Wawa's mountain of iron ore still had more to give, operations were shut down in June 1998, a hundred years after iron was first discovered in this remote corner of northern Algoma.
Wawa suffered a population decline after the Helen Mine and the Algoma Ore Division sinter plant shut down, leaving its main industries as forestry and tourism. In recent years, diamond prospecting and proposals to create a trap rock mine on the shore of Lake Superior have taken place; however, no mining activities of any kind have yet been established.
In another blow to the town's economy, Weyerhaeuser, which operated an oriented strand board mill 30 kilometres east of the town, announced an indefinite shutdown of its mill in October 2007. The final production shift ran at the end of December 2007, and with the ongoing demand for wood products being very low, the mill is unlikely to reopen in the near future. Since the shutdown, Wawa's economy has suffered a near-collapse, as the closure brought over 135 lost jobs and led to even more residents moving away. This subsequently had a spin-off effect on other businesses and on the town's population, which peaked at close to 5,600 in the 1990s but has since dropped to just under 3,000, according to the 2011 Canadian census.
The collapse of the forestry industry in the first decade of the 2000s not only impacted Wawa, but the neighbouring communities ofDubreuilville and White River. Wawa, the area's largest settlement, has consequently faced grave difficulties in attracting new industry to the community and region.
Most of the movie Snow Cake (2006) takes place (and was filmed) in Wawa
