|
Canada may tap US labor pool
Labor-starved Alberta might be about to dangle work openings before job-hungry Americans, depending on the outcome of a review by Canada’s Immigration Minister Jason Kenney of foreign worker rules.
He will meet over the next month with leaders of several sectors to “examine ways that we could do a better job of accessing unemployed American labor.”
“It’s our intention to hammer out a process that is more efficient, that eliminates unnecessary and redundant bureaucracy, or red tape, so that the Temporary Foreign Worker Program works, on time, for the Alberta economy,” he told the Calgary Chamber of Commerce.
Kenney and Human Resources and Skills Development Minister Diane Finley are scheduled to meet with employers from the oil and gas, construction, agriculture and hospitality sectors and labor officials to discuss their ideas.
The latest figures from Statistics Canada put unemployment in Alberta at 5.6 percent, compared with just over 9 percent in the United States. Saskatchewan and Manitoba, also active petroleum provinces, were at 4.5 percent and 5.4 percent, respectively.
Critical shortages cited Cheryl Knight, chief executive officer of the Petroleum Human Resources Council of Canada, said there are critical shortages of field workers in oil and gas, well services and drilling sectors.
She told a conference in September that by 2020 the demand for oil sands workers could reach 247,000, assuming development of the sector meets expectations.
“Some 172,000 are now working on various sites, but by 2020 there will be a need to hire 93,000 more in Alberta,” Knight said.
Kenney said that under the North American Free Trade Agreement there is provision for workers to move easily among the U.S., Canada and Mexico.
“But the number of those visas granted each year is capped and only applies to certain types of occupations,” he said. “It’s a very good model, but it’s limited.”
About 185,000 workers entered Canada last year under the temporary workers program, with 58,000 ending up in Alberta.
Kennedy fired back at critics who allege workers from Third World countries are often exploited in Canada, saying those he has talked to say “they can earn in Alberta in a couple of days what it would take them a month to earn in their country of origin. That, for them, represents savings to start a new business, build a new home.”
—Gary Park
| 