Goderich, Ontario
The world's largest underground rock salt mine is in Goderich, and almost none of it is Goderich's. Compass Minerals' own 10-K states the mine site occupies 16.3 acres of company-owned land - PIN 41369-0004 - while the workings run west under Lake Huron on a 13,195-acre Crown lease from Ontario at 72.9 cents a tonne. The company carries $206.3 million of plant and equipment there; the town's entire industrial assessment class is $19.6 million. Every federal building in Goderich is leased, not owned, and the town says more than a quarter of its own land is parkland.
8 buildings · 5 with an owner established · 16 sources · 7 tier A · 1 tier B · prepared 2026-10-03
Ontario's land registry is public but never free. ServiceOntario holds the official record of ownership for every parcel in the province and sells it one parcel at a time through OnLand: a copy of a parcel register, including the first page, costs $37.10 ($9.70 statutory + $24.25 ELRSA + $3.15 HST) under the Land Registry Services Branch fee bulletin effective 2 November 2026, with $2.56 for each additional page and $13.15 for an adjacent PIN in Teraview. There is no bulk ownership extract, no open assessment roll - MPAC's per-property values sit behind AboutMyProperty, propertyline and Municipal Connect logins - and no price-paid dataset, so a sale price exists only on a registered transfer. What is open in a small Ontario town is everything around title: the municipality's own council record, and the province's Financial Information Return, which publishes the assessed value of every property class in every municipality.
- realtor.ca — “The Canadian Real Estate Association's terms for REALTOR.ca prohibit the reproduction, redistribution and systematic retrieval of listing content; the town's own Available Lands page points readers at MLS listings, and none of that data was taken.”
The marquee buildings
The towers that set the tone of the core, and who holds them. A price is the price a document states, on the date it states — not an estimate of what the building is worth now.
| Building | Use | Owner | Owner type | Last price paid |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Goderich salt mine North Harbour Road, Goderich (PIN 41369-0004) 16.3 acres of owned surface; approximately 13,195 acres of leased workings |
Industrial | Compass Minerals International, Inc. The company's 10-K to 30 September 2025 describes 'the largest underground rock salt mine in the world', on an isthmus at the mouth of the Maitland River west of the town, surrounded by the lake on three sides. The site is 16.3 acres of Company-owned land, PIN 41369-0004, with several large buildings and silos, a ship-loading facility and three shafts; mining runs west under Salt Mining Lease No. 110134 of 5 February 2024 with the province, about 13,195 acres, to 31 May 2043 at $0.729 a tonne. Workings sit 1,750-1,760 feet down in a 79-foot A-2 salt bed. Net book value of plant, property and equipment: $206,300,000. |
Public company | —A |
| Salt Mining Lease No. 110134 (the workings under Lake Huron) west of the Goderich mine site, under Lake Huron approximately 13,195 acres |
Land | His Majesty the King in right of Ontario (Ministry of Energy, Northern Development and Mines) The single largest property interest in Goderich is a Crown mineral lease. Compass Minerals' filing gives it as Salt Mining Lease No. 110134, dated 5 February 2024, with the Ontario Ministry of Energy, Northern Development and Mines, approximately 13,195 acres, a 21-year term expiring 31 May 2043, royalty $0.729 per tonne. The company states a mine life of about 69 years at 6.5 million tons a year 'assuming the Company is able to successfully renew the lease'. The same filing records that 'certain indigenous groups have challenged the Canadian government's ownership of the land under which our Goderich mine is operated'. |
Government | —A |
| Goderich evaporated salt plant Goderich |
Industrial | Compass Minerals International, Inc. Separate from the mine. The 10-K's table of ten mining properties lists two at Goderich, Ontario: a rock salt mine and an evaporated salt facility, both in production, both in the Salt segment. The filing records that salt production began at Goderich in 1867 by Sifto Canada after a search for oil found rock salt, that Sifto began the nearby Goderich plant by solution mining and evaporation, and that the mine itself was approved in 1956 under Dominion Tar and Chemical. The company states it owns all the ownership interests in its mining operations; no separate acreage or book value is given for the evaporation plant. |
Public company | —A |
| Port of Goderich Goderich harbour, Lake Huron 4.5 acres added 2020; 11 acres under way |
