Chief Economist Charles St-Arnaud’s recently spoke to multiple media outlets about the insights shared in his report “Where’s the boom? How the impact of oil on Alberta may have permanently weakened” speaking to recent changes in Alberta’s economy.
When you compare the last time Alberta experienced record oil revenues in the mid-2010s and late 2000s, versus now, a much smaller share of oil revenues is staying in the province. And this is impacting economic growth in Alberta. He told Global News:
“The issue there is that 75 per cent, on average, of those of those producers or the shareholders of those producers are foreigners — they’re not even Canadian. So it doesn’t even stay in Canada and even less in Alberta…Over the past year, about seven per cent of revenues have been returned into investment. Back in 2014, it was 25 per cent, so there’s a lot of money that is no longer staying and creating jobs and spillovers to the rest of the economy,” St-Arnaud explained.
St-Arnaud believes the nature of the industry has changed permanently and the changes are linked to the general outlook of the oil and gas sector. This change is of vital importance to how Alberta plans for the future.
St-Arnaud and his report have been quoted in the Edmonton Sun, Calgary Sun, Globe and Mail and Global News, among others, as this issue is top of mind for Albertans. This coverage clearly demonstrates credit union expertise as well as how credit unions are focused on the economic prosperity of Albertans. Click on the links above to read the full articles.