AB Economic Fundamentals 2008-12

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1208EDTN
Biofuel projects on hold as capital becomes scarce

When the provincial government first announced its $239-million bioenergy program in October 2006, biofuels were considered a boon to the environment and farmers, and a sure bet for venture capitalists.

About 60 projects came forward to the government. People looked for help with everything from feasibility and technical studies to plant development.

http://www.canada.com/edmontonjournal/news...e9-13a33a5d15eb

 

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AB Small Town Updates: 2008-12-14

 

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1208CALG
City`s high-density projects stir debate

The LRT line is ugly and in the wrong place.

That multi-family building will add too much traffic to the neighbourhood.

A highrise near an LRT station doesn`t fit, causing cars to cut through the community.

Similar complaints from Calgarians are heard often as the city attempts to move forward on plans to add more transit and increase the number of people living in established areas.

http://www.canada.com/calgaryherald/news/s...8c-a7f444d88989

 

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1208CALG
Cecil`s future hangs in balance

Nearly a century ago, the Cecil Hotel was a refuge for newly arrived labourers as they got off the train on the city`s east side, a blue-collar home for those looking for a fresh start.

These days, that heritage is largely lost. The big, blue building at the corner of 4th Avenue and 4th Street S. E. has come to be associated with fights, drug deals and prostitution.

Motorists lock their doors when a red light stops them outside its entrance. Even the homeless who frequent the area are afraid to step inside.

http://www.canada.com/calgaryherald/news/c...d4-af11e9ad17fb

 

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1208CALG
City tired of snow job


Homeowners refusing to clear sidewalks of snow may be in for a rude awakening in the new year when bylaw officers seek to crack down on repeat slackers. Director of bylaw services Bill Bruce said he is hoping for more strict consequences against snow shovelling sluggards who are notorious for waiting for a notice from the city before clearing their pathways for pedestrians.

http://calsun.canoe.ca/News/Alberta/2008/1...752081-sun.html

 

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1208REDR
Peterbilt Red Deer expands

Peterbilt Red Deer is gearing up.

Just 4 1/2 years after the truck dealer opened a sales and service centre in Petrolia Park, it`s preparing to move to expanded facilities in Burnt Lake Industrial Park.

Russell Bergen, Peterbilt Red Deer`s parts and operations manager, said he expects the business to relocate to its new 35,000-square-foot premises in mid-March. It currently has about 14,500 square feet of space.

http://www.albertalocalnews.com/reddeeradv...er_expands.html

 

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1208EDTN
Camsell housing development OK`d

Following more than three years of planning and community debate, city council gave the green light Monday to a major new housing development on the former Charles Camsell Hospital site.

Architect Gene Dub won unanimous approval for a plan to create 594 condominiums, row houses and single- detached homes on the 4.7-hectare Inglewood property, including five per cent affordable housing.

http://www.canada.com/edmontonjournal/news...e9-46763367ac7f

 

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1208ALTA
Limit ATM fees, Stelmach tells PM

P remier Ed Stelmach surprised and irked banks on Monday by urging the prime minister to limit bank-machine fees, a pitch last made--unsuccessfully-- by the federal NDP.

In a letter to Stephen Harper before next month`s federal budget, Stelmach offered several other new suggestions for ways Ottawa can bolster the shaky economy, from reducing national-park user fees for Canadians to creating new tax treatments for small energy firms slated to lose their income-trust status.

http://www.canada.com/calgaryherald/news/s...72-173b78a5422f

 

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1208CALG
City to pay $10.9M for Cecil

The city moved Monday to replace drug dealers and prostitutes on a key East Village lot with parking and commercial space, approving a$10.9-million deal to purchase the notorious Cecil Hotel.

Amid arguments about whether the price tag was exorbitant or a steal, city council agreed in an 11-4 vote to buy the site at the corner of 4th Avenue and 3rd Street S. E--calling it a gateway to downtown.

http://www.canada.com/calgaryherald/news/c...6d-b8394ec30ad3

 

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1208CALG
Police bust $3.2M grow op

Police have made the largest residential marijuana bust in the city`s history, seizing $3.25 million worth of pot plants in the first of four raids over two days last week.

The bust was made Wednesday in a house on Weston Place S.W. where 2,600 plants were found in various stages of growth.

The previous record-breaking seizure took place in May, when police grabbed 2,445 plants worth about$3 million from a large home on Patterson Crescent S. W.

http://www.canada.com/calgaryherald/news/c...bf-b4c5b2e4ac68

 

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1208ALTA
Housing sales swoon

The MLS residential market is continuing to reflect the grim economic reality in the country.

Sales have plunged from a year ago, average sale prices have dropped and a forecast calls for the housing funk to remain for several more months.

