Labrador

Labrador
Flag of Labrador, with Coat of arms (de facto)
Motto: Munus splendidum mox explebitur  (Latin) "The splendid task will soon be fulfilled"
Geography
Area:	269,073.3 square kilometres (103,889.8 sq mi)
Water area:	31,340 square kilometres (12,100 sq mi) (4%)
Coastline:	7,886 kilometres (4,900 mi)
Highest Point:	Mount Caubvick (1,652 metres, 5,420 ft)
Longest River:	Churchill River (856 kilometres, 532 mi)
Admin HQ:	Happy Valley – Goose Bay
Demographics
Population (2006):	26,364[1]
Largest City:	Happy Valley – Goose Bay[2] 7,572 (2006)
Politics
Government of Newfoundland & Labrador http://www.gov.nl.ca
Members of the Parliament of Canada:	1
Members of the Newfoundland and Labrador House of Assembly:	4

Labrador is a distinct, northerly region within the Canadian province of Newfoundland and Labrador. It comprises the mainland portion of the province, separated from the island of Newfoundland by the Strait of Belle Isle. It is the largest and northernmost geographical region in Atlantic Canada.

Labrador occupies the eastern section of the Labrador Peninsula, in an area roughly the same size as the US state of Colorado. It is bordered to the west and the south by the Canadian province of Quebec. Labrador also shares a small land border with the Canadian territory of Nunavut on Killiniq Island.

Though Labrador is over twice as large in area as the island of Newfoundland, it is home to approximately 6% of the province’s population. These people include the Inuit, Innu and Métis Aboriginal groups, as well as generations of European immigrants known as Settlers.

Physical Geography

Labrador is a large, irregular shape that encompasses the easternmost section of the Canadian Shield, a sweeping geographical region of thin soil and abundant mineral resources. Its western border with Quebec is the drainage divide of the Labrador peninsula. Lands drained by rivers that flow into the Atlantic Ocean are part of Labrador, while the lands drained by rivers that flow into Hudson Bay are part of Quebec. Northern Labrador's climate is classified as polar, while Southern Labrador's climate is classified as subarctic. Labrador can be divided into four geographical regions:

The North Coast

The long thin northern tip of Labrador holds the Torngat Mountains, named after an Inuit spirit believed to inhabit them. The mountains stretch along the coast from Port Manvers to Cape Chidley, the northernmost point of Labrador. The Torngat Mountain range is also home to Mount Caubvick, the highest point in the province. This area is predominantly Inuit, with the small Innu community of Natuashish being the exception. The north coast is the most isolated region of Labrador, with snowmobiles, boats, and planes being the only modern modes of transportation. The largest community in this region is Nain.

Central Labrador

The most populous region of Labrador, Central Labrador extends from the shores of Lake Melville into the interior. It contains the Churchill River, the largest river in Labrador and one of the largest in Canada. The hydroelectric dam at Churchill Falls is the second largest underground power station in the world, and supplies power for much of the province. Central Labrador is also home to Happy Valley – Goose Bay, the largest community in Labrador. Once a refueling point for plane convoys to Europe in World War II, CFB Goose Bay is now a NATO tactical flight training site and an alternate landing zone for the Space Shuttle.

Western Labrador

The highlands above the Churchill Falls was once an ancient hunting ground for the Innu First Nations and settled trappers of Labrador. After the construction of the hydroelectric dam at Churchill Falls in 1970, the Smallwood Reservoir has flooded much of the old hunting land, and submerged several gravesites and trapping cabins. Western Labrador is also home to the Iron Ore Company of Canada, which operates a large iron ore mine in Labrador City. Together with the small community of Wabush, the two towns are known as “Labrador West”.

The South Coast:

The south coast of Labrador is peppered with tiny fishing communities, of which Cartwright is the largest. The Wonderstrands, miles of sandy white beaches at the mouth of the Hamilton Inlet, were mentioned in the ancient Viking sagas. The south coast is also known for its Labrador seagrass and the multitude of icebergs that pass by the coast via the Labrador Current. Red Bay is known one of the best examples of a preserved 16th Century Basque Whaling Station. It is also the location of four 16th Century Basque Spanish Galleons. The lighthouse in L’anse Amour is the second largest lighthouse in Atlantic Canada.

