Today when you drive up First Street in Collingwood heading west toward the mountain, you'll quickly notice that the landscape sure has changed in the last six months. The old Don Cherry's has been replaced by the new Boston Pizza. The former Harding factory was sheared in half and now a Home Depot sits in its place. Remember Darsco Lighting and Sears? They've been replaced by the new Staples and behind that, the new big building is a seven screen Galaxy theatre. By the way, both are now open.
Yes, times do change. In 1996, Collingwood had 15,600 permanent residents and 10 years later, that rose by 11% to about 17,300 people. Add in the number of part-time residents and the growth has been significant but nothing compared to what is "on the books." There are currently close to 6,000 more households in various stages of development through-out the town! If they all actually materialized, we could be looking at an increase of about 70% to our population. Is that good or bad? Maybe we should ask the residents of Wasaga Beach where the population has grown 73% over the last ten years from 8700 people in 1996 to over 15,000 in the 2006 census.
I see good and bad. What do you think?
Comments(0)