move to - Calgary Herald · 2012-05-01 · Move to Calgary is a special publication of the Calgary Herald in partnership with Calgary Economic Development, Editor: Barb Livingstone,

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Lisa Bowes first moved to Cal-gary in 1994 when TSN transferred her from Win-nipeg. When it moved her again to To-ronto three years later, she clearly remem-bers driving east on the Trans-Canada toward Strathmore. “I kept looking in my rear view mirror at the receding Rockies and actually said out loud: “I’ll be back!” In 2004, while working at CBC in Toronto, she learned of an opening at CTV in Calgary, so she convinced her husband of three weeks to head west for a lifestyle change.

What is the best thing about Calgary? I love Calgary’s entrepreneurial spirit. I’ve found it’s much easier to take a proposal directly to a decision maker in Calgary than elsewhere. My enrichment broadcasting program, with the Calgary Board of Education — Kidcasters — runs four times a year. The goal is to expose 12- and 13-year-olds to the television industry, their community and athletic role models. I’m proud to say that we’ve reached approximately 800 students in the last six years. I have also been able to start The Golf for Girls Charity Classic which partners local athletes with female business leaders to raise funds for disadvantaged women and girls. Living in Cal-gary, you get the feeling anything is possible! Is there one thing you think people else-where should know about Calgary? There is an expanding “foodie” scene in Calgary that I don’t think outsiders appreciate. The res-taurants along Stephen Avenue (downtown’s pedestrian mall which CBC food critic John Gilchrist calls “one of Canada’s best restaurant rows”) are world class.

Hidden gems?The Douglas Fir Trail along the southern bank of the Bow River in Edworthy Park is almost a sacred place. You are just a few minutes from downtown and yet you feel like you are in a mountain forest.

— Richard White

Table of contents

MOVED TO

CALGARY

Name: Lisa Bowes Age: 45 Occupation: Sports Broadcaster, CTV Place of Birth: Toronto

They

MOVED TO

CALGARY HUNGRY FOR WORKERS Fuelled by the energy sec-tor, Calgary is looking for as many as 140,000 workersover the next decade.

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HEAD OFFICE HUB Calgary’s oil company head-office count is a frequently quoted statistic; it’s just the tip of the iceberg.

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THE YOUNG AND IMPRESSIVE A young, diverse population and a great quality of life. What’s not to like about Calgary?

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SMALL BUT MIGHTY Calgary’s entrepreneurial spirit is going strong with small business accounting for nearly 95 per cent of all city businesses.

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FAIR WEATHER Calgary is a winter city but with our abundance of sunshine and warm Chinook winds, we are more than snow.

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LOCO FOR LINKS Golf-crazed Calgarians have no shortage of links to satisfy their passion both within and outside the city. World longball champ Lisa Vlooswyk tells us why she loves Calgary.

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A LOT TO LEARN With two universities, a polytechnic college and a plethora of educational options for kids, Calgary is a top-notch centre for learning.

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COWTOWN TO NOWTOWN Yes we have the Stam-pede with Stetsons and cowboy boots. But Calgary has evolved from a pastoral prairie city into a colourful cosmopolitan centre.

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MOVE TO CALGARY Finding a home in Calgary is easy with options from estate acreage homes and contem-porary single family homes in the suburbs to live/work/play choices near the core.

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CTV sports broadcaster Lisa Bowes.

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Olympic gold medallist Cassie Campbell-Pascall.

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Human resources VP and wine marketer and buyer Brien and Peggy Perry.

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Muse Restaurant executive chef Xavier Lacaze.

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Marketing and advertising executive at WAX Partnership Sheldon Lachambre.

4

Ground3 Landscape Architec-ture principal Jonathan Sagi.

15

Glenbow Museum president and CEO Kirstin Evenden.

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Stantec principal, landscape architect and land planner Chris Jennings.

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Move to Calgary is a special publication of the Calgary Herald in partnership with Calgary Economic Development, www.bepartoftheenergy.ca

Editor: Barb Livingstone, [email protected]

Co-ordination/design: Jennifer Worley

Distributed May 9 in the Windsor Star, Hamilton Spectator and Waterloo Region Record, and May 11 in the National Post GTA

move to

Profile/cover photos: Wil Andruschak and Calgary Herald Archive.

By BRIAN BURTON

It’s happening again. Consistently strong oil prices are driving a resurgence in Alberta’s economy and Calgary is hungry for workers.

Labour supply is the number-two concern of companies surveyed by Calgary Economic Develop-ment, says President and CEO Bruce Graham. Their number-one concern is the jittery world economy, but that’s a fret for the global pace of business that drives oil prices, rather than for the local economy.

What business leaders most want is help to attract the nearly 200,000 workers Calgary is projected to need over the next decade. “Our number-one mission is creating awareness around the employment and job opportunities here in Calgary and Alberta,” Graham says.

And that has led to the Be Part of the Energy initiative launched with the support of 42 Cal-gary corporate partners.

Crude prices that fell to as low as $34 per bar-rel in the midst of the 2009 recession, rapidly recovered to $72 and then climbed to $101 by January of $2011, where they’ve held steady.

Calgary unemployment levels are now below five per cent, as oil companies gear up and other sectors catch the lift from the oil patch, Graham says. Housing starts have soared 68 per cent, from 6,318 in 2009 to 9,292 in 2011, and build-ing permits have risen from $2.7 billion in 2010 to $4.5 billion in 2011. The city’s sales of indus-trial land reached $71 million in 2011, more than doubling projections.

In the worst-case scenario, with continued low natural gas prices and a prolonged slump in oil prices, the Petroleum Human Resources Council es-timates that the oil industry will need at least 39,000 skilled workers to replace retiring members of the boomer generation over the next decade. Best case, the industry will need about 140,000 workers to fill retirements and new jobs created by continuing strong oil prices and a recovery in natural gas.

For those who find the numbers hard to credit, Graham says it’s best to remember the oil sands sector alone has been spending $10 billion to $15 billion per year on project development and provincially-approved projects would see that figure peak at $20 billion in 2014. In total, there are now some $110 billion in projects on the books, according to the province.

Based on this kind of growth in the energy sector alone, the province has estimated total labour de-mand at 190,000 for Calgary and another 410,000 for the rest of Alberta over the decade ending in 2021 — with a potential shortfall of 114,000 work-ers unless extraordinary measures are taken.

Premier Alison Redford highlighted the skilled labour issue during a recent trip to Chi-cago: “We’ve had discussions with a number of labour organizations in Chicago who’ve been doing work with decision-makers in the U.S. ... to try to find avenues where we might be able to accelerate access of skilled labour into Alber-ta.” The same message is also being delivered in Los Angeles, Phoenix and Denver. The effort doesn’t start or end with the U.S., Graham says.

CED has conducted a supply/demand study of labour across Canada, the United Kingdom and Ireland to find the best places to recruit skilled workers in 25 occupations expected to be in short supply. (See list) So far, concentrated recruitment efforts have focused on Central Canada, with an international campaign in the months ahead. Part of this effort will involve “positioning Calgary in a different light,” he says, frankly. “We want to change the thinking about what Calgary is today.” Oil and the Cal-gary Stampede are only part of the picture.

