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  #1  
Old Posted May 30, 2007, 6:51 PM
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Booming Brandon faces housing crunch CBC

Booming Brandon faces housing crunch

Last Updated: Wednesday, May 30, 2007 | 12:29 PM CT

CBC News


As the city of Brandon, Man., celebrates its 125th anniversary, city officials are dealing with the increasing pressure on housing availability that has accompanied recent economic growth.
Brandon's economic development office presented a report to city council a month ago indicating the city is in a housing crunch. The city's population has grown by thousands in the past few years as workers fill jobs at a new meat processing plant, fuelling growth in other industries.
The rental vacancy rate in the city has hovered around 0.9 per cent for three years, the report said, adding that for apartments with three or more bedrooms, the vacancy rate was zero.
The city of 43,000 has an "immediate need" for 200 new rental units, and will need as many as 650 more in the next five years, according to the report.
"That's despite significant new units being constructed," said Sandy Trudel, the city's economic development officer. "The economy is absorbing the units as fast as they're coming on stream."
Hotel room home to family of 5

The situation is all too familiar to Steve Leszkovics, who lives with his wife and three children in a Brandon hotel room.

The family has been unable to find an affordable apartment with more than two bedrooms since they moved to Brandon six months ago, Leszkovics told CBC, so they are crammed into a hotel space with two bedrooms separated by a curtain, a small bathroom and a bar fridge.
"Nobody sleeps properly, and you know, the kids, we don't allow their friends here because of the sheer size of it," Leszkovics said.
People who want to own their homes are also facing an uphill battle, the report suggests, with selling prices climbing more than 40 per cent in the last five years. The city will need some 1,400 new homes in the long term, with at least 300 needed now.
Population surge expected

The situation is expected to worsen in the western Manitoba city later this year, as Maple Leaf Foods prepares to add a second shift at its pork processing plant.
"There will be 400 foreign workers that will be hired by fall of 2007, and then basically by the fall of 2010 there will be a total of 900 foreign workers that have come into the community," said Trudel.
"The foreign workers that are currently at the plant are at the status now of bringing over their families."
Trudel expects about 2,000 family members to move to Brandon by 2010.

She said the city is working on initiatives to deal with the growth, such as creating an affordable housing reserve fund.
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  #2  
Old Posted May 30, 2007, 7:10 PM
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As long as I can remember, Brandon's population has remained steadily the same. It's good to see it growing.
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  #3  
Old Posted May 31, 2007, 1:51 PM
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Good for Brandon. I would love to see Brandon, Steinbach, Winkler-Morden and Thompson continue the solid growth. it would be great to see these 4 cities all have over 20,000+ people in the next ten years.
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Old Posted May 31, 2007, 5:29 PM
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The world needs more Steinbach.
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  #5  
Old Posted Jun 1, 2007, 4:02 AM
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Good for Brandon. I would love to see Brandon, Steinbach, Winkler-Morden and Thompson continue the solid growth. it would be great to see these 4 cities all have over 20,000+ people in the next ten years.
I can see Brandon topping 50,000 by the 2011 census. Also I think Winkler could top 15,000 to become the province's 3rd largest city by then. I don't think Thompson is going anywhere. Steinbach will continue to grow, but I think Winkler will surpass it. Steinbach will be about 14,000 by then, IMO.

Winnipeg, Brandon, Winkler, Steinbach, Thompson and Portage will all have over 10,000 people by then.
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Old Posted Jun 1, 2007, 12:55 PM
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Thompson is actually growing at a pretty good clip right now as well. They have a red hot mining sector and a new dam being built to stoke their economy, not to mention the University of the North's $25 million dollar expansion. Thompson is currently Manitoba's 3rd largest city (13,000+) and will probably be for a few years until Winkler/Morden knock them off. I believe Winkler/Morden will continue to grow quickly. (Winkler- 9,400/Morden-6,800)
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Old Posted Jun 1, 2007, 9:20 PM
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Steinbach will be the 2nd largest city in Manitoba. You can bank on it.... =)
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  #8  
Old Posted Jun 3, 2007, 3:53 AM
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Great news for Brandon and all of Manitoba.
How far apart are Morden and Winkler??
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  #9  
Old Posted Jun 3, 2007, 6:13 AM
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About five miles or so. The same distance between Fort William and Port Arthur at their amalgamation.

