While perceptions of Calgary have dropped among surveyed business leaders, it remains the top Canadian city that North American workers would consider moving to.

Calgary Economic Development released top-line results from its annual external perceptions survey, which is conducted by Stone-Olafson. The survey was of 1,021 workers and 445 business leaders in 10 Canadian and US cities, done Oct. 2 to 14, 2023.

The survey showed that 82 per cent of business leaders held a favourable view of Calgary, down eight per cent from 2022. According to Calgary Economic Development, that’s due to growing uncertainty around economic and workforce diversity when compared with other Canadian cities.

“Perceptions is a long game, but one thing is clear from this year’s results: we cannot underestimate the power of coming together to own our own story,” said Brad Parry, President and CEO of Calgary Economic Development and CEO, Opportunity Calgary Investment Fund, in a prepared media release.  

“We must do this while also navigating broader economic and political trends shaped by global and national events happening beyond our city limits.”

Also, while considering Calgary for an expansion dropped in Calgary as well, many of those business leaders said they weren’t considering expanding anywhere.

Parry later told LWC that business leaders are far more attuned to the macro picture – global, national or provincial – and that can influence their perceptions of a location.

“When you look at the environment that they’re operating in right now, you’ve got high inflation, you’ve got recessionary fear, you’ve got clients that are retrenching a little bit in their spending,” he said.

“It’s got a bit of a downstream effect. For us, it’s just that business leaders in general, probably had a lesser positive outlook, than they had here previously because of all of the things that we’ve been going through.”

The top three reasons perception of Calgary softened, according to the data provided to CED were: Increased uncertainty among business leaders, lower consumer and business confidence given higher borrowing costs and that Calgary hasn’t been immune to the affordability crisis.

One other area that saw a steep decline was in how business leaders viewed the diversity in Calgary’s economy. Fifty-nine per cent agreed Calgary had a diverse economy, down 18 per cent. Parry said that could be largely attributed to larger energy conversations going on globally and nationally, particularly around carbon emissions.

“I think that when people hear that, again, if you look at unaided research, Calgary is still seen as that energy city, right and specifically oil and gas,” he said.

“I think when that goes up when you start to hear more and more of that take on traditional media and mainstream, it does have an impact on people thinking that our economy isn’t as diversified as it actually is.”

Stable views among workers

The results showed that workers’ views of Calgary stayed relatively similar, with 70 per cent having a favourable view of the city. That’s down two per cent from 2022.

Sixty-one per cent say Calgary is an affordable place to live, and 58 per cent agreed it’s an easy place to live, and 61 per cent agreed it’s a place to build a career. No comparator numbers were provided.

Last year’s survey showed that 57 per cent believed there were a variety of career options in Calgary. Also in 2022, 61 per cent of respondents believed that Calgary was a diverse and inclusive city. Those numbers weren’t included in the CED release.

Calgary received high marks in the top three areas workers consider when moving to a city: Affordability, having a clean, safe and comfortable city, and income growth opportunities.  

“At Calgary Economic Development, we will redouble our efforts in 2024 to ensure that Calgary’s true story is being told and heard, here and abroad,” said Parry.

 “We look forward to working together with our partners to bring that story to life in new ways.”

Calgary Economic Development said that the survey results inform their effort to attract, retain and expand the “companies, capital and talent the city needs to thrive.”

Parry said they would be using the information by looking at some of the anomalies in certain parts of Canada and the world. From there, they target their approach in talent or business attraction to capitalize on limited resources.

“We have limited resources and we’re incredibly surgical in how we use our marketing dollars and so we have to have the best ROI, he said.

“What these numbers help us understand is are there things we just need to crystallize a bit more in certain marketplaces based on our objectives going into those sectors.”