Alberta is calling, and the question is, will you answer the phone call? You’ve probably heard the ads on the radio, maybe driving to work. You’ve probably seen the ads all over the Internet. You’ve probably seen them on TV. If anybody watches TV anymore, live sports, right?

But you see in the ads that Alberta is trying to get you to move there.

Alberta Targets BC and Ontario with A $2M Ad Campaign

One of the great things for Alberta and one of the significant challenges for residents of British Columbia and Ontario, the two provinces that they’re really targeting, is the advertising is excellent, and there’s no easier way of marketing something and having outstanding marketing when a lot of what you’re marketing is true. So they’re doing a great job of getting this out there.

They’ve spent about $2 million promoting the benefits of living in Alberta to the residents of BC in Ontario. This post is for anyone living in my area of South Surrey, White Rock, Surrey, and British Columbia.

If you are considering moving BC to Alberta, this post is definitely for you. What you’re going to find after you read this post is you’re going to know the full scoop of the information that’s being offered to you.

If you have considered moving to Alberta, you’re going to have everything at your fingertips, and you’re going to be able to make an informed choice. You’ll also feel good about your choice because you’ll get the whole story.

Of course, if you’re considering moving, that likely means you’re also thinking about buying a home or investing in real estate. So be sure to read this post right to the very end because I’ve got something cool for anybody out there looking to buy a home that’s going to test your knowledge to see how ready you are to do it.

So hang around to the end, and I’ll make sure you get access to that.

Alberta Emerges as A Popular Destination for Homebuyers

What’s good, everybody? It’s Darin Germyn, from the Germyn Group. We know you’ve only got one chance to buy or sell your next home, so we’re here to help you get it right.

So, as I mentioned, Alberta is pressing $2 million to get Ontario and BC residents to relocate to Alberta. And it’s not specific to all of BC and Ontario. It’s really to the Vancouver Lower Mainland people and the GTA or Toronto residents. But Alberta is pushing really, really hard.

One of the reasons they’re pushing so hard is because they know that people are already thinking about it. They know that.

According to Stats Canada, in the third quarter of 2022, the emigration to Alberta was almost 20,000. While provinces like Ontario, well, they actually lost people, 11,500 almost in Ontario. And for those of you that live in BC that are likely reading this post, the majority of you, we didn’t fare much better. We lost about 4,500 people to emigration in Q3 of 2022.

Stereotypes and Siblings: Contrasting the Images of BC and Alberta

We’ve all got our stereotypes about what it might be like to live in Alberta. And if you’re not from BC, you’ve got your stereotype of what it’s like to live in BC if all of the provinces were siblings.

BC is the yoga instructor, vegan food eating, electric car driving, going for a walk after they picked up their Starbucks to go to the beach, likely somewhat tired from a late night out before eating sushi with their friends type of sibling.

If you’re the sibling, that is Alberta, your stereotype is that you are probably the loudest one in the family. You’re probably driving an F-150 truck and eating steak with absolutely everything. You probably had a short stint on the oil rigs. You’re very proud of your cheap beer, and make sure all of your other siblings know about it. You probably have a snowmobile sitting in your garage. Now before you hit up the comments section with any hate, I’m not doing that to hate.

That’s just a joke. Those are some of the stereotypes people think about the different provinces, and of course, they are very different.

Alberta’s Website: Tempting You to Join the Loudest Sibling

However, a website has been launched as part of this advertising campaign by the Alberta government to try and get your attention to relocate there. And they did a good job.

The website is called Alberta is Calling, and they feature a lot of exciting things that would get me thinking if I was thinking of relocating out of the lower mainland or the GTA because it’s just getting so darn expensive to live in these areas.

They promote some exciting things here, like the cost of owning a home or renting a home. They also promote what the average take-home salary is. They talk about the quality of life people enjoy in Alberta province. And it’s a fascinating website. And I recommend you go check it out.

Debunking the Best of Alberta

But the purpose of today’s post is not to slam Alberta. That’s certainly not it. I’ve got lots of friends and family in Alberta, and I love Alberta. I love visiting it.

In fact, I’m going to be jumping on a plane in two days to go to Banff, which is like heaven on Earth if you’ve never been there. It’s one of the most beautiful communities, although it is freezing.

They feature some things on this website, which you got to take with a grain of salt because, just like anything, you’ve got one party telling you all the amazing things about themselves, but there’s no one else. So there is part of the conversation that gets to say what might be missing from that. You’re never going to go to a restaurant where they will tell you about all the bad things that happen at that restaurant or how bad the service can be.

