I think I'm roughly in agreement with SP. I think the upsides of high growth generally outweigh the downsides. In part because of what the high grow implies about the state of the economy. The Calgary CMA only actually grew faster that 35K per year in 4 of the last 16 years and only above 40K in the 3 years from 2011-14. It hasn't been above 50K any time this millennium. Those 3 years were pretty scorching. Prices shot up. Transit was crammed. Downtown eateries were slammed. But it was also a dynamic time for the city. Lots of fancy new buildings were proposed. Payrolls were rising. New Companies were listing. The Stampede was lively. We'd probably rather have had more of that over than the reset we've gone through over the last few years even if it has had it's benefits.
The ideal state is probably better expressed as a percentage. I'd say we'd probably rather have things around 2.5% annual growth. Closer to 3% we get scorching, closer to 2% things feel tepid. Interestingly, I don't think we've had a period of sustained growth around 2.5% recently. In the booms it shoots up over 3%, but it tends to fall back towards 2% or below in the busts. The closest we've had was the period between 2006 and 2009 where growth was 2.61%, 2.78% and 2.82%.
Source:
http://www5.statcan.gc.ca/cansim/a47