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We might ask, where will Alberta be in 10 years or 20 years?
I am a bit of an optimist so I am going to go with growth. I feel our biggest drivers supporting our housing industry moving forward will be immigration and the reduced cost of money.
I suspect we may see sub-three per cent interest rates for a generation. Interest rates increase as inflation increases and I believe inflation will be modest moving forward. I feel that as we now have to deal with a significantly larger national debt to service and new climate change policies with increased taxation, our disposable income will be reduced. With reduced disposable income, inflation is likely to remain modest.
I am confident that we, as a province, can diversify into alternative energy products and services. We may have some competitive advantages in lithium battery and hydrogen fuel cell production. We have many of the natural resources to produce products for these emerging industries.
I believe that we have huge untapped potential to diversify into food production. Instead of just exporting raw crops, we could do more processing of cereal crops and plant proteins where we could become a major exporter of processed foods and proteins.
Edmonton Global is a group that was formed in 2018 to attract investment and entrepreneurs to our region. It has identified four sectors where our region may have a competitive advantage. These include manufacturing, health and life sciences, food and agriculture, and energy and clean technology,
