BROCKVILLE PUTS ITS BEST FOOT FORWARD
Advantages include a friendly community, picturesque waterfront and a `five-minute commute'
If you'd rather be messing about in boats than idling in traffic, Brockville might be the city for you.
Last fall, Brockville General Hospital, the City of Brockville, and the local Employment and Education Centre launched Imagine Brockville Life, a campaign to attract health-care workers to the city about 110 kilometres southwest of Ottawa.
To do so, the partners have produced a series of videos featuring health-care workers extolling the virtues of the city. The partners are also offering incentives to entice prospective employees, such as student loan forgiveness for certain positions. A “concierge” service provides help in finding housing, schools, employment for other family members and more.
The effort is paying off, says Michael Jiggins, the hospital's manager of marketing and communications. “We're proud that the initiative is already producing increased traffic to our careers page, resulting in more applications and several new hires.”
And the catchy tagline for the campaign? “Imagine your life with a five-minute commute.”
That's slightly optimistic, but not by much. According to Statistics Canada, 71 per cent of Brockville workers can get to their workplace within a 15-minute drive. With a population of just over 22,000 people, the city isn't prone to extended traffic jams.
If you don't like driving, the human-scaled downtown is a pleasant place to walk. Brick and limestone buildings line King Street, the main artery. One block to the south, parks, restaurants and a marina dot the St. Lawrence River waterfront. Just west of downtown in St. Lawrence Park, you'll find picnic shelters, a small beach, a kayak launch area and a new snack bar whipping up craft mocktails.
Other local amenities include the Brockville Arts Centre, a 10-km recreational trail, an interactive ecology centre called the Aquatarium, a campus of St. Lawrence College and a small public transit system. Plans are afoot to add a second ice pad to the Brockville Memorial Centre, the city's largest recreation complex.
“We really have a lot here to offer,” says Kendra Lorimer, economic development co-ordinator with the City of Brockville. “I think we almost take some of these things for granted.”
The city also has good connections to larger places. Highway 401 runs right through Brockville's north end. Multiple Via Rail trains each day link Brockville to Ottawa, Montreal, Kingston and Toronto. And the nearest bridge to the U.S. is 30 km to the east.
If this all sounds appealing, you may be wondering whether you can find a place to live in Brockville. The odds are good at the moment. About 2,000 new residential units are currently in the pipeline, says Lorimer. That figure includes both purpose-built rental properties and homes for purchase.
Large developments underway in the north end of the city include the Wellings rental community of bungalow townhomes, aimed at the 55-plus community, and Stirling Meadows, a development of almost 400 homes by Carp-based Mackie Homes. Downtown, there's a proposal to build a nine-storey tower with 66 apartment units on a former Woolworth's property on King Street East.
Lorimer notes, however, that this current spate of building will likely be Brockville's last for a while, as the supply of suitable land is decreasing. “We do have space considerations,” she says.
Of course, new housing isn't the only option. In early June, Realtor. ca listed 118 resale properties in Brockville, at a wide range of prices. On the luxury side, listings included a two-bedroom downtown waterfront condo for $820,000, and a 5,200-square-foot waterfront house near the Brockville Country Club for a cool $1.8 million.
More middle-of-the-road properties included a 1,500-sq.-ft four-bedroom house in the north end, built in 1977, for $554,900, and a three-bedroom century home on King Street East with hardwood floors, stained glass and a coach house for $699,900.
Annie Ly and her family moved from Toronto to Brockville in July 2022, after scoping out several cities and towns in Eastern Ontario. They settled on Brockville when they found a house within their budget with the features — such a dog-friendly yard — they were seeking.
“I wasn't sure what to expect when I moved out here,” says Ly, 36, but she is very happy she made the move. “It's just so picturesque here, and the people are really friendly.”
In Toronto, she had worked as a consultant for startup companies, but she was burning out. Part of the reason for the move was to pursue her dream of opening a café. “Life is just too short to be doing something you don't love.”
Shortly after they moved to Brockville, a downtown storefront became available. In December 2022, Ly opened Sweet Ofelia Café and Market, which serves banh mi sandwiches, bubble tea and other Asian specialties. Business is so brisk that she is currently expanding.