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The roller-coaster building industry

Iqaluit construction down in 2001

Nathan VanderKlippe
Northern News Services

Iqaluit (May 27/02) - Judging by the value of building permits across the North, 2001 saw almost four times as much construction in the NWT as in Nunavut.

With figures adjusted for population, the NWT is still beating its eastern counterpart by a factor of about 2.5.

According to statistics compiled by the governments of the NWT and Nunavut, the total value of permits in the NWT was $76 million, while Nunavut came in at $20 million.

That's a dramatic swing from the year before.

In 2000, Nunavut outstripped the NWT by a wide margin. The total value of Nunavut permits came in at $37.3 million, while the NWT calculated $23 million in permits.

Government construction in the NWT has loosely followed the same pattern. The GNWT has budgeted $109 million for construction in fiscal 2002, up from $98 million in fiscal 2001. In Nunavut, however, construction budget allocations haven't changed much: $70 million in fiscal 2002, $71 million in fiscal 2001.

The jump in NWT permits can be attributed to a territory-wide building boom, said NWT Construction Association executive director Don Worrall.

"Obviously construction is picking up due to the housing shortage, and in response to industrial demands, i.e. the mines and the oil and gas exploration companies," he said.

Looking ahead, Worrall said he foresees a dip in the NWT building craze when Diavik completes construction. The target date for building closure at the mine is April 2003.

"I suppose that ... there will be a gap there until DeBeers gets started (construction)," he said.

In Nunavut, the story is a little more complex. Starting in 1996, the value of building permits began to rise year by year as Iqaluit and other communities began installing the needed infrastructure for the new territory of Nunavut.

With government buildings came secondary spinoffs, as private industry built houses, restaurants and other facilities to service the impending rush.

That building activity peaked in 2000, when much of the construction was completed shortly after the inauguration of Nunavut.

Following that, building permit numbers fell to more normal levels, said Alain Carriere, the president of True North Properties Group.

"It's on a bit of a normalization curve," he said. "So certainly you can anticipate this year, in 2002, the numbers will probably be sensibly the same thing."

In fact, Carriere says, numbers in Nunavut should hold fast at this level for the next few years, although they may be occasionally bumped up by building projects for schools and health facilities.

But it shouldn't be long before the territory experiences another building boom, when more mining companies begin to move in.

"Mining will come to Nunavut. It's not a matter of if. It's a matter of when," said Carriere.

And when it comes, he said, it should bring with it spinoffs similar to those seen in the late '90s: a spate of residential and service industry construction.