[feepa]

Is Alberta boom starting to dim?

Strain of intense growth has many welcoming slight pause and a chance to catch their breath
http://img175.imageshack.us/img175/4716/2320583fa94663fk9.jpg
Construction cranes work on Calgary's changing skyline. The southern Alberta city's profile will soon look drastically different, with $5.5-billion worth of office towers now being built.

May 31, 2007 04:30 AM
Petti Fong
Western Bureau Chief

Edmonton–In two short years in Alberta, Becky Mallon has learned a whole new language.

In her hometown on Vancouver Island, she started to hear the strange words when she spoke to her brother-in-law who was working in Alberta. Through him, she learned that working on a rig was not about trucks at all, but about drilling holes.

The language her brother-in-law and sister were fluent in after moving to Edmonton to find work in the oil and gas industry spelled out something else for Mallon: new opportunities that she didn't have working at the Dairy Queen back home.

"As soon as I got here, there were jobs everywhere. I went through seven in a few months as I tried to figure out what I wanted to do," says Mallon, 22, who is now working for a car rental company. "After I met my boyfriend that's when I really started hearing all these new words."

Words like roughneck or roustabout, the entry-level jobs in the oil sands, and motorhands and drillers, the better-paying jobs a step above. Her boyfriend, who came from the east coast to look for work, is a push, one of the top-level positions on a rig.

It's good money, says Mallon, but he's gone for weeks at a time up north working in the dying months of the greatest oil boom this province has ever known.

Mallon knows this, as do the people around her, she says, who have all been impacted in small ways and big ones by record growth in Alberta. Her boyfriend hopes to keep working until his car is paid off and then wait until the next cycle.

Prospects once blindingly bright have dimmed in recent months.

After a dizzying full-borne run for the past two years, everyone agrees it is time to take a breath and get out from suffocating strain of intense growth in a short period of time.

The boom is all Mallon has ever known in her time in Edmonton, but she is ready for the heady times to slow down.

At its peak, Alberta was expanding at double the rate of the rest of Canada, its economy so dominant that for four straight years it propped up the national average.

Indeed, Alberta's real GDP growth rate of 7 per cent was so off the national average of 2.7 per cent last year that it nearly rendered meaningless the idea of a Canadian average, according to Derek Burleton, senior economist with TD Bank Financial Group.

Alberta's real GDP growth single-handedly lifted the national-average tally by more than half a percentage point.

"Alberta's growth has been similar to China, it's been that strong a pace, and China has got to slow at some point. Same with Alberta," says Burleton. "Based on our forecasts, we have the Alberta economy slowing. It's important that it does slow."

At the breakneck pace it was heading the only thing that could catch up to Alberta's roaring economy was the even faster problem of inflation. Over the past year, inflation in the province rose by 5.5 per cent, double the national average of 2.3 per cent. Filling up for gas, costs of housing and groceries are costing Albertans more this year than last. Natural gas prices surged more than 23 per cent in the 12 months to March of this year from the same month in 2006, according to Statistics Canada.

Once affordable rents have in some cases in Calgary and Edmonton tripled in the past two years.

That quick rise in costs for housing and food took Alfredo Zelcer, art director for Edmonton-based magazine Alberta Ventures by surprise with its sudden and brutal impact.

Lured to Alberta from New York last November, Zelcer noticed far fewer people on the streets than he was used to seeing back in Brooklyn but he quickly got back on familiar ground when he saw price tags on items.

"It was a big disappointment being so far removed from New York and finding everything was just as expensive here. Food, clothing, entertainment," he says. "I thought I would do really well with my salary but I'm paying the same for things as I would be in New York."

The only saving grace until recently, says Zelcer, was his housing, but in the last few months, rent has also risen to near New York levels.

For the first time this spring, Leger Marketing did a survey about the province's confidence levels taking sampling from business leaders from chamber of commerce lists and average Albertans. The survey is similar to one that Leger conducts in Quebec.

Not surprisingly, the confidence level in Alberta is higher than in Quebec. With an index of 100 as being optimistic, Quebecers ranked themselves at 91, while Albertans were at 113 points.

Marc Tremblay, vice-president of Leger in Calgary, says if the survey had been taken last year, the results would have been even higher and results are about to come in for the second survey later this month.

"It will be interesting to see if the index goes up or up. There are some people who believe the economy may still go up. But the bottom line is people here are very optimistic," he says.

Alberta's business owners were however pessimistic about future interest rates. While the confidence index showed Albertans were very confident about buying major household items, they were less enthused about the prospect of purchasing a house because of concerns about interest rates.

Buying a house has become too unaffordable for many even as retail sales continue to rise at a rate of 12 to 14 per cent annually.

The province's low unemployment rate has also created problems. Over the last year, full-time employment rates increased by more than 5 per cent. An average is about 2 per cent. The high employment may be good for job seekers who have come in record numbers to Alberta, but it is having a negative effect on productivity because it increases the rate of turnover.

Public pressure to apply brakes on the growth has been mounting and the government has called for a public review of the royalty structure that has been in place for the last decade of the revenues collected from oil and natural gas companies. The federal government has also made recent moves to curb excesses, especially in the oil sands sector by removing a tax break given to operators.

Those are small steps, but the most pressing one needed is a short-term moratorium on further approvals for oil sands projects, says research group the Pembina Institute, a policy research group on climate change issues.

"Some may say that's extreme, but if you look at all the projects approved already, this is not going to slow down the economy by too much and it's taking a healthy pause to make sure we do things right," says Marlo Raynolds, executive director of the institute.

Still, a downshifting Alberta economy is still going to grow at about twice the national pace in 2007, especially with Ontario and Quebec's manufacturing-dependent industries knocked further down by the robust Canadian dollar and weak U.S. demand.

The hope is for a soft landing, rather than a heavy crash. The good news is there are signs that Alberta's economy is more buffeted these days than during the boom bust cycles of the past. One reason is that oil and gas development has spurred the high-tech industries in the province. Another is that under conventional oil and gas operations, sudden drops led in the past to sudden halts in production. With the province's oil sands sector now a primary driver of the growth, the lag time is slower. It takes five to seven years to get an oil sands operation going, considerably longer than conventional drilling, so any drop in oil prices can't be responded to as immediately.

