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What do you think of this project?

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ChazYEG said:
Exactly! And not only that: I've came across some people, for example, that have misconceptions about the city regarding several other things, including that it is an extremely conservative place, just as rural Alberta, or that the U of Calgary is bigger/better and is the top Uni in the province (usually from people that don't have interest in universities, in general, simply because Calgary sells their university as an asset, and rightly so. And we should do the same, considering that the U of A is consistently superior to all but 3 other Canadian universities in almost every aspect and field)., and things of the sorts. I come back to my assessment: Edmonton suffers from a severe PR problem.
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While I think Edmonton (or to be historically correct, the City of Strathcona which later became part of Edmonton) came out ahead by getting the University of Alberta, Calgary does get a University with their name on it, so perhaps they take ownership of it more. I get that people out of province with limited knowledge about Alberta are sometimes confused about our Universities location. UBC and the University of Saskatchewan are not located in the provincial capitals. However, in Canada, there actually is no hard and fast rule about this, but some people just assume there is.
 
So to clarify....population increase and university educated students, specifically in tech and finance...are different.

Of course edmonton and Calgary are growing lots and getting lots of young people. We all know the stats. We also know much of that is related to cost of living and other great features, but not the tech or finance sectors. Which is what the original discussion here was about. Smart, young people in these important industries are leaving.

Lots of my experience is anecdotal, but there's some stuff out there you can read. The most basic though is just tracking hiring for different industries and big companies. The number of finance jobs in Toronto, Vancouver, Calgary, edmonton is proof of a finance brain drain from edmonton cause uofa students can't even get jobs here... 95% of jobs are elsewhere.

Of my main 20 to 30 friends that did uni, maybe 11 are still here? Mostly engineering and business. Finance, law, tech, film, engineers have also gone to Van and Cal. I'm sure many will come back in 10 years to start families and settle. So we have that in our favour.

This article states 30% of all UofA students plan to leave the province. I guarantee thats higher in the comp sci, finance fields.

Attached pic also shows 84% of parents in a survey would advise their kids to leave the province...
Screenshot_20210818-163911_Chrome.jpg


thegatewayonline.ca

UASU raises "brain drain" concerns as protest penguins pop up across AB

The Council of Alberta University Students coordinated protest art across Alberta as the UASU announced results of its brain drain survey.
thegatewayonline.ca thegatewayonline.ca
 
Holy moly, this Block BG thread has been a rollercoaster for as long as I've known it, and I love it. These convos should be in history books!
 
thommyjo said:
So to clarify....population increase and university educated students, specifically in tech and finance...are different.

Of course edmonton and Calgary are growing lots and getting lots of young people. We all know the stats. We also know much of that is related to cost of living and other great features, but not the tech or finance sectors. Which is what the original discussion here was about. Smart, young people in these important industries are leaving.

Lots of my experience is anecdotal, but there's some stuff out there you can read. The most basic though is just tracking hiring for different industries and big companies. The number of finance jobs in Toronto, Vancouver, Calgary, edmonton is proof of a finance brain drain from edmonton cause uofa students can't even get jobs here... 95% of jobs are elsewhere.

Of my main 20 to 30 friends that did uni, maybe 11 are still here? Mostly engineering and business. Finance, law, tech, film, engineers have also gone to Van and Cal. I'm sure many will come back in 10 years to start families and settle. So we have that in our favour.

This article states 30% of all UofA students plan to leave the province. I guarantee thats higher in the comp sci, finance fields.

Attached pic also shows 84% of parents in a survey would advise their kids to leave the province... View attachment 342481

thegatewayonline.ca

UASU raises "brain drain" concerns as protest penguins pop up across AB

The Council of Alberta University Students coordinated protest art across Alberta as the UASU announced results of its brain drain survey.
thegatewayonline.ca thegatewayonline.ca
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edmonton.ctvnews.ca

Edmonton makes Top 50 list for tech talent in North America for first time, Calgary climbs 6 spots

Edmonton has cracked the Top 50 list for tech talent and sector growth in North America for the first time.
edmonton.ctvnews.ca edmonton.ctvnews.ca

I don't think "everyone is leaving in tech and finance" is the correct statement. Lots of tech positions are being created and when it come to finance, we are behind Toronto, Montreal, Calgary and Vancouver, which is fair for the city of Edmonton.
 
Repeat after me - The sky is not falling!, The sky is not falling!

To some degree many tech and finance jobs have historically gone to larger cities or where there is an existing sector concentration. So, it takes years, even decades to build up and size remains a factor.

I see the trend in tech as it becomes more mainstream and a larger part of our economy, is that jobs are becoming much more dispersed around the world, not just concentrated in places like Silicon Valley. Yes, some people will want to work where the largest companies are headquartered, as they can offer tremendous opportunities for some, but strangely not everyone is attracted by potential earthquakes, high housing costs or long commutes.
 
David A said:
Repeat after me - The sky is not falling!, The sky is not falling!

To some degree many tech and finance jobs have historically gone to larger cities or where there is an existing sector concentration. So, it takes years, even decades to build up and size remains a factor.

I see the trend in tech as it becomes more mainstream and a larger part of our economy, is that jobs are becoming much more dispersed around the world, not just concentrated in places like Silicon Valley. Yes, some people will want to work where the largest companies are headquartered, as they can offer tremendous opportunities for some, but strangely not everyone is attracted by potential earthquakes, high housing costs or long commutes.
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the other criteria that should be on your list as tech becomes more mainstream and a larger part of our economy is the same thing that all larger business enterprises ultimately require and that's good, reliable, and frequent air service, another area where we seem to be going backwards and not forwards whether you're looking at canadian, north american, european or asian destinations or connections. while many of the other things holding us back can be classed as minor irritants, this one is big time and not putting it at the top of the list of things to fixed will ensure the ultimate long-term failure of many of the others. it's a big part of what employees now want from a personal perspective as well as what corporations need from a business perspective.
 
