Processing oilsands output in Alberta will create jobs, ND leader argues

New Democrat Leader Brian Mason would move forward with four upgraders planned for the Industrial Heartland area northeast of Edmonton, saying on Saturday that keeping bitumen in Alberta creates more jobs and stronger communities.

"We need to not just be the exporter of unprocessed raw materials for the rest of the world to create employment, but to create employment right here in our province," Mason said.

This follows Mason's earlier campaign announcement to increase royalties from bitumen production by 25 per cent, a raise the NDP said would bring in $1.4 billion annually and could be used to improve public services.

"It would be a 25 per cent increase in royalties on bitumen as opposed to refined or upgraded synthetic crude oil. That would have the impact of creating the investment here in our province, instead of in other parts of the world, and I think that's what Albertans expect and demand," Mason said on Saturday.

The NDP announcement comes after organizations, including the Alberta Federation of Labour and Alberta's Industrial Heartland Association, called on party leaders to address plans for the province's petrochemical sector.

AFL President Gil McGowan said the question of whether bitumen should be upgraded in the province or exported in its raw form is one of the most important economic issues facing Alberta today.

"More upgrading makes sense because it keeps jobs, profits and tax revenue here in Alberta, instead of sending all of those things to places like the U.S. or China," McGowan said.

He was pleased with Mason's plans to move forward with the upgraders, if the NDP are elected, and noted he has been "profoundly disappointed" that other party leaders have not addressed the question of upgrading. The Alberta Liberals, Tories and Wildrose parties have all said they will not increase oil and gas royalties if they are elected.

Mason targeted both the Progressive Conservative and Wildrose parties in his announcement, noting the Conservatives are allowing an increasing amount of bitumen to be shipped out of the province, while the Wildrose is "bankrolled by oil companies hoping to keep royalties low and profit margins at record highs."

"The Conservative government has allowed bitumen to be exported from this province without being upgraded here, despite the promise made in the last election by former Premier Ed Stelmach, who likened the export of unprocessed bitumen from the province to scraping off the topsoil from your farm and selling it," Mason said.

By moving forward with the four proposed upgraders, which have been stalled since 2008, Mason said 4,000 permanent operations jobs and 12,000 jobs in service and related industries would be created.

Calgary Herald, Sat Apr 14 2012 Byline: Cailynn Klingbeil

NISKU – Alberta businesses, frustrated by red tape and delays in hiring temporary foreign workers, got a break Wednesday from the federal government.

Human Resources and Skills Development Minister Diane Finley announced that companies with an unblemished two-year history of hiring temporary workers from abroad will be allowed to apply for fast-tracked hiring permission.

"Employers with a strong track record in need of high-skilled workers will be able to obtain a Labour Market Opinion (LMO) within 10 business days," Finley said. "Even better news, this is effective immediately."

The Alberta Federation of Labour, however, said the announcement isn't all good news.

The new rules will result in lower wages for skilled workers and aggravate problems associated with a temporary foreign workforce, including people staying on illegally after their contracts expire, said AFL secretary-treasurer Nancy Furlong.

"If there is an ongoing need for workers, why not bring them in as permanent citizens?" asked Furlong, noting that labour groups were not invited to consultations over the changes.

Until now, companies had to pay workers what is known as the "prevailing wage." But that requirement now changes in the high-skill trades category.

"For added flexibility, wages up to 15 per cent below the average wage rate will be accepted so long as it can be clearly demonstrated the same wages are being paid to Canadian workers," Finley said at Wednesday's news conference in Nisku.

Furlong argued that 15-per-cent rule "interferes with supply and demand forces in the economy."

But getting that break on wages is a key factor to Ron Buchhorn, whose company runs a manufacturing business in Alberta and desperately needs welders and heavy-duty mechanics.

"Manufacturing cannot compete with wages in the primary industries — oilsands and mining and potash," said Buchhorn, vice-president of human resources for Advanced Engineering Products. His company is looking for 80 skilled workers for its operations here and in Saskatchewan.

In Alberta, "we can't compete with fly-in" work camps around Fort McMurray, which pay high wages and cover housing costs for workers, he added.

The company, which received the first speedy LMO on Wednesday, has looked for workers in Ontario and the Maritimes, but can't find the people it needs. These new rules "will enable us to increase our manufacturing capacity and increase service so we'll be more successful."

Under federal rules, employers must apply for LMOs before they can hire a foreign worker. The company must prove it has made an effort to recruit locally and within the country. If that was not successful, the company must then apply to Service Canada for permission to hire someone for a two-year period from outside the country.

But the process to get an LMO has been taking months, which is too long for many companies, says David MacLean, spokesman for the Alberta Enterprise Group, a business group that lobbies on economic issues.

"The temporary foreign worker process, as it stands, was too burdensome, too cumbersome, too complicated and there was too much red tape," said MacLean. "It just wasn't working to meet the needs in this economy."

The new rules apply to skilled labour categories only and the federal government expects to process about 150,000 temporary foreign worker applications from across the country this year, said Finley.

Bill Stewart of Merit Contractors Association calls the changes a step in the right direction, but just one piece of the puzzle to solve the looming labour shortage. His organization of non-union construction companies is eager to see details about how companies qualify to get on the preferred list.

"Recruiting internationally is not the first choice for construct industry as it's not cheap," he said.

Stewart says the merit contractors are also heartened by the efforts of federal Immigration Minister Jason Kenney, who is looking at changing immigration rules to let more skilled tradesmen into the country. Only a fraction of the 250,000 immigrants admitted annually are skilled workers, Kenney said, and that has to change.

Finley said the new system will cut paperwork for businesses since they'll be able to apply online. New compliance monitoring will ensure companies are treating workers fairly. She also said businesses who violate the rules will have their ability to hire temporary foreign workers suspended for two years.

Calgary Herald, Wed Apr 25 2012 Byline: Sarah O'Donnell and Sheila Pratt

New immigration criteria focuses on practical training and work experience rather than education

The federal government announced Tuesday it is creating a separate queue for foreign tradespeople, to ease labour shortages affecting industry.

The current federal skilled worker program's emphasis on academic qualifications has traditionally favoured professionals, meaning tradespeople have made up only a small percentage of those entering Canada.

A new, separate stream for tradespeople will place greater emphasis on practical training and work experience rather than formal education.

"We're going to have a more flexible system," Immigration Minister Jason Kenney said in a speech at the Calgary Chamber of Commerce.

Foreign workers are assessed against a 100-point grid examining several factors, including proficiency in English or French, education, work experience and whether they have arranged employment.

Kenney said he hopes the new program, with a revamped grid for tradespeople, will be in place by the end of 2012.

The minister estimated the program may only see a few thousand applicants at first, but expects that number to increase.

"It will probably start as a fairly small stream," he said. "It could grow into the tens of thousands."

The Canadian Association of Petroleum Producers welcomed the news, saying the industry is expecting to spend $55 billion on capital projects in 2012.

"It's going to require a lot of skilled labour to address this growth," spokesman Travis Davies said.

Hiring Canadian-trained workers and increasing mobility between provinces are favoured methods of finding workers, but Davies said those measures alone won't meet the industry's needs.

"We have to look beyond our borders," he said.

Alberta's largest labour organization, however, is concerned the scheme is moving in the wrong direction.

"The real question is whether we should be opening the floodgates to tradespeople from outside the country when we have 1.4 million Canadians looking for work," said Gil McGowan, president of the Alberta Federation of Labour. "We're concerned that giving employers quicker access to foreign journeyman is going to remove the incentive for construction employers to take on Canadian apprentices and train the next generation of Canadian tradespeople."

Canada admitted 48,678 people via the skilled worker program in 2010, but the government estimates only about three per cent of them are skilled tradespeople.

Overall, Canada has allowed an average of 254,000 permanent residents into the country per year since 2006.

The announcement Tuesday is the latest in a series of reforms to the immigration system recently unveiled by the federal government.

The moves, Kenney said, are aimed at better matching foreign-trained professionals with jobs here and reducing the time it takes to process their applications.

