Harbour Breton is a small fishing community on the
Connaigre Peninsula
The Connaigre Peninsula is a Canadian peninsula located on the south coast of the island of Newfoundland in the province of Newfoundland and Labrador. Harbour Breton is the largest population centre on the peninsula.
The Connaigre Peninsula is ...
in
Fortune Bay, on the south coast of the
island of Newfoundland in
Canada. It is the largest center on the Connaigre Peninsula and was long considered the unofficial capital of Fortune Bay.
During the 1960s many communities were resettled into Harbour Breton. Harbour Breton is the only
administrative centre
An administrative center is a seat of regional administration or local government, or a county town, or the place where the central administration of a commune is located.
In countries with French as administrative language (such as Belgium, Lu ...
in Fortune Bay and is located approximately south of
Grand Falls-Windsor.
History
Harbour Breton is known for its rich fishing history. But the first major company to take up post here was Newman & Co. Based in
England and famous for its port wine, this company happened upon the value of the town's marine climate in its wine aging process.
The Newman Company's ship ''Retriever'' arrived in Harbour Breton with a cargo of
port wine around 1892. Through the 19th century, the company relied heavily on the importing of fishing servants from England and Ireland.
By 1871, the Newman & Co. employed about 100 people in salting, drying, packing, and shipping fish to
Europe,
Brazil and the
West Indies.
By the late 1800s, a large part of the population had either settled in Harbour Breton permanently, moved to other areas on the south coast which were connected with the Newman & Co. or returned to their country of origin. By 1891, Harbour Breton's population had reached 484. Of them, 443 were Newfoundland born with the remainder from England, Ireland, Scotland and other British colonies. Newman & Co. fortunes declined in the early 1900s and the company closed its operation in 1907.
A
cottage hospital was built in Harbour Breton in 1936. Harbour Breton was designated as a
growth centre in 1965 and the government encouraged people living in isolated communities to
relocate to the town. From 1965 to 1971, a total of 700 people had moved to Harbour Breton. Many residents resettled from Sagona Island, Jersey Harbour, Little Bay West, Miller's Passage, Red Cove, and Grole. In 1971, Harbour Breton was linked to
Trans Canada Highway by road.
In 1973, a
landslide
Landslides, also known as landslips, are several forms of mass wasting that may include a wide range of ground movements, such as rockfalls, deep-seated grade (slope), slope failures, mudflows, and debris flows. Landslides occur in a variety of ...
on south side of Harbour Breton, killed 4 children from the Hickey family. A monument was erected on the site of the Hickey house in 1997.
Harbour Breton has a notable fishing history, including companies such as
Fishery Products International (FPI), which removed itself from the town in April 2005. The Barry Group of Companies Inc. renovated the plant used by FPI and re-opened its doors in December 2006. Cooke Aquaculture started a salmon processing operation in Harbour Breton at the Barry Group of Companies plant in 2008. The plant employed about 150 people, but it closed on January 31, 2014 when the Barry Group didn't renew its lease with Cooke Aquaculture. Barry Group Inc. opened a fish meal plant in Harbour Breton in 2017.
Climate
Demographics
In the
2021 Census of Population
The 2021 Canadian census was a detailed enumeration of the Canadian population with a reference date of May 11, 2021. It follows the 2016 Canadian census, which recorded a population of 35,151,728. The overall response rate was 98%, which is sli ...
conducted by
Statistics Canada
Statistics Canada (StatCan; french: Statistique Canada), formed in 1971, is the agency of the Government of Canada commissioned with producing statistics to help better understand Canada, its population, resources, economy, society, and cultur ...
, Harbour Breton had a population of living in of its total private dwellings, a change of from its 2016 population of . With a land area of , it had a population density of in 2021.
See also
*
Hermitage Bay
*
List of cities and towns in Newfoundland and Labrador
*
Newfoundland outport
*
Resettlement (Newfoundland) Resettlement in Newfoundland and Labrador terms refers to an organized approach to centralize the population into growth areas. It is used in the current context when referring to a voluntary relocation initiated from isolated communities themselves ...
References
{{Authority control
Populated coastal places in Canada
Towns in Newfoundland and Labrador
Fishing communities in Canada