Six months ago, Tasha Robitaille and Cory Belcourt left their Ontario home, bought 40 acres of heavily forested land on New Brunswick's Kingston Peninsula and turned their lives upside-down.

And somehow, Robitaille says, nothing has ever felt more right. 

For some time, Robitaille and Belcourt had been feeling the pull of nature. They both had steady jobs, Belcourt as a plant manager and Robitaille as a business owner and doula, but they longed to spend more time outdoors. 

The births of their two daughters deepened that longing.

Then the pandemic hit, with its lockdowns and isolating restrictions, and suddenly, Robitaille said, they just knew it was time.

"Things were just getting really difficult, I was home with both girls ... and Cory was working a lot of hours. The pandemic definitely got to us so we needed to make a big change, to feel like our family was healthier and closer together."

They had a specific lifestyle in mind. They wanted to live simply, sustainably, on a sprawling plot of land and in a close-knit community.

"New Brunswick just kept popping up as an answer to all of these things," Robitaille said.

Drone footage of Robitaille's and Belcourt's property on Route 845 of the Kingston Peninsula.   (Atlantic Drone Photography)

They found a 40-acre plot of forested land on the Kingston Peninsula, near Kingston Corner and backing onto Mount Misery, and immediately knew they'd found what they were looking for.

"We made some big decisions really fast," Robitaille said. "We sold and bought a house within a span of a week, and arrived just in time to plant our garden."

They bought chickens and ducks, they hiked the trails that snaked through their property, they picked apples, they had bonfires and barbecues and spent their days outdoors with their daughters, two-year-old Nova and four-year-old Rockie.

It was like a dream, Robitaille said.

But the dream was just beginning.

                                          Cory Belcourt, seen here with his daughter, Nova, prepares for construction.                                   (Submitted by Tasha Robitaille)

Tiny-home project takes root

For years, Robitaille and Belcourt had talked about building a sustainable guest house on their property.

"It's always been a passion of mine to have something off-grid, or a tiny home, a low-footprint cabin," Robitaille said. 

• Homesteading lifestyle making a comeback in New Brunswick

Now, with 40 sprawling acres of land, much of it with spectacular views of the peninsula or Mount Misery, they realized they could expand their "tiny" plan.

They discussed building a handful of cabins to rent out to people who wanted to experience homesteading and a completely off-grid lifestyle in the woods.

At that point, Robitaille said, they committed to going all in.

Their trail hikes took on a new purpose: scouting out the perfect tiny-cabin sites.

Robitaille and Belcourt hiked the property's trails, scouting out the perfect sites for each of the five cabins. (Submitted by Tasha Robitaille)

"We followed our instincts," Robitaille said.

"We did a lot of walking and we just tried to instinctively find a ... really safe, cozy and beautiful spot in the forest. And then we went to work and created off-trails to those five cabins that are all private from each other."  

Construction begins

Belcourt began clearing the sites, and they ordered five European pine cabin kits, each cabin measuring 108 square feet with a seven-foot loft bedroom.

In October, construction began. By late December, all five cabins were completed and the project was christened: La Belle Cabane, a reflection of the fact that the couple are francophones. Three of the cabins are now available for rent at labellecabane.com.

• Once shrinking Maritimes led Canada in population growth this summer 

The cabins are heated with woodstoves, the lights are solar-powered, the cooking is done on a fire grill. The bathroom is an outhouse, and a community herb and vegetable garden and free-range chickens provide a daily supply of fresh produce and eggs.

To Robitaille, it felt right in her bones.

     A loft bedroom in one of the cabins. (Shannon Park photo)

Robitaille said she and Belcourt, both of whom are Métis from Ontario, grew up listening to the stories of their fur-trading forebears, people who lived off-grid before there was a word for it.

"We've heard a lot of stories of our ancestors that lived in these little cabins," she said.

"Everyone would be close-knit, sharing each other's hobbies and cooking together and all of that good stuff."  

The cabins seemed like they'd have been right at home in those adventures, Robitaille said.

Drone footage of one of the five tiny-home cabins, The Coyote, nestled in the woods of the Kingston Peninsula. (Atlantic Drone Photography)

Homage to Indigenous roots

The couple's Métis roots have been woven into many layers of the La Belle Cabane project.

"That's really important to us," Robitaille said.

"So we provide medicines in the cabins, the cabins are named very intentionally in line with our medicine wheel."

As well, each of the cabins – the Eagle, the Coyote, the Bear, the Elk and the Turtle – feature local Indigenous art and decor.  

The goal is to blend the interior, the exterior, the setting, and above all, the experience, in a way that opens visitors' eyes to the possibilities Robitaille and Belcourt found in their new home.  

"We wanted to find freedom in the forest," Robitaille said.

