By Carl Mortished
September 23, 2006
IT STINKS and it makes a horrible mess, but the black gunk that Shell and others are digging from Canada’s muskeg wasteland is transforming Fort McMurray, once a one-horse fur-trapping town in northern Alberta, into a Shanghai of the north.
Alberta’s economy is rivalling China in pace of expansion, and growth is expected to continue. According to Statistics Canada, the Albertan economy has grown by an average of 12.7 per cent a year since 2002, compared with 14.8 per cent for China. Unlike China, which is growing because of its ever-expanding manufacturing engine, Alberta’s growth is all about oil prices.
Still, Canada’s Government reckons that Alberta is experiencing more than a fillip from energy prices because the non-oil economy is growing at 4 per cent, well above the rest of Canada, and the rate of growth has continued longer than any previous boom. The average Albertan earned C$66,275 (£31,177) last year, half as much again as the average Canadian, money that is fuelling a lifestyle envied by the rest of Canada, helping to stimulate steady emigration to the western province.
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