The economic depression and sense of displacement in The Shipping News are rooted in two transformative 20th-century Newfoundland policies. First, the provincial resettlement programs, initiated by Premier Joey Smallwood in 1954, sought to modernize the province by moving residents from small, isolated fishing villages, called outports, to larger “growth centers.” Prior to 1954, the abandonment of several communities due to disease, a weak job market, and natural calamities set a precedent for the government to petition for integrating the populations of other outports into cities like St. John’s and Conception Bay. Proponents argued this centralization would provide better access to schools, healthcare, and industrial jobs. The programs, which ran until the mid-1970s, resulted in the abandonment of over 300 communities and the relocation of almost 30,000 people (Poole, Cyril F. and Robert Cuff, eds. Encyclopedia of Newfoundland and Labrador, vol. 4, 1993). The government directly financed the relocation of each outport family who had agreed to participate in the program. These stipends attracted the fisher families in particular, who saw the amount as being substantially higher than their annual income. Over time, the true challenges of resettlement revealed themselves as many resettled families found it difficult to thrive in the growth centers. In some cases, resettlement created problems in the growth centers’ job market, raising the demand for jobs without doing anything substantial to raise the number of jobs. This consequently drove long-time residents’ resentment for resettled families who had entered their communities, further alienating the latter (Martin, Melanie. “The Resettlement Program.” Heritage Newfoundland and Labrador, May 2018.) This policy provides the direct historical basis for the novel’s abandoned settlements, such as Capsize Cove, and the isolated, dilapidated state of the Quoyle ancestral home.

The second and more catastrophic event was the federal cod moratorium of July 2, 1992. After years of mismanagement and overfishing by technologically advanced foreign and domestic factory trawlers, the northern cod stocks collapsed to what government reports indicated was 1% of their estimated peak (Hamilton, Lawrence C. and M. J. Butler. “Outport adaptations: Social indicators through Newfoundland’s Cod crisis.” Human Ecology Review, vol. 8, no. 2, January 2001) This had a devastating impact throughout Atlantic Canada, but most especially in the province of Newfoundland, where fishing was the predominant industry for most families and communities. The moratorium instantly ended a 500-year-old way of life and, according to Heritage Newfoundland and Labrador, resulted in the single largest mass layoff in Canadian history, eliminating approximately 30,000 jobs (Higgins, Jenny. “Economic Impacts of the Cod Moratorium.” Heritage Newfoundland and Labrador, 2008) Though the moratorium was originally intended to last two years, it was extended indefinitely in 1993 once the government assessed that up to six populations of cod species remained endangered. This led to a substantial restructuring of the Newfoundland economy, forcing the province to diversify its industries to adapt to the changes of the moratorium. The government would only order a limited lift of the ban in 2024, restricting fishers to work in the north and east coasts of Atlantic Canada. This collapse contextualizes the pervasive unemployment in Killick-Claw, Jack Buggit’s rants against government regulation, and the despair of fishermen like Harold Nightingale, who catches only nine cod all season and loses his uninsured boat.