Economic Leakage Study for North West River [BASE Atlantic]

The Central Labrador community of North West River has been used as a congregational meeting place by nomadic fur traders for the past 3000 years(documented). The village was established as a community in 1743 by Louis Fornel when the fur trade between the Innu, Métis, Inuit and European explorers became a commercial entity. History has seen French Revillion and Freres and the Hudson's Bay Company establish North West River as an isolated center of commerce. This commerce also brought with it the International Grenfell Association’s center of health care and educational services. With the construction of a bridge in 1982 to span the north and south sides of the river, the central hospital shut its doors, throwing 80 jobs out of the community and forcing the once flourishing economy of North West River into the more central community of Happy Valley-Goose Bay. For the past 30 years this drift has continued.