Could we see a fifth straight record construction year in Kamloops in 2021? City staff say it’s highly unlikely, but that doesn’t mean it won’t be a strong construction year.

Building and engineering development manager Jason Dixon says $395 million in construction last year appears to be an anomaly because of the Royal Inland Hospital expansion, which accounted for almost 40 per cent of that value.

“That said, in talking to our planning folks and conversations they’ve had with people in the development community, I think it’s going to be a good year. When you look at historical averages, it’ll be a decent year. There’s projects on the go, and often things show up that we hadn’t even contemplated. So our expectation is it’ll be a fairly strong year in 2021.”

Apart from the hospital project, city hall still approved almost a quarter-billion dollars in building permits in 2020.

In the past four years combined, just under $1.2 billion of construction has started in the Tournament Capital.

“Especially when you think of the pandemic and the number of people that were out of work or reduced work, or lost their jobs, to know that those people associated with construction were able to keep working, keep putting food on the table, I think it’s a really good news story. I think, as a person who’s lived in Kamloops my whole life, it’s great to see it develop into a really well-rounded community,” Dixon.

Construction employs about 4,000 people in Kamloops each year.