A strong September has kept a number of communities on track for a record year of growth.

The MSTW (Morden - Stanley - Thompson - Winkler) planning district released their building permit report for September which revealed total permits rose from 47 and a value of $6 million last September to 60 permits worth $8 million last month.

Overall, year-to-date permits in the region are up slightly to 444 from 439, but value shot to over $103 million. This time last year the value of permits sat at $52 million.

Winkler leads the region with permits hovering above 200, but with a value of $62.5 million. Last year at this time, Winkler had 205 permits but with a value of almost $27 million. The city's permit value is buoyed by a new school construction ($24 million) though MSTW Manager Glen Wieler notes even without the Provincial funding influx, Winkler is still seeing above-average growth.

Winkler Mayor Martin Harder notes with the possible Meridian Exhibition Centre expansion to be added to the books in 2018 it will be the best economic year in over two decades.

Work continues on the Terrapoint Agribusiness Centre in the RM of Stanley along Highway 3 between Morden and Winkler

Wieler notes the community growth is fuelled by local businesses investing back into the local economy. Recent shop builds by Lode King and Steel Tech, as well as major renovations by Tempo and Canadian Tire pushed new industrial permit values from $3 million last year at this time to $13 million while commercial improvement jumped from $1.5 million to just over $5 million.

"When your local businesses are investing in the community, it turns into their employees investing in their homes which turns into jobs for their kids, which turns into their kids buying houses and businesses," Wieler says.

"Those businesses expand again and it just keeps going, it's so exciting," he adds.

"The apartments, multi-family units being built, it's almost like as we give them occupancy the moving trucks are backing in and filling them up and ready for the next one, and it just keeps going," Wieler says.

In Morden, permits remained similar around 100, but total value jumped $7 million to just over $20 million year-to-date. New commercial permits put the city over the top with values rocketing from just over $1 million to $9 million, led by a hotel announcement and the new Home Hardware location.

The RM of Stanley also saw strong growth, tied to local business expansion with the Terrapoint Agribusiness Centre helping boost new commercial permit value from just over $1 million last year at this time, to nearly $6 million this year.

In total, Stanley saw permits rise from 108 to 124, with value doubling from almost $10 million to $20 million.

Pine Ridge Elementary construction continues in Winkler's northwest