of a fish plant and shipyard in the 1960s attracted young families in droves.

But since the closure of the cod fishery more than 15 years ago, the plant doesn't operate at the capacity it once did. If not for infrequent work commissioned by the province's offshore oil industry, the shipyard would often stand idle.

"We haven't built a fishing boat here now for 20 years," says Henry Moores, president of a local union.

The sign leading to Marystown on the Burin Peninsula Highway is telling: From dories to drill rigs.

Fertile ground for Alberta recruiters

Today, Marystown is a poaching ground for oil companies out west looking to expand their operations, offering a labour force with highly coveted skills because of its once-booming shipbuilding industry.

Welders, pipefitters and electricians find they can ply their trade for $100,000-plus in Alberta, with perks to boot.

"If you have it on your resume that I'm a former employee of the Marystown shipyard, the large companies in Alberta would almost send a private jet to get you," Synard says.

In fact, the migratory workforce is what's driving the Marystown economy.

Families who previously couldn't afford to are now buying gas-guzzling pickup trucks and renovating the homes they recently furnished with new appliances.

As the operator of a hair salon, Darlene Mayo has reaped the rewards of a town eager to dig into its deep pockets.

When she began the home business 25 years ago, she had one assistant.

In the last three years, however, business has tripled, and she has hired two hairdressers and three assistants.

"People have lots of money to spend, on themselves, on their children, on their grandchildren, because there's just so much money," Mayo says.

"If there was no Alberta, it would be a pretty sad Newfoundland."

Toll taken on home front

But as a mother of a 13-year-old boy and wife of an electrician working in Alberta, Mayo says she'd prefer to have her family home.

"I am used to him being gone, but it still doesn't come any easier," she says. "As the years go by, it's almost worse."

Mayo has also seen the failed relationships and broken marriages that can come as an unintended consequence of out-migration.

"People go up there, meet somebody else and of course, they don't come back," she says. "Or the wife hooking up with somebody on this end because she's bored to death. The husband is gone. She has all this money, starts buying new clothes, gets a new look, gets new hair and all of a sudden, she's a new person."

The province is more affluent than it's ever been and is on the cusp of greater fortune.

Newfoundland is about to enter a period of unprecedented and sustained economic growth, largely fuelled by expansions in the energy sector.

But the constant exodus of people and the repercussions that have come with that are creating a problem that was unheard of in the past.

There are not enough people to fill jobs.

"We need to retain our young people, attract back those who have left the province and ensure that Newfoundland and Labrador is their province of choice for now and into the future," Premier Danny Williams said recently.

"It's not always a bad thing to move away and experience new things, but ultimately we want our young people to settle and prosper right here at home."

His government recently awarded a $50.5-million contract to the Marystown shipyard to build two ferries.

The project is expected to provide full-time employment for 150 people for a year.

Later this year, Ottawa is expected to announce whether it will award a $2.9-billion deal to Marystown to assemble three ships for the Canadian navy. Victoria is also vying for that contract.

"We're just waiting with bated breath," Synard says.

"You'd bring a lot of these people home."