Chap/er Five 83 
     
    
   
   
    
       
     
    
   
   
    
     federal funds, among other reasons, slowed further 
     
     development to a near standstill, some of its best projects 
     
     survived, and the Acadians themselves were in a position 
     
     to play an active part in the celebrations commemorating 
     
     Tignish’s bicentennial. 
     
    
   
   
    
       
     
    
   
   
    
     ”The Development Plan began with the idea that 
     
     new efforts were needed to make certain all Prince 
     
     Edward Islanders would have the opportunity to have a 
     
     good standard of living,” says the introduction to a 
     
     booklet detailing the various programmes available 
     
     during the Plan’s fifth year of operation. ”The Federal 
     
     Government is providing 225 million dollars to the 
     
     Province to be used during the next fifteen years to help 
     
     us meet this goal.” Of the thirty—five programmes in 
     
     question, the ones having the most impact on the Tignish 
     
     area were those concerned with Primary and Secondary 
     
     Education, Community Development, and the Regional 
     
     Services Centre. Another, entitled ”Credit and Resource 
     
     Industries”, was responsible for revitalizing the Credit 
     
     Union movement across the Island. lt was not needed in 
     
     Tignish, as Tignish Credit Union was large enough, both 
     
     in members and assets, to be doing well without the need 
     
     of special funding or consolidation with one or more other 
     
     credit unions. 
     
    
   
   
    
     Throughout the Island, the Primary and Secondary 
     
     Education programme began with the consolidation of 
     
     rural schools into fairly large ones in the nearest centre. 
     
     In Tignish, this was the Dalton School and an ever- 
     
     increasing number of portable classrooms. The impact 
     
     of this was considerable. First of all, it took children out 
     
     of their own communities from the age of six and