In Moosomin: Residential construction sets record in 2012
January 8, 2013, 3:04 am
Adam Wightman
The growth of Moosomin continued strong and steady in 2012. It was a record-breaking year for residential development in the town.
Last year, permits were approved in Moosomin for residential projects totalling $5,317,845, breaking the previous record of $4,911,180, set in 2008, and significantly up from last year's $3.6 million in residential development.
"That's great," said Moosomin Mayor Larry Tomlinson upon hearing the figures.
"We really need Moosomin to grow."
Total construction in Moosomin in 2012 was registered for $10,461,967, with commercial development coming in at $4,608,122 and institutional development making up $536,000.
The total development figure for Moosomin in 2012 is lower than the $17.4 million in 2011, and the commercial development in 2011-at $13.88 million-was also higher than it was in 2012. However, 2011 saw the construction of Pipestone Villas and Motel 6, combining for $10.65 million-75 per cent of that year's commercial total and more than half of the value of all of Moosomin's development in that year.
The construction total in 2012, on the other hand, was more evenly spread out. The highest value of a single development is the new Conexus Credit Union branch on Main Street and Broadway Avenue, with a permit value of $4,113,122.
For residential developments, there were 31 building permits issued. Of that number, 12 were granted for new houses, ranging in price from $180,000 to $500,000. The most expensive residential development was a six-plex, valued at $1,300,000, and the next most highly valued was a duplex for $610,000. Six residential building permits were granted for home additions, with one being for $95,000, and the remainder of the residential building permits were for the construction of either garages, sheds, or decks.
The two institutional building permits were for an addition to the MacLeod Elementary School, valued at $366,000, and for the SARCAN depot at the Pipestone Kin-Ability Centre, for $170,000.
The growth of Moosomin has significantly picked up over the past six years. To get a perspective, here are some numbers. For residential development, in 2007 there was $2,127,600; in 2008 there was $4,911,180; in 2009 there was $810,000; in 2010, it was $1,658,400; in 2011, it was 2011, and last year finished with $6,197,845 in new developments. For commercial, in 2007 it was at $495,000; in 2008, it was $28,000; in 2009 it shot to $13.8 million; in 2010 it sunk bank to down, to $202,000, before taking off to $13.88 million in 2011, and last year it was at $4,608,122.
The growth has increased the town's coffers, but it also brought challenges, as Moosomin's soaring expansion had pushed the town's lagoon to full capacity. The town never had to deny any building permits, but they were close to the point where that could have been a possibility, said Tomlinson.
"If many more came along before we got the lagoon online, we wouldn't have been able to do much with permits," Tomlinson.
While the lagoon now has capacity for the long-term growth of Moosomin, there are other infrastructure projects that the town is currently working on, he said.
"We're going to need more tax money for infrastructure, and there is a lot of paving to do yet, and there's a lot of treatment to do at the treatment plant and water tower, so we're going to need extra revenue."
Another challenge brought by increased development of Moosomin is the resultant rise in housing prices, Tomlinson said. The increased price of homes both gives added equity to homeowners while making it more difficult for people to afford homes of the size they could have bought in the past. It is particularly hard on those with lower incomes moving into the town, he said.
"It certainly wouldn't hurt to have some apartments with a lower cost. It's too bad someone wouldn't go ahead with that," he said.
Despite these challenges, Tomlinson said he thinks Moosomin has a bright future.
"The mine is going to add man-power, and I think the oil is going to continue to grow, and so I think Moosomin will continue to grow. The last few years really secured Moosomin being a regional hub, I think, since we got the new hospital."
Harlin Munro agrees with Tomlinson. Munro and Daryn Woods are co-owners of HD Development. Last summer they built a four-plex on Broadway Avenue, which took them only three months to find suitable renters for.
Next year they are more than quadrupling their bets on the area's growth.
"It's really appealing to build in Moosomin, and that's why we plan to have three more four-plexes and two more duplexes in 2013, which is our high-shooting goal. Half of that would be an okay year," Munro said.
Munro said that he and Woods' decision to build more homes was based on the strong economic signs coming from Moosomin
"We just had to figure out, what is the industry, what is the town powered by, what is the industry driving the town? And in Moosomin, it is oil, potash and farming, and right now those are really hot markets," he said.
