He has volunteered to take on much of the heavy lifting himself to win support for controversial export pipelines such as the Keystone XL and Northern Gateway. In addition to holding the province`s highest office, earlier this week Prentice also appointed himself Minister of International and Intergovernmental Affairs as well as Minister of Aboriginal Affairs in an effort to consolidate the pipeline file into his hands.
Prentice has also recruited some high-profile supporters to drive his pro-pipeline agenda abroad. Rob Merrifield resigned earlier this week as a Conservative Member of Parliament (for the Alberta riding of Yellowhead) in order to take a new job as Alberta`s official representative to the United States based in Washington, DC. Veteran diplomat Ron Hoffman has agreed to sing the provincial praises as Alberta`s representative to the Asian Pacific Basin based in Hong Kong and another former MP, Jay Hill, will attempt to pacify Alberta`s closest neighbours as Alberta`s representative to the New West Partnership.
$300 million multi-family project announced for Calgary's East Village
CALGARY - RioCan Investment Trust and Embassy BOSA are teaming up to build a $300-million multi-family residential project in East Village that will include a Loblaws market as the first retail tenant in the development.
The development will consist of 500 new condominiums.
CALGARY - Alberta Premier Jim Prentice says labour policy, including temporary foreign workers, will top his agenda when he gets a chance to meet with Prime Minister Stephen Harper.
Prentice served for years in Harper's cabinet and wants to meet with the prime minister after dealing with provincial issues, including a byelection to get himself a seat in the Alberta legislature.
CALGARY - Calgary receives an `A` in attractiveness to newcomers and ranks second overall among 50 Canadian cities, behind only Waterloo, according to The Conference Board of Canada`s City Magnets III: Benchmarking the Attractiveness of 50 Canadian Cities released on Thursday.
`Calgary has been an economic powerhouse for many years, so the fact it outperforms all other cities in this category is not a surprise,` said Alan Arcand, associate director for the board`s Centre for Municipal Studies, in a news release. `It is one of the six Canadian cities to distinguish itself as a grade `A` city for attractiveness in our ranking.`
Calgary luxury residential development launches more sales phases
CALGARY - A luxury residential development just outside Calgary`s city limits has launched new sales phases for the project to take advantage of the growing appetite by homebuyers for high-end property.
The Watermark at Bearspaw development recently launched the third phase of its single-family estate lots and will launch the fourth and final phase of its luxury villas on September 27.
The Prentice government is fully committed to an Edmonton-area bitumen refinery despite concerns over major cost overruns, says Alberta`s new energy minister.
The government revealed this summer that it will pay $26 billion in tolls to the Sturgeon refinery ` formerly known as the North West Upgrader ` to process bitumen it receives as royalties over the 30-year life of the project. Previously it had committed to pay $19 billion.
CALGARY - Alberta continues to have the highest wages among all the provinces.
Statistics Canada reported Thursday that average weekly earnings of non-farm payroll employees in Alberta were $1,153.81 in July compared with the national average of $940.43.
Calgary resale housing market poised for record September
CALGARY - Calgary`s resale housing market is on pace to break the record for MLS sales during the month of September - a peak that has been in place since 2005.
According to the Calgary Real Estate Board, month-to-date from September 1-21, there have been 1,500 sales in the city, which is up 11.61 per cent from the same period a year ago.
Statoil calls off 40,000 bpd Canada oil sand development
OSLO/CALGARY (Reuters) - Norwegian energy company Statoil ASA said on Thursday it will postpone development of its 40,000 barrel per day Corner oil sands project in Alberta, Canada, for at least three years, cutting about 70 jobs at its Canadian unit, because of rising costs and limited pipeline space.
Population boom puts crunch on ambulance service in Edmonton
EDMONTON - Three new ambulance stations are set to open in Edmonton by early 2015 but they will be staffed by the same paramedics who say they are currently stretched thin when working the front lines in the city.
The union representing emergency medical personnel in Alberta released a survey Thursday showing 81 per cent of members feel morale has declined in the past two years.