Everywhere you look cranes loom above the bustle of people and cars going about their busy routines, and the sounds of construction add to the everyday sounds of busy city life. A good portion of this new construction is devoted to building new offices and condominiums, and although it might seem like there’s a crane on every corner, it might not be enough to sustain Calgary’s increasing population and downtown workforce.

Last year saw an incredible influx of people moving to Calgary. Across the country it was known that Calgary was booming, which made it a very attractive place to live and work. Even this year there are labour shortages in almost every industry and many companies are looking outside the city to fill in the gaps. The combination of a vibrant city with a booming economy and lots of work to be had will ensure that Calgary’s population growth will be on par with what we saw last year. However, with the rental vacancies at an all-time low and the housing industry already working hard to keep up with demand, the question is will Calgary be able to sustain its own growth?

Calvin Buss, President and CEO of the locally-based Millennium Group, with more than 29 years of experience in real estate, has a pretty good idea of what is going on in the city. He says that last year about 46,500 new jobs were created and consequently the number of people moving into Calgary increased dramatically. “Net migration numbers into Calgary went from 13,677 in 2005 to 25,794 in 2006, and that number in 2007 will increase again.” says Buss. “Our migration numbers are strong and our labour is short.” One of the problems that the construction industry is experiencing is that even if companies are able to bring in workers from out of province, there is often nowhere for them to live, which consequently creates a catch-22 situation. However there are various reasons that the industry hasn’t been able to keep up with the levels of demand that we’ve been seeing.

“The construction industry had some constraints on the ability for it to really build any more,” says Buss. “The industry was running flat out and even so, I think there were buildings last year that would have gotten built had we more capacity to get the building and development permits through City Hall on a timely basis.” He admits however, that unfortunately City Hall was already doing the best it could. “Last year in Calgary we put through twice the volume of building permits than they did in Toronto and Toronto’s development department is three times the size of ours here,” says Buss. “So they’re working flat out at City Hall trying to make ends meet and get the development permits through.” So again, if City Hall had the resources to move things through quicker, more building could be built more quickly, but as it stands it’s another catch-22 situation.

Another problem construction companies now face with bringing people into our city to keep up with demand is that there are other provinces that are booming that still have rental vacancies and places to house workers. “I know for a fact that general contractors have been looking out of province to bring trades here to work but now they can’t bring people in from Saskatchewan because Saskatchewan is booming, and they can’t bring people in from Manitoba because Manitoba is booming,” says Buss. “So they go to Ontario and the East Coast and they bring all those trades down here and then there’s no place to put them. You’re not going to have a guy coming here for six months to drywall and expect that he’s going to buy a house for $400,000.”

This situation is becoming so desperate that Buss says he had one of the general contractors come to him offering to completely renovate any apartment building or older hotel that was available so that they could house the trades there. The fellow explained that if they had a place for them to live, then they could hire more people.

“So what we have is companies going outside their core business to try and find and fix and provide accommodations just so they can bring in trades so that they can build more,” says Buss. “So when I say we could have built more last year; that’s one of the reasons I go in that direction and say that.”

Ultimately the boom provides its own constraints and tends to create its own problems. There are many issues that the construction industry has to face, from land availability and building permits to insufficient numbers of architects and trades to design and construct the needed buildings. However, there are a huge number of buildings that are scheduled to be built in Calgary this year, although Buss figures that maybe only half of them will actually go ahead and begin construction. He says that it shows us the huge potential for people planning to build in the near future. As for right now, there are buildings that are being completed and buildings that will be completed in the near future, and many of the buildings that you see starting construction are two-year projects. What this means is that a lot of people will be leaving the rental market as they take possession of their new homes, and although there will be as many people swooping in to take up the slack, it bodes well for the future.

However, Buss reminds that it’s not all renters that are buying these downtown properties either. “Some people are moving into the city, and some are moving from houses into the downtown core,” says Buss. “With a clean, new, safe inner-city — lots of people working downtown are moving closer to work.” With some of the transportation problems that Calgary faces, it’s not hard to imagine trading a long drive in traffic for a shorter drive or even a nice walk each morning. Buss says that 29 per cent of Calgary’s workforce comes into the downtown core every day – a higher number than any city in North America – and Calgary has the highest amount of commercial office space per capita of any city in North America.

Hopefully what this means is that the demand for housing will equal out a bit as projects are being completed and more room is made for out-of-town trades, who in turn can help complete more of the projects that are planned for our city. Of course it is going to take some time playing catch-up and time to absorb the influx of new people moving here, but with a city as vibrant and booming as Calgary, what else can you expect?