Land | Not established a paid title search would answer it The Goderich Port Management Corporation's own site says it 'commits to operating, managing and maintaining the safe, efficient and future ready Port of Goderich', which is management and not title; nothing on the site, and nothing in any municipal record that could be opened, states who owns the port lands. The port is the only deepwater port on the eastern shore of Lake Huron, with about 200 ships a year in salt, grain and calcium chloride, an 11-acre expansion from dock 8 to the north breakwater due in autumn 2029, and a 50,000 sq ft AgriDome cover at dock 7 due October 2026. |
Not established | —A |
| Goderich Regional Airport (CYGD) Goderich runways 5,000 x 100 ft and 3,000 x 50 ft paved, plus 1,870 x 80 ft turf |
Civic | Town of Goderich The town's own airport page gives two paved runways of 5,000 by 100 feet and 3,000 by 50 feet maintained year-round, a turf runway of 1,870 by 80 feet, a terminal open 07:00 to 17:00 daily, and a 'Goderich Municipal Airport Strategic Plan'; the airport is listed under the town's Build and Invest department with Canada Border Services clearance. The page places it 'within a 3 minute drive from downtown Goderich', and no source opened confirms whether it falls inside the town's legal boundary or in the surrounding township. |
Government | —A |
| Alexandra Marine and General Hospital Goderich |
Institutional | Huron Health System The system's own site: 'Situated in Huron County, Huron Health System consists of two hospitals - Alexandra Marine and General Hospital in Goderich and South Huron Hospital in Exeter.' Its news in 2026 records AMGH signing an MRI purchase agreement, described as a first for Huron County. The corporate name is established from the operator's own statement of itself; no parcel register was searched and the owning corporation of the building is not separately stated, so this is one step short of a title record. |
Institution | —B |
| Goderich post office 35 East Street and Main Street 383 sq m |
Retail | Not established a paid title search would answer it The Directory of Federal Real Property, property 60088, records Canada Post at 35 East St. and Main St. under Lease or Licence, 383 sq m, land area nil - the Crown is a tenant and the register never names the landlord. Goderich is the only one of the five towns in this batch with no Crown-owned federal property at all: Public Services and Procurement Canada's 326 sq m at 52 East Street and the Fisheries and Oceans search-and-rescue station at 235 North Harbour Road West, 349 sq m on one hectare, are also recorded as Lease or Licence. |
Not established | —A |
| Huron County Administration Building, Courthouse Square 1 Courthouse Square |
Office | Not established a paid title search would answer it The County of Huron gives 1 Courthouse Square, Goderich as its own address and runs a Property Services department 'dedicated to maintaining and protecting Huron County housing and facilities', which establishes occupation and maintenance but not title. Goderich's downtown is an octagon known as The Square, with Courthouse Park at its centre - the town's own description. No by-law, financial statement or register entry opened names the owner of the courthouse building, so the field is left blank rather than inferred from a county's mailing address. |
Not established | —A |
The core land
The most valuable ground in the city, and what the public record says about it.
The arithmetic of Goderich is the most striking in this batch. The world's largest underground rock salt mine sits here, and the town's whole industrial assessment class - ordinary plus large industrial - is $19.64 million, against $206.3 million of plant and equipment that Compass Minerals books at the site. The reason is in the 10-K: the mine's surface footprint is 16.3 acres, and the 13,195 acres of workings are a Crown mineral lease under Lake Huron, not rateable Goderich land. The figures are from the Financial Information Return for Goderich T, 2025, last updated 24 September 2026.
Who owns the town
At this scale the significant owner is rarely a trust or a fund: it is one or two local holding companies, a family in its second or third generation, and often the land around the town rather than the buildings in it.
Goderich's biggest asset is underground and belongs to the Crown. The surface holdings are small, and the pattern is unusual: a listed American mining company with a 16.3-acre footprint and a provincial mineral lease that is 800 times larger; a town that says more than a quarter of its land is parkland and plans a 30-acre industrial park because it has little serviced land to sell; a port run by a not-for-profit corporation on ground whose owner no open record names; and a federal government that owns nothing here at all - all four federal properties in the Directory of Federal Real Property are leases. Compass Minerals' own filing also records that 'certain indigenous groups have challenged the Canadian government's ownership of the land under which our Goderich mine is operated'.
