Simmesport, La. – When her husband first told her about Canadaville, Dawn Charbonneau worried it might be a cult.
A place in the country, built by a Canadian industrialist, where hurricane- displaced families could live rent-free if they followed the rules. It sounded too good to be true.
Yet she was taken with Canadaville, a sprawling property where squirrels scurry in open fields and the songs of birds and bleats of goats carry on the breeze.
It was a curative tonic for the cramped FEMA trailer park where the Charbonneaus and their three children had lived after Hurricane Katrina.
The slower pace of life, uncrowded schools and corn-country peace have been good for the children, ages 5 to 13.
“They can sleep at night without hearing gunshots,” said Dawn Charbonneau, whose family fled both Katrina and the violence of New Orleans about 150 miles away.
Canadaville, with its goats and chickens, gardens and fishing holes, is the brainchild of Frank Stronach, chairman of Canadian auto-parts maker Magna International. After Katrina hit in August 2005, Magna sheltered hundreds of evacuees at its Palm Meadows thoroughbred training center in Florida. But Stronach also wanted land in rural Louisiana, outside the hurricane zone, where families could start over and build futures.
“It’s a hand up, not a handout,” Magna spokesman Dan Donovan said.
Stronach, who was not available for an interview, bought 900 acres in September 2005, and Canadaville opened three months later. Total initial investment was estimated at $7.5 million.
Officially named Magnaville, the site was dubbed Canadaville as a nod to its Canadian benefactors. Canadian and U.S. flags fly side by side at the welcome center. “This is just neighbor helping neighbor,” Magnaville President Dennis Mills said.
People can live at Canadaville rent- free for five years if they follow a “charter of conduct.” Among other things, they must work or go to school, volunteer at least eight hours a week, participate in the community council and stay away from drugs, project manager Shane Carmichael said.
There are after-school and tutoring programs for children, computer and job-training classes for adults and plans to operate an organic farm.
Canadaville’s population stands at about 210, mostly black and from New Orleans. More than half the original 190 residents are still here, Carmichael said. Few, he said, have been evicted for breaking the rules.
Dawn Charbonneau remembers feeling free her first nights here, “like all my troubles were behind me. It’s like this was a second chance for me, my husband and my kids.”
