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Community
Strategy to be unveiled shortly.
Calgary Inc.
has been tasked with developing a community wide strategy that takes
into consideration the impact and relation of economic development
with quality of life issues. The strategy will be based on community
input from numerous stakeholders and will set priorities for Calgary
for the future. In addition, it will be sustainable, based on good
information, and developed in consultation with the community.
In order to
develop the strategy, Calgary Inc. has recently completed an Environmental
Scan, a Socioeconomic Profile of Calgary and a series of community
Think Tanks.
Calgary
as a global player
An Environmental
Scan was completed by the Canada West Foundation. This scan provided
an overview of the external factors and trends that have the potential
to impact Calgary and its economy in the future. A few highlights
include:
- The majority
of Canadians now live in urban centres ·
- Since 1966,
Calgary has grown by 148.5% ·
- Calgary's
per capita net migration rate is one of Canada's highest
- Calgary is
Canada's third most ethnically diverse city, ahead of Montreal,
Ottawa & Winnipeg ·
- Urban growth
increases the need for infrastructure spending
- There is
increased pressure for municipalities to spend money on urban
social issues
- Cities need
to compete globally for business & tourism
- Cities need
strong transportation and economic links to other centres
The Calgary
economy
Calgary's demographic
profile ·
- Strong population
growth through the 1990's ·
- Calgary's
population is one of the youngest in Canada (average age is 34)
·
- Calgary has
a more highly educated resident workforce than Alberta or Canada
at the post secondary level ·
- Numerous
languages are spoken in addition to English (71,000 French, 41,000
Chinese, 20,000 German, and 14,000 Spanish)
Calgary's
economic profile
Compared to
Alberta and Canada, Calgary has:
- Stronger
employment rates,,a labour force that is growing at a faster rate,
fewer low income households, and a higher average income
- The cost
of doing business in Calgary is lower compared to other cities
in North America
- Calgary has
the 2nd largest number of head offices in Canada
- 55% of companies
in Calgary are small businesses, ranked by employment ·
- Calgary has
more medium and larger businesses than Alberta or Canada ·
- Major exports
from Calgary are in the oil & gas, manufacturing, and high technology
industries
Community
visioning for the future
A series of
Community Think Tanks were held between March 27-31, 2000 to brainstorm
key topics around the community values. Think Tank participants
were tasked with exploring and defining Calgary's key values (clean,
business, progressive, integrity, community, fun and western), describing
an ideal or vision of Calgary in the year 2010, identifying Calgary's
strengths and weaknesses and generating ideas to address fears and
seize opportunities.
The overall
theme from the Think Tanks was that "economic growth and wealth
must not come at the expense of quality of life and community well-being".
Other key messages included:
- Embrace diversity
for the good of the community, for the good of business ·
- Committed
citizens build a better community ·
- Need to strengthen
and expand the infrastructure ·
- We are a
city of entrepreneurs, an entrepreneurial city ·
- Build a Tier
1 city, raise the international profile of Calgary
Next steps
All of this
information is now being used to create the overall community strategy
that Calgary Inc. plans to release in the early fall 2000.
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