“Calgary has become a global business centre with the amenities and quality of life that go with it,” Gra-ham says. “The energy sector has provided the basis for intensive technology development and location has made Calgary a transportation and distribution hub for North America. Calgary is second only to Toronto as a head-office location in Canada.”

With growth, Calgary has become far more di-verse than its cowboy image would suggest. Cal-gary Chamber of Commerce chief economist Ben Brunnen notes that in 2011, two thirds of new arrivals to the city were from outside Canada and that Calgary is “becoming a destination for new Canadians.” Fully one-quarter of city residents are from visible minority groups.

And with growth and diversity has come in-creasing sophistication, Graham says.

“We want to get this message out as widely as possible,” Graham says. “We want to create oppor-tunities, so that people who are looking to move can consider Calgary as a very attractive option.”

Calgary-based companies are driving more than $75 billion of the $108 billion of major energy-related projects in the province. More than 6,400 petroleum engineers work in Calgary and another 77,600 workers are employed in natural and applied sciences-related careers.

— Calgary Economic Development

Insatiable appetite for workers in Calgary’s hot economy

PAGE 4 | MAY 2012 | MOVE TO CALGARY | www.calgaryherald.com/movetocalgary

— Pictured: Calgary Economic Development’s President and CEO Bruce Graham. Photo: Calgary Herald Archive

Calgary needs workers in nearly every trade and professional occupation. A CED study has identified 25 of the jobs in highest demand:

Registered nurses, lawyers and Quebec notaries, mechanical en-gineers, food counter attendants, kitchen helpers and related occu-pations, early childhood educators and assistants, licensed practical nurses, physiotherapists, food and beverage servers, information systems analysts and consultants, restaurant and food service man-agers, software engineers, electri-cal and electronics engineers, dentists, cooks, chemical engi-neers, food service supervisors, computer programmers and In-teractive media developers, draft-ing technologists and technicians, architects, visiting homemakers, housekeepers and related occupa-tions, senior managers — finan-cial, communications and other business services, community and social service workers, reception-ists and switchboard operators, bus drivers and subway and other transit operators, truck drivers.

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OUR ENERGY COMES FROM MANY SOURCES

By BRIAN BURTON

With a relatively modest 1.1 mil-lion people, there’s a reason Cal-gary has the skyline of a much

bigger city.Calgary Economic Development lists 123

companies headquartered in Calgary that report annual revenues of $100 million or more. Dozens have revenues in excess of $1 billion and, somewhat surprisingly, 12 of that number are not oil and gas companies.

Susan Thompson, business development manager with Calgary Economic Devel-opment says “over the past several years, Calgary has emerged as a leading head of-fice centre and Canada’s most concentrated headquarters location. Among Canada’s six most populated Census Metropolitan Areas (CMAs), Calgary ranks first in head office concentration and employment.”

At the end of 2011, there were 123 head offices in Calgary, up from only 78 in 2000, which represents a growth rate of nearly 58 per cent over the past 11 years.

“This increase means that Calgary is now home to approximately one in seven of Can-ada’s major corporate headquarters and as such is Western Canada’s head office capital, says Thompson.

The latest edition to Calgary’s skyline is the impressive Bow Tower with a massive 58-sto-reys and 1.7 million square feet of office space coming onstream in 2012 with move-in start-ing to take place in April, notes Thompson.

“The Bow has caused little change in Calgary’s rapidly tightening 3.3 per cent downtown office vacancy rate (Q1, 2012, Avison Young). The

Bow is fully leased by EnCana and Cenovus (two of Canada’s largest energy companies) and the space they’re vacating is already fully back-filled by new tenants,” says Thompson.

“That’s a true sign of confidence in the Calgary and Alberta economies,” adds Ben Brunnen, chief economist with the Calgary Chamber of Commerce, also noting Calgary’s retail vacancy rate is 1.8 per cent.

The dynamics of the oil patch have a lot to do with Calgary’s seemingly unquenchable thirst for office space. Each time a medium to large oil company is swallowed up by a multi-billion-dollar merger, several teams of veteran explorers are turned loose to do what comes naturally. They create new start-up explora-tion companies, some of which go on to glory, finding millions of barrels of reserves, produc-ing tens of thousands of barrels of oil per day and hiring dozens or hundreds of employees to work in ever-expanding head offices.

At last count, the Chamber found that more than 960 oil and gas companies of all sizes called Calgary home.

The oil company head-office count is just the tip of the iceberg.

In total, there are 4,300 petroleum, energy and related service companies in the city and their growth requirements fuel the activities of some 1,300 financial service companies. In 2009, the oilsands sector alone spent $25.1 billion on capital projects and in 2008 Calgary produced some $50 billion worth of mergers and acquisitions activities, surpassing Toronto.

It was a moment that did not go unnoticed in the corridors of Canada’s largest law firms. Since then, several of Toronto’s leading law firms have opened offices in Calgary, joining those who migrated here during the 1980s. London-based Norton Rose, one of the largest law firms in the world, was motivated to merge with Calgary’s home-grown Macleod Dixon to create one of the world’s largest energy practices.

Few of these transplanted legal establish-ments are head offices, but many of them em-ploy scores or hundreds of lawyers in the city and add to its ability to do several multi-bil-lion-dollar energy industry mergers and joint ventures every year. And those deals further fuel the growth of the oil sands, shale oil and shale gas developments that have been driven by the return to $100-a-barrel oil prices.

“It seems oil prices are going to be relatively strong for the foreseeable future,” Brunnen says, driven by rising demand from emerging markets such as China and India and the ongoing deple-tion of some of the world’s largest oil fields.

Calgary’s established economic clout, com-bined with its location, have made it a natu-ral logistics (transportation and distribution) hub for western North America.

Most recently, Target, Walmart and Bayer

Crop Science have established major logistics operations in Calgary to take advantage of its location, rail connections and airfreight infrastructure. The Calgary Airport Authority’s latest expansion, Brunnen notes, is budgeted for $500-million.

In total, more than 41,000 Calgarians work in the logistics sector and generate $3.8 billion in annual gross domestic product.

Calgary is Canada’s fourth largest metro area, after Toronto, Montreal and Vancou-ver — but it’s second only to Toronto as a head office location, for reasons that go back to the opening of the oil era. While much of Alberta’s oil drilling activity was focused around Edmonton after the Leduc discovery of 1947, American oil companies set up of-fices in Calgary because of it’s warm Chinook winds during winter, its proximity to Banff and the Rocky Mountains and shorter com-mute back to the U.S.

Today, Calgary retains it’s head-office mag-netism and advantages. It has the lowest unemployment rate of any of Canada’s six largest cities, averaging 4.9 per cent over the past 10 years (and 4.9 per cent in January, 2012) and has the highest average salaries and wages for the past 14 years, reaching $63,332 in 2010, according to the Live in Calgary (www.liveincalgary.com)website.

“You can not only make a living but you can make a life here,” says Bruce Graham, head of economic development for the City of Calgary. He points out that Calgary has been highly placed by several recent rankings of the world’s most livable cities, including a fifth-place rating in a quality-of-life study in a survey by The Economist magazine.