The government plans to hire an outside company to evaluate the credentials of foreign skilled worker applicants.

The idea, Kenney said, is to give would-be newcomers an idea of how their credentials stack up against someone with a similar Canadian education.

That initiative is linked to another government plan, to create a job bank of qualified foreign workers that would be available to prospective employers.

"We're going to look the quality of education and its relevance to the Canadian job market," he said. "We will bring (skilled workers) in, in double-time."

To speed up processing, Kenney said it was necessary for the government to close the files of anyone who applied to the skilled worker program before the end of February 2008.

Opponents have criticized the move, which may affect up to 300,000 people, but Kenney said Canada was losing too many skilled workers who opted to settle elsewhere instead of waiting years to get into Canada.

"The best and brightest were choosing not to come here," he said.

Calgary Herald, Tues Apr 10 2012 Byline: Jason Van Rassel

With Alberta's economy steaming ahead, industry leaders are welcoming a new federal immigration program designed to ease a shortage of skilled tradespeople.

The federal government announced Tuesday it is creating a separate queue for foreign tradespeople in an effort to combat labour shortages in construction and resource-based industries.

The new stream for tradespeople will place a greater emphasis on their practical training and work experience, rather than formal education.

"In the past it was virtually impossible for skilled tradespeople to get in through our rigid economic programs at the federal level," Immigration Minister Jason Kenney said in a speech at the Calgary Chamber of Commerce.

"And this meant that the Polish welder . . . American tradespeople couldn't get in through the skilled worker program.

"They didn't have a postsecondary degree."

Foreign workers are assessed against a 100-point grid examining several factors, including proficiency in English or French, education, work experience and whether they have arranged employment.

Proficiency in one of Canada's official languages remains important for skilled workers, said Kenney, but there will be more flexibility for tradespeople.

"You don't need university-level English to weld pipe. You need a workable level of English," he said.

Kenney said he hopes the new program, with a revamped grid for tradespeople, will be in place by the end of 2012.

The minister estimated the program may only see a few thousand applicants at first, but expects that number to increase. "It will probably start as a fairly small stream," Kenney told reporters afterward. "It could grow into the tens of thousands."

The Canadian Association of Petroleum Producers welcomed the news, saying the industry is expecting to spend $55 billion on capital projects in 2012. "It's going to require a lot of skilled labour to address this growth," spokesman Travis Davies said.

Hiring Canadiantrained workers and increasing mobility between provinces are favoured methods of finding workers, but Davies said those measures alone won't meet the industry's needs.

"We have to look beyond our borders," he said.

Alberta's largest labour organization, however, is concerned the scheme is moving in the wrong direction.

"The real question is whether we should be opening the floodgates to tradespeople from outside the country when we have 1.4 million Canadians looking for work," said Gil McGowan, president of the Alberta Federation of Labour. "We're concerned that giving employers quicker access to foreign journeyman is going to remove the incentive for construction employers to take on Canadian apprentices and train the next generation of Canadian tradespeople."

Canada admitted 48,678 people via the skilled worker program in 2010, but the government estimates only about three per cent of them are skilled tradespeople.

Overall, Canada has allowed an average of 254,000 permanent residents into the country per year since 2006.

The announcement Tuesday is the latest in a series of reforms to the immigration system recently unveiled by the federal government.

While the oil and gas sector may be a beneficiary of Tuesday's announcement, it's not the only sector concerned about a labour crunch.

"Labour shortages are the biggest economic drag on Alberta," said Ben Brunnen, chief economist at the Calgary Chamber of Commerce.

"The challenges our members are having are attracting and maintaining good employees. The demand in Alberta is across the board."

Dawn Farrell, president and CEO of TransAlta, said finding skilled workers is "a greater and greater problem almost every day" for the power company.

While TransAlta struggles to find workers in Alberta, it has plants in the U.S. with high rates of unemployment, said Farrell. "We're working together with the federal government on how to address that," she said.

All of the government's recent reforms are aimed at better matching foreign-trained workers with jobs here and reducing the time it takes to process their applications, said Kenney.

Part of the government's plan is creating a job bank of qualified applicants that prospective employers could use to find workers.

The government also plans to hire an outside company to evaluate the credentials of foreign skilled worker applicants in licensed professions, such as medicine or law.

The idea, Kenney said, is to give would-be newcomers an idea of how their credentials stack up against someone with a similar Canadian education. "We can give those applicants an indication of whether they have a better than even chance of getting their licence in Canada," he said.

Calgary immigration lawyer Raj Sharma said the dedicated stream for tradespeople should help address labour shortages.

But Sharma added he's concerned the government is placing too high an emphasis on matching newcomers with specific occupations.

Demand for certain jobs and professions can come and go, Sharma said and added it's also important to focus on an immigrant's work ethic and ability to adapt. "Looking at attributes, rather than a job description, is probably better," he said.

To speed up processing times for skilled worker applications, Kenney said it was necessary for the government to eliminate a huge backlog and close the files of anyone who applied before the end of February 2008.

Opponents have criticized the move, which may affect up to 300,000 people, but Kenney said Canada was losing too many skilled workers who opted to settle elsewhere instead of waiting years to get into Canada.

"The best and brightest were choosing not to come here," he said.

Sharma called the action a "tragedy," saying it unfairly penalized applicants who tried coming to Canada legally instead of jumping the queue with illegitimate refugee claims or by sneaking into Canada.

"It's not their fault (the government) couldn't process. These people put their lives on hold," he said.

Calgary Herald, Wed Apr 11 2012 Byline: Jason Van Rassel

The Canadian Construction Association (CCA) and a group of Alberta business associations are pushing for immigration reform to deal with a shortage of skilled labour.

The initiatives are happening at the same time the federal government is proposing changes to the skilled worker program.

"Canada's current immigration system does not adequately address the needs of the Canadian construction industry or the projected growth of the Canadian economy," said Michael Atkinson, president of the CCA.

"On the surface, the reforms outlined sound like they would go a long way to addressing the challenges that employers currently face to bring in skilled workers, which would ultimately contribute to a more competitive Canadian economy."

Citizenship, Immigration and Multiculturalism Minister Jason Kenney outlined plans for immigration reform, during a keynote address to the National Metropolis Conference on March 1.

The minster highlighted changes to the Federal Skilled Worker Program (FSWP), which would require applicants to have a job offer in Canada or experience in one of 29 occupations in demand.

The Federal Skilled Worker Program is Canada's most important pathway for immigrants to obtain permanent residency.

For several years, the CCA has been advocating for reforms to the FSWP, which make the immigration system more user friendly to the construction industry.

While Kenney was talking about a vision for immigration reform, a group of 19 business organizations called the Alberta Coalition for Action on Labour Shortages (ACALS) is asking the federal government to take action to deal with labour shortages in western Canada.

"Overall, what the group is saying is that we need recognition that the pending labour shortage has got to move up on the public policy agenda, in order for the economy to move forward," said Bill Stewart, vice president of Merit Contractors Association in Alberta, which is a member of the ACALS.

"The federal government knows there are labour market needs that could be better met by looking at how points are allocated to specific sectors under the skilled worker program."

Both Stewart and Atkinson agree that the current immigration system puts too much emphasis on language proficiency and post secondary education.

A maximum of 16 points (out of a total of 100) is awarded for high proficiency in the first official language.

Education points are awarded based on the credential and the number of associated years of education.

Skilled tradespeople often have a credential in their trade, but not the required years of education, so they lose points.

The latest data released by Statistics Canada last week shows that 36,770 skilled workers obtained Canadian permanent residency in 2011.

Skilled tradespeople make up a very small share of the total number of these people, who are entering Canada under the FSWP.

Added to this problem, a large backlog has developed over the last several years, as applications have outstripped annual processing targets.

As a result, there are significant delays in processing applications, with some application not being looked at for more than four years.

As of June 30th, 313,825 applications remained in the backlog.

