In October 2019, the Harris Centre completed the first workshop in Marystown for the Thriving Regions Partnership Process. Workshop participants developed nine broader themes and then selected four as their top priorities, including:

1. Realizing Our Tourism Potential
   The Burin Peninsula has a number of unique and compelling assets, including its proximity and relationship with St. Pierre & Miquelon. Building upon existing tourism assets, products and services, workshop participants see opportunities for further developing and combining these in ways to advance tourism across the region
2. Senior and Child Friendly Communities
   Healthy communities find ways of providing opportunities for people of all ages – seniors, youth, families, etc. – to engage in and contribute to community life. Workshop participants expressed desire for finding innovative, fiscally responsible approaches for meeting the needs across different age groups within the region.
3. Attraction & Retention of Workers and Families
   Similar to many rural regions in the province, the Burin Peninsula is experiencing demographic shifts and the associated challenge of meeting the staffing needs for businesses and service organizations. There is strong interest in identifying strategies for attracting new people and families, and for retaining those already in the region.
4. Ocean Health & Seafood Opportunities
   The Burin Peninsula has a long history of working with and on the sea. Building upon this tradition and existing assets, there is interest in exploring new opportunities in seafood and saltwater resources (e.g., fishery, aquaculture, kelp resources, value-add products from existing waste streams, etc.).

Further information on the discussions and identified themes can be found in the workshop’s summary report. 

A call for Expressions of Interest from the university community to do research in the region based on the priority themes was then opened, and the fund evaluation committee chose 3 projects to move forward:

• “Culture, nature and history: identifying sustainable tourism opportunities for the Burin Peninsula.” --Marie Louise Aastrup (Geography) and Simone Cominelli (Geography)
• “Protecting Atlantic Salmon Aquaculture Production from Climate-Related Challenges Through Diet Manipulation.” --Eric Ignatz (Ocean Sciences)
• “Community based sustainable and equitable employment in aquaculture on the Burin Peninsula.” --Dr. María Andrée López Gómez (Sociology) and Dr. Christine Knott (Geography)

These researchers were brought to the Burin Peninsula region on February 20th, 2020 for a second workshop where they presented on their proposed projects, received feedback and built community partnerships. A summary of this session is available here.

Due to the COVID-19 pandemic, which caused NL to enter a prolonged period of lockdown in March 2020, there were some delays in this process.

However, in November 2021, researcher Eric Ignatz presented his research, “Protecting Atlantic Salmon Aquaculture Production from Climate-Related Challenges Through Diet Manipulation,” to residents of the Burin Peninsula via Zoom. You can watch the recording of that session here.

In April 2022, Marie Louise Aastrup and Simone Cominelli introduced their initial findings, “Culture, nature and history: identifying sustainable tourism opportunities for the Burin Peninsula,” to community members via Zoom. You can watch the recording of that session here.

More information on the fund can be found here.