Edmonton better economically than Calgary

Statistics Canada recently released data on business conditions for 15 large Canadian cities for the last week in March. So, I thought I’d take a look at how Calgary and Edmonton fared.

The Real-time Local Business Conditions Index is an experimental statistic that measures business activity in real time during the pandemic and beyond.

The index measures 3 main areas:

1. Economic size of a business district at the local level
2. Operating conditions of businesses in a given area
3. Level of business activity in the area using road traffic data

The index starts in August 2020 and gives every city an index of 100. Their index then either increases or decreases relative to that number.

If a city’s number drops below 100, then they’re doing worse economically than they were in August 2020, during the start of the second wave of the pandemic.

Conversely, if it is above 100, then they’re doing better economically than they were a year and a half ago.

Unsurprisingly, all 15 cities in the list were doing better economically at the end of last month than they were during the first summer of the pandemic.

Here’s how each of them fared last month:

Quebec City	300.91
Kitchener	287.29
Edmonton	249.10
Winnipeg	245.65
Oshawa	214.56
Calgary	213.63
Windsor	212.72
Montréal	211.36
Victoria	201.59
Hamilton	195.01
London	190.30
Vancouver	184.83
Toronto	170.46
Halifax	164.70
Ottawa	159.70

As you can see, Edmonton is in 3rd place and Calgary is in 6th place, relative to where they were in August 2020.

Now, keep in mind that this is based on how much they’ve improved since the start of the pandemic-caused recession. Some cities might have improved more last year than they are right now, and vice versa.

So, let’s look at how much each city has changed based on various baselines.

For example, here’s how each city has changed from just the week before:

Quebec City	114.56
Winnipeg	65.04
Kitchener	62.71
Edmonton	58.33
Windsor	54.23
Oshawa	50.40
London	47.58
Victoria	46.20
Calgary	45.90
Ottawa	44.69
Vancouver	41.71
Montréal	40.81
Toronto	39.94
Hamilton	38.74
Halifax	36.74

In this case, both Edmonton and Calgary performed worse, with the former dropping one spot (4th), and Calgary dropping three (9th).

Quebec City	127.20
Kitchener	92.71
Winnipeg	74.25
Edmonton	68.29
London	66.69
Ottawa	66.65
Montréal	64.95
Windsor	60.50
Halifax	54.82
Hamilton	51.34
Toronto	48.83
Calgary	47.90
Oshawa	40.23
Victoria	39.04
Vancouver	14.07

Calgary was even worse when looking at performance over the last month, dropping to 4th from last place.

However, if we look at performance since May 2021, Calgary jumps up again.

Kitchener	95.62
Quebec City	82.55
Edmonton	75.43
Windsor	59.05
Calgary	53.84
Winnipeg	51.91
London	51.90
Montréal	38.52
Toronto	36.89
Halifax	35.94
Oshawa	35.71
Vancouver	34.21
Hamilton	14.61
Victoria	13.31
Ottawa	6.37

Here we see that Edmonton is still basically in the same spot and Calgary is back up to the top 5.

Now, let’s look at averages. First, the weekly average for March 2022.

Quebec City	252.59
Kitchener	250.19
Edmonton	214.56
Winnipeg	209.95
Oshawa	185.75
Calgary	184.72
Montréal	182.96
Windsor	179.78
Victoria	173.56
Hamilton	173.40
London	163.69
Vancouver	160.53
Toronto	147.35
Halifax	140.11
Ottawa	133.03

Edmonton is still in third place, but Calgary is in 6th place.

Here’s the difference between the weekly average in March 2022 and March 2021.

Quebec City	75.85
Kitchener	74.86
Edmonton	57.43
Calgary	45.21
Winnipeg	37.26
Windsor	33.67
Toronto	33.52
London	26.86
Vancouver	24.79
Oshawa	21.65
Montréal	21.48
Halifax	18.81
Ottawa	12.21
Hamilton	11.07
Victoria	2.58

Again, the two cities are in third and fourth place.

Now, the average for the first quarter of 2022:

Kitchener	219.95
Quebec City	213.86
Edmonton	194.72
Winnipeg	194.56
Victoria	182.05
Oshawa	170.18
London	168.30
Windsor	165.27
Calgary	164.85
Hamilton	162.29
Montréal	159.22
Vancouver	158.66
Halifax	134.36
Toronto	133.30
Ottawa	123.61

Edmonton was still in the same spot, but Calgary is down again at 9th place.

And the difference between the weekly average for the first quarter of 2022 and the first quarter of 2021.

Kitchener	66.72
Quebec City	56.40
Edmonton	49.18
Calgary	45.15
Windsor	39.22
Winnipeg	37.47
Oshawa	29.89
Toronto	28.76
London	28.42
Vancouver	24.45
Ottawa	19.13
Montréal	17.46
Halifax	15.43
Victoria	9.74
Hamilton	8.74

Finally, here’s the weekly average for all of 2021.

Quebec City	200.61
Victoria	198.50
Winnipeg	190.87
Edmonton	179.47
Kitchener	177.89
Montréal	174.03
Oshawa	167.11
Windsor	164.53
Hamilton	159.44
Calgary	151.94
Halifax	150.14
London	149.85
Vancouver	148.66
Ottawa	139.96
Toronto	129.56

Both cities dropped a spot, Edmonton down to 4th place and Calgary down to 10th.