"Regardless of the backlog, the current system does not work very well for the trades or technical requirements," said Stewart. "Under the current system, only 3.0 per cent of the people have a trades background."

In response to this problem, Citizenship and Immigration Canada is proposing to increase the maximum points awarded for proficiency in the first official language from 16 to 20, while establishing minimum language requirements, depending on the immigrant's occupational skill level.

According to Kenney, the new points system will place greater emphasis on the importance of language and recognize that a doctor and a welder need a different language ability to successfully integrate in Canada.

The Construction Sector Council forecasts rising labour requirements for new construction in Alberta between 2011 and 2019 will increase the labour force by 30,000 workers.

At the same time, expected exits from the labour force due to retirements and mortality total 35,000 workers.

Half of the total requirements will be met with 26,000 new entrants, which means there is a shortage of 40,000 construction workers that will need to come from outside Alberta.

The ACALS argues that the reform of the Temporary Foreign Worker (TFW) program is an important part of an overall strategy to fill this labour shortage.

Others disagree.

For example, the Alberta Federation of Labour argues that calls to expand the TFW are designed to drive down the wages in the province.

"Blowing the doors off the TFW program is not the solution that Alberta needs," said Gil McGowan, president of the Alberta Federation of Labour.

Instead, McGowan recommends that the government follow the advice of former Alberta premier Peter Lougheed and set a more reasonable pace of development in the oilsands.

He said that a more reasonable pace of development will allow labour needs to be met by the existing labour force in Canada.

Journal of Commerce, Wed Mar 7 2012 Byline: Richard Gilbert

EDMONTON - The Alberta Federation of Labour has released an analysis that supports its push to shorten waiting times for federal Employment Insurance benefits in Alberta.

The labour group says Albertans are being short-changed because they have to work more hours to qualify for benefits compared to workers in other provinces.

"The ranks of the unemployed in Alberta swell each month as layoffs continue," AFL President Gil McGowan said Sunday. "But the safety net we pay into is failing to stop their fall."

The labour group's analysis found that the number of unemployed in Alberta has doubled since October of last year to almost 154,000. The report also found that only 15 per cent of young Alberta workers are eligible of employment insurance when they lose their job.

The analysis calls for drastic changes to the employment insurance program, including a standard 360-hour eligibility period, elimination of the two-week waiting period and extending the benefit period to two years.

"Laid-off workers are getting hit hard by the recession," said McGowan. "It is the responsibility of the government to make sure they can continue to pay the rent and feed their families."

The report found most of the lost jobs have been full-time positions, while the number of people being forced to take part-time work in Alberta has increased significantly since last fall.

The analysis also found Alberta with the lowest percentage of jobless workers receiving unemployment benefits at 39 per cent, compared to 55 percentage of Quebec's jobless getting E-I benefits.

"But even workers who are lucky to get EI benefits find it simply isn't enough," said Tom Olenuk, President of the Edmonton and District Labour Council. "Rates are too low and for too many, their benefits get cut off too quickly."

The AFL said the federal government uses a complicated formula to set E-I criteria in each region.

In Alberta, the rules reflect the boom times that the province had been experiencing up to about a year ago - not the spike in employment that occurred after markets crashed last fall and energy prices began to plummet.

"The government's arbitrary rate setting did not take into account Alberta's resource-driven economy," says the nine-page report.

Alberta's labour federation is also calling for increased funding for training programs for the jobless.

Canadian Press, Sun Sept 6 2009Byline: Jim Macdonald

CALGARY - The Obama administration's decision to delay its approval of the Keystone XL pipeline could have serious consequences for the Alberta economy, and the energy sector that drives much of it, Premier Alison Redford warned Thursday.

"It is disappointing that after more than three years of exhaustive analysis and consultation on this critical project, we find out that a decision will be delayed until early 2013," she said.

TransCanada Corp.'s (TSX:TRP) proposed pipeline would carry millions of barrels of crude each week from the northern Alberta oilsands — and some U.S. oilfields along the way — to Texas refineries. The Gulf Coast is a coveted market for oilsands producers, many of which are in the midst of expanding their bitumen production.

The State Department said earlier Thursday it wants TransCanada to explore other routes for the controversial pipeline so it skirts ecologically sensitive areas of Nebraska. That will delay the US$7-billion project by years, and could kill it outright if TransCanada customers lose patience and find other alternatives.

The Alberta government respects the fact that the decision over the pipeline rests with U.S. authorities, but said Keystone XL is a key piece of infrastructure for Alberta.

"Our energy industry supports this province and this country, and it is imperative that we can move our products to market," Redford told a news conference.

Redford was already scheduled to visit Washington next week for the first time since becoming premier, and said she will press U.S. officials on the Keystone decision when she meets with them.

Her itinerary hasn't been altered in light of Thursday's developments, though that may change.

"There is a possibility, because dynamics are changing so quickly, that opportunities can present themselves. We'll assess that as this goes on."

It's hard at this point to pin down what revenue impact Alberta coffers may see if Keystone is delayed for a long time, or killed all-together.

"At this point in time...it is a project that is not currently on the books or providing revenue to the province of Alberta," she said.

"No doubt it would have an impact on our revenue, but at the end of the day, it's not detailed work that we've done in the absence of the project actually operating."

TransCanada CEO Russ Girling said he's confident Keystone XL will ultimately be approved.

"This project is too important to the U.S. economy, the Canadian economy and the national interest of the United States for it not to proceed," Girling said in a statement.

Travis Davies, spokesman for the Canadian Association of Petroleum Producers, said his group is also optimistic Keystone XL will go ahead on its own merit eventually.

"It's good for Canada, and it's good for the U.S. It makes sense economically, environmentally and from an energy supply standpoint," he told reporters.

The Canadian Chamber of Commerce said the United States risks missing out on the opportunity to create jobs and to wean itself off of crude imports from unfriendly regimes.

"There is no doubt that the rich energy supplies from Canada's oilsands will be brought to market. The only question now is whether the U.S. will be among the beneficiaries."

Unions in Canada have come out against Keystone because they say it would ship high-paying refining and upgrading jobs south of the border along with the raw bitumen.

Dave Coles, president of the Communications, Energy and Paperworkers Union of Canada, cheered the decision to delay a pipeline he called a "job killer."

"We have stepped back from the abyss," he said.

The Alberta Federation of Labour was also pleased with the delay, saying "it will give the Redford government an opportunity to pursue value-added opportunities here at home, rather than shipping unprocessed bitumen south for upgrading."

The review of new routes could be completed "as early as the first quarter of 2013," State Department said — several months after next November's presidential election. The State Department decision effectively means Obama can dodge a political bullet since he won't have to decide whether to approve the project until after U.S. voters go to the polls.

When Redford was asked whether the U.S. election had anything to do with the delay, she said: "Everybody watching knows we live in a complicated world."

The pipeline would traverse six U.S. states to Gulf Coast refineries. Its current proposed route crosses the Sand Hills area of Nebraska, the location of the Ogallala aquifer, a crucial source of drinking water to millions on the Great Plains.

"Taken together with the national concern about the pipeline's route, the department has determined it is necessary to examine in-depth alternative routes that would avoid the Sand Hills in Nebraska in order to move forward with a national interest determination for the presidential permit," the State Department said.

Obama praised the State Department's decision, saying it's necessary because a final decision "could affect the health and safety of the American people as well as the environment."

"The final decision should be guided by an open, transparent process that is informed by the best available science and the voices of the American people," Obama said in a statement.

The reaction from the Prime Minister's Office was of a decidedly different tone.

"We are disappointed," said Andrew MacDougall, a spokesman for Prime Minister Stephen Harper. Keystone XL, he said, promises to create thousands of jobs and billions of dollars in economic growth on both sides of the border.

"We remain hopeful the project will be decided on its merits and eventually approved. In the meantime, our government will continue to promote Canada and the oilsands as a stable, secure, and responsible source of energy for the world."

The decision represents a stunning victory for the North American environmental movement. For months, Keystone XL has been the target of angry protests on both sides of the Canada-U.S. border and a major source of consternation for Obama.

