Alberta

Housing prices in Alberta's two big cities fell noticeably in October, providing a pointed reminder about the sometimes-fragile state of the economic recovery. In Edmonton, the average price of a single-family home fell to $365,691.

With incumbent Mayor Stephen Mandel re-elected and driving Edmonton's civic agenda, Edmonton city council is reaching out to the public for input on a proposed downtown arena complex and entertainment district.

Many of the same Alberta city names are once again prominently featured in a list of Canada's top entrepreneurial cities, as selected by the Canadian Federation of Independent Business (CFIB).

Spurred by a rebound in the resource sector, Alberta is forecast to lead all of Canada in economic growth in 2011. Scotia Economics forecasts that Alberta’s economy will experience 3.5 per cent growth, followed by Saskatchewan at 3.3 per cent.

The hard-hit Calgary industrial market is slowly recovering but serviced land prices remain far below the peak prices of two years ago, During the third quarter of this year, leasing up of mostly large bay space drop the vacancy rate to 4.

Office vacancies flirt with 10 per cent It is less expensive now to lease office space in downtown Edmonton than at anytime since 2006, as the office vacancy rate has risen to near 10 per cent.

Just listen to the words of a friendly voice in a short commercial promoting Lethbridge over the oilsands boomtown: "What do you pay for a house? Like a billion dollars? Does that include doors? I, on the other hand, have a great job in Lethbridge.

Fall voting in Edmonton could feature more than just ballots to select an alderman, a mayor and school trustees. The cloudy future of Edmonton's City Centre Airport may also be voted on in a fall plebiscite.

The Town of High River and its partners broke ground in late August on a building not normally associated with municipal governments - a new $6 million medical clinic.

Alberta's windy city is looking to blow more business activity into its west side. The City of Lethbridge is in the process of crafting what's been dubbed as the West Lethbridge Employment Centre area structure plan.