When a community’s major employer falters, the shock waves don’t stop at the plant gate. In small towns and regions across the country, mass layoffs and closures also affect contractors and suppliers, local services, municipal budgets and housing markets. The sector and location change, but the pattern is predictable. In Cape Breton, for example, industrial decline has contributed to out-migration. …The closure of a cornerstone pulp-and-paper mill in Chandler, Que., has been linked to mental health and family distress. …In Houston, B.C., the closure of the Canfor sawmill in 2023 left the district with a $1.2-million budget shortfall this year. Canada’s support systems focus primarily on the immediate needs of directly affected workers and employers, but communities themselves also need shoring up when workforce disruption suddenly alters the landscape. …Finding better ways to support communities susceptible to workforce disruption is an increasingly pressing policy challenge.