Attention Prospective Settlers and welcome to beautiful Pouch Cove! We have 2070 citizens with the great fortune of being the “the first to see the sun” in North America. The people out our way are great folks, everyone here is looking for a peaceful community to raise a family and build a future. Growing, thriving, and always moving forward. Great municipal services. We’d contend that it is the best place to live – and after one look around, we are sure you’ll be convinced!
We are just 20 Minutes from the City and we can offer a best-of-both-worlds lifestyle of rustic living with all the urban amenities you will need at your doorstep. As a small town, we are Growing and Thriving and we providing great municipal services such as drinking water treatment, water distribution, wastewater collection, storm water management, waste management, fire protection, land-use planning, economic development, snow clearing, road maintenance, sports field maintenance, and recreational programs. Our Vision, Mandate, and Values are built on the theme of “A Community Built for Everyone” and our municipal operations are guided by these principles and values.
Pouch Cove is ready for prospective settlers like you to build your home or business here and reap the benefits of peaceful living. Come for a drive and you’ll know what we mean. Have a look at our Demographics and Socioeconomic Data. Start a business – the local community is here to support you in terms of shopping and working local. Pouch Cove has an abundance of vacant lands available in all areas of the community along with several developers searching for early buyers to sign-up before they move onto the next phases of their subdivisions. The knowledgeable Town office staff (who are also the friendliest people around) are only a phone call away.
Where you settle and build your life is a big decision and there are lots of great options in our beautiful part of the world. We hope this brochure will help expand your search area to consider Pouch Cove as just one of the options as you determine what is best for you and your family. We also hope that you would consider passing this along to your friends who are in this exciting phase of their life so they know that this place is an option for them too.
All the best,
Your friends at the Town of Pouch Cove
Attention Prospective Settlers!
Attention Prospective Settlers and welcome to beautiful Pouch Cove! We have 2070 citizens with the great fortune of being the “the first to see the sun” in North America. Pouch Cove is a friendly place located on the northern tip of the Avalon Peninsula in Newfoundland and Labrador neighboring the Towns of Torbay, Flatrock, and Bauline. For those you wanting something more precise, The Town of Pouch Cove is approximately 12km north of the St. John’s International Airport as shown in Figure 1.
The people out our way are great folks, everyone here is looking for a peaceful community to raise a family and build a future. Growing, thriving, and always moving forward. Great municipal services. We’d contend that it is the best place to live – and after one look around we are sure you’ll be convinced!
Minutes from the City
One of the most striking features of living in Pouch Cove is a best-of-both-worlds lifestyle of rustic living with all the urban amenities you will need at your doorstep. Our economy is connected to the Greater St. John’s Area and so many of our citizens work in the capital city. Would you believe us if we told you that studies show that the ideal commute time is 16 minutes which is pretty close for our daily city goers! We are connected to St. John’s through the 10km Torbay bypass road which was built in 2011 and has greatly contributed to reduced travel times. It is a beautiful road which leads to a nice drive where you can think about your plans for the day or let your mind decompress on the way home. Figure 2 shows the typical path for when you leave Pouch Cove to head for an urban amenity in St. John’s.
We have also prepared Table 1 for you to give you an impression on the difference in driving times for some other communities considered to be on the periphery of St. John’s. The bypass road really makes any of these trips a quick straightforward cruise – no turns, no traffic, no stress.
