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By Justine Kelsie

City administrator paints promising economic picture for 2018

Jan 5, 2018 | 4:00 AM

The year ahead looks positive for the Grande Prairie economy. 

During an Open Door Café at the Grande Prairie Museum, City Economic Development Officer Rebecca Leigh presented an economic update for 2018. When compiling the information, Leigh said she doesn’t have a “crystal ball”, but she can look at all major indicators of growth in the area like traffic or population.

“Housing is one. We look at both the number of housing starts, so new housing construction in Grande Prairie as an indicator of what that demand is looking like. We also look at residential sales. The number of residential sales this year, I think we increased by 27 percent from 2016,” said Leigh in an interview after the presentation. “Again, that is an indicator that people are coming back to the area. Our housing starts are pretty close to on par with last year.”

The year 2014 was recording setting for all metrics, according to Leigh, these numbers include high amounts of investment and an increase in drilling activity.

“A lot of analysts are predicting that 2018 will be the best year since 2014. We are starting to see a lot of numbers that are beating the 2015 and 2016 numbers. We are also starting to see numbers that are starting to meet or beat 2014 numbers. That is a really positive indicator for us.”

She explains that well license distribution is a tool used to look at future activity. From data gathered at the end of November 2017 in Grande Prairie, licenses were up from 175 to 316 in the oil sector and from 403 to 449 in the gas sector from 2016 to 2017.
Leigh calls well-completions the “truth-teller” because it points to activity that has been happening in the region. According to statistics provided by the City of Grande Prairie, drilling completions have increased as well. 

According to the administrator, there will be projects that will significatly impact the economy including the new Grande Prairie Regional Hospital set to open in 2019. The $730-million project is set to increase the area’s annual GDP by $276-million and open 507 new jobs for the region. 

“These are employees that are directly employed by the hospital. They are highly skilled, high-income earners that will be moving to the area to pursue opportunities in Grande Prairie.”

Leigh called Grande Prairie the “bright spot” of the province because it is the only area in Alberta seeing a lot of activity. On top of drilling activity, the Swan City has a large Primary Trading Area which means approximately 167,461 people will drive to Grande Prairie to spend their money. Leigh explains that some people can travel up to 15 hours to do a shopping trip. 

 

by Justine Kelsie