Port Hope Simpson is a town located on the southeastern

Labrador , nickname = "The Big Land" , etymology = , subdivision_type = Country , subdivision_name = Canada , subdivision_type1 = Province , subdivision_name1 ...

coast, from the

Quebec Quebec ( ; )According to the Canadian government, ''Québec'' (with the acute accent) is the official name in Canadian French and ''Quebec'' (without the accent) is the province's official name in Canadian English is one of the thirtee ...

/Southern Labrador border in

Canada Canada is a country in North America. Its ten provinces and three territories extend from the Atlantic Ocean to the Pacific Ocean and northward into the Arctic Ocean, covering over , making it the world's second-largest country by tot ...

. It was founded in 1934 as a company town. With the completion of the

Trans-Labrador Highway The Trans-Labrador Highway (TLH) is a highway located in the province of Newfoundland and Labrador, Canada. It is the primary public road in Labrador. Its total length is . The complete paving of the highway was completed in July 2022. The ...

that crosses the region, the town has benefitted from an increase in tourism. The nearby Shinneys Water Complex has of over 1,000 islands rising dramatically above sea level. These protected waters are ideal for all types of boating and the adjoining

Alexis River Alexis may refer to: People Mononym * Alexis (poet) ( – ), a Greek comic poet * Alexis (sculptor), an ancient Greek artist who lived around the 3rd or 4th century BC * Alexis (singer) (born 1968), German pop singer * Alexis (comics) (1946–1977 ...

is a popular fishing destination for Atlantic salmon.

History

When the Labrador Development Company left in 1948, paid work in the woods left with it until

Bowater Bowater Inc. was a paper and pulp business headquartered in Greenville, South Carolina. It merged with Abitibi-Consolidated in 2007, and the combined company went on to become Resolute Forest Products. History The North American assets of Bow ...

arrived 14 years later. The first post office was established on October 21, 1950. The first postmaster was Hayward Green. At the time, the population was 311. New economic activity took place between 1962 and 1968 as Bowater picked up the pioneering venture laid down by John Osborn Williams, Sir

John Hope Simpson Sir John Hope Simpson OBJ (23 July 1868 – 10 April 1961) was a British Liberal politician who served as a Member of Parliament in the United Kingdom and later in the Government of the Dominion of Newfoundland. Hope Simpson was born in We ...

and the Labrador Development Company. More trees were felled for their pulp and paper mills at Corner Brook, and in

Kent Kent is a county in South East England and one of the home counties. It borders Greater London to the north-west, Surrey to the west and East Sussex to the south-west, and Essex to the north across the estuary of the River Thames; it faces ...

, England. Bowater brought benefits of regular paid employment (though seasonal), of forest roads and the government contributed by sharing the cost of building a new wharf. But apart from the post office, the general store and the two schools there was no all-year-round paid employment from 1969 to 1970. From 1970 to 1992 cod and salmon fishing was the economic mainstay of the area but unemployment prevailed most of the year. In 1992 the cod fishery was closed down altogether. However, many local fishermen made a relatively easy transition into crab, shrimp and

scallop fishing Scallop () is a common name that encompasses various species of Marine (ocean), marine bivalve mollusc, mollusks in the Taxonomy (biology), taxonomic Family (biology), family Pectinidae, the scallops. However, the common name "scallop" is also s ...

. Government funding for the construction works of the

, the Port Hope Simpson bridge and the

Port Hope Simpson Airport Port Hope Simpson Airport is south of Port Hope Simpson, Newfoundland and Labrador, Canada. As of March 2017, Port Hope is not listed as a scheduled destination in the Air Labrador Labrador Airways Limited, operating as Air Labrador, was a r ...

has increased the town's accessibility as a tourist destination on the Labrador coast. From the early 1990s on, Port Hope Simpson's fishing, logging, timber products, transportation, retail and public services,

tourist Tourism is travel for pleasure or business; also the theory and practice of touring (disambiguation), touring, the business of attracting, accommodating, and entertaining tourists, and the business of operating tour (disambiguation), tours. Th ...

facilities and amenities have contributed to the

sustainable growth Sustainable development is an organizing principle for meeting human development goals while also sustaining the ability of natural systems to provide the natural resources and ecosystem services on which the economy and society depend. The desi ...

of the town. The town previously served as a ferry port for the nearby town of

William's Harbour William's Harbour is a former local service district and designated place in the Canadian province of Newfoundland and Labrador. The community was entirely resettled in 2017. The settlement was part of the NunatuKavut territory. History A fi ...

. William's Harbour was entirely resettled in 2017. The town has a small air-strip,

. As of March 2017, Port Hope is not listed as a scheduled destination in the Air Labrador flight schedule.

Demographics

In the

2021 Census of Population The 2021 Canadian census was a detailed enumeration of the Canadian population with a reference date of May 11, 2021. It follows the 2016 Canadian census, which recorded a population of 35,151,728. The overall response rate was 98%, which is sli ...

conducted by Statistics Canada, Port Hope Simpson had a population of living in of its total private dwellings, a change of from its 2016 population of . With a land area of , it had a population density of in 2021.

References

External links

Southeastern Aurora Development Corporation 2002

Alexis Bay HistoryCanadian StatisticsOur Labrador...Yours to Explore, Smart Labrador and Combined Councils of Labrador 1995

Labrador Coastal DrivePort Hope Simpson - Encyclopedia of Newfoundland and Labrador, vol. 4, p. 395-396.
{{Subdivisions of Newfoundland and Labrador, towns=yes, ICG=yes Populated coastal places in Canada Populated places in Labrador Towns in Newfoundland and Labrador