By Ian Cobb

It almost felt… normal.

People gathered around tables in the Heritage Inn and Conference Centre main room, chatting amiably, catching up and having lunch together.

Of course, normalcy only went so far, as attendees of the Cranbrook Rotary Club’s noon hour meeting Oct. 28 had to wear masks before being seated and serving staff operated with masks on.

The highlight of the luncheon was a state of the city address by Mayor Lee Pratt, who outlined what has happened in the city in the past year and hinted at good things to come.

Of note, 2020 was an unprecedented year in the City of Cranbrook in terms of building permit values and the city needs to dig into reserves to help prop up Canadian Rockies International Airport following a terrible 18-month stretch in the travel industry.

The following is a transcript of the prepared part of Mayor Pratt’s speech.

Good afternoon and thank you for inviting me to talk to you today.

Joining me today is our CAO Mark Fercho, who joined us in November 2020. Mark is a local Cranbrook boy who has come back like a lot of people do. Also joining me today is Darren Brewer who is our Economic Development Officer. He has been with us a couple of years and is doing a great job. He has a number of irons in the fire as we speak. He has made some great contacts which will lead to something in the future.

I am going to talk about where we are at today and will include some comparisons to where we were in 2014.

This is to give you some perspective in what has been achieved over the last seven years. Sometimes we do not talk enough about the positive direction we have been headed to. We are working toward continuing in this direction.

Housing Market

•  Total housing starts up to end of September 2021 are up 27.3% over 2020;
•  This has been steadily increasing since 2016;
•  Sales have been brisk and prices rising because there is a shortage of Inventory.

•  The rental market is still hovering around 1.00% vacancy.
•  Number one question when prospecting business to move here was ‘where are my employees going to live?’

•  We commissioned a Housing Study and it recognized we are short about 480 doors at this time. The growth we are experiencing tells us we are definitely going to need more single family and multi- family housing, both to own and to rent.

Development Past & Present

Council made it a priority to get more housing and rental units available. This started five years ago and some of the results we see today are:

•  Broadstreet Properties on Innes Avenue – 292 rental units;
•  100% of completed units are full, 50% of under construction are full and 50% of renters are from out of town.
•  I might add the improvements to Innis Avenue with new sewer, water lines, pavement and sidewalks would never have been done today without this Development happening.
•  New Dawn Legacy Project in Wildstone will add 60 single family homes and 69 condominiums when all three phases are complete.
•  Shadow Mountain – 20 new single-family homes added and are currently built or under construction.
•  The east side has been sold. There are big plans for mixed development there.
•  West Urban Developments: One 71-unit, six storey apartment complex and one 75-unit five storey apartment complex.
•  Zoning for this was approved Monday night. Construction slated for the spring of next year.
•  450 – 500 potential new apartment units under discussion for Victoria Avenue.
•  Elizabeth Lake Subdivision – ongoing.
•  Modular Home development above Farbrook Phase II started, Phase 1 sold out

•  Modular home development on 30th Avenue.
•  Development on 30th Avenue starting soon – possible 10 duplexes.
•  Subdivision planned for 15th Street S.

Building Permit Numbers

•  2020 was an unprecedented $93 million dollars, an increase of 99%.
•  2021 on track for $70 million.
•  These building permits represent a lot of jobs in the community. The spin-off of this helped employ a lot of people and fed a lot of families.
•  COVID-19 hurt some businesses in Cranbrook but overall our economy was not hurt and some sectors actually flourished.
•  Other projects to note include the new Food Bank building, Toyota dealership, College of the Rockies, bowling alley renovations and a new brewery pub and residential building on Baker Street.

Business Licenses

•  Business licenses as of December 20, 2020 were 2,191, up from approximately 1,200 in 2015.
•  In 2014 the buzz words in Cranbrook were “Barriers to Business” – we wanted to change that.

Western Financial Place

•  COVID-19 certainly had a large impact on the operations of Western Financial Place.
•  Almost all aquatic and arena events had to be cancelled. This resulted in a drop in revenue of $298,500. There were still operating expenses that had to be maintained. The COVID restart money will be used to off-set some of this.
•  The pool had to be closed for a few months due to COVID-19 and some labour issues. These have been resolved and should be good going forward.
•  We are very pleased to see the Cranbrook Bucks hockey operations back in play and hope they have a successful season both on and off the ice.

Airport

•  After 10 years of combined growth, COVID-19 travel restrictions has greatly affected the operations. An estimated loss of $525,247 will be covered with a transfer from reserves.
•  The focus going forward will be to retain air service from all three existing carrier partners.
•  The availability of local COVID testing will hopefully result in more people travelling.
•  We are now exploring the development options for the Airport lands. We are constantly receiving requests now for investment ready properties which we have very little of right now.

Capital Works

•  In 2015 it was recognized that we had a $70 million dollar deficit on infrastructure and it would require $7 million dollars annually to maintain once it was good and up to standards.
•  We have spent upwards of $50 million dollars over the last seven years and have made some progress on our roads, sewer and water infrastructure. We must continue with this.
•  Capital projects in 2021 totalled $9.6 million dollars.

Economic Development

• Choose Cranbrook website was developed to help prospective businesses or developers to know about Cranbrook. An article was featured in Western Investor resulted in enquiries from two developers and a major hotel chain. This makes two major hotel chains we are in discussion with and looking for suitable locations.

Some Good News stories and results of the work that has been done:

•  Peak Renewable bought the Tembec Lands and are operating the mill. They have approximately 40 employees looking at adding a second shift.
•  Also looking at moving the head office of Brian Fehr’s companies here.
•  Steel River Pipeline Company doing some work for Fortis. Up to 500 employees and looking to be here for a number of years.
•  TC Energy starting additional pipeline for storage next year.
•  These two projects will employ 500 – 800 people and will be a big boost to the local economy.
•  Bayer has a Canola Research Facility in the Industrial Park.
•  Dycar Pharmaceuticals is still under construction.
•  There are seven new restaurants in town and two more coming soon. Just a note, Cranbrook’s Edo Japan had the largest, busiest opening ever had in Canada.
•  We hosted a delegation from KOTRA (Korean Trade Investment Agency) and introduced them to Cranbrook and College of the Rockies as well as some other stakeholders. We Have since received two enquiries from interested parties to do business here.

Convergex is an upcoming event on Nov. 10. This is an investment attraction event covering all different sectors. BC Investor Services responsible for jobs, economic recovery and innovation with offices world-wide. Have 10 investors signed up for this event.

Tourism

Presently working with Cranbrook Tourism, Cranbrook Chamber of Commerce and Ktunaxa Nation on a Master Tourism Plan. Cranbrook is becoming a tourist destination and we are looking to improve this communication with the rest of the world.

Mayor Pratt concluded his talk by urging city residents to become involved in the process of re-vamping the city’s official community plan (OCP), as well as the downtown revitalization work that is ongoing.

Lead image: Mayor Lee Pratt addresses Rotarians and guests at the Heritage Inn Thursday, Oct. 28. Ian Cobb/e-KNOW photo

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