zitaʼs missionary zeal - atlantic business magazinezitaʼs missionary zeal since 2005, the...

Zitaʼs missionary zealSince 2005, the Shorefast Foundation has invested $63.5 million in an ambitious social experiment. Its purpose? To reverse Fogo Islandʼs 50-year trend of increasing unemployment and declining population. Now, almost a decade later, itʼs an apt time to ask if this impressive investment has made a difference. Or, does the Islandʼs future continue to look much like its past?Story by Dawn Chafe | Photos by Karl Chafe | Illustrations by Ian Keith Murray

ooking for the surest, fastest way to get a rise out of millionaire philan-thropist Zita Cobb? Suggest that the

death and decline of rural places are the natural order of things. Tell this loyal daugh-ter of Joe Batt’s Arm (pop. 700) that progress is rightly built on the ashes of her forefathers, that isolated places with dwindling populations and traditional resource-based economies should actually be encouraged to go gently into their good night. Then suggest she has wasted more than $63 million ($41 million of it from her own bank account) on a fruitless attempt to preserve an over-romanticized version of

Fogo Island’s past. Tell her she would have been better served by giving each of the island’s residents an equal share of the money so they could find their own merry way in the world. Go ahead. Tell her. I dare you.

I dared. Not quite so boldly perhaps, but my message was the same: why bother trying to prop up a flagging economy? An economy which, for the better part of five decades, has been in steady decline – on an isolated island which Cobb herself describes as “far away from far away.”

In other words, why is Fogo Island worth saving? If, indeed, it can be saved.

L

20 | Atlantic Business Magazine | November/December 2013

Zitaʼs missionary zealSince 2005, the Shorefast Foundation has invested $63.5 million in an ambitious social experiment. Its purpose? To reverse Fogo Islandʼs 50-year trend of increasing unemployment and declining population. Now, almost a decade later, itʼs an apt time to ask if this impressive investment has made a difference. Or, does the Islandʼs future continue to look much like its past?Story by Dawn Chafe | Photos by Karl Chafe | Illustrations by Ian Keith Murray

ooking for the surest, fastest way to get a rise out of millionaire philan-thropist Zita Cobb? Suggest that the

death and decline of rural places are the natural order of things. Tell this loyal daugh-ter of Joe Batt’s Arm (pop. 700) that progress is rightly built on the ashes of her forefathers, that isolated places with dwindling populations and traditional resource-based economies should actually be encouraged to go gently into their good night. Then suggest she has wasted more than $63 million ($41 million of it from her own bank account) on a fruitless attempt to preserve an over-romanticized version of

Fogo Island’s past. Tell her she would have been better served by giving each of the island’s residents an equal share of the money so they could find their own merry way in the world. Go ahead. Tell her. I dare you.

I dared. Not quite so boldly perhaps, but my message was the same: why bother trying to prop up a flagging economy? An economy which, for the better part of five decades, has been in steady decline – on an isolated island which Cobb herself describes as “far away from far away.”

In other words, why is Fogo Island worth saving? If, indeed, it can be saved.

L

Online extras: atlanticbusinessmagazine.com | 21

Above: traditional Newfoundland fishing stage

Above: one of the many churches on Fogo Island.Below: Zita Cobb—innkeeper and Shorefast Foundation founder

Above: view of Fogo from Brimstone Head, one of the “four corners of the world” according to the Flat Earth Society.Below (L-R): signage along the Brimstone Head trail; visual reminder of the lost small boat fishery.

What will it take to keep the young crowd here? We need every-thing that they have in St. John’s.Tom Gill, supervisor, Fogo Island Co-operative


To the uninitiated, Fogo Island – not to be confused with Fogo which, along with Joe Batt’s Arm, are two of 11 communities on the island – is the biggest of

the dozens, if not hundreds, of islands which orbit Canada’s easternmost province. You can f ly there, if you have access to a plane small enough to land on the 914-metre (3,000-foot) airstrip. Or you can drive to the town of Farewell (about an hour north of the international airport in Gander, Newfoundland) for a 45-minute ferry ride. Or, if you’re fortunate enough to have a boat, you can arrive in your own good time.

Regardless of how you arrive, when you do ultimately get there, don’t bother searching for McDonald’s or Tim Horton’s, movie cinemas or large supermarkets. They and their detritus are deliciously absent from the pristine landscape. Indeed, the closest relatives to franchise retailers are the liquor agency, Scotiabank and a unique-to-Newfoundland department store chain called Riff’s. Refreshingly, Fogo Island is an anachronism of locally-f lavoured small businesses like Nicole’s Café, Growler’s Ice Cream and the whimsically-named This &That Store. You’ll find churches and graveyards in abundance, with many communities hosting up to three variations of the various faiths found on the island: Anglican, Roman Catholic, United, Pentecostal and Gospel Hall. You’ll see fishing sheds (called stages) leaning out over the water on deceptively fragile-looking wooden stilts. And you’ll discover Brimstone Head, one of the four corners of the world according to the Flat Earth Society.

Four hundred per cent larger than Manhattan, Fogo Island is home to an estimated 2,500 year-round residents (Manhattan has more than 640 times that number). To put it in perspective, there are 27,442 people per square kilometre in Manhattan; 11 for the same area in Fogo Island.

