Despite a sharp decline in building permit values in Red Deer last year, officials with two local construction associations are upbeat about the outlook for 2009.
"I think it looks like a promising year," said Paul Beaumont, past-president of the Red Deer Construction Association.
He anticipates that many companies in his association will be kept busy with work on infrastructure projects.
St. Albert will consider introducing curbside recyling.
Curbside recycling, a service Edmonton residents have enjoyed since 1988, is not provided.
Instead, St. Albert dwellers tote their recyclables to a depot located in Campbell Industrial park on the far east side of the city.
Rick Tompolski, St. Albert`s director of public works, said residents asked "Why everyone else and not us?" after curbside recycling programs started up in the capital region.
Alberta is tinkering again with its deregulated electricity market, but industry players and observers say the contemplated changes are not expected to deter investment in needed power plants or dramatically affect the price people pay.
The Alberta Electric System Operator has been meeting with interested parties for a year to discuss issues that have been raised about the operating reserves market that provides immediate electricity to the provincial grid in the event a generator suddenly shuts down.
The uncertainty of the global economy has spread to Edmonton`s office market.
Low energy prices, unstable stock markets and a tighter lending climate will dampen demand for office space and push rental rates down by about 10 to 15 per cent or more, depending on the severity of the economic downturn, says a forecast released Wednesday by Cushman & Wakefield Edmonton.
A lberta entered the new year with the lowest rig count since 1993, painting a dark picture for drilling activity in the province as commodity prices continue low and credit tight.
In a season when the industry traditionally runs full tilt, only 36 per cent of the provincial fleet, or 224 rigs, ran during the first week of January, according to the Canadian Association of Oilwell Drilling Contractors. The number is half of what ran in 2006 when activity peaked in Alberta on spiking natural gas prices and high demand.
ECONOMY - Alberta business and consumer bankruptcies in November rose 37 per cent compared to the same month in 2007, the federal Office of the Superintendent of Bankruptcy reported Wednesday.
A total of 640 Alberta bankruptcies were recorded in November, up 174 from the previous year. For the 12-month period ending in November, the total rose to 6,198--an 18.2 per cent increase.
The average price paid per hectare for conventional oil and gas drilling rights in Alberta has fallen to its lowest level in a decade as higher royalties, lower commodity prices and tight credit deepen winter gloom in the oilpatch.
Statistics posted on the Alberta Energy website show that the average price paid in the first land sale of 2009, held Wednesday, are the lowest since 1999.
The city is eyeing the former Holy Cross hospital as an urban oasis in the midst of the downtown core, with plans to build residential towers, high-end retail and medical facilities.
A long-awaited concept plan for the 3.28-hectare site in the heart of the trendy Mission district is being shopped to area residents as a mixed-use block. Inner-city Ald. John Mar said the plan has raised some eyebrows but should mesh well with the community.
Al Eyles didn`t think downsizing his liquor store would mean the loss of business. But changes to the city`s land-use bylaw last year has left the owner of Wrinklies Liquor Store, at 1259 Highfield Cres. S.E., faced with the prospect of being put out of business by a worsening economy or by the city, which says he can`t set up the same operation in a smaller bay just five doors down in the same strip mall.
0109REDR Planners explain potential impact of new housing development
A new housing development planned at the head of the McKenzie Trail will forever change the nature of the popular walking route, said a regular user.
"You are completely changing the quality of this environment by that development," said Kristine Dugas at a Wednesday public meeting on the Garden Heights Neighourhood Area Structure Plan that drew about 15 people to the Kerry Wood Nature Centre.
Despite lower sales volumes, homes in Central Alberta generally held their value in 2008.
This was the conclusion reached by Central Alberta Realtors Association past-president Randy Weins on Thursday, when he presented the Multiple Listing Service statistics for the region.
Central Alberta`s real estate market suffered a "staggering" drop in sales volumes to end 2008, says the past-president of the Central Alberta Realtors Association.
Randy Weins expects sales activity to remain slow early this year, but said the industry should rebound thereafter.
Bruce Power has temporarily withdrawn its application to prepare a site for a nuclear power plant near Peace River, and is now considering a second site.
In a letter to the Canadian Nuclear Safety Commission, the nuclear power company says a new site was chosen partly because concerns were raised about an aquifer near the first location. The second site is on the west bank of the Peace River, about 30 kilometres north of the town. The original site is on the northeast shore of Lac Cardinal, about 30 kilometres west of the town. It was selected by Energy Alberta, which Bruce Power bought last March.
For owners trying to sell and house buyers waiting for lower prices, a 2009 forecast for Edmonton home sales probably didn`t bring the news they wanted to hear.
Home sales are expected to drop 10.5 per cent, says the Realtors Association of Edmonton forecast, but it still describes 2009 as a "reasonably good year ahead."
The dollar value of building permits in Calgary dropped 25 per cent last year as developers and home renovators took a breather from the previous year`s breakneck activity levels.
Commercial and residential building permits came in at $4.1 billion for projects ranging from mega buildings in the downtown core, municipal waterworks, new schools and home additions.
With new homes and land-development industries going through their slowest period in more than a decade, it may seem bizarre to talk about getting new land developments approved, but there is probably no better time. The day-to-day pressures of bringing new land to market have lessened greatly from the tumultuous years from 2005 to 2007 and the year ahead shows no changes, says Don McLeod, the new chairman of the Urban Development Institute-Calgary.
Canada`s oilsands industry is losing the battle of public perception to environmental groups but is vowing to fight back more aggressively, says the industry`s lobby group. Oilsands players, however, have a problem as they are preparing to polish their tarnished image: Public trust in the oilsands appears weak, at least according to a recent poll.
