The last goodbye: As Tilt Cove, Newfoundland dissolves, a broader story of small-town Canada unfolds

The rise and fall of Tilt Cove

Founded in the mid-1800s, Tilt Cove thrived thanks to its copper mine. At its height, more than 1,500 people called the town home. It boasted amenities that many larger towns would envy: A curling rink, a bowling alley, a recreation hall and a mining company that turned the town’s frozen lake into a winter skating rink topped with a massive Christmas tree.

“We had it all, really,” Collette Barthe, who moved to Tilt Cove with her family at age five told The Star. “I still miss the place. I miss the people. They were more than neighbours, they were family.”

But when the mine shut down for good in 1967, Tilt Cove began its slow decline. The population dropped from hundreds to dozens, then from dozens to four. In 2023, the final residents accepted the Newfoundland and Labrador government’s resettlement offer of $250,000 to $270,000 per homeowner. By March 2025, the last families had left, taking with them over a century of shared memories.

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A pattern of decline across Canada

Tilt Cove is not alone. In recent years, several other Newfoundland communities, including Little Bay Islands, William’s Harbour and Grand Bruit have also voted to resettle. In each case, the closures followed the loss of core industries such as cod fishing or crab processing. In some communities, the decision to leave was almost unanimous. In others, it was wrenching.

“I still remember the community barbecues and Labour Day parades,” Barthe said. “In the winter, they’d light the lake. It was magic.”

These closures are not limited to Newfoundland. Across Canada, rural towns are confronting harsh economic realities. In Uranium City, Saskatchewan, the closure of a uranium mine in 1982 led to a mass exodus, shrinking the town from over 2,000 residents to just a few dozen. In British Columbia and northern Ontario, forestry towns are facing similar fates.

While provincial governments offer relocation programs, often with six-figure payouts, they can’t compensate for the emotional loss of a place that once felt like home.

Some towns adapt and thrive

Yet, not every story ends in departure. Across Canada, some small towns are charting a different path, finding ways to survive, and even thrive, by diversifying their economies and investing in community resilience.

One example is Fogo Island, Newfoundland, where a struggling outport reinvented itself as a global arts and tourism destination. The Shorefast Foundation helped fund the Fogo Island Inn and launched programs that supported local crafts, ecology and entrepreneurship. Today, the town is not only surviving but attracting international attention.

Similarly, places like Tumbler Ridge, B.C., and Neepawa, Manitoba, have found new economic lifelines in tourism, paleontology and immigration. By embracing innovation and partnering with local and global stakeholders, these towns have resisted the fate of places such as Tilt Cove.

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The cost of staying, and of leaving

For many in remote communities, staying is no longer financially viable. The cost of basic necessities in some northern and isolated areas can be two to three times higher than the national average, due to transportation challenges, limited access to supply chains and infrastructure gaps.

According to data from the Government of Canada’s Nutrition North program, a litre of milk in some remote communities can exceed $14, while fresh produce and juice often come with similarly inflated price tags. Combined with scarce employment opportunities, these high living costs are pushing residents to relocate in search of stability and sustainability.

For others, leaving behind their community means more than finding a new place to live. It’s a grieving process.

Even decades after moving away, Shirley Severance still returns to Tilt Cove to visit the family home. The roof has collapsed, and the front steps are broken, but she continues to walk the familiar paths, up to the cemetery in the hills where her great-grandparents are buried.

What’s next for rural Canada?

The story of Tilt Cove is a quiet elegy for a way of life that is vanishing in many parts of the country. But it’s also a call to action for governments, investors and communities themselves to find new ways to support the viability of rural living.

Economic diversification, infrastructure investment and support for remote services will be crucial. But so too will be preserving the deep human connections that make these communities more than just dots on a map.

Because as Debbie Severance-Simms, Shirley’s daughter, puts it: “It still feels good to go back.”

Tilt Cove may now stand empty, but its story is one of resilience and a testament to the strength of small communities facing change with courage, memory and grace.

Sources

1. Toronto Star: As ‘smallest town in Canada’ empties out, former residents recall its vibrant past (May 22, 2025)

2. Government of Canada: Nutrition North Canada