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Calgary and Alberta are headed for a year of dampened growth, but both are less at risk of falling victim to economic headwinds than other areas of Canada, new forecasts show.

“(Calgary is) probably better positioned than a lot of other communities or jurisdictions around North America … but I’m not gonna lie, I think we’re going to see some headwinds in 2024,” Brad Parry, president and CEO of Calgary Economic Development and CEO of Opportunity Calgary Investment Fund, said in a Wednesday interview.

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GDP growth in Alberta, projected to hit 2.7 per cent this year, is expected to drop to 2 per cent in 2024, according to projections by ATB Financial.

Parry said Calgary has seen a slight slowdown in venture capital investment in 2023, which hit a record $647 million last year. However, he said the province appears to be on pace to beat last year’s thresholds in that category, he said.

The change he’s seeing is that businesses are no longer outgrowing Calgary, Parry said.

“The big difference is … companies don’t need to leave Calgary now to grow and scale their companies. There’s venture capital, there’s talent, there’s all those things that allow us to continue to attract investment.”

The city has progressed on diversifying its business scene to expand beyond oil and gas, he said, but it’s still a distance away from where Parry would like to be.

“I think we’re teenagers, if I had to think about it,” he said. “We’ve established ourselves.”

The projected economic slowdown will largely be due to global inflation and high interest rates, said Curtis Strange, president and CEO of ATB Financial.

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“With headwinds building, we expect growth to slow next year, before picking up again in 2025,” Mark Parsons, vice president and chief economist at ATB financial, said in a Wednesday news release.

But still, Calgary and Alberta are in an “enviable” position for their resource sector and diverse industries, said Stephen Poloz, special advisor at Osler and former Governor of the Bank of Canada.

Parry maintained that his position for Calgary and the province in 2024 is “cautiously optimistic.”

“We’re not at the pinnacle … I still think we’ve got a long way to go,” he said. “It’s that sense of optimism with the types of technologies that are being developed in our city that are really going to set us apart.”

mscace@postmedia.com

X: @mattscace67

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