"A year ago this pipeline was assumed to be a done deal, but thanks to the amazing strength and determination of ordinary people concerned about water, climate change and the health of communities, we have a decision that brings us a little closer to the world we need," said Greenpeace anti-oilsands campaigner Mike Hudema.

A lobbyist for TransCanada expressed dismay about the decision, saying it stemmed from "a couple of senior advisers" in the White House.

"It's breathtaking; the White House's political operation gave in to the protesters, going completely outside the national interest and the three-year permit process that's been a painstaking one," the lobbyist, who asked not to be identified, told The Canadian Press.

"The ballsier thing would have been to either approve it or deny it, but to kick the can again is actually more difficult for the president politically. There's 20,000 jobs on the table and they did this to save one — Barack Obama's."

Indeed, the White House was reportedly becoming increasingly concerned that the Canadian pipeline would cost Obama much-needed votes in the election. Environmentalists within his liberal base had vowed to stay home if he gave Keystone XL the green light.

Global BC, Thurs Nov 10 2011

EDMONTON - With an unemployment rate of 4.9 percent, Alberta currently fares better than any other Canadian province. But despite being fairly insulated from the economic turmoil plaguing the rest of the world, our oil-rich province's economy is not without problems.

Unlike south of the border, though, Alberta's biggest labour worry is that there are actually 114,000 more jobs than people to fill them.

So in an effort to help find solutions to that predicament, the Alberta Coalition for Action on Labour shortage, comprised of 19 groups and businesses, has been formed. Its key message is that it should be easier for people to come and work in our prairie province.

"If you look at the issue of labour shortages, the problem is getting worse, not better," said Tim Shipton of the Alberta Enterprise Group.

"Right now...the governments seem to be talking at each other and not engaging in a conversation about the issues and finding productive, positive ways forward," added Richard Truscott with the Canadian Federation of Independent Business.

To reverse that trend, the coalition believes the government should help by easing immigration restrictions.

On the provincial front, they say to write to the Minister of Human Services, Dave Hancock, who tells us he's already in agreement.

"While we need to make sure that every Albertan has an opportunity to get the skills they need to participate in the economy, even with that we're going to need others."

It's a realization that some local businesses can support.

At Edmonton's All-Weather Windows, Paul Taylor said they're really starting to notice the talent pool shrinking as the number of job applications aren't keeping pace with order forms.

"It's just harder to get the right people into the organization," he said.

And while they remember this pattern from the last boom, this time, experts say there's a big difference: this boom isn't expected to be about western Canada's oil industry, but rather, it is due largely to an aging population and too many retirees.

Not everyone agrees with the new coalition's views, though. The Alberta Federation of Labour believes the problem facing Alberta is what it considers to be the government's failure to set a reasonable pace to oilsands development.

"If these employers really want to be able to man these projects, then they should talk to the government about approving 5 or 10 projects at once instead of 65 multi-billion dollar projects going on all at the same time," said the AFL's Gil McGowan.

He considers the coalition's solution of loosening immigration restrictions to be a short-term solution which will have long-term consequences of lowered wages.

McGowan said a better alternative would be for projects to be stretched out over longer periods of time "so that our existing Canadian construction labour force can do the work and then we can have 23 to 30 years of good employment for our trades people as oppposed to 5 years of intense development by temporary foreign workers followed by a bust, because I believe that's where we're headed."

While the groups may disagree on how to achieve change, both agree on that finding political solutions is especially important now, before the problem becomes even more widespread.

Global TV Edmonton, Fri Mar 2 2012

Re: "Want to enjoy great wages and job security?" by Barbara Yaffe, Feb. 22.

Yaffe quotes former Reform MP Herb Grubel, who wants to deprive public servants of the right to strike. Wow!

The most recent example of someone trying to stop public servants from striking was Egypt's Hosni Mubarak. Nice company you're keeping. The right to collective bargaining and collective action is fundamental to democracy -and is largely responsible for all those things we enjoy, like 40-hour work weeks, statutory holidays, benefits and a strong economy fuelled by a strong middle class.

Next, Yaffe complains about the rate of pay increases for unionized public-sector workers between 1998 and 2009. Missing are figures for the previous decade, which saw a massive attack on the wages and jobs of public servants.

Then, the column blames bureaucrat raises for a large part of the federal deficit, but fails to point out the effect of massive tax cuts handed to corporations making billions and, in Alberta, to wealthy individuals making millions. If you really want to balance the books, try restoring taxation levels so everybody pays their fair share.

Albertans and Canadians have said time and time again that they want quality public services and are prepared to pay for them in the way of taxes. The alternative is privatizing services, which will result in an unacceptable decline in quality as corporations cut corners to improve bottom lines.

Edmonton Journal, Mon Feb 28 2011Byline: Gil McGowan

Alberta has nothing to fear from a federal government led by Jack Layton, says provincial New Democratic Party Leader Brian Mason.

Despite the federal Conservatives' insistence that NDP environmental policies would ruin Alberta's energy industry, Mason said Friday the party's national leader "understands the importance of the oilsands."

Layton has vowed to eliminate federal subsidies to the energy sector and use the cash for renewable energy projects.

The party wants a moratorium on new oilsands projects until environmental issues are better managed, and a national cap and trade system for large industrial greenhouse gas emitters.

"There needs to be a systematic plan for the further development of the oilsands, which maximizes jobs and improves our environmental performance," Mason said, noting the Tories have also talked about implementing a cap and trade system with the U.S.

However, Mason acknowledged he has talked to Layton about the party's approach to the oilsands, including giving up the word "tarsands" -which he said has become a pejorative term used by opponents of the industry.

"There's an increasing sensitivity to some of those feelings here in Alberta," Mason said.

But Calgary Southeast Conservative incumbent Jason Kenney said Layton would "shutter the oilsands," and insisted unionized workers should vote against the NDP because the party is a threat to jobs in the oilpatch and associated industries.

"The NDP policy on the economy and energy would be a disaster for Canada, but it would be a particular disaster for Alberta."

The provincial NDP leader was speaking Friday at the Alberta Federation of Labour convention in Calgary. The mood was jubilant as speakers noted poll results show the NDP leading the Liberals, and close to the Tories.

Lethbridge electrician Richard Merrick said Alberta is still an uphill battle for the NDP, but he hasn't ever felt such momentum. "It's awesome," he said.

In a speech, Mason called on union members to actively support local NDP candidates. He argued Alberta needs to send at least some New Democrat MPs to Ottawa to represent the province's views, should the party form or be a part of the next government.

Calgary Herald, Sat Apr 30 2011 Byline: Kelly Crydermann

Alberta union leader Gil McGowan met with federal politicians in Ottawa Thursday to protest a proposed extension of the Keystone XL pipeline, which he says will pump jobs into the United States rather than build opportunities to refine raw bitumen in Fort McMurray or Fort Saskatchewan.

"Frankly we were looking for allies, and we found them," McGowan said after the meeting, which was attended by opposition MPs.

The Alberta Federation of Labour president called the pipeline expansion a "job killer," suggesting its completion will ruin the chances of thousands of jobs being created in Alberta. Pulling from a cross-section of reports that show the pipeline could provide 99,000 jobs to the U.S. economy by 2020 and as many as 270,000 jobs by 2030. McGowan said the Keystone XL project will create few new jobs in Canada.

"It's clear to us that the majority of Albertans and the majority of Canadians would like to see us move up the value ladder with our oilsands resources, rather than sell our resources south of the border in their raw form," he said.

Upon completion, the $12-billion pipeline expansion is expected to push about 900,000 barrels of bitumen from Alberta to Texas each day.

But Shawn Howard, a spokesman for TransCanada - the company building the pipeline extension - pointed out Thursday no one is in the market to build a new refinery in Alberta, so Canadian jobs aren't being lost.

"We don't go and build a pipeline like Field of Dreams, where we build it and hope we can fill it. We do this in response to demand that the market has identified," Howard said.

