-=> Quoting Dave Drum to Jim Weller <=-

 DD> Not everyone lives in a boom town.

We are not in a boom right now. Yellowknife has had its booms:
finding gold in 1933, opening more mines after WWII, becoming the
capital city in 1967, getting more province-like powers from Ottawa
in 1980. But the gold era ended in 1997 when the price of gold
plummeted during the Asian Currency Crisis. We had a recession that
lasted until the first diamond mine opened up and had a pretty
strong period of steady growth until 2016 when the last mine was
built and staffed.  But since 2008 the price of diamonds has been
dropping and since 2017 the quality and quantity of the local
diamonds has been in decline at the two older mines as the reserves
get depleted.

Our prices are high due in part to fundamentals: severe climate and
terrain as I mentioned before. So construction costs are high, over
$300 psf. Our sewer and water lines have to be 15 feet deep and the
trenches have to be blasted through solid rock. Our building walls
are 8 inches thick, ceilings have 18 inches of insulation, windows
are PVC frame, triple glazed, low-E sealed units. and our furnaces
oversized. The nearest wholesale suppliers are 1000 miles away.

 DD> Where would your local economy be without the diamonds and the
 DD> gold mining?

We'd still be the capital city full of civil servants, about half
the current size but still expensive to build in.

Actually our housing market is right around the Canadian median.
Rural Saskatchewan and small town New Brunswick may be half the
price but Toronto and Vancouver are more than twice as expensive.

 DD> Typical boom town stuff. Everyone gets rich until the market
 DD> collapses. 

We have been an expensive market since 1933. No collapse, although
there have been dips periodically as mines come and go.


Cheers

Jim


... Know what happens after 10 tequila shots? Me neither. Nobody does!

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