It wasn’t always so sparse. At least 5,200 people lived on the island in its heyday and 1,200 children filled the local all-grade school. Few hands were idle and obesity was an unheard-of phenomenon: virtually everyone was employed by the fishery, either rowing out to sea in their small wooden punts or gutting and drying fish onshore. They also hunted and farmed, cut wood, picked berries, sewed quilts and made furniture. Children freely roamed the harbours, skipping across ice pans for fun in the winter, swimming the freshwater ponds in summer.

The old timers say that a rising tide lifts all boats. And for hundreds of years, the fishery carried the economy of Fogo Island, much as it did for most Atlantic communities. Until the time came when the fishery failed and fishermen, including Zita Cobb’s father, burned their boats. The tide had rolled out, stranding many former fishers onshore. Thousands of abandoned people felt they had no choice but to move on. Cobb did too… for a time.

• • •

Expectations were not high for the first half of our four-night excursion to Fogo Island. Excepting the serviced camp sites in the Brimstone Head RV park, my photographer husband and I were staying at the cheapest accommodations to be had in the area: $70 a night, Wi-Fi and breakfast included.

Though there was availability for our entire stay at the newly-opened Fogo Island Inn, two nights had just about maxed out the budget (our 425 sq. ft. Lighthouse Suite costs $1,425 a night in high season). But 48 hours wasn’t enough time to capture the story I wanted to tell, so the hunt was on for more economical lodging.

I called every accommodation listed on the town’s website, but it was the weekend of the Punt Race, an annual event comprised of

two-person crews rowing shallow, handcrafted wooden boats across 11 kilometres (seven miles) of open ocean. The popular competition meant this was one of the busiest weeks of the year for tourism. No one in the communities of Fogo, Joe Batt’s Arm or Tilting had a room available for July 18 and 19. Then a friend told me about Marshall and Chrissie Oake, proprietors of Brimstone Head B&B/Efficiency Unit. It was the least expensive B&B on the Island … located in the heart of Fogo … and they still had a room available.

Expectations were low indeed.

She describes her life in ebbs and f lows, articulating the push and pull of place. At five she was a tuberculosis refugee, sent to a sanatorium for a year, exiled from

her father, mother and six brothers. Understandably, lonely kindergarten Zita couldn’t wait to go home. Later, as a teenager living “abroad” in Ottawa, O.N., she tried to hide her island roots from her more cosmopolitan university peers. She’d learned to be embarrassed about growing up without electricity or running water. Until, that is, the death of a beloved relative – Uncle Art – reminded her, with a vengeance, of whence she came.

From then on, she says, Fogo Island was her secret weapon. It was transformed from millstone to anchor, fortifying her throughout a dizzyingly successful global career: number

Above: traditional Newfoundland fishing stage

Above: one of the many churches on Fogo Island.Below: Zita Cobb—innkeeper and Shorefast Foundation founder

Above: view of Fogo from Brimstone Head, one of the “four corners of the world” according to the Flat Earth Society.Below (L-R): signage along the Brimstone Head trail; visual reminder of the lost small boat fishery.

What will it take to keep the young crowd here? We need every-thing that they have in St. John’s.Tom Gill, supervisor, Fogo Island Co-operative


crunching, first for the oil and gas industry, and later for high tech firm JDS Fitel; then becoming senior vice president of strategy for fibre optics innovator JDS

Uniphase. When she retired in 2001, Zita Cobb was in her early 40s, with reportedly hundreds of millions of dollars to her name (some sources estimate as much as $800 million). She sailed her yacht around the world for a time, but her internal compass would be satisfied with only one destination: home.

Not only did she return to Fogo Island, but – displaying a trait common among well-to-do businesspeople in Atlantic Canada – Cobb felt a responsibility to “give back” to her community. With that in mind, she and her brother established a scholarship program so that the latest generation of Fogo Islanders would have access to the global opportunities offered by higher education.

Imagine how surprised they must have been when their well-intentioned benevolence was criticized. Severely. Cobb recalls how, during a public review of the scholarship program, one woman took her to task for paying the island’s children to leave. “Can’t you do something that will give them a reason to stay?”

Could she? If anyone could, it was Zita Cobb – a master

strategist with more than 20 years’ experience helping to grow international empires.

But should she? That’s the real question.

Any number of pundits and public policy think tanks will tell you the kindest thing Zita Cobb could have done was put Fogo Islanders out of their misery. Don’t

prolong the agony, just give each of them a pocketful of money if she felt so inclined and call it a day. Last person to leave has to turn off the lights.

Because, let’s face it: rural populations are fading. Dr. Fazley Siddiq, dean of Business at University of New Brunswick Saint John and fellow of the John F. Kennedy School of Government at Harvard University, has compiled considerable statistical research that shows nonmetropolitan Canada is declining. In a May 2013 presentation titled “Prosperity or death of a thousand cuts?”, Dr. Siddiq noted that nonmetropolitan areas of the country accounted for 55 per cent of the population in 1961; they accounted for only 31 per cent in 2011.

Speaking directly to the issue of rural sustainability, Fred McMahon, Michael Walker chair of Economic Freedom Research at The Fraser Institute, admits that it’s a real tragedy for older

I don’t know if the changes taking place are for the better or for the worse, but I think that Fogo, as I know it, is on its way out. Jim Freake, labourer, Fogo Island Co-operative

Above (L-R): After seeing Punt Race information posted on Facebook, Sivella Marshall and Pamela Hatcher, from Pasadena, N.L., decided to enter. They trained for three months, rowing an 18-foot flat bottom boat in a lake.

