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Hang on tight Red Deer! Here’s how you can get involved in the 2019 Canadian Finals Rodeo!!

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CFR 2019

 

The 46th Canadian Finals Rodeo is less than a month away

Hang on tight, Red Deer.

Get ready for a Community, Untamed!

Get involved with the 46th Canadian Finals Rodeo and help showcase Red Deer’s down-home hospitality.

CFR and the events that surround it connects people with an untamed way of life, through high-stakes action, compelling competitors, and wild celebrations. This fall, over 43,000 CFR guests will be here in Red Deer for a good time, but not a long time. Let’s make them feel welcome during their stay in our Community, Untamed!

From October 29 – November 3, dress up your business, create a promotion or host an off-site event for community members and rodeo goers to enjoy! Think Chili Cook-Offs, Pancake Breakfasts, Pub Trivia Nights, or any other off-site event that engages our Rodeo fans.

In return for showing your CFR pride, you will receive a CFR Ambassador Package that includes:

  • CFR 46 Collectable Posters

  • CFR 46 Postcards

  • Event listing on cfrreddeer.ca, with over 8500 impressions per week.

  • 2 mentions on any of the official CFR Red Deer social media accountspotentially reaching over 9,400 of our online community members.

  • 1 Facebook event, co-hosted by CFR Red Deer. In 2018, CFR Facebook events reached over 150K Facebook users; leverage our 4800+ Facebook followers in addition to your own!

Click here to learn more about being part of our Community, Untamed.

Fill Your Boots with good feels.Rodeo is built on community. As a community, we not only celebrate our successes together, but we support each other when times get tough. At the Canadian Finals Rodeo, we are focused on giving back wherever we can, and this year we need your help!

With the weather getting colder and the days getting shorter, those without a home will face challenges this winter that many of us will never know. Socks are among the top requested items at housing shelters around the world, so we’ve partnered with our friends at The Mustard Seed to give back to the people who need it most. 

During CFR week, everyone can do their part by donating a pair of new, unused socks as part of our new Fill Your Boots initiative! CFR Ambassadors can help by holding space for a collection vessel in their business.

Branded socks, courtesy of Lammles, will also be available for purchase on-site at the Official CFR Merchandise Shop within the CFR Trade Show. Help us ensure the comfort of our community’s most vulnerable this winter! For more information and donation details, visit cfrreddeer.ca.

Volunteer at CFR 46.The Canadian Finals Rodeo Returns to Westerner Park this fall and we are seeking volunteers to help support this national event. The CFR has a long history of valuing volunteer efforts and we are now recruiting for multiple roles.

If you are interested in being a part of CFR46 visit http://www.cfrreddeer.ca/volunteer/and fill out an application form!

Become a Rodeo Insider!

By subscribing as a Rodeo Insider, you’ll be the first to know about fresh announcements, entertainment and more surrounding #CFR46. 

Subscribe Now

This fall, the Canadian Finals Rodeo is set to return to Westerner Park in Red Deer, Alberta from October 29 – November 3, 2019. The six-day event brings together the very best athletes and fans from across the nation to witness champions competing for the highest honours in Canadian rodeo!

CFR performance tickets are available now!

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After 15 years as a TV reporter with Global and CBC and as news director of RDTV in Red Deer, Duane set out on his own 2008 as a visual storyteller. During this period, he became fascinated with a burgeoning online world and how it could better serve local communities. This fascination led to Todayville, launched in 2016.

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Alberta

Low oil prices could have big consequences for Alberta’s finances

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From the Fraser Institute

By Tegan Hill

Amid the tariff war, the price of West Texas Intermediate oil—a common benchmark—recently dropped below US$60 per barrel. Given every $1 drop in oil prices is an estimated $750 million hit to provincial revenues, if oil prices remain low for long, there could be big implications for Alberta’s budget.

The Smith government already projects a $5.2 billion budget deficit in 2025/26 with continued deficits over the following two years. This year’s deficit is based on oil prices averaging US$68.00 per barrel. While the budget does include a $4 billion “contingency” for unforeseen events, given the economic and fiscal impact of Trump’s tariffs, it could quickly be eaten up.

Budget deficits come with costs for Albertans, who will already pay a projected $600 each in provincial government debt interest in 2025/26. That’s money that could have gone towards health care and education, or even tax relief.

Unfortunately, this is all part of the resource revenue rollercoaster that’s are all too familiar to Albertans.