Calgary a head-office hub – second only to TorontoThe number of Calgary head offices increased over the past decade, from 79 in 2001 to 123 in 2010. Symbolically, the presence of head offices adds to a city’s image — its heavy concentration of key energy companies has helped forge Calgary’s reputation as an energy leader.



— Pictured: Calgary’s downtown skyline. Photo: Calgary Herald Archive


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By JACQUELINE LOUIE

After graduating from university in Nova Scotia, Andrea Curry headed to Calgary two years ago for an

internship, which quickly turned into a full-time job.

Curry, 31, is one of many recent arriv-als, who came to Calgary for the economic opportunities.

“There is a lot of work in my field here,” says Curry, a music therapist and former professional singer-songwriter who ap-preciates Calgary’s vibrant arts and cultural scene. “If you like variety and like hustle and bustle, it’s a good place to be.”

In an expanding economy, like Calgary’s, everything changes. “There are new op-portunities for people at every hand,” says University of Calgary sociology professor, Harry H. Hiller, director of the Alberta In-Migration Study and author of Second Promised Land.

“That’s why Calgary is particularly at-tractive to young adults who have finished their education.”

Calgary has undergone a fundamental transformation from the hub of an agricul-tural hinterland, to a national magnet des-tination, Hiller says. The first phase of this transformation occurred in the mid-’70s to early ’80s, then tailed off in what some people refer to as the ‘bust.’ The most re-cent phase started in the mid-’90s and has

continued for the past 15 years. “It has been a dramatic movement of

people here,” Hiller says. “It’s a multicul-tural city, but with a very strong base of people born in Canada.

Thanks to its youthful demographics, Cal-gary has one of the country’s highest labour force participation rates, which is also a re-flection of the strong economy, says Calgary Chamber of Commerce chief economist Ben Brunnen, who is also the Chamber’s director of policy and government affairs.

Alberta is the youngest province in Canada, and Calgary is one of the coun-try’s youngest cities. According to the latest available Census figures, the median age in Calgary is 35.7 years, significantly lower than the national average of nearly 40. Calgary has the country’s second fastest growth rate in the number of children aged

14 or under (18.4 per cent, compared to 17.7 per cent nationally).

Calgary’s GDP per capita is among the highest in the country, and Calgary is consistently rated among the top Cana-dian cities internationally. On a global scorecard for prosperity, Calgary ranked No. 3 against 24 global cities, according to a Conference Board of Canada report for the Toronto Board of Trade. (Calgary out-ranked Toronto, which came in at No. 8).

Calgary is increasingly becoming a destina-tion of choice for new immigrants, who rep-resent an increasing proportion of net migra-tion to the province over the past few years. While Calgary has traditionally seen a higher proportion of interprovincial migrants, par-ticularly from Atlantic Canada and Ontario, it’s now seeing a greater proportion of new arrivals coming from other countries.

For new arrivals, affordability is one of Calgary’s attractions, according to Brun-nen. A recent report analyzing Canadian housing markets found Calgary is now more affordable than Saskatoon. “Afford-ability is a good metric of quality of life,” Brunnen says, noting that another draw is “access to great natural capital, such as the mountains.”

“Overall, Calgary is a very young city and it’s a very diverse city,” Brunnen says. “We offer great quality of life. We consis-tently rank among the top cities globally for quality of life and economy.”

Calgary – young, diverse and prosperous

Cassie Campbell-Pascall came to Calgary in 1998 with the cen-tralization of the women’s Olympic hockey team, and again in the sum-mer of 2000 to train with world renowned sports trainer James Gat-tinger. It was the best summer of training in her career and she wanted to stay. However, she felt she had to go back to Toronto and try to win a na-tional championship with the Toronto Aeros women’s hockey team which, it did in April 2001. Afterward, Campbell-Pascall moved to Calgary. There were two reasons for the move — one to continue her play with the National Women’s hockey team and the biggest reason — to be with her now-husband, Brad Pascall, who worked for Hockey Canada.

What is the best thing about Calgary?Calgary is a big city with all the amenities and yet it still has a small-town feel. People are still friendly to each other and have the time to give back to the community. There is also no other Canadian city that supports its Olympic/amateur athletes like Calgary does.

Is there one thing you think people elsewhere should know about Calgary? Calgary is more multicultural than people give it credit for. We have great restaurants with foods from all over the world and we have fun events that celebrate so many different cultures. My family from the east always talks to me about how cold it is in Calgary. But I remind them that we have a dry climate and lots of winter sunshine. Calgary is a great winter city.

Do we have any hidden gems? The people — they are so welcoming. What other city has people waiting at the airport in white cowboy hats welcoming you to town? The Bow River doesn’t get credit for how nice it is. I love how thousands of Calgarians find it the perfect place to go for a run or a bike ride almost year round. One of my favourite things to do with friends is go tubing down the Bow.

— Richard White

MOVED TO

CALGARY

Name: Cassie Campbell-Pascall Age: 38 Occupation: Broadcaster, two-time Olympic gold medallist, motivational speaker Place of Birth: Brampton, Ont.

Alberta is the youngest province in Canada, and Calgary is one of the country’s youngest cities. The median age in Calgary is 35.7 years, significantly lower than the national average of nearly 40.



— Pictured: Calgary Chamber of Commerce chief economist Ben Brunnen. Photo: Courtesy Calgary Chamber of Commerce

Calgary is the third-most ethnically diverse city in all of Canada. According to the most recent national census in 2006, the city has one of the highest visible minority rates in Canada, behind only Toronto and Vancouver. Twenty-three per cent of Calgarians identify themselves as immigrants.



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www.calgaryherald.com/movetocalgary | MOVE TO CALGARY | MAY 2012 | PAGE 9

Brien first moved to Calgary in 1976 at the age of 19 with his family. After graduating from the University of Calgary he reconnected with Peggy (they had gone to the same high school) who was living in P.E.I. and they married in 1983. Shortly thereafter he became one of the Canadian women ski team’s coaches and they travelled extensively with the team in Europe. During their European adventure, Peggy developed her passion and knowledge for wine and food in France and Italy. In 1986, when it came time to decide on a place to call home Calgary was the logical choice as it was hosting the 1988 Olympics and was home base for the national ski team. At the same time, the Alberta government was privatizing its liquor stores and Peggy was able to use her knowledge and contacts to help set up several independent wine stores.

What is the best thing about Calgary? We both enjoy Calgary’s remarkable entrepreneurial environment that allows individuals from all walks of life to pursue their careers and dreams. Peggy was able to create a career in wine working with Janet Webb (one of the first private wine stores), Harley Hotchkiss (recently deceased owner of Calgary

Flames) and now with Wayne and Liz Henuset at WillowPark Wines and Spirits (Canada’s largest wine and spirit store).

I (Brien) have been fortunate to be able to successfully

transition my ski coaching career,

into a business performance coaching practice (thanks to an MBA from the University of Calgary) and then into the Vice President, Human Resources position at Enerplus. I also enjoy the fact I can cycle to work year round, as Calgary has an extensive bike path system (over

700 kilometres and counting).

Is there one thing you think people elsewhere should know about Calgary? If people are thinking of relocating to Calgary they should know it is a city with endless

opportunities for professionals, trades people or anyone who is willing to work hard, learn and take some calculated risks.

