North Grenville’s population is nearly 10 per cent larger than it was five years ago, and Mayor Nancy Peckford says she isn’t surprised.
“We’ve always known that North Grenville has a high rate of growth,” she says, “so what the date shows us today is that that rate of growth continues. It’s of no surprise to anyone in North Grenville, or eastern Ontario, that interest in smaller, more rural communities has definitely accelerated.”
“So, we’re not shocked by these numbers,” she continues, “but the data bears out what I think we’ve all been experiencing in our community, which is that there’s lots of new people moving in, and there’s lots of very, very strong interest in relocating to this area.” The numbers come from the 2021 census, which says North Grenville’s population has grown by 9.4 per cent since 2016.
Mayor Peckford says with so many new people moving into the community, one of the municipality’s top priorities is affordable housing, specifically referencing developments like Oxford Village. “That project, in fact, that subdivision had been approved in 2017,” she says, “and since we got elected, we really took a very close look to make sure that housing stock would be priced in a way that was affordable to many different kinds of families, or seniors, for example.”
Mayor Peckford went on to say she thinks North Grenville’s mix of urban and rural development is attractive to a lot of people, and that maintaining our community’s culture is important to her as it continues to grow.
