Мэристаун, Ньюфаундленд: История и современность

the town on Newfoundland

Marystown is a town in the province of Newfoundland and Labrador, Canada, with a population of around 5,000. Situated 306 km from the province's capital, St. John's, it is on the Burin Peninsula. Until the early 1990s, its economy was largely based on shipbuilding, and it is due in part to this that the town experienced a population increase of 295% in just over a decade. The town was also dependent on the fish plant for employment. Though the shipyard still holds a presence in the town, residents have had to look elsewhere for economic subsistence in the last decade or so. The closure of the fish plants in Newfoundland has also had its hand in the decline in economic subsistence. Mortier Bay also served a strategic role during World War II, and was the site selected to evacuate the Royal Family and regroup the British Navy in the event of German invasion of Britain. Currently fish farming and the shipyard remain important to the local economy; in fact, construction of the world's largest fish hatchery, the Grieg NL project, began at the town in 2019. Forest vegetation, mostly of coniferous trees, has developed in many areas around town as can be seen on Google Street View.

In the 2021 Census of Population conducted by Statistics Canada, Marystown had a population of 5204 living in 2328 of its 2609 total private dwellings, a change of from its 2016 population of 5316. With a land area of , it had a population density of in 2021. Canada 2006 Census Population % of Total Population Visible minority groupSource: South Asian 40 0.7 Arab 20 0.4 Total visible minority population 60 1.1 Aboriginal groupSource: First Nations 20 0.4 Métis 40 0.7 Total Aboriginal population 60 1.1 White 5,315 97.8 Total population 5,435 100%

Established in 1910, the original edifice, constructed in the early 1900s had to be reconstructed in the late 1970s due to a fire. In more recent years, the church has received much attention from the news when a family of illegal immigrants from Israel resided there as a place of sanctuary. Alexi and Angela Portnoy and their five children (the three youngest of whom were born in Canada) stayed in the church's basement for a total of 962 days while seeking citizenship status. The family was ultimately deported to Israel, but their supporters vowed to try to help the family to return.

Establishment of the church began in 1956. It was not until 1958 that the first Pentecost church in Marystown was officially completed. Since then there have been three Pentecost churches erected in the Marystown area: the original edifice in 1958, the second in 1974, and the current church that was built in 1995.

It wasn't until the 1970s that the Seventh Day Adventists established a significant population in Marystown. The construction of the first church began in 1985 along with a Seventh Day school. Though the construction was completed much earlier, 1987 denotes the official church opening.

By 2018, it was recognized that the region exhibited significant unemployment, but also that the potential workforce was not sufficient to support shipyard and aquaculture expansions envisioned in subsequent years. This led to a call for loosening immigration regulations so that the workforce could be expanded with immigrant workers.

Shipbuilding began in Marystown not long after it was settled in the early 1800s. The earliest records of shipbuilding in the area date to 1908, and Marystown's first shipyard was constructed in 1918 north of the town. The Marystown Co operative shipyard opened in 1939 was destroyed by fire in 1941; originally committed to building fishing trawlers, it was converted to minesweeper construction for World War II. Work at the site began in 1938 when the Newfoundland Commission of Government established the first government shipyard. This facility was operated as a Crown Asset until the 1980s, when it was privatized. This facility has changed owners and names over the years; the initial owner was Newfoundland Marine Works Ltd., until 1973. Marbase is a partnership between one Newfoundland businessman, Paul Antle, and the Norwegian company Amar Group AS. As of 2020, government approval of the work in relation to environmental impact had not yet been completed. In 2011, the plant employed roughly 240 people seasonally. In November 2011, provincial government appointed auditors backed up claims by OCI that they were losing millions of dollars each year operating the fish plant. On 2 December 2011, the company announced that they would permanently close their Marystown and Port Union fish plants and invest money into other plants in the province.

Marystown and surrounding area is home to four public schools, Marystown Central High School, Sacred Heart Academy, Pearce Junior High, and Donald C. Jamieson Academy. Post secondary institutions include two public trade colleges, College of the North Atlantic, and Keyin College. Marystown's public schools are serviced under the Newfoundland and Labrador English School District.

Marystown is the home of The Southern Gazette, a newspaper that covers the entire Burin Peninsula.