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“Are we?” she asks. “I’m not seeing that picture. We’re seeing high levels of consumer debt and homeownership. On the face of it, high levels of home ownership sound good, and that’s part of why the debt’s so high, but credit card debt is higher in Edmonton than in the rest of the country. Nearly three- quarters of households carry debt.” Another metric Heather says is “out of whack” is the median income, which is about $99k per year. “It’s lower, and it’s getting lower; in every other city it’s going up”, she says. “Is Edmonton affordable? If you use certain metrics that are a little bit misleading, like average income, it looks like we’re affordable. If you dig into it, though, we’re not affordable. And our affordability advantage is crumbling fast.”
WHERE THERE IS DATA, THERE IS POWER The business community were delighted to receive the report, she states. They had relevant, actionable information in their hands that they could use to run their business. “Yep, everything you’re saying in here makes sense,” they told her. Others told her that it was a relief to “finally be talking about this properly” because at some point, the findings were going to become increasingly obvious. But others found the report more difficult to accept, largely because some of the data didn’t put Edmonton in the best economic light. “The region is economically outperforming the city in almost every single metric. Meanwhile, the city is shouldering much of the social burden for the region. So, economically, it just isn’t making sense,” she argues. To illustrate the point, Heather outlines the data on discretionary spending. “18% of the city’s discretionary budget comes from the region. Look at how much the region needs the city to attract people.” But ultimately, the report is a call to action to get the very best out of Edmonton for everyone, by offering solid, reliable data on which to base decisions. “If we can all collectively understand the problem, then we have a solution. Saying everything’s affordable, saying everything’s great, is not helpful when we have declining assets and a city budget that is constantly running a deficit. “Giving everyone access to the same data is the whole point of the report,” states Heather. “And the outcome of this data could be so beneficial.”
THE YOUNG AND THE JOBLESS
Another finding readers might find surprising was that, while Edmonton does have a young and educated workforce, they’re not seeking jobs. “When you look at those unemployment levels, it’s newcomers to Canada, and its people aged 18 to 25 that make up 95% of our unemployment rate. “We have an extraordinary number of jobs available; we don’t have workers. This mismatch does not make sense.”
EDMONTON’S EXPORT STRENGTH
It wasn’t all bad news: the data also shone a light on where Edmonton is particularly strong.
■ Alex Gray
The Edmonton region exported $115 billion in goods and services last year, second only to Calgary and ahead of Ottawa, Winnipeg, and Halifax. Half of all regional exports come directly from Edmonton, underscoring the city’s central role in driving the metro economy. “We have a lot of capacity for exports. Our entire region is geared for this. If we can get our economic ducks in a row, we have significant potential for new industries that even the federal government wants to support, such as defence.”
Heather says it’s a combination of social and economic factors that is preventing young people from being launched into their lives the way previous generations have been. “So many of our Gen Zs were starting the workforce during the pandemic. That in and of itself robbed them of a lot of opportunities to do the scary thing when you’re meant to, which is when you’re 18 to 23, and you’re getting your first job. They don’t see the value of being with humans. They’re not seeing the job as ‘it’. They’re not motivated to launch because they were robbed of those experiences. There are also Gen X parents who are alarmingly okay with this.” This is where the data from the report becomes so useful, she says: “We can now advocate for funding in skill development that aligns with what the economy is demanding, so people can get jobs.”
There’s also a ripe case for investment in downtown Edmonton, she argues.
“We currently have post-war building and zoning that designates downtown for work and the suburbs for living. We don’t need that anymore. Calgary has done such an amazing job at this. It’s not perfect, but it’s better. What we’re hoping to see is that all different orders of government invest in downtown. I think that would make such a difference.”
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Canadian Real Estate Forums / Spring 2026 18
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