Is Alberta ready for population growth?

The provincial government's been selling the "Alberta Advantage" for years with promises of higher wages and lower taxes. Now, housing starts are trending up and so is the number of people migrating to the province.

But is Alberta ready for population growth?

Through the first three quarters of 2023, more than 45,000 people moved to Alberta from within Canada. Economic experts say there are several reasons for this, including the fact that major centres in the province can grow with the population, unlike other metropolitan areas in the country.

One of the biggest motivators however is lower prices.

"When inflation is time, times are tough, and everybody's struggling to make ends meet. It's really easy to realize that Alberta is a good place to make your money stretch a lot further than in the rest of Canada," said Concordia University economics professor Moshe Lander.

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"It's hard to avoid realizing that Alberta doesn't have a provincial sales tax. So dollar-for-dollar your money stretches about 10 per cent further the moment you cross into the province. Then when you also add that it has some of the lowest income tax rates of anywhere in Canada, the amount that you have available to spend is even more too."

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