I live in Alberta and feeling the pain. In my opinion, the only industry that might be doing well in Canada is lumber (mainly, BC). With high USD, lumber exporters are making good money and with low crude, they spend less on their machinery.

The entire service industry in Alberta is in chaos and it impacts the whole country. We were the biggest contributors to the over all GDP and employment growth in Canada. Unfortunately businesses are now putting their equipment up for auction, people are losing their jobs and not sure what might happen next.

I am optimistic though - in periods of down turn and recession, people tend to get more entrepreneurial and find ways to bring innovation to their work. For long term prospect, this recession may be helping us in diversifying our portfolio and minimizing our dependency on just one industry.