Approaching the end of a calendar year is an opportunity to take stock and to look ahead. In Friday’s Seven and yesterday’s Twenty-Four, we looked back at the year that was. We’ll now dedicate the final Twenty-Four of 2025 to share a few of the items on ATB Economics’ wishlist for 2026.

Below, in no particular order, are some of the things we hope to see in the year to come. If you’re feeling extra generous, more wishlist items are also available in video-form here.

Shovels in the ground on major infrastructure projects

We’ve talked a lot this year about needing to see ‘shovels in the ground’ on major projects to improve productivity and boost economic growth. Our wish for 2026 is that we finally move from planning to execution. Progress on these projects is one way to help reverse Canada’s decade-long slump in business investment. As the 2025 federal budget says: “For too long, the construction of major infrastructure in Canada has been stalled by arduous, inefficient approval processes.”

Alberta: Energy, food, ____ superpower

The next wish for 2026 is that Alberta fully embraces the "AND economy" to establish itself as a global leader in not only energy but also food processing, tech, tourism, critical minerals, petrochemicals, logistics, aviation and other sectors.

By matching the province’s record population inflows to these high-growth sectors, addressing skills mismatches, as well as removing the internal barriers to the movement of goods, labour and capital, we can help insulate ourselves from U.S. trade uncertainty and drive Canada’s productivity. 2026 should be the year we prove that.

New major export markets for Canada, and a long-term trade deal

Now how’s that for a two-for-one holiday wish, Santa?

This year demonstrated the risk of depending on one other country for so much of Canada’s trade. After years of weak productivity growth and now headwinds from U.S. tariffs, the federal government, working with provinces and territories, is promising to make Canada the strongest G7 economy.

The Prime Minister has set an ambitious goal to double non-U.S. exports over the next decade. A concerted effort to expand trade services and leverage international agreements is necessary to find new, reliable global trade partners and build critical infrastructure to support these markets. Our wish is that we see this accelerate in 2026.

However, for all the talk about diversifying into new markets, the reality is that the U.S. will remain our largest and most important customer. So while we need to make a sincere effort to expand our non-U.S. trade, we cannot ignore our relationship with the U.S., and wish to see CUSMA renewed, and the sectoral tariffs to end.

More appreciation for the best kind of chart

Our next wish is to see increased global appreciation for the scatterplot graph - the superior format, depending who you ask.

The good news is that some trustworthy augurs indicate that we’re primed for a real scatterplot renaissance in 2026. Both normal humans and economists are poised to take their scatterplot appreciation to new heights. Once they’re better able to analyze their data through this superior visualization technique (and, dare I say, fellow nerds are able to better communicate their feelings), there’s no telling what they may achieve.
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To demonstrate the power of the scatterplot, here’s one of our favourites of the year, with the unemployment differential vs. Alberta net migration back to 1976. Powerful stuff. So powerful, in fact, that it inspired me to write a paper last year on why so many Canadians are moving to Alberta this time around.  

That’s it for the 2026 economic wishlist - pretty straightforward, no?

That’s also it for the Twenty Four this year! Thank you for reading along. We look forward to meeting you back here on Monday, January 5, 2026.

Happy holidays from the whole ATB Economics team! Get some rest. The economy will be here waiting for us, and doing its thing, when we get back.   

Answer to the previous trivia question: A tannenbaum is a fir tree in German.

Today’s trivia question: How many editions of The Twenty-Four-Seven were published in 2025?