Below: The controversial Splitting Rock—not everyone is impressed with the landmark’s relocation to the Fogo Island Inn.

Above: lining up for the start of the 2013 Great Fogo Island Punt Race.

Above: A scene in Tilting, a picture-perfect community on Fogo Island and N.L.’s first provincial registered heritage district.

We love the freedom of living here, it’s not too crowded. We’d like to stay here when we grow up, but we’re worried there might not be enough work.(L-R): Keaton Brown, 13, aspires to be a diesel mechanic; Michael Brown, 12 (no relation), hopes to be an engineer some day.

Back in my day, there were 50 young fellows in their twenties living in Deep Bay (the smallest community on Fogo Island). There’s only three here now.Ray Heath, 74


people in any community when younger people drain away. But, he says, the greater tragedy is when governments try to change things with promises that can’t be fulfilled via programs that artificially prolong an area’s relevance. Further, he credits a century-long migration to urban centres with creating prosperity.

Granted, McMahon isn’t talking about Fogo Island. And his criticism is of public rather than private sector intervention in what he sees as the natural evolution of society. Still, the underlying message is loud and clear: rural is passé; urban is the future.

Zita, as she’s called by everyone on the island, whether they know her personally or not, disagrees. Quite emphatically, in fact.

“Absolutely not!” she says in response to a comment that rural places should be allowed to decline, that they are unnecessary relics of a past best forgotten.

Lose rural places, she argues, and we lose essential knowledge. “Human beings are becoming dumber and dumber all the time. Our worlds are shrinking into this binary, over-intellectualized digital world.”

She worries about what could possibly be next for humankind when we’ve lost our capacity to interact with each other and the natural world. Witness the number of people who can’t have dinner or sit around a campfire without pulling out their ‘smart’ phones. Or those individuals who routinely “unfriend” someone on Facebook rather than try to work out their differences. What happens, she ponders, when this is all that we know? “Do we just dedicate our lives to chasing the almighty dollar?”

It’s a curiously ironic statement from someone who has often been cited as one of the richest women in Canada, a woman whose wealth is directly derived from the digital sphere. She’s made her fortune and can afford to indulge her parochial fantasies. But what about the rest of us? Why shouldn’t we be allowed to chase our own technologically-guided, perhaps urban-based, dreams of prosperity?

It doesn’t have to be an “either/or” proposition, she counters. “Not everybody needs to live in a rural place. We need great cities too. We need both. We can have both.”

In her mind, the challenge (and the solution) – the Zen of Zita, if you will – is finding a way for rural communities to be connected to the fabric of the world on their own terms. It’s about reaching out, while holding on. Fostering change that protects and preserves. Countering the globalized conformity of a fast food chain on every street corner. Rallying against a world where everyone looks and sounds the same.

You know she’s preached this gospel countless times over the past eight years, but she still makes it sound… authentic… original… sincere. Especially here, in her special place: at the Inn she helped build, standing against an endless North Atlantic backdrop where, at present, 15 two-person crews in locally-crafted wooden punts race against time and tide, heaving their oars into a rising gale. “Whatever I know, whatever good that is, it came from this place. I learned some things in the business world, but the essence of it came from here,” she says.

If this were a Hollywood moment, an unseen sound crew would cue for rising orchestral strings, maybe even call for a bass drum and cymbal clash to mimic the crash of wave upon shore. But this is reality and reality, Zita admits, has not been kind to rural places. Business, she asserts, has played a terrible role in the destruction of our cultural and natural environments. If she has her way, business will also play a significant role in its resurrection.

Zita has a plan.

• • •

It was the day before the four-hour drive that would bring us to the delightfully-named town of Farewell. There, we hoped to board the 3 PM ferry to Fogo Island.

Our soon-to-be hostess, Chrissie Oake, was on the phone. She was calling with a recommendation on when to start out (“It would be best if you were on the highway by 8:30.”), a warning of potential traffic slowdowns (“There’s a lot of construction on the highway in Terra Nova National Park.”) and advice on when we should be in the ferry lineup (“There’s no reservations, just load and go. You should be in the lineup by one o’clock to guarantee your spot.”).

“I’m really looking forward to meeting you,” she said before ending the call.

The Oakes hadn’t wanted our credit card number to hold the reservation. Was this their diplomatic way of confirming that we were still coming? Did they have another potential client on a wait list, in case we canceled?

Or, was it something else?

I don’t know if the changes taking place are for the better or for the worse, but I think that Fogo, as I know it, is on its way out. Jim Freake, labourer, Fogo Island Co-operative

Above (L-R): After seeing Punt Race information posted on Facebook, Sivella Marshall and Pamela Hatcher, from Pasadena, N.L., decided to enter. They trained for three months, rowing an 18-foot flat bottom boat in a lake.

Below: The controversial Splitting Rock—not everyone is impressed with the landmark’s relocation to the Fogo Island Inn.

Above: lining up for the start of the 2013 Great Fogo Island Punt Race.

Above: A scene in Tilting, a picture-perfect community on Fogo Island and N.L.’s first provincial registered heritage district.