Modern Labrador

As with its island neighbour Newfoundland, early settlement in Labrador was tied to the sea as demonstrated by the Montagnais, Innu and Inuit, although these peoples also made significant forays throughout the interior as well. European settlement was largely concentrated in coastal communities, particularly those south of Hamilton Inlet, and are among Canada's oldest European settlements. Extremely poor, both European and First Nations settlements along coastal Labrador came to benefit from cargo and relief vessels that were operated as part of the Grenfell Mission (see Wilfred Grenfell). Throughout the 20th century, coastal freighters and ferries operated initially by the Newfoundland Railway and later Canadian National Railway/CN Marine/Marine Atlantic became a critical lifeline for communities on the coast, which for the majority of that century, did not have any road connection with the rest of North America.

Labrador has played strategic roles in both the Second World War and the Cold War. In the early 1940s a German U-boat crew installed an automated weather station on the northern tip of Labrador near Cape Chidley, nicknamed Weather Station Kurt. The station only broadcast weather observations to the German navy for a few days but was not discovered until the 1980s when a historian, working with the Canadian Coast Guard, identified its location.^[3]

The Canadian government built a major air force base at Goose Bay, at the head of Lake Melville during the Second World War, a site selected because of its topography, access to the sea, defensible location, and minimal fog. During the Second World War and the Cold War, the base was also home to American, British, and later German, Netherlands, and Italian detachments. Today, CFB Goose Bay is the largest employer for the community of Happy Valley – Goose Bay.

Additionally, both the United States Air Force and Royal Canadian Air Force built and operated a number of radar stations along coastal Labrador as part of the Pinetree Line, Mid-Canada Line and DEW Line systems. Today the remaining stations are automated as part of the North Warning System, however the military settlements during the early part of the Cold War surrounding these stations have largely continued as local Innu and Inuit populations have clustered near their port and airfield facilities.

During the first half of the 20th century, some of the largest iron ore deposits in the world were discovered in the western part of Labrador and adjacent areas of Quebec. Deposits at Mont Wright, Schefferville, Labrador City, and Wabush drove industrial development and human settlement in the area during the post-war years.

The present community of Labrador West is entirely a result of the iron ore mining activities in the region. The Iron Ore Company of Canada operates the Quebec North Shore and Labrador Railway to transport ore concentrate 500 miles south to the port of Sept-Îles, Quebec for shipment to steel mills in North America and elsewhere.

During the 1960s, the Churchill River was diverted at Churchill Falls which resulted in the flooding of an enormous area — today named the Smallwood Reservoir after Joey Smallwood, the first premier of Newfoundland. The flooding of the reservoir destroyed large areas of habitat for the threatened Woodland Caribou. Both a hydroelectric generating station and a transmission line were built in the neighbouring province of Quebec.

In the 1970s-2000s the Trans-Labrador Highway was built in stages to connect various inland communities with the North American highway network at Mont Wright, Quebec (which in turn is connected by a highway running north from Baie-Comeau, Quebec). A southern extension of this highway has opened in stages during the early 2000s and is resulting in significant changes to the coastal ferry system in the Strait of Belle Isle and southeastern Labrador. It is worth noting that these "highways" are so called only because of their importance to the region; they would be better described as roads, and are not completely paved.

A study on a fixed link to Newfoundland, in 2004, recommended that a tunnel under the Strait of Belle Isle, being a single railway that would carry cars, buses and trucks, was technologically the best option for such a link. However, the study also concluded that a fixed link was not economically viable. Conceivably, if built with federal aid, the 1949 terms of union would be amended to remove ferry service from Nova Scotia to Port aux Basques across the Cabot Strait.

Although a highway link will soon (2009 or 2010) be complete across Labrador, this route is somewhat longer than a proposed Quebec North Shore highway that presently does not exist. Part of the "highway", Route 389, starting approximately 212 km (132 mi) from Baie Comeau to 482 km (299 mi) is of an inferior alignment, and from there to 570 km (354 mi), the provincial border, is an accident-prone section notorious for its poor surface and sharp curves. Quebec in April 2009 announced major upgrades to Route 389 to be carried out.

Route 389 and the Trans-Labrador Highway were added to Canada's National Highway System in September 2005.

Labrador constitutes a federal electoral district electing one member to the House of Commons of Canada. Due to its size, distinct nature, and large Aboriginal population, Labrador has one seat despite having the smallest population of any electoral district in Canada. Formerly, Labrador was part of a riding that included part of the Island of Newfoundland. Labrador is divided into four provincial electoral districts in the Newfoundland and Labrador House of Assembly.

Boundary dispute

Line A: the boundary decided by the Privy Council; the current legal boundary. Line B: the boundary as it is sometimes portrayed by Quebec today.

