Calgary

The official slogan of Calgary, Onward!, is more relevant than ever in the aftermath of the city’s devastating floods in June 2013. A year later, a casual visitor would be hard challenged to uncover any evidence of the flood. The only changes visitors would have noticed as of August 2014 were the closure of the Inglewood Bird Sanctuary (accessible only by daily guided tours throughout 2014, but the Nature Centre is fully open), the interruption of canoeing/kayaking on the Harvie Passage section of the Bow River, and approximately 36 km of bike paths that were closed due to flood damage and detours.

Calgary, Alberta’s biggest city and Canada’s fourth-largest, is situated near the intersection of the grasslands and the foothills. As a result, it serves as the eastern entrance to the Rocky Mountains and a key commercial and tourist hub for the western plains. It is your best gateway to Banff and Jasper, as well as a wonderful vacation in its own right. With about 1,210,000 inhabitants (1.1 million inside city boundaries) as of 2011, Calgary is the hub of the biggest metropolitan region between Toronto and Vancouver, making it Canada’s fourth largest metropolitan area.

ATTRACTIONS

Downtown offers a diverse selection of restaurants and bars, cultural events, public spaces (including Olympic Plaza), and shopping. The Core Retail Centre (previously Calgary Eaton Centre/TD Square), Stephen Avenue, and Eau Claire Market are also notable shopping locations. The Calgary Zoo, the Telus Spark, the Telus Convention Centre, the Chinatown neighborhood, the Glenbow Museum, the Calgary Tower, the Art Gallery of Calgary (AGC), the Military Museum, and the EPCOR Centre for the Performing Arts are among the downtown tourist attractions. The Devonian Gardens, at 2.5 acres (1.0 hectare), is one of the world’s biggest urban indoor gardens, and it is situated on the fourth level of The Core Shopping Centre (above the shopping). Prince’s Island Park, an urban park situated just north of the Eau Claire district, is also included in the downtown area. Midtown and the Beltline are directly south of downtown. This neighborhood is gradually becoming one of the city’s densest and busiest mixed-use zones. The famed 17 Avenue runs through the heart of the city and is renowned for its many pubs and nightclubs, restaurants, and retail places. During the Calgary Flames’ playoff run in 2004, 17 Avenue saw over 50,000 spectators and supporters every game night. Because to the concentration of red jersey-wearing supporters, the roadway earned the nickname “Red Mile” during the playoffs. The city’s C-Train light rail (LRT) transportation system makes it simple to get to downtown.

The Heritage Park Historical Village historical park, which depicts life in pre-1914 Alberta and has functional antique vehicles such as a steam locomotive, paddle steamer, and electric streetcar, is located on the city’s west side. The hamlet itself is made up of replica buildings as well as historic ones transported from southern Alberta. Canada Olympic Park, which houses Canada’s Sports Hall of Fame, and Spruce Meadows are two more prominent city attractions. In addition to the many retail districts in the city center, the city has a number of significant outlying shopping complexes. Chinook Centre and Southcentre Mall in the south, Westhills and Signal Hill in the southwest, South Trail Crossing and Deerfoot Meadows in the southeast, Market Mall in the northwest, Sunridge Mall in the northeast, and the newly built CrossIron Mills just north of Calgary’s city limits and south of the City of Airdrie are among the largest.

Every two years, the Airdrie Regional Airshow is hosted at the Calgary/Airdrie Airport in adjacent Airdrie. The Canadian Snowbirds, a CF-18 demonstration, and a US Air Force F-16 were among the attractions during the 2011 airshow.

Calgary is situated at the crossroads between the Canadian Rockies foothills and the Canadian Prairies. The city is located in the foothills of the Parkland and Grasslands Natural Regions. Downtown Calgary is about 1,045 m (3,428 ft) above sea level, while the airport is approximately 1,076 m (3,428 ft) (3,531 ft). In 2011, the city had a total land area of 825.29 km2 (318.65 sq mi).

The city is divided into two halves by two rivers. The Bow River is the bigger of the two and runs from west to south. The Elbow River runs north from the south until it meets the Bow River in downtown Calgary at the historic site of Fort Calgary. Because the region’s climate is mainly dry, thick vegetation develops naturally only in river valleys, on certain north-facing hills, and inside Fish Creek Provincial Park.

Calgary, with an area of 848 km2 (327 sq mi), is made up of an inner city surrounded by suburban villages of varying densities. The city is bounded on all sides by two municipal districts: the Municipal District of Foothills No. 31 to the south and Rocky View County to the north, west, and east. Within the Calgary Region, nearby urban communities include: the City of Airdrie to the north, the City of Chestermere, the Town of Strathmore, and the Hamlet of Langdon to the east, the towns of Okotoks and High River to the south, and the Town of Cochrane to the northwest. To the west and northwest, there are several rural subdivisions in Elbow Valley, Springbank, and Bearspaw. Tsuu T’ina Nation Indian Reserve No. 145 is located southwest of Calgary.