The oil and gas industry has had sharper drops in the last quarter than predicted for demand. High labour costs have had an impact on slowing operations in the industry. Workers are being pulled in different directions, to Olympic-related construction in B.C. to forestry work in the west to cut trees before the mountain pine beetle destroys them and in the fast-growing mining sector. The materials needed for rigs also have shrunk with India, Saudi Arabia and China all making demand for the steel needed to keep the industry in Alberta growing.

With industry in western Canada running on high cylinders, that has driven up both demand for materials and for labour. Even without those factors, a slowing U.S. economy and a rising Canadian dollar has already started the decline in the oil and gas industry. The Alberta government anticipates lower energy revenues, dropping from $12 billion this year to $10 billion next year. By 2010, the government estimates it will collect only half of the revenues it got from the industry during the heydays of 2005-06.

In Ontario and Quebec, after initially losing workers to Alberta, Greg Stringham, vice president of markets and fiscal policy for the Canadian Association of Petroleum Products says work is now being shifted eastwards to manufacturing facilities that had little work because of lower demands.

The government's response so far has been the right one, according to the industry, by not imposing restrictions. The province, which has long been in an infrastructure deficit, announced in its last budget that it will address some of those issues by increasing spending on roads and hospitals and schools.

"The government's role is to set the foundation for policies, from environmental policies to fiscal policies," says Stringham. "Once they've got what they think is their fair share, let the market operate around that. Their role is to make sure they're not causing more harm by stepping in and trying to manage this themselves. The market can make that decision."

Stringham says with costs of labour and demand for steel so pressing, the industry is facing tough times.

The excessive demands of the last year can only be curbed by moderations, including limiting more expansion in the oil sands and raising royalty rates, says business professor Ted Chambers at the University of Alberta's Western Centre for Economic Research.

"There's a lot of merit to making that decision because certainly unlimited expansion in the oil sands is at the root of the experiences of the Alberta economy in the last 18 months," he says. "Clearly what is happening now in Canada is an east-west divide. The west is sustaining Canada's economy at this point and that's why it's important to make sure any problems in Alberta is not intensified."

Postcards

A Worker's Bounty

Jaime Tinevez found the job offer too tempting to resist: A $500 bonus after three months and a one-week, all-expenses paid vacation to Mexico after one year.

What for? Working as a server at an upscale restaurant facing the challenge of staffing in the midst of an unprecedented labour shortage.

Tinevez took the job, collected her three-month bonus and recently completed her time to qualify for the Mexico trip along with a couple of others who made it through the year.

They're still waiting for the owners to award the trip, "but I assume they'll keep their promise," Tinevez says. "We've asked them about it and they said they're on it."

An Entrepenuer's View

Mike Allen, who heads the chamber of commerce and owns music and computer stores, pays wages of $17 to $19 an hour and has a profit-sharing plan to retain his staff.

"It's a good time to be in business but there are a lot of stresses."

Allen cautions that job seekers shouldn't come to Alberta thinking the streets are paved with gold.

"In many cases, people having a hard time finding a job in their own part of the country are driving out here with a few hundred dollars in their pockets and expecting to find work right away.

"You're not going to be met by recruiters waiting to grab a warm body. Line up a job, line up housing and make sure you have a skill that's needed."

Academic Crush

"Some are making fantastic money. I heard of a welder in Grande Prairie who's making $35,000 a month, but people like that are working 16-hour days," says Dr. Sam Shaw, president of the Northern Alberta Institute of Technology in Edmonton.

Despite turning out 7,000 graduates last year and operating at 200 per cent capacity, the institute still can't produce enough technical and trades workers to meet the demand.

"We can't train heavy equipment operators, pipefitters and steamfitters fast enough for the huge contracts out there," he says.

Business Analysis

"Alberta is a magnet for people and vacancy rates are less than one per cent," says Brett Gartner, an economist with the Canada West Foundation, a non-profit policy research organization based in Calgary,

He says the word "crisis" has been used to describe the tight job market.

"It started as a shortage in some skilled jobs and has become a general shortage of skilled and unskilled workers."

Booming commerce

Heather Douglas, CEO of the Calgary Chamber of Commerce, says three out of four companies are reporting the labour shortage is having a negative impact on business.

The unemployment rate in the city is 3.1 per cent.

"Retail is suffering the most (from higher costs) because they'd normally be paying around the minimum wage."

But even with a continuing labour shortage, the chamber, representing 4,700 businesses, projects Calgary will continue to experience "high growth, modest inflation and robust job creation," up to 2020.

"An average of 97 people a day (that's more than 35,000 a year) are moving to Calgary," Douglas says.


Mike Funston

[feepa]

Rich with resources, adapting to challenges

May 31, 2007 04:30 AM
Adam Gutteridge
Special Sections Editor

FORT MCMURRAY – How do you find out what's going on in a province? As a first-time visitor to Alberta, I'm acutely aware of my ignorance. My trip here is a voyage of discovery.

In Edmonton, I learn in a visit to Capital Health, the regional health authority, that Albertans are true pioneers when it comes to finding better ways to deliver healthcare. They use their regional organization to tackle the issue that bedevils Ontario: wait times.

At the National Institute for Nanotechnology, I see evidence of the Province's urgent desire to diversify beyond natural resources. They've sunk $130 million into nanotechnology research to try to become a global leader in the field.

A tour of downtown Calgary reveals a skyline criss-crossed with cranes. EnCana, a huge natural gas producer, is building a 58-storey office tower that will be the city's tallest. In the next four years, Calgary will add 11.5 million square feet of office space.

But the greatest miracle is taking place here, in Fort McMurray.

Carved out of the forest, built on muskeg soil, the city is a gusher of growth. Its population of 64,441 has grown by roughly 9 per cent for each of the last six years. There are about 10,000 workers living in camps cut out of the forests.

On this day, I'm standing on Chretien Point, as the workers call it, after the Liberal prime minister who signed the 1996 Declaration of Opportunity to open up development here.

Below me, the vast black bowl of Syncrude's north mine opens up. Where grassy hills and vales once were, now lies a gaping hole. Giant diggers are strewn across the side of the pit, scooping huge bucketfuls of sand into a steady stream of massive, two-storey dump trucks.

Each $5-million truck carries 400 tons of dirt. There are 80 trucks. Each load of dirt produces 200 barrels of oil.

Pipes snake across the crest of the hill, ferrying the oil sands to a giant extraction and upgrading plant.