Resource revenue (including oil and gas royalties) is inherently volatile. In the last 10 years alone, it has been as high as $25.2 billion in 2022/23 and as low as $2.8 billion in 2015/16. The provincial government typically enjoys budget surpluses—and increases government spending—when oil prices and resource revenue is relatively high, but is thrown into deficits when resource revenues inevitably fall.

Fortunately, the Smith government can mitigate this volatility.

The key is limiting the level of resource revenue included in the budget to a set stable amount. Any resource revenue above that stable amount is automatically saved in a rainy-day fund to be withdrawn to maintain that stable amount in the budget during years of relatively low resource revenue. The logic is simple: save during the good times so you can weather the storm during bad times.

Indeed, if the Smith government had created a rainy-day account in 2023, for example, it could have already built up a sizeable fund to help stabilize the budget when resource revenue declines. While the Smith government has deposited some money in the Heritage Fund in recent years, it has not created a dedicated rainy-day account or introduced a similar mechanism to help stabilize provincial finances.

Limiting the amount of resource revenue in the budget, particularly during times of relatively high resource revenue, also tempers demand for higher spending, which is only fiscally sustainable with permanently high resource revenues. In other words, if the government creates a rainy-day account, spending would become more closely align with stable ongoing levels of revenue.

And it’s not too late. To end the boom-bust cycle and finally help stabilize provincial finances, the Smith government should create a rainy-day account.

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Alberta

Governments in Alberta should spur homebuilding amid population explosion

Published on

From the Fraser Institute

By Tegan Hill and Austin Thompson

In 2024, construction started on 47,827 housing units—the most since 48,336 units in 2007 when population growth was less than half of what it was in 2024.

Alberta has long been viewed as an oasis in Canada’s overheated housing market—a refuge for Canadians priced out of high-cost centres such as Vancouver and Toronto. But the oasis is starting to dry up. House prices and rents in the province have spiked by about one-third since the start of the pandemic. According to a recent Maru poll, more than 70 per cent of Calgarians and Edmontonians doubt they will ever be able to afford a home in their city. Which raises the question: how much longer can this go on?

Alberta’s housing affordability problem reflects a simple reality—not enough homes have been built to accommodate the province’s growing population. The result? More Albertans competing for the same homes and rental units, pushing prices higher.

Population growth has always been volatile in Alberta, but the recent surge, fuelled by record levels of immigration, is unprecedented. Alberta has set new population growth records every year since 2022, culminating in the largest-ever increase of 186,704 new residents in 2024—nearly 70 per cent more than the largest pre-pandemic increase in 2013.

Homebuilding has increased, but not enough to keep pace with the rise in population. In 2024, construction started on 47,827 housing units—the most since 48,336 units in 2007 when population growth was less than half of what it was in 2024.

Moreover, from 1972 to 2019, Alberta added 2.1 new residents (on average) for every housing unit started compared to 3.9 new residents for every housing unit started in 2024. Put differently, today nearly twice as many new residents are potentially competing for each new home compared to historical norms.

While Alberta attracts more Canadians from other provinces than any other province, federal immigration and residency policies drive Alberta’s population growth. So while the provincial government has little control over its population growth, provincial and municipal governments can affect the pace of homebuilding.

For example, recent provincial amendments to the city charters in Calgary and Edmonton have helped standardize building codes, which should minimize cost and complexity for builders who operate across different jurisdictions. Municipal zoning reforms in CalgaryEdmonton and Red Deer have made it easier to build higher-density housing, and Lethbridge and Medicine Hat may soon follow suit. These changes should make it easier and faster to build homes, helping Alberta maintain some of the least restrictive building rules and quickest approval timelines in Canada.

There is, however, room for improvement. Policymakers at both the provincial and municipal level should streamline rules for building, reduce regulatory uncertainty and development costs, and shorten timelines for permit approvals. Calgary, for instance, imposes fees on developers to fund a wide array of public infrastructure—including roads, sewers, libraries, even buses—while Edmonton currently only imposes fees to fund the construction of new firehalls.

It’s difficult to say how long Alberta’s housing affordability woes will endure, but the situation is unlikely to improve unless homebuilding increases, spurred by government policies that facilitate more development.

Tegan Hill

Director, Alberta Policy, Fraser Institute

Austin Thompson

Senior Policy Analyst, Fraser Institute
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