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Originally Posted by geotag277
Alternative energy investment will not sky-rocket as long as oil prices remain low, in fact the opposite will occur.
Calgary is already doing a decent job at diversifying. The atmosphere in the sector regarding this recent oil drop is not doomsday. It is let's re forecast our growth and it's business as usual.
I don't know why Calgary's lack of diversification is such a focal point in conversation when other major cities, such as Toronto with finance and Montreal with manufacturing seem to not need to diversify away from their major sectors ?
Almost every major city in the world has one sector that makes up the majority of it's economy and if that sector gets into trouble the city suffers. Calgary isn't unique in that regard. Could we diversify more? Of course, and we have been, extremely well, since the 80s. We just need to keep on that track , and I see no reason why we wouldn't.
I don't buy into this narrative that Calgary is some stupid idiotic region that places all it's eggs into a single basket economically and has been pursuing some grandly dumb short sighted strategy.
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Good points. I think a lot of people talk about diversification without really acknowledging that it's not easy to make diversification happen. There are certain industries that would never set up in Calgary due to our relative isolation from other large cities. We have played to certain strengths that have allowed sectors such as transportation/distribution, finance and tourism to thrive. Other areas, such as film development, are slower to grow in part because other provinces have engaged in a sort of "race to the bottom" with generous tax incentives to entice those industries. I highly doubt that, for example, auto manufacturing could ever thrive here because we are simply too far away from the major components producers. And growth of new economic drivers such as manufacturing is challenging in Alberta's high-wage environment. In spite of these challenges, our city is arguably the primary business hub of Western Canada - which is still a small market of perhaps 11 million people, equivalent to Illinois, Pennsylvania or Ohio. People keep saying we need to diversify - my question to them is "how do you propose we do that?"