A Moment with the Mayor: The need for economic recovery

I have received many questions on the state of our local economy from residents. At the root of most of the questions is a desire to know what the City is doing to help restart the economy.

Lloydminster’s economy is large and diverse, with our two major industries being oil and gas and agriculture. Both industries are greatly affected by world prices, world political conditions and agriculture is also significantly affected by global weather.

Those who have spent many years here and worked within the oil and gas sector likely don’t recall a price of oil as high as it was a few years ago. On the flip side, in the late 1990s, oil was selling for $10 a barrel, and things were tough for everyone. Today, we have seen a huge rebound for oil prices from less than $40US per barrel to today, the price hovering around $80US per barrel.

Want ads are present throughout our community’s oil and gas service companies and throughout the Western Canadian Sedimentary Basin. This is driven by a price, something set at the world level on a daily basis by the market and traders. A similar story in agriculture is that commodities are trading at record prices, such as canola and wheat. This is excellent news for producers and the farm, but again the prices are not being set by producers but by the world market and traders. Many farmers have shared with me the great news of these higher commodity prices, followed by the downside of the increased cost of inputs. Fertilizer has doubled in price from last year and is still rising. Pesticide prices are increasing rapidly, and supply shortages are all the talk.

Our economy is based on a regional trade and service centre with people travelling considerable distances to access medical professional and retail services and goods. The City’s Economic Development team continues to support local businesses by helping them deal with today’s challenges. We strive to help them grow their businesses today and into the future and look ahead and foster new business opportunities, big and small, to add to our community and surrounding area. Our economy is building and growing each and every day.

The City will continue to help lead in welcoming new businesses in all sectors of the economy. We’re well-positioned with great highway and railway access and a diverse labour pool to take advantage of the opportunities that lie ahead of us in 2022 and beyond.

Mayor Gerald S. Aalbers
City of Lloydminster