"That's one of the main reasons we moved to New Brunswick, was to have more freedom with our family and our lives and our kids. And that's what we hope other people will find here as well." 

Cory Belcourt and Tasha Robitaille. (Shannon Park photo)

"I'd say 95 per cent of the buyers that I've had this year have been from Ontario," said Burrell.

"People are going on Facebook and searching 'moving to New Brunswick', or they're doing the same thing on Instagram, and asking questions about what is, you know, what's life like there if I want to move my family there?"

The sudden attraction to life in Eastern Canada has been an ongoing and potentially transformational side-effect of the COVID-19 pandemic for New Brunswick.  

Fuelled by a swell in immigration and a parade of Canadians moving east, the Maritime provinces have been flooded with years' worth of newcomers in a matter of months.

Hayley Burrell moved to New Brunswick from London, Ont., at the beginning of the pandemic, and as a real estate agent says most of her clients in 2021 were people moving from out of province just like her. 'No regrets at all,' she says of the experience. (Facebook)

Just before Christmas, Statistics Canada reported that over July, August and September the three Maritime provinces added a combined 13,470 people. That made the once shrinking region the fastest growing part of Canada during the summer, ahead of British Columbia.

Individually, Prince Edward Island was the fastest growing jurisdiction, but all three Maritime provinces were among Canada's top four growth spots, according to Statistics Canada analyst Stacey Hallman.

"P.E.I., Nova Scotia, B.C. and New Brunswick are the four," she said.

New Brunswick's share of this summer's population growth surge was 5,075. It's the largest increase in one quarter in New Brunswick since the 1970s, and in just 92 days equalled the province's entire population growth over 16 years, between 1996 and 2012.

Added to more than 8,000 people gained earlier in the pandemic, New Brunswick's population is suddenly up to 794,300.   

It's a number that gloomy demographic projections just two years ago suggested the province might never reach, and even the most optimistic models did not see coming for several years.

The average price of houses sold in New Brunswick in November was the cheapest in Canada at $253,009, according to the Canadian Real Estate Association.  The average price in Ontario was $931,324. (Mark Blinch/Reuters)

It's a stunning development in a province that has been fretting for decades about its stagnant population growth. 

In August 2019, just months before the beginning of the pandemic, the New Brunswick government announced revamped plans to try to boost the attraction of newcomers to rescue the province from pending labour shortages caused by retiring baby boomers.

"Population growth is crucial to the future success of our province," said Post-Secondary Education, Training and Labour Minister Trevor Holder.  

"The attraction and retention of new Canadians is critical to helping us increase our province's population and meet the needs of our employers."

The effort was launched at about the same time Statistics Canada constructed nine population projections for New Brunswick out to 2043 based on a variety of different scenarios.

None of the projections foresaw New Brunswick reaching 794,300 people before 2024. Six of the nine did not see it happening at all in 2043, and one projection saw the province shrinking by 35,000 people over 25 years.

It's a possibility the province took seriously and felt international immigration was the best chance to avoid. The idea thousands of Canadians would spontaneously begin moving to the region was not seriously considered.

The New Brunswick government is hoping thousands of newcomers will help replace aging baby boomers in the province's workforce. (Laura Meader/CBC)

In the first 15 years of the 2000s, New Brunswick lost a net average of 1,500 people per year to other provinces, including a high of 3,240 in 2014. Turning that flow in the opposite direction has always been a hope but not something the government formally planned on as a solution to its population troubles.

But it has happened anyway.

Boasting Canada's cheapest house prices, New Brunswick began showing up in the search engines of thousands looking for some space and a place to plant roots they could afford.

Burrell said her own decision to sell her home in London, Ont., and come to New Brunswick was driven by an internet search for a better work and home life balance. Most of the people who are buying homes through her tell a similar story.

"It's more affordable. They're looking for a different pace of life," Burrell said.

Jordan and Jess Owens, with their daughter Irie, were one of the first Ontario couples to land in New Brunswick during the pandemic. They hunted online for a house they could buy for under $100,000 and landed in Saint John. (CBC News/Graham Thompson )

Since the beginning of 2020, that pull has been strong. New Brunswick has had a net gain of 6,900 people from other provinces, with over half of those gains coming from Ontario.

Burrell said it is not a trouble-free transition for everyone. A few have run into problems accessing health care, including finding a family doctor, but she has heard few complaints beyond that.

 "It's still overwhelmingly people saying that they don't regret the move, and they're happy they made the decision," she said. "Overwhelmingly.

"We've been back to Ontario to visit twice. And it's wonderful to see family and friends, but we can't wait to get back to New Brunswick both times that we've come. No regrets at all. It was the best thing we could have done for ourselves."