Edmonchuk said:
edmonton.ctvnews.ca

Edmonton makes Top 50 list for tech talent in North America for first time, Calgary climbs 6 spots

Edmonton has cracked the Top 50 list for tech talent and sector growth in North America for the first time.
edmonton.ctvnews.ca edmonton.ctvnews.ca

I don't think "everyone is leaving in tech and finance" is the correct statement. Lots of tech positions are being created and when it come to finance, we are behind Toronto, Montreal, Calgary and Vancouver, which is fair for the city of Edmonton.
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🙃 I never said EVERYONE.

Come on friends. Let's have more nuance.

We can create the least # of tech jobs per city over 1mil AND still have a tech industry.

The point is every other big city has been adding more and therefore many of our people in that sector leave edmonton.

Things are improving. Yes. Do we still have one of the smallest tech sectors in canada? Yes.

Anyways. Hope this tower gets built and that we triple our employment base of people making over 90k a year in trendy/urban job sectors to fill it. Cause our huge number of current tech people can barely fill 500 new units a year it seems of comparably affordable towers 😁
 
kcantor said:
the other criteria that should be on your list as tech becomes more mainstream and a larger part of our economy is the same thing that all larger business enterprises ultimately require and that's good, reliable, and frequent air service, another area where we seem to be going backwards and not forwards whether you're looking at canadian, north american, european or asian destinations or connections. while many of the other things holding us back can be classed as minor irritants, this one is big time and not putting it at the top of the list of things to fixed will ensure the ultimate long-term failure of many of the others. it's a big part of what employees now want from a personal perspective as well as what corporations need from a business perspective.
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I believe two of the bigger problems related to our air service are:

1) Municipal Airport and use of short hall flights from it (Now resolved) and
2) National airline headquartered in nearby city that tends to use Edmonton as a connection to its hub there (ongoing issue)

On that note - some good news today. I realize it doesn't solve this problem, but it is progress.

Flair Airlines opening new base in Edmonton, expanding service​


By the way, just before COVID messed up everything in early 2020, I flew non stop direct from San Fransisco to Edmonton on the other national airline (the one not headquartered in nearby city). So we actually had a good service there. Hopefully routes like this will come back once COVID recedes.
 
David A said:
2) National airline headquartered in nearby city that tends to use Edmonton as a connection to its hub there (ongoing issue)
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This thread is already off-topic AF, but your comment here gives me pause because it entertains an intriguing possibility.

What if the federal government somehow presented an attractive enough argument to WestJet that convinced them to run operations out of Calgary and Edmonton simultaneously, as one primary hub/national headquarters? It's doable, I'm sure. Perhaps a bit of a logistical nightmare at first, but why not? If their base of operations in YYC and YEG were combined, it would result in lower operating costs and faster, more efficient service for the entire airline. Since the cities are only a 23 minute flight apart, who cares if your connecting flight lands in one or the other of the two HQ cities, amirite? Many teams in all kinds of logistical jobs are virtual today anyway, so not everybody has to be seated in the same city. It wouldn't be much different than having both Montreal and Edmonton as the base of operations for CN, although in WestJet's case both cities would be in the same geographical area of the country.

Also, to ensure this thread remains off-topic, I'd also like to address the comments about Edmonton's CMA growth a few pages back....we'll never be fourth place if Ottawa doesn't stop growing. Seriously, it's annoying. I've always felt like Edmonton deserves to be larger than Ottawa, but I can't really explain why. They are both government cities, but Edmonton's skyline seems to indicate we have a larger business market. I totally get that Ottawa may have height restrictions in places, but still. Their city pop is barely larger than Edmonton, and their metro pop is barely larger than Calgary's, although the difference between sixth and fifth place looks huge when reviewing stats on a national level, and I wish we didn't have three distinctive cities so close together in terms of metro pop rankings near the top of our national list.
 
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.crystalised. said:
This thread is already off-topic AF, but your comment here gives me pause because it entertains an intriguing possibility.

What if the federal government somehow presented an attractive enough argument to WestJet that convinced them to run operations out of Calgary and Edmonton simultaneously, as one primary hub/national headquarters? It's doable, I'm sure. Perhaps a bit of a logistical nightmare at first, but why not? If their base of operations in YYC and YEG were combined, it would result in lower operating costs and faster, more efficient service for the entire airline. Since the cities are only a 23 minute flight apart, who cares if your connecting flight lands in one or the other of the two HQ cities, amirite? Many teams in all kinds of logistical jobs are virtual today anyway, so not everybody has to be seated in the same city. It wouldn't be much different than having both Montreal and Edmonton as the base of operations for CN, although in WestJet's case both cities would be in the same geographical area of the country.

Also, to ensure this thread remains off-topic, I'd also like to address the comments about Edmonton's CMA growth a few pages back....we'll never be fourth place if Ottawa doesn't stop growing. Seriously, it's annoying. I've always felt like Edmonton deserves to be larger than Ottawa, but I can't really explain why. They are both government cities, but Edmonton's skyline seems to indicate we have a larger business market. I totally get that Ottawa may have height restrictions in places, but still. Their city pop is barely larger than Edmonton, and their metro pop is barely larger than Calgary's, although the difference between sixth and fifth place looks huge when reviewing stats on a national level, and I wish we didn't have three distinctive cities so close together in terms of metro pop rankings near the top of our national list.
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But man, Edmonton's CMA is already larger than Ottawa's, according to official estimates, by about the same difference between Calgary CMA and Edmonton CMA.
Now, the city proper is different, but I'm not sure if Ottawa's population is that much bigger than ours.
 
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