A new bridge is only the start -- even when an economic downturn seems inevitable, the Okanagan just keeps booming.
It's easy for Robert Fine to laugh -- many say that as the man in charge of economic development for the region, it seems you can't go wrong.
"My colleagues rib me quite a bit," Fine told CTV News.
It could have gone either way seven years ago, when the biggest private sector employer, Western Star Trucks, closed down for good. Several hundred jobs were lost.
You would have expected that to send the local economy into a tailspin. But instead, something amazing happened.
There began an unprecedented influx of people to the area, and there was such pressure for housing that the region has seen six consecutive years of double-digit price increases.
A few years ago, prices surpassed those in Toronto and Calgary. Sometime this year, the average price of a detached home is expected to hit $560,000.
There's also been an airport expansion. There's been the establishment of a new university through UBC-Okanagan.
And on Monday, the first day of the new $145-million William R. Bennett Bridge saw commuters traversing the lake with gusto.
The area isn't attracting traditional big employers, but the economy is diversifying to serve the people who just keep coming, said Fine.
"People are buying homes here, second homes in some cases for retirement or pre-retirement buying...and that's really kept this boom going," said Fine.
There's no sign of the drop of real estate values, just a slow of the rate of increase, said Paul Fabri, who tracks housing costs for the federal government.
"In terms of a housing market, this is probably quite spectacular," he said.
With a report from CTV British Columbia's Bill Good and Kent Molgat
