Jamieson Gardiner recently squeezed his family of four into a 900-square-foot basement suite in Airdrie to eke out some savings.
They downsized from 1,400 square feet and now Jamieson, a staff member at Airdrie’s Public Library, walks an hour to work because he and his wife — who also has a job — can’t afford more than one car.
“It’s awful. There’s a certain amount of clarity that comes from owning less stuff and just having less garbage around. But, it definitely makes things more difficult,” said Gardiner.
“Rent is so stinking high,” he added. “My biggest qualm with it is that I pay more in rent than most of my friends do in their mortgage, even including their property tax.”
A new CBC News poll suggests Jamieson isn’t alone when it comes to feeling the financial pinch of rising costs.
Nearly six in 10 (59 per cent) of Albertans say it is somewhat or very difficult to meet monthly expenses. That’s an increase of eight percentage points since last spring — and the highest level in the eight years CBC News has asked this same question.
Gloomy feelings about the economy also appear to be seeping into people’s purchasing decision-making.
More than two-thirds (67 per cent) of Albertans think it is a bad time to make a major purchase, such as a home, car, or major appliance.
“People are feeling uncertain about the economy. They’re feeling uncertain about their own situation, and they’re feeling that right now it’s a time to hunker down,” said Calgary-based pollster Janet Brown, who conducted the research for CBC News.
Albertans’ apprehension about the economy comes amidst steady economic headwinds fuelled by anxiety about U.S. tariffs and sluggish global economic growth.
Possible dark economic clouds ahead
Uncertainty looms over the global economy. The ongoing war in the Middle East — and the blockades in the Strait of Hormuz strangling oil flow — continues to spark fears of a global energy crisis.
Earlier this month, the International Monetary Fund warned that war in Iran could trigger a global recession, stressing in its latest world economic outlook that “the downside risks are tremendous.”
Canada’s ongoing tumultuous trade relations with the U.S. add to Alberta’s economic uncertainty.
Stephen Poloz, the former Bank of Canada governor warned earlier this month that there’s a 30 per cent chance of Canada spiralling into a recession amid growing global economic uncertainty.
And it appears Albertans are paying attention to these pessimistic economic predictions.
Public perception of the economy
A majority of Albertans also think the oil-rich province’s economy is getting worse, while 35 per cent think the economy is neither improving nor declining.
Pessimism about the economy notably rose 10 percentage points from 41 to 51 since last spring, when CBC News asked the same question.
Albertans haven’t been this gloomy about the economy since the early days of the COVID-19 pandemic in March 2020.
The bleak economic outlook is particularly pronounced amongst some Albertans, though.
Who’s having trouble meeting expenses?
Not surprisingly, unemployed Albertans (85 per cent) are most likely to say it’s difficult to meet monthly expenses. Facing a tough job market, younger Albertans (68 per cent) also say it’s harder to make ends meet.
Nearly half of seniors (46 per cent) find they are having trouble paying their bills.
CBC News spoke with about two dozen people at Airdrie’s public library on Monday afternoon to hear how they’re coping with the strain of rising costs.
Julia Jantzi, who brought her young daughter to the library, told CBC News that coping with her ballooning bills has become a constant balancing act, sparking questions such as “Can we afford to do this?” and “What do we have to cut back on?”
Jantzi calls the price of food “insane,” meaning that grocery shopping has become a constant hunt for deals — and making tradeoffs.
“It doesn’t leave me feeling very great,” said Jantzi.
James Simpson, who runs a small business in the construction industry, says the cost of feeding his family of seven has tripled in recent years.
“My average bill at Costco used to be about $400 to feed my family. Now it’s close to a thousand dollars every time I step in there,” said Simpson.
Oluwaseun Biodun, who came to Canada from Nigeria in 2022, has also cut down her shopping at the discount warehouse from twice a month to once.
“I have to fall back on my credit card to be able to meet up with monthly bills and I’ve almost maxed out my credit card,” said Biodun. “I hope something changes soon or else we are going to reach our breaking point.”
For truck driver Joel Vijayan, an immigrant who recently moved to Airdrie, skyrocketing fuel prices triggered by the conflict in the Middle East have taken a real hard bite out of his tight budget.
Vijayan was recently driving 60 to 80 kilometres to pick up his semi-trailer.
“Most of the money I was earning was going for the fuel cost,” Vijayan told CBC News.
“I’m not a rich person, I am like an older male. So I was thinking, how is this going to end?” wondered Vijayan.
The politics of rising cost of living
CBC News polling data also suggests a political dynamic associated with concerns about household expenses.
Sixty-three per cent of United Conservative Party supporters say they’re having a difficult time paying their bills. And seven in 10 Albertans feeling the affordability squeeze are not all that impressed with NDP Leader Naheed Nenshi.
This pessimistic group is also not all that confident Alberta’s energy deal with the federal government last year will actually produce another pipeline exporting the province’s crude to tidewater.
And nearly seven in 10 Albertans who say they’re feeling the bite of rising costs say they’d vote to separate from Canada.
“This is the group who are frustrated,” said Brown. “They feel that Alberta’s not living up to its potential. They want to see change. They think they’d be doing better if there was change. So they tend to support the UCP because they like the way the UCP is trying to negotiate a new deal with Ottawa.… They’re just so frustrated. They think that separating from Canada is their best option.”
So far, though, the governing UCP is not being blamed by Albertans who feel their economic situation is bleak.
UCP defying conventional theory
Economic voting theory assumes that voters often punish incumbent governments when they’re worried about their financial situation.
But so far, the provincial United Conservative Party appears to be defying that conventional wisdom. In fact, polling suggests the UCP would likely win more seats today than they did in the 2023 general election.
“One thing that Danielle Smith is good at is putting the focus elsewhere,” said Brown. “She has very effectively argued that Ottawa is holding Alberta back.”
At Airdrie’s public library, no one who stopped to talk with CBC blamed the UCP for rising costs or the economy. Instead, most pointed their fingers at global conflict, multi-national corporations, the aftermath of the pandemic, or U.S. President Donald Trump.
“He’s single-handedly raised prices all over the world, so I’m pretty sure most of the world could blame him,” said retired Airdrie resident Ronald Scholosser.
The CBC News random survey of 1,200 Albertans was conducted using a hybrid method between April 7 to April 22, 2026, by Edmonton-based Trend Research under the direction of Janet Brown Opinion Research. The sample is representative of regional, age and gender factors. The margin of error is +/- 2.8 percentage points, 19 times out of 20. For subsets, the margin of error is larger.
The survey used a hybrid methodology that involved contacting survey respondents by telephone and giving them the option of completing the survey at that time, at another more convenient time, or receiving an email link and completing the survey online. Trend Research contacted people using a random list of numbers, consisting of 30 per cent landlines and 70 per cent cellphone numbers. Telephone numbers were dialed up to five times at five different times of day before another telephone number was added to the sample. The response rate among valid numbers (i.e., residential and personal) was 11.7 per cent.
