Alberta January 2013 Economic Fundamentals

[Ally]

Calgary rent rises as vacancies tighten




Calgary`s rental market is tightening up as vacancies decline and rent increases, meaning more people may make the move to homeownership, says a federal agency.




`With vacancy rates going lower, that`s going to give the incentive to some people to move into homeownership,` says Richard Cho, senior market analyst with Canada Mortgage and Housing Corp.





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[Ally]

Oilsands hub Fort McMurray bursting at the seams




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."





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[Ally]

Energy crunch: Oil faces uncertain path to new markets




From sea to sea, the promise and perils facing Alberta's energy resources - and a provincial government anxious to help bring them to market - are on full display.




Along the Atlantic, the largest oil refinery in Canada sits with unused capacity while the New Brunswick government hopes Alberta oil can fill the gaps.





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[Ally]

How big is Canada's oil subsidy to the U.S.




Consider the tale of Suncor Energy Inc. and Canadian Natural Resources Ltd., two of the largest oil sands producers in Alberta. Outwardly, they may appear quite similar. Each produces hundreds of thousands of barrels a day from the oil sands. And most of that oil eventually ends up in the same place`gas tanks across the continent. The path it takes to get there, however, is another story. The difference is a microcosm of the predicament Canada`s energy industry currently faces.



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[Ally]

Concerns prompt U.S. review of tanker traffic out of B.C.





Concerns south of the border over oil tanker traffic from British Columbia have spurred a U.S. Coast Guard review of proposed increases in Canadian oil exports.




A legislative amendment proposed by Washington state Sen. Maria Cantwell and signed into law by President Barack Obama a couple of weeks ago gives the U.S. marine safety agency six months to conduct a risk assessment of the planned expansion of oil pipeline capacity to the West Coast.




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[Ally]

Booming Alberta: Okotoks thirsty for more water as town's population swells




OKOTOKS ` Each day in the winter, Okotoks returns 80 to 90 per cent of the water it draws out of the Sheep River.




Residents of the burgeoning town use an average of 295 litres of water each day, pay extra if they want green lawns in the summer and face regular restrictions on water use.




Then, at least in the winter, most of the water used is treated and put back in the river.





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[Ally]

Average Calgary house price in 2013 a new record




CALGARY ` Average house prices in Calgary reached a record level in 2012, outpacing the housing boom peak of 2007.




According to the Calgary Real Estate Board, there were 21,207 MLS sales in Calgary in 2012 at an average sale price of $428,655, eclipsing the previous record of $423,770 in 2007 when there were 26,611 transactions.





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[Ally]

Calgary downtown office market tight for space




CALGARY ` With no new space to be delivered until 2014, the downtown office market will continue to be very tight with low vacancy rates for the foreseeable future, says a fourth quarter 2012 report by Colliers International in Calgary.




`While growth may be somewhat muted, we do expect leasing activity to pick up as pent-up demand flows through the market and several large users secure their 2016 and beyond space in new office developments. Additional sublease space is expected to come to market though likely in smaller blocks of space,` it said.





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[Ally]

Grande Prairie struggles with acute labour shortage




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.





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[Ally]

Calgary house prices forecast to rise 2.5% in 2013




CALGARY ` By the end of 2013, average house prices in Calgary are expected to increase 2.5 per cent, while most of Canada is expecting price appreciation to flatten, according to the Royal LePage House Price Survey and Markey Survey Forecast released Tuesday.




And while Calgary will see a nine per cent hike in sales activity this year over last year, nationally the resale housing market will experience a decline of five per cent.





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[Ally]

Jackson quit EPA for fear Obama poised to approve Keystone XL




WASHINGTON ` The head of the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency resigned abruptly last week, reportedly to protest the Obama administration`s apparent plans to approve TransCanada`s Keystone XL pipeline in the coming months.




The American environmental movement is abuzz following a New York Post report that Lisa Jackson suddenly quit the post because she doesn`t want to be at the helm of the agency when the White House rubber-stamps the controversial project.





