A small Cape Breton community is celebrating after the last scraps of a rusting shipwreck were finally hauled from the shores of Scatarie Island, N.S.

"I'm just closing my eyes and picturing that part of Scatarie back to health, and power and beauty as it was before. We did it," said community advocate Sean Howard.

The MV Miner bulk carrier was being pulled by a tugboat past the island in 2011, on its way to be scrapped in Turkey. But bad weather snapped the towline, causing the 12,000-tonne ship to run aground in shallow waters off Scatarie Island, a designated wilderness area.

Since then, residents of nearby Main-a-Dieu have lobbied the provincial and federal governments to take responsibility for removing the wreckage, which held large amounts of fuel and waste oil.

Stephen Harper’s Conservative government refused to pay for the cleanup, and Nova Scotia’s former NDP government commissioned a salvage mission that stalled in 2012.

The project was restarted in 2014 under Nova Scotia’s newly-elected Liberal government, which spent $14 million to remove the rest of the ship’s 223-metre hulk.

"This vessel was a concern from environmental, from safety, from economic (perspectives),” said Nova Scotia Transportation Minister Geoff MacLellan. “It just didn't belong on the shores of Scatarie."

It’s big news for the community's 400 residents, who had raised concerns about the well-being of nearby fishing waters.

"We can sit back and say, 'We did it.' Every time we heard no, every time a door was closed in our faces, we didn't give up," said Amanda McDougall, president of the Main-a-Dieu Community Development Association.

Some in the community are optimistic that Justin Trudeau’s new Liberal government could help foot some of the bill.

"We're not going to stop until we get a cost-sharing agreement with the federal government," said Howard.

The four-year cleanup was plagued by several snags along the way. In May, a small amount of oil leaked into the water as crews collected 800 litres from inside the ship. Earlier, asbestos was discovered inside hull.

MacLellan, who unsuccessfully lobbied the previous federal government for funds, insists that removing the MV Miner was the right thing to do.

“It doesn't matter what coastline you're on in this country, we can't have vessels that are unprotected, uninsured… landing on coastlines and being left to rot," MacLellan said.

With files from CTV Atlantic