We love the freedom of living here, it’s not too crowded. We’d like to stay here when we grow up, but we’re worried there might not be enough work.(L-R): Keaton Brown, 13, aspires to be a diesel mechanic; Michael Brown, 12 (no relation), hopes to be an engineer some day.

Back in my day, there were 50 young fellows in their twenties living in Deep Bay (the smallest community on Fogo Island). There’s only three here now.Ray Heath, 74


Technically speaking, it’s not Zita’s plan. It’s a community plan, one that was reportedly devised and

approved by the residents of Fogo Island themselves. Though initially cumbersome to develop, requiring countless hours of public consultation (and criticism), making the plan of, by, and for the people has enabled the Shorefast Foundation to go about its work relatively unhindered. Founded by Zita in 2005, Shorefast is a registered charity charged with “Finding new ways for an old continuity.”

That’s not to say that there haven’t been hiccups. One example is the cancellation of last year’s Punt Race and the subsequent course change from Fogo to Joe Batt’s Arm (community rivalry, sources say, a residual adjustment to their 2010 amalgamation as the Town of Fogo Island). This year’s brouhaha was over a rock. Known locally as the “Splitting Rock”, it used to rest just below the Joe Batt’s Arm water tower. Shorefast requested, and received, municipal approval to move the rock next to the Inn. Not everyone was happy with the move, however, and there were reports that some sort of protest might be staged during the 2013 Punt Race (there wasn’t).

But, these are ob-stacles in Zita’s big picture world, not road blocks. So long as Shorefast continues to collaborate and consult with the community it serves, she believes it

will continue to achieve forward motion. Populace mantle aside, there’s more than

a hint of Zita in the Foundation’s ambitious strategy. Not that there’s anything wrong with that. By articulating blue-collared dreams of stable employment in the language of cultural fortification and innovation agendas, and by literally putting her money where her heart is, Zita Cobb has won considerable local respect, international approval and government buy-in for Shorefast’s activities.

To say they’ve been busy is beyond understatement. Since 2005, Shorefast has preserved and restored much of the island’s built heritage: homes, churches and other buildings, even the wooden punts used in the Great Fogo Island Punt Race. Rumour has it that knowledge of punt construction was only

I’m fascinated by the concept of authenticity. Who is a real Albertan? Who is a real Newfoundlander? Here, I was exposed to people with a very strong sense of identity.Mark Clintberg, 35, one of Fogo Island’s 2013 artists in residence, is originally from Stony Plain, Alberta.

How many people live in Deep Bay today? (Nodding as he looks at each home, mentally counting residents). Eighty-two. I don’t know what’s going to happen to this place in 10 years time. Junior Heath, 59

We have been coming to Newfoundland since 1999. This is our 12th time coming to Fogo. We love it here. My wife likes to pick cloudberries. They call them bakeapples here. It reminds her of home. John Stars, retiree living in Ontario, originally from Latvia. His wife is from Norway.

Above right: Zita Cobb believes she won’t have any problem finding enough intrepid, upscale travellers to keep her Inn (shown below) open and full year-round.

Many rooms at the Inn feature working cast iron wood stoves, adding cold-weather appeal. Locally-crocheted afghans and cushioned chairs overlooking the ocean, like the one shown below, increase the cosy ambiance.


a handful of funerals away from being lost forever. It’s since been revived and passed on to the next generation. Shorefast has also re-kindled interest in the manufacture of traditional Newfoundland furniture and textiles such as quilts and knitted goods. They’ve established a micro-lending program to support small business growth and worked to celebrate traditional hunting, foraging and preserving practices. And they’ve created artist residency programs, whereby artists from around the world make the island their home for months at a time. It’s essentially a period of suspended animation: the artists live in a restored heritage home and work in one of four modernist structures. Sharply-angled and starkly-coloured, the artist studios somehow fit the Fogo Island landscape. Indeed, you’d almost miss the Tower Studio on a quick drive-by, despite it being a vertical kaleidoscope that appears decidedly unwieldy in closely-cropped photos. Clearly, Shorefast’s architect of choice, Newfoundland-born and Norwegian-based Todd Saunders, understands the DNA of this location intuitively well.

But there’s a problem. All of these initiatives, intriguing as they are, are consumers of capital. As the people of Fogo Island and Shorefast are well aware, fiscal resiliency and economic viability require new money to f low into the area – and not just from Zita’s expansive pocket either. In the language of the Foundation, that means building “another leg on the local economy which complements the traditional fishery.” In other words, tourism.

Excuse me while I yawn. Sorry for the cynicism, but seriously –

isn’t this the same-old story that’s already been told too many times before? Turning to tourism as a panacea for a lost (insert traditional industry of choice) isn’t a new idea. In Atlantic Canada, it’s been tried over and over again with neighbouring provinces competing for the same share of international visitors hungry for maritime f lavour. But travellers are a fickle bunch, lured hither and yon by marketing campaigns, weather, reputation, the value of the dollar, accessibility – the list goes on. In other words, tourism isn’t known for its reliability.

