Fermont was founded as a company town when they opened the Mont Wright mine and most homes were under the ownership of the company (Québec Cartier back then, now ArcelorMittal).

Take this with a grain of salt, but I believe a big percentage of the habitations still are under their ownership. A lot of split houses were built in the last 10 years and if you work for the company and accept to transfer to Fermont, they offer you to live in the house for cheaper and offers you to buy it for a reasonable price after a few years.

It is a small compact town, but as soon as you leave, you're in the wilderness. It's paradise.

Pardon my poor English, it isn't my first language.

I've worked many years in the mining industry where I had to stay both in Fermont and inside workers camps on the mine itself (Mont-Wright). I went back during the summer of 2021 during my vacations to reminisce the good old days. Here is a video that shows older footages from inside "Le Mur", but it still looks the same to this day, minus the fact that most stores has since been closed.

This structure is hosting a lot of apartments, a grocery store, a school, a medical clinic that I believe is only accessible from outside (You sometimes see people wearing pajamas at the grocery store or inside "The Wall" itself), a small bar with erotic dancers (La Fer-Tek), an ice rink and much more. I'd return live there in a heartbeat if I had the opportunity.

Here are a video showing older footage followed by a video clip recorded in Fermont. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wQWQqVp8v6w https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mI9R2H_KkQk

Thank you!

The first video shows the inside of an apartment at time 5:40, https://youtu.be/wQWQqVp8v6w?t=340 . It has plenty of natural light, with windows on two sides. Nice!

What did you like about life in Fermont? What were the downsides for you?

Thank you for the questions! As a nature kind of person, Fermont had everything I was seeking; Plenty of forest, the ability to hunt, trap, fish almost anywhere, a lot of snow during the winter, the Northern lights, the fauna and much more. It IS the place for outdoor activities. If you ever drive on the 389, I recommend you check out the Mont Groulx. [1] https://fr.wikipedia.org/wiki/Monts_Groulx The infamous Manic 5 hydroelectric water dam is on that road. Bring a camera, don't be scared to enter the trails near rivers and lakes, you won't regret it. [2] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Daniel-Johnson_dam

You are close to Labrador City in case you need to take a flight, the salaries were insanely good in my field, the inhabitants were really friendly and always ready to help no matter what.

On the downside, I would say that other than going in Newfoundland for errands, you are really far away from any other town and the more importantly, the sea (I'm from a fisherman village). Other than that, it does get really cold during winter. I've personally witnessed -63C on an iron mine, but fortunately, the humidity level is really low (it's dry).

Cheers from the Great White North!

Sadly looks like it’s dying out?

All those shops shut and bowling alleys etc closed down.

Really sad.

Surely not amazons fault out there! Is the work drying up?

I do not believe Fermont is dying out, but it's flame has reduced considerably.

The economy over there is mostly driven by the price of iron which has ups and downs. The future is never certain.

Also, a lot of workers are doing fly-in fly-out contracts (mostly 7, 14 or 21 days in a row) hence the decline in population. It does have a toll on the local business and I'll add my grain of salt by saying that Fermont mostly had essential stores with the exception of a few non-essential ones which has mostly died since.

Furthermore, most people drive ~20-30 minutes to reach Labrador City and buy what they need from the multiple stores you can find (Walmart, Canadian Tire, etc). As for Amazon, I'm confident it's been used by many people and has an impact, but I personally doubt they could've have found these items locally if all these closed stores were still open.