Key business industry sectors

The City of Airdrie is proactive about our business growth. To ensure economic sustainability and long-term employment for our residents, we're targeting multiple industry sectors.

Alberta enjoys manufacturing productivity that is the highest in the country and has one of the lowest unionization rates in Canada. Highlights include:

• 10 per cent of Airdrie's population is employed in manufacturing
• One-third of Alberta's 137,000 manufacturing workforce is in the Calgary Region
• 10,000 manufacturers of consumer and industrial products are located in Alberta
• Alberta is the third-largest manufacturing province in Canada, representing 10 per cent of Alberta's GDP

Alberta's thriving energy-related development plus municipal and provincial infrastructure projects and private sector expansion continue to drive demand for professionals with expertise in architecture, engineering, information technology and management, management consulting, health care, government services and accounting.

The City of Airdrie and the Calgary region have seen a significant increase in the number of professional service firms due to Calgary's emergence as Western Canada's business centre and highlights include:

• Professional services contributing to the employment of more than 71,500 people, injecting $3.1 billion into the Region's total GDP
• More than 1,100 people employed locally in engineering, architecture and other professional services

Affordable and strategically located, Airdrie is well-suited to distributing and redistributing a range of agricultural, industrial and manufactured goods to anywhere in Western Canada, as well as other Canadian, US and global markets.

Airdrie has seen tremendous growth in the transportation and logistics sector. Costco Wholesale was welcomed to our city when the company opened a 260,000 square foot Western Canada distribution depot on 46 acres in Airdrie's northeast business park. It joined a number of companies with distribution centres, including Walmart, Shoppers Drug Mart and Canadian Tire, who service areas throughout Western Canada.

Transportation and logistic highlights include:

• Direct access to the Queen Elizabeth II Highway (Calgary-Edmonton Corridor / CANAMEX Highway)
• Easy access to the TransCanada highway, linking traffic across Canada and to west coast ports
• 15 minutes to Calgary International Airport with direct flights to 60 destinations around the world
• 24-hour delivery time to major world markets
• 35 kilometres to intermodal auto and trainload facilities in Calgary
• Access to Alberta's natural resources and agricultural products
• Close proximity to the 24 hour border crossing at Coutts/Sweetgrass (340 kilometres)

We believe the time is now to build environmentally-responsible and environmentally-focused businesses. With several local businesses having gained national and international recognition for their success, Airdrie is well-poised to take advantage of the movement to develop new technologies, products and services.

Driven by the need to reduce pollution, develop cleaner production processes and ensure the long-term preservation of our environment, environmental highlights include:

• Alberta has Canada's third largest concentration of environmental companies.
• 1,330 Alberta companies, who employ almost 26,000 people, developing solutions for climate change and energy-efficiency, recycling and waste management, and remediation and water treatment. Together, they generate more than $3.5 billion in revenues annually.
• Several local businesses, including Vitreous Glass, eCycle Solutions and Newalta have led the way and proven the potential of environmental businesses.
• The Alberta Government announced unprecedented provincial support with it's Climate Change Strategy, which included the largest single global commitment to advance carbon capture and storage projects in 2008.
• The City of Airdrie has long been a leader in Alberta in the environmental arena:
• First community in Alberta to pilot a construction waste recycling project
• One of the first cities in Alberta to implement a two-bag residential garbage limit
• Proven commitment to a sustainable future through the AirdrieONE sustainability plan (pdf)