Fernie is facing a fabulous future

More part-time recreationists are moving to the city full time

The heart of Fernie is home to several businesses that cater to visitors drawn by the city's booming tourism industry. — Tanya Laing Gahr photo

Ask Randal Macnair, the mayor of Fernie, about the prospects for the community, and he is enthusiastic in his reply.

“(This will be) our busiest year ever as far as development and construction is concerned,” he said. “Last year we had our largest increase ever in new assessment for taxation purposes. In fact, it was more than double what we were anticipating. “It’s the sort of thing that builds upon itself. Many of the folks who come to Fernie fall in love with it. We live in one of the most special places on the planet.”

Fernie has traditionally been a resource community; mining and forestry were long considered the backbone of the Elk Valley’s economy. However, the world-class ski hill has become a favoured destination for winter tourists.

“We’re coming off one of our best years ever,” said Macnair. “All the merchants that I spoke to said the same thing: this was the best summer ever. The fall was very strong. Fernie is known for our winters, but summer is even better.”

Tourism is bringing new faces to Fernie in droves, creating a strong demand for recreational property development. But destination tourists are not the only contributors to Fernie’s growth.

“The other thing that we’re beginning to see is amenity migrants—lifestyle refugees,” said Macnair. “They’re folks that, since Fernie really began to take off, have bought recreational property here. In the past year, we’ve seen a significant increase in the number of these people who are coming and moving here full time. This is extremely positive for our community. The majority of them are people in knowledge-based industries. They’re spending money in Fernie 365 days a year. That’s a component of our community that’s really growing.”

A strong mining industry also benefits Fernie, and Macnair believes the diversification of the city’s economy is positive as well. Even as Fernie grows, however, it strives to maintain some of its small-town sensibilities. Macnair spoke of the smart-growth project—where reclamation of abandoned or underutilized building developments within the townsite are encouraged—as being an expressed objective of the City of Fernie.

“It’s something that, as far as development is concerned, is our highest priority,” he said. “In our projections that we made in 2003, we anticipated what we refer to as infill intensification. We’ve had a much higher level of that happening than we had previously anticipated. This is positive—taking some of the older housing stock and modernizing it or making it contemporary. Reuse of the older housing stock means less impact on the environment.

“That’s one of the appeals of our community. We’re a real walkable, livable community.”