The Town of Cochrane has sold all of its municipal residential lots, rental units are scarce and there is hardly any vacant office space available.
But Mayor Peter Politis welcomes the growth and “good problems” the community is experiencing due to Detour Gold’s mine construction project, 180 kilometres northeast of Cochrane.
“Our challenge is something we never thought we would ask ourselves — do we expand up or out,” he said.
The $1.2-billion construction project is underway at Detour Lake Mine and is expected to create more than 1,000 direct jobs. Once the mine is operational in 2013, it is expected that 500 people will be employed.
“We will be doubling the economic impact on the community from the (Detour) workforce from $126 million to $256 million,” said Politis. “We are looking at a 50 per cent population increase in the next two years and if that happens we will be the second largest community in the region after Timmins.”
Currently, the town’s population is about 5,500.
Cochrane CAO Jean Pierre Ouellette said the town is “cleaned out” of its municipal residential lots but the municipality is working with a developer on a proposed residential subdivision in the northeast part of town.
“There are two farm lots there that are still part of the urban centre so development will expand that way,” he said. “It’s hard to determine how many extra homes we will be needing. The subdivision is for 400 homes but it will be done in a phased approach with 50 at a time.”
Sheldon Rachuk, Detour’s director of procurement, contracts and logistics, said the company is currently constructing an eight-plex and three single family homes. There are plans in the immediate future for six more single family dwellings.
“These are primarily for our senior management coming in and also to allow a transitional home for our employees while they decide what they will buy or build,” he said. “But until we finalize all our recruiting, we will not know where the workforce is coming from. Our work schedule is one week on and one week off so regional people may be interested and whether that translates into homes being constructed in Cochrane, we really can’t say.”
Currently, there is a shortage of rental units and housing prices are starting to rise. Local real estate agent Miriam Hutchinson, of Realty Networks Inc. Brokerage, said winter is usually a slow time of year for the industry in Cochrane but it has been quite active this season.
“It really has been chaotic,” she said. “It’s not so much new people moving in right now but locals are buying bigger homes or going from rentals to purchasing their first place. The commercial side has always been pretty dead but it has really been heating up.”
Detour will be constructing its regional office this year in Cochrane and it is in the process of signing a contract with SGS to open an assay lab to support the mine requirements. The commercial facility, which will be available to other customers, will add 30 new jobs.
The mayor said the town is in the process of structuring an industrial park and a few locations are being looked at.
“Land for industry and residential homes isn’t really the problem,” Politis said. “We could grow to 50,000 easily. It’s the money involved in servicing the land.”
Warehouse space in the town is currently hard to find since freight is being shipped directly to Cochrane for the mine project. Vacant office space is in great demand and the only option may soon be to build.
The mayor said about 360 businesses in the community are involved with Detour in supplying goods or services and the mining company has “been good” in giving them the opportunity to compete.
“We have three hardware stores in town and all of them are going full tilt servicing the mine and its needs,” Politis said. “I know some businesses have hired more staff.”
Placer Dome operated Detour Lake Mine from 1983 to 1999, but Ouellette said the economic impact on Cochrane during that time period was more indirect.
“They were an existing company and had operations in Timmins so what we saw then was just ancillary jobs coming to the town,” he said. “The community celebrated its 100th anniversary last year and we are saying this growth happening now is 100 years in the making. We never saw this kind of development occur before.”