This year, the mines will produce 110 million barrels of oil.

Syncrude is the world's largest producer of crude from the oil sands and, this year, will account for about 13 per cent of Canada's crude oil needs.

The oil sands, themselves, account for 39 per cent of Canada's oil production.

There's a craziness going on here. A Dickensian frenzy of activity. A modern-day gold rush.

There are 122 companies with leases on crown lands hell bent to get into production.

It's the visible expression of humanity's voracious appetite for oil.

Reading daily papers in Alberta can sometimes seem like looking through the wrong end of a telescope, with news on the meeting of provincial environment ministers to discuss environmental regulation and the idea of a carbon tax buried deep on the inside pages. (In Canada's bigger papers, it makes the front page.)

It takes a huge amount of energy to pull the oil from the sand.

Oil sands activity accounts for about 3 per cent of Canada's CO2 emissions. And this is rising rapidly as the production mushrooms.

Albertans can be forgiven for overlooking the obvious: That this mad consumption of oil and the CO2 it generates simply cannot go on without destroying the planet.

But Albertans have known boom and bust and faced huge challenges before.

Just as they've developed technology to extract oil, they are developing other technologies to capture the CO2 in old oil wells.

I'd wager they'd be able to adjust to, heaven forbid, a downturn in demand.

For Alberta is nothing if not resourceful.

[feepa]

Alberta paves way for primary health-care reform

May 31, 2007 04:30 AM
Elaine Carey
STAFF REPORTER

Booming Alberta is leading the way in proving there are new, better and more efficient ways to deliver health care to the public.

"We're very accustomed to saying Canadian medicare is beset by challenges that seem to be insoluble," said Steve Buick, director of issues management for Capital Health, the Edmonton regional health network. "But if you look closely at what's happening in Alberta, you see that the problems are fixable and are being fixed here."

Alberta has become the first province to negotiate a fundamental change in how physicians, health regions and the government work together to improve patient care.

The biggest breakthrough came with a landmark agreement among the government, regional health authorities and the Alberta Medical Association.

The agreement, the first of its kind in Canada, has paved the way for primary health-care reform. In September 2000 Canada's First Ministers agreed to make primary health care a high priority and the federal government provided transition funds to help the provinces convert to a new way of doing business.

So far, only Alberta has managed to do it because the doctors bought into it.

Under the system, family doctors work in teams with nurses, specialists and other health-care workers including pharmacists and dieticians. The teams get block funding instead of the traditional fee-for-service, that allows them to work in unique ways.

"Primary care is about recognizing the abilities of health-care professionals and letting them practice to the full extent of their abilities," Alberta Health Minister Dave Hancock said in an interview.

Under traditional fee-for-service, physicians had to see every patient in order to get paid, he said. But a common theme among doctors was they wanted to get back to practicing medicine and spending more time with the patients who needed them.

"Primary care networks allow them to do that because nurses can do a lot of things we don't normally let them do but for which they are well trained," he said. They include pre-screening and monitoring patients with chronic conditions.

It also means physicians can divide up overtime work and night calls like delivering babies.

In future, the new model will allow a diabetic patient to simply walk down the hall to talk to a nutritionist who will draw up a meal plan.

Now Alberta has 19 Primary Care Networks operating in eight health regions involving about 935 physicians who provide services to more than one million patients, about a third of the population.

Doctors are free to stay with the old model or buy into the new system, which now employs about the half the province's physicians.

Support for the new model, especially among younger doctors, is overwhelming, said Buick.

"Young doctors don't want to practice in isolation," he said. "They want to work in an integrated network because it's a richer practice model. They want to work with other providers so they can specialize in areas where their skills are best used. There has never been a structure to allow them to do that."

Alberta's population is growing so quickly that it constantly needs more physicians and nurses but so far, it has managed to keep up with the demand.

Through a new supernumerary nurse category that gives nurses the experience they need to get full-time jobs, Capital Health has improved its nurse retention rate from 50 to 75 per cent. Its nurse population is growing by 35 per cent a year, compared to a national average of 1 per cent.

And Alberta is recruiting physicians as fast as its explosive growth. It has dramatically increased the size of its medical school and under a new agreement with the medical association brought in a new retention benefit that will recognize physicians for the number of years they have practiced in Alberta.

"This has become a magnet for physicians of every kind," said Buick. A combination of high pay rates, specialized research positions and the new primary care networks has led the province to a 20 per cent increase in physicians in the last five

While some are trained locally, Alberta is also recruiting from the rest of the country and coaxing back doctors who have gone south of the border, reversing the usual brain drain to the U.S.

"We are keeping the doctors we have and in specialty areas like the new cardiac centre, a diabetes protocol and a new system for joint replacements is attracting pre-eminent people," said Hancock. The province also has the money, through the Alberta Heritage Medical Research fund, to attract top-notch doctors.

"We're making it easier for doctors to use their talents and still have a life and be able to finance a practice," he said. "Any doctor will tell you that isn't so yet because they're still working too hard but we're transitioning and primary care networks are a very good opportunity to do that."

The new system has also virtually eliminated the physician shortage in Alberta. If a patient doesn't have a family doctor, the primary care network will find him one.

"There is no such thing as not having a family doctor," said Buick. "It's not that hard. It didn't take that big a change."

Ontario has developed a similar regional system of health care called Local Integrated Health Networks (LIHNS), which is evolving into a system similar to Alberta's.

Alberta has also managed to switch almost entirely to electronic medical records, something Ontario has not even started yet.

By next year, all prescriptions, 75 per cent of test results and 80 per cent of laboratory results will be computerized as well as 60 per cent of doctors' patient records.

"By the end of 2008, we will be able to say that every Albertan has an electronic health record, which has substantially all of the information they need so that any health professional in the province will have access to it," Hancock said.

As well as being efficient, it also provides better and cheaper care because if you go to a hospital, a physician can find out quickly the results of tests a patient has had in the past, eliminating costly duplication.

"But if Alberta has made one breakthrough, it was the tripartite agreement with the physicians and regional centres that made everything else possible."

Hancock admits there are growing pains with the new system but "if we're going to have a health-care system that is sustainable, we have to look at new ways to do things better."

"The next step on the agenda is improving Albertans health as a whole," he said.

