Kirkland Lake.

• Position: COMMUNITIES OF OPPORTUNITY

After experiencing hard times with depressed gold prices a decade ago, Kirkland Lake is undergoing an impressive turnaround.

"We were standing at the edge of a cliff 10 years ago, and now we're standing on top of a mountain," said Wilfred Hass, the town's director of economic development and tourism. "The community is doing very well with rapid growth."

A number of historical gold mines and properties are in operation and others are scheduled to re-open in the near future as new gold strikes have created a bounce-back effect for the community.

With a conservative life expectancy of 15 years for the mines, the town has been receiving a lot of interest from industrial, commercial and residential developers.

The booming mining sector has been driving everything forward, leaving the rest of the town running to catch up. "The community has come to grips with the economic boom, but it is very tenuous," Hass said. "If everything stays on an equal course, then we assume there will be more expansion in the secondary portions of the economy"

The municipality's population went from 8,000 to roughly 10,000 in.a an of a few years, mainly because of the influx of families in the area.

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Kirkland Lake Gold had 250...