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While company towns have been studied widely at international level, those located in Canada are not widely known. The companies involved were single industry firms and the company towns that they built were carefully planned with a view not only to accommodating employees but also to offer them all useful infrastructure needed for daily life. This included social, political economic domains as well as leisure activities. This article revisits this definition and its scope in comparison with other closely-related typologies. Two cases are studied in depth to highlight the specific characteristics of Canadian company towns : Powell River in British Columbia, built from 1908, and Arvida in Québec, built from 1926. It concludes with a review of the current situation of these towns and of their potential future as part of a process of heritage designation that their inhabitants believe in.