If they keep that growth up they could become a pretty good sized city.
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  #10  
Old Posted Jun 3, 2007, 10:57 PM
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About five miles or so. The same distance between Fort William and Port Arthur at their amalgamation.

If they keep that growth up they could become a pretty good sized city.
I think it would be cool if Morden and Winkler created a commercial strip on the highway connecting the two cities. That would integrate the two towns into one mass. I don't know of merging the two would be a good idea, though.
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  #11  
Old Posted Jun 4, 2007, 12:30 AM
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Yeah, it's better to do that, instead of each one having a Walmart, and a Home Depot, and a Canadian Tire, etc., just have one for the two of them. It will help bring them back together. Usually the only time PAers talk to FWites is when they're at Intercity. :/

Instead of amalgamation, they should have a regional government covering schools, fire, police, etc. but keep a city government to handle issues specific to their communities. In twin cities that amalgamated like Thunder Bay and Kingston, you always get favouritism over one half and that's not good for post amalgamation co-operation.
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Old Posted Jun 4, 2007, 1:55 AM
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Isn't Winkler overwhelmingly Mennonite and Morden much less so? I wonder whether the residents of these towns really want us to merge them so they can have a larger population figure to toss around.
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  #13  
Old Posted Jun 4, 2007, 3:27 AM
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Isn't Winkler overwhelmingly Mennonite and Morden much less so? I wonder whether the residents of these towns really want us to merge them so they can have a larger population figure to toss around.
They are both in Mennonite country, I know that for sure...
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Old Posted Jun 4, 2007, 11:22 AM
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They can amalgamated with Steinback, and forever dwell in their Mennonite, car selling bliss.
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Old Posted Jun 4, 2007, 5:17 PM
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The rents there are probably low

Last edited by Blitz; Apr 29, 2008 at 6:38 PM.
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  #16  
Old Posted Jun 6, 2007, 12:20 PM
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Maple Leaf

is reserving as many rental units as it can for it's new employees. It's good and bad, it's good that theses new employees have a place but bad news for anyone not working with Maple Leaf. It makes it harder for others to find a place to rent. Especially when university students start coming and looking.
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  #17  
Old Posted Jun 6, 2007, 3:03 PM
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Quote:
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Yeah, it's better to do that, instead of each one having a Walmart, and a Home Depot, and a Canadian Tire, etc., just have one for the two of them. It will help bring them back together. Usually the only time PAers talk to FWites is when they're at Intercity. :/

Instead of amalgamation, they should have a regional government covering schools, fire, police, etc. but keep a city government to handle issues specific to their communities. In twin cities that amalgamated like Thunder Bay and Kingston, you always get favouritism over one half and that's not good for post amalgamation co-operation.
I dunno. I can't think of an example where filling in the gaps has been that helpful. I'd rather they keep separate, distinct townsites and turn their energies into developing their historic town centres than the farmland in between.

The land on Regent between old Transcona and Winnipeg is a graveyard. Old Transcona is kind of cool (must hit the Whistle Pig for a burger). Same with Thunder Bay - is the intercity area really that pleasant? I prefer the old town centres, but that's just me.
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  #18  
Old Posted Jun 7, 2007, 1:04 AM
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Intercity is hell, but the downtown area's aren't too bad. Port Arthur of a bohemian hotspot and downtown Fort William is starting to get better. It's got a great walking atmosphere.

I was just saying instead of destroying two parts of farmland equal in size on the outer edges of the area, destroy one small part between the two of them. Instead of two gigantic big box hellscapes, only one. They're going to come anyway, might as well have as few as possible.

Intercity might have a lot of business, but it doesn't have the community spirit that the cores do.
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  #19  
Old Posted Jun 9, 2007, 3:57 AM
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Good on Brandon, Winkler, Steinbach and the other Manitoba cities, towns and rural municipalities that are thriving and booming!

Still waiting for Winnipeg to claim the same................................
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