| Pouch Cove | Mount Pearl | Conception Bay South | Holyrood | Bay Bulls | |
| Confederation Building | 20 Minutes | 15 Minutes | 22 Minutes | 35 Minutes | 33 Minutes |
| St. John’s International Airport | 19 Minutes | 16 Minutes | 23 Minutes | 36 Minutes | 34 Minutes |
| Memorial University of Newfoundland and Health Science Hospital | 20 Minutes | 11 Minutes | 21 Minutes | 34 Minutes | 29 Minutes |
| College of the North Atlantic (Prince Phillip Drive) | 19 Minutes | 15 Minutes | 21 Minutes | 35 Minutes | 32 Minutes |
| Downtown St. John’s | 25 Minutes | 14 Minutes | 21 Minutes | 35 Minutes | 26 Minutes |
| Stavanger Drive Shopping District | 16 Minutes | 15 Minutes | 22 Minutes | 34 Minutes | 33 Minutes |
| Avalon Mall Regional Shopping Centre | 24 Minutes | 9 Minutes | 21 Minutes | 34 Minutes | 28 Minutes |
| The Village Mall Shopping Centre | 27 Minutes | 8 Minutes | 19 Minutes | 33 Minutes | 23 Minutes |
| Bannerman Park | 23 Minutes | 16 Minutes | 23 Minutes | 37 Minutes | 28 Minutes |
| Pippy Park | 19 Minutes | 11 Minutes | 20 Minutes | 33 Minutes | 31 Minutes |
| Bowring Park | 29 Minutes | 8 Minutes | 19 Minutes | 32 Minutes | 23 Minutes |
Growing and Thriving
While it is true that populations are generally on the decline across Newfoundland and Labrador, there is a trend of increased preference for urbanization leading to increased demand for housing near the City. As a result, the Town of Pouch Cove population is expected to grow year-over-year with further expansion of ongoing residential development (see Table 2). With growth comes opportunity and new settlers will be able to weigh in and shape the ways that our community grows.
| Year | Population | Change | % Change |
| 1996 | 1885 | ||
| 2001 | 1669 | 216 | – 11.5 % |
| 2006 | 1756 | 90 | + 5.2 % |
| 2011 | 1866 | 107 | + 6.3 % |
| 2016 | 2069 | 203 | + 10.9 % |
Municipal Services at Your Doorstep
As a small town, we punch well above our weight in providing great municipal services such as drinking water treatment, water distribution, wastewater collection, stormwater management, waste management, fire protection, land-use planning, economic development, snow clearing, road maintenance, sports field maintenance, and recreational programs. We understand the value of keeping property taxes low and, with a growing population, the Town of Pouch Cove is proud to keep pace with modernizing, expanding, and investing in its offering of municipal services – here are a few examples!
Vision, Mandate, and Values
Your municipal council and staff have a shared vision, mandate, and values statement as follows:
Vision: A Community Built for Everyone
Mandate: The Town of Pouch Cove’s role to build a place for everyone involves 3 core functions:
- Provide great municipal services with a focus on best practices and cost efficiency.
- Promote, support, and attract the continued growth and expansion of residential and business development.
- Champion a rich and respectful culture of positive citizen engagement, community pride, and volunteer spirit.
To fulfill its mandate, the Town of Pouch Cove shall adopt the following 6 core values:
Growing and Thriving: Building a brand as a growing and thriving community in Newfoundland and Labrador. Meeting modern municipal regulations and deploying well-informed urban planning principles. Articulating value of investing in Pouch Cove through gathering data, conducting analysis, preparing reports, and delivering presentations. Encouraging residents to buy local and strategizing municipal purchasing to create opportunities for local business and employment where practical.
Efficient Services: Day-to-day excellence in serving the residents of the Town while remaining cognizant of not going beyond our means. Adopting best practices and lifecycle approaches to infrastructure management. Relaying timely information to residents on municipal matters and promoting activities/events through multiple channels of communication. Ensuring levels of service are tuned to Town strategic goals and the needs of residents.
Slow and Steady: All good things come with time – do the right things, do them well, do them consistently, and find the most cost-efficient way to do them. Decisions will not be rushed. Major spending decisions will not be made until major funding opportunities have been fully explored. Learn and build local capacity now to increase the success of the next initiative.
Innovation/Adaptation: Aggressively pursuing new ideas and ways of doing things. Being aware of changing horizons. Assisting organizations in our community in their efforts to innovate and adapt. Shedding the “status quo”. Engaging the community to find new ways to solve problems. Deploying pilot projects and initiatives. Exploring opportunities for regional collaboration.
