Alberta

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.

Calgary's recovering housing market took a step back in August, with single-family house sales slipping by 32 per cent from August 2009 and condo sales off 42 per cent from the same month a year ago.

That means the relatively modest growth of the past two years - only 1.4 per cent annually from 2008 to 2010 - could easily be surpassed.

Don't expect growth to slip too much in 2010 and 2011 with the planned completion of the 32nd Street traffic corridor.