Economy of Alberta

Aerial photo of oilfield roads and drill sites in the Pembina Oil Field, 2008.

Alberta's economy is one of the strongest in Canada, supported by the petroleum industry and, to a lesser extent, agriculture and technology. The per capita GDP in 2007 was by far the highest of any province in Canada at C$74,825 (approx. US$75,000). In 2006 Alberta's per capita GDP was higher than all US states, and one of the highest figures in the world . Alberta's per capita GDP in 2007 was 61% higher than the Canadian average of C$46,441 and more than twice that of all the Maritime provinces. In 2006, the deviation from the national average was the largest for any province in Canadian history.

According to the Fraser Institute, Alberta has very high levels of economic freedom and rates Alberta as the most free economy in Canada, and second most free economy amongst U.S. states and Canadian provinces.

Economic geography

Alberta's location within Canada

See also: Geography of Alberta and List of regions of Alberta

Alberta has a small internal market and is relatively distant from major world markets, despite good transportation links to the rest of Canada and to the United States to the south. Alberta is located in the northwestern quadrant of North America, in a region of low population density called the Interior Plains (and referred to by one author as North America's "Empty Quarter"). Alberta is landlocked, and separated by a series of mountain ranges from the nearest outlets to the Pacific Ocean, and by the Canadian Shield from ports on the Lakehead or Hudson Bay. From these ports to major populations centres and markets in Europe or Asia is several thousands of kilometers. The largest population clusters of North America (the Boston – Washington, San Francisco - San Diego, Chicago – Pittsburgh, and Quebec City – Windsor Corridors) are all thousands of kilometers away from Alberta. Partly for this reason, Alberta has never developed a large presence in the industries that have traditionally started industrialization in other places (notably the original Industrial Revolution in Great Britain) but which require large labour forces, and large internal markets or easy transportation to export markets, namely textiles, metallurgy, or transportation-related manufacturing (automotives, ships, or train cars).

Agriculture has the been a key industry since the 1870s. The climate is dry, temperate, and continental, with extreme variations between seasons. Productive soils are found in most of the southern half of the province (excluding the mountains), and in certain parts of the north. Agriculture on a large scale is practiced further north in Alberta that anywhere else in North America, extending into the Peace River country above the 55th parallel north. Generally, however, northern Alberta (and areas along the Alberta Rockies) is forested land and logging is more important than agriculture there. Agriculture is divided into primarily field crops in the east, livestock in the west, and a mixture in between and in the parkland belt in the near north.

Conventional oil and gas fields are found throughout the province on an axis running from the northwest to the southeast. Oil sands are found in the northeast, especially around Fort McMurray (the Athabasca Oil Sands).

Because of its (relatively) economically isolated location, Alberta relies heavily on transportation links with the rest of the world. Alberta's historical development has been largely influenced by the development of new transportation infrastructure, (see "trends" below). Alberta is now served by two major transcontinental railways (CN and CP), by three major highway connections to the Pacific (the Trans-Canada via Kicking Horse Pass, the Yellowhead via Yellowhead Pass and the Crowsnest via Crowsnest Pass), and one to the United States (Interstate 15), as well as two international airports (Calgary and Edmonton).

Economy of Canada
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Calgary-Edmonton Corridor

The Calgary-Edmonton Corridor is the most urbanized region in the province and one of the densest in Canada. Measured from north to south, the region covers a distance of roughly 400 kilometres. In 2001, the population of the Calgary-Edmonton Corridor was 2.15 million (72% of Alberta's population). It is also one of the fastest growing regions in the country. A 2003 study by TD Bank Financial Group found the corridor is the only Canadian urban centre to amass a U.S. level of wealth while maintaining a Canadian-style quality of life, offering universal health care benefits. The study found GDP per capita in the corridor was 10% above average U.S. metropolitan areas and 40 above other Canadian cities at that time.^{[citation needed]}

Calgary–Edmonton rivalry

See also: Battle of Alberta

Seeing Calgary and Edmonton are part of a single economic region as the TD study did in 2003 was novel. The more traditional view had been to see the two cities are economic rivals. For example, in the 1980 both cities claimed to be the "Oil Capital of Canada". Calgary is home to most oil company head offices. Edmonton, and more so its surrounding region (Nisku, Leduc, Fort Saskatchewan), is the site of most oil-and-gas related industry including refining and manufacturing.

Trends

The Leduc No. 1 well, which blew in 1947, marked the beginning of series of petroleum-related economic booms.

See also: History of Alberta and History of the petroleum industry in Canada

Alberta has always been an export-oriented economy. In line with Innis' staples thesis, the economy has changed substantially as different export commodities have risen or fallen in importance. In sequence, the most important products have been: fur, wheat and beef, and oil and gas.

The development of transportation in Alberta has been crucial to its historical economic development. The North American fur trade relied on birch-bark canoes, York boats, and Red River carts on buffalo trails to move furs out and Europe good in to the region. Immigration into the province was eased tremendously by the arrival of the Canadian Pacific Railway's transcontinental line in 1880s. Commercial farming became viable in the area once the grain trade had developed technologies to handle the bulk export of grain, especially hopper cars and grain elevators. Oil and gas exports have been possible because of increasing pipeline technology.

Prior to the 1950s, Alberta was a primarily agricultural economy, based on the export of wheat, beef, and a few other commodities. The health of economy was closely bound up with the price of wheat.

In 1947 a major oil field was discovered near Edmonton. It was not the first petroleum find in Alberta, but it was large enough to significantly alter the economy of the province (and coincided with growing American demand for energy). Since that time, Alberta's economic fortunes have largely tracked the price of oil, and increasingly natural gas prices. When oil prices spiked during the 1967 Oil Embargo, 1973 oil crisis, and 1979 energy crisis, Alberta's economy boomed. However, during the 1980s oil glut Alberta's economy suffered. Alberta boomed once again during the 2003-2008 oil price spike. In July 2008 the price of oil peaked and began to decline and Alberta's economy soon followed suit, with unemployment doubling within a year. As of 2009 with natural gas prices at a long-term low, Alberta's economy is in poor health compared to before, although still relatively better than many other comparable jurisdictions.

The spin-offs from petroleum have allowed Alberta to develop many other industries. Oilpatch-related manufacturing is an obvious example, but financial services and government services have also benefited from oil money.

A comparison of the development of Alberta's less oil and gas-endowed neighbours, Saskatchewan and Manitoba, reveals the role petroleum has played. Alberta was once the smallest of the three Prairie Provinces by population in the early 20th century, but by 2009, Alberta's population was 3,632,483 or approximately three times as much as either Saskatchewan (1,023,810) or Manitoba (1,213,815).

Employment

Alberta's economy is a highly developed one in which most people work in services such as healthcare, government, or retail. Primary industries are also of great importance, however.

Employment in extraction industries

As of 2007:

• Mining and Oil and Gas Extraction Sector = 146,900
• Oil and Gas Extraction industry = 69,900
• Support Activities for Mining & Oil & Gas Extraction (primarily oil and gas exploration and drilling) = 71,700
• Mining other than oil and gas (mainly coal and mineral mining & quarrying) = 5,100

Largest employers

According to Alberta Venture magazine's list of the 50 largest employers in the province, the largest employers are:

Rank (2010)	Rank (2007)	Employer	Industry	2010 Employees (Total)	2007 Employees: Alberta / Total	Head office	Description	Notes
1.	*	Alberta Health Services	Healthcare / Government	92,200	see note	Edmonton	public health authority for the province	Created in 2008 by merging 9 separate health authorities. In 2007 the following predecessor regions were ranked: 1. Capital Health (Edmonton region, 30,000), and 3. Calgary Health Region (14,569), etc.
n/a	2.	Government of Alberta	Government	n/a	24,062 / 24,062	Edmonton		not listed in 2010
2.	n/a	Katz Group	Retail / Entertainment	15,000	n/a	Edmonton	owner of Rexall pharmacies and Edmonton Oilers hockey team, other sports franchises	not listed in 2007
3.	4.	Canada Safeway Limited	Retail	30,000	14,553 / 34,318	Calgary	food and drug retailer	subsidiary of American chain
n/a	5.	Westfair Foods Ltd.	Retail	n/a	14,400 / 37,500	Calgary	wholesaler and retailer of food products	not listed in 2010
n/a	6.	City of Calgary	Government		14,077	Calgary		not listed in 2010
5.	n/a	Suncor Energy	Petroleum	12,978	n/a	Calgary	Petroleum extraction, refining, and retail	merged with Petro-Canada in 2009
n/a	7.	City of Edmonton	Government		11,630	Edmonton		not listed in 2010
6.	n/a	Agrium Inc.	Agriculture	11,153		Calgary	Distributor and retailer of agricultural supplies (seed, fertiliers, etc.)
n/a	8.	University of Alberta	Education		11,000	Edmonton	Publicly-funded university	not listed in 2010
7.	15.	Flint Energy Services Ltd.	Energy	10,280	6,169	Calgary
8.	n/a	Shaw Communications Inc.	Communications	10,000		Calgary	cable television, internet service provider, cable telephony, television production
12.	9.	Calgary Board of Education	Education	9,300	10,972	Calgary	public education school board
14.	10.	Edmonton School District No. 7	Education	7,540	10,000	Edmonton	public education school board
4.	27.	Canadian Pacific Railway	Transportation	14,970	4,457 / 15,232	Calgary	railway and inter-modal transport

Sectors

Industry

Alberta is the largest producer of conventional crude oil, synthetic crude, natural gas and gas products in the country. Alberta is the world’s 2nd largest exporter of natural gas and the 4th largest producer. Two of the largest producers of petrochemicals in North America are located in central and north central Alberta. In both Red Deer and Edmonton, world class polyethylene and vinyl manufacturers produce products shipped all over the world, and Edmonton's oil refineries provide the raw materials for a large petrochemical industry to the east of Edmonton.

The Athabasca Oil Sands (sometimes known as the Athabasca Tar sands) have estimated unconventional oil reserves approximately equal to the conventional oil reserves of the rest of the world, estimated to be 1.6 trillion barrels (250×10^⁹ m³). With the development of new extraction methods such as steam assisted gravity drainage (SAGD), which was developed in Alberta, bitumen and synthetic crude oil can be produced at costs close to those of conventional crude. Many companies employ both conventional strip mining and non-conventional in situ methods to extract the bitumen from the oil sands. With current technology and at current prices, about 315 billion barrels (50.1×10^⁹ m³) of bitumen are recoverable. Fort McMurray, one of Canada's fastest growing cities, has grown enormously in recent years because of the large corporations which have taken on the task of oil production. As of late 2006 there were over $100 billion in oil sands projects under construction or in the planning stages in northeastern Alberta.

Another factor determining the viability of oil extraction from the Tar Sands is the price of oil. The oil price increases since 2003 have made it more than profitable to extract this oil, which in the past would give little profit or even a loss.

With concerted effort and support from the provincial government, several high-tech industries have found their birth in Alberta, notably patents related to interactive liquid crystal display systems. With a growing economy, Alberta has several financial institutions dealing with civil and private funds.

Energy

Oil and gas

Drilling rig in Alberta.

See also: Petroleum production in Canada and Natural gas in Canada

Since the early 1940s, Alberta had supplied oil and gas to the rest of Canada and the United States. The Athabasca River region produces oil for internal and external use. The Athabasca Oil Sands contain the largest proven reserves of oil in the world outside Saudi Arabia. Natural gas has been found at several points, and in 1999, the production of natural gas liquids (ethane, propane, and butanes) totalled 172.8 million barrels (27.47×10^⁶ m³), valued at $2.27 billion. Alberta also provides 13% of all the natural gas used in the United States.

Notable gas reserves were discovered in the 1883 near Medicine Hat. The town of Medicine Hat began using gas for lighting the town, and supplying light and fuel for the people, and a number of industries using the gas for manufacturing. In fact a large glassworks was established at Redcliff. When Rudyard Kipling visited Medicine Hat he described it as the city "with all hell for a basement".

Basic statistics

• In 2003, Alberta produced 629 thousand barrels per day (100.0×10^³ m³/d) of conventional light, medium, and heavy crude, plus an additional 142 thousand barrels per day (22.6×10^³ m³/d) of pentanes plus used for blending with heavy crude oil and bitumen to facilitate its transportation through pipelines.
• Alberta exports over 1 million barrels per day (160×10^³ m³/d) of oil to US markets accounting for 10 per cent of US oil imports.
• The conventional oil resource is estimated to have approximately 1.6 billion barrels (250×10^⁶ m³) of remaining established reserves.
• Conventional crude oil production (not including oil sands and pentanes plus) represented 38.6% of Alberta ’s total crude oil and equivalent production and 25.5% of Canada’s total crude oil and equivalent production.
• Alberta's oil sands reserve is considered to be one of the largest in the world, containing 1.6 trillion barrels (250×10^⁹ m³) of bitumen initially in place. Of this total, 174.5 billion barrels (27.74×10^⁹ m³) are considered to be remaining established reserves, recoverable using current technology under present and anticipated economic conditions. To date, about 2% of the initial established resource has been produced.
• In 2003, total crude bitumen production in Alberta averaged 964 thousand barrels per day (153.3×10^³ m³/d).
• Disposition of Alberta ’s total crude oil and equivalent production in 2003 was approximately:

• 62% to the United States
• 24% within Alberta
• 14% to the rest of Canada

• In 2003, Alberta produced 4.97 trillion cubic feet (141×10^⁹ m³) of marketable natural gas.
• The average Albertan household uses 135 gigajoules (38,000 kWh) of natural gas a year.
• Over 80 per cent of Canada’s natural gas production is from Alberta.
• In 2006, Alberta consumed 1.45 trillion cubic feet (41×10^⁹ m³) of natural gas. The rest was exported across Canada and to the United States.
• Royalties to Alberta from natural gas and its byproducts are larger than royalties from crude oil and bitumen.
• In 2006, there were 13,473 successful natural gas wells drilled in Alberta: 12,029 conventional gas wells and 1,444 coalbed methane wells
• There may be up to 500 trillion cubic feet (14×10^¹² m³) of coalbed methane in Alberta, although it is unknown how much of this gas might be recoverable.
• Alberta has one of the most extensive natural gas systems in the world as part of its energy infrastructure, with 39,000 kilometres (24,000 mi) of energy related pipelines.

Coal

Remains of the former Atlas Coal Mine, near Drumheller, now a nation historic site.

See also: Coal in Canada

Coal has been mined in Alberta since the late 19th century. Over 1800 mines have operated in Alberta since then.

The coal industry was vital to the early development of several communities, especially those in the foothills and along deep river valleys where coal was close to the surface.

Alberta is still a major coal producer, every two weeks Alberta produces enough coal to fill the Sky Dome in Toronto.

Much of that coal is burned in Alberta for electricity generation. Alberta uses over 25 million tonnes of coal annually to generate electricity.

Alberta has vast coal resources and 70 per cent of Canada's coal reserves are located in Alberta. This amounts to 33.6 Gigatonnes.

Vast beds of coal are found extending for hundreds of miles, a short distance below the surface of the plains. The coal belongs to the Cretaceous beds, and while not so heavy as that of the Coal Measures in England is of excellent quality^{[citation needed]}. In the valley of the Bow River, alongside the Canadian Pacific Railway, valuable beds of anthracite coal are still worked. The usual coal deposits of the area of bituminous or semi-bituminous coal. These are largely worked at Lethbridge in southern Alberta and Edmonton in the centre of the province. Many other parts of the province have pits for private use.

Electricity

See also: Electricity policy in Alberta

As of June 2007, Alberta's generating capacity was 11,919 MW, and Alberta has about 21,000 kilometres (13,000 mi) of transmission lines.

Alberta has over 490 megawatts of wind power capacity.

Alberta has added 4400 MW of new supply since 1998 – that is equal to all the power generated in Saskatchewan.

Winter peak for power use in one day was in November 2006 – 9,661 MW.

Summer peak for power use in one day was set on July 18, 2007 – 9,192 MW.

Mineral mining

Building stones mined in Alberta include Rundle stone, and Paskapoo sandstone.

Diamonds were first found in Alberta in 1958, and many stones have been found since, although to date no large-scale mines have been developed.

Manufacturing

The Edmonton area, and in particular Nisku is a major centre for manufacturing oil and gas related equipment. As well Edmonton's Refinery Row is home to a petrochemical industry.

Biotechnology

Several companies and services in the biotech sector are clustered around the University of Alberta, for example ColdFX.

Food processing

Owing to the strength of agriculture, food processing was one a major part of the economies of Edmonton and Calgary, but this sector has increasingly moved to smaller centres such as Brooks, the home of Lakeside Packers.

Transportation

Headquarters of the airline WestJet, in Calgary.

Edmonton is a major distribution centre for northern communities, hence the nickname "Gateway to the North". Edmonton is one CN Rail's most important hubs. Since 1996, Canadian Pacific Railway has its headquarters in downtown Calgary.

WestJet, Canada's second largest air carrier, is headquartered in Calgary, by Calgary International Airport, which serves as the airline's primary hub. Prior to its dissolution, Canadian Airlines was headquartered in Calgary by the airport. Prior to its dissolution, Air Canada subsidiary Zip was headquartered in Calgary.

Agriculture and forestry

In the past, cattle, horses, and sheep were reared in the southern prairie region on ranches or smaller holdings. Currently Alberta produces cattle valued at over $3.3 billion, as well as other livestock in lesser quantities. In this region irrigation is widely used. Wheat, accounting for almost half of the $2 billion agricultural economy, is supplemented by canola, barley, rye, sugar beets, and other mixed farming.

Agriculture has a significant position in the province's economy. Over three million cattle are residents of the province at one time or another, and Albertan beef has a healthy worldwide market. Nearly one half of all Canadian beef is produced in Alberta. Alberta is one of the prime producers of plains buffalo (bison) for the consumer market. Sheep for wool and lamb are also raised.

Grain elevator in southern Alberta

Wheat and canola are primary farm crops, with Alberta leading the provinces in spring wheat production, with other grains also prominent. Much of the farming is dryland farming, often with fallow seasons interspersed with cultivation. Continuous cropping (in which there is no fallow season) is gradually becoming a more common mode of production because of increased profits and a reduction of soil erosion. Across the province, the once common grain elevator is slowly being lost as rail lines are decreased and farmers now truck the grain to central points.

Alberta is the leading beekeeping province of Canada, with some beekeepers wintering hives indoors in specially designed barns in southern Alberta, then migrating north during the summer into the Peace River valley where the season is short but the working days are long for honeybees to produce honey from clover and fireweed. Hybrid canola also requires bee pollination, and some beekeepers service this need.

See also: Agriculture in Canada and Pulp and paper industry in Canada

The vast northern forest reserves of softwood allow Alberta to produce large quantities of lumber, oriented strand board (OSB) and plywood, and several plants in northern Alberta supply North America and the Pacific Rim nations with bleached wood pulp and newsprint.

In 1999, lumber products from Alberta were valued at $4.1 billion of which 72% were exported around the world. Since forests cover approximately 59% of the province's land area, the government allows about 23.3 million cubic metres (820×10^⁶ cu ft) to be harvested annually from the forests on public lands.

Services

Despite the high profile of the extractive industries, Alberta has a mature economy and most people work in services.

Finance

Calgary is head office for many major oil and gas related companies, and many financial service business have grown up around them.

Edmonton is the headquarters of the only major Canadian banks west of Toronto: Canadian Western Bank, and ATB Financial.

Government

Despite Alberta's reputation as a "small government" province, many health care and education professionals are lured to Alberta from other provinces by the higher wages the Alberta government is able to offer because of oil revenues.

See also

• Economy of Lethbridge
• Canadian Oil Patch, for the petroleum industry
• History of the petroleum industry in Canada

External links

• CBC Digital Archives - Striking Oil in Alberta