Heat pumps don't make much sense in Alberta for heating, at least in terms of the environment given how electricity is generated. Turning gas into electricity and then into heat is less efficient than just turning gas into heat, even with a heat pump. On the other hand, sometimes a small heat pump doesn't cost any more than something with just A/C, so it might be useful for supplemental heat.
Really though, another thing that needs to be addressed is the insane cost of installing some heat pumps in Canada. I was extremely lucky that I have a good friend who's an HVAC/R Tech so I was able to get the equipment at his cost and then he and I did the installation in a half a day (excluding the ducting, which I did myself later on) for under $6K. But if I had hired a company to do it, it probably would have been about $15-20K (not including ducting).
In the US, you can at least order the equipment online (for about the same at-cost price I got in Canada) and then hire someone just for the install. But in Canada you're stuck paying a huge markup and then paying a fortune for the install.
There's a reason why they're used for heating and cooling in tons of lower income countries and that's because they're supposed to be relatively cheap to buy and install. You can buy decent mini splits (Carrier or LG) off the shelf from Costco or Walmart in Mexico for $6-800, but even the cheapo Senville units in Canada are about twice that.
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