"I would say that growth in town should be strong for at least 10 more years."
Munro said that the growth of Moosomin's commercial and residential markets feed off one another. When he sees large companies putting tens of millions of dollars into the town, it provides a lot of confidence to he and Woods to build more residences.
"This is another really big indicator. When companies feel that there is an opportunity to put $27 million into the town, they have done lots of due diligence into that town's prospects. When you see Hotel 6, Canalta, Tim Hortons move in, that is a sign that the area is going to be strong."
This type of growth is happening all over the province. There was $20 billion invested in the province last year, which is an all-time record. And that growth will continue indefinitely, said Steve McLellan, the CEO of Saskatchewan's Chamber of Commerce.
"We are going from a place that has thought to have enjoyed a temporary boom to a place now where we're suggesting that this is the new normal. This going to be where we are forever, and it is only going to get better," McLellan said.
Saskatchewan's long-term economic health is fully dependent on the province's natural resources, which are deep in supply and heavily in demand, he said.
"The world has come to the conclusion that what Saskatchewan has to sell is what they want to buy-and that is food, fuel, and fertilizer."
To say that McLellan is optimistic about Saskatchewan's future would be an understatement.
"What we have is what the world will need for decades and decades and decades. I suspect we have a 300-year supply of potash in Saskatchewan. And I suspect we will be mining it for 100 years before new technology might make it redundant. Oil and gas has hundreds of years of supply; we're only tapping into at best 15 per cent, and as technology improves we'll get more. We're leaving 80 per cent of the oil in the ground. We have the richest supply of uranium the world. So if there's only one uranium mine in the world, it will be in Saskatchewan, because our ore quality is so high. We have half of Canada's farmland and the expertise to farm it very efficiently."
"So as long as people will be needing food, and they will forever, and needing energy, and they will forever, and, of course, want to grow their own food, which of course they will forever, they will need potash as an element for their fertilizers-we're in great shape."
As a result of this continuing growth, he said, Saskatchewan has faced and will continue to face significant changes and challenges. McLellan said that gone are the days when people could expect to get a nice $400 apartment in any town or city in the province. The province will also likely face an indefinite worker shortage, he said.
"Labor shortages are going to be a reality in our province for as long as your and I are alive, I think."
"It will never be able to fully catch up, because demand for our products is greater than our ability to increase our workforce."
Hand in hand with the issue of labor shortages is Saskatchewan's housing shortage. For the province's leaders to tackle the job shortage, they will need to work to make more homes available for workers, he said.
"If we were to have 10,000 workers tomorrow in 100 job classifications, we could put them to work tomorrow, but we couldn't house them."
"There's no sense going to the Philippines to bring in new welders if there aren't places for them to live. But lots of folks are working very hard to make sure that more residences are available."
Some of such folks working hard to make residences available for workers are those from Moosomin, McLellan said. He thinks the effort of locals to allow growth to occur in the town has been exceptional and better than what is found in many places in the province.
"The difference between Moosomin and many other communities is that you've had an aggressive collaborative effort to help grow your town, through the work of the council, the Chamber of Commerce, those efforts began and are paying dividends now," he said.
"I wish it was in every single community, but it's not."
So while McLellan believes that long-term growth will be seen in Saskatchewan as a whole, he also thinks it will occur asymmetrically-some places will grow far faster than others, and he believes that which communities grow rapidly and which ones grow only moderately or not at all will be significantly determined by the attitudes of local leaders in fostering growth.
"Moosomin's location adjacent to potash doesn't hurt, but there are communities that are close to oil that aren't facilitating this type of growth, and therefore they aren't seeing it."
"What it boils down to is that some communities don't have the community vision. They don't have a picture of where they want to go, which has led them to live without a community plan."
A key factor, he says, is how receptive communities are towards developers who move to town.
Those who are the most welcoming will see development, and those that aren't will see little.
"We hear that all the time. Developers will go, 'I can't believe it, I went to community A and I was treated like an alien, and I went to community B and they drove over to the lots. In 30 minutes, I had a deal done."
"That's the difference."