Hidden gems? Brien’s hidden gem is Canada Olympic Park (legacy of the 1988 Winter Olympics. It includes skiing and snowboarding hills, mountain bike trails, bobsleigh, luge and skeleton track, three NHL-size ice rings and one Olympic-size rink) which has one of the world’s great ski schools. He also thinks the phenomenon

that sees thousands of Calgarians floating down the Bow or Elbow rivers on hot summer weekends is a surprising spectacle.Both think Calgary’s restaurant scene is under appreciated. Given they have travelled extensively around the world visiting world class wineries and restaurants, they know what they are talking about. Peggy in particular wants people to know Calgary has possibly the best selection of wines and scotches at some of the best prices in North America.

— Richard White

MOVED TO

CALGARY

Name: Brien and Peggy PerryAges: 54 and 52 Occupations: VP Human Resources, Enerplus (Brien), Willow Park Wine & Spirits Buyer/Marketer (Peggy)Places of Birth: Shefferville, Que. (Brien); Alberton, P.E.I. (Peggy)


By JOEL SCHLESINGER

It’s different out West. And it’s not just the Stetsons, Stampede and the snow-capped Rockies. Sure, those iconic images have

played a large part in making Calgary what it is today. But so, too, has its entrepreneurial spirit.

The fact is business is done a little differ-ently out here, says Jim Button, a strategist with Evans Hunt Group, a Calgary-based digital media marketing firm with about a third of its clients in the U.S.

“It’s still got that Wild West, frontier attitude; I hate to risk overusing that cowboy reference — but it’s an attitude of getting things done,” says Button, former vice-president with Big Rock Brewery — another Calgary iconic business.

“It has that attitude of a small town city with rural attitudes all wrapped in a big-boy city suit.”

Button, a former Torontonian, packed up his car in the ’90s and drove across coun-try. He had no set destination in mind, but stopped in Calgary and stayed.

“I remember trying to set up interviews with marketing agencies. I’d call up and ask if they would give me 15 minutes. Almost every person said ‘Sure,’” he says. “They’d all recommend a couple of other people, and they, too, took the time to talk to me.”

More than anything, Calgary’s entrepreneur-ial spirit is driven by a youthful demographic — the median age is about 35 — and an abundance of opportunity, says Gary Buge-aud, managing partner at BD&P law firm.

“As a business community, Calgary is also relatively young,” he says. “And that attracts

an ambitious, educated work force.”As one of the city’s largest law practices,

and a top securities law firm in Canada, BD&P is always on the lookout for new tal-ent to add to its staff of 140 lawyers.

While small compared to national firms with staffs of more than 400, the Calgary firm holds its own with Canada’s top practices. Bugeaud says it often does more corporate transactions than any other firm in the country.

“When we tell that story to people when we’re recruiting, it’s easy to convince them that there are wonderful career opportunities here.”

Of course, the oil and gas sector’s tremen-dous growth helps. It is the engine for Cal-gary’s economy, creating a unique abundance of job opportunities.

“Young people know they can get ahead on merit simply because there are so many opportunities here,” he says.

But Calgary is becoming more than just the sum of a booming energy economy. Because it has a high number of young, urban and highly-paid professionals, scads of disposable cash is floating around town. And that leads to several entrepreneurial opportunities in arts, fashion and other areas.

Take burgeoning fashion media mogul Kimberley Jev.

Jev’s parents are Nigerian geologists who moved to Calgary in 2002. Jev took journal-ism at Mount Royal University and soon found herself immersed in Calgary’s new me-dia and fashion scenes.

An entrepreneur at heart, Jev saw opportu-nity to grow with these budding communities

so little more than five years ago, she started an online magazine called Calgaryfashion.ca.

“When I first started the business people said ‘This is never going to work. Calgary fashion? There’s no such thing,’” she says. “But it’s been really interesting. We’ve been around for five years and our audience is 80 per cent Calgary and we haven’t run out of anything to talk about.”

The website — which receives about 20,000 unique visitors a month — has not just provid-ed a much-needed forum to talk about fashion in Calgary. It’s brought national and interna-tional fashion to Calgarians as well.

“We’ve covered all the different fashion weeks in Toronto, Montreal and Ottawa to London, New York and Nigeria.”

She says Calgary in the last decade has gained its own rep as a breeding ground for style. It has produced a number of Canada’s leading fashion designers: Paul Hardy, Caitlin Power, Michelle Watson and Travis Taddeo to name a few.

While they’re no longer based in the city, Jev says many new boutiques have sprung up in the city that feature their lines.

She adds the city overall is fertile ground for small retail start-ups.

That said, Calgary is a good place to start just about any kind of business, Button says.

He should know. Button is one of a hand-ful of ‘beer barons’ who founded the city’s newest brewery.

Village Brewery sent its first keg to a local watering hole in late December, and Button says the local support has been phenomenal.

Village Brewery epitomizes Calgary’s en-trepreneurial community: ambitious, but it doesn’t take itself too seriously.

Even its weekly board meetings exemplify just how differently business is done in town.

“We call them ‘Hump Day Socials,” he says about the Wednesday afternoon meetings where founders and other community entre-preneurs stand around the bar, have a beer and talk business.

“It’s 15 people coming together and having conversation; cards are exchanged and deals are struck,” he says.

And while the last decade has been great for entrepreneurs — even during the bust of 2008/2009 — the future looks even better, says Bugeaud.

“For the next couple generations, we’re situ-ated by the lottery of birth here in one of the two energy capitals of the world,” he says. “This is where the world is looking so the opportunities are here for people to have good careers because capital and businesses are inflowing to the city.”

Entrepreneurial spirit: rural attitudes wrapped in a big-boy city suit


Calgary small businesses account for nearly 95 per cent of all businesses – they are a driving force within the city’s business community. Small business owners have the advantage over larger corporations in that their size gives them the flexibility to adapt quickly in terms of aligning resources.


— Pictured: Jim Button, digital media marketing strategist. Photo: Calgary Herald Archive


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Calgary climate fit for Goldilocks – one that’s just rightBy KENZIE LOVE

If you don’t like the weather, wait five minutes and it’ll change. It’s a claim made by dozens of cities, but in Calgary, it’s actually true.

Okay, maybe it’s a slight exaggeration. But few would dispute the weather here can in-deed change rapidly. On Jan.11, 1983, the temperature rose 30 degrees, from –17C to 13C, in just a few hours, thanks to a Chi-nook. And on more than a few occasions in April, a spring blizzard has dumped more snow on the city in a single day than is typi-cal for the entire month.

But while such abrupt incidents do hap-pen, Environment Canada meteorologist David Phillips says they mask the broader statistical picture, which reveals a city that’s neither overly hot nor extremely cold. Com-pared to some other Canadian cities, you might say Calgary actually has a climate fit for Goldilocks — one that’s just right.

But isn’t this the same city that was reported to

be the second-coldest place on Earth one day in November, 2010? That may have been true for a brief period, Phillips allows, but he maintains Calgary’s far from being the coldest city in Can-ada, let alone the world (a distinction that more properly belongs to Yakutsk, Siberia).

