"It's a little tense right now." Stories of communities in flux

Now or Never

If your community was changing, what would you do about it? Today we're stepping into four different communities across Canada on the cusp of big change, and how they're grappling with this question: How do you adapt to what's coming, while still holding onto what matters to you?

The Canadian border town of St. Stephen, N.B. has had a beautiful relationship with its American neighbours in Calais, Maine for more than a hundred years. But tough tariffs talks have both sides feeling like they're stuck in a breakup that nobody wants. St. Stephen mayor Allan MacEachern and resident Tracey Matheson describe the strain of when the political and the personal collide.

Charles Reeves gives us a tour of A Better Tent City, a sanctioned tiny home community in Kitchener for people experiencing homelessness, that is fighting to keep going.

Old Order Mennonite, Joseph Weber, has one son who was forced to leave Canada’s largest and most diverse Mennonite community due to inflation and the rising cost of housing — a trend among this group. Now another son is forced to move, leaving Joseph planning his escape too.

And if you’ve ever thought of leaving it all behind to start your own utopian community from scratch, you might want to ask Ron Berezan for advice. After years of planning, he's months away from opening a new intentional community in Powell River, B.C., where everyone farms the same land, shares amenities, and makes decisions together. So how do you get consensus, and decide who gets to join? Ron reveals the lessons he's learned so far.