The economy of Alberta depends less on revenues from oil and gas than the economy of neighboring British Colombia depends on real estate (aka flipping houses), and is roughly as diversified as Ontario (in terms of % of economy coming from various sectors) which is the other heavy weight economy in Canada.
People keep saying that Alberta needs to diversify as though this is some sort of epiphany that the province refuses to have, but it honestly just reveals the ignorance of the person making that claim regarding the current economic state of Canadian provinces.
Yeah because housing hasn't crashed (yet). Also Alberta is feeling economic pain only in comparison to the crazy boom years prior. It is still literally the highest GDP/capita of any province, its unemployment rate ranks it 5th amongst Canadian provinces, its government is still the least indebted on a per-capita basis of any province, it has the highest labor force participation rate of any province, etc, etc. The fact that Alberta is still paying federal transfer payments to the rest of Canada should be sufficient shorthand to convince you that the economy is not as dire as you would think when viewing it from the outside.
People keep saying that Alberta needs to diversify as though this is some sort of epiphany that the province refuses to have, but it honestly just reveals the ignorance of the person making that claim regarding the current economic state of Canadian provinces.