"If we don't improve health status, we are never going to have a system in place when we need it," he said. "That's the focus now – to make sure every Albertan takes responsibility for their health with the assistance and advice of the health care system. We can change the system from treating sick people to keeping people healthy."

While Alberta hasn't solved all its health-care problems or eliminated the pressures on the system faced by the rest of the country, "the picture here is we have developed the capacity to plan to meet these challenges and demonstrated the ability to make real progress," said Buick.

"None of these things is insolvable. The basic picture in Alberta is of a system that can name these problems and fix them."

[feepa]

Nano, nano: Going small may be big business

May 31, 2007 04:30 AM
Terrence Belford
Special to the Star

Going small may be the path to big business for Alberta. That, at least, is the idea behind the province's $130-million investment in transforming itself into an incubator for nanotechnology.

"The next big leap in technology is going to focus on the science of small," says Doug Horner, minister of Advanced Education and Technology.

Nanotechnology is the rapidly emerging field of creating working devices involving components at, or just above, the molecular level.

A nano is one-billionth of a metre and in many cases, nanotechnology involves creating devices coated with a layer of material a single molecule thick. By comparison, a single human hair is 50,000 nanometres wide.

The goal is to capture at least 2 per cent of the global nanotechnology market by 2020, a share that could be worth $20 billion, says Premier Ed Stelmach.

"Personally I not only think it is achievable, I think we will surpass it," adds Horner. "We are one of the few places in the world where government is taking steps to marry industry, education and nano research."

The province opened a National Institute for Nanotechnology in Edmonton last June.

The potential for nanotechnology is as mighty as its components are tiny, says Dr. Nils Petersen, director general of the institute.

"The results of research here could not only greatly reduce the size of future (electronic) devices but also greatly reduce the amount of electrical power needed to operate them," he says. "We are also looking at ways to combine organic and inorganic substances. There are already applications where that combination can increase the memory capacity of computer chips."

To give a hint of what the future might hold, Petersen says the institute's work might lead to medical devices the size of a pill that could be swallowed and then deliver with pinpoint accuracy diagnostic information on various diseases. It might also produce computer chips that not only offer greater memory and computing power, but also draw a fraction of the power required by today's inorganic silicon chips.

"What we hope the institute will be is an incubator for new technologies and for new companies and even industries based on those new technologies," he adds.

The 20,000-square-metre institute is a rare bird among traditional research facilities. Its staff of 200, including 22 principal researchers, is drawn from a broad range of disciplines. Chemists work next to mechanical engineers. Medical researchers rub shoulders with physicists. Biologists trade information with computer specialists. There are even lawyers and business specialists.

The goal, Petersen says, is to extend the pure scientific research normally conducted by universities into the realm of practical application, especially in the areas of agriculture and forestry, energy and the environment, medicine and information and communications technology. The institute also works side by side with corporations, learning what they need to commercially exploit new discoveries and teaching them what is involved on the research side.

"In effect we are marrying the university lab, the National Research Council and industry," he explains.

While the institute has not yet reached the stage where it is able to apply for patents and perhaps license any of the technology it is working on, it has been able to attract leading international researchers to Edmonton's often frigid precincts.

Dr. Richard McCreery recently signed on as a professor of chemistry at the University of Alberta and is a senior research officer at the institute after spending 32 years at Ohio State University. His specialty is marrying organic and inorganic materials at the molecular level. He holds eight patents, all licensed to a U.S. company, which uses them to create silicon chips covered with a microscopic layer of organic molecules that provide greatly enhanced memory.

"The draw for me is that the institute combines the facilities of a national research lab with those of a university," he says.It also has money to fund research, he adds. "In the U.S., funding for my field has been flat for years. Most of what has been available has gone to areas like microbiology. Here, Canada and the province have seen the great potential for practical applications of nanotechnology in industry, which I think is great."

Nanotechnology does already have practical applications, McCreery points out. "If you see a cellphone with an especially bright light, that usually comes from organic-based light-emitting diodes," he says.

Some people suggest organic nanotechnology will replace silicon-based technology in the near future, McCreery points out, adding, "I am not one of them. I think what we will create is a new platform for future advances. I think for the foreseeable future you are looking at technology that combines existing inorganic approaches with the organic."

In addition to the new institute, which is funded jointly by the University of Alberta, the province and the National Research Council, the province has also earmarked $15 million for graduate student scholarships, $30 million to create a qualified nanotechnology workforce, $8 million of establish a nano packaging and product development centre, $15 million for an Industrial Applied Research Partnership Program and $5.5 million to create nanoAlberta to co-ordinate and encourage nano technology development.

[feepa]

More available here- http://www.thestar.com/specialsections/alberta

[Coldrsx]

`Anything can happen' theatre vibe in Canada's cultural capital
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More stories from our special section
Graphic: Alberta by industry
May 31, 2007 04:30 AM
Richard Ouzounian
Theatre Critic

In Edmonton, the playwright's the thing.

The thriving Alberta metropolis has been designated "The Cultural Capital of Canada" for 2007 and although there are plenty of examples one could give for this city's artistic vitality, what keeps coming to the foreground is the strength of Edmonton's theatre, especially in its writing community.

Besides its flagship company, The Citadel, Edmonton is also the home to a variety of thriving organizations such as Theatre Network, Workshop West and Catalyst Theatre, all offering a venue for a playwright with something to say.

And there's the Edmonton International Fringe Theatre Festival, celebrating its 25th anniversary this year. It was the first fringe festival in North America and remains the biggest.

Each August, Edmonton's historic Old Strathcona neighbourhood turns into Fringe City, with buskers, multimedia artists and poets swelling the ranks of the 161 companies that come from around the world to join the excitement.

This year, it's anticipated that 500,000 visitors will see more than 1,100 performances between Aug. 16 and 26, with almost all devoted to new work. It's not surprising that playwrights feel safe here.

Mieko Ouchi is a fourth-generation Japanese Canadian writer/director, proud to call Edmonton home.

"It's a very blue-collar, working-class city," she says, "and yet, ironically, the audiences are very sophisticated. They've seen a lot and nothing shocks them anymore. They're open to anything we want to try. There's a long standing tradition of going to the theatre in this city."

It's not just the city that's supportive, it's the other artists as well.

"We're a very tight-knit community. Ralph Klein saw to that," jokes Ouchi, referring to the past premier's almost legendary lack of support for the arts. "People who stay in Edmonton aren't in theatre to become a star; they're here because they're into the process of making their art."