To assist expansion, the city has annexed several parcels of property throughout the years. The city absorbed Shepard, a former hamlet, in the most recent annexation of territories from Rocky View County, which was finalized in July 2007, and positioned its limits near to the Hamlet of Balzac and the City of Chestermere, as well as extremely close to the City of Airdrie.

Calgary is renowned as a Canadian oil and gas sector powerhouse, as well as a pioneer in economic progress. Its strong personal and family incomes, low unemployment, and high GDP per capita have all benefitted from higher sales and prices as a result of a resource boom, as well as improved economic diversification.

Calgary benefits from a reasonably robust employment market in Alberta, and it is part of the Calgary–Edmonton Corridor, one of the country’s fastest expanding areas. Numerous large oil and gas corporations have their headquarters here, and many financial service businesses have sprung up around them. Small company and self-employment rates are also among the highest in the country. It also serves as a distribution and transportation center and has a large retail sales volume.

Calgary’s economy is becoming less dominated by the oil and gas sector, yet it remains the city’s single greatest contributor to GDP. Calgary’s real GDP (in constant 1997 values) was C$52.386 billion in 2006, with oil, gas, and mining accounting for 12% of the total. BP Canada, Canadian Natural Resources Limited, Cenovus Energy, Encana, Imperial Oil, Suncor Energy, Shell Canada, Husky Energy, TransCanada, and Nexen are among the larger oil and gas companies, with the city home to 87 percent of Canada’s oil and natural gas producers and 66 percent of coal producers.

In 2010, the city had 618,000 people working (a 74.6 percent participation rate) and a 7.0 percent unemployment rate. In 2006, the unemployment rate in Toronto was 3.2 percent, one of the lowest among major Canadian cities, resulting in a lack of both qualified and unskilled employees.

In 2010, the “Professional, Technical, and Management” Industry accounted for more over 14 percent of employment, while employment levels in “Architectural, Engineering, and Design Services” and “Management, Scientific, and Technical Services” much outnumber those in Canada. Despite the fact that trade employs 14.7 percent of the workforce, its share of overall employment is not larger than the Canadian average. Construction employment is quite substantial, above Canadian norms, and grew 16 percent between 2006 and 2010. Health and welfare services, which account for 10% of employment, have expanded 20% throughout that time.

Shaw Communications (7,500 workers), Nova Chemicals (4,945), and Telus (4,945) were Calgary’s top three private-sector employers in 2006. (4,517). Mark’s Work Wearhouse, the Calgary Co-op, Nexen, Canadian Pacific Railway, CNRL, Shell Canada, and Dow Chemical Canada rounded out the top 10. The Calgary Zone of Alberta Health Services (22,000), the City of Calgary (12,296), and the Calgary Board of Education were the leading public sector employers in 2006. (8,000). The University of Calgary and the Calgary Roman Catholic Separate School Division rounded out the top five public-sector employers.

Calgary boasts Canada’s second-largest concentration of head offices (behind Toronto), the most head offices per population, and the greatest head office income per capita. Canada Safeway Limited, Westfair Foods Ltd., Suncor Energy, Agrium, Flint Energy Services Ltd., Shaw Communication, and Canadian Pacific Railway are among the major employers with headquarters in Calgary. CPR relocated their headquarters from Montreal in 1996, and Imperial Oil relocated from Toronto in 2005. The Bow, EnCana’s new 58-story corporate headquarters, has become Canada’s tallest skyscraper outside of Toronto. The city became the corporate headquarters of the TSX Venture Exchange in 2001.

WestJet’s headquarters are near Calgary International Airport, while Enerjet’s are on the airport grounds. Prior to their demise, Canadian Airlines and Air Canada’s subsidiary Zip were both based near the airport. Although the primary headquarters is now in Yellowknife, Canadian North, which was bought from Canadian Airlines in September 1998, continues to operate and charter from Calgary.

According to an Avison Young research issued in August 2015 by Alexi Olcheski, vacancy rates increased to 11.5 percent in the second quarter of 2015 from 8.3 percent in 2014. In downtown Calgary, oil and gas companies are subleasing 40% of their total vacancies. The Bow Tower, a 58-story, 158,000-square-metre highrise owned by H&R Real Estate Investment Trust, claims to be completely leased. Tenants like Suncor “have begun laying off employees and contractors in reaction to the slump.”

Calgary’s area codes are 403 and 587, although calling between them does not incur long distance rates as long as the phones are inside the local calling region.