Alberta

Total area: 661,848 km²

Capital: Edmonton

Demograhics (2008)

Economy (2008)

Trade and Investment (2007)

Business and Investment Environment

• No provincial sales taxes.
• A major energy hub, Alberta is a hotbed of business opportunities in diverse industries, ranging from telecommunications, agrifood processing and electronics, to biotechnology, specialty chemicals and corporate services.
• Energy related activities contributed 27.2% to Alberta's 2007 GDP. Other important sectors were Finance and Real Estate (13.8%), Wholesale and Retail trade (9.0%), Business and Commercial Services (8.6%) and Manufacturing (8.2%).
• An extensive Research and Development (R&D) network helps develop and commercialize advanced products and processes.

Sectoral Strengths

Energy

• Energy is the engine of Alberta’s economy. Alberta produces 70% of Canada’s crude oil and 80% of its natural gas.
• Including oil sands, Alberta has the second largest petroleum reserves in the world, second only to Saudi Arabia
• Production from oil sands is expected to nearly triple from current production of 1.1 million barrels per day to close to 3.0 million barrels per day by 2015
• Manufacturing shipments of petrochemicals and refined petroleum products reached $30.3 billion in 2008

Information and communications technologies (ICT)

• Includes companies that produce: computer equipment and services, software, navigational and medical instruments, semiconductors and wireless equipment and services
• Government of Alberta is committed to encouraging a more diverse base of economic activity and to boosting trade and investment within Alberta’s knowledge-based industries
• The solid company base of Alberta’s ICT industry includes nearly 4,300 companies and 54,500 employees generating over $11.7 billion in annual revenues, making ICT Alberta’s third largest value-added sector

Agrifood

• With more than 51 million acres (20 million hectares) of land used for crop and livestock production, Alberta has one of the world’s most productive agricultural economies
• Manufacturing shipments from the food and beverage industry were valued at $11.7 billion in 2008
• Alberta represented 21.1 per cent of the value of Canada’s total agricultural production and posted the country’s highest livestock market receipts

Forestry

• Alberta produced $4.3 billion in forest products in 2008
• Forest products include lumber, pulp, newsprint, panel board and secondary wood products
• Alberta covers over 66 million hectares of land, 58 per cent or 38 million hectares of which is forested—Of the forested area, about 60 per cent or 22.5 million hectares are considered suitable for harvest
• Annually, Alberta allows 26.1 million cubic meters (m3) to be harvested
• Alberta’s commercially productive timber land base of 22.5 million hectares covers 35 per cent of Alberta’s total area

Other key sectors

• Chemicals and petrochemicals; aerospace; environmental products and services; industrial machinery and equipment; architecture; engineering and construction; building products; and, tourism.

Online Resources

Alberta Finance and Enterprise www.albertacanada.com
Government of Alberta www.gov.ab.ca

To learn more about other investment opportunities in Canada, please contact:

1. CMA: Census Metropolitan Area (return to source paragraph)
2. CA: Census Agglomeration (return to source paragraph)
3. CPI: Consumer Price Index (return to source paragraph)