Vern Thiessen agrees. He's the playwright-in-residence at The Citadel and his play, Apple, was a huge hit at Factory Theatre last year. Stratford is presenting his Shakespeare's Will this summer.

"This place is very theatre-savvy. It's the only city in the country I've ever been where the taxi driver talks to me about plays he's seen or I call up a restaurant to make a reservation and they ask, `Oh, are you the playwright?'"

"We're also very well funded by the city," he boasts. "The Edmonton Arts Council is fantastic. Our new mayor (Stephen Mandel) has put a lot of focus on the arts and a lot of money into it."

The fascinating thing is that all of these playwrights are so different. Ouchi's two hit plays are about Vivaldi (The Red Priest) and Leni Riefenstahl (The Blue Light); Thiessen has written about breast cancer (Apple) and Shakespeare's wife (Shakespeare's Will). Marty Chan is a Chinese-Canadian best known nationally for his satirical play on interracial dating, Mom, Dad, I'm Living With a White Girl, but his other works have run the gamut from mock Chinese operas to kids shows to the building of the CPR (The Forbidden Phoenix).

Both Thiessen and Ouchi credit the theatre programs at the University of Alberta and Grant MacEwan College with providing a lot of the creative juice that keeps the city going.

"Those two institutions have put out a lot of theatre energy into the city over the years," says Thiessen. Ouchi adds that, "There's this huge pool of highly trained actors coming out each year and there's a kind of critical mass that stays here."

The Fringe Festival also plays an important role.

"When I started out all doe-eyed in Edmonton theatre 20 years ago," Chan recalls, "I put on a couple of fringe shows and the established artists came to see them and were very supportive.

"By my third show, I asked some of them if they'd be in it and they agreed. This city notices newcomers and knows when they need a hand up. That's what the Fringe is great for. It turns unknowns into overnight stars.

"What's great about Edmonton," concludes Chan, "is you get the sense that anything could happen when you step in the theatre and the people are willing to go with it."

[WHISTLERINMUSKOKA]

What's the point of this thread?

Is Alberta boom starting to dim?


Then we get.......

Rich with resources, adapting to challenges,

Alberta paves way for primary health-care reform,

Nano, nano: Going small may be big business

and now

Anything can happen' theatre vibe in Canada's cultural capital.

This thread is all over the place and it's only 5 posts in.

[feepa]

The thread is created from the stories published in the Alberta Special Section in todays online version of the Toronto Star, link provided above.

THANKS -

feepa.

[WHISTLERINMUSKOKA]

You do know this forum has a Alberta Special Section every day?

[MolsonExport]

What's the point of this thread?

Is Alberta boom starting to dim?


Then we get.......

Rich with resources, adapting to challenges,

Alberta paves way for primary health-care reform,

Nano, nano: Going small may be big business

and now

Anything can happen' theatre vibe in Canada's cultural capital.

This thread is all over the place and it's only 5 posts in.

The thread is coming apart at the seams. :D

[WhipperSnapper]

probably better suited for the Alberta subforum but at least the thread's title is cystal clear on the topic being the Alberta boom

[Coldrsx]

great reports from the STAR though...

[caltrane74]

I'm with Whistler on this, this thread is nonsense.

[IntotheWest]

What's the point of this thread?

Is Alberta boom starting to dim?


Then we get.......

Rich with resources, adapting to challenges,

Alberta paves way for primary health-care reform,

Nano, nano: Going small may be big business

and now

Anything can happen' theatre vibe in Canada's cultural capital.

This thread is all over the place and it's only 5 posts in.

Coming from The Star, isn't it appropriate to put these here? Aren't other Canadians curious if the "Boom is starting to dim"?

Some good articles though...and oddly enough, after that main headline a few articles down is this one:

"Head offices head to Calgary in $5.5 billion development boom". ;)

[feepa]

Oh no, an article about Alberta in the Canada section. Start up the usually rhetoric, ..... and go!

[WhipperSnapper]

The star's a rag that clings to one viewpoint (which depends on the time of the month) and what has been posted in this thread has been posted in numerous other threads so the curiosity for me is long gone (probably not if I was Albertan though )

Most of the country is booming - not close to Alberta's degree however I'm not so sure the degree at which Alberta is booming is all that great

[feepa]

Most of the country is booming - not close to Alberta's degree however I'm not so sure the degree at which Alberta is booming is all that great

I think just about everyone in Alberta will agree with this - Alberta is booming too much.

[nunuangel99]

The star's a rag that clings to one viewpoint (which depends on the time of the month) and what has been posted in this thread has been posted in numerous other threads so the curiosity for me is long gone (probably not if I was Albertan though )

Most of the country is booming - not close to Alberta's degree however I'm not so sure the degree at which Alberta is booming is all that great

Come and take a look and see for yourself!!

[feepa]

^^ I think what goodlookin' is trying to say that while boom is good, the level of the boom in Alberta is too much.. and might not be so good, and have adverse affects (housing crunch, labour shortage, infrastructure projects being delayed, cost of living soaring... etc)

[IntotheWest]

^Well, and that's the message in the first (and main) article to this "special section". However, every article after that does kind of contradict it...

But everyone is well-aware at the unsustainable pace of this "boom" - no news there.

As for being in the Canada section, if it's not interesting to others it'll surely move down the list quickly...but, to me, it's no different than posting the news about Sam the Record Man leaving downtown TO in the Canada section.

[WHISTLERINMUSKOKA]

^Well, and that's the message in the first (and main) article to this "special section". However, every article after that does kind of contradict it...

That was the only point I was trying to make. And I agree that the SAM the record Man should have been posted in the Ontario room.


And the funniest thing is I post a thread entitled "Via Rail adds expertise to bullet train study for Calgary-Edmonton", an article that covered East and West Canada and it got locked for no apparent reason.

[IntotheWest]

That was the only point I was trying to make. And I agree that the SAM the record Man should have been posted in the Ontario room.

Yes - I was recognizing that point. Just seems odd coming from news in the east...it seems like a Herald or Journal report.

Anyway...let this one drop off if no one is interested in reading the same-old news. I guess I too was expecting more about the "dimming" of the "Boom" (not a fault of Feepa's...just odd collection of articles).

[vid]

Oh no, Alberta is going to melt! :( :ahhh:

But then Calgary is going to get a subway system, if Alberta doesn't asplode.

