Tag Archives: growth

Oilsands hub Fort McMurray bursting at seams

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When Melissa Blake was elected to council in Wood Buffalo in 1998 for the first of two terms, oil was selling for $10 a barrel.

“Our annual budget was $45 million,” Blake says.

“We had to trim $1 million out of it.”

These are headier days for the regional municipality that sprawls from north-central Alberta to the borders of Saskatchewan and the Northwest Territories.

Fuelled by the rapid development of the oilsands, Wood Buffalo is the second-fastest-growing urban area in Canada, behind Okotoks, and has just passed its first $1-billion budget.

Read more: http://tinyurl.com/agoxqpe

 

Grande Prairie struggles with acute labour shortage

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At Stratus Pipelines in booming Grande Prairie, general manager Errol White is posting help wanted ads and bumping up wages, sweetening the pot with extra training and footing the bill for housing and food.

Those are all signs that Alberta’s long-looming labour shortage has arrived in Grande Prairie, and White is on the front lines.

“It’s next to impossible to find people; we’re getting into wage wars at this point,” White said.

Read more: http://tinyurl.com/a6vhw6d

 

Strong year for Airdrie

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For one of the fastest growing communities in Canada, 2012 marked another “strong” year for development, says Airdrie’s top planner.

Airdrie’s population soared 47.1 per cent between 2006 and 2011, resulting in the eighth highest growth rate in the country.

While total 2012 census numbers are not finalized, there was a bump in housing permits.

Read more: http://tinyurl.com/a7xhbzk

 

Strathmore, other growing centres wrestle with thorny police issues

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Sitting with a cup of tea in Rocky’s Bakery on 2nd Avenue, Robert Sturm recalled a time when the sidewalks out front were the domain of a single policeman employed by the town.

Strathmore was much smaller in the early 1970s, when the single police officer kept a watchful eye over the town’s 1,500 or so residents.

Read more: http://tinyurl.com/b3a5bgr

What’s to come in 2013 for the city

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If 2012 is being considered a big year in the Fort, 2013 should be a monster, according to Mayor Gale Katchur.

Looking into the new year, Katchur explained that it’s about focusing on a new strategic direction for the city.

“We’ve had a few challenges over the years in getting to where we are,” she said. “Unfortunately, we had to have some changes in senior management and everything, but I think we’re really going to be focusing on where our vision is in the future.

Read more: http://tinyurl.com/ank7r3p

 

Rollin Stanley: Focused on good growth

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Rollin Stanley has been in Calgary for just half a year, but he’s already formed a specific opinion about his new home.

“It’s very Midwest,” he says. “It reminds me of my time in St. Louis where you just loved living there because the lifestyle is different, very relaxed; it’s energizing. It has a lot of options of which I’m not taking full advantage of because I just work too much. But it’s an incredibly friendly place and very easy to adjust to.”

Read more: http://tinyurl.com/alb4u3k

Lamphier: Alberta leads the pack in 2013 forecasts

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Headaches? Sure. Alberta’s energy-fuelled economy has plenty of them.

Take your pick: From hefty oil price discounts to pipeline bottlenecks and growing labour shortages, there’s a lot to worry about.

The global threats to growth are even more troubling, including Europe’s stubborn debt crisis and the political jockeying in Washington, D.C., over the fiscal cliff and federal debt ceiling.

Read more: http://tinyurl.com/agtts4f