Hope restored
Commitment to closure of Boat Harbour welcome news to PLFN
Miles away from anywhere on Dec. 20, a man was trapping.
The news could wait. The bobcat wouldn't.
“My father used to trap, and his father used to trap,” said Durney Nicholas, 59. He had been away since 9 a.m.
Three hours later, with a two-and-a-half-foot bobcat slung over the hood of his ATV, he stopped to speak with his cousin Mary Nicholas, who was walking not far from the edge of Boat Harbour. In Mi’kmaq she tells him the news — the Boat Harbour Act will be honoured.
“I am surprised,” said Durney, removing his winter face mask. “And happy now.”
As a young boy, Durney recalls his sister walking with him to this place.
“I was young, but I remember,” he said. “About 90 per cent of the community would be here doing something — digging clams, mussels, fishing, always fishing. In winter, too, fishing eels. In certain spots where the mud was soft, that’s where they’d spend the winter. We knew their spots. For generations and generations.”
The bobcat needed tanning, so Durney was off to where the news was ringing through Pictou Landing First Nation that Premier Stephen McNeil would honour the closure date.
“I’ll be 60 in January,” said Durney. “I hope to see it clean again.”
“We’ve seen it clean, didn’t we, Durney?” added Mary. “We’ve got to see it clean again. We have to.”
At around 10:40 that morning a cheer went up inside the Pictou Landing First Nation band office, followed by tears. An emotional chief and council spoke to media shortly after, expressing gratitude to the Nova Scotia government, her council, elders and community.
“I know this wasn’t easy. I know that this was very challenging and I prayed and I prayed and I prayed for everyone. I appreciate the decision that was made today because I know that it was taken with extreme, extreme consideration for all parties.”
At 11:30 a.m., Brian Baarda, CEO of Northern Pulp’s parent company, Paper Excellence, announced that soon the company will be implementing plans to close the 52-year-old pulp and paper mill at Abercrombie Point.
The premier’s announcement included a $50-million transition fund to support the thousands of people for whom today’s news comes as a heavy blow before Christmas.
In Pictou Landing First Nation, a mural depicting Boat Harbour as it was when Durney and Mary remember it records the countdown: 41 days until Jan. 31, 2020.
Not far down the road, Mary is back inside her house. Friday’s news was another check mark, but she will not celebrate until that day in January comes.
“We’ve been fooled so many times. So many times,” she said. “I don’t know how many times in my life where I felt like there was hope and then there was nothing.”
Mistrust, however, has not kept her from envisioning what will come next.
“I want to put in a garden. I want to farm there,” she said. “I’ve been thinking this way forever, and I could do it.”
Asked what she would grow, Nicholas replied: “Anything and everything. Anything they want and everything they want.”