A keen insight is not crucial to notice that Squamish is changing. Coffee shops are full of residents commenting on the apparent population boom, of new buildings cropping up and of growing attention and interest in the town itself. Now the District of Squamish has compiled figures from a variety of sources, including national and provincial statistics, to back up those claims, and compared them to other municipalities in B.C. to see how we stand. The report, prepared by Squamish Sustainability Corporation's Business Development team, summarizes a wide range of information, including demographics and population, housing, labour force, development, taxes and more. And it takes a decisively positive tone."With a downturn in industry felt across the province," states an opening letter from Mayor Ian Sutherland, "Squamish has had to redefine itself for the working world and now offers a wide variety of opportunities in the tourism and education sectors, and will soon be a knowledge-based industry Mecca."Development and construction in Squamish are booming. Residential growth has been unprecedented and the upgrade to Highway 99 is making Squamish a desirable location to live."A bedroom community?A glaring discrepancy between local and provincial numbers will support those who fear that Squamish is becoming a "bedroom community" to Vancouver with a growing commuting labour force. Although the community profile report does not compare the commuting population to past years, it shows that in 2007, 46.6 per cent of working residents earned a salary in Squamish while an additional 16.4 per cent stay within the Squamish Lillooet Regional District (SLRD), for a total of 58.8 per cent. This is quite a bit lower than the provincial average showing approximately 75 per cent of B.C.'s labour force working in their region.As for the employment rate, Squamish had a labour force participation rate of 75.1 per cent as of the 2006 census -- with nearly one-third of Squamish residents work in sales and service - which was considerably higher than the provincial average and higher than in comparable communities like Kelowna, Chilliwack, Mission, and the Greater Vancouver metropolitan area. Working men earned a few hundred dollars more than the provincial average with $48,757 annually, while working women earned about $2,500 less than the B.C. average with $34,263 annually.District revenueProperty tax rates - a favourite topic of complaint for many business and homeowners - are "comparable to those in Kelowna and other communities on the periphery of Greater Vancouver," according to the report, adding that property tax rates for residential, light industry and business properties have declined throughout the 2005 to 2007."The actual effect on a particular property's tax bill depends, however, on how the assessed value of that property has changed over the same time period," states the report.Supporting the claim of development boom, the report states that total building permit values in Squamish were just over $75 million in 2007, which is the "highest level ever and an eight per cent increase over 2006." This compared to just 10 years ago when building permits reached $19,607,000.Commercial building permits tanked in 2007, with a mere $3,996,000 in revenue, but this on the heels of the biggest increase ever seen in 2006, which reached $22,794,000. Last year also saw the highest industrial permit values at $5,723,000.The building boom also means monies are being pumped into the infrastructure needed to support an expanding population. In 2007, these development cost charges DCCs totaled $2,022,000. When set against comparable communities, DCCs are low for residential development, in the mid to high range for commercial development, and high for industrial, according to the report. Who are we?So who is moving into these new and existing homes?Although Statistics Canada's latest census counted 14,950 residents, B.C. stats show the population hovering at around 16,000. And these figures do show that the perceived population boom has a basis in fact.With an annual increase of 2.4 per cent over the last two years, Squamish is growing at almost twice the rate of the provincial average. However, it's a far cry from the peak population increase of 6.3 per cent felt in 1994.Residents have also noticed a boom in young families. In fact, a 20 per cent of Squamish's population are children aged 14 and under, while those aged 25 to 39 and 40 to 54 hover at 25 per cent each. The smallest segment of the population, at nine per cent, is retirement-aged adults of 65 and older. The final report is now available in full for the public to download at BusinessSquamish.com.
