Guess what else is expensive? RESETTLEMENT
Every household leaves with 250k+ (not including business owners who are also compensated for losing their livelihood) The ferries have to make several extra trips to ship everything out (1) https://twitter.com/amanda_dawe/status/1391825437547016192

Contractors are hired to remove powerlines and entire buildings. Those contractors also have to charter boats to get to the remote island. A tugboat and barge showed up full of heavy equipment to do the work and with more room to take everything off the island. (2)

Two local boats (longliners) were chartered to bring out the crew, who also needed to be paid. Let's not forget they also had to find accommodations and food for these workers. (3)

This was made even more expensive by the fact that the power was shut off. They need to bring generators, freezers, gas, food, toiletries.

Before all this there were surveys to assess residential and commercial land. (4)

There was also a town meeting, where a government official had to come and explain the process and answer questions for the residents. He came all the way from St. John's (probably not for free) (5)

But don't worry! The government will try to save as much money as they can! They'll prolong the process for years so that the most elderly residents will die before they can be paid. (6)

They'll deny resettlement to people who make their livelihood in the area. They'll deny elderly people who voted, but spent a couple months a year off the island due to mobility issues. (7)

To quote a CBC article written on the resettlement of William's Harbour:

"The provincial government is spending about $4 million in buyouts and decommissioning costs.

Over 20 years, it predicts the resettlement will save taxpayers about $7.9 million" (8)

These numbers don't seem like the major savings everyone is talking about? Using this logic the resettlement of William's Harbour won't even pay for itself until 2027. (9) (Correct me if I'm wrong here.)

Not to mention the trauma that comes with resettlement. My partner has no sense of home. Several residents got ripped off when a contractor came to town promising to build homes and then took off with their money. (10)

The payouts weren't issued until Oct 29th, and the power was shut off on Nov 10th. Imagine elderly people moving away from home for the first time and having to buy/build a house and move into it in two weeks, during fall/winter in Labrador and then getting RIPPED OFF. (11)

Not to mention my FIL who voted YES so he could be closer to medical services, was neglected for 36 hours. It was a month ago today that he was sent to the Health Science Center, after he took sick on the 9th of April because he had pain in his legs. (12)

Anyways thanks for making it to the end of this thread. There is so much more I could say, but if you're from the metro region please consider that this is so much more than just a "sad story." These are people's lives. #nlpoli #resettlement #outportpeople