Vernon’s economic indicators promising for 2022

Sep 7, 2022 | 7:30 AM

The City of Vernon’s development and economic indicator figures for the second quarter suggest a promising 2022.

A report to Vernon city council Monday, Sept. 6, shows that in the first two quarters of the year, the city’s building permit values were a combined $103.8-million. That total includes more than $45-million in construction values from the second quarter (Q2).

In all of 2021, the city brought in more than $173-million in building permits, which was a record year.

Building Permit Values (graphic courtesy of the City of Vernon)

Speaking with Vernon Matters, Mayor Victor Cumming said “2021 was a record, and we will watch as the back half of the year flows out, but if it matches anything like the first half of the year, we will be right there with last year’s record.”

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Q2 also saw 108 residential units approved for construction, bringing the year to date total of new residential units up to 280.

That figure is also on track to surpass the total of more than 350 new units approved in 2021, though it may fall short of the record high of more than 575 approved residential units in 2019.

Residential units approved for construction (graphic courtesy of the City of Vernon)

As of the end of Q2, there were a total of 183 building permits reviewed and issued this year. That is less than half the more than 400 issued in all of 2021, but could result in a year end finish similar to 2020 or 2019 when there were just under 300 permits reviewed and issued.

Building permits approved and issued (graphic courtesy of the City of Vernon)

“I think there’s a critical need for additional housing, and it needs to be in all income levels, and there’s lots of projects in front of us where we’re hoping people will take out building permits and provide housing in that mix or for slightly lower income levels,” said Cumming.

The report to council also outlined the tourism activity for the City of Vernon in the first six months of 2022.

The report showed approximately $360,000 in Municipal Regional District Tax (MRDT), also known as the hotel tax, paid by visitors staying in area hotels, remitted to the province, then distributed to Tourism Vernon and the City of Vernon.

That total consists of the first five months of the year, with May and April seeing over $110,000 and over $80,000 collected during the respective months.

Those figures were both nearly twice the five year MRDT average for Vernon.

The city also provided estimated monthly hotel revenues, which showed a five-month total of $12.5-million. May saw an estimated $4-million in hotel revenues while April saw an estimated $3-million.

Those are also all above the five year rolling average for hotel revenues in the select months,

Tourism indicators (graphic courtesy of the City of Vernon)

“Tourism indicators were very strong and the important thing is [they were] strong through usually what we call the shoulder season which is April, May and June, were much higher than usual, so that’s a good sign,” said Cumming, adding that coming out of the COVID-19 pandemic may have led to those increases.

The report noted there are typically spikes in the summer months, with a peak in August, which Cumming expects will be the case this year as well.

“Summer [tourism figures] will be high, and I’m hoping we can hold it also through the last quarter.”

by Liam Verster

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