According to data released Monday by the Canadian Real Estate Association, sales plunged by 42.2 per cent in November--the second consecutive steep monthly decline -- across the country compared with November 2007. Every province witnessed a sharp drop led by British Columbia at 62 per cent and Ontario at 43.5 per cent. Alberta experienced a year-over-year sales decline of 34.6 per cent.

http://www.canada.com/calgaryherald/news/c...8f-7d0a74c22ca2

 

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1208ALTA
Oilsands output target pushed back two years

Alberta`s oilsands will take two more years to reach three million barrels per day -- until 2019 instead of 2017--under an interim forecast update by the Canadian Association of Petroleum Producers (CAPP) issued Monday, due to a spate of project cancellations and deferrals.

http://www.canada.com/calgaryherald/news/c...86-13802c280ea9

 

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1208EDTN
$11 house in Edmonton is a tough selling job in an age of rampant Internet scams

EDMONTON -- Inside the unfinished, barely heated shell of a house in central Edmonton, David Stockburger`s breath freezes in small puffs as he sits on an old metal chair, one of the few things in the 21/2-storey building that is not construction materials.

Over the next six months, he will spend every working day making the house livable -- refurbishing the oak hardwood floors and laying linoleum, putting up walls and building bookshelves and cubbyholes -- until he is left with an essentially brand-new four-bedroom house.

http://www.vancouversun.com/news/todays-pa...0815/story.html

 

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1208REDR
Radio station finds a home

L.A. Radio Group Inc. has moved a step closer to getting its signal on the local airwaves.

The company, which obtained conditional approval from the Canadian Radio-television and Telecommunications Commission in October to launch a radio station in Red Deer, appears to have secured a site for a local studio and a communication tower.

http://www.albertalocalnews.com/reddeeradv...nds_a_home.html

 

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1208EDTN
Flood of complaints expected

City officials are bracing for a wave of complaints in 2009 from residents concerned that average taxes are going up despite Edmonton`s first drop in assessed property value in years.

The assessment done on last July 1, as required by provincial law, showed a 10-per-cent decline from the record-setting values a year earlier, Coun. Bryan Anderson said Tuesday.

http://www.canada.com/edmontonjournal/news...7c-e023df88a958

 

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1208EDTN
Twin tower plan reaches for optimism

Out of the gloom and doom of economic uncertainty emerges a $200-million proposal to build twin skyscrapers downtown, the tallest reaching 50 storeys.

Urbia Development`s design proposal for 104th Street is of a magnitude and height unforeseen in any civic plan, largely because of restrictions imposed by the flight paths in and out of the City Centre Airport. That alone gives reason for skepticism about the project. Combine that with all the dire economic news of late and it`s easy to view the glass-and-steel skyscrapers as little more than architectural pie in the sky.

http://www.canada.com/edmontonjournal/news...3d-fdd1c9d3dda1

 

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1208EDTN
Sublet space growing

Canada`s office markets are starting to feel the effects of an economic slowdown, says a new report by CB Richard Ellis.

A spike in the amount of downtown sublet space in two leading Canadian office markets is a harbinger of what to expect in most other markets in 2009, including Edmonton, said the commercial real estate company`s year-end report released Tuesday.

http://www.canada.com/edmontonjournal/news...36-ccc9f175b05e

 

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1208ALTA
Oil will leak to $30 US, TD Bank forecasts

The plunge in commodity prices will be deeper and more prolonged than expected only a month ago, taking oil down to $30 US a barrel, a major Canadian bank warned Tuesday as the U.S. slashed interest rates to virtually zero to prop up that economy.

The downwardly revised TD Bank commodity-price forecast follows its recent downgrade of its global economic outlook, and was issued amid news that falling stock and home prices cut $191 billion from the net worth of Canadians in the third quarter, that Canadian factory shipments fell further in October while inventories continued to pile up, and that the U.S. housing market continued to weaken in November.

http://www.canada.com/edmontonjournal/news...28-af502640b397

 

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1208ALTA
Shell loses bid for sour gas well

The province`s energy regulator has shut down a proposal for a new sour gas well and pipelines in southwestern Alberta -- noting there are persisting concerns following a pipeline leak in the area last year.

A recent report on a 2007 sour gas leak called for improvements to Shell Canada Ltd.`s operations, but residents of the hamlet of Beaver Mines --20 kilometres west of Pincher Creek--are still surprised the Energy Resources Conservation Board turned down such a major industry player.

http://www.canada.com/calgaryherald/news/c...7e-66aab3a44024

 

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1208CALG
Council looks at options for Cecil site

With the decision to buy the Cecil Hotel a done deal, city council now turns its attention to what to do with the $11-million site it will own by early next year.

While installing parking, and possibly commercial and residential units, seems to be a leading contender--the Calgary Parking Authority had identified it as a good location -- some say that`s not the only option.

http://www.canada.com/calgaryherald/news/c...e2-751253a8e8ee