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Calgary & Alberta Economy

Honestly as someone who falls into the 20-24 demographic I don't think Calgary's case is so dire. Although other cities mentioned do offer more vibrancy, living in Calgary is far more affordable. Most people I know don't even consider leaving, even though they'd like too, because there's no way they could afford to live there. Unless you're making 6 figures its not really worth thinking about moving to Vancouver or Toronto.

Second, I think Calgary gets a bad rap for being 'boring' or uninteresting but that's definitely changing. Even since the 2014 crash there's been an explosion in the kinds of businesses and places which make a city cool (dozens of micro breweries, artisan coffee shops, cool restaurants, etc.). However there's definitely room for improvement (nightlife, concerts, festivals, etc), but I think we're on the up.

As far as the campus thing, yeah UofC is super lame. University District and the 24th ave developments could help that a little, but the campus itself is super sterile. I think if some major satellite campuses set up in the core that would be a big help. Maybe convert some of the empty offices into class rooms, especially somewhere in the Beltline. The old IBM building might just fit the bill.
 
ByeByeBaby said:
I don't think I agree with your analysis of these statistics; the share of 20 to 24 year olds over time isn't all that meaningful. How many of those 20 to 24 year olds that came here in 2005 are still here on that chart? We retained zero. Not a one. Neither did Edmonton, nor Toronto, nor Winnipeg.

Because none of those 20 to 24 year olds that were on the rise in 2005 are 20 to 24 year olds now; they're 35 to 39 year olds in today's measures. What's worse, probably a lot of those 20 to 24 year olds had kids here, which reduces the share of 20 to 24 year olds in the CMA (it also makes them more likely to stay here).

Here's the net change by age group in the Calgary CMA by five year intervals (except the last one, which is only four years).

View attachment 296488
By far the most dominating trend is a little something called the baby boom, and the subsequent echo boom - which 20 to 24 year olds were part of in the first few years of the 21st century.

Why was Calgary different from other CMAs in the trend of 20-24 year olds then? Because of the oil boom -- the one of the early 1980s, which also brought lots of people in their 20s and early 30s to town, who then had kids; the 20 to 24 year old population in 2005 were kids born 1981-1985.

Tracking by age groups is a lot different than tracking the number of university-educated residents, or the number of STEM workers, or the number of high-income workers, or the number of immigrants; these groups are relatively stable, where age groups have a 20% turnover every year even if everybody stays in the same place.

That doesn't mean that it wouldn't be good to attract young people; it's just hard to consider the share of young people to be important, and it's hard to measure attracting young people versus other demographic shifts.
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I mean this supports my point - I didn't pick 20 - 24 year olds, the "young people flee Calgary" article did. My point was the article got it wrong and made spurious connections that weren't there.

Thanks for providing this analysis and table though, this stuff is super interesting and fully acknowledge multiple factors are at play here.
 
gsunnyg said:
I've been to two of them as a general visit and from at least what I hear from buddies, the campus life is much more bumping at other schools. Their campuses are like mini-towns. UofC is largely a commuter campus like SFU and UofA isn't nearly at the level of UBC. I don't mean to be rude, but I'm sorry, campus life sucks in Alberta.
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It's not about being rude it's about making baseless propositions... your buddies anecdotes do not make your proposition about campus life true.
U of A and UBC are very similar in terms of campus life ('older' schools removed from downtown with an adjoining main street/ student community). Again, if you have attended both schools and have a personal preference people might be happy to hear why you might think one is better than other in certain areas-- campus life included. If not, perhaps there are more productive comments to make. I'm only picking on you because there is a trend in the reddit world for people to exude opinions as statements of truth without grounding them.
 
K dude my point wasn't to trigger you, but I don't need to go attend every school to know UofC or Uofa don't stack up to any of the other schools I mentioned for campus life. What do you want me to do? carry out a poll or survey? even that would have a bias. This a purely subjective thing where you can't carry out a scientific experiment to result in a definite conclusion. It's an opinion and I'm going off of well-trusted friends that have attended UofC or UofA and went on to other grad schools so I'm more than happy to give them the benefit of doubt.

