EAST MEETS WEST
New book ‘Down East Troubles’ examines impact of moving away for work
New book ‘Down East Troubles’ examines impact of moving away for work.
SYDNEY — It’s a long-standing tradition in Cape Breton — lose your job, get another somewhere else.
But instead of taking the family with you, they stay behind and you commute back and forth.
Good idea? For some, yes. For others, it can unleash a plethora of problems. It’s those problems that former Ingonish councillor Lawrence Barron explores in his most recent book, “Down East Troubles,” available from Cabot Trail Publishing.
Barron admits his subject matter will strike a nerve with many readers.
“It hits pretty close to home for a lot of people,” the former teacher said in a telephone interview last week. “When I was a councillor, I was involved in a lot of social issues like unemployment and out-migration. A lot of men had to leave the island in order to support the family and went to Fort McMurray and left their families at home and this caused a lot of problems.
“I decided to write a book because I wanted to address the social issues that we face in Cape Breton because of the terrible high unemployment and lack of opportunities for young people which leads to people leaving.”
Barron’s book is set in Glendoa on Rugged Island and looks at the lives of the Dawson family and the MacDonald family. John Dawson loses his job and heads out West to work while the rest of his alcoholic wife and two daughters cope, but not in the best way possible. The MacDonalds are wealthier but are besieged by gambling, addiction and reckless behaviour.
Barron said he wanted to raise awareness of the impact that leaving the island for work has had on the families of those left behind.
“Books don’t really address the terrible social issues we have here— I wanted to bring it to people’s attention in the form of a novel. “Sometimes we can relate more to a novel rather than to the problems a next-door neighbour is having.”
While Barron’s book is fiction, the issues he’s raising are based in reality, according to Cape Breton University assistant professor Doug Lionais. Lionais, who works at CBU’s Shannon School of Business, has done extensive research in the areas of uneven development and depleted communities, including the impact of oil field workers on the community.
“It’s a significant cost to families to have someone working away for long periods of time,” saids Lionais, who has been researching the social impacts that result from people who work in the mobile workforce for the past several years. “For some people this kind of situation works quite nicely — they enjoy the extra income. Usually it’s the women left behind. It’s a very gendered workforce for the most part and many of those women enjoy the independence. They like being on their own when their partner is away for a bit and then when he comes home, I’ve heard the comment ‘It’s like a honeymoon every time,’ so there is a group of people who enjoy it. That being said, if there’s children in the house under the age of 18, it tends to be a much different story. It’s much more of a stressor than a positive thing and that’s where you get into all kinds of issues that arise around that.”
Lionais said the women left behind find themselves having to operate like a single parent. Then, when the husbands come home, they may find their daily routines and schedules are completely disrupted.
Meanwhile, the commuters are faced with a host of other issues.
“They have to get through all those things that have to be done, making sure they have quality time with their children and their spouses, and there’s often very little other time to engage with the wider community affairs or even to maintain friendships. Particularly male friendships where their friends are on rotations as well so to get everyone home at the same time can be very difficult. So the workers get disassociated from family and community life.”
Even grandparents are finding themselves in positions that are unexpected.
“Grandparents are often finding that they have to reimagine what retirement life is to them. They thought they were going to have this period of rest and relaxation and be cared for and they’re often being thrown back into the role of caring for others, caring for the grandchildren as their adult children travel back and forth. So they have to take on these extra tasks in their retirement age.”
But few people have the option of refusing western work, even if it’s causing problems within the home, said Lionais.
“There’s so few opportunities at home that’s not an option for them.”
And even if good-paying jobs become available at home, once you’ve worked in an environment that allows advancement and challenging work, it’s tough to come back to a job that offers neither, said Lionais. For some, waiting years to advance in your job in Cape Breton isn’t an option when you can advance somewhere else more quickly and for much more money.
Barron is concerned that Cape Breton is in danger of losing its way of life. In addition to the problems faced by families living here, he’s also worried about older people whose families have left for employment elsewhere, leaving them alone with no one to check on them. He hopes his book will create empathy for others and maybe raise a dialogue about how to deal with these problems before it’s too late.
“Our young people may hope to come back but basically they’ll make a life for themselves somewhere else. In a few years there’s going to be little ghost towns all around this island.”