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Economic Performance:
Economy
Equity
Environment
Quality
of Life
Calgary Region Cluster
Portfolio
Wireless
Information
Technology
Transportation
Warehousing
Logistics
Tourism
Arts
Entertainment
Geomatics
Oil &
Gas
Agriculture
Health Biotechnology
Economic Foundations
Human
Resources
Finance
Infostructure
Transportation
Physical Infrastructure
Business
Climate
Technology
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Economic Performance: Calgary's Balanced Approach
Economy: Strong
Performance
Calgary has been
doing very well, growing 6.5% in gross domestic product in 2000. This
far outpaced other major Canadian metropolitan areas, except Ottawa. In
fact the Calgary region grew by over 25% during the last five years and
now produces $37 billion in goods and services annually. Not only is the
economy growing but employment trends are coming along as well. The Calgary
region is the national leader in employment growth, employing over 550,000.
125,000 new jobs were added between 1996 and 2000 with unemployment reaching
unprecedented lows of 4.3%, before the recent economic downturn.
Commensurate with
this performance, the Calgary region leads the nation in per capita income
with the average Calgarian's personal income being 8% higher than second-place
Ottawa.
Income growth has
also bloomed, with the average Calgarian earning 25% more than in 1995.
This growth has attracted migrants from neighbouring provinces as well
as 5,000 international immigrants; however this growth is modest in comparison
with Toronto's attraction of 70,000 newcomers in 2000. Calgary is now
the largest metropolitan area in Alberta.
Perhaps, more important
than the scale of growth has been the diversification of growth. While
oil and gas continues to be the dominant industry, there is clear evidence
that the region's economic diversification is underway and is resulting
in the emergence of strong and strategic clusters.
The oil and gas cluster's
demand for specialized services and technologies fuelled the emergence
of the wireless/telecom cluster, the geomatics cluster, and the information
technology cluster. These clusters in turn will fuel the emergence of
other clusters.
The leaders of the
Calgary region must continue to leverage the existing industry clusters
of today to support the diversification of the economy and ensure continued
prosperity and economic resiliency in the future.
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