November This and That

Edmonton makes World’s Best Cities Top 100 list for 1st time - "For the first time, Edmonton has found itself on a list ranking the best cities in the world.

Edmonton came in at No. 60 on the World’s Best Cities 2018 list, which is compiled by global consulting firm Resonance Consultancy.

The Top 100 cities are chosen based on six key categories: place, product, programming, people, prosperity and promotion.

Edmonton scored higher in the people, place and prosperity categories, while falling short on the remaining three criteria." Read more

Red ink rising: Economic experts spar over solutions to Alberta's growing debt - "Call it the battle of the bottom line, a red ink rumble sure to take centre stage leading up to Alberta’s next provincial election. 

Alberta’s finance minister insists the province has the best balance sheet in the country and is sticking with a plan to balance the budget by 2024. But critics paint a far bleaker picture, arguing the NDP is crippling Alberta’s economy through a muddled strategy that won’t effectively address its ballooning debt.

Government estimates — projecting debt to reach $71.1 billion in three years — could be the best-case scenario, says a recent report by the University of Calgary’s School of Public Policy. 

Penned by former Saskatchewan finance minister Janice MacKinnon and economist Jack Mintz, the report suggests Alberta’s March budget was based on “optimistic assumptions” about the price of oil.

The province pegged oil at US$68 per barrel by 2020, considerably higher than the Moody’s Investors Service forecast of US$40 to US$60 per barrel. West Texas Intermediate closed last week at US$55.64." Read More

Made-in-Alberta action plan unveiled to protect 7,000 oil and gas jobs - "Canada’s leading oil and gas industry lobby group says a “made-in-Alberta solution” to reduce methane emissions rather than proposed federal regulations could mitigate the number of job losses in the province over the coming decade.

Canadian Association of Petroleum Producers president and CEO Tim McMillan said even though its five-point plan released Monday would still cost the oil and gas industry $700 million over eight years, it would protect 7,000 jobs, inject $710 million in capital and boost the province’s gross domestic product by $2.5 billion.

The plan, which MacMillan dubbed as the “most cost-effective, but also the most jobs effective” way of meeting reduction goals, centres on the province and industry working collaboratively to create an equivalency agreement with the federal government." Read More