{"id":104,"date":"2009-04-01T08:09:25","date_gmt":"2009-04-01T15:09:25","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/lexiconic.net\/wheatfromthechaff\/04-2\/wheat-from-the-chaff-the-alberta-advantage"},"modified":"2015-04-04T09:01:28","modified_gmt":"2015-04-04T16:01:28","slug":"wheat-from-the-chaff-the-alberta-advantage","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/lexiconic.net\/wheatfromthechaff\/archives\/104","title":{"rendered":"The Alberta Advantage?"},"content":{"rendered":"<div id=\"wp_fb_like_button\" style=\"margin:5px 0;float:none;height:30px;\"><script src=\"http:\/\/connect.facebook.net\/en_US\/all.js#xfbml=1\"><\/script><fb:like href=\"http:\/\/lexiconic.net\/wheatfromthechaff\/archives\/104\" send=\"false\" layout=\"standard\" width=\"450\" show_faces=\"false\" font=\"arial\" action=\"recommend\" colorscheme=\"light\"><\/fb:like><\/div><div id=\"content\">\n<div class=\"blog\"><!-- back and forward --><\/p>\n<div class=\"blogbody\">\n<p><span style=\"font-family: Calibri; font-size: medium;\"><em>Over the last decade, there has been a lot of talk about the Alberta Advantage (aka the Alberta Miracle). Alberta boosters would puff with pride because Calgary had more head offices than Vancouver and other Western cities. It wasn&#8217;t just because of the oil patch, they assured us; it was because of prudent diversification and sound economic policy. If only BC and other places were more like Alberta, then our problems would be solved. Or maybe not: <\/em><\/span><\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-size: medium;\"><br \/>\n<\/span><\/p>\n<hr \/>\n<div>\n<p><strong>What oil sands giveth, oil sands taketh away<\/strong><\/p>\n<\/div>\n<p><span style=\"font-family: Calibri; font-size: medium;\">ELEANOR BEATON <\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-family: Calibri; font-size: medium;\">Globe and Mail Update <\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-family: Calibri; font-size: medium;\">March 31, 2009 at 6:00 AM EDT <\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-family: Calibri; font-size: medium;\">A few months ago, Calgary leasing executive Sean McCullough didn&#8217;t fret if a deal didn&#8217;t come together. At the time, office vacancy rates were low, rents were high and real estate transactions, especially in the fast-growing suburbs, were easy to come by. <\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-family: Calibri; font-size: medium;\">\u201cIf we didn&#8217;t do a deal today, we knew we&#8217;d get one tomorrow,\u201d says Mr. McCullough, vice-president of leasing for Strategic Group, which owns and manages six million square feet of suburban and downtown office and retail buildings in Calgary and Edmonton. <\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-family: Calibri; font-size: medium;\">But in a few short months, the global economic meltdown and attendant drop in commodity prices have turned Calgary&#8217;s white-hot suburban office market on its heel. <\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-family: Calibri; font-size: medium;\">Insiders say the cancellation, delay or cutback of oil sands projects has caused many tenants, particularly the large-scale engineering and oil sands servicing firms that have driven growth in the suburbs, to cut costs, and that has put large swaths of office space back on the market. <\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-family: Calibri; font-size: medium;\"><strong>Calgary&#8217;s suburban office vacancy rate is now higher than that of other major cities, including Toronto and Vancouver<\/strong>, experts say. It has also risen faster than in some other places, the pros note&#8230;.<\/span><\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<div class=\"posted\">Posted by <a href=\"mailto:cwelch@lexiconic.net\">Colin Welch<\/a> at 5:03 PM<br \/>\n<em>Edited on: Monday, April 13, 2009 4:34 PM<\/em><br \/>\nCategories: <a href=\"http:\/\/lexiconic.net\/wheatfromthechaff2\/archives\/cat_bcpolitics.html\">BC Politics<\/a>, <a href=\"http:\/\/lexiconic.net\/wheatfromthechaff2\/archives\/cat_canadianpolitics.html\">Canadian Politics<\/a>, <a href=\"http:\/\/lexiconic.net\/wheatfromthechaff2\/archives\/cat_theeconomy.html\">The Economy<\/a><\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Over the last decade, there has been a lot of talk about the Alberta Advantage (aka the Alberta Miracle). Alberta boosters would puff with pride because Calgary had more head offices than Vancouver and other Western cities. It wasn&#8217;t just because of the oil patch, they assured us; it was because of prudent diversification and [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5,7,8],"tags":[177,32,132,178,36],"class_list":["post-104","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-bc-politics","category-canadian-politics","category-economic-issues","tag-alberta","tag-canada","tag-capitalism","tag-economy","tag-taxes"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/lexiconic.net\/wheatfromthechaff\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/104","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/lexiconic.net\/wheatfromthechaff\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/lexiconic.net\/wheatfromthechaff\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/lexiconic.net\/wheatfromthechaff\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/lexiconic.net\/wheatfromthechaff\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=104"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"http:\/\/lexiconic.net\/wheatfromthechaff\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/104\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":2148,"href":"http:\/\/lexiconic.net\/wheatfromthechaff\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/104\/revisions\/2148"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/lexiconic.net\/wheatfromthechaff\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=104"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/lexiconic.net\/wheatfromthechaff\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=104"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/lexiconic.net\/wheatfromthechaff\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=104"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}