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Politics Western Promises: The Future of Alberta as the Hot Destination for Interprovincial Migrants
Politics Western Promises: The Future of Alberta as the Hot Destination for Interprovincial Migrants
Western Promises: The Future of Alberta as the Hot Destination for Interprovincial Migrants |
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| Written by Kendall R. Giberson |
| Tuesday, 27 May 2008 19:00 |
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With the United States currently in a state of economic recession, Canadians in many sectors have also felt the impact. Particularly hard-hit have been Ontario's manufacturing industries, which have always relied upon the market south of the border. This is evident in the current layoffs in the automobile assembly plants and auto parts makers in southern Ontario. Lowered production and losses of jobs with no indication of an upturn in the near future spells doom for the country as a whole, as Ontario's industry has long been considered the engine that drives Canada's economy. However, many economists are saying that Canada as a whole will avoid recession due to a strong domestic market and the economic powerhouse that is Alberta's energy industry.
Illustration by Adrian Steeves
Illustration by Adrian Steeves
The city of Red Deer, which sits roughly halfway between the two cities, grew by 34%, while the Calgary suburb of Airdrie and the city of Grande Prairie grew by 81% and 50%, respectively in those ten years. The municipality of Wood Buffalo, which contains the boom town of Fort McMurray, grew by 46% from 35,213 in 1996 to 51,496 in 2006, and many project the population to reach 100,000 by the year 2012. Simply put, this is the era of Canada's "Black Gold Rush", as hundreds of thousands of Canadians have gone west to cash in on Alberta's economic fruits. Indeed, the average Gross Domestic Product per person in that province has doubled from $33,553 to $69,789 between 1995 and 2005, with an average hourly wage currently soaring at $21. 
Illustration by Adrian Steeves
The news would not be all good. There already exist several problems in the Alberta due to the boom. The most evident is the housing market, as people are finding it difficult to find places to live, especially in the Calgary area. Not only are there next to no vacancies, but real estate prices have grown exponentially over the last five years. People have to live further and further away from their places of employment in order to find any available housing. Cheap and affordable housing in the Calgary area or any of the boom towns is, so to speak, a luxury. Construction companies cannot keep up with the demand as it is, so one can imagine what another wave of out-of-province workers would do: picture tent cities full of highly-paid trades people on the outskirts of Alberta cities. This is not as far-fetched as it seems, as some people are renting out their garages, barns and storage sheds to roughnecks, an arrangement that gets complicated in the cold northern Alberta winter when the water pipes freeze. Despite the potential for pitfalls, many Canadians still view Alberta as the promised land and feel that the positives will outweigh the negatives once they get settled in. This trend will continue for the near future and the threat of recession in the U.S. and the resulting impact on Ontario's factories will see Alberta continue to grow with no end in sight. So if you feel the pinch of economic uncertainty in your area, break out your Stetson and develop a taste for prime Alberta beef, because the oil sands beckon. © 2008 Kendall R. Giberson, Illustrations by Adrian Steves; licensee (Cult)ure Magazine. This is an Open Access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License ( http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/2.0 ), which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited.
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