The border between Labrador and Canada was set March 2, 1927, after a tortuous five-year trial. In 1809 Labrador had been transferred from Lower Canada to Newfoundland, but the landward boundary of Labrador had never been precisely stated.^[4] Newfoundland argued it extended to the height of land, but Canada, stressing the historical use of the term "Coasts of Labrador", argued the boundary was one statute mile (1.6 km) inland from the high-tide mark. As Canada and Newfoundland were separate countries, but both members of the British Empire, the matter was referred to the Judicial Committee of the Privy Council (in London), which set the Labrador boundary mostly along the coastal watershed. One of Newfoundland's conditions for joining Confederation in 1949 was that this boundary be entrenched in the Canadian constitution. While this border has not been formally accepted by the Quebec government, the Henri Dorion [2] Commission (Commission d'étude sur l'intégrité du territoire du Québec) concluded in the early 1970s that Quebec no longer has a legal claim to Labrador. [3] [4] In 2001, Québec Natural Resources Minister and Québec Intergovernmental Affairs Minister reasserted that Québec has never recognised the 1927 border:

"Les ministres rappellent qu'aucun gouvernement québécois n'a reconnu formellement le tracé de la frontière entre le Québec et Terre-Neuve dans la péninsule du Labrador selon l'avis rendu par le comité judiciaire du Conseil privé de Londres en 1927. Pour le Québec, cette frontière n'a donc jamais été définitivement arrêtée^[5]."

(The ministers reiterate that no Quebec government has ever formally recognized the drawing of the border between Quebec and Newfoundland in the Labrador penninsula according to the opinion rendered by the privy council in 1927. For Quebec, this border has thus never been definitively defined.)

Possible separation from Newfoundland

A Royal Commission in 2002 determined that there is a certain amount of public pressure from Labradorians to break off from Newfoundland and become a separate province or territory. Some of the Innu nation would have the area become a homeland for them, much as Nunavut is for the Inuit; a 1999 resolution of the Assembly of First Nations claimed Labrador as a homeland for the Innu and demanded recognition in any further constitutional negotiations regarding the region.^[6] The Inuit self-government region of Nunatsiavut was recently created through agreements with the provincial and federal governments.

Timeline

• 11th century: Probable visit by Leif Ericson. See Markland.
• 1498: Sighted by João Fernandes Lavrador, who gave "Labrador" its name
• 1498: Visited by John Cabot
• 1500: Visited by Gaspar Corte-Real
• 1534: Visited by Jacques Cartier
• 1763: Labrador is transferred from the French colony Canada to the British colony Newfoundland as per the Treaty of Paris.
• 1774: Labrador is transferred (along with Anticosti Island and the Magdalen Islands) to the Province of Quebec.
• 1791: Labrador becomes part of Lower Canada when Quebec is divided into two colonies.
• 1792: George Cartwright publishes his Journal of Transactions and Events, During a Residence of Nearly Sixteen Years on the Coast of Labrador.
• 1809: Labrador (from Cape Chidley to the mouth of the Saint-Jean River) is transferred back to Newfoundland.
• 1825: The north shore of the Gulf of Saint Lawrence west of Blanc-Sablon, Quebec and south of 52° north is separated from Labrador and transferred back to Lower Canada.
• 1892: Wilfred Grenfell, medical missionary and social activist, first came to Labrador.
• 1927: The Labrador boundary dispute is settled.
• 1941: Canada builds the air base at Goose Bay.
• 1949: Labrador becomes part of Canada when Newfoundland joins Confederation.
• 1964: The province's government began to refer to itself as the Government of Newfoundland and Labrador,
• 2001: The province officially changes its name to Newfoundland and Labrador by a Canadian constitutional amendment.
• 2007: The province and Federal Government of Canada sign an agreement to establish Nunatsiavut

Demographics

Natural features

Labrador is home to a number of fauna and flora species. Most of the Upper Canadian and Lower Hudsonian mammalian species are found in Labrador.^[8] Notably the Polar bear, Ursus maritimus reaches the southeast of Labrador on its annual migration.^[9]

See also

• Landsat Island
• Nunatsiavut
• Torngat Mountains National Park

References

Further reading

• The Lure of the Labrador Wild, by Dillon Wallace (ISBN 1-4043-1537-3; July 2002)
• Labrador by Choice, by Benjamin W. Powell Sr. C.M. 1979
• The Story of Labrador, by B. Rompkey (2005)
• Labrador, by Robert Stewart (1977)

External links

• Audio recording of a traditional ghost story from Labrador, Canada
• Project Gutenberg e-text of Dillon Wallace's The Lure of the Labrador Wild
• Labrador information page
• Trans-Labrador Highway website Detailed information about traveling in Labrador

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