And btw, I have been to UoA, multiple times to visit my good friend during our undergrad and I've gone to UBC a few times for the beach before the lockdown hit as my company has got me working out in Vancouver on contract. There's a considerable amount of difference between UofA and UBC. I can't speak for the extra-circular activities if you think taking someone else's opinion isn't valid for a claim like this but how does UofA even compete on paper? Just for starters, UBC Vancouver has 16k+ more students than UofA, isolated away from the city by a dense forest and along with a kick a** beach. It acts like a small town in itself. When I visited it was hella busy, more so than any of the times I can remember visiting UoA.

Now that you mentioned Reddit (which I wasn't even going to source until you pointed it out, BTW GME to the Moon🚀), their opinions are leaning in the same direction. It's an opinion and seems the majority are leaning in one way. I think if 18-year-olds are resorting to Reddit to narrow down their school choices then obviously UofA isn't going to attract many teens based on campus life. Come to think of it when I was 18, stupid, and applying for schools I visited plenty of Reddit forums as well. The only reason I ended up picking UoC at the time was that I would graduate debt-free living with my parents. Although those Reddit posts were pretty persuasive to the 18-year-old me. But anyway, I guess I'll refrain from making any more opinionated statements without sound evidence, even if multiple, well-trusted people around me are saying the same thing, I guess I'll just shrug it off as correlation.
 
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calgaryherald.com

Airline bailout begins in Canada with $375 million loan to Sunwing after beach holidays barred

Talks on financial aid began months ago, but sweeping new restrictions on international travel spark new urgency
calgaryherald.com calgaryherald.com
We have yet to feel the full economic impact of this pandemic and the growing federal deficit. If a fringe airline like Sunwing gets a $375 M loan, what assistance will Air Canada and Westjet require to stay afloat? Right behind the airlines will be the hospitality industry. Neither airlines or hotels will attract any bookings with these restrictions and continued uncertainty. Is anyone feeling confident about the summer ... a peak season for both industries??? How can anyone make any travel plans, personal or business, from now until maybe the fall or later?
Up until now, the federal assistance programs have been largely CERB benefits for the unemployed and rent subsidies for small business. I don't think anyone is factoring in government bailouts of whole industries that may be required, even if the country can't afford it. 😲
 
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Morshed said:
Sorry forgot where I am...Trudeau is the best thing for the Canadian economy. Carry on now 🙂
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Lmfao! Wow. What a winner.
 
Morshed said:
Sorry forgot where I am...Trudeau is the best thing for the Canadian economy. Carry on now 🙂
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Ha Ha ... not to worry, we are not all 'center left' on this blog. The jury is still out on Trudeau and the economy. The Liberal's primary focus in their second term has been to spend gobs of money on mostly assistance programs to get the country through the pandemic. We have yet to see what the plan is for economic recovery once we do come out of it ..... that is if there is any money left that is not borrowed for the next century.
If I was grading Trudeau on one sector that is a key to that recovery (and paying down some debt) ... ENERGY ... I would give him a C-.
If he had not got behind the TMX, I would say he is an F. I really don't think he knows or perhaps cares, that oil & gas plays an important role and that as a leader, he should be rallying the rest of the country around it. Outside of Alberta and Saskatchewan, the silence and/or clapping from the rest of Canada on the demise of Keystone XL, was deafening.
 
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gsunnyg said:
I've been to two of them as a general visit and from at least what I hear from buddies, the campus life is much more bumping at other schools. Their campuses are like mini-towns. UofC is largely a commuter campus like SFU and UofA isn't nearly at the level of UBC. I don't mean to be rude, but I'm sorry, campus life sucks in Alberta.
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I attended U of A and then worked for an international fraternity. As such I had the fortune of visiting many campuses and experiencing campus life across NA. I might suggest that you didn't get the full U of A experience. I also think you're selling SFU a bit short. They don't compare to some out east (Queens, for e.g. can throw down) but they have reasonably thriving campus life. The U of C really lags behind here, but the recent development plans along University Ave may help to fix this longer term. IMO there is just not really any big nodes around campus in which to socialize and create that unique campus culture.

My favourite school in NA for campus life was Texas A & M. Berkeley close second.
 
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