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A SOLD sign on a 2015 Jeep.Peter Power

New vehicle sales plunged by 13.5 per cent in Alberta last month, in another sign of how the oil-price collapse is rippling through the province's once-booming economy.

Deliveries dropped to 19,885 in October from 22,983 a year earlier, according to a DesRosiers Automotive Consultants Inc. tabulation of data provided by the auto makers.

Sales in Alberta have fallen 11 per cent through the first 10 months of the year, which means the province is poised to post its first decline in new vehicle deliveries since 2009.

Overall sales in Canada are on target to hit another record, however, powered by strong performances in British Columbia, Ontario and Quebec, the data show. National sales are on pace to exceed 1.9 million this year, DesRosiers said.

Deliveries in Ontario and Quebec rose 6 per cent in the first 10 months of the year. Ontario sales grew 10 per cent in October, while Quebec dealers sold 7 per cent more vehicles than a year earlier.

"In terms of general economic performance, both are doing better, and in Ontario, the housing market has helped juice things a bit with a good performance, giving consumers a bit more confidence," Bank of Montreal economist Alex Koustas said.

British Columbia has performed best among the provinces this year with an 8-per-cent gain in the first 10 months of the year, including a 9-per-cent rise in October.

"B.C., over all, has just been one of the best performers in the country," Mr. Koustas said. "We'd probably expect them to be the best performer this year and next in terms of GDP [gross domestic product] growth and basic fundamentals. Toss in the booming housing market there and that adds a little extra boost to [vehicle] sales as well."

Dealers with stores in Alberta said their new vehicle sales have fallen by 10 per cent or more.

One bright spot amid the drop in new sales is that vehicle owners are investing in maintaining and servicing their current vehicles to keep them on the road, one dealer said Wednesday.

"Our numbers have been slowly creeping down, and while it's not at a point where you have to look at the labour costs, it has made us hone in on margins and costs," said another dealer who has outlets in Alberta. "We've moved our focus over to the used inventory and have done fairly well selling into the U.S. market via a broker."

Demand among U.S. dealers for new and used vehicles available in Canada has been stoked by the drop in the value of the Canadian dollar, which is tied to plunging oil prices.

AutoCanada, the largest publicly traded dealership group in Canada, said on its third-quarter financial results conference call earlier this month that declines in Alberta helped send revenue at dealerships it has owned for more than a year down 7 per cent, while gross profit sank by 14 per cent.

The company has modified its acquisition strategy in a bid to reduce its dependence on Alberta, where 10 of the stores it has owned for more than a year are located.

Nonetheless, executive chairman Pat Priestner said the long-term prospects for the Alberta market are still strong.

"Alberta has been probably 19 years of the last 20 years the best place to do business for auto dealers in Canada," Mr. Priestner said on the call. "And we expect over the next – I don't know whether it's 12 months, 18 months or 24 months – that will be the same again."

That means there hasn't been a significant decline in the prices at which dealerships are changing hands in the province, he noted.

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