| Name | Type | Holdings |
|---|---|---|
| Compass Minerals International, Inc. (NYSE: CMP) The company's Form 10-K for the year ended 30 September 2025: 'The Goderich mine site is located on 16.3 acres of Company-owned land (PIN 41369-0004) on a man-made peninsula consisting of several large buildings and silos associated with mining and material handling, a ship loading facility and three shafts.' It adds 'We are the sole operator of each of our mining properties and we own all of the ownership interests in our mining operations' and gives the net book value of plant, property and equipment at the Goderich mine as $206,300,000 at 30 September 2025, exclusive of mineral rights. |
Public company | 16.3 acres owned; 13,195 acres under lease; $206.3M net book valueA |
| His Majesty the King in right of Ontario (Ministry of Energy, Northern Development and Mines) The same filing: 'The Company actively mines salt west of its owned land under Salt Mining Lease No. 110134, dated February 5, 2024, with the Ontario Ministry of Energy, Northern Development and Mines (MNDM), comprising approximately 13,195 acres. The lease has a 21-year term that expires on May 31, 2043. The current royalty rate paid is $0.729 per tonne.' The province is therefore the landlord of the largest asset in the town, and the mine's stated life of about 69 years depends on renewing that lease. |
Government | approximately 13,195 acres of salt under Lake HuronA |
| Town of Goderich The town's own pages: 'more than one quarter of the land in Goderich is dedicated to parkland, many overlooking the lake'; 'The Town also has plans in place for the development of a new 30-acre municipal industrial park' (the Available Lands page gives the same park as 35 acres, so the figure is not settled); and the town operates the Goderich Regional Airport. Compass Minerals' filing confirms that North Harbor Road, which serves both the harbour and the mine, is 'a municipally owned and maintained road'. The town's audited financial statements are available only on request at Town Hall. |
Government | more than a quarter of the town's land as parkland; a planned 30-acre municipal industrial parkA |
| Goderich Port Management Corporation The GPMC's own site states its mission is 'operating, managing and maintaining the safe, efficient and future ready Port of Goderich', calls it the only deepwater port on the eastern shore of Lake Huron with about 200 ships a year carrying salt, grain and calcium chloride, and describes a continuing expansion of 11 acres added to an initial 4.5 acres completed in 2020, from dock 8 to the north breakwater, with completion anticipated in autumn 2029. A covered AgriDome at dock 7 adds 50,000 sq ft of dry storage and 35,000 tonnes of bulk capacity. Management is not ownership and the site does not say who owns the port lands. |
Institution | 4.5 acres completed 2020; 11 acres under wayA |
| Parrish & Heimbecker, Limited (Goderich Elevators) The Huron Chamber of Commerce business directory lists 'Goderich Elevators, a div. of P&H' at 230 Harbour Street, PO Box 126, Goderich, describing Goderich Elevators Limited as serving agricultural markets locally and around the world, with parrishandheimbecker.com as its website; P&H's own location list includes Goderich, Ontario. That establishes the operator of the grain terminal at the harbour. No register entry, filing or municipal record opened states who holds title to the terminal ground, so this is a presence, not an established ownership. |
Private company | grain terminal at 230 Harbour StreetB |
Who builds the houses
New-home building in this market: the volume, and the firms behind it. Ownership of a builder matters as much as its volume — a private-equity platform and a family firm behave differently.
Goderich added 226 new residential units in 2025, 209 of them apartments - the most lopsided year in this batch, and in the smallest town in it. None of that is reflected in the builder register, because purpose-built rental does not pass through the freehold and condominium warranty counts that Ontario's Home Construction Regulatory Authority publishes. Seven builders are licensed at a Goderich address and the largest of them is registered on a county road outside the town, which is the clearest illustration in this batch of the directory's central caveat: it gives the licensee's registered address, not where the homes were built.
| Name | Type | Possessions 2016-2026 |
|---|---|---|
| Heykoop Construction Ltd Registered at 79370 Porter's Hill Line - a rural address in Central Huron, not inside Goderich - but listed in the directory under Goderich; HCRA-licensed since 23 December 2019. All 106 possessions freehold, no conciliations and no claims recorded. By volume it is the largest builder on the Goderich list by a factor of eight. |
Family / private | 106A |
| Complete Construction (Goderich) Inc. 191 Britannia Road West, Goderich; HCRA-licensed since 2 July 1987, the longest-standing licensee in the town. 13 freehold possessions, no conciliations and no claims recorded. |
Family / private | 13A |
| Habitat for Humanity Huron County 120 Huckins Street, Goderich; licensed since 25 August 2005. Six freehold possessions, no conciliations and no claims. A charity appearing in the builder register at all is unusual and worth recording in a town this size. |
Institution | 6A |
| Nine Mile Enterprises Inc. 21 North Street, Goderich; licensed since 20 January 2021. The directory returns null for every possession and claims field for this account, so no volume can be stated. |
Private company | no possession count publishedA |
Commercial landlords
The commercial side, counted separately from housing: who holds the office, retail and industrial floor area.