Nor is Fogo Island itself a particularly reliable destination. As befits its location, access to the island is as capricious as the changing winds. Residents readily recount episodes of having been stranded on the island for days due to rough seas and pack ice. The 41-year-old ferry, too, is not without its problems: the Captain Earl W. Winsor has been plagued with mechanical issues and capacity problems. It went into dry dock this past September for an extensive refit, after already undergoing another batch of repairs just a few months earlier. While it may be the largest ferry in the provincial f leet, the Winsor can only carry up to 60 vehicles at a time. Residents are already struggling to get to and from the island, particularly during the peak tourism season. How, then, can the Island possibly cope with increased demand?

Not surprisingly, Zita has already planned for that contingency. Enter, the Inn.

I’m fascinated by the concept of authenticity. Who is a real Albertan? Who is a real Newfoundlander? Here, I was exposed to people with a very strong sense of identity.Mark Clintberg, 35, one of Fogo Island’s 2013 artists in residence, is originally from Stony Plain, Alberta.

How many people live in Deep Bay today? (Nodding as he looks at each home, mentally counting residents). Eighty-two. I don’t know what’s going to happen to this place in 10 years time. Junior Heath, 59

We have been coming to Newfoundland since 1999. This is our 12th time coming to Fogo. We love it here. My wife likes to pick cloudberries. They call them bakeapples here. It reminds her of home. John Stars, retiree living in Ontario, originally from Latvia. His wife is from Norway.

Above right: Zita Cobb believes she won’t have any problem finding enough intrepid, upscale travellers to keep her Inn (shown below) open and full year-round.

Many rooms at the Inn feature working cast iron wood stoves, adding cold-weather appeal. Locally-crocheted afghans and cushioned chairs overlooking the ocean, like the one shown below, increase the cosy ambiance.


“This is your room,” says Marshall, opening the door of a modestly-dimensioned chamber that still bears the lemony scent of a not-too-distant cleanser. Tall and sturdy, he’d easily be an imposing fellow – if it wasn’t for his constant smile and gentle voice. Even so, you sense the innate strength of the man, both of mind and body.

Chrissie affirms that her gentle giant of a husband isn’t one to suffer fools lightly. And that he has zero tolerance for disrespect towards women. “It’s lucky I’m not the jealous type,” she laughs. “All the women love Marshall. They’re constantly giving him hugs.”

In the kitchen, Marshall and Chrissie point in a variety of directions. “If you get thirsty, there’s pop, juice, milk, bottled water. Here (opening a cupboard) is the tea and coffee, sugar, mugs. If you’d like a snack, we have homemade bread and tea buns, cookies. And here (opening a cupboard above the stove,) is the liquor cabinet. Sorry to run out on you like this, but we’re just about to head out for supper. You help yourself to whatever you want.”

With that, they left us alone, in their home, with Chrissie’s jewellery on a shelf in the bathroom and Marshall’s digital SLR, a Canon, next to the computer in the living room.

“Just a minute,” my husband called out. “Where’s the key to lock the door, in case we decide to go out?”

“Oh, you won’t need a key. We don’t lock doors around here.”

Zita’s no snob, but she has deliberately focused her attention on attracting a very specific clientele. Recognizing that Fogo Island doesn’t have the

infrastructure to support a sudden inf lux of thousands of visitors, she’s eschewed the strength in numbers theory. Instead, she’s angling for a significantly smaller quotient of curious, intrepid and – most importantly – well-paying travellers. Her bait is the Fogo Island Inn, a $41-million exercise in five-star superlatives: one-of-a-kind, ultra high end, thoroughly modern and environmentally hyper-conscious.

Most photos of the Inn focus on one end: a jutting appendage whose sole support seems to be an uncertain number of gangly struts. The struts are meant to mimic the spindly foundations of traditional fishing stages, but seen out of their larger context, they’re as tragically unappealing as a fish out of water. Most photos, therefore, are an injustice.

You’ll need to step back, wayyyy back, to take it all in. In fact, you should retreat all the way back to the main road in Joe Batt’s

Arm. Here, the first thing you’ll see is a small wooden shack next to a gravel parking lot. Beyond that is a well-kept though unpaved laneway gently meandering uphill to the Inn. You can either enjoy the five-minute walk, or one of the Inn’s drivers can shuttle you in their trademark white SUV to the front door, but you can’t park your car next to the Inn itself. According to the shuttle driver, the lack of Inn-side parking ensures there aren’t any vehicles to distract guests from appreciating the natural surroundings. Whether it’s intentional or not, the deliberately long transition reinforces the notion

that this is no ordinary journey. Inside, you may initially be underwhelmed by the lack of

ornamentation. Don’t be. Instead, give yourself time to absorb the subtle details: the mellow patina of natural hardwood, the textured slats of the whitewashed walls, the perfect curve of a handcrafted rocker, the cushioned comfort of a knitted footrest, the gentle aesthetic of locally-designed custom wallpaper. It’s only

How much economic renewaldoes $63.4 million buy?