“When I think of Calgary, I don’t think of cold,” he says. “I mean, Winnipeg, Edmon-ton, Saskatoon, Estevan, Red Deer, are colder than Calgary.”

It can still get cool in Calgary, of course, but there’s a bright side — literally. Even when it’s -30C out, the sun can still be shin-ing. In fact, Environment Canada statistics show Calgary has the most sunny days of any of the country’s 100 largest cities.

“There are not many bragging points, whether it be the wettest, the driest, the coldest, the warmest,” says Phillips. “But the one thing that Calgary does have that’s prob-ably worth bragging about is with regards to its sunshine. And sunshine can be very up-lifting psychologically.”

That might seem like cold comfort on those days when it’s as frigid as Yakutsk.

Unlike Siberia, though — or Winnipeg, Ed-monton, or Saskatoon — Calgary cold snaps seldom last long before they’re interrupted by one of the aforementioned Chinooks.

On encountering one of these warm, dry winds that blows down the eastern slopes of the Rockies and over the Prairies, Scottish ex-plorer Alexander Mackenzie described it as “a perfect hurricane.”

While a Chinook in winter is often wel-come, it has it challenges, too, particularly the dry skin that c omes with dry weather.

Fortunately, most of the negative aspects of Calgary’s weather are fairly easily remedied. If preserving a youthful appearance is important, buy a humidifier or invest in a good moistur-izer. If it’s cold outside, bundle up. If it’s too bright, put on some sunglasses.

And remember: if you don’t like the weath-er, just wait five minutes.


The sun shines an average of 2,300 hours every year, making Calgary the sunniest major city in the country.

— www.liveincalgary.com

— Picture: August sunset over Calgary’s Glenmore Reservoir. Photo: Calgary Herald Archive



I am a rare breed. Not only am I a female golfer who can hit the ball over the length of 3 ½ NFL football fields, I am a born

and raised Calgarian. Yahoo!I am the reigning seven-time Canadian

Long Drive Champion for women. I defended my title recently in Ontario with a 323 yard

poke. I feel very fortunate, as part of my golf career, to be able to travel extensively across North America and in the UK. I have seen some impressive sights and vibrant cities but none compare to my hometown of Calgary.

Calgary has it all. We are a city of over a million people with a busy downtown core but have always maintained that “neigh-bourly” feel. Perhaps it stems from our world famous Calgary Stampede where for 10 days each year you can find a free pancake every day and you will feel out of place without a pair of cowboy boots, jeans and a plaid shirt.

I have fond memories growing up of going to the Stampede and watching the thunder-ing chuck wagon races, the Young Canadians at the grandstand show and wild bucking broncos and enraged bulls at the rodeo.

Another world class event, of course, was the 1988 Olympics. The Olympics not only put Calgary on the map but also provided the city with incredible recitation facilities,

a reason why several national teams call Calgary and area home (Hockey Canada and Cross Country Canada, to name a few). This makes Calgary a draw for sports and recreation enthusiasts.

As for me, my passion is golf and Calgar-ians are golf crazy. There are times in mid winter where I have to wait at the outdoor driving range equipped with heated stalls, to hit balls at 2 p.m. on a Tuesday afternoon.

Although we have a relatively short season (April – October), Calgarians just can’t get enough of the links. There are many fantastic private courses in Calgary, several of which are accepting new members. There are also dozens of phenomenal semi-private and pub-lic courses open to all who want to tee it up.

Top-rated facilities open for general play in-clude Heritage Pointe, a 27-hole track located on the south end of the city. There are three distinct nines that incorporate links style golf, elevation changes and sculpted fairways. It is truly breathtaking, especially in the fall.

Also not to be missed in the south is D’Arcy Ranch. This is a fantastic course with a family owned feel. It boasts fabulous views and chal-lenging golf. Finally on the north end of the city is The Links of GlenEagles. Once host to a nationwide tour event, this is a test of golf that you will not soon forget. The mountain views are spectacular and it will make you want to come back to make up the missed shots.

However, if you are really looking for mountain views look no further than an hour west of the city. There you will find golf resorts that bring tourists in from around the world just to say they have played there.

Perhaps the cornerstone of the mountain courses has to be Stanley Thompson’s Banff Springs. Opened in 1928, this course has stood the test of time. It winds along the picturesque Bow River and when you hit your shot with the mountains looming in the background you audibly gasp.

It is also a must to at least visit, and even better yet stay at, the famed Banff Springs Hotel (circa 1888) dubbed the Castle in the Rockies. You will be treated to five-star ser-vices from dining and spa treatments to ac-commodation. Don’t miss the photo gallery where there are pictures of Marilyn Monroe teeing off the 1st hole when breaking from

filming the River of No Return (1953). Other courses nestled in the Rocky Moun-

tains that need to be staples on your must-play list, include Silver Tip and Stewart Creek. Both courses are stunning.

If you are looking for value, nothing beats Kananaskis. The two 18-hole courses, Mt. Lor-ette and Mt. Kidd, are stunning and rival some of their big brothers for views without the high price tag. There is a discounted rate for Alberta residents, so what are you waiting for?

I am often asked, ‘Lisa, how can a world glass golfer live in Calgary year round?’ Just ask Stephen Ames, multiple PGA Tour win-ner and Calgary resident. Ames will practice and hit balls under those same heated stalls in February that Joe public uses.

As for me… I wouldn’t hang my cowboy hat anywhere else!

Lisa Vlooswyk is the reigning seven-time Cana-

dian Long Drive Champion for Women and is

ranked second in the world. She is a golf enter-

tainer, golf/travel journalist and motivational

speaker. Lisa can be reached through her website

at www.lisalongball.com.

We’re linked in – Calgary fits golf enthusiasts to a tee

LISA VLOOSWYK

— Pictured: Banff Springs Golf course and hotel in background. Photo: Courtesy Fairmont Banff Springs


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Xavier Lacaze’s wife Chelsie brought him to Calgary four years ago. They met working together in Bermuda, decided to travel through Europe for a year until she got homesick and suggested that they head to Calgary so he could see where she grew up. Lacaze was very excited by the op-portunity to come to Canada. He quickly got a one year working holiday visa. Since then he has risen from “new guy in the kitchen” to chef at Muse Restaurant and Lounge, one of Calgary’s top res-taurants. He rep-resented Calgary in the 2012 Top Chef Canada competi-tion on Food Network Canada.

What is the best thing about Calgary?Calgary is an amazing growing city with tons of opportunities. I don’t think my career would be where it is

today if I was in another city. Calgar-ians gave me incredible support and recognition right from the start that it made me want to work harder to access to my dreams. As much as I miss France, I could not be in a better place than Calgary

from a career or family perspec-tive. I think Calgary has

the same potential as Toronto or Vancou-

ver to be an urban playground – it is just few years away. For that rea-son, I feel really lucky to be part of Calgary’s grow-

ing energy to create a

hip city.

Is there one thing you think people elsewhere should know about Calgary? Calgary is the new “place to be” in Canada, maybe North America. There is so much potential. New

people are moving here every day from elsewhere in Canada and the world. Calgary is more than cow-boys, ranching (Alberta Beef) and Stampede. I find Calgary a very modern and fun place to live. The restaurant industry has changed significantly over the past four years. I feel we now compete with other big Canadian cities both in quality and diversity of food and dining expe-riences.

