Just over 16 months ago, the Occupy Wall Street movement started drawing attention to the growing gap  between America?s very rich and everyone else. The movement spread to other cities, including here in Alberta. New data released yesterday by Statistics Canada for the 2010 tax year show the income gap is far from closing. Since 1982, income distribution has become less equal.  In 2010, the median before-tax income reported by the top 1 per cent of tax filers in Alberta was $277,800. It?s one ... Full Article...

Construction is one of the most important economic drivers in Alberta?s economy. Not surprisingly, a lot of attention is paid to indicators of building activity, especially around housing starts. Here, the most recent data give a bit of a mixed picture.  In December, construction got started on just under 30,000 new residential homes. That number isadjusted for seasonality and is reported at an ?annualized rate.? In other words, if the same pace ofhousing starts continued for 12 months, there ... Full Article...

For everyone who stretched credit cards over the holidays, there is some good news: not since 2009have retail gas prices been so low in Alberta. That means all families will have a little more left over at the end of the month. According to MJ Ervin & Associates, the lowest gas price in the province was in Edmonton, where a litre of regular averaged 96.4 cents in December. In Calgary the average was 98.3 cents per litre and in Red Deer,  99.9 cents per litre. At 20.8 cents since September, the ... Full Article...

Thousands of new Albertans arrive each quarter because of the hot labour situation in the province. But judging by the most recent numbers, the jobs market may be cooling just a bit.  In December, there were 6,100 fewer jobs in Alberta than there were in the previous month. That?s the first time in six months the province actually shed jobs. The unemployment rate ticked up from 4.2 per cent in November to 4.5 per cent. Alberta?s one-month drop in jobs obscures one of the most important elements ... Full Article...