As ‘smallest town in Canada’ empties out, former residents recall its vibrant past

Shirley Severance is shown standing in front of her family home in Tilt Cove, N.L., in a 2020 handout photo. THE CANADIAN PRESS

ST. JOHN’S — A Newfoundland community that bills itself as the smallest town in Canada will soon be empty, and former residents say they’ll never forget their joyful years living there.

Tilt Cove, N.L., was once home to a thriving copper mine that attracted workers and their families from all over Canada. Now the community is home to just four people, all of whom agreed earlier this year to relocate.

Shirley Severance was born in 1941 and grew up in Tilt Cove. She watched the town grow when the Maritime Mining operation reopened in 1957, and she watched it shrink again in 1967 when the mine shut down for good.

“(The company) built houses and they had a recreation centre, a curling rink and a bowling alley,” Severance said in an interview Wednesday. “There was a hall where we used to have dances. We were teenagers, and we would go there after supper and dance to the jukebox.”

“I loved it there,” Severance added. “I miss living there.”

Tilt Cove is near the southeastern tip of Newfoundland’s Baie Verte Peninsula, about 340 kilometres northwest of St. John’s. The community is spread along the shores of small circular lake framed by rocky hills and a clearing that leads to the Atlantic Ocean.

Visitors often take and share photos of the community’s sign. “Tilt Cove: Smallest town in Canada,” it says. “Population: 4.”

The copper mine opened in 1864 and operated intermittently until 1967. In the year before it closed for good, 436 people lived in the community, according to provincial statistics. By 1991, just 17 were left.

In 2023, the few remaining residents voted unanimously to take advantage of the Newfoundland and Labrador government’s community relocation policy. The program offers homeowners in towns that have voted to resettle between $250,000 and $270,000 to move away.

The province made an offer to the four permanent homeowners in Tilt Cove in January, the Department of Municipal Affairs said in an email. Residents decided on a relocation date of March 31, but a grace period was offered until their new homes are ready, the department said. Discussions are ongoing about when electricity and other services in the town will be cut off.

Collette Barthe said it’s sad the town has come to an end, but she understands that without the mine, there isn’t much reason for anybody to stay. The 76-year-old from New Brunswick moved to Tilt Cove with her family when she was five, and they lived there until she was 16.

Like Severance, Barthe recalled a vibrant social life for families and their kids. There were community barbecues and Labour Day parades, she said in an interview. In the winter, the lake would freeze over and the mining company would turn it into a skating rink and place a massive Christmas tree in its centre.

“We had it all, really,” Barthe said. “I still miss the place. I miss the people. They were more than neighbours, they were family.”

Severance left in 1974 to work in a fish processing plant in the nearby town of La Scie. She ultimately had a family of her own and moved to Nova Scotia. She now lives in Alberta, close to her daughter, Debbie Severance-Simms.

Severance-Simms said she has always been amazed at how many people she has met across the country with family ties to Tilt Cove. She was 12 when her family moved away and has been back many times to visit the family home.

The front steps are broken and the roof has fallen in, and it’s no longer safe to go inside. But it still feels good to go back, she said.

This summer, her family members from Newfoundland to British Columbia are planning to return to Tilt Cove for an afternoon picnic, Severance-Simms said. They’ll walk around the lake and down to the wharf, and they’ll walk up to the cemetery in the hills where their great-grandparents are buried.

“We were truly blessed, all of us, whoever lived in Tilt Cove,” she said. “Everyone was like a big family.”

This report by The Canadian Press was first published May 22, 2025.

Sarah Smellie, The Canadian Press