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
Fortune Bay () is a fairly large natural bay located in the Gulf of St. Lawrence on the south coast of Newfoundland, Canada.island of Newfoundland
Newfoundland (, ; french: link=no, Terre-Neuve, ; ) is a large island off the east coast of the North American mainland and the most populous part of the Canadian province of Newfoundland and Labrador. It has 29 percent of the province's land ...
in
Canada
Canada is a country in North America. Its ten provinces and three territories extend from the Atlantic Ocean to the Pacific Ocean and northward into the Arctic Ocean, covering over , making it the world's second-largest country by tot ...
. 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
Grand Falls-Windsor is a town located in the central region of the island of Newfoundland in the province of Newfoundland and Labrador, Canada, with a population of 13,853 at the 2021 census. The town is the largest in the central region, the s ...
.
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
England is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. It shares land borders with Wales to its west and Scotland to its north. The Irish Sea lies northwest and the Celtic Sea to the southwest. It is separated from continental Europe b ...
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
Port wine (also known as vinho do Porto, , or simply port) is a Portuguese fortified wine produced in the Douro Valley of northern Portugal. It is typically a sweet red wine, often served with dessert, although it also comes in dry, semi- ...
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
Europe is a large peninsula conventionally considered a continent in its own right because of its great physical size and the weight of its history and traditions. Europe is also considered a Continent#Subcontinents, subcontinent of Eurasia ...
,
Brazil
Brazil ( pt, Brasil; ), officially the Federative Republic of Brazil (Portuguese: ), is the largest country in both South America and Latin America. At and with over 217 million people, Brazil is the world's fifth-largest country by area ...
and the
West Indies
The West Indies is a subregion of North America, surrounded by the North Atlantic Ocean and the Caribbean Sea that includes 13 independent island countries and 18 dependencies and other territories in three major archipelagos: the Greater A ...
.
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 A cottage hospital is a semi-obsolete type of small hospital, most commonly found in the United Kingdom.
The original concept was a small rural building having several beds.The Cottage Hospitals 1859–1990, Dr. Meyrick Emrys-Roberts, Tern Publicati ...
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
The Trans-Canada Highway ( French: ; abbreviated as the TCH or T-Can) is a transcontinental federal–provincial highway system that travels through all ten provinces of Canada, from the Pacific Ocean on the west coast to the Atlantic Ocean on ...
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
Fishery can mean either the enterprise of raising or harvesting fish and other aquatic life; or more commonly, the site where such enterprise takes place ( a.k.a. fishing ground). Commercial fisheries include wild fisheries and fish farms, both ...
(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 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
Hermitage Bay is an expansive bay stretching out along the south coast of Newfoundland. It is a body of Gulf of St. Lawrence which is near the Connaigre Peninsula. On its south, it is bordered by the Hermitage peninsula and the communities of S ...
*
List of cities and towns in Newfoundland and Labrador
Newfoundland and Labrador is the ninth-most populous province in Canada, with 510,550 residents recorded in the 2021 Canadian Census, and is the seventh-largest in land area, with . Newfoundland and Labrador has 278 municipalities, including 3 ...
*
Newfoundland outport
An outport is the term given for a small coastal community in the Canadian province of Newfoundland and Labrador other than the chief port of St. John's. Originally, the term was used for coastal communities on the island of Newfoundland, ...
*
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