Do we have any hidden gems? I am a huge fan of Fish Creek Park which runs east to west through the south end of the city (19km), probably because I am from Europe where our city parks are the size of a Calgary neigh-bourhood playground. Fish Creek is the size of the village I grew up in (it is about three times as large as Stanley Park in Vancouver)! I just love how the city spreads out; instead of rising up, it is a wonderfully open city with big blue skies.”

— Richard White

MOVED TO

CALGARY

Name: Xavier Lacaze Age: 31 Occupation: Executive chef, Muse Restaurant Place of Birth: Auch, France



Growing up in a small town in Saskatchewan, Sheldon La-chambre had always envisioned living in a larger city with all the hustle and bustle and excitement that it brings. His stud-ies first took him to the University of Regina where he com-pleted a bachelor’s degree in Kinesiology, majoring in sports marketing. A requirement of the program was to undertake an internship. He landed an internship and subsequent mar-keting job with the NHL’s Nashville Predators. After his work visa expired he had a decision to make, in terms of which city he would live in. He had heard many great things about Calgary from friends, family, athletes and sports associates.

Being an avid skier, the proximity to the mountains was also a lure. The opportunities were abun-dant to continue his market-ing career in Calgary and

by August 2003 he had secured a his first position

in marketing and sales.

What is the best thing about Calgary for you?I enjoy Calgary’s feeling of “small town” within the city. Both my wife and I work downtown, but live in the sub-

urbs, where it really feels like an escape once you get home after work. We began to experience this feeling soon after we settled down in Calgary and developed many close friendships. The work/life balance and family-first ap-proach is embraced here. We also love the city’s many entertain-ment options from sporting events, live concerts to the expand-ing and impressive array of new restaurants.

Is there one thing you think people elsewhere should know about Calgary? Calgary is more than just the Stampede city. There is a percep-tion in Canada and the United States that Calgary is just a city of cowboys and oil and gas companies with nothing else to of-fer. The city offers so much more, and was recognized for that, being named the 2012 Culture Capital of Canada. The arts and culture this city has to offer is impressive and creates a vibrancy that has to be experienced to appreciate.

Do we have any hidden gems?Calgary’s hidden gems would have to be the Calgary Interna-tional Film Festival and the Sled Island Music Festival, named one of Canada’s top 10 music festivals. The array of live music and festivals the city creates an excitement and animation year-round that is fun to be part of.

— Richard White

MOVED TO

CALGARY

Name: Sheldon LachambreAge: 32 Occupation: Marketing and advertising executive, at WAX PartnershipPlace of Birth: Wynyard, Sask.

By BARBARA BALFOUR

From early childhood to beyond retirement and all that lies in be-tween, there’s something for every-

one within Calgary’s education scene.Whether you’re looking to enrol

your child in a faith-based school, build a foundation for a new career, or upgrade the education you al-ready have, there are a multitude of courses.

“If you were thinking of relocating for work and you had a family and you knew post-secondary education was in your future, you’d be very excited about coming to Calgary be-cause of all the things we have to of-fer,” says David Docherty, president of Mount Royal University.

“In a city of a million-plus folks, we’ve got an incredible research univer-sity that’s doing cutting-edge work in a number of areas, professional programs offered by Bow Valley College and SAIT, private religious institutions such as St Mary’s University College, and then we’ve got Mount Royal University.”

Mount Royal provides diploma and certificate programs as well as bacca-laureate degrees, and will remain doing so for the long-term foreseeable future, says Docherty.

From the only Bachelor of Mid-wifery program in Alberta to a strong communications faculty and a nursing program that “fights above its weight class,” Docherty says a combination of innovative programs and an emphasis

on teaching help them prepare the students employers are looking for.

Fast approaching its 50th anniversary, is the University of Calgary, which aims to become one of Canada’s top five research universities by 2016. It has a solid alumni base — 145,000 strong in 147 countries worldwide, among them Prime Minister Stephen Harper, Calgary mayor Naheed Nenshi, and Mozilla Corporation CEO Gary Kovacs.

“This is an exciting time for the growth of our university,” says Elizabeth Cannon, president and vice-chancellor of the U of C.

“We’re a young and dynamic univer-sity in a fast-growing city. More than two-thirds of our graduates end up staying here because this is where the jobs are.”

As a comprehensive research insti-tution, the university has more than 50 Royal Society of Canada Fellows, houses 73 Canada Research Chairs and has more than 80 research insti-tutes and centres in areas from health, social sciences and business, to energy and the environment.

Another significant post-secondary institution in Calgary offers hands-on,

experience-oriented training to more than 71,000 students each year.

SAIT Polytechnic is known as a trail-blazer in applied research and innova-tion, offering a range of credentials from apprenticeship trades to applied degrees in diverse program areas. A new $400 million trades and technology centre opening in September is part of the largest expansion in its 94-year history. It will add more than 3,600 full-time student spaces in the areas of energy, manufacturing and construction.

SAIT was recognized as one of Al-berta’s top 50 employers in both 2010 and 2011 and boasts a 93 per cent employment rate for its graduates.

Just as the post-secondary institu-tions offer a plethora of choice, so too does the system of schooling for stu-dents under the age of 18.

The Calgary area is home to a wider spectrum of school choices than in any other area of the province, says Duane Plantinga, executive director of the Association of Independent Schools and Colleges in Alberta.

In addition to the public and sepa-rate school systems, and a number of charter schools, all of which offer programs ranging from home school-ing to athletics and faith-oriented education, there are also 40 indepen-dent schools and 30 plus private ECS (kindergarten) programs.

Some emphasize university prepara-tion, while others offer multiple languag-es or specific developmental approaches and learning strategies, he says.

Case for studies – opportunities boundless— Pictured: Mount Royal University. Photo: Wil Andruschak

Nearly 200,000 students are enrolled in Calgary schools from kindergarten to Grade 12. The city has the highest rate of post-secondary attendance (73 per cent) in Canada.

— www.liveincalgary.com


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Jonathan Sagi and his wife Dawna moved to Calgary in January of 2007 from South Carolina. They are both Canadian — Jonathan from Ontario, Dawna from Alberta, but they met while working in the United States. When their thoughts turned to family, they decided it best to move back to Canada. Jonathan had no interest in moving back to Ontario, so in October 2006, they decided to check out Alberta. Jonathan was quickly seduced by the mountains, aspen stands and the long views. While visiting Dawna’s friends in Calgary they quickly discovered a city alive with energy and opportunity. Three months later, Calgary became their home.

What is the best thing about Calgary for you?It is hard to pick just one thing. I love culture, community and opportunities, but

I also love that you can be in the middle of nature in the city. The combination of foothills, mountains, parks, valleys and rivers is incredible. We are also very fortunate to live in the southeast quadrant of the city, where the trees grow big. Dawna and I spend as much time as

possible outdoors, walking the dog, playing golf and

soccer. Where else would I get to work

on billion dollar projects like the landscaping for the West LRT (Light Rail Transit) or find great partners

to form my own landscaping firm

after four years? Calgary’s “can-do” attitude is infectious.