No refining jobs would have been created in Alberta as a result of the project, Howard said. "Good luck trying to get a refinery built. It's very difficult; it's extremely expensive."

McGowan said it is up to provincial and federal governments to tighten export regulations to require more upgrading be done in Alberta. "Just because it's cheaper for companies (to export) doesn't mean that we as the owners of the resource should allow that to happen."

Vancouver Sun, Fri Sept 23 2011 Byline: Trish Audette (Edmonton Journal)

The Alberta Federation of Labour, which represents 145,000 workers, is adding its voice to the growing list of opponents of a proposed pipeline project that would ship raw bitumen from Alberta's oilsands to Texas refineries.

If the extension of the Trans-Canada Keystone X-L pipeline is approved, it would stretch 3 feet wide and run 2,600 kilometres from Hardisty all the way to Texas - the length of about 26,000 football fields.

The project is expected to cost 7 billion dollars, but is also anticipated to have an economic impact in the billions, as it would potentially almost double oil production in Alberta to a million barrels a day.

"It's hard for me to imagine that the eventual decision would be not to build that. The economic case is so overwhelming," said Prime Minister Stephen Harper in New York on Wednesday.

The U.S. State Department is in the midst of deciding whether the project is in their national interests, and will be holding public consultation meetings across the pipeline route over the next three weeks.

But environmental groups have already been making their voices heard, staging two weeks of protests outside the White House in opposition of the pipeline this past month.

Now economic groups are also fighting to stop the construction of the project, arguing the pipeline would allow the US to take Alberta's crude oil and reap the rewards for refining it. Gil McGowan, the president of the Alberta Federation of Labour, believes it would be more responsible for the province to develop its refining capabilities, instead of just shipping raw bitumen to be refined south of the border.

"As an Albertan, I'm profoundly worried," said McGowan in Ottawa on Thursday. "Once the construction is complete, all we are going to be left with is a pipeline sucking up our resources south of the border, and no jobs for future generations."

He argues approving Keystone XL would create hundreds of thousands of jobs in the U.S., but would only add about a dozen permanent jobs in Alberta.

Harper's government is refuting that claim though.

"The fact is the oilsands are responsible for over 140,000 jobs across Canada," said Natural Resources Minister Joe Oliver in the House of Commons, in response to questions from Laurin Liu, the NDP MP for Riviere-des-Mille-Iles, Que. "The job number is expected to grow to almost half a million jobs...Employment in Canada is much too important to be used to make political gains."

A final meeting on the pipeline project will be held in Washington on October 7th, with a final decision from the U.S. State Department expected by the end of the year.

Global Edmonton, Thurs Sept 22 2011

link to video

EDMONTON – There's no denying the public sector took a hit in the 2013 Alberta Budget.

In fact, Gil McGowan, the President of the Alberta Federation of Labour claims Thursday's budget introduces the deepest cuts across the public sector that the province has seen since what he calls "the worst days of the Klein era."

As the province aims to deal with a roughly $2 billion deficit, it has flatlined spending. The budget's hard line applies to teachers, nurses, health sciences workers and civil servants. Many are in bargaining or about to start this spring. The budget also revealed about 80 civil service positions will be lost with more job cuts likely as the Redford government continues to reorganize departments.

So what does this all mean for the every day Albertan?

"It will hurt," McGowan says. "It will mean larger class sizes, it will mean less frontline service, and it's going to be very difficult for us to staff all these schools and hospitals that the government promises to build."

He believes that as the wealthiest province in Canada, if anyone should be able to pay for public service to move their economy forward, it's Alberta.

McGowan also thinks that the province's current fiscal problems date back to the time of Premier Ralph Klein.

"While it's true that he got rid of the deficit and the debt, he actually laid the groundwork for the deficit we're dealing with today – by slashing corporate taxes, introducing a flat tax that benefited the wealthy, and presiding over literally billions of dollars of royalty giveaways. When you give away your revenue source, you can't be surprised that you have a hard time funding things."

Political scientist Chaldeans Mensah of Grant MacEwan University points out that Klein did an "across the board cut."

"This government is using a different approach," he explains. "They want to borrow money, and this is why they've introduced the Fiscal Management Act that will allow them to borrow, and eventually it will create a debt, but they call it 'net financial assets,' so they've come up with a new term to describe the debt situation."

Mensah adds that in addition to trying to sell Albertans on this budget, she also has to sell her party on it.

"I think she needs to convince Tory party members that this new direction is not markedly different from the views in the past. She faces a leadership view in November, and if she's not careful, and doesn't sell this to the membership, there could be trouble politically."

Meanwhile, Finance Minister Doug Horner says he doesn't think public service unions should be surprised that the province did not allow for any salary increase. The government has warned for some months that salaries for teachers, doctors and nurses here are higher than elsewhere, he adds.

"When you look at comparative numbers from across Canada on a market-based perspective, we have the highest paid teachers and highest paid doctors in the country...This is somewhat of a reset for us to get us back to reasonable levels of expenditures."

Global Edmonton, Friday, Mar. 8, 2013Byline: Trish Kozicka, Global News

Hundreds of Fort McMurray workers are expected to rally tonight to send a message to the Conservative government and to Oilsands Companies that the boom in Alberta needs to be shared among all Albertans. The rally coincides with the visit of many Conservative MLAs to tour Fort McMurray.

"Tonight's rally is an event organized by local workers who are frustrated with recent developments in the Oilsands projects," says Alberta Federation of Labour President Gil McGowan. "It is sending a message that Alberta is built by workers, and that workers deserve a fair share of the economic prosperity."

At issue are attempts by oilsands companies to lower wages and working conditions at their mega-projects north of Fort McMurray. Three strategies are being employed: use of employer-friendly unions willing to sign sweetheart deals, use of non-union contractors, and the threat of importing temporary foreign workers.

"At a time of record profits for energy corporations, instead of sharing the growing pie, these companies are trying to trim the edges of the workers' piece," says McGowan. "This is about their greed and the rights of workers to receive a fair share."

"And the government has been actively supporting this effort to bust unions and drive down wages, through the use of rarely used provisions in the Labour Code," adds McGowan.

"In the past, all oilsands construction was built using union labour  not because the employers liked unions, but because unions were able to provide high quality workers who could get the work done," observes McGowan. "The unions are still keeping their end of the bargain, but the employers are breaking it.

"The rally is to let MLAs and the big energy companies know that workers won't take this lying down."

- 30 -

EDMONTON - Oil producers could lose $72 billion over a nine-year-period if a pipeline to carry Alberta bitumen to the West Coast isn't built, a new report for the Alberta government says as community hearings for the proposed Enbridge Northern Gateway project are about to begin this month in British Columbia.

In a 44-page report submitted before Christmas to the federal government panel reviewing the pipeline project, consultants for Alberta Energy peg potential losses for oil producers in the project at $8-billion every year between 2017 and 2025.

The forecast, drawn up by Houston-based consultant Harold York for the firm Wood Mackenzie, is largely based on the expectation that Alberta oil sells at a higher price on an international market than it does in North America.

"If we can get it offshore, there are a lot more markets available to us which are willing to pay a higher price," Alberta Energy spokesman Tim Markle said.

The outlook does not deal with the oilsands production boost anticipated as a result of pipeline construction. It also does not deal explicitly with the effects that offshore bitumen sales would have on oil royalties collected by the Alberta government.

Currently, Alberta's main oil customer is the United States, which recently held off on approving the massive Keystone XL pipeline extension to the Gulf of Mexico.

The Dec. 21 Wood Mackenzie report flags Alberta Energy as the provincial government's lead representative going into 18 months of hearings that start next week. But critics charge the report positions the province to offer just "half of the balance sheet" to the federal panel by not raising environmental issues as well.

"In order to make an informed decision, you need to consider both the benefits and the costs of the pipeline ..." said Pembina Institute oilsands analyst Nathan Lemphers. "Is it up to environmental groups and concerned individuals, First Nations, to be raising this? Or should it be our governments or proponents doing this?"

