Friday, May 25, 2007

The Rumors of GP's Demise - Greatly Exaggerated

"An ongoing rumor of a slew of housing foreclosures in Grande Prairie has no truth to it, says the Canada Mortgage and Housing Corporation." -full story

This has been an annoying little rumor that has been going around the city for a while now. Hopefully it's put to rest by this article by Darrell Winwood in the DHT. I first heard of this was over a year ago and since then it's kept coming back from different people who have "heard" that "last month there were 20 (or 30 or 40) foreclosures in GP."

People here are pretty sensitive to that kind of thing because it brings up memories of the early 80's when the NEP shut down Alberta and Grande Prairie. There are still lots of people living in our community who had to go through that. For them the memories of walking away from a home they couldn't afford or going in to bankruptcy are probably pretty vivid.

It's true that oil & gas activity across the province is not as busy this year as it has been. Any slowdown in that sector does ripple out across the economy - but it's not like the dead stop that there was back in the day. Most people I talk to say it's more like a "breather" and a little chance to catch up.

Add to this the fact that over the years GP has developed a more diversified economy and the true picture starts to come into focus.

We're doing alright - the rumors of Grande Prairie's demise have been greatly exaggerated.

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