Metro tops province in new home construction
Of 2,249 homes built this year in N.B.'s seven cities, 1,093 are in Metro Moncton
By Jesse Robichaud
Times & Transcript Staff
Published Wednesday October 10th, 2007
Appeared on page A1
Metro Moncton's red-hot housing market is outpacing other regional centres such as Halifax and St. John's, as well as the declining national trend.
The 12 per cent increase in single housing starts so far this year offers a glaring contrast to the national numbers which are set at minus 5 per cent as of the end of September.
At 3 per cent growth, Halifax has remained stagnant thus far thus year compared to 2006, and, St. John's, with a 10 per cent increase, and Fredericton with a 6.5 per cent increase, are also playing catch-up.
Claude Gautreau, senior analyst with the Canadian Mortgage Housing Corporation, says a strong local economy and Moncton's unique position as a growing urban centre in New Brunswick, are two of the major factors that continue to stimulate the Metro market.
"If you have 200 or 300 families moving in every year, that is going to stimulate the housing market," said Gautreau.
"That is the main differentiating factor in Moncton that doesn't exist in Halifax or Saint John."
Metro Moncton's continued growth is bolstered by a strong month of September, with 267 single housing unit starts, compared to 180 last year, and 315 multiple units over 234 units last year.
Metro's 582 total housing unit starts lead New Brunswick's urban centres. Fredericton follows at 281 starts, then Saint John with 165 starts.
Gautreau said that while September's jump should not be viewed as anything other than a fluctuation, it does indicate the health of Metro's economy.
"It's just a mild fluctuation but it indicates that the economy is doing well here because people are moving here and housing is staying strong."
Metro's 1,093 housing starts as of the end of September represented half of the 2,249 starts recorded in New Brunswick's seven urban centres.
Led by Metro Moncton, Atlantic Canada's housing market seems to be showing its resilience in the face of the national decline, says Gautreau.
"Compared to the national trend, which is in a mild decline, you could say it is doing quite well here in Greater Moncton," he said.
"Other centres in the region are performing quite similarly. We are seeing a year where this year it is doing well compared to last year."
Gautreau says he doesn't expect Metro Moncton or Atlantic Canada's housing markets to be damaged by the problems plaguing the beleaguered U.S. market because of the major differences between the Canadian and American mortgage markets.
And Metro's unique position in New Brunswick should help protect the region's market as well.
"Greater Moncton is unique in the province of New Brunswick because it still has in-migration, which means people are moving here," said Gautreau.
"The local economy is doing well, people are moving into the area. It is stimulating demand for housing."
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Vaughan Harvey's dream reaches fruition
Family members attend official opening of Moncton's new north-south corridor
Brent Mazerolle
Published Wednesday October 10th, 2007
Appeared on page A3
Myrna MacDonald says her father Vaughan Harvey would have been so proud of the roadway she and other members of her family saw officially opened yesterday.
MacDonald was joined by two of Harvey's granddaughters and a great grandson as representatives of three levels of government officially opened the Vaughan Harvey Boulevard and Assomption Boulevard bypass project.
At 10 o'clock yesterday morning, Moncton Mayor Lorne Mitton, New Brunswick Transportation Minister Denis Landry and Transport Canada Atlantic regional director general Michel Doiron cut a purple ribbon held by two City of Moncton workers who have lived and breathed the road project for several years -- Jack MacDonald, general manager of the city's engineering department, and Stéphane Thibodeau, the city's parking and transportation coordinator.
At a ceremony afterward at Moncton's city hall, Mitton paid tribute to Harvey for having the vision of using a former railroad right of way for a north-south road corridor and championing the idea. Noting Vaughan Harvey also served the community as a councillor and volunteer firefighter for 23 years, the mayor said "today his namesake boulevard becomes a cornerstone for progress."
MacDonald suggested it was her father's day job as a railroad worker that gave him the idea.
"He went up and down there in a trolley all the time," she said.
The rail line used to connect CN shops in the Albert Street area to the CN shops that stood until the 1980s where the Emmerson Technology Park and the CN Sportsplex lands are today.
When the railway removed the line, it seemed logical to Vaughan Harvey that a road could go in its place.
She said it was at the heart of her father's dream that people in the West End and Albert County would have faster road access to The Moncton Hospital.
Harvey's daughter said another former Moncton city councillor, Cy Spear, should also be remembered.
Spear, an engineer, quickly saw the potential of the idea and got on board as well.
The transportation link does indeed get people to and from the hospital faster, but with the new bridge and Assomption Boulevard extension, it is also poised to aid development of Moncton's downtown.
Daniel Allain, the general manager of Downtown Moncton Centre-Ville Inc., said DMCI has championed the project for many years because it would add to people's positive experiences with downtown.
"It's all about access," Allain said.
Acknowledging Assomption Boulevard especially might encourage Albert County residents to bypass downtown and head for stores in Dieppe, he said DMCI nevertheless believes the resulting better traffic flow on Main Street will remove some of the negative connotations people from across the region have about downtown.
As well, Allain said the road network "opens up land for development that couldn't be developed before."
Transportation Minister Landry, speaking in French, suggested there would be a $100 million spin-off from the project over the next two decades in terms of things like times savings, reduction of greenhouse gases as vehicles spend less time idling in traffic, reduced vehicle costs, and reduced vehicle accidents.
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. We should send our renderings to the Moncton planning district commission.
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