Alberta's economy will recover when immigration returns to normal
Immigration minister believes immigrants will save the economy. The recovery of the oil and gas sector depends on foreign specialists.
The pandemic has hit Alberta, with more new cases of COVID-19 infection in a day there than in the rest of Canada in 2020. This has led to blockages and restrictions on entry that have hurt its economy and restricted immigration.
Alberta lost 7.3% of real GDP in 2020 and experienced a 47.5% decline in new permanent residents compared to 2019. Only 20,755 new permanent Canadian residents settled in Alberta in 2020. In 2019, there were 43,690.
TD Economics released its annual provincial outlook for 2021. In it, the bank noted that restrictions on housing, food and household services have set back Alberta's economy.
Bank Chief Economist Beata Caranchi, Deputy Chief Economist Derek Burlton, and economists Rishi Sondhi and Omar Abdelrahman have suggested in a forecast under the grim heading "The night is darkest before the dawn" that Alberta will see the sharpest population decline among provinces in 2020.
TD Economics expects that to change this year. In their forecast, economists predict Alberta's real GDP growth of 4.8% in 2021 as the oil and gas sector recovers from a steep price drop in 2020.
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