The group eked out a small victory when Ayar returned on a short-term contract. We want this platform to be used to show him our love and respect and our desire to have him back in our community,” wrote resident Kenneth Kavanagh. “We do not want to trick, charm or hoodwink Dr Ayar into returning to Bell Island. In a the film, the villagers of Tickle Head work hard to lure a doctor to settle in the community by putting on fake games of cricket and leaving money at the wharf.Īfter their physician left in 2021, residents of another outpost, Bell Island, tried to take matters into their own hands, launching the Bell Island Grand Seduction Facebook page, pleading with the region’s health authority to send Dr Firas Ayar back to the community. The lack of doctors has become emblematic of this plight, even inspiring the 2013 Canadian comedy The Grand Seduction. Among the hardest hit by the exodus were the smallest settlements, known as outport communities.

In the recent national census, Newfoundland and Labrador was the only province in the country to see its population drop since 2016 and has struggled to retain the immigrants that arrive in the region. This didn’t happen overnight.”Įver since its cod fishery collapsed in the early 1990s, the province of Newfoundland and Labrador has struggled to regain economic momentum.īut the province is also battling a demographic crisis, with deaths outnumbering births and an exodus of residents. “This is something that’s been a long time coming. “When you consider it’s the first time since 1792 that they’ve been without a resident doctor, it leaves you gobsmacked and really hits home that there’s something bigger happening,” said Paddy Daly, host of the popular Newfoundland-based radio show Open Line. A more detailed map on the right shows Newfoundland with Fogo Island and Bell Island highlighted in red on its eastern shores. The one on the left shows eastern Canada and the US with Newfoundland and Labrador labelled.

Paddy by R.D. Lawrence