Household incomes soared during Saskatoon's resource boom: census data

The vehicles driving through Saskatoon may no longer resemble the boxy, rust-ridden sedans of the early 2000s.

Many families have likely traded upfollowing theresource boom between 2005 and 2015, which gave Saskatchewan the highest median household-income growth among Canadian provinces during that period, according to census data released by Statistics Canada last week.

In Greystone Heights, south of 14th Street, north of Eighth Street and east of Preston Avenue, household incomes doubled. The median household there earned$79,701 at the end of 2015.

Lori Weiler-Thiessen, who is president of the GreystoneHeights Community Association, said the neighbourhooddemographic changedduring the boom.

Young families moved into the neighbourhood when seniors moved out of homes they had lived in since the 1960s, she said.

"The people who moved here, a lot of newcomers came in and they worked very hard," she said.

"They got educated at the university, they used the school for their kids. And they weresuccessful in the endeavours that they undertook."

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GreystoneHeights residents also attribute the change to the demolition of old rental apartments, which were replaced with new developments where the units each have owners.

"And so those are all now condos and they've all been bought up and a number of them have been resold," said resident Eric Koshinsky.

"A lot of the houses have been expanded, some people doubling the height and expanding in that way, building ensuites for families and things like that."

No more hiding wealth in Saskatoon

Further east, on the other side of College Drive, families in Arbor Creek earned the highest annual household incomes in the city, with the median family in 2015 earning $146,651.

"The auto mall in Saskatoon didn't even exist in 2004, 2005," said Brian Kelly, the general manager ofMaseratiand Alfa Romeo of Saskatoon, a luxury dealership owned by the Wyantgroup which opened its doors last week.

"Prior to 2005, everybody hid their wealth,"said Kelly, who said auto sales havechanged significantly since the province's resource boom. "Look at it now."

Kelly estimated 70 per cent of his customers at the luxury dealership want premium SUVs and light trucks.

"Avehicle that you can tow the boat, tow the snowmobile, pack all the supplies you need for a week at the lake," Kellysaid. "Because of all the sunshine we get in Saskatchewan, we tend to be outside."

Disparity among growing incomes

Not everyone can afford a Maserati.

Families in Meadowgreen and Pleasant Hill finished the decade with median household incomes of $49,254, which translates to income growth of 50 per cent over that10-year span.

"The less well-off have made somegains, but the better-off have made even greater gains, thus widening the income gap between high and low-income families in Saskatchewan," wrote Paul Gingrich, a retired University of Regina sociology professor.

In 2009, the Canadian Centre for Policy Alternatives published Gingrich's research inBoom and Bust: The Growing Income Gap in Saskatchewan, a white paper warning policymakers and politicians about Saskatchewan'sgrowing income disparity.

Gingrich noted demographic changes and other factors also affected income growth in some neighbourhoods over the past decade.