Not surprisingly housing construction slumped in 2010.
But Rio Tinto Alcan’s smelter modernization project gave a rosy hue to the city’s building inspection year-end numbers.
The value of residential building permits was cut nearly in half compared to 2009, coming in at $1.275 million.
Bit players Commercial ($269,500) and Institutional ($72,000) were virtually unchanged so it was up to Industrial to save the day - which it did by rocketing from just over $1 million in 2009 to $12 million last year.
And that helped swell the city’s coffers as it collected permit fees of $58,000 in 2010.
That was more than double the previous year’s $23,900 tally.