Sometimes they’re only going to tell you all the good stuff. And, of course, that’s what this website is doing. They also promote some stuff on there that compares Alberta to none. So they make it seem like they’ve got the best and the best of all these different things. And while they certainly do in some areas, there are some things that you might disagree with.

For example, you can say it’s only 20 minutes to the mountains. Well, that’s true for some of the cities in Alberta, like Calgary, but it’s certainly different for many of the cities in Alberta. And I’ll give it to you. You’ve got Canmore. You’ve got Banff.

We’ve got Whistler. We’ve got the North Shore Mountain. So take it for what it is. They feature Edmonton Park, one of the largest parks with fantastic artificial walkways and manicured places. I’ll trade you that for Stanley Park in Vancouver, which is pretty darn lovely.

They talk about how they’ve got the largest fringe festival in North America and the second largest in the world. Now I’ve got to admit that I didn’t even know what a fringe festival was. I had to look it up. But it’s important to people if they decide to promote it.

With that being said, I would trade the Festival of Lights, and the fireworks show put on in downtown Vancouver in the summer for the French Festival, which is a theater festival, any day because it’s unbelievable.

What about things like the Vancouver International Jazz Festival? If you’ve ever been to that, you certainly want to go back because it’s a pretty incredible experience.

What They’re Not Telling You about Alberta

This post will give you some ideas about what’s not being said on this website. So if you’ve had the opportunity to check it out, let’s remind you about a few things that need to be brought to your attention. I’m going to caveat this by saying, first of all, Alberta is big. You can’t say move to Alberta and suggest all these incredible things in Alberta without clarifying that.

There are fantastic things all over, but certain cities offer different things, like driving to the mountains, for example. Very easy for somebody in Calgary to get to Banff or Canmore, but it’s a heck of a lot longer drive for somebody that lives in Edmonton. So don’t mix all the cities into the same bucket. You can’t pretend it’s the same. You can’t pretend it’s the same place. It’s a big province.

One of the things they should have mentioned on this website as well is the weather in Alberta. Have you ever been to Alberta in the winter? Now they promote that they get 333 days of sunny weather. And now, as a Vancouver, that’s amazing and so exciting. But they don’t talk about the temperature.

According to weatherspark.com, in Edmonton, during the coldest month of the year, the average low in Edmonton in January is -14 degrees Celsius, with a daily high of minus one degree Celsius. Now that sounds cold to me, being from Vancouver. In our winter seasons, our average daily high is nine degrees Celsius, which is considerably warmer than ten degrees. And our coldest month on average, usually December, has an average low of two degrees Celsius, not -14, so if you are going to move to Alberta. You need to bring some warmer coats with you.

Let’s keep going. There are things that I could bring up, like access to the border, and of course, there are areas in Alberta that have access to the border as well, but our big cities are much closer to the border than those in Alberta.

I’m not going to get started with the mountains because, yeah, there are some great ski hills and mountains in Alberta, but I don’t think it’s comparable to that of the North Shore or Whistler or anything like that that we have pretty easy access to because BC is completely mountains. Some mountains go right through the middle of BC all the way up.

So everybody’s got access to mountains in very close proximity to sailing. Well, you probably need to do a little sailing in Edmonton or Calgary because there’s no ocean there. And sure, you could sit by the beach of the local river, that’s fine. And there are lakes and whatnot as well. But of course, we got lots of lakes here, but Alberta has no ocean.

There’s only ocean in British Columbia and the east coast of Canada too. I remembered you guys. And there’s Hudson’s Bay as well. Okay, but anyways, no ocean in Alberta. Do you get it?

Job Opportunities and Tech Growth in Alberta

Let me get into politics for a second, Alberta, now. NOT A CHANCE. I am not touching that one. Leave it there. We’re not going to talk about Alberta politics because that’s a bad idea. The rest of the country will sit and read and see how it goes for you.

But anyways, good luck. What about jobs? This Alberta is Calling website suggests a ton of opportunities for job openings in Alberta, which is very true. But if you live in BC, we have a massive labor shortage in many areas as well. And this website claims to be one of the tech capitals of Canada.

And this website claims to have lots of growth and opportunity for tech, which I’m sure is true, but it’s not known as a tech hub. According to TechTalent CA, the biggest cities in Canada for tech talent start with Toronto, then go Ottawa, and then Vancouver. Now Calgary is number six on the list, and Edmonton doesn’t even make it to the list, to be honest.

Alberta Universities: Great, But Not the Best

What about universities? Of course, there are some great universities in Alberta, but they’re ranked lower than some of the other universities in Canada.

