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August 2011 Alberta Economic Fundamentals

Ally

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Oilsands costs on rise with oil price





Costs are going up in the oilsands but the good news is, so are oil prices, according to Ernst & Young LLP.




Recent market fluctuations aside, cost inflation that`s already taking hold is set to continue afflicting oilsands developers, along with tightening of the labour market, a report by the business advisory firm explains.




The document released Monday about opportunities and risks in the oilsands is a reminder to industry of the supply price hikes and labour shortages of the last boom that started in 2007.






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Calgary house prices expected to increase





CALGARY ` Short-term year-over-year house price growth in the Calgary region is expected to be in the five to seven per cent range, says the Conference Board of Canada.




It is a forecast it has consistently predicted for the Calgary census metropolitan area for some time.




In a report released Tuesday, the board said the average house price in the Calgary CMA in July was $397,884, down from $399,329 in June.




The seasonally-adjusted annual rate of sales in the resale market is 23,364 in July for the Calgary region, up from 23,112 in June.






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Electricity prices slide 34% from August for Enmax customers





CALGARY ` As fall approaches and nights grow longer, Calgary power consumers not locked into a long-term contract will be paying 34 per cent less to brighten things up at home.




Enmax Corp., the Calgary-owned utility, has set its regulated rate option for electricity in September at 8.213 cents per kilowatt hour, down from 12.432 cents per kWh in August.




However, consumer likely will get a jolt of reality in October since the utility was basing September`s rate on lower projected market prices which did not materialize.






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Alberta food services and drinking places sales increase





CALGARY ` Alberta recorded the second highest annual growth rate in the country for sales in the food services and drinking places industry in June.




According to Statistics Canada, sales in that sector rose by 0.7 per cent from May to $601.839 million. That was also up 7.0 per cent from June 2010, behind only Newfoundland and Labrador`s 7.1 per cent annual hike.




Across Canada, sales increased 0.9 per cent from May to $4.2 billion ` an annual hike of 3.2 per cent.






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Home sales edge up in July



Residential activity reported through the MLSÂ System of the Central Alberta REALTORSÂ Association was up slightly from year-ago levels in July 2011.





According to statistics provided by the Board, home sales numbered 283 units in July. This was up one per cent from the same month in 2010. Provincial activity, by comparison, posted a 20 per cent year-over-year increase in July.





On a year-to-date basis, sales in the first seven months of 2011 were running 10 per cent above levels in the same period in 2010.





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Lethbridge home sales and average prices stable in July



The number of homes sold through the MLSÂ System of the Lethbridge and District Association of REALTORSÂ came in just above year-ago levels in July 2011.








Home sales numbered 186 units in July 2011, edging up two per cent from the same month last year. There were 149 single family home sales, up 14 per cent from year-ago levels. Home sales in all of Alberta rose 20 per cent compared to July 2010.









The residential average price was $246,660 in July 2011, edging down one per cent from July 2010. The average price for home sales in all of Alberta inched up one per cent from year-ago levels to $359,103.





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Top 5 ranking helps 'tell the story of Calgary'





Calgary`s ranking as the fifth most livable city in the world will help attract new Calgarians to the city, according to one local expert.







The 2011 Livability Ranking released yesterday by the Economist Intelligence Unit scored Calgary at a 96.6 out of a possible 100 points.







`I think rankings like this gain attention, not only locally but nationally and internationally, said Elsbeth Mehrer, director research, work force and strategy for Calgary Economic Development





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Fort Mac grapples with oil sand growth (again)






Melissa Blake remembers
the last boom vividly. As the mayor of the Regional Municipality of Wood Buffalo that Fort McMurray is a part of, she lived it every day. And as story after story chronicled her hometown`s infrastructure deficit ` brought on by the oil and gas industry`s grand designs to rapidly expand oil sands production ` she was often the public face of a city in crisis.


The experience hasn`t been forgotten by Blake, who moved to Fort McMurray in 1982 and has been Wood Buffalo`s mayor since 2001. As the industry dusts off development plans it shelved during the recession, she thinks those plans should be slowed unless the city`s infrastructure is beefed up substantially. `We still are not where we need to be for the population that exists presently. That means we`re not anywhere where we need to be for the population yet to come,` Blake says. `If you want an aggressive pace, then you need aggressive investment in the things that make it possible to accommodate the people. If we`re not getting aggressive investment, then you need to slow the train down.`





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Alberta labour market tops North America





CALGARY ` Alberta topped all jurisdictions in North America for labour market performance over the last five years, according to a report released Thursday by The Fraser Institute.




Measuring Labour Markets in Canada and the United States: 2011 Edition, which ranks the performance of labour markets in 10 Canadian provinces and 50 American states, is a composite measure of labour market performance based on five equally weighted indicators: average total employment growth, average private sector employment growth, average unemployment rate, average duration of unemployment, and average labour productivity.




The report said Alberta`s strong performance enabled it to achieve the highest overall score of 9.0 out of 10.






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