When a small town loses its main employer, the shock runs deep. Picture a coastal community of about 9,000 people whose harbour has revolved for decades around a single fish-processing plant. This spring, the owners of that plant, Cape Marsh Seafoods in Newfoundland, announced automated lines and cut their workforce from 800 to 350. The 450 people losing their shifts were each offered three options: a transfer, an early pension, or a one-time payout. Roughly 100 agreed to transfer to the company's larger plant up the coast. Another 160, mostly older hands who had built up enough years of service, are leaning toward the early pension. The remainder were offered a payout worth about eight months' wages, though to many it holds little appeal once they realize the government will claw back close to 40 percent. The others have yet to decide. Out of concern for the harbour, the town council has opened a job-support office.

Marie Doucette is blunt about it. She and her husband had counted on another five good years on the line, and, sure their jobs were safe, had not been putting much aside. Relocating is off the table, she says: rents near the company's other plant are far steeper, so the family would only end up sinking back into debt. "They call it three choices," she says, "but at this time of life not one of them really adds up for us."