Since the collapse of the Newfoundland cod fishery, many of my countrymen have been illegally hoarding into Canada en masse. Is there a way that this could be avoided? A way to prevent the collapse? Maybe the 1949 vote goes the other way? Maybe improve Newfoundland's standard of living so it is on par with Canada's?
First off, the joke that probably doesn't have folks in St. John's laughing: Q: What is the largest city, by population, in Newfoundland? A: Fort McMurray, Alberta.
I can think of two options that could work:
The first is of course Newfoundland enters Confederation either in 1949 (the referendum had that as one of the options, the other being the restoration of the Dominion of Newfoundland) or earlier, like say, 1867 (with Ontario, Quebec, New Brunswick and Nova Scotia), 1870 (with British Columbia) or 1873. (With Prince Edward Island.) Doesn't stop the outflow completely, but with equalization payments similar to what the three Atlantic provinces get, the province of Newfoundland would be able to provide it's citizens with Canadian quality education and healthcare. Not to mention that things like maritime search and rescue and national defence would be the responsibility of the Federal government in Ottawa, and as such the costs would be carried by the Canadian population as a whole.
The other is simply to have the Wells government allow the development of all that undersea oil and gas. The fields being developed off of Quebec, PEI and Nova Scotia all extend into Newfoundland's territorial waters. And there is evidence that larger fields exist east and northeast of Newfoundland. But the government of the day was overly concerned about the minute risk of a spill and put a halt to all offshore drilling. That can be undone by your current government, but Newfoundland would still be 30 years behind and would miss out on a lot of the income as while you'd still get the royalites the oil refined in Halifax. If instead the drilling were to have gone ahead in the '80s, then maybe a refinery or two would have been built in St. John's instead. (That would reduce the number of refineries in the Halifax area by one or two. That would still leave at least five.) That would cut fuel prices in Newfoundland as there'd be a local source in place of the expensive imports. It would also provide a significant and stable stream of income for the government of Newfoundland. And more importantly thousands of Newfoundlanders would have stable employment directly or indirectly related to the oil industry. Well, I mean that they'd have those jobs in Newfoundland, not Alberta. Which would mean thousands of vacant positions in Alberta, and where the people who fill them come from will make things interesting there.