Other departments, like Alberta Environment and Water or Sustainable Resource Development, will take a back seat during the hearings, offering Alberta Energy supporting information as necessary.

A spokeswoman for Alberta Environment said the department has no plans to provide its own report on the impacts of the pipeline to the review panel.

"We're not officially participating in the hearings, but we are supporting Energy," said Jessica Potter.

Noting that Alberta already has pipeline infrastructure in place east of the B.C.-Alberta border, Potter called the Enbridge review "a B.C. hearing, not an Alberta hearing."

The provincial government's role, she said, is "to ensure Alberta's energy future. To say, 'Yes, we have the energy required to make this pipeline worthwhile to us.' But we already have our regulatory process in place, our frameworks and stuff that legislate how pipelines are put in, how energy is developed in the process. From our perspective we have that and we're confident in our frameworks."

The Pembina Institute is an Alberta-based think-tank focused on energy solutions. It is not opposed to pipeline infrastructure in general, but has weighed in against the Northern Gateway project because of environmental questions members say have not yet been answered. Lemphers said the province should be discussing the potential costs of cleaning up pipeline or tanker spills and the potential environmental liabilities of additional oilsands development.

The Wood Mackenzie report deals with the outlook for Alberta's share in the international crude oil market, which is expected to grow significantly in the years ahead and demand "additional export capacity ... by 2017."

"When you're having a pipeline of this magnitude (being) brought forward, it's critical that the panel have balanced information in front of it in order to make an informed decision," Lemphers said. "While it's absolutely important that there be information about the economic benefits of the pipeline, that also needs to be balanced with some of the potential economic liabilities, some of the environmental risks that are associated with the project."

The report also does not explore increased refinery capacity not currently planned for in Alberta, a sticking point for labour groups who want to see more jobs in Alberta for refining bitumen.

"Here in Alberta, we should have had a debate about whether our province should take the high road or the low road when it comes to oilsands development. The high road being focused on moving up the value ladder into upgrading, refining (and) creating the thousands of jobs that would come with that. The low road being the rip-it and ship-it approach to shipping bitumen in its rawest form," said Alberta Federation of Labour president Gil McGowan. "Unfortunately, we never had that debate. The government and the oil industry decided for us."

Community hearings for the Northern Gateway project, expected to carry oilsands oil from Bruderheim, Alta. to Kitimat, B.C., begin in Kitimat on Jan. 10. More than 4,000 people have applied to give oral evidence. Edmonton hearings are scheduled to take place Jan. 24-31.

If the province chooses to appear before the hearing panel, it would not be until the fall of 2012, said Markle. The Alberta Energy spokesman said an elected member of government likely would not appear.

Officially, the provincial government is not necessarily supporting the proposed pipeline, but access to new markets.

"If there was another pipeline that came through and made an application, we'd look at it, make sure it met all the standards that Alberta sets out, and if we (found) that it was in the best interests of Albertans, then we might support that one as well," Markle said.

The federal joint review panel is an independent body mandated by the federal environment ministry and the National Energy Board. Its recommendation and environmental assessment of the project will inform Ottawa's final decision on the pipeline.

taudette@edmontonjournal.com

Key findings in the report, "A Netback Impact Analysis of West Coast Export Capacity," now available on the federal review panel's website:

•"Canadian producers not having sufficient access to premium heavy crude refining markets could lose about $8/bbl. for every Canadian heavy crude barrel, with a revenue impact averaging $8 billion (Cdn) per year for 2017 to 2025."

•"By 2025 Canadian heavy crude production volumes could reach nearly 3,000 kbd (thousand barrels per day), primarily dominated by unconventional grades."

•In the next 15 years, "Canada could be the third largest heavy crude oil producer after Saudi Arabia and Iraq."

•Today, Alberta's crude oil production is largely delivered to hubs in Edmonton and Hardisty feeding four major pipeline networks: Enbridge Mainline, Kinder Morgan Express, Kinder Morgan Trans-Mountain, and TransCanada Keystone.

Click here to read the Wood Mackenzie report and all documents provided to the joint review panel.

Edmonton Journal, Mon Jan 2 2012 Byline: Trish Audette

When Premier Alison Redford talks about "a bitumen bubble," she's referring to the record amount of Alberta bitumen for sale, and the low price it's fetching in the U.S. these days.

That is partly because of competition from new supplies of higher quality crude oil from the U.S.

The price of bitumen dropped another $20 a barrel this month, so Redford's treasury will be short $6 billion by the end of next fiscal year.

Is this price gap between conventional oil and bitumen normal?

The fact is there has always been a gap between the North American price of conventional oil (West Texas International) and a barrel of sticky, thick bitumen, known as Western Canadian Select. (The world price, known as the Brent price, is another benchmark set by North Sea oil).

WTI is hovering around $95 a barrel, Brent slightly higher around $110, while bitumen, usually about $20-a-barrel less, dropped to $50 last month.

Bitumen fetches a lower price partly because it needs more upgrading before it can be turned into gasoline, says Michael Moore, energy expert in the University of Calgary's School of Public Policy. That costs money, so refineries won't pay as much for bitumen.

Usually the gap has hovers around 20-25 per cent, and in the last few months it went higher. But the gap has been higher in the past.

The lack of pipeline capacity makes it more difficult to get bitumen to market and using rail is expensive, says Moore. But there are other challenges, he adds.

The new supplies of lighter, easier-to-use oil from North Dakota are more attractive to refiners.

Then, not all U.S. refineries can handle bitumen, says Moore. Alberta bitumen has to get to specially adapted refineries on the U.S. Gulf coast.

But there's competition at those special refineries too - from heavy oil from Venezuela and Mexico which can get there cheaper, says Moore.

"So the refiners call the shots and they establish the discount. Our oil always had to go a long way and takes more processing."

So will more pipelines help?

Yes, the Keystone pipeline to the U.S. Gulf coast will be a big help, says Moore - "though we will still be trading in competition with other heavy oil like ours from Mexico. Right now, there's a lot of competition."

Gil McGowan of the Alberta Federation of Labour says there's no doubt Alberta is facing a glut in the oil market and that puts downward pressure on the price of bitumen.

The low price is a sign the market doesn't want to buy more Alberta bitumen, he says. The better solution is to upgrade the bitumen into synthetic crude in Alberta, "so we can sell a product the market wants."

"For Redford to suggest the only solution is to build more pipelines is not only simplistic, it is misleading. There are many other options," McGowan said.

Synthetic crude (upgraded bitumen), produced by a handful of oilsands companies, can be used in any refinery to make jet fuel or gasoline and it has occasionally fetched higher than the WTI price of oil, he noted.

U of C economist Ron Kneebone said the government has created its own problems by continuing to rely on volatile oil and gas revenues - despite frequent warnings from economists and its own advisers.Calgary Herald, Wednesday, Jan. 30, 2013Byline: Sheila Pratt, Edmonton Journal

But we can win says economist Robyn Allan. Last in a series on Norway's petro-policies and lesson

[Editor's note: The Tyee sent veteran energy issues journalist Mitchell Anderson to Norway to learn how it amassed a $600 billion oil savings fund for its population of under 5 million, a stark contrast to Canada. To finish the series we invited him to share his views on how those lessons could be applied here. With input from economist Robyn Allan, here they are.]

Why do we tolerate homelessness and poverty in Canada? Underfunding for our schools and health care system? Why is our government eliminating 20,000 public sector jobs in a supposed effort to balance the books?

Imagine instead if Canada was a country capable of developing a national oil strategy similar to what has been achieved in Norway. This tiny nation enjoys full employment and enviable social programs, has no public debt, $600 billion in the bank, and remarkable public buy-in about their petroleum industry. Could we do it here? Do we have the guts to seize our economic destiny?

Such a system might seek to maximize employment, tax revenues and environmental protection -- exactly the opposite motivations of most extractive industries. There is another public policy goal that is of no interest to private companies: the energy security of our nation.