Specifically, you’ve got McGill in number three, which is in Montreal. You’ve got the University of British Columbia, Vancouver, and Victoria. They came in at number two. And you’ve got the University of Toronto. So these are the rankings of the best global list of universities in Canada by the US News.

And that’s a big deal. You want to pick the best university for your education, and it also helps with your career. Not saying that the universities in Alberta aren’t great, but there are just better-ranked universities outside of Alberta, which is okay.

House Prices in Alberta: Great Investment, but Not Quite ‘Vancouver-level’ yet

Now the elephant in the room is always house prices. And yeah, I get it. It’s costly to live in Vancouver. It’s expensive to live on the lower mainland. It’s costly to live in Toronto and the GTA.

And there’s no doubt that Alberta has cheaper options, less expensive options for your housing needs. But people talk very little about what’s happened in the real estate market. So I want to give you an example of how things have played out in the last ten years. And you can arm yourself with this as you consider moving yourself or your family over to the province of Alberta.

According to the Canadian Real Estate Association Home Price Index, Alberta has seen a growth in prices over the last ten years, which is fantastic.

You want to see your house price rise because it’s a big investment, and you sink a lot of money into it. You want to see that grow. Of course, we all do. According to the home price index, Alberta house prices over the last ten years rose about 26.6%, which is nothing to shake a stick at. That’s awesome. Exciting.

Imagine 26% year over year last ten years. You did well. Good job, Alberta.

But before we start putting some hate on the house prices in British Columbia, let’s also talk about the same investment you could have made in buying a home in BC ten years ago. According to the Home Price Index, BC’s home prices in the last ten years have grown to 89.4%. That’s a significant number.

Now, that doesn’t necessarily have any reflection on what’s going to happen in the future. But still, there’s no doubt that when people think of Canada, they usually think of the premier cities of Vancouver and Toronto. And not to say that there are no exclusive cities in Alberta. They’re unique, and I love visiting them, but those are the cities people typically think about.

So if you’re going to be investing in real estate, you need to think of how much your investment will grow over time. And suppose the future is to predict what happened in the past. In that case, you’ll have more considerable growth in some other provinces, specifically in BC and Ontario.

The Province that Thinks It’s Hot but Is It Really?

One of the last things I’ll leave you with is a study that Merrill Blue did on the perception of Alberta compared to how the rest of Canada feels versus how Alberta thinks about itself.

It’s kind of like somebody that thinks they’re good-looking, but nobody else does, and they walk around thinking they are. I don’t know.

According to the study, only 50% of Canadians would feel comfortable living in Alberta. And it doesn’t explain why that is, but that’s an interesting number. That’s only one out of two. Only 59% of the rest of Canada agreed that Alberta welcomes new immigrants. And that may or may not be true, but that’s the perception.

According to this study, the rest of Canada also only thinks that only 47% of Albertans even care about climate change, which hopefully isn’t true. But that’s what the study found. So there you have it.

Key Takeaway

There’s some information that Alberta is Calling might have yet to provide for you, and that doesn’t mean it’s right or wrong to relocate from Alberta or to Alberta instead of from anywhere. However, that’s not the point of this post.

The point is to give you the full scope of knowledge. Then, if you are considering it, you can make a perfect decision or at least know that you need to dive a little bit deeper. So be sure to check out their website if you are considering it. Be sure to do your homework and understand what you’re getting into because jumping provinces is a significant thing. And always remember that what you’re being fed isn’t necessarily telling you the whole story.

And the goal of this whole post is for you. If you decide to stay in BC or Ontario, you should feel good about it because it is a pretty awesome place to live, regardless of how expensive it is to own a home. Would we all like to see it cheaper? Yeah, probably. It’s pretty awesome here.

Now, I mentioned at the start of the post, if you are someone that is considering buying a home, we have left a link in the description for a Home Buyer’s quiz, which you would be very surprised that eight out of ten people don’t get them, all right? Because, hey, they think they know what they’re doing when it comes time to buying a home, and they don’t. So take the quiz and you’ll get the answers right away. I think you’ll really enjoy it. It’s pretty fun.

And you’ll get to know how prepared you are to buy a home. Of course, while you’re snooping around down in the description as well, there is a link to our calendar where if you are someone buying or selling a home and you need some help or some advice, book some time with us and you’ll get to speak directly with me. We’ll fill you in on exactly what you need to know to help you be successful.

As always, we appreciate you reading this post. I hope you imagine your next ten years when you are living in British Columbia or Alberta, and all I can ask is that you have a big smile on your face because you are so happy with your informed decision.

Looking very forward to seeing you on the next post. You got it.

Watch the full video here: