Both St. Albert and Alberta have seen recent strong and steady economic growth, which is expected to continue throughout the year.
Catherine Rothrock, chief economist at Alberta Treasury Board and Finance, said the labour market, consumer spending and the housing sector have been behind the growth.
“We were very surprised last year in how strong consumer spending was in the province,” she said.
She said during the first half of 2017 people were spending less in the province, but towards the latter part of the year consumer confidence started to strengthen.
Jennifer McCurdy, president and CEO of the St. Albert and District Chamber of Commerce, said St. Albert also experienced an increase in spending.
“Even though they were employed still, (people) were hanging onto their money a little tighter,” she said. “I think that now people are starting to relax and go out for dinner more and spend a little more money.”
St. Albert’s economy isn’t as reliant on the energy sector as other cities are, which means when the recession happened the city was relatively sheltered from it. McCurdy said while the city didn’t feel the full force of the recession, the city was impacted in other ways.
Over the past year there has been an increase in home-based businesses starting, particularly in consulting.
“A lot of these people are people that had been in the oil industry, and had always maybe wanted to start a business,” she said, “and thought now is the time to make that decision.”
McCurdy said Alberta’s strengthening economy has been felt within St. Albert.
While the energy sector took the biggest hit during the recession, Rothrock said producers such as NWR Sturgeon Refinery in Sturgeon County have helped strengthen the sector.
In December the refinery began producing diesel as part of its plan to eventually roll out around 81,000 barrels of diesel a day.
Rothrock said while the economy has been inching out of the recession, it has been a prolonged process. Employment rates and the energy sector will continue to lag behind until around 2020, she said.
“As employment improves and we start to see slower growth in the labour force, we do expect to see a gradual recovery,” she said.
By the end of the year Rothrock said Alberta’s unemployment rate stood at around 6 per cent.
Comparatively, the Edmonton census metropolitan area that includes St. Albert had an unemployment rate of 7.8 per cent, according to the fourth quarter report released by the Realtors Association of Edmonton.
While Alberta’s economy seemed to be recovering by leaps and bounds by the end of 2017, Rothrock said she expects the momentum to slow down over the next few months.
There’s also been a shift in how the economy has been growing. Alberta has been attracting less investment to the province, instead shifting its focus to exports.
