Alberta

The heavy-oil service centre of Lloydminster is looking to another busy year in development after a record building-permits year in 2012. Straddling the Alberta-Saskatchewan boundary, Lloydminster enjoyed $188.

Commercial real estate pros in Vancouver and Calgary like to boast that their markets are on a giant roll, but, when compared to Canada's biggest city, both cities look like dwarfs. RealNet (www.realnet.

Fort McMurray is the quintessential Alberta boomtown where houses now sell for more than in Edmonton and Calgary and rents for a two-bedroom apartment can top $2,000 a month.

Three Alberta cities - including the Edmonton bedroom community of St. Albert - are better places to live than Vancouver, according to MoneySense magazine.

Construction is expected to start this summer on a new downtown Edmonton arena following Edmonton city council's approval of an agreement between the city and the Katz Group, which owns the NHL's Edmonton Oilers.

Alberta's second-tier cities were busier places for building in 2012. That about sums up the building stats for the past year, and it appears 2013 will bring more of the same in places such as Grande Prairie, Airdrie, Red Deer and Medicine Hat.

Mindful of provincial decisions that have ruffled municipal feathers and redirected millions in property tax revenues away from some municipalities in favour of others, Yellowhead County is offering more cash to its urban neighbours in 2013.

Medicine Hat's dream of a regional event centre may not yet be realized, but the southeast Alberta city now has an agreement in place for locating an event centre/arena in Box Springs Business Park (BSBP) on the north side of the city.

Office space in downtown Calgary will be even harder to find in 2013 and early 2014, predicts Colliers International.

Irrigation The local irrigation belt, including land north of the Oldman River, offers some of the richest agricultural land in Canada.