Steinbach Mayor Chris Goertzen says construction activity is picking up in the city after a bit of a lull last year. $25 million worth of building permits were issued by the city in the first half of this year compared to $19.4 million in the same period last year. Goertzen says there are signs of more growth going forward.

"Certainly the talk around the community is that there is a low vacancy rate and we expect to see a lot of growth in the coming months. We are seeing a lot of anticipation about where we are heading in the next year to year-and-a-half. There's lots of talk about senior's housing in the coming year. There's lots of talk about multi-family needing to be built again because vacancy rates are low."

There have been 26 housing starts in Steinbach in the first half of this year including single family homes and duplexes. That's up slightly from 23 in the same period last year. The largest permits so far this year is for $8.7 million for the Primary Care Centre being built off of Loewen Boulevard.