Youth and Volunteerism: Recognizing youth and volunteers as the community’s greatest assets. Collaborating with youth and volunteers to achieve community objectives. Challenging volunteer groups to actively recruit and welcome new volunteers. Supporting activities and development of youth as the future leaders of the community. Positioning the Town as a preferred community for young families.
Respectful Community: The Town and its citizens will work together to build a community for everyone. We will treat one another with respect in everything we do. Ensuring community programs and community infrastructure exists for everyone. Enforcing rules and regulations.
Demographics and Socioeconomic Data
If you are someone who likes numbers, this section is meant for you. The folks at the NL Community Accounts (see https://nl.communityaccounts.ca) have done an excellent job compiling statistics data from the Statistics Canada efforts that has been generated through the census. To get started, having a look at Figure 6 which shows the age and gender distribution of our 2070 citizens.
The overall intent of presenting the upcoming data is to give you an impression that our Town is full of regular hardworking folk who are making an honest living in their respective trades and fields. Our geography is such that people do not choose to live here by accident – they picked Pouch Cove because it offered everything they needed and they decided to build their life here when they were prospective settlers like you.
Home Ownership
Pouch Cove is characterized by a strong extent of home ownership (90.7%) compared to the provincial average (76.8%) or Canadian average (67.8%). This is indicative of an under developed rental market, demand, or availability. The average assessed values of residential properties was $227,400.
Education Data
The Town of Pouch Cove’s citizens are generally well educated with over 60% of adults in the 25-64 year old age group having post-secondary education. A breakdown of the various education levels is provided in Figure 7.
Incomes and Purchasing Power
The incomes and purchasing powers of Pouch Cove residents is similar to that of the average citizens in Newfoundland and Labrador with an average per-capita gross income (man, woman, and child) of $34,100 and average couple family income of $102,100. For census respondents reporting employment income, the average income was reported to be $45,800. With a population of 2070, there is an approximate total of $70,587,000 of gross income within our community (and that is a shameless nudge to prospective business owners who may want to set-up shop to capitalize on the buy local bandwagon).
Employment Data
We will let the numbers speak for themselves, but overall we have a good crowd of citizens working across a range of industries similar to the rest of the Northeast Avalon economic zone as shown in Figure 8. There is a stronger concentration of workers in the health services and trades industries.
Business and Development
Pouch Cove is ready for prospective settlers like you to build your home or business here and reap the benefits of peaceful living. Come for a drive and you’ll know what we mean (see Figure 9). Pouch Cove has an abundance of vacant lands available in all areas of the community along with several developers searching for early buyers to sign-up before they move onto the next phases of their subdivisions. The knowledgeable Town office staff (who are also the friendliest people around) are only a phone call away and can connect you with these developers or advise you on how to obtain your own building permits.
For entrepreneurs, it is good to know that there is an underdeveloped suite of mercantile, professional, and industrial operations. There are residents looking to shop local and east coast trail tourists who simply do not feel like they have anywhere to spend their money. There are only 2 convenience stores and 1 pharmacy which means our local market is free-for-the-taking in terms of greater retail shopping (i.e. clothes, hardware, gift shops, specialty shops, markets, etc.). For food there is only 1 small take-out service and there would be high local demand for a sit down restaurant. There are a number of local home-based personal service and professional office businesses that will be looking for larger spaces in the coming years as they continue to grow and thrive.
There are no manufacturing operations and any industrial operations are limited to the mechanic shop, quarry, and self-employed industrial services each with only a few employees, so the pool of educated workers and tradespeople are not being full leveraged locally. Our workers are able to secure employment outside of the community; however, there would be great enthusiasm and local interest in any opportunity to work within the community if a new enterprise were to come along.
Final Remarks
Where you settle and build your life is a big decision and there are lots of great options in our beautiful part of the world. We hope this brochure will help expand your search area to consider Pouch Cove as just one of the options as you determine what is best for you and your family. We also hope that you would consider passing this along to your friends who are in this exciting phase of their life so they know that this place is an option for them too.
All the best,
Your friends at the Town of Pouch Cove