2021 Economic Bulletin

The City of Greater Sudbury is pleased to provide insight into Greater Sudbury's economic growth, diversity and prosperity that supports development, entrepreneurship, business and assessment growth in our community.

The data in the pages to follow is an overview of the growth experiences in Greater Sudbury in 2021 and will be reported on a quarterly basis in 2022.

• Several policies and programs have been implemented in recent years with a focus on creating housing opportunities. The Affordable Housing Strategy and several Community Improvement Plans (CIP) provide grants and other financial incentives for residential developments that meet certain affordability and locational criteria.
• The Nodes and Corridors Strategy prioritizes investment and intensification within the City’s strategic core areas and on its major corridors. Recent amendments to the Official Plan and Zoning By-law help to create more mixed uses and housing options on Lasalle Boulevard, with additional areas to follow.
• Recent amendments to the Zoning By-law encourage housing development through the introduction of secondary unit policies and changes to residential parking requirements. In addition, multi-residential buildings, retirement homes and long-term care facilities were added as permitted uses in the Shopping Centre Commercial Zone to increase opportunities for related development.
• The Affordable Housing Strategy, adopted by Council in 2018, created a framework to increase the number and range of housing options for residents and newcomers to the community. Together with the development of the Affordable Housing Community Improvement Plan, these policy changes have contributed to an increase in new units created over the last five years.
• The Employment Land Strategy considers future economic and labour force trends, demand for employment, employment land supply, the level of servicing within strategic employment areas and incentives to meet anticipated demand. The strategy examines opportunities and issues in more detail to ensure land use and financial policies, and infrastructure and services are aligned and consistent with best practices. Development of the strategy is ongoing with completion anticipated in early 2022.

Residential building permits in Greater Sudbury continue to contribute to the creation of a wide range of housing opportunities for the growing population. The number of building permits directly results in the value, which in 2020 was a record high in Greater Sudbury. The construction industry continues to show resilience despite the challenges experienced throughout the pandemic, including an increase in costs to materials and disruptions to the supply chain industry. The data for 2020 and 2021 are consistent with a healthy construction industry.

Industrial, Commercial and Institutional (ICI) building permits reflect development activity contributing to employment growth in the community. The number and value of ICI permits fluctuates year to year with contributing factors, including the number of large scale or multi-year projects with the 5-year average indicating a move toward steady and consistent growth in these areas.

New gross floor area (GFA) reflects additional ICI development that contributes to increased employment and assessment growth. Overall, GFA values have remained relatively stable in the last five years showing a strong demand in local industry. The value for institutional GFA in 2020 was positively impacted by a single multi-year large project, where the value was accounted for the previous year when the permit was issued.

Housing data and construction values show strength in the local residential construction industry with the creation of new housing development and continued interest in intensification of the existing housing stock. Trending growth in the areas of housing starts, secondary units registered and the total residential units combined with a significant increase in property transactions demonstrates a strong investment interest in the local housing market.

The year over year increase of planning applications received indicate development activity in the community. Planning application processing times reflect the time it takes to review applications and present them for decision while ensuring municipal and provincial land use planning standards are met. Processing more applications in 2021 over 2020 reflects an increase in the amount of time taken to process while maintaining existing benchmarks.

New businesses continue to start and expand with support from the services offered through the City's Regional Business Centre. In 2021, 33 businesses started, five businesses expanded for a total of 45 jobs created. This is on par with what was experienced in 2020 with 32 businesses started, 12 expansions, creating 40 jobs.

Greater Sudbury's film and television sector has been an important economic driver for our community for nearly a decade now. The industry attracts incredibly talented and creative people to Sudbury, resulting in jobs that help them stay in the north.

In 2021, there was more than $11 million in local spending from filming in Greater Sudbury with 10 productions and 356 days of filming and 53% of crew local to the community. Among the local productions filmed, Greater Sudbury will be the backdrop and play itself in Shorsey, a spinoff of Bell Media's Crave hit, Letterkenny.

The City of Greater Sudbury is one of 11 communities selected to participate in the Rural and Northern Immigration Pilot Program (RNIP), through Immigration, Refugees and Citizenship Canada. This program works to address local labour force shortages while encouraging immigration and population growth.

In 2021, there were 84 individuals approved through the RNIP to apply for permanent residency. When we include family members of the individuals approved, there were 215 newcomers brought to our community through the program. This is an increase from 2020, that saw 11 individuals approved through the program, for a total of 21 newcomers including family members.

Data is compiled through a variety of avenues including internal staff tracking along with public data from the following sources: