Statistics Canada data<\/a> shows Alberta’s annual consumer price index\u00a0\u2014 a measure of inflation\u00a0\u2014 grew about 20 per cent for all items.<\/p>\nCBC News analyzed the survey data released by the Alberta government, and created seven graphics to show the major changes in that time.<\/p>\n
Most communities less expensive than Edmonton overall<\/p>\n
Overall prices in most of the 37 communities \u2014 about two thirds \u2014 included in the 2024 survey were cheaper than in Edmonton, data suggests.<\/p>\n
People in many communities, particularly in rural Alberta, are paying more at the grocery store and restaurants, as well as for utilities and other services.<\/p>\n
But shelter costs tended to be low enough that\u00a0overall, prices in a lot of communities ended up being lower than in Edmonton.<\/p>\n<\/p>\n
Shelter costs, according to the survey reports, include expenses related to owned accommodations (such as mortgage payments and property taxes), rentals and tenant insurance.<\/p>\n
Housing more expensive<\/p>\n
Although shelter costs are often lower elsewhere, that doesn’t mean housing got cheaper.<\/p>\n
In a lot of communities, such costs have grown closer to \u2014 or significantly surpassed \u2014 Edmonton levels since 2018.<\/p>\n<\/p>\n
Housing expenses in Barrhead, Alta., for example, were the lowest in the 2018 survey, coming in about 40 per cent less than in Edmonton, data suggests.<\/p>\n
That gap shrunk by 2024: Barrhead shelter costs were roughly 23 per cent lower than Edmonton’s.<\/p>\n
Athabasca, Alta., had the lowest shelter costs in the 2024 survey, about 28 per cent lower than Edmonton.<\/p>\n
Canmore, Alta., meanwhile had the highest shelter costs by far in both surveys. In 2024, the town’s shelter costs almost tripled those of Edmonton, data suggests.<\/p>\n
Canmore most expensive place<\/p>\n
Everything in Canmore, except fresh produce and household supplies, is more expensive than in Edmonton, data suggests.<\/p>\n
But the reports highlight housing specifically, stating shelter costs are mainly driving Canmore’s\u00a0significant higher cost of living overall.<\/p>\n
“Canmore’s steep shelter costs are primarily driven by high costs of land or construction for the new development, and strong demand for housing attributed to its popularity as a mountain town,” the 2024 survey report says.<\/p>\n
Data suggests Canmore, generally, also saw the highest growth since 2018, its all-items price index rising 26.4 percentage points.<\/p>\n
Most of that rise, however, was driven by even steeper shelter costs, and higher utility costs.<\/p>\n
The indexes for many types of goods and services, such as fresh produce, household services and transportation costs, were actually lower compared to 2018. That suggests prices in Edmonton got closer to those in Canmore.<\/p>\n
It was a similar story for communities like Jasper, Alta., which saw the second-greatest increase from 2018.<\/p>\n
Both surveys suggested the municipality had higher prices than Edmonton for almost everything, but the gap closed for a lot of goods and services, particularly some groceries, in 2024. The rise was driven mostly by a jump in housing costs.<\/p>\n<\/p>\n
The 2024 survey report does note that data collection in Jasper was “particularly challenging.” Surveyors collected the data in the fall of 2024, months after a massive wildfire burned down one third of the buildings in Jasper.<\/p>\n
“Some of the stores that were sampled were either not re-opened or destroyed in the fires,” the report says. “Imputation was applied for some items, where interviewers were unable to collect prices.”<\/p>\n
Calgary v.s. Edmonton<\/p>\n
Costs in Alberta’s two largest metropolises, generally, were almost neck-and-neck in 2018. But Calgary distanced itself by 2024, with overall prices being about 15 per cent higher than in the capital, data suggests.<\/p>\n
The major drivers were shelter costs, restaurant and utility prices, data suggests.<\/p>\n
“Calgary’s high shelter costs are driven by the growing demand for housing due to the recent rapid population growth in the post-COVID pandemic,” the 2024 survey report says.<\/p>\n<\/p>\n
Alberta has experienced record population growth in recent years. The city of Calgary grew by almost 218,000 people from 2020 to 2024, according to provincial estimates<\/a>.<\/p>\nEdmonton’s population rose by more than 140,000 people in that same span, provincial data shows.<\/p>\n
To better examine changes in Edmonton, CBC News calculated how its prices changed relative to Calgary, the only other Alberta city close to its size.<\/p>\n
The analysis further confirmed that the prices of many goods and services in Edmonton, particularly most grocery items, have risen since 2018. But shelter costs fell far behind.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Some massive events \u2014 be they local wildfires, a global pandemic, or international conflicts \u2014 have affected the…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":159235,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[11],"tags":[45,49,48,46],"class_list":["post-159234","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-economy","tag-business","tag-ca","tag-canada","tag-economy"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/159234","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=159234"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/159234\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/159235"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=159234"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=159234"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=159234"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}