[middeljohn]

My theory:

Edmonton's highrise construction boom is only getting started because the height restriction has only recently been lifted. Further, this crazy population growth has the city backlogged on construction for at least ten years. For evidence, look at Toronto. Late 90s early 2000s Toronto had similar population growth rates to what Edmonton is seeing right now, but it wasn't until the late 2000s when the construction began to catch up. I believe it'll be similar for Edmonton.

Speaking to Edmontonians, they still have a small town mentality despite Metro Edmonton being 1.3 million. Hell, a lot of them consider Calgary to be a metropolis yet their own city they consider more of a small city when the reality is that the two are almost identical sizes. Hopefully this changes over the next few years. The reality is Edmonton is Canada's fifth largest metro and is only beginning to see its construction boom. I think the mentality as well as the number of highrise construction projects is going to be a lot different ten years from now as the infrastructure begins to catch up to today's growth.