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Calgary & Alberta Economy

darwink said:
Graduated into the world financial crisis and natural gas collapse—this is very much worse but will also turn faster as the excesses on the international student boom pass.
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I wonder also about the number of TFWs and the affect on graduates finding jibs. Back in other times, it was more common to hire graduates in my line of work. These days I see a lot more people applying from abroad and getting on as a TFW, as the company can use the excuse that the TFWs have more experience than a graduate and thus can justify being able to hire them.
The companies are sort of justified, but personally IMO they are taking the quick easy route, when in many cases hiring a graduate and helping them grow into the position would be better. Often times the workers from abroad have alleged experience or education that doesn't always live up to the expectations, and even if they live up to expectations, they often have one foot out the door.
 
Albertasaurus said:
The unemployment situation is a bit complicated: Alberta still has the highest workforce participation rate in the country, so even with our higher unemployment rate, we still have a higher share of people working than any other province. We are also by far the fastest growing province, which means lots of people relocating here and then looking for work. We have our problems and are far from perfect, but I still see Alberta as a place with an exciting future.

That said, I really feel for young people here, and across the country. They are getting it from both ends, with exorbitant housing and living costs and few job opportunities. I'm Gen X, and graduated into a shit job market with few opportunities, but i think the current crop of young people have it worse. Generally we want to see each generation have it a bit easier than the last, but its been a long time since a generation of young adults have been given such a raw deal.
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The unemployment situation right now affects young people the most, and AB has one of the youngest population, highest participation, which is why we are high in unemployment. The unemployment rate for those 15-24 is 17%, while it's about 7% for those over 25. The high unemployment is driven mostly by new employees entering the workforce rather than any mass layoffs. Obviously still a problem, but more of a country wide thing than an Alberta-only issue.

This is also why the Alberta Pension Plan the province is peddling would appear to be so beneficial, since more Albertans are paying into the system than taking out, relative to other provinces. Obviously that doesn't account for the fact that many Albertans retire to difference provinces.
 
Chowda7 said:
www.ctvnews.ca

Carney’s first five major projects include LNG, span across the country

Prime Minister Mark Carney’s long-anticipated first phase of nation-building projects includes a liquefied natural gas expansion project and spans from coast to coast to coast, CTV News has confirmed.
www.ctvnews.ca www.ctvnews.ca
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How many stories of the announcement are we going to get lol, at least the full list is out now

The projects are:
  • LNG Canada Phase 2
  • The Darlington New Nuclear Project in Clarington, Ont., that would make Canada the first G7 country to have an operational small modular reactor (SMR)
  • The Contrecœur Terminal Container Project in Contrecœur, Qué., that would expand the Port of Montréal’s capacity by approximately 60 per cent
  • The McIlvenna Bay Foran Copper Mine Project in east-central Saskatchewan
  • and, the Red Chris Mine expansion in northwest British Columbia
 
trtcttc said:
The Contrecœur Terminal Container Project in Contrecœur, Qué., that would expand the Port of Montréal’s capacity by approximately 60 per cent
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Maybe someone who knows better can steer me straight but is this really a nation building project? I guess you have to give Quebec something, is that all this is?
 
CalgaryTiger said:
Maybe someone who knows better can steer me straight but is this really a nation building project? I guess you have to give Quebec something, is that all this is?
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The Port of Montreal is the main export terminal on the East Coast to cross the Atlantic and the second largest port in Canada after Vancouver.
 
CalgaryTiger said:
Maybe someone who knows better can steer me straight but is this really a nation building project? I guess you have to give Quebec something, is that all this is?
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Of course it isn't. Neither is high speed rail. The major projects intitiative was positioned as unblocking projects that would expand export markets. Was the container port tied up by Canada's Byzantine regulatory regime? Is the port anywhere near capacity? This probbaly plays into the Laurentian fallacy of exporting more to Europe. Expanding the Port of Churchill likely only makes sense from military and mining perspectives. Building six plus months of storage for oil or gas to manage the short shipping season is likley insurmountable. The Feds have been pushing Churchill for over a hundred years and failed. Exporting LNG to Europe likely involves building more west coast export capacity to Asia and swapping that for existing US LNG contracts, redirecting US LNG to Europe.

The Carney Liberals are the same as all Liberals. Their main objectives are to expand Federal government scope and to buy votes through transferring wealth to Eastern Canada. I would argue that Eastern Canada already has the St. Lawrence Seaway and limited access highway connections to its waterborne ports and Interstate connected US ports of entry and doesn't need anything to open up export markets.

The project list should include a continuation of the Gateway program from the Harper years: twinning the TCH through BC, upgrading the highway 99 corridor through the Lower Mainland to provide limited access road connections to I-5, DeltaPort and port facilities on Burrard Inlet, removing at grade rail crossings to expedite port access. It should also include additional gas and oil pipelines to the Pacific, which are the projects most in need of regulatory relief. Additional east-west power transmission probbaly doesn't make sense as BC Hydro struggles to meet in province demand and has been a net importer for several years.
 
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DougB said:
The major projects intitiative was positioned as unblocking projects that would expand export markets.
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Unblocking and accelerating. And increase productivity--focusing efforts and investments in ways that should generate positive returns and spinoffs.
 
Chowda7 said:
www.ctvnews.ca

Carney’s first five major projects include LNG, span across the country

Prime Minister Mark Carney’s long-anticipated first phase of nation-building projects includes a liquefied natural gas expansion project and spans from coast to coast to coast, CTV News has confirmed.
www.ctvnews.ca www.ctvnews.ca
Click to expand...
For the high speed rail, I saw that as more of symbolic inclusion but actually looks like the goal is to speed up the timeline (pun intended). From the Prime Minister's release:

The MPO will work to accelerate engineering, regulatory, and permitting work to enable construction of the project to start in four years, cutting the original eight-year timeline in half.

This has me dreaming about getting a Alberta high speed rail link on the desk of the Major Projects Office.
 
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