Page 22 - XperienceAlberta-EDA-2024-1

CHOOSING
aALBERTA NO-BRAINER
Alberta’s opportunities might be attractive, but it’s the lifestyle that keeps people here
BY LIAM NEWBIGGING
WHEN 27-YEAR-OLD KEVIN Schultz moved to Calgary in 2020, it wasn’t for what the city offered, nor was it for a specific career. It was because of his uniquely Albertan lifestyle.
Over the past three years, he’s been pushing his hikes deeper and deeper into the Rocky Mountains’ Icefields Parkway, where the trails are wilder and untamed. Living in Calgary and working retail at the Mountain Equipment Company has helped give Schultz the flexibility, affordability and accessibility he needs to pursue his passions. He’s one of many young Alberta workers who are making a living and a life out of the unique opportunities the province provides.
“There’s really never a lack of adventure to be had, so to speak, as everyone is trying to go out and do so many varieties of activities like ski-touring or outdoor/indoor climbing, or hiking or paddling or cycling,” Schultz says. “There’s pretty much limitless opportunity to go out and do what you want to do.”
With no provincial sales tax, affordable housing and the lowest income tax brackets in the country — it’s no wonder that Alberta has scored the highest nationally on the United Nations’
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human development index. With more affordable living compared to other provinces, people like Schultz don’t have to go far before they are back doing what they love.
The quality of life isn’t limited to big cities or famous mountain towns like Banff and Canmore.
For several reasons, Alberta’s communities have been catching provincial and national attention. Part of that is because of affordability, where cities like Lethbridge, located in south-central Alberta. and Grande Prairie, in the province’s northwest, rank as some of the most affordable living in the country. The other reasons can be found in the booming economy rising on the updrafts of
an innovative technology and industrial sector and the gorgeous landscapes that bring in tourists and Hollywood production alike.
“When people think of rural Alberta, they may envision mountains and cows and people wearing cowboy hats and driving pickup trucks,” Bev Thornton, executive director of Alberta SouthWest, says. “But there is a diversity of innovative high-tech enterprises that operate in the region.”
Whether that’s the birthplace of Canada’s wind industry at the wind farms in Cowley Ridge or cutting-edge research companies like Deep Cryogenics in Pincher Creek, there is no shortage of inventive innovations in every corner of the province.
“And then, of course, the region offers a richness of recreation and history and culture experiences, for example, there are four UNESCO world heritage sites within two hours of each other in southwest Alberta,” says Thornton.
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