Statscan numbers

[Mountain Man]

Nice, hope you enjoy it. Vic is a great city!

 

[JTron]

It's hard to predict something so far off, but I feel those numbers are realistic. If you had asked me 20 years ago, I would have predicted Calgary and Edmonton to be about the same population, or Edmonton having a higher population due to a predicted decline in the oil and gas industry. Things are different now though.
1) The decline in oil will be a slower more drawn out process, and much of that decline has already happened and Calgary was affected, but not to the extend many thought would happen.
2) Gas will still carry on for a while, and although it too will decline it's decline will be slower than Oil's decline.
3) 20 years ago the provincial government and even the federal government were generating far more jobs in Edmonton than Calgary, but this isn't the case anymore. Still more provincial jobs in Edmonton, the the gap has narrowed as jobs are now being spread out more around the province. Same for Federal jobs.
4) Over the past 20 years Calgary created a whole new industry for itself, in distribution, warehousing, transportation and aviation and has taken over as the dominant hub for the prairies and also can be argued for the whole of western Canada.
5) In recent years Calgary has become the 4th largest recipient of Venture Capital money for Canadian metros, and about 90% of Alberta's VC money goes to Calgary. I don't see a lot of change in that area anytime soon.
6) Some other intangibles like a much better connected airport, and proximity to the Rockies also help more than people think.

I don't want this to come across as a Calgary boosterism post, but these are things that are factoring into Calgary's growth.

Good summary. You could also add that Calgary has turned itself into the IT hub of the prairies. I don’t have any numbers ready, but I remember seeing Calgary was the fastest growing in western Canada as a tech hub.

 

[DougB]

The key to Calgary's future growth will be maintaining young demographics through affordable housing and taxes. BC and ON are too dysfunctional to ever restore balanced housing markets and their governments are in debt spirals

 

[Surrealplaces]

Good summary. You could also add that Calgary has turned itself into the IT hub of the prairies. I don’t have any numbers ready, but I remember seeing Calgary was the fastest growing in western Canada as a tech hub.

It might have been this post. I'll copy and paste the numbers here for sake of ease. Calgary had the highest growth percentage wise among the major metros. Calgary is still a ways behind the the big 3 and Ottawa in raw numbers, but has easily taken over the title of tech hub for the prairies, having more tech workers than all the other prairie cities combined.

Calgary tech talent grows to 7.9 per cent of economy - LiveWire Calgary

A recently released CBRE report has identified Calgary as one of the fastest-growing tech talent cities worldwide, giving Calgary an outsized presence in the city’s GDP from tech firms. Those figures in Scoring Tech Talent 2025, released on Sept. 9, show that Calgary’s tech sector has grown to...

livewirecalgary.com

North American Rank	City	Number of Workers	Employment Growth 2021-2024
3	Toronto	334,200	14.7%
7	Kitchener Waterloo	39,400	58.2%
10	Vancouver	125,100	5.2%
11	Ottawa	95,900	13.2%
15	Montreal	154,900	6.9%
17	Calgary	64,600	61.1%
43	Edmonton	32,300	-1.2%
Unranked	Winnipeg	21,000	10%

Source

 

[Surrealplaces]

Seeing as we're on a Calgary boosterism roll, here are some links to articles relating to Calgary's tech industry mostly from 2023-2024, and doesn't include any recent related news, but gives you man idea of how much activity there is in the industry in one year.

American cybersecurity firm Fortinet creating $30M tech hub in Calgary

An American cybersecurity company is investing $30 million to create a tech hub in Calgary.

calgary.ctvnews.ca

Software company Teknol moves its engineering hub from Silicon Valley to Calgary

Early-education software developer expands offerings of local tech sector.

calgaryherald.com

Garmin Canada expansion expected to bring 200 new tech jobs to Cochrane, Alta.