Capital costs (in millions)Fogo Island Inn and related infrastructure $41.1Artist studios $2.085Restoration of heritage homes, churches and other buildings $1.936Buildings, equipment, furniture and cultural assets $2.825

Non-capital costs (in millions)Programs, development, cultural and administrative duties $10.909Business assistance fund (micro-lender to business start-ups) $1Inn start-up costs $3.6

Total $63.455

Who’s paying the bills? (in millions)

Federal government (ACOA) $6.8Provincial government (Dept. of Industry, Trade & Rural Development) $7Private donors $8.2Zita Cobb $41.4

Total $63.455

As of July 31, 2013; Source: Shorefast Foundation

It’s a great plus for me. Businesses like mine are benefitting from the traffic. But regular people ask, what’s she (Zita) doing for us?Bill Miller, grocery/convenience store owner

No fella’s going to get his pension from her. Work there for 30 years? Not gonna happen.Dennis Adams, retiree

Above (L-R): Dining Inn—salt cod crab cakes with mustard pickles; P.E.I. Blue Ribbon beef with hasselback potato salad, fresh horseradish and beef marrow jus. Chef Murray McDonald changes only one or two menu items every two weeks. The regular changeover ensures cook staff are never bored, while also allowing them time to perfect each recipe.

Above: Fogo Island Inn’s daybreak tray, a pre-breakfast offering delivered to your room.

Below: The fitness facility at the Inn offers a view you’d normallyonly see from a cruise ship.

Above: Letter sent by Zita Cobb to every household on Fogo Island, offering permanent residents a complimentary night at “their” inn.


then that you’ll appreciate how the Inn’s minimalist Scandinavian architecture has been masterfully blended with traditionally-styled modern Newfoundland accents. Together, they create a living art gallery where every f loor-to-ceiling window is a frame, and every frame cradles a seasonally unique masterpiece.

Though it’s only been open since May, the Fogo Island Inn is already a media darling. It’s been lauded in London’s Financial Times and referenced in Condé Nast Traveler, applauded by German media and talked about on national news programs … the list of journalistic fans is seemingly endless. Indeed, it’s fair to say that it’s already earned a substantial percentage of its multi-million-dollar price tag in free publicity.

The hometown crowd, however, are its toughest critics.

Marshall and Chrissie grew up on Fogo Island. He opened his first business when he was in grade 10: a fry-selling teenage hangout with a ping-pong table. That’s where he and Chrissie “got together”. They married at 21.

Chrissie comes from a family of 12 children. Her father, who found year-round work as a fisherman and carpenter, died of a sudden heart attack when she was six. From then on, the family was so poor, says Chrissie, that they had “bread and tea for dinner; tea and bread for supper.”

As young adults, Marshall and Chrissie had intended to leave Fogo Island. Then Marshall became heavily involved with his church and the Lion’s Club. Now, they don’t want to go.

After 40 years of marriage, they move about their diminutive kitchen in perfect harmony. A timer sounds on cue, signalling the readiness of Chrissie’s homemade muffins, fresh from the oven to the table at the requested breakfast time of 8:00 AM.

Theirs is the longest-operating hospitality home in the area; they’ve been catering to the construction industry for at least 35 years, providing long-term stays for workers.

Do they mind having strangers in their home all the time?

“No,” says Chrissie. “We love meeting new people.”

“Besides,” adds Marshall, continuing her train of thought, “they’re never strangers for long.”

So you’re staying at the white elephant,” comments Dennis Adams, a rascally retiree who

lives across the harbour from the Inn. Dennis is most well known for having manually dismantled a pickup-sized boulder so he could shift his house – which he did, again by hand, using a block and tackle. As forthright as he is determined, he doesn’t hesitate to correct a stranger who asks for his opinion on life in Fogo.

“For starters, this is not Fogo,” he says, demonstrating the rivalry that is alive and well between communities here. “This is Joe Batt’s Arm. We live on Fogo Island.”

“

How much economic renewaldoes $63.4 million buy?

Capital costs (in millions)Fogo Island Inn and related infrastructure $41.1Artist studios $2.085Restoration of heritage homes, churches and other buildings $1.936Buildings, equipment, furniture and cultural assets $2.825

Non-capital costs (in millions)Programs, development, cultural and administrative duties $10.909Business assistance fund (micro-lender to business start-ups) $1Inn start-up costs $3.6

Total $63.455

Who’s paying the bills? (in millions)

Federal government (ACOA) $6.8Provincial government (Dept. of Industry, Trade & Rural Development) $7Private donors $8.2Zita Cobb $41.4

Total $63.455

As of July 31, 2013; Source: Shorefast Foundation

It’s a great plus for me. Businesses like mine are benefitting from the traffic. But regular people ask, what’s she (Zita) doing for us?Bill Miller, grocery/convenience store owner

No fella’s going to get his pension from her. Work there for 30 years? Not gonna happen.Dennis Adams, retiree

Above (L-R): Dining Inn—salt cod crab cakes with mustard pickles; P.E.I. Blue Ribbon beef with hasselback potato salad, fresh horseradish and beef marrow jus. Chef Murray McDonald changes only one or two menu items every two weeks. The regular changeover ensures cook staff are never bored, while also allowing them time to perfect each recipe.

Above: Fogo Island Inn’s daybreak tray, a pre-breakfast offering delivered to your room.

Below: The fitness facility at the Inn offers a view you’d normallyonly see from a cruise ship.

Above: Letter sent by Zita Cobb to every household on Fogo Island, offering permanent residents a complimentary night at “their” inn.


As for life in Fogo Island, he “loves it”. He and his wife Jeannette lived in Nova Scotia and Alberta for a time until they, like Zita, were drawn back. They don’t have any issues with Zita, Shorefast or the Inn. But they do have doubts.

