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It may sound ironic for a conference held in the heat of the coastal Georgia summer, but if one image became affixed in the minds of Southeast U.S. Canadian Provinces Alliance attendees in June, it was that of an iceberg.
That’s because instead of giant container ships lumbering up the Savannah River toward Georgia’s main port, businesspeople and government leaders who travel to next year’s host province of Newfoundland and Labrador may get the once-in-a-lifetime chance to see majestic barges of millennia-old glacial mass floating slowly off the island’s coast.
Newfoundland is the easternmost point in North America, a remote locale that plays up wildlife like puffins and whales in its tourism marketing. The province of a half-million people, one of the earliest English colonies, retains strong British and Irish influences (and a unique accent) and remained an independent nation until a narrowly passed referendum saw it join Canada in 1949.
Premier Andrew Furey has no problem with the “remote” label, especially at a time when “remote work” has become a buzzword around the world.
“It is, but that’s what makes it special,” Mr. Furey told Global Atlanta in an interview.
In the age of technology, being an island is no longer a barrier to the long-sought diversification of an economy traditionally based on natural resources and fishing, he said. That fact has been made all the more clear by the COVID-19 pandemic.
The province’s out-there location meant generally lower infection rates, and Newfoundland along with Canada’s other Atlantic provinces saw a “big boom” from what the premier called a “reverse urbanization trend.”
“People who were stuck in the high rises in Toronto realized they could work from anywhere, and all of a sudden they were moving to our shores because they felt like well, if I can do this job in isolation in downtown Toronto, I can do it in a beautiful home on the coastline of Newfoundland and Labrador,” Mr. Furey said.
Those natural vistas —combined with the quirky, off-beat vibe of a place where kissing a cod after a shot of “screech” liquor is a prerequisite to becoming a local — have helped foster an innovative, creative spirit.
“When you look at Silicon Valley and some other places that have really kind of grown and thrived in the technology space, we check a lot of boxes. We’re a bit unique, where people get off the beaten path and there’s a bit of a hippie vibe. And now we kind of have had some big successes.”
He’s referring mainly to a landmark deal in which homegrown cybersecurity firm Verafin was acquired for $2.75 billion (about C$3.5 billion) by the Nasdaq stock exchange in 2020. A condition of the deal was that the core team be allowed to remain in St. John’s, the colorful capital, where biotech firms and other fintech firms have set up outposts. Companies landing there will find a population that is used to dramatic transitions in economic epochs, Mr. Furey said.
“Newfoundlanders and Labradorians have been known for their resilience and their ingenuity and their creativity, and applying those skills to the digital world has really opened up a booming technology sector,” Mr. Furey said.
Newfoundland Minerals, Georgia Vehicles
Along with tech connections, Mr. Furey said his province could also help fuel another revolution hitting home in Georgia: electric vehicles.
Speaking just after Georgia Gov. Brian Kemp rattled off EV success stories that have yet to be constructed — namely $5 billion-plus plants from Hyundai and Rivian — Mr. Furey said Newfoundland’s nickel deposits will soon be powering Tesla’s batteries.
Like Quebec, another province with which Georgia has strong links, Newfoundland’s smelters are run with hydroelectricity, meaning that minerals from the province can be processed with clean energy.
“It doesn’t make sense if we’re transitioning to electric vehicles and we’re using coal to power the process to get them there, so I think we can be a real important part of the supply chain,” he said, noting in a speech that he had talked with Mr. Kemp about the Tesla deal.
While he conceded that U.S.-Canada trade relations had gone through some turbulence in the last few years, their interests are aligned when it comes to shoring up supply chains and sparking an energy revolution.
“Right now in this time of geopolitical turmoil, all those things are minor. We need to make sure that as two countries we are fully aligned, especially in the critical mineral space,” Mr. Furey said, adding that Newfoundland has lithium, gold, iron ore and other key minerals that can be further folded into North American supply chains at a crucial time.
“Before all the value was placed on efficiency and low cost. Now there’s this time of disruption. There’s a paradigm shift towards redundancy and resiliency, which I think is important. We’ve all lived it. And I don’t think consumers are going to go back, but there’s the addition of the environmental footprint as well, so I think working together on this is incredibly important,” Mr. Furey told Global Atlanta.
The SEUS/CP conference, he said, provided a key opportunity to rekindle relationships and learn about new linkages, like the strong film sector and world-renowned hospitality that characterizes both Georgia and Newfoundland.
‘Come From Away’ to Experience a Legendary Welcome
Newfoundland’s hospitality has already become the stuff of legend thanks to the way people welcomed the world after the 9/11 attacks of 2001. With U.S. airspace closed, planes from Europe carrying thousands of passengers were diverted to the international airport in Gander, Newfoundland.
The town already had a storied aviation history as a jumping off point for the earliest transatlantic flights, a role that became more vital during World War II. After the war, jet-setting celebrities and heads of state were frequently seen stopping over in Gander’s glitzy mid-century lounge. But the arrival of longer-range jets in the late 1960s marked the end of its prominence — until airplanes slammed into the Twin Towers in New York.
Newfoundlanders’ welcome was chronicled in the book “The Day the World Came to Town,” which became the basis for the hit musical “Come From Away” a title taken from what locals call visitors. It’s yet another example of the interconnectedness between Canada and the United States that is sometimes taken for granted, many said at the conference.
“In addition to being neighbors, we are truly family. We need to make sure that that’s the approach going forward,” Mr. Furey said.
In his opening speech, Mr. Furey shared another poignant example of hospitality that hits home in Georgia, especially today. Lanier Phillips, a Black U.S. Navy seaman from Lithonia, was among the few to survive a shipwreck off the coast of Newfoundland in 1942. After making it to shore, he was taken in by Newfoundlanders, who when bathing him kept scrubbing his dark skin to remove what they thought was oil. Their welcome, devoid of the harsh racism he experienced even in the military during segregation, gave Mr. Phillips faith in white people and inspired him to join the civil rights movement of Martin Luther King, Jr.
“(Mr. Phillips) saw the good of those people who saved his life and knew he could find it in others. He spent his life telling that story,” Mr. Furey said, noting that Mr. Phillips became the only non-native to be honored with the Order of Newfoundland.
“ I like to think that Lanier’s personal story embodies what our province and our relationship with the United States is all about: Strength, perseverance and hope,” he said in a speech aimed at enticing attendees northward in 2023.
“I welcome all of you to come. I can’t wait to show you the whales breaching of our shores, the million-year-old icebergs drifting by our shorelines, and of course the hospitality for which we are known around the world. I can assure you the dialect will be somewhat unique, the icebergs will be breathtaking, but the welcome — the welcome will be legendary. And as we say at home, it’ll be a good time had by all.”
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