There is no REIT, no pension fund and no institutional landlord in the Goderich record. The commercial and industrial ground that matters belongs to one NYSE-listed miner, one Crown lessor and one grain company, and the town's shopping-centre class is $3.92 million - less than a thirtieth of its broad commercial class, which is to say that Goderich's retail is a downtown square and not a mall.
| Name | Type | Floor area / land |
|---|---|---|
| Compass Minerals International, Inc. Two Goderich properties in the company's 10-K property table - the rock salt mine and an evaporated salt facility - plus a ship-loading facility, three shafts and a rail siding on a 16.3-acre peninsula. About 80 per cent of the salt leaves by ship. Four of its twelve collective agreements expire in fiscal 2026, including Goderich, where 393 positions are covered. |
Public company | 16.3 acres owned, 13,195 acres leased, $206.3M net book valueA |
| Goderich Port Management Corporation Operates, manages and maintains the port; expanding by 11 acres on top of the 4.5 acres completed in 2020, with a 50,000 sq ft covered AgriDome at dock 7. Listed as an operator because the site states management, not ownership. |
Institution | about 200 ships a year; 15.5 acres of expansionA |
| Parrish & Heimbecker, Limited (Goderich Elevators) One of the port's principal cargo handlers. The Huron Chamber directory lists Goderich Elevators Limited as a division of P&H at 230 Harbour Street with parrishandheimbecker.com as its website, and P&H's own locations list includes Goderich. Title to the terminal land was not established. |
Private company | grain terminal, 230 Harbour StreetB |
Looked for and not found
Claims this page would have made if a source could be opened. They are left out rather than guessed.
- Who owns the Port of Goderich lands. The Goderich Port Management Corporation states only that it operates, manages and maintains the port; the town's own documents on the subject are behind a Cloudflare block. Management is not ownership and no owner is entered.
- Who owns the Huron County courthouse and administration building at 1 Courthouse Square. The county gives it as its own address and maintains county facilities through a Property Services department, but no document opened states title.
- Who holds title to the Goderich Elevators grain terminal at 230 Harbour Street. P&H's operation of it is established from the chamber directory and P&H's own location list; ownership is not.
- Whether the Goderich Regional Airport lies inside the Town of Goderich's legal boundary. The town operates it and calls it municipal, and its own page places it a three-minute drive from downtown, but no boundary source was opened.
- Whether the planned municipal industrial park is 30 acres or 35 acres: the town's Economic Development page says 30 and its Available Lands page says 35.
- The outcome of the indigenous challenge Compass Minerals discloses. Its 10-K states that 'certain indigenous groups have challenged the Canadian government's ownership of the land under which our Goderich mine is operated' and that there can be no assurance the government's ownership will be upheld; no court or tribunal record was opened and nothing further is claimed.
- The owners of the three Goderich buildings the federal government leases: 35 East Street, 52 East Street and 235 North Harbour Road West.
- Any link between a property holding and elected office in Goderich. Nothing was established and the record carries none.
Sources
- Overview: land registry — Government of Ontario (ServiceOntario) · openA
- Bulletin No. 2026-04: Land Services Fee Changes effective November 2, 2026 (Schedule I, Tariffs of Fees) — Ministry of Public and Business Service Delivery and Procurement, ServiceOntario, Land Registry Services Branch · openA
- MPAC home page (AboutMyProperty, propertyline, Municipal Connect) — Municipal Property Assessment Corporation · registrationA
- OnLand - Ontario Land Registry Access — Teranet / ServiceOntario · paidA
- Financial Information Return bulk CSV, fir_data_2025.csv (Schedule 26, Taxation and Payments-in-Lieu Summary; Schedule 22, Municipal and School Board Taxation; Schedule 02, Statistical Information) — Ontario Ministry of Municipal Affairs and Housing · openA
- Ontario Builder Directory (/api/builders, /api/buildersummary endpoints) — Home Construction Regulatory Authority (HCRA) · openA
- Directory of Federal Real Property, open data extract (dfrp-rbif.xml) — Treasury Board of Canada Secretariat · openA
- Compass Minerals International, Inc. Form 10-K for the fiscal year ended September 30, 2025 (Item 2 Properties: Goderich Mine; Item 1A Risk Factors) — U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (EDGAR) · openA
- Economic Development (Canada Company Huron Tract 1826; planned 30-acre municipal industrial park) — Town of Goderich · openA
- Port of Goderich - home page (mission, expansion, AgriDome) — Goderich Port Management Corporation · openA
- Goderich Elevators, a div. of P&H - business directory listing (230 Harbour Street) — Huron Chamber of Commerce · openA
- Goderich Regional Airport (runways, strategic plan, 'more than one quarter of the land in Goderich is dedicated to parkland') — Town of Goderich · openA
- Huron Health System home page (Alexandra Marine and General Hospital, Goderich; South Huron Hospital, Exeter) — Huron Health System · openA
- Property Services / County of Huron contact (1 Courthouse Square, Goderich) — County of Huron · openA
- Available Lands (privately owned serviced industrial properties; a new 35 acre municipal industrial park) — Town of Goderich · openA
- Budget and Finances (audited financial statements available on request at Town Hall only) — Town of Goderich · openA