“What do I think about it?” says Dennis. “No fella’s going to get his pension from her. Work there for 30 years? Not gonna happen. I don’t mind it, but it’s not going to change anything or create anything. I think it’s a waste of money, but I guess she can afford it.”

Storekeeper Bill Miller doesn’t think it’s a waste, but he does believe Zita might be overly ambitious. “I mean, who’s going to stay there? At that price?”

“That price” starts at $850 a night in high season for the least expensive room. It may be stating the obvious, but it has to be said: isn’t the Inn a bit too… rich… for Fogo Islanders?

“Of course it is,” Zita replies bluntly. “It’s not meant to be affordable for

someone who works in a fish plant and whose annual income is $20,000 a year. This Inn is here to serve those people, not tap into them.”

Here’s how it works: though operated and supported by Zita, the Inn belongs to the Shorefast Foundation and, by extension, the people of Fogo Island. Any profits that the Inn makes will go into the Shorefast Foundation, which will in turn invest that money into initiatives that continue to grow the island’s economy. But more on that in a minute.

For now, let’s get back to the subject of cost. Responding to criticism that her Inn fees are exorbitant, Zita contends that they are actually at the low end of the up-market scale. Seasoned world traveler that she is, she should know.

She further claims that the Inn is not just a good price but a bargain, particularly when you factor in the fact that it includes full board. What’s full board? It’s a daybreak tray of coffee, tea or juice and scone, delivered to your room. It’s the full multi-course fine-dining experience for breakfast, lunch and dinner (under the

oversight of one of Canada’s most exciting culinary artists, executive chef Murray McDonald). It’s afternoon tea, and use of the Inn’s sauna, cinema, library and rooftop hot tubs. It’s also complimentary shuttle services and gratuities. The only things not included are alcohol and taxes.

“Just think about that,” she says, pausing for emphasis. “One three-course meal at a gourmet restaurant can easily cost $200 for two people. Easily. Now multiply that by three times a day, and add in the cost of accommodations for a suite in a high end hotel. You’d probably pay a good bit more than what we’re charging in high season.”

Even if the guests are getting good value for their money, $850-a-night is still beyond most household budgets, not just those of Fogo Island fish plant workers. Where does Zita think she’s going to find enough well-heeled people to fill her Inn’s 29 rooms, year-round? “They’re everywhere,” she says, seemingly astounded by the question. “Some of our earliest guests were from here, in our own province.”

The Shorefast Foundation is playing a significant role in Fogo Island’s improved economy by creating new jobs. Young people are coming back.Gerard Foley, former mayor of Fogo Island

Above: Close-up of hooked art on the second floor of the Inn, crafted by local artisan Lillian Dwyer.Below (L-R): Carly Holmes (14), Alisha Snow (12) and Chris Payne (13). All three assume they’ll probably have to leave Fogo Island for work when they’re finished school. Bottom (L-R): Chrissie and Marshall Oake, proprietors of Brimstone Head B&B.

Above: Flip back the corner of a quilt at the Inn. You’ll find the name of the local artisan who made it and the date it was completed.Below: Zita’s vision in a single image: icons of yesteryear in the foreground with the futuristic Inn playing a strong supporting role in the background.

I don’t have an opinion on what Shorefast is doing. It doesn’t have any impact on me.Emeline Combden, 30-year fish plant employee


What about the remote location and the difficulty of getting to Fogo Island? Won’t that deter most people from making the trip? “How can you even ask that? We’re a 45-minute ferry ride and a one-hour drive from an international airport. Some of the best inns in the world are way more remote than us. It takes a day to get to Florida from here and you never hear anyone complaining about that.”

Price and accessibility aside, does she seriously believe that the Inn (however stellar it is) and underpopulated Fogo Island are exotic enough to compete with destinations like Patagonia or San Sebastian? It’s this question, touching on the insecurity which infects so many rural places – the feeling that if it’s local, it’s not good enough – that really gets Zita’s blood boiling.

“That,” she says, giving precedence to the gingery tendencies of her strawberry blond hair, “is the thing that amazes me most about Newfoundlanders and we’ve done it for over 500 freaking years. We cannot see the value of what we have. We’ll give it away and mumble and grumble and be crooked with each other instead of saying, ‘Hey, we’ve got something. Let’s present it in a way that’s accessible to the people of the world.’ Why can’t we be a model for other places that are trying to find their way in modernity?”

Being a model, however, implies a measurable degree of success. There’s no doubt Zita has made a sizeable investment in Fogo Island. But how much value is she getting in return?

• • •“Give me a call when you want to come home, even if

it’s three o’clock in the morning. I’ll come get you. I’ll bring Chrissie too. She can drive your car back, so it’s here for you when you wake up.”

This from Marshall. It’s mid-afternoon and he’s been up since daylight, first helping to prepare breakfast, then driving two guests to the ferry before coming back to clean up, wash laundry and prepare for the next round of visitors. Following that, he joined Chrissie at the Lion’s Club. They had volunteered to prepare a traditional Newfoundland dinner for 50 people. The next day promised to be just as hectic. Chrissie had to be at Bill Miller’s store early in the morning (Bill’s wife was sick and Chrissie had agreed to help out). Both Chrissie and Marshall had been up late the night before, entertaining us and their other guests. They’d had less than five hours sleep, worked relentlessly all day and were now offering complimentary taxi services – in the middle of the night.

