A new report released today (February 24) from Airdrie Economic Development shows the downturn did impact Airdrie last year, but our local economy stayed strong.

The 2016 Construction and Growth Report shows that the downturn did cause Airdrie's economy to slow down a little last year, but the city still experienced growth.

"Certainly in Airdrie, you know, even though we've had a number of businesses that have been impacted, the overall health of the economy, we're quite happy with through the downturn," said Kent Rupert, Team Lead with Economic Development.

Business licensees increased by 5.7% in 2016, leading to the creation of a number of jobs in Airdrie.

"The most exciting part is it's almost 512 new full and part time jobs created within the city, so overall, we're pretty happy with the local Airdrie economy considering everything else that's happening within the province."

65 more commercial and industrial permits were issued last year compared with 2015. However, the value of those permits was down from $71 million in 2015 to $55 million last year. Rupert said that there was also a drop in the housing market, especially single-family houses.

Rupert said that even though many individuals and families in the community were personally affected by the downturn, things could have been much worse in Airdrie

"We don't want to minimize it, because a lot of businesses and a lot of residents in Airdrie have been impacted by the overall economy, but when we take a ten thousand foot look of it, the fact that it grew almost six percent of business growth last year, that's still really good growth."

Rupert also said there are reasons to be optimistic about the economy going forward in 2017, such as the stability of oil prices.

 

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