The start to 2020 has seen the Rural Municipality of Ritchot battle through both a pandemic and a flood. But, those threats have not stopped the municipality from experiencing a huge spike in construction.

Mayor Chris Ewen says from January 1st to March 31st, the municipality issued 35 total permits worth $11.6 million. By comparison, through that same period one year ago, Ritchot had issued 21 permits for $5.3 million.

Ewen says there is construction happening in all corners of the municipality, with a few hotspots. 

When you break it down into new housing starts, there have been 17 so far this year, worth a combined $7.0 million. Twelve of those were in Grande Pointe and the other five in St. Adolphe. Through the first three months last year, there were ten new housing starts for $3.9 million. Of those, six were in St. Adolphe, three in Grande Pointe and one in Ste. Agathe.

"We are looking at a significant increase in housing construction in Grande Pointe and apparently it's just going to get bigger and better for that area," adds Ewen.

Ewen, who has a background in real estate, says the housing market is cyclical. He notes last year they saw a weaker growth pattern in Ritchot and this year seems to be a stronger pattern. He says the strong numbers this year also reflect some of the developments that were approved last year, particularly in the Grande Pointe region. 

"We look at all the work that the developers have done to get the public hearings, the conditional uses, the variances, all that stuff in to start the construction," he notes. "They got that done last year and now that they are starting the building phase, the permits are being pulled."

With Manitobans still staring at restrictions related to COVID-19, Ewen says he definitely would not encourage people to run in droves to their local hardware store during this time. However, he has noticed a steady trend of people wanting to do home renovations at a time like this. And, he thinks the pace of construction witnessed in the first quarter, will probably continue, though possibly at a slightly slower pace, this year.

"Construction is an essential service," says Ewen. "People need places to live, some of the businesses need to grow and they need to add on to help the industries that provide for the medical front line workers or anything that's essential."