Some other leaders agreed with Smallwood. They urged people to resettle. People felt pressure from government workers. Sometimes, they also felt pressure from priests or ministers, or others in their communities.

By 1958, resettlement was common. The word "resettlement" had come to replace the word "move" in many letters and reports. One letter from the Deputy Minister of Public Welfare to Premier Smallwood lists 19 communities people were moving from.⁶ The heading of the list is "Housing Projects." With the letter are lists of families who had moved, and the help they got in moving-bulldozers, barges, and sometimes enough public relief to tide them over while they moved.

There was much confusion over what help people could get. Many people thought that others were getting more than they were. This was another cause of bad feelings. People wrote letters to Smallwood asking for help. One man wrote that he was not able to move his house. When would the government help him get a new one? He said that since his family moved, they all had to live in a shed.⁷

Life after Resettlement

Today, there are many different accounts of resettlement. Some people did find new jobs. They settled in communities with better services. They may have felt sad about leaving the places they called home, but they had few real regrets.

Others found that the promise of a better life turned out to be an empty one. They did not find more work or better pay. Many ended up on public relief. They did not adjust easily to living in the new places. They felt that their lives had been uprooted, and they got nothing out of it.

Many stories are a mixture of the good and the bad.