Resettlement was a process where organized efforts have been made to centralize the population of other towns. The federal-provincial plan known as "the Newfoundland Resettlement Program", the Newfoundland government offered $1,000 per household to families from remote communities who agreed to move to specified "growth centers". For a town to qualify for resettlement, 80 percent of its residents had to agree to leave, subsequently turning neighbor against neighbor. This program resulted in the abandonment of 300 communities and 30,000 people being moved. These people were mostly from small, isolated fishing communities to larger settlements. .
Over one hundred communities were abandoned and 7500 people resettled between the years of 1954 and 1965. Each family was giving $1000 per household plus $200 for each dependent and also $3000 for moving and a purchase of a serviced lot. For all of this to be able to happen people had to move to the bigger centers and also 90% of the people had to go and resettle. Alter there was another agreement that designated eight "special areas and twenty-seven "growth centers." From these new agreements 148 communities were abandoned and about 20,000 people relocated.
Newfoundland's culture was destroyed by resettlement. Newfoundlanders in rural areas used to have an independent lifestyle, but after resettlement they became dependent on welfare. .
The main areas affected by resettlement were the Islands of Placentia Bay, Bonavista Bay and Notre Dame Bay and isolated communities of the southwest coast. These people often moved in the same area but with better services and employment opportunities. e.g. Come By Chance, Burgeo, Harbour Breton, the Placentia area and the base of the Burin Peninsula}.
The Premier, Joseph R. Smallwood once said "I will drag Newfoundlanders kicking and screaming into the 20th century", he wanted more industries to come to Newfoundland and they would need centres of larger population.