Garmin Canada has announced plans to expand its headquarters in the town of Cochrane, just west of Calgary, creating nearly 200 technology-based jobs.

calgary.ctvnews.ca

Global tech firm Applexus Technologies to open Calgary headquarters

Global tech firm Applexus Technologies is preparing to set up shop in Calgary's downtown core and is expected to create 125 jobs.

calgaryherald.com

Tech giant Infosys opens downtown office with plans to hire 1,000 workers by 2024

The global IT company, which operates in 50 countries, will locate its digital centre in Gulf Canada Square.

calgaryherald.com

IBM Client Innovation Centre to Open in Calgary

IBM Canada announced an IBM Client Innovation Centre (CIC) for Western Canada, with plans to create 250 new jobs in Calgary and helping to invigorate the city's technology sector, diversify the economy, & fast track cross-industry digital transformation.

canada.newsroom.ibm.com

Global tech firm Mphasis launches in Calgary with potential for hundreds of jobs

CEO Nitin Rakesh said he hopes to have 300 employees working in Calgary by the end of the year

calgarysun.com

'It's the hive effect': Gaming giant Unity opens new offices in Calgary

One of Canada's largest software firms has set up shop in in Brookfield Place

calgaryherald.com

Varcoe: Amazon to set up cloud computing hub in Calgary, creating more than 900 jobs and $4B investment

Amazon Web Services will be setting up a new cloud computing hub in Calgary, bringing more than $4 billion in investment with it over time — and creating more than …

calgaryherald.com

Varcoe: New $750M data centre to be built in Calgary area, the largest in Alberta

Varcoe: eStruxture will build a new $750-million data centre in the Calgary area — the largest in Alberta — as AI growth accelerates.

calgaryherald.com

Varcoe: Alberta chasing more unicorns, as tech investment bucks trend

Alberta’s tech sector has scored a handful of successes in the past four years, with a series of unicorns appearing on the landscape.

calgaryherald.com

 

[Surrealplaces]

It's hard to predict something so far off, but I feel those numbers are realistic. If you had asked me 20 years ago, I would have predicted Calgary and Edmonton to be about the same population, or Edmonton having a higher population due to a predicted decline in the oil and gas industry. Things are different now though.
1) The decline in oil will be a slower more drawn out process, and much of that decline has already happened and Calgary was affected, but not to the extend many thought would happen.
2) Gas will still carry on for a while, and although it too will decline it's decline will be slower than Oil's decline.
3) 20 years ago the provincial government and even the federal government were generating far more jobs in Edmonton than Calgary, but this isn't the case anymore. Still more provincial jobs in Edmonton, the the gap has narrowed as jobs are now being spread out more around the province. Same for Federal jobs.
4) Over the past 20 years Calgary created a whole new industry for itself, in distribution, warehousing, transportation and aviation and has taken over as the dominant hub for the prairies and also can be argued for the whole of western Canada.
5) In recent years Calgary has become the 4th largest recipient of Venture Capital money for Canadian metros, and about 90% of Alberta's VC money goes to Calgary. I don't see a lot of change in that area anytime soon.
6) Some other intangibles like a much better connected airport, and proximity to the Rockies also help more than people think.

I don't want this to come across as an Calgary boosterism post, but these are things that are factoring into Calgary's growth.

Good summary. You could also add that Calgary has turned itself into the IT hub of the prairies. I don’t have any numbers ready, but I remember seeing Calgary was the fastest growing in western Canada as a tech hub.

You could also add a Fintech industry that has sprung up rapidly in recent years.

 

[trtcttc]

'It's the hive effect': Gaming giant Unity opens new offices in Calgary

One of Canada's largest software firms has set up shop in in Brookfield Place

calgaryherald.com

Seems like the Unity office has closed. No specific announcement but in 2023 they were laying off people and closed half their offices.

Unity Office Locations Around the Globe | Unity Addresses

Discover the locations of all Unity offices around the world!

unity.com

 

[Surrealplaces]

Weird, it closed silently without any media coverage, though, it could be they never had many employees to start with. Looks like they had 60 employees already, who were probably remote at the time and were planning to increase to 150.

 

[Tarsus]

Seems like the Unity office has closed. No specific announcement but in 2023 they were laying off people and closed half their offices.

Unity Office Locations Around the Globe | Unity Addresses

Discover the locations of all Unity offices around the world!

unity.com

Unity closed the Calgary and Vancouver offices, as well as a bunch of other offices. I have a friend who works for unity in Vancouver and though they closed the physical offices many of the people are still working remotely. Same for Calgary, they’re probably at where they were before this new office had opened. I’d have to ask my friend, but I don’t believe they ever hired people for Calgary and the new office. They ran into some sort of issues before they were able to do that.
These days all Unity jobs are remote, they only have a few offices left to keep up appearances, but the vast, majority of employees are remote. Toronto and Montreal have the bulk in East and Calgary and Vancouver in the West.

 

[trtcttc]

Seems like we've haven't had many office opening news in the last couple years. Probably partially the economy but as more companies go in office again, maybe we'll see some new offices starting up.