Alberta's Cities and Services

Welcome to Insight Into Alberta:a monthly e-newsletter designed to inform you on Alberta's current business environment. This month we take a peek at growth projections for Alberta's two leading cities as well as the professional services and information and communication technology sectors. To round it all off we'll show you capital spending projections for Canada's oil and gas industry.

In 2009, Calgary and Edmonton were home to 1,230,248 and 1,155,383 people respectively. According to the Conference Board of Canada's latest metro forecast, these numbers are expected to grow significantly in the next few years.

Calgary is expected to post 3.4 per cent growth rates in 2011, making it the second fastest growing city in Canada, behind Saskatoon.

Edmonton is expected to post real growth of about 3.1 per cent for 2011, making it the third fasted growing city in Canada

For the 2012-2015 period, the Conference Board of Canada expects Calgary's annual growth rate to average 4.1 and Edmonton's to be 3.6 per cent. .

These cities will be home to new opportunities for businesses and employees alike.

Things are looking bright for the professional services and information technology sectors in Alberta. According to Statistics Canada's National Economic Accounts:

Approximately 34,500 jobs will be created between 2010 and 2013 in the Professional, Scientific and Technical Services industry. Employment is expected to grow on average 5.7% annually from 2010 to 2013.

Alberta's information and communication tech industry includes more than 4,300 companies and 54,500 employees generating over $10.2 billion in annual revenues, making it Alberta's third largest value-added sector

Alberta's software and IT sector includes an outstanding research community and excellent education system - 26 world-class post-secondary institutions of higher learning are pushing this industry forward

            Oilsands Spending Increases in 2011

*Source: CAPP