Immigration.ca - Canada Immigration News - March 2009
For the first time in almost 25 years, the province of Alberta is projected to have a negative economic growth in the coming year, while Saskatchewan seems to be poised to take over as the new booming province of Western Canada.
According to the latest predictions from the Conference Board of Canada, Alberta’s economy will likely grow minus 0.5 percent due to the dramatic slowdown in energy consumption. Oil production, most heavily concentrated in the northern oil sands of the province, was the driving force behind Alberta’s economic boom in recent years.
“With all the activity going on in the oil sands and the price of oil coming down 70 or 80 percent from its peak last summer, we’ve seen most of the oil companies cancel pretty much every major project happening in Alberta,” said Todd Crawford, an economist with the Conference Board.
Despite the grim economic forecast, there remains a large sense of optimism in regards to Alberta’s future. The Conference Board predicts that the energy industry, and with it the province of Alberta, will bounce back in the next few years as the economy stabilizes.
For the time being, Alberta’s Premier, Ed Stelmach says he is more concerned with how the slowdown will affect the other provinces that depend on equalization payments from Alberta, which provided over $18 billion in contributions last year.
“There won’t be the same contribution (this year),” said Stelmach of Alberta’s equalization payments. “And yet the prime minister still has this equalization pool that he still has to share with other provinces.”
Source: The Canadian Press
