Article content

By Greg Quinn and Erik Hertzberg

It’s not exactly a full-fledged recovery, but economic indicators are finally pointing positive for Alberta’s economy and that seems to be enough for the Bank of Canada.

We apologize, but this video has failed to load.

tap here to see other videos from our team. Try refreshing your browser, or Expected rate hike pegged to `shallow' recovery in Alberta Back to video

The central bank, spurred on by the first signs of a rebound in the country’s main oil producing province, is widely expected to raise interest rates as early as Wednesday. That will probably be followed by another increase later this year.

That puts to bed a three-year exercise in crisis management that saw policy makers run the economies of Toronto, Vancouver and Montreal hot in order to buy the country time to recover from falling oil prices.

It could be a thankless victory. Albertans, barely out of a deep recession, can do without the higher borrowing costs and rising currency. In Toronto and Vancouver, resentment over real estate bubbles and debt accumulation could linger for years.