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[Ally]

Alberta's oilpatch high wages attract U.S. workers




CALGARY ` The boom in U.S. shale oil and natural gas production threatens to cut off a key supply of skilled temporary foreign workers for Alberta companies, as more tradespeople opt to work on large infrastructure projects in the United States despite the lure of dramatically higher wages in Western Canada.




`There`s going to be a battle between what goes up north versus what comes down south,` said Mike Bergen, executive vice-president of Sugar Land, Tex.-based market research firm Industrial Info Resources.





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[Ally]

'Restrained' growth seen for Edmonton housing in 2013





EDMONTON - Despite leading the country in employment, a steady stream of migrants and still-enviable economic growth, the Realtors Association of Edmonton forecasts `restrained` growth in the local resale housing market for 2013.



The prices of single-family MLS homes in the Edmonton region will increase on average by two per cent to $390,020 from $382,373, according to the group`s annual forecast released Wednesday at a seminar.





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[Ally]

Little pink houses for you and me




C







onstruction is one of the most important economic drivers in Alberta`s economy. Not surprisingly, a lot of attention is paid to indicators of building activity, especially around housing starts. Here, the most recent data give a bit of a mixed picture. In December, construction got started on just under 30,000 new residential homes. That number is adjusted for seasonality and is reported at an `annualized rate.` In other words, if the same pace of housing starts continued for 12 months, there would be 30,000 new homes built in a year. This rate is considerably below the 39,700 homes started in November, and one of the slowest months in 2012.







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[Ally]

Calgary region looks to attract business and investment with new website




CALGARY ` The Calgary Regional Partnership has launched a new website, with the Calgary Real Estate Board, to promote and sell industrial/commercial properties to a global audience.




The website www.explorecalgaryregion.ca, officially launched on Thursday, is looking to attract business and investment.





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[Ally]

Canadian spot oil price sinks as Enbridge imposes new oil pipeline rationing




Canadian spot oil prices tumbled as Enbridge Inc has imposed mid-month rationing on three of its Canada-U.S. oil pipelines, exacerbating an already-tight export capacity situation.




Western Canada Select, a heavy blend of oil-sands bitumen, fell $2.50 to a $39.50 discount against the U.S. oil benchmark West Texas Intermediate, according to Calgary oil broker Net Energy Inc. Syncrude, a synthetic light oil processed from bitumen, sank 75 cents to a 25-cent discount.





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[Ally]

Blocking route to Alberta's oilsands is a 'dangerous' idea: Federal Tory




A lot more can be at risk than just Alberta`s oilsands if Idle No More protests shut down Highway 63, warns a federal Tory MP in charge of Canada`s aboriginal caucus.




During Friday`s Idle No More rally at the Alberta legislature, Chief Allan Adam said there are talks `behind closed doors` to close the corridor to Alberta`s lucrative oilsands.




`I can promise you, Highway 63 to the oilsands plants will be shut down if things don`t change for the better,` said the Athabasca Chipewyan First Nation leader to a crowd of roughly 400 people.





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[Ally]

B.C. gas boom competes with oilsands




With the well-documented challenge of getting enough skilled labour to develop Alberta's oilsands, the looming shale gas/LNG boom in British Columbia has the potential to add another point of contention between the provinces over energy development.




The state of affairs has already sparked an intermittent war of words between the two premiers over the risks and rewards of oil-sands production and building pipelines to the B.C. coast.





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[Ally]

Albertans optimistic about hiring plans




CALGARY ` Albertans are the most likely to say that their employer will be hiring more people in the coming year (52 per cent), and are among the most likely to say that they will be investing in training (55 per cent) and purchasing new equipment (55 per cent), says a new poll released Monday by BMO Bank of Montreal.





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[Ally]

Housing forecast predicts slow and stable growth





There are no bounces, no bubbles and no bursts to be expected in the Capital region`s housing market this year, says Darrell Cook, president of the Realtors Association of Edmonton.




`The real estate market in Edmonton and the region will remain stable and steady,` Cook told some 700 realtors and business people Wednesday at the association`s annual housing forecast seminar.





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