as Happy Valley's librarian when the North Star School's second building was donated as the new library. The Grenfell Mission operated the first medical facilities when it opened a nursing station in 1951. In 1963, the provincial government built Paddon Memorial Hospital. Geography Happy Valley-Goose Bay lies at the southwest end of Lake Melville near the mouth of the Churchill River. The town is located on the southern shore of a peninsula created by Terrington Basin to the north and Goose Bay at the south. Climate Happy Valley-Goose Bay displays a humid continental climate (Köppen Dfb) right on the borderline with a subarctic climate (Köppen Dfc), marked by significant snowfall in the winter, which has average highs around . Summer highs, on the other hand, average . The average high temperature stays below freezing for five months of the year and the low does so for eight months. Snowfall averages nearly per year, and occurs in all months except July and August. Precipitation, at nearly , is significant year-round and is heavy for a continental climate at its latitude. Canadian Forces Base CFB Goose Bay saw a reduction of NATO low-level tactical flight training in the decade 1996–2005, and the town faced an uncertain future as the federal government reduced the number of permanent Royal Canadian Air Force personnel to fewer than 100 all-ranks. The last NATO nations to use CFB Goose Bay for flight training, Germany and Italy, did not renew their leases after terminating in early 2006. The runway at Happy Valley-Goose Bay was also an alternative, but unused, landing site for the now-decommissioned NASA Space Shuttle, because of its size and length. Local Improvement District of Goose Bay Prior to its amalgamation with Happy Valley, the Local Improvement District of Goose Bay was set up in 1970 and included an area called Spruce Park and the Canadian Department of Transport Housing areas. It grew to include other areas of the base until 1973, when it comprised all of the base area. Demographics In the 2021 Census of Population conducted by Statistics Canada, Happy Valley-Goose Bay had a population of living in of its total private dwellings, a change of from its 2016 population of . With a land area of , it had a population density of in 2021. The 2011 census showed that Happy Valley-Goose Bay has outgrown Labrador City and is now the largest community