Seen through this lens, how is Canada doing? Abysmally, by four measures:

1. Dependency. Even with our vast oil wealth, Canada currently relies on other countries for about 50 per cent of our supply -- so-called "unethical oil" from the volatile Middle East. Proposals to pipe unrefined bitumen from western Canada to Asia will increase this dangerous dependence since Alberta will have to import vast amounts of condensate from the Middle East to dilute thick bitumen enough for pipeline transport.

2. Staying in the red. Alberta has been unable to balance the books since 2007, burning through $17.7 billion of past oil wealth, with another $3 billion deficit forecast for the coming budget.

3. Draining at full tilt. Labour and production costs are through the roof, at least until the next employment bust. Both the Alberta Federation of Labour and the late premier Peter Lougheed have both called for slower the pace of oil sands growth. Ten proposed upgraders have been cancelled since the 2007 recession, replaced instead with pipeline proposals for unprocessed diluted bitumen. With resource values rising relative to global currencies, what's the rush?

4. Getting global black eye. The oil sands have such a credibility problem the Alberta government spends $25 million a year countering "baseless" criticism from environmental groups.

Robyn Allan's prescriptions

Robyn Allan thinks we can do better. She is a British Columbia economist, former CEO of the provincial insurance corporation and outspoken critic of the Northern Gateway proposal to pipe diluted bitumen to Kitimat. She also believes the recent retreat from value-added processing in Alberta is not only a threat to the B.C. coastline, but to the entire Canadian economy. In an interview for this series she told The Tyee:

"Canada has an energy strategy, but it is being developed in a handful of boardrooms of multinational oil companies and national oil companies of foreign governments. And that strategy seems to be to extract oil sands bitumen as quickly as possible, mix it with distillate imported in increasing amounts from the Middle East, and move it down pipelines to Asia and the U.S. Gulf Coast. And that strategy is going to hollow out Canada's oil sector, move us away from creating jobs and value-added refining, and increase pressures on our exchange rate and the non-oil sectors of our economy. And when the boom becomes a bust, we won't have a strong economic fabric to fall back on."

So why does she feel so many state-owned oil companies now clamouring for a piece of the oil sands?

"More than 80 per cent of global oil reserves are controlled by state own oil companies, and there's good reason for that. Canada is the only major oil-exporting country in the world without a national oil company. Of the remaining global oil resources open for private sector investment, Canada has the majority. That's why national oil companies from China, Korea and Norway, and now maybe Kuwait and India, are coming here to buy up our resources -- it's the last big game in town."

Allan believes our country is becoming dangerously exposed in a world increasingly short of energy, especially as we allow state-owned interests from other nations to snap up our globally-strategic resources.

"Canada is being outplayed. We are losing control of our natural resources. We're losing control of our environmental standards. And we're losing the ability to upgrade and add value in Canada. We're not even beginning to use the leverage in this country that we have to control and manage the pace of our development and ensure that oil resource returns come to the people of Canada."

So what can we do about it? Allan feels one of the key problems is that our petroleum continues to be sold in American, not Canadian currency.

"When the price of oil goes up, the value of our dollar goes up and this creates problems not only for the manufacturing sector but for our oil industry as well. Because we trade our oil in U.S. dollars, any Canadian oil producer finds that their profits fall when they sell their product in U.S. dollars and have to repatriate those revenues into Canadian dollars. The ability of the oil industry to expand and grow is hamstrung by an appreciation of the Canadian dollar. The oil sector itself hurts, it not just manufacturing, tourism, forestry and other sectors."

She also sees a linkage between our inflated currency and the cancelled upgrading facilities in Alberta.

"We need to address the issue that maybe because our currency has appreciated in value, it's not as economic to build upgraders in Canada. We have a natural resource in Canada that's traded in U.S. dollars. Why? When Russia decided to trade their oil with China they elected not to do it in U.S. dollars, but their own currencies. We have to start thinking about what is in the long-term interest of Canada, not what is in the best interests of a handful of oil companies."

Upgrade here first, then ship

By choosing Canada instead of China, Allan believes Albertans would benefit from higher prices and greater economic stability. Nation building through such mutually profitable arrangements might prove far more productive than past interprovincial posturing.

"One of reasons that bitumen is not capturing the value that western producers want is that its not good enough quality. So if we upgraded it in Alberta into a product that North America wants, we might solve so many problems. Everybody in Canada could win if less expensive western Canadian crude got to eastern Canada.

"At the recent Northern Gateway Hearings in Edmonton, the Joint Review Panel was told by Enbridge's expert witnesses that right now Eastern Canada is buying imported crude at $20 to $30 more than the price of western Canadian crude. If that's the case, that works out to about 15 cents a litre at the pump. Western producers could get a price premium of five cents a litre over what they are getting now, the refiners in eastern Canada could save five cents a litre on their crude supply and consumers could save five cents a litre when they fill up at the pump.

"So if that happened, producers and refiners would make more money and consumers would spend less money. That's got to have a stimulative effect on our Canadian economy."

Allan points out that shipping upgraded crude rather than bitumen would also require half as much pipeline capacity since we would not need to build supply lines for imported condensate. And most importantly, upgraded Alberta crude should be moving east rather than unrefined bitumen moving west.

"TransCanada Pipelines have said they are looking at converting one of their natural gas pipelines to ship Western Canadian crude to eastern Canada. That could be up to 800,000 barrels a day and would be a tremendous boost to the Canadian economy. We should be focusing everything we can to get that to happen. And the way to get that to happen is to say no to the Northern Gateway pipeline. The best thing that British Columbia could do is restrict bitumen from coming into this province, period. That would essentially be a little bit of tough love to Alberta."

The late premier Peter Lougheed urged Albertans to "think like an owner." That determination to do what's in the interest of Canadians rather than companies is what Allan seems to be championing as well.

"I would hope that the real issue here is what can we do to support and develop the future health and long-term growth of the Canadian economy. We need to stop responding to the preferences of corporations that don't have the Canadian national interest at heart. They don't. They're not meant to.

"Every single time issues are raised such as energy security in Canada, value-added and upgrading, concerns over the appreciation of our dollar -- the oil industry goes crazy. And the reason they do is because these are serious issues that need to be addressed and they could be addressed relatively easily for our long-term benefit. What the oil industry doesn't yet understand is that many of these changes would be for their long-term benefit as well."

A challenging question

The Enbridge and Kinder Morgan pipelines will obviously benefit China and the shareholders of private oil companies, but what is in Canada's interest? Are we even asking that question?

At the end of this series I'm left reflecting on the blunt advice of Norwegian petroleum engineer Rolf Wiborg: "You have to leave the feudal thinking and leave the idea that people coming to exploit you have the right to tell you what to do.... It can be done, but do the Canadian people have the power and the will? Do they have the collectiveness and guts to do it?"

How about it Canada? Do we?

The Tyee, 3 Oct 2012Byline: Mitchell Anderson

Alberta's progressives should stop defending the status quo and start defining their own visions for provincial policy, the head of the left-wing Parkland Institute said Saturday.

In a fiery address at the end of a conference on economic and social policy, Ricardo Acuna urged Alberta's left to lay out what it wants in health care and education, rather than just organizing to battle against periodic cuts.

"It's time to stop fighting back and start moving forward," Acuna told the audience of about 80.

"It's time to stop being embarrassed or apologizing for our political positions. It's time to stop defending a status quo we find inadequate and start fighting for radical proposals."Acuna was speaking after two days of sessions organized by the Parkland Institute and the Alberta Federation of Labour.

In one talk earlier Saturday, economist Greg Flanagan told the crowd that despite ballooning deficits, Alberta's budget problems are about revenue, not spending.Adjusted for population, Alberta takes in billions less in tax revenue than any other province, said Flanagan, who recently retired from the University of Lethbridge. Even minor boosts to consumption or income taxes could easily eliminate the province's nearly $5-billion deficit, he added.

Flanagan's talk hit on a number of recurring themes at the conference, most notably that Alberta's tax system is unfair and that, during a recession, more public spending, not less, is needed.