Is there one thing you think people elsewhere should know about Calgary? This city embraces people, passion and ambition. We have met so many great folks (in similar circumstances to

us — newcomers) in Calgary. Our social network is amazing; this is probably the main reason we have decided after only a couple of years to make Calgary our permanent home.There are probably two major misconceptions about Calgary. One is that winters are cold — they’re not. I find January and February so sunny it is exhilarating not freezing. The other misconception is Calgary isn’t cosmopolitan and progressive. Though the city has definite western roots (which it embraces as it should) it has more music, theatre, arts and recreation than any city its size that I have visited.

Do we have any hidden gems? My first thought is the spectacular vista from Scotsman’s Hill with the Saddledome, Stampede Grounds and the ever-changing skyscraper skyline of downtown and the majestic Bow and Elbow River valley. But I also think the old world charm of The Bay’s (iconic downtown department store) arcade is a subtle gem. We love Calgary’s restaurant scene. Our gem is Alloy hidden away in an inner city industrial area — great ambience and food.

— Richard White


MOVED TO

CALGARY

Name: Jonathan SagiAge: 35

Occupation: Principal, Ground3 Landscape Architecture

Place of Birth: Kitchener, Ont.



Calgary’s 20th century nickname, Cowtown, fits with the commonly held perception that the city is more

like Houston and Dallas, than “hip cities” like Austin, Portland, Frankfurt (Germany) or Lyon (France). Nothing could be further from the truth.

Over the past 25 years, Calgary has evolved from a pastoral prairie city into a colourful cosmopolitan centre.

Calgary boasts one of the best theatre scenes of any city its size. Did you know Lunchbox Theatre is the longest running noon-hour theatre program in the world? Or that the Centre has over 3,200 seats in five performance spaces making it one of the largest performing arts complexes in North America?

Calgary also has the “hottest 10 weeks of winter” when you combine January’s High Performance Rodeo and February/March’s Enbridge playRites festivals. Recently, Cal-garian Mark Lawes, Theatre Junction’s ar-tistic director, was named one of six artistic laureates for the City of Paris for the coming year. Need I go on?

If music is your thing, we have everything

from the Calgary Philharmonic at the Jack Singer Concert Hall to opera and broadway musicals at the Jubilee Theatre.

Calgary has a long blues history, having Canada’s oldest blues bar at the King Eddy Hotel. While it closed in 2004, plans are to incorporate it into the iconic new National Music Centre which will include one of the world’s largest collection of keyboard instruments — including Elton John’s first piano.

Blues, roots and folk music continue to thrive at Mikey’s Juke Joint, Blues Can and Ironwood. Every June, the Sled Island Music Festival takes over 30 downtown venues to celebrate emerging music, film and visual art. Each July, the Calgary Folk Music Festival converts downtown’s Prince’s Island into one the world’s most intimate downtown folk venues. Calgary is a music city.

Speaking of festivals, Calgary hosts more than 20 major festivals each year. In May, the Lilac Festival along Fourth Street in Calgary’s tony Mission District attracts more than 100,000 Calgarians to celebrate the begin-ning of spring.

In the summer, there is a festival every weekend from the iconic Calgary Stampede, to Afrikadey, Taste of Calgary, Calgary In-ternational Children’s Festival, BBQ on the Bow, Calgary International Film Festival and Wordfest. Calgary is a work hard, party harder city.

One of the biggest changes in Calgary over the past 25 years has been the maturation of its urban villages surrounding our down-town.

Inglewood, Calgary’s original settle-ment still has its early 20th century Main Street, which is now full of funky shops like Recordland (rumoured to have more than one million used records), a Harley-Davidson dealership/restaurant and Crown Surplus store (Cher shops here when in town). In 2004, Air Canada’s EnRoute magazine identified Inglewood as one of Canada’s top 10 “coolest neigh-bourhoods.”

Kensington is Calgary’s bohemian village where SAIT and ACAD college students hang out with oil patch execs in Calgary’s oldest café culture (it predates Starbucks). Kensington is

home to The Plaza, Calgary’s oldest art house cinema and where Brad Pitt and Angelina Jolie hung out when he was in Calgary filming The Assassination of Jesse James.

Uptown 17th (aka The Red Mile) cap-

tured the world’s imagination in 2004 when 30,000 Calgarians converged on it every night after each Calgary Flames playoff game. It offers an eclectic collection of shops and restaurants, including Calgary’s best sports bar, Melrose Cafe & Bar, and the yoga crowd loves to hang out at the Ship & Anchor pub. Bet you didn’t know there are more than 50 yoga studios in Calgary’s city centre.

The Beltline is Calgary’s highrise, multi-cultural condo village. Here you can find a pickup game of soccer at Haultain Park or see couples sharing a romantic meal at Box-wood in Central Memorial Park.

On 11th Avenue, you can still find rem-nants of Electric Avenue made famous dur-ing the 1988 Winter Olympics for its vi-brant bar scene. Elsewhere on 11th Avenue is our Design District with its abundance of furniture and home accessory boutiques, as well as art galleries.

Downtown’s Eau Claire neighbourhood is where the rich and famous live and play. It lies next to the Bow River Promenade where thousands of walkers, cyclists and skaters play year round. In the summer, the sights, sounds and smells of festivals and events every weekend on Prince’s Is-land and Eau Claire’s Festival Plaza flood the area.

Calgary has also emerged as a design city with new iconic architecture by world famous architects including Norman Fos-ter’s The Bow, a 58-storey office tower and Santiago Calatrava’s controversial pedestrian Peace Bridge.

But the most uniquely Calgarian build-ings are the locally designed saddle-shaped Scotiabank Saddledome (Graham Edmonds Architecture) and the Lego- inspired Alberta Children’s Hospital (Ka-sian Architecture) which had children act-ing as “advisers.”

Indeed, Calgary is one of North America’s newest urban playgrounds.

Cowtown has transformed into Nowtown, as one of the world’s best places to work, live and play.

Richard White has written on art, architecture and urban culture for more than 20 years.

Cowtown to Nowtown – North America’s newest urban playground

Calgary’s arts sector generates more than $106 million in annual revenues. The city boasts over 5,000 artists and 21,000 volunteers.


RICHARD WHITE

— Pictured: The Bow. Photo: Calgary Herald Archive


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In 1993, after graduating from the University of British Columbia with a masters in Art History, Kirstin Evenden pursued work in museums and galleries because she was interested in the role of public collections in creating meaningful experiences for audiences. She researched across Canada to see what internships were available. Calgary’s Glenbow Museum was one of her top choices because of its rich collections. She was successful in getting a three month internship at Glenbow and in late 1995 she was offered a permanent Art Curator position. Like lots of Calgarians, she was able to advance her career without leaving the city and was appointed the President and CEO in 2010.

