OTTAWA - A Conference Board report says Canada's booming Western provinces have been unfazed by an economic slowdown hitting the rest of the country.
The think tank's most recent provincial outlook predicts the demographic and economic clout of Saskatchewan, Alberta and B.C. will continue to grow.
It says those provinces are a magnet for new Canadians, lured west by job prospects in the resources industries, as indicated in the recent Census data.
The Conference Board suggests strong commodity prices will continue to boost the Western economies over the next two years.
It projects that economic growth in those provinces will be a full percentage point stronger than in the rest of the country this year and next.
The Canadian economy is forecast to post real gross domestic product growth of 2.1 per cent in 2012.
