Canadaville (formally Magnaville) was a small community in

Avoyelles Parish, Louisiana Avoyelles () is a parish located in central eastern Louisiana on the Red River where it effectively becomes the Atchafalaya River and meets the Mississippi River. As of the 2020 census, the population was 39,693. The parish seat is Marksvi ...

just south of the town of

Simmesport Simmesport is a town in Avoyelles Parish, Louisiana, United States. The population was 2,161 at the 2010 census. It is the northernmost town on the Atchafalaya River, located near the Old River which connects the Red and Atchafalaya rivers with ...

on Louisiana Highway 105. It was a project by Austro-Canadian industrialist

Frank Stronach Frank Stronach (born 6 September 1932) is an Austro-Canadian billionaire businessman and politician. He is the founder of Magna International, an international automotive parts company based in Aurora, Ontario, Canada, Granite Real Estate ...

to build an experimental model community for people displaced by

Hurricane Katrina Hurricane Katrina was a powerful, devastating and historic tropical cyclone that caused 1,392 fatalities and damages estimated at $125 billion in late August 2005, particularly in the city of New Orleans and its surrounding area. ...

. Canadaville occupied 3.69 square kilometres (912

acre The acre ( ) is a Unit of measurement, unit of land area used in the Imperial units, British imperial and the United States customary units#Area, United States customary systems. It is traditionally defined as the area of one Chain (unit), ch ...

s) of land near the

Atchafalaya River The Atchafalaya River () is a distributary of the Mississippi River and Red River of the South, Red River in south central Louisiana in the United States. It flows south, just west of the Mississippi River, and is the fifth largest river in N ...

and opened in early December 2005. Rather than simply providing temporary shelter to the evacuees, Stronach intended Canadaville to help its residents integrate into a long-term holistic farming community that would raise livestock and seafood to be served at

Gulfstream Park Gulfstream Park is a Thoroughbred racing, Thoroughbred horse race track, casino and outdoor entertainment and shopping destination in Hallandale Beach, Florida, Hallandale Beach, Florida, United States. It is among the most important venues for ...

Hallandale, Florida Hallandale Beach (formerly known simply as Hallandale) is a city in southern Broward County, Florida, United States. The city is named after Luther Halland, the son of a Swedish people, Swedish worker for Henry Flagler's Florida East Coast Railr ...

. The community was technically called Magnaville but the community members themselves decided that they preferred to be known as Canadaville. The 75 mobile housing units are 1,420 square feet (132 square meters) in size, and have three bedrooms and two bathrooms, air conditioning, washers, dryers, and other amenities. As former Canadian member of Parliament

Dennis Mills Dennis Joseph Mills (born July 19, 1946) is a Canadian businessman and former politician. He was a Liberal Member of Parliament for the riding of Toronto—Danforth in the east-end of downtown Toronto. From February 2012 until November 2016, ...

described it, "this is no

FEMA The Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) is an agency of the United States Department of Homeland Security (DHS), initially created under President Jimmy Carter by Presidential Reorganization Plan No. 3 of 1978 and implemented by two Exec ...

Village." Residents, which numbered over 200 by August 2006, Katrina's first anniversary, were able to stay rent-free for five years, with the requirement that (if able-bodied) they contribute to the community by learning new skills or using their existing skills. Since many of the Katrina evacuees were extremely poor and generally not well-educated, Canadaville's backers hoped that the Canadaville experience would help the evacuees gain self-reliance that they didn't have before. Stronach explained, "we would hopefully be able to put in an infrastructure whereby you would create a new life for them, a life of hope, spirit, so that they will be self-supporting and not on welfare. That's the idea." In 2007,

CTV Television Network The CTV Television Network, commonly known as CTV, is a Television in Canada, Canadian English-language terrestrial television network. Launched in 1961 and acquired by BCE Inc. in 2000, CTV is Canada's largest privately owned List of Canadian ...

(Canada) aired a documentary called "Welcome to Canadaville," showing the opposition that the Canadaville project met from some residents of its host town, Simmesport, led by the mayor. "Welcome to Canadaville" was directed by Mike Sheerin and produced by 90th Parallel Productions. Another documentary entitled "Canadaville, USA" was produced by DLI Productions. Canadaville shut down at the end of 2010 and is now known as Port of Avoyelles.

References

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External links

Columbus Dispatch story "Rural haven"

* ttps://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YrGOb_lNe8U Global TV. 16x9 Canadaville Canada–United States relations Hurricane Katrina disaster relief

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