The City of Moncton keeps growing and growing.
According to the city’s new Urban Growth Strategy (UGS) released last week, Moncton was the fastest growing census metropolitan area in the country last year.
Greater Moncton’s population is approximately 171,600, which makes up roughly 21 per cent of the province.
According to the UGS, there's a lot more people coming.
Andrew Smith, the manager of long range policy planning with the city’s planning and development department, said the growth numbers are quite acute.
“The population growth we’re experiencing, it's almost 50 per cent over the next 25 years. So that translates into a housing need of over 16,000 housing units. So that's a considerable level of growth for a municipality,” said Smith.
The purpose of the strategy is to provide a plan on where and how residential growth and economic development should take place over the next two-and-a-half decades.
Newcomers are driving the population surge and Smith said the city needs to see more housing units being built to accommodate them all and to drive the cost of housing down.
“A part of that issue is supply and demand. We just don't have enough housing units. As part of this urban growth strategy, it really calls for that bolstering of housing development,” said Smith.
There’s also the issue of affordability as well.
“At the City of Moncton we have numerous initiatives going on to be able to support affordable housing,” said Smith.
The city spoke with elected officials, community stakeholders and residents as part of the strategy and were told the downtown area needed to be strengthened.
Steve Gallagher has owned The Old Triangle Irish Alehouse on Main Street for almost 20 years.
He can see the change happening now.
“I’ve always said for any downtown to feel alive and vibrant, you’ve got to have people in it. Historically, and I’ve been living here for 40 years, Moncton hasn’t had that,” said Gallagher. “Look at all the apartment and condominium projects going up in and around the downtown core. That's a great sign for downtown Moncton.”
Next door, the manager of Elle Mio thinks there's room for improvement.
“You know, becoming a more vibrant downtown. There's lots of room for more restaurants, bars, retail,” said Katelyn Daigle. “Parking is another thing. We need more parking downtown. It's probably the number one complaint we get from customers is they can't find a parking spot.”
Catherine Bourque, a spokesperson for the Chamber of Commerce for Greater Moncton, said the chamber sees the UGS as a crucial step towards fostering sustainable economic development and enhancing the city's competitiveness on both the regional and national scales.
“The strategy's focus on balancing growth aligns directly with the business community's goals of promoting Greater Moncton as an attractive investment destination filled with various business expansion opportunities and we strongly believe this strategy is the key to unlocking Moncton's full potential as a dynamic hub for innovation, entrepreneurship and economic prosperity,” said Bourque in an email.
Bourque said the UGS can be a huge benefit for the city’s business community.
“Moncton is and has been seeing unprecedented growth, and this Urban Growth Strategy is a key tool to help us attract, and most importantly, retain our population and thus expand our tightening labour pool,” said Bourque.
As for what the city might look like 25 years from now, Smith believes there will be more diverse forms of transportation with people walking, cycling and taking transit as their means of commuting.