“Zita’s place has a long way to go to measure up to you two,” I say, meaning it.

The last thing I do before we leave is give Marshall and Chrissie a hug. When you find a treasure, it’s only natural that you want to hold on to it.

The Shorefast Foundation is playing a significant role in Fogo Island’s improved economy by creating new jobs. Young people are coming back.Gerard Foley, former mayor of Fogo Island

Above: Close-up of hooked art on the second floor of the Inn, crafted by local artisan Lillian Dwyer.Below (L-R): Carly Holmes (14), Alisha Snow (12) and Chris Payne (13). All three assume they’ll probably have to leave Fogo Island for work when they’re finished school. Bottom (L-R): Chrissie and Marshall Oake, proprietors of Brimstone Head B&B.

Above: Flip back the corner of a quilt at the Inn. You’ll find the name of the local artisan who made it and the date it was completed.Below: Zita’s vision in a single image: icons of yesteryear in the foreground with the futuristic Inn playing a strong supporting role in the background.

I don’t have an opinion on what Shorefast is doing. It doesn’t have any impact on me.Emeline Combden, 30-year fish plant employee


If the standard economic metrics of industrial diversification, population and employment are any indication,

the ROI to date for Shorefast’s $63.5 million seems, well, disappointing.

Despite eight years of concentrated effort, the fishery continues to be the biggest employer here, with the average age of employees at the Fogo Island Co-op hovering around the mid-50 mark. Nor are there enough of them. The same shift of workers is shared between two fish processing plants, one in Fogo and the other in Joe Batt’s Arm. And with only a couple of the 30-person shift in their 20s, the prospects aren’t promising for replacement workers when the senior crew retires.

Fogo Island’s population has been stagnant for the last five years, moving neither significantly above nor below the 2,500 mark for year-round residents. Predictably, school enrolment is in a similar holding pattern with 275 children registered for kindergarten through to grade 12 – comparable to what it’s been since at least 2005.

Informal discussions with both parents and teens around the island show a decided lack of faith in a Fogo Island-based future. Carly Holmes, 14, fully expects she’ll move away when she finishes high school. Alisha Snow, 12, is an aspiring nurse who hopes she doesn’t have to move and Chris Payne, 13, says he’d stay if there was enough work for him here, though he doubts that’ll happen. Meanwhile, Jane (not her real name) is doing everything she can to encourage her two teenaged sons to leave. “There’s nothing here for them. Yes, Zita has created some jobs that are keeping some people here. But there’s no future for my boys in that.”

At this point, you’re probably thinking that the pundits were right: the people of Fogo Island might have been better off if they’d been given the means to abandon ship. Still, there are signs of a turnaround, if you know where to look for them.

Look again at the population numbers: with the Island’s aging demographic, those figures should be in a natural decline. But the population isn’t dropping and school enrolment is stable, signs of the number of new people coming to live on Fogo Island: people like Amanda Stephen, Jacob Luksic and Bryan Pollett. Amanda is originally from Stephenville, N.L.; Jacob, from Brantford, O.N., is here by way of the Vancouver Fairmont; and Bryan, who also worked at the Fairmont, is originally from France. They are all young professionals, lured to Fogo Island by its world-famous Inn.

“There are excellent opportunities here for young people,” asserts Pauline Payne, the Inn’s operations coordinator. She lived and

worked away from Fogo Island for 22 years, but was able to return because of the Inn. It has since become a family employer. Payne’s husband, Mark Fiset, works in maintenance; daughter Chloe, 13, is a tour guide; and son Sebastian, 12, is a dishwasher. “He begged for the job,” she explains. “He wants to be a chef.” Obviously a fan, she says that the Inn is a life-changing opportunity for the young people who work there. “It’s a chance for them to have a career, not just a job, on Fogo Island.”

Beyond the Inn, there are at least 10 other accommodation options on the island, a number of which opened during the last six years to meet the demand created by Shorefast. Former mayor Gerard Foley reports that there are approximately 65 businesses on the island (an average of one for every 39 residents). He also notes that the Town is proactively planning for new land use and increasing residential needs, a sign of confidence in the island’s “bright future.”

Then there’s the volume of ferry traffic: long lines and stranded passengers may be inconvenient, but they are also reliable indicators of rising visitation.

And let’s not forget the burgeoning cottage industries springing up around the furniture, textile and craft industries: there’s already a backlog of orders from Inn guests who want to buy the items they find in their room, proof that Fogo Island-made products are valuable must-haves.

That’s all in addition to the direct benefits from Shorefast itself: 350 direct person-years of employment; more than $12 million contributed to government coffers through taxation; 100 new, permanent full-time jobs in the arts, hospitality and cultural sectors; and a workforce with an average age between 35 and 40 years.

Many people seem to think that the Fogo Island Inn is the culmination of Shorefast’s activities. Instead, says Zita, it’s only the beginning. Plans are already in place for a “dynamically reconfigurable performance space,” and a recording studio, and a geologist in residence program, and… and…

And, realistically speaking, it’s still too early to tell if Zita’s vision, determination and pocketbook have been enough to ensure Fogo Island’s safe passage into modernity. For better and worse, its future will indeed continue to look much like its past. | ABM

Visit us online for more Fogo Island photos.

zitaʼs missionary zeal - atlantic business magazinezitaʼs missionary zeal since 2005, the...

Documents