The population of the community has been steadily rising with the addition of many new, young families to the area. The average population growth of 9.5% per year makes Macklin one of the fastest growing communities in the province and with 73% of our population under the age of 45, we remain one of the youngest as well.
The area in and around Macklin has been extremely active in creating new and stable employment opportunities. In the past two years we have seen families from Newfoundland, Manitoba, Ontario and Alberta, to name a few, relocate to our community to secure employment. The location of the community, being on the border, provides the residents the best advantages of the two competing provinces. The mainstays of the economic growth within the region have been agriculture and oilfield related businesses.
Annually, within the park and the community, we play host to the World Bunnock Championship. During this weekend the population of the town more than doubles in size. This game, played with horse ankle bones, is a combination of horseshoes and lawn bowling, and is fast becoming a tourist event that people from all over the world come to see. This championship has been featured on several CBC shows and many different newspapers around the world. This is one of the many attractions that makes our community such a wonderful place to live. We, as a community, pride ourselves in being a family-oriented community, so stop by and we are sure that it will feel like home.
Recently Macklin seen the completion of a $2.3 million dollar water treatment plant and the start of construction on the $2 million dollar Macklin School gymnasium expansion.