Thirty-eight per cent population growth in Candle Lake

While a number of the new permanent residents are people retiring – some doing it early because of COVID – not everyone is, and the community is teeming.

“The opportunity to work from home has certainly provide people the opportunity to make this their home,” Kostyna said.

The growth started before the pandemic and with a village that incorporated in 1977, they are now seeing the results of time marching on.

“This was something that was going on before COVID, you know, people were discovering Candle Lake. Now we’re in that place where second and third generations of people are coming here,” said Kostyna.

Previously, paNOW reported on the hot real estate sales market in the village in 2017.

In 2020, several months after the pandemic started, things went crazy.

According to realtors, buyers were looking for safety in more remote settings and their desire to buy was helped by a low interest rate.

One $850,000 lake front property sold in three days.

Many of those were people looking for second homes however.

Now the most recent census numbers show a shift in permanent residents and it isn’t only being felt in Candle Lake.

Nearby, Christopher Lake saw a 4.5 per cent growth to 306 residents and the RM of Lakeland saw an even larger spike with a 42 per cent population increase.

The RM’s population went from 915 residents to 1,300 people in five years with that growth is borne out in the development statistics as well.

In 2018 and 2019, the RM had 272 and 277 permits issued, with the largest growth in Division 3 near Christopher Lake.

In 2020, 71 permits were issued and in 2021, 64 were issued with Division 3 still keeping the largest portion of the overall development.

People are moving to Lake Country, as it is locally known, and they are coming from a few places.

According to Kostyna, some are coming from Prince Albert, some from Saskatoon and a significant number from out of province.

“A significant number of people that I know from Alberta are moving here or buying or building new residences here with the intent of retiring,” he explained. “Those may have been people in former years that had to move to Alberta for employment reasons, but never ever wanted to leave home.”

Most of the people during in the community during tourist season are not local and Kostyna estimates that two of every three are visitors. But even that is changing.

“It’s changed over the years. There are more and more permanent residents. That ratio changes a bit more every year,” he said.

Growth leads to challenges. For the resort village council, this is in the ability to provide services.

Some provincial grants are based on population, so the last census increase means a $58,000 boost to the $5-million operating and capital budget they work with.

That might buy one new truck for a staff member to do their job with.

Organizationally, the council has been working on repositioning the village.

A manager of community planning position has been added and council is getting ready to ask the residents how they want their community to look in 10, 20 or even 30 years.

“Any community should understand change is coming. For us, we’re very fortunate in that we see positive change,” Kostyna said. “Our challenges are different but positive.”

In order to meet their needs with a finite amount of financial resources, they will need to be innovative in their thinking.

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susan.mcneil@pattisonmedia.com

On Twitter: @princealbertNOW

by Susan McNeil

Thirty-eight per cent population growth in Candle Lake

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