What is the best thing about Calgary?I enjoy the collaboration that exists across the arts community. Calgary boasts a number of public and commercial galleries and artist run centres, many of whom Glenbow has

collaborated with. Last year alone, Glenbow collaborated with 11 other Calgary-based arts organizations to present diverse artistic programming, including the recent partnership

between Glenbow and performance theatre group One Yellow

Rabbit, to bring Laurie Anderson and Brian Eno

to Calgary for feature exhibitions at Glenbow and performances at the High Performance Rodeo. On a more personal note, I love

the fact I can bring my seven-year-old son to

school just two minutes away from Glenbow at

the W.H. Cushing Workplace School. It is great having my son

so close by that I can meet him for lunch or attend field trips to downtown attractions with him. Calgarians enjoy a great work/live balance.

Is there one thing you think people elsewhere should know about Calgary? I find Calgary has evolved significantly since I first moved here. Not only is the arts scene thriving, but the social and political landscape

seems to be shifting. Calgary is far more cosmopolitan than people give it credit for.

Do we have any hidden gems?The growing Exposure Photo Festival is an annual showcase of the best in photography in Calgary, Banff and Canmore. It is another good example of how the entire arts community works together. Calgarians are

always amazed when I tell them the Glenbow has more than one million pieces in its collections. It is one of the largest museum and gallery collections in Western Canada. We have one of the most substantial Asian Art collections in North America. We have some amazing artifacts including Captain Cook’s sword.

— Richard White


MOVED

TO CALGARY

Name: Kirstin Evenden Age: 45 Occupation: President and CEO, Glenbow MuseumPlace of Birth: Edinburgh, Scotland


By MARTY HOPE

Kyle Burt and his partner Shilo Davis saw Calgary as an op-portunity to move on with their

lives together. So about a year ago, the couple pulled up stakes and waved so long to the Greater Toronto Area (GTA) and struck out for Calgary, joining the more than 19,000 who found their way here in 2011. This year, the forecast is for another 21,000 newcomers.

“We did a lot of research before com-ing out here,” says Davis. “We checked out the cost of living compared to the GTA, job opportunities, and housing options, and we were amazed.”

On the jobs front, Canada Mortgage and Housing Corporation is forecasting 18,900 new positions this year and an-other 18,600 in 2013.

Along with rising migration and healthier job creation, comes a growing demand for housing in Calgary and sur-rounding communities.

CMHC is calling for 29,100 housing starts of all kinds this year in the Calgary region, up from 25,704 in 2011. As well, projections are for 23,000 resale homes to change hands — a slight increase from last year — and for the average price to reach $409,000 compared with just under $403,000 last year.

Prices in Calgary continue to be af-fordable in comparison with other major Canadian cities.

“The amount of house we could get for the money here, compared to GTA, was a shock to us,” says Davis. “It’s just so much less expensive here.”

Calgary has a very diverse new and resale housing selection in a wide ar-ray of neighbourhoods from inner-city high-rises to single-family detached homes in the suburbs, to estate homes on acreages, lakes or golf courses.

The downtown core and the abutting Beltline district are seeing a rebirth in construction with towers like Keynote by Keynote Development Corp. begin-ning construction of a second residen-tial tower of 250 units, and Grosvenor Americas breaking ground on its 17-storey, 135-unit Drake development.

The East Village redevelopment pro-gram by Calgary Municipal Land Cor-poration on the east side of the down-town area will be a unique urban village of apartments and townhouses. The 20-hectare mixed-use neighbourhood on the site of historic Calgary could be home to about 11,500 Calgarians who want to live, play and work in the downtown. Embassy Bosa of Vancou-ver and Fram+Slokker of Toronto have signed on as the first developers in the redevelopment, each of them sinking $300 million into mixed-use projects.

Live-work projects are also attract-ing purchasers. One by Avi Urban in The Bridges area sold out rapidly. On

that success, the company has started a second one, The Block, located off trendy 17th Avenue S.W.

Calgary has older communities on the shoulder of the core that are gaining renewed interest from people looking for neighbourhoods with existing amenities like parks, retail, good access and plenty of character. Further out, communities like McKenzie Towne in the southeast and Garrison Wood in the southwest offer all the benefits for those who prefer to use their feet for transportation.

Transit-oriented development is be-ing promoted by municipal officials as a way of increasing density through the creation of residential/retail hubs along the light-rail transit system.

The first one to be announced and approved is University City in northwest Brentwood — a mix of five residential towers along with retail elements.

Bush and Davis bought a detached home in SkyView Ranch by Walton Management and Development in north-east Calgary because they consider the access to their jobs better than elsewhere in the suburbs — and see the potential of this still-developing community.

If a more rural lifestyle holds certain appeal, the golf course estate com-munity of Heritage Pointe south of the city limits, or centres like Okotoks, Airdrie, Chestermere, or Cochrane might be the answer.


When Chris Jennings and his wife Julie graduated from Kan-sas State University, they got out a map and drew a 500 mile radius around Kansas and declared “anything outside of that is fair game!” Their first move was to Phoenix and a posi-tion with Stantec, a global design firm. After 11 years there and on the cusp of their first son starting kindergarten, they thought it was “a good time to relocate.” Chris researched internal postings with Stantec and found one in Calgary that appealed. They decided to be adventurous and move to Cal-gary for what they expected would be a two-year period.

What is the best thing about Calgary for you?We love Calgary’s abundant

green spaces, the mountain views and the great character of its many different neighbourhoods. Calgary is made up of over 100 communi-ties, each with its own name and charm and with its own commu-nity centres, schools, parks and playgrounds. Living in Calgary is like living in a small town or village with all the benefits of a big city. My wife and I also admire Cal-

gary’s school system that offers public, Catholic and charter schools,

all tax supported, as well as numerous private schools. Parents have lots of choices for their children’s education; the public school system offers French, Spanish, German and Chinese schools, as well as ones focused on science, music and the arts.

Is there one thing you think people elsewhere should know about Calgary? Calgary really is a world-class metropolitan city, with lots of di-versity and access to arts, culture and recreation. The dynamic downtown skyline rivals that of any city I’ve visited. There is a great vibe in the downtown, be that along Stephen Avenue Walk at lunch in the summer as over 30,000 workers parade down the historic street, or the thousands of people who run, walk and cycle along the adjacent Bow River pathway at lunch and on weekends year-round. Calgary is not as cold and wintry as out-siders think — you can enjoy the outdoors year-round.

Do we have any hidden gems?I adore the Los Mariachis restaurant where the mole enchiladas remind me of Arizona. I also enjoy shopping at Calgary’s farm-ers markets and the fact that even though it is snowing out-side, you can get fresh organic produce any time of the year.

— Richard White

MOVED TO

CALGARY

Name: Chris Jennings Age: 44

Occupation: Principal, Stantec,

landscape architect and land plannerPlace of Birth: Wichita, Kansas

Housing options numerous, affordable— Pictured: River Walk area in Calgary’s East Village: Calgary Herald Archive


global energyThere’s an energy in Calgary that exhilarates, invigoratesand motivates. There’s opportunity here – to break traditions,leap barriers, discover new frontiers. And everyone is welcome.To explore the possibilities, visit our website, meet the businessleaders who help Calgary take on the world and find out how youcan be part of the energy.

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move to - Calgary Herald · 2012-05-01 · Move to Calgary is a special publication of the Calgary Herald in partnership with Calgary Economic Development, Editor: Barb Livingstone,