I don't understand what we're supposed to be discussing here. :shrug:

[sync]

Oh no, Alberta is going to melt! :( :ahhh:

But then Calgary is going to get a subway system, if Alberta doesn't asplode.

I don't understand what we're supposed to be discussing here. :shrug:

polarisation and regionalism in canada.

GO!

[vid]

The funny thing is, every single part of Canada feels like it's being neglected. On the issue of federal government favouritism among regions of the country, all regions of the country are in agreement that they're being shafted.

A little bit ironic, I guess. :P But I didn't see an exception to the Northern Ontario diamond mines in that green plan.

[Kevin_foster]

I, for one, welcome our new cold overlords.

[jsan]

As an Albertan let me sum it up, IT SUCKS HERE!!! Sure you can make good money if you are a welder, as long as the boom chugs along but for the rest of us it really does suck! Rents in Edmonton have gone up 500 to 600 dollars in one month alone.....Read this carefully, I said HAVE GONE UP that amount. My crappy little apartment that has no balcony, a beautiful view of a parking lot and neighbors that love sharing their stereo music with me 20 hours a day has gone from 700 dollars a month to 1200 dollars a month. Move you say? TO WHERE????? There is practically zero vacancy in this God forsaken city and this is predicted to only get worse as the masses of transient humans continue to pour into Edmonton. Half the license plates in this city are from out of province. People are living in tents because they cannot find affordable accommodations and NO the average wage for 80% of the jobs in this city are NO better than anywhere else in the country. There is such a huge misconception about pay in this province, it is not even remotely as good as Eastern Canada has been led to believe when you compare it to the "off the charts" cost of living.
I was recently in Vancouver, a city that was always considered allot more expensive than Edmonton, MAN, what a surprise, it is now cheaper to live in Vancouver than Edmonton, but the only drawback is Vancouver does not have 6 months of winter like Edmonton does. Oh well, you have to sacrifice some things!!!!!

[e909]

There has been an "IS ALBERTA'S ECONOMY STARTING TO DIM" thread in here every week for the last two, possibly more, years.

Rents started to increase $600 to $700 a month once the media started talking about rent controls/caps/whatever. Thanks government! Thanks for fu**ing with the free market.

Half the license plates in Edmonton are not from another province.

For $1200 a month I get a beautiful apartment with a view of downtown, two bedrooms, large balcony, and lots of other stuff. Move farther from downtown and you'll find better deals.. I know people who just rented a large basement for $400 a month.. You just have to deal with the fact that you live in a big city. Here's a novel idea to all the rent whiners: GET A ROOMMATE.

I love how many people in here wish for a recession. I guess they've never lived through one, but what's to stop people whining because they can't have a 2000 sqft house for $120,000.

[IntotheWest]

^I think you're exaggerating a few of your points :-)

About the jobs though - the DQ and BK down the street have been advertising jobs starting at $9/hour and $10/hour for almost 2 years...constantly. Around the corner, the Superstore Liquor store is advertising a $1000 bonus when you work a month. Or the Mexicans working at McD's flying up to fill a void there.

Now, this is why this is in the Canada section, because I don't believe anywhere else in Canada are paying these typically minimum-wage jobs at nearly $2/hour over that (or, is min wage in other provinces at $9/hour already?) - or offering bonuses to try and hold on to workers?

As for comparing to Vancouver, just curious, are you comparing similar neighbourhoods - say downtown to downtown? Because the last I was in Van (staying/working there up until last Sept), it was still slightly pricier in Van proper. Not much, but still more for something comparable (minus the rain vs "winter" :-)

[e909]

Jobs in Alberta do pay more. I make substantially more than the Canadian average income, and my job is professional based.

[jsan]

Here's a novel idea to all the rent whiners: GET A ROOMMATE.

I love how many people in here wish for a recession. I guess they've never lived through one, but what's to stop people whining because they can't have a 2000 sqft house for $120,000.


Oh yeah, great solution! Move to Edmonton, but be prepared to get a roommate because you will not be able to afford your own rent. It will be just like living in college again, unfortunately you're in your 30's so it might be a little embarrassing explaining it to your friends or girlfriend. Edmonton is basically an industrial city, if you want to pay 1200 dollars a month for rent and 500k dollars for a 2000 sqft house while living in an industrial city be my guest, I have no desire though. The only reason anyone would want to come to this city would be for a very affordable cost of living. Those days are LONG gone and Edmonton is now one of the least affordable cities in North America.

[e909]

Oh yeah, great solution! Move to Edmonton, but be prepared to get a roommate because you will not be able to afford your own rent. It will be just like living in college again, unfortunately you're in your 30's so it might be a little embarrassing explaining it to your friends or girlfriend. Edmonton is basically an industrial city, if you want to pay 1200 dollars a month for rent and 500k dollars for a 2000 sqft house while living in an industrial city be my guest, I have no desire though. The only reason anyone would want to come to this city would be for a very affordable cost of living. Those days are LONG gone and Edmonton is now one of the least affordable cities in North America.
Edmonton is much more than an industrial city these days.

If there was such a problem, the population of Edmonton wouldn't be rising. The media just makes a mountain over nothing. People are willing to pay $1200 a month for an apartment, and 500k for a house. Something must be right.

[jsan]

Jobs in Alberta do pay more. I make substantially more than the Canadian average income, and my job is professional based.

I'm professionally employed in a high tech field and I do not make a penny more than anyone else across the country. None of my friends who are in their careers make anymore than anyone else across Canada. Employers will only pay you what they have to in order to keep you. The second that the economy slows, you are out the door. Paying someone a cash bonus or other incentive to stay at the job is nothing new, I remember Superstore used to do this 15 years ago, it is just a little trick to keep people from quitting after a month or so. It's cheaper to pay someone the 1000 dollars for staying at the job for a year than it is for having to rehire a new employee every couple of months.

[jsan]

Edmonton is much more than an industrial city these days.

If there was such a problem, the population of Edmonton wouldn't be rising. The media just makes a mountain over nothing. People are willing to pay $1200 a month for an apartment, and 500k for a house. Something must be right.


Trust me when I say this, the second the economy were to slow down 95% of the people who moved here would leave. It happened the last time the Boom went Bust and no, low oil prices did not cause the last bust, a slowing world economy caused it. Here, you can read all about it.

http://history.cbc.ca/history/?MIval=EpisContent.html&series_id=1&episode_id=17&chapter_id=3&page_id=1&lang=E

[e909]

Trust me when I say this, the second the economy were to slow down 95% of the people who moved here would leave. It happened the last time the Boom went Bust and no, low oil prices did not cause the last bust, a slowing world economy caused it. Here, you can read all about it.

http://history.cbc.ca/history/?MIval=EpisContent.html&series_id=1&episode_id=17&chapter_id=3&page_id=1&lang=E
The population of Alberta has never dropped over a 5 year period. Go figure.

[nunuangel99]

As an Albertan let me sum it up, IT SUCKS HERE!!! Sure you can make good money if you are a welder, as long as the boom chugs along but for the rest of us it really does suck! Rents in Edmonton have gone up 500 to 600 dollars in one month alone.....Read this carefully, I said HAVE GONE UP that amount. My crappy little apartment that has no balcony, a beautiful view of a parking lot and neighbors that love sharing their stereo music with me 20 hours a day has gone from 700 dollars a month to 1200 dollars a month. Move you say? TO WHERE????? There is practically zero vacancy in this God forsaken city and this is predicted to only get worse as the masses of transient humans continue to pour into Edmonton. Half the license plates in this city are from out of province. People are living in tents because they cannot find affordable accommodations and NO the average wage for 80% of the jobs in this city are NO better than anywhere else in the country. There is such a huge misconception about pay in this province, it is not even remotely as good as Eastern Canada has been led to believe when you compare it to the "off the charts" cost of living.
I was recently in Vancouver, a city that was always considered allot more expensive than Edmonton, MAN, what a surprise, it is now cheaper to live in Vancouver than Edmonton, but the only drawback is Vancouver does not have 6 months of winter like Edmonton does. Oh well, you have to sacrifice some things!!!!!

jsan do us Edmontonians all a favour and leave already!! (Not just the forum but the City!!) see yaaaa!!

[feepa]

Trust me when I say this, the second the economy were to slow down 95% of the people who moved here would leave. It happened the last time the Boom went Bust and no, low oil prices did not cause the last bust, a slowing world economy caused it. Here, you can read all about it.

http://history.cbc.ca/history/?MIval=EpisContent.html&series_id=1&episode_id=17&chapter_id=3&page_id=1&lang=E

Hello... Please look at the population numbers, and tell me - where has there every been a down turn in the population.
People come here, and stay here. Not everyone, but definitely not 95% of the people leave.
heres a link - study the data, and show me - wheres this MASS EXODUS ... http://www.edmonton.ca/infraplan/demographic/Edmonton%20Population%20Historical.pdf

I'm sure you realize that the slowing of the world economy is currently not happening. Inflation rates are NO WHERE near what they were before.

Vancouver is not cheaper the Edmonton. Nice Try.

We have 4 months of winter here... Just like we have 4 months of any season.

If you don't like it here, take your job and such elsewhere. Someone else will gladly occupy your apartment that has seen a rate hike (and prolly the first significant one in 5-7 years)....

[The Chemist]

Rents started to increase $600 to $700 a month once the media started talking about rent controls/caps/whatever. Thanks government! Thanks for fu**ing with the free market.


RIght, let's all bow down before the mighty 'free market', even if it's fucking over a wholelot of people. Here's a newsflash - the government already 'interferes' in the free market in a lot of areas for the good of the population. If you think it's perfectly fair and don't have a problem with this rent gouging, my guess is you've got absolutely zero compassion.:rolleyes:

Besides, the rent gouging was happening here in Calgary long before anyone started talking about rent controls.

[caltrane74]

If we lived in a total freemarket, we would have to pay for healthcare out of our own pockets.

Thats why most americans think we are communist.

[e909]

RIght, let's all bow down before the mighty 'free market', even if it's fucking over a wholelot of people. Here's a newsflash - the government already 'interferes' in the free market in a lot of areas for the good of the population. If you think it's perfectly fair and don't have a problem with this rent gouging, my guess is you've got absolutely zero compassion.:rolleyes:

Besides, the rent gouging was happening here in Calgary long before anyone started talking about rent controls.
Landlords are not providing a public service, they are out to make a dollar like anyone else. They have higher bills to pay, the increased costs of managing and obtaining new rental units, etc..

How will telling landlords what they can charge create more housing units?

Sure the market may be fucking over a whole lot of people, but I really don't see how the government can improve the condition.

[Hootch]

RIght, let's all bow down before the mighty 'free market', even if it's fucking over a wholelot of people. Here's a newsflash - the government already 'interferes' in the free market in a lot of areas for the good of the population. If you think it's perfectly fair and don't have a problem with this rent gouging, my guess is you've got absolutely zero compassion.:rolleyes:

Besides, the rent gouging was happening here in Calgary long before anyone started talking about rent controls.

I couldn't agree with you more. Great post!

The solution to it isn't "getting a roommate", it's rent control. My question is, how is this boom benefiting me? I'm a typical, young, working-class Edmontonian, whose rent has skyrocketed to 980 from 650 in the past month, and the cost of living is going higher faster than wages. If you're not born into privilege, how the hell does it benefit you? Maybe I'm ignorant as to how I'm benefits me, but I'm still paying out of my ass just for rent. And there are thousands of pissed off Albertans like me.

I can't wait for the bust!

[240glt]

As far as real estate goes, when you can still buy an older 1 bedroom condo walking distance to Oliver Square for $100,000, or a two bedroom for $140,000.... or splurge on an older house in Spruce Avenue or Norwood for just over $200k, I'd say the unaffordability issue is moot. I mean shit, you wanna live in Triwilligar ? Pay the fucking price. So the north side of downtown is run down and trashy ? Be part of the solution, fer chrissakes.

Rentals on the other hand, should have been adressed ten years ago. The provincial government failed to see this coming, and failed to act. Legislation could have been in place to encourage investment in rental buildings, and the gov could have spared just a tiny bit of that big whopping amount of cash they used to pay down the debt to help build some quality rental stock. Landlords are asking market value for thier places. Fair enough. Unfortunately no other solutions are offered to people who can't afford rising rents on low salaries, asside for organizations like Habitat, who can only accomodate a fraction of the people who really need affordable housing. We're seeing now, the failures of the government that so many cheered for for years as the ideal governing body. It's a shame that some of us didn't open our eyes sooner


/Rant

[skyscraper_1]

Instead of rent control, why not build public housing?

[e909]

I couldn't agree with you more. Great post!

The solution to it isn't "getting a roommate", it's rent control. My question is, how is this boom benefiting me? I'm a typical, young, working-class Edmontonian, whose rent has skyrocketed to 980 from 650 in the past month, and the cost of living is going higher faster than wages. If you're not born into privilege, how the hell does it benefit you? Maybe I'm ignorant as to how I'm benefits me, but I'm still paying out of my ass just for rent. And there are thousands of pissed off Albertans like me.

I can't wait for the bust!
With rent controls your $980 a month rent will turn into living in a cardboard box, once your landlord sells the unit for condo development and the city has no rental units period.

You'll probably lose your job in the bust too, but hey... as long as rent stays cheap. Economic busts are a little worse than just cheap rent and tons of apartments.

[The Chemist]

With rent controls your $980 a month rent will turn into living in a cardboard box, once your landlord sells the unit for condo development and the city has no rental units period.

You'll probably lose your job in the bust too, but hey... as long as rent stays cheap. Economic busts are a little worse than just cheap rent and tons of apartments.


The number one argument against rent controls is that they prevent the development of new rental units and encourage conversion of rental units to condos. Given the fact that the vacancy rate in Calgary apartments is next to zero and yet still no new rental units are even on the drawing board, much less under construction, and more and more are being converted to condos every day, I'd say that putting some kind of soft cap on rents couldn't possibly make things any worse than they already are.

For the record, I'm not opposed to landlords raising rents to cover increased costs and renovations - however, I am completely opposed to the exorborant rental increases that are being more and more commonly seen. That's why I'm in favour of rental controls like they have in BC, where yearly rental increases are limited to the rate of inflation plus 2% - it prevents gouging while still allowing landlords to raise rents to cover the cost of inflation and renovations.

[e909]

The number one argument against rent controls is that they prevent the development of new rental units and encourage conversion of rental units to condos. Given the fact that the vacancy rate in Calgary apartments is next to zero and yet still no new rental units are even on the drawing board, much less under construction, and more and more are being converted to condos every day, I'd say that putting some kind of soft cap on rents couldn't possibly make things any worse than they already are.

For the record, I'm not opposed to landlords raising rents to cover increased costs and renovations - however, I am completely opposed to the exorborant rental increases that are being more and more commonly seen. That's why I'm in favour of rental controls like they have in BC, where yearly rental increases are limited to the rate of inflation plus 2% - it prevents gouging while still allowing landlords to raise rents to cover the cost of inflation and renovations.
Not that I doubt you, but do you have stats showing the number of rental units being built?

[vid]

Instead of rent control, why not build public housing?

Because public housing attracts poor people. :eek:

[Kevin_foster]

Labor shortages and materials costs need to slow down so that developers can build.

nuff said

[Jay in Cowtown]

As an Albertan let me sum it up, IT SUCKS HERE!!! Sure you can make good money if you are a welder, as long as the boom chugs along but for the rest of us it really does suck! Rents in Edmonton have gone up 500 to 600 dollars in one month alone.....Read this carefully, I said HAVE GONE UP that amount. My crappy little apartment that has no balcony, a beautiful view of a parking lot and neighbors that love sharing their stereo music with me 20 hours a day has gone from 700 dollars a month to 1200 dollars a month. Move you say? TO WHERE????? There is practically zero vacancy in this God forsaken city and this is predicted to only get worse as the masses of transient humans continue to pour into Edmonton. Half the license plates in this city are from out of province. People are living in tents because they cannot find affordable accommodations and NO the average wage for 80% of the jobs in this city are NO better than anywhere else in the country. There is such a huge misconception about pay in this province, it is not even remotely as good as Eastern Canada has been led to believe when you compare it to the "off the charts" cost of living.
I was recently in Vancouver, a city that was always considered allot more expensive than Edmonton, MAN, what a surprise, it is now cheaper to live in Vancouver than Edmonton, but the only drawback is Vancouver does not have 6 months of winter like Edmonton does. Oh well, you have to sacrifice some things!!!!!


now for the upside... My non oil and gas related job has increased 25% in pay due to cost of living percentage, and I still only pay a $1300 monthly mortgage for a house that is now worth around $625 000...

so I'd have to say no, it doesn't suck here... not even in the least!!! LOL!

[vid]

now for the upside... My non oil and gas related job has increased 25% in pay due to cost of living percentage, and I still only pay a $1300 monthly mortgage for a house that is now worth around $625 000...

so I'd have to say no, it doesn't suck here... not even in the least!!! LOL!

You we're lucky. Many more people are less fortunate than you.

[Jay in Cowtown]

You we're lucky. Many more people are less fortunate than you.

You're absolutely right... for young people from out of province trying to get ahead, this is a tough province to come to, yet I know plenty of people my age (early 30's) originally from this area that had the means to buy real estate before shit went crazy here... and opted to invest in $50 000 pickup trucks instead, I have no sympathy for them!

[malek]

wow its amazing to see people from Alberta fighting each other, never seen that before :)

*grabs popcorn*

[WhipperSnapper]

What I don't understand is why rental stock is allowed to be converted or demolished for condos in such a tight market. It's nearly impossible to convert affordably priced rental stock in Toronto and any intensification plan involving the demolition of rental stock must include replacements for all those lost

[Doug]

The number one argument against rent controls is that they prevent the development of new rental units and encourage conversion of rental units to condos. Given the fact that the vacancy rate in Calgary apartments is next to zero and yet still no new rental units are even on the drawing board, much less under construction, and more and more are being converted to condos every day, I'd say that putting some kind of soft cap on rents couldn't possibly make things any worse than they already are.

For the record, I'm not opposed to landlords raising rents to cover increased costs and renovations - however, I am completely opposed to the exorborant rental increases that are being more and more commonly seen. That's why I'm in favour of rental controls like they have in BC, where yearly rental increases are limited to the rate of inflation plus 2% - it prevents gouging while still allowing landlords to raise rents to cover the cost of inflation and renovations.

Except inflation for items related to housing ran close to 100% in Alberta over the past couple of years of so. Real estate prices cannot double without similar excalations feeding through to the rental market.

I have never heard an argument as to how rent control would help anyone other than existing renters.