A 2010 survey recently released by the provincial government shows that, on average, living in Athabasca is cheaper than 14 of the 34 municipalities that were part of the study.
The 2010 Alberta Spatial Price Survey is a place-to-place analysis of the price of a basket of 293 goods and services regularly purchased by Alberta consumers.
Over a two-week period in June 2010, provincial workers set out to 34 communities to determine how their prices stacked up to a reference base of Edmonton. After compiling the data, the study breaks down where each community stands in relation to the capital’s score of 100.
When comparing all commodities, which include food, clothing, shelter, personal care products, household supplies, recreation and leisure, transportation and utilities, Athabasca ranks in the middle of the pack.
With a score of 97.7, the community’s costs are 2.3 points lower than Edmonton and four points higher than the lowest scoring municipality of Lloydminster.
The community, though, is well below the most expensive municipalities of Canmore and Fort McMurray, both of which eclipsed Edmonton by more than 10 points.
When it comes to food, which was measured with an array of 109 products ranging from dairy to restaurant meals, Athabasca falls in line with the capital’s prices, with only 0.8 points above the baseline.
Those results tell a different tale than similar surveys done in 2005 and 2007, which found the community to be five per cent more expensive when it comes to food prices.
The biggest gaps in the 2010 survey found that Athabasca’s restaurants were five per cent cheaper than the capital’s, while fresh fruit and vegetables were seven per cent more expensive.
Athabasca’s costlier carrots were made up in the non-food category, which incorporated things like household supplies, recreation and leisure, transportation and utilities. In that comparison, the community ranked three per cent cheaper than the capital, still middle of the pack compared to the other municipalities.
The non-food category revealed Athabasca’s best showing, with a score of 87.9 for household services. That tally shows that services like babysitting, hairstyling, Internet and veterinarians are 12.1 per cent cheaper here than in Edmonton. Shelter costs had a similar score of 88.9.
Those relatively low scores were balanced out by some of Athabasca’s more costly services of recreation and leisure and utilities, which scored 105.1 and 107.8 consecutively.
The community of Wainwright beat the bunch when it came to non-food items, with a score of 93.7. Again, the booming city of Fort McMurray took the cake for prices with a score of 113, followed closely again by Canmore.
Fort McMurray won out for biggest difference in that sub-category as well, with a score of 139.4 under shelter, meaning finding a place to stay in the city is nearly 40 per cent more expensive than Edmonton.
The 2005 and 2007 surveys determined non-food prices in Athabasca were close to four per cent cheaper than the capital during that period.
The full studies are available through the provincial government’s website: http://www.albertacanada.com/about-alberta/cost-studies.html
