Several decades ago, when I was in middle school, I travelled 700 kilometres from Toronto by train with my school’s orchestra to perform in a small town called Cochrane, located about an hour northeast of Timmins, a mining capital. For city kids, spending a few days in that remote region was as foreign and exotic as a trip to another continent.
The population of Cochrane has hovered around 5,000 for decades, during a period when the population of Canada overall has grown enormously. Peter Politis, Cochrane’s three-term mayor, sees an opportunity in those shifting demographics. He believes his town can help ease Canada’s housing-inventory crisis and would like to attract young families and skilled workers up to his area. His method? About a year ago, Cochrane announced plans to offload roughly 1,500 residential lots for just $10 each.
A bit of a gimmick, yes, but it’s also a savvy plan for Cochrane’s growth. And it seems to be working: Cochrane has accumulated a 4,000-person list of interested parties (and developers) from across the country and around the world. Politis spoke with Maclean’s managing editor Katie Underwood about how he expects nearly-free plots of land will double Cochrane’s population and why he thinks Cochrane is making an attractive offer.
—Sarah Fulford, editor-in-chief
