HERBERT, Sask. – Fifty families have moved to this southwestern Saskatchewan town in the last 18 months, filling all available properties, doubling local house values and raising hopes for the future of other small communities.
Mayor Al Kildaw attributes the mini boom to a province-wide advertising campaign to retain and attract people to Saskatchewan and the town’s location on the Trans-Canada Highway minutes from bustling Swift Current.
“What’s happening in Herbert is what’s happening in Saskatchewan,” he said, citing stories of similar activity in Carnduff and Humboldt.
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“We have a wonderful lifestyle and affordable housing,” said Kildaw, who moved to Herbert eight years ago after retiring from his job in Prince Albert. “You have to drive a long way to find a traffic jam.”
Saskatchewan offers a simple life without the congestion, pollution, development and high prices of its neighbours to the west, he said.
Small towns provide basic services like schools and businesses, and highways provide access to other services in larger centres.
Kildaw said people in Alberta and British Columbia are selling their homes for three to four times more than what they will pay for similar accommodation in Saskatchewan.
The national average is $300,000, with this province’s average house price sitting at half that, said Bill Madder, executive vice-president of the Association of Saskatchewan Realtors.
He cited strong markets and rising values throughout Saskatchewan.
“They’re all good; it’s strong everywhere,” he said.
Residential sales are up 38 percent and prices are 60 percent higher than last year.
He said farmland sales are also quite active, although the association does not keep such data.
Duane Ring at Farm Credit Canada in Swift Current reports good activity but not an abnormal increase in farm sales for this time of year.
Both he and Madder were unsure how much of that was related to farmers retiring or selling land in a hot marketplace. They both felt looming ethanol development has also raised hopes on the farm.
“There is some optimism with grain prices strengthening,” said Ring.
The market has not fully returned to levels seen before recent droughts and the BSE outbreak, said Roger Manegre, broker owner of Remax Realty in the Battlefords.
“I have not seen anything out of the ordinary but there are a few more sales than last year,” he said.
Manegre cited strong sales for cottages and larger parcels of land, noting many Albertans are shopping and looking to relocate to farms in the area.
Herbert’s mayor is trying to stop some of them at his town.
Kildaw said the town has created a cartoon-like figure named Herbert to raise its profile. He can be seen on “Have you seen Herbert” postcards, shirts, signs and licence plates throughout the town of 1,000.
He said other communities have done the same, citing the “I love Shaunavon” campaign.
Until the recent population surge, Herbert was also selling lots for $1. Developing new lots is expensive so Kildaw and the council are now directing efforts toward creating opportunities for existing land.
The town is in negotiations to develop seniors housing and create a training centre and dormitory for new immigrants.
It’s all part of a controlled development plan, said Kildaw, who noted, “we don’t want to grow a Calgary.”
Herbert participates in Action South-west, a region-wide development strategy of local and provincial government, agriculture and business working to strengthen and promote the resources of the large rural region anchored by Swift Current.
It has launched projects aimed at increasing populations in rural areas and boosting underdeveloped businesses by creating partnerships across the region.
Kildaw said that means sharing services such as emergency response units and heavy equipment and applying for funding as a region.
“It’s critical to our survival. If we don’t become involved in the whole region, we will be an island unto ourselves, and the waters are rising,” he said.
“If we don’t, we’ll be fighting battles by ourselves.”
