CBC Newfoundland & Labrador > Year in Review

Year in Review

If you want to get a sense of what 2004 was like, all you need to do is look at Danny Williams' calendar.

Just a few days into the year, the premier arranged a province-wide address with one simple message: the government is broke. The disclosure of deep financial problems set the stage for much of what followed: a hard-hitting budget in March that slashed spending, cut jobs and dramatically reshaped the health-care system. That in turn was followed by a month-long public-sector strike, with almost every public service somehow affected.

Williams paid a political price, with polls showing his popularity was sinking like a stone.

However, if the first half of the year had Williams falling in the polls because of a tough stand on fiscal reform, the second half of the year saw a resurgence in popularity because of a similarly tough approach on another red-button issue: offshore energy revenues.

Williams boycotted a first ministers' meeting on equalization in October, to protest what he called draconian terms from Ottawa on a new offshore royalty regime. The rest of the year saw the two sides dance a highly charged political tango, with billions of dollars on the line.

The year was not dominated entirely by budget cuts and the Atlantic Accord, of course.

It was also a year of human tragedies that touched everyone, from the death in Afghanistan of Cpl. Jamie Murphy, a young soldier killed in Kabul, to the sinking of the Ryan's Commander in September and the loss of two members of its crew.

It was a year of labour strife. Apart from the provincial public-sector strike, there were near-continual labour disruptions, involving major employers like Aliant and federal services like Parks Canada, to smaller but important services like the Victorian Order of Nurses in Corner Book and the Metrobus transit service in St. John's.

FPI, one of the province's largest employers, shocked Harbour Breton by announcing the town's plant will not re-open, and that its plant in Fortune may have a limited future. The province's fish processors warned of a dire fate for other towns, while scientists fretted over the state of crab stocks. Not all stocks were said to be decline, though; fishermen on the southwest coast said local cod stocks had never been in better shape.

Oil revenues, cod stocks, political fortunes … all the elements for a year of intrigue and important developments, and all setting the scene for what will likely be a hectic news year in 2005.