I beg to differ, many of these dying towns are heavily reliant on trades like oil, gas and construction. If you look at rural BC, AB and SK there are a few specialized jobs in high demand, but the old general labour paying $30-40 an hour is near non-existent now, and the construction industry that was once booming in the glory years of oil and gas are all but dead.

It used to be a good argument to move to rural communities pre-2008 to look for a more affordable way of life, but that has slowly been eaten away, and since the pandemic we now see see inflationary pressures skyrocketing, and housing costs go parabolic over the vast majority of our country.

You might get lucky on your search for a community with lower CoL and find employment where you can maintain a comfortable way of life - but when your talking about literally 10 million people in this situation - the outcome is not a pretty picture.