Petawawa, Ont. booms as soldiers return home

Petawawa is enjoying an economic boom as Canadian Forces soldiers return from serving in Afghanistan, many flush with salaries and bonuses earned while in combat.

Since last November, more than 1,900 soldiers have returned from tours in Afghanistan, and now spend their working days at CFB Petawawa — the economic engine of the Ottawa Valley, about 160 km northwest of Ottawa.

Many of the soldiers are returning after serving multiple, rotating tours that started back in 2003.

Petawawa mayor Bob Sweet said he's happy to see the troops back, and the money they bring with them.  He says the local coffee shop is one of the places benefitting from the boom. 

"During the deployment, you can get through the line-up in two minutes. Now, it's a 20 minute, half-an-hour type of thing," Sweet said.

Kelsey's Restaurant is humming now, but it has ridden out eight years of boom and bust. Every troop deployment slams the restaurant's revenue.

"Put it this way, the military is 80 per cent of our business," restaurant operator Kim Clouthier said. "So when they're here we are booming."

Soldiers are making big purchases, too, said real estate broker Bart Neville.

"Some people come back and buy a boat, or an (ATV), or a car, and some people buy homes," he said.

Around 1,000 new homes have been built recently in the town, and another 1,000 are planned. A box store area is also in the works, as is the community's first hardware store.

"That's driven by what's happening up on base. If this is a recession, give me one every month," mayor Sweet said.

Soldiers changing town's dynamic

But there is also a downside.

Sweet said for the first time, Petawawa is seeing traffic jams, particularly at the end of work day. 

"The volume of traffic on the main street is incredible," he said.

CFB Petawawa officials are considering staggering the start times of shifts to help cut down on the gridlock caused by soldiers commuting to the base.

But while they've clogged the roads, soldiers are helping revive town recreation programs that suffered while they were serving overseas.

"It's hard to run minor hockey, figure skating … it's hard to keep them functioning when that many people leave the area," said Petawawa's deputy mayor Tom Mohns.

Resident Bart Neville coaches minor hockey in Petawawa, and said he's seen many soldiers who can't wait to get back to that aspect of life.

One soldier, Neville said, "got home from Afghanistan at 11 p.m., and at 8 a.m. he was at the rink with his little girl. That was pretty cool."

Town expected to grow

Amanda Keeping owns "The Baby Nest," a baby gear and maternity store. She's banking on a post-tour baby boom, and is already seeing a few new customers.

"I'm already seeing it with newly-expected moms coming in to buy 'preggie pops' and things like that," Keeping said.

And while the Afghanistan mission is winding down, CFB Petawawa is expected to grow in the coming years. A new helicopter squadron, staffed by some 5,000 soldiers, is set to join the base in 2013.