Like many communities in southern New Brunswick, the Town of Shediac enjoyed phenomenal growth in 2021.
Multi-residential construction led the way in building permits with work on three large apartment buildings now underway.
Shediac mayor Roger Caissie says the town typically had up to $15 million worth of building permits annually but that figure ballooned last year.
“In 2018 and in 2020 we had a record at $25 million and in 2021, we surpassed that figure by more than 50 percent hitting $54 million.”
He says there were also lots of single family housing starts last year and new roads being developed to support them.
Tourism is a large part of Shediac’s economy and while 2020 wasn’t a great year, Caissie says visitor numbers improved last summer once border restrictions were lifted.
“We had folks from Ontario and Quebec as well as Americans from the U.S. coming back to Shediac. These are our typical folks who come back every year, either to the family cottage or to come for the two week span.”
Caissie says some restaurants did really well during the summer especially those specializing in takeout.
He believes the hospitality sector had more reasonable numbers too particularly for operators with their own businesses.
But as expected, he adds tourism still wasn’t at pre-pandemic levels although he remains optimistic about 2022.