Steel girders form the skeleton of what will soon become a 70,000-sq.-foot expansion at the Brandon Shoppers’ Mall.
The expansion shows optimism in the region’s economy despite fears last year that the farm crisis would mark a downturn in merchant revenues. The farm income crisis, coupled with heavy rain that saturated farmers’ fields last spring, meant producers would have fewer dollars to spare.
Brandon serves as the commercial hub for southwestern Manitoba, one of the regions gripped by the farm crisis.
Much of the credit for the stable economy goes to the Maple Leaf Pork plant now in production. It employs more than 1,000 people and has created spinoff jobs in construction, transportation and feed supply related to an expansion of the region’s hog production.
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“I think Maple Leaf is what is keeping our economy stable, rather than going downhill,” said Brandon Chamber of Commerce manager Lee Jebb. “Maple Leaf has cushioned the impact of the farm crisis.”
Mall manager Kim James said spending at the mall usually increases five to seven percent a year. That didn’t happen this past year. Instead, consumer spending leveled off.
“We were happy the business wasn’t down, but it wasn’t up either,” James said.
“I think the Maple Leaf plant certainly was a help and I think that’s going to build with time.”
About 80 percent of the plant’s workers were hired from Brandon and the surrounding region, according to a study by Richard Rounds, a professor of rural development at Brandon University. Of the workers from outside the region, three-quarters were from Manitoba.
Jebb said the past year was still a tough one for businesses dealing only in farm products, such as implements and crop inputs.
