EDMONTON: Where's the Boom?

“Edmonton – Where’s the Boom?” By Graham Hicks January 17, 2023 We live in strange times here in Edmonton. Every other time we went through high energy price cycles – when oil was running between $100 Cdn to $130 Cdn -  Edmonton boomed.     Restaurants and clubs were opening every week, packed from the moment they opened their doors. The fun zones of the city – Old Strathcona, the west end of downtown – pulsed with energy.  Money gushed through town.  If you wanted a job, you got a job. Well-paying too. At times Edmonton and Calgary led the country in rising real estate prices, low vacancy rates and expensive rents. It’s been a year now – since the start of 2022 - that oil and gas prices had the big rebound. But the city still seems to be in a post-pandemic lethargy. Pedestrians in the party zones are few and far between. A depressing number of quality restaurants have gone out of business. The “for lease” ... Read the rest of entry »

Hicks on Biz: Climate change — the Alberta solution By GRAHAM HICKS, first published EDMONTON SUN, May 15, 2020

The virus may dominate the headlines, but Alberta’s biggest battle still looms. If we do not gain the “social licence” to produce environmentally acceptable oil and gas, we might as well pack up and leave Alberta now rather than later. We face a staggering enemy, outnumbered even within Canada by those in provinces like  Quebec, Ontario, B.C. Those who believe fossil fuels must be phased out and replaced by renewable energy if the Earth is not to turn into one giant, overheated Sahara Desert. It is hugely frustrating, because Alberta is a world leader in “de-carbonizing” our oil and gas production, in creating products from fossil fuels WITHOUT releasing CO2 into the air. There is a little snowball happening, about 45 kilometres northeast of Edmonton. STORY CONTINUES BELOW A little snowball that must grow into an avalanche of positive proof: That the processing of oil and gas can be as pure and clean as driven snow. Coming up shortly are anno ... Read the rest of entry »

Hicks on Biz: Why a post-COVID-19 real estate collapse is not going to happen By Graham Hicks first published: May 8, 2020

Edmonton's housing market started out strong in March, but ended with an overall decline of two per cent compared to last year because of the COVID-19 pandemic.File Predictions of doom in the post-COVID Canadian real estate market have to be questioned … as do visions of sunshine and roses. On the gloom side, analysts argue COVID will be the straw that breaks the back of Vancouver and Toronto’s real estate prices, prices that have defied normal cycles by going up, up, up over the last 20 years with no major corrections. A real-estate crash in those two cities would send the Canadian economy reeling – a knock-out punch on top of the financial burden caused by the COVID crisis. A more convincing counter-argument says the financial storm will be minor. Thanks to COVID spending by governments, especially shoring up banks, things will return to “normal” (with way more debt, but nobody seems to care) in a year’s time. A sobering statistic: Until a few years ago, rea ... Read the rest of entry »