Acuna, though, urged the attendees to move away from talk about balance sheets. Progressives should lay out explicit plans for the systems they want and only then ask people to pay more for them, he said.

"How did we get here?" Acuna asked. "How did we start talking about the bottom line, not people?"

Answering his own question, he laid part of the blame on the news media."Twenty years ago, we had labour reporters in this province," he said.He also called on progressives to make their voices heard.

"Can you imagine if we had commentators as far to the left as (radio host Dave) Rutherford is to the right?" he asked.

"Can you imagine if we had columnists as far to the left as ( Edmonton Journal columnist) Lorne Gunter is to the right?"

The weekend conference, which took place at the University of Alberta, featured panels on alternatives to tax and spending cuts, lessons learned from the Klein-era cuts and public policy solutions, among others.

The Parkland Institute is a nonpartisan research centre at the university.

Edmonton Journal, Sun Feb 14 2010Byline: Richard Warnica

Gil McGowan, President of the Alberta Federation of Labour,  June 13, 2006

Sometimes life proceeds as expected - sometimes you get thrown a curve ball

Getting an invitation to speak at this conference was a curve ball

It would be an understatement to say it's unusual for management here in Alberta to come to labour for advice - especially management in the resource sector.

But the truth is there are actually a lot of things we can agree on. For example, we all want the Alberta economy to remain strong. And we all want individual Albertans to benefit from that prosperity.

And despite the stereotypes about unions - that we're always spoiling for a fight and never want to cooperate - the truth is we want to be constructive.

In that spirit of constructive engagement, I'd like to do three things this afternoon:

First, I'd like to begin by talking about the nature of the challenge that we face in the Alberta labour market - for the obvious reason that if you don't have a clear understanding of the problem, you'll have a hard time coming up with solutions.

Second, I'd like to offer suggestions about what, from a union perspective, employers should be doing - and what they shouldn't be doing - if they want to attract and retain employees.

Third, I'd like to step back and look at the big picture. In particular, I'd like to address the question: what can and should government and business, broadly defined, be doing to help makes the challenges presented by Alberta's tight labour market more manageable?

I'm big on metaphors and analogies - so I'll describe my mission is nautical terms: what I'd like to do today is talk about just how choppy the waves are in Alberta's labour market; what individual firms can and should be doing to avoid getting swamped; and what we can do collectively to calm the waters and keep all of our boats afloat&

So just how high are the seas?

Looking at the Alberta economy from a distance, it looks like an almost entirely unblemished good news story.

There is unprecedented demand for our most important commodities: oil and gas. And all signs suggest that demand will remain strong.

In the past, oil producers like Alberta were almost entirely dependent on the U.S. economy. If demand fell there, world price would fall. But this time around things are different - U.S. is not the only game in town. China, and to a lesser extent India, have emerged as major forces. So even if the U.S. economy slows oil prices may dip, but probably won't collapse.

We're also bumping up against the reality of declining world-wide petroleum stocks in a way that was the case in the 70s or 80s.

The result for Alberta has been staggering amounts of money being invested in our economy - particularly in oilsands development. Depending who you talk to, more than $100 billion in energy projects are on the books.

At the same time, after years of neglect, the government is finally spending substantial amounts of money on public infrastructure. This spending is welcome, and many would argue long overdue. But in an important way, they're competing with the private sector for resources.

All of this has led to record employment levels, strong job growth, strong consumer demand. And after 15 years of virtually zero growth in average real wage, over last three years we've been seeing wage increases that have been keeping ahead of inflation.

Some critics in the business community have complained about the increase in average wages. But, from our perspective, the real test of an economy is if it's working for ordinary people. So we strongly believe that rising incomes are something to be celebrated, not feared.

But, despite first impressions, the Alberta economy in not all good news - there are downsides.

First, the truth is that prosperity in Alberta is not universally shared. Energy is king, but it is not everything. Prices have been going up for oil and gas, but not for many of the other things we produce. Livestock, agricultural products, forestry products & the Alberta Advantage has not included rising demand or prices for these things.

Just last week, Stats Can released a report showing that farm incomes in Alberta have fallen by 50 per cent - 50 per cent in one year. The price for cattle about the same as it was during the BSE crisis. And the price for wheat, barley and oil seed, lowest in decades

In forestry, I've been talking to our members in the Hinton pulp mill and our guys who work in saw mills. Their employers aren't talking about growth. In many cases they're talking about lay-offs.

Wage increases are also not universally shared. The AFL represents 31 different unions in all sectors. One of our big private sector affiliates is UFCW, which represents thousands of retail workers. Their employers - companies like Safeway and Superstore - are not giving out double-digit wage increases.

And just this morning, I was on the phone with a group of school board workers in the Pincher creek area who are looking at a wage offer of 9 per cent - over five years.

It sounds like what workers came to expect during the last recession - but it's still the reality for many.

So, like the broader economy, the Alberta labour market, is a complex beast. The headline in today's Calgary Herald screams about a labour shortage & a shortfall for the city of 30,000 workers over the next ten years. It sounds ominous. But the truth is much more nuanced.

The construction labour market has been the subject of greatest attention lately. And there is no doubt that the industry is red hot & thanks mostly to oil sands development. But some important points need to be made about construction.

For example, construction is by its very nature cyclical. 60,000 trades people may be needed this year, but maybe only 10,000 the next year. That's the way construction works.

We're currently at or near the top of the cycle. But even here at the peak, within the construction labour market, we need to acknowledge that the situation is fluid.

The best you can say is that some trades are in shortage at some times & it depends on which trade and which time.

So right now for example, several major projects have recently been completed & the biggest example being the UE-1 expansion at Syncrude. The result is that hundreds of trades people who have been tied up in some cases for two or three years are now available for work.

The Alberta Building Trades Council just completed a survey of hiring halls around the province and what they found was that there are literally thousands of unionized trades people available for work.

So for those of us in the labour movement, something just doesn't compute. On one had we have employers screaming labour shortage and calling for desperate measures like radical increases in the use of temporary foreign workers. And on the other hand, we have thousands of unionized tradespeople people who are ready, willing and able to work - but who are still sitting on the sidelines.

That's why we have a hard time agreeing that there's a labour shortage in contraction - when the pool of unionized tradesmen is not being fully utilized.

Having said all that, there is no doubt that in many sectors and in many occupations we have a tight labour market.

As I said, this tight labour market is the natural result of a strong economy & and it's good for workers. But we recognize it does create challenges for some employers.

The challenge for employers - people like everyone in this room - is compounded by what I would describe as Alberta's labour market hierarchy.

There has always been a pyramid in the Alberta labour market & with the energy sector at the top.

They've always been able to pay more. But with oil at $70 barrel, the energy sector's ability to outbid other employers in other sectors has probably never been greater & and that's a challenge.

How, for example, do you compete with energy companies that are offering signing bonuses of up to $30,000; moving bonuses of $15,000 and annual retention bonuses of $25-30 thousand?

Interestingly, the challenge is no longer restricted to non-energy companies. Probably for the first time ever, energy companies are competing with each other. In fact, I don't think it's a stretch to say that the most popular past-time at Petroleum Conference around town this week will be staff poaching.

So how do you stay afloat in these stormy seas? You've been discussing this amongst yourselves for past day and a half & and I'm confident that you've identified many workable solutions. But for what it's worth, I'd like to present my list of do's and don'ts from a union perspective.

My first "do", perhaps not surprisingly, has to do with wages.

DO accept that the cost of labour has gone up & and DON"T attempt to defy the economic laws of gravity.

Not that long ago, I remember one of the buzz phrases used by employers was "cost certainty." They were always coming to the bargaining table and saying they couldn't proceed with this project or that project without guarantees that wages would stay flat.

That's was the rationale that the provincial government and Canadian Natural Resources gave when CNRL was granted special status under the labour code for the Horizon project. They said that government intervention to keep wages flat was warranted be Horizon was so important to the Alberta economy and because the company needed "certainty."

But as an acquaintance of mine, who happens to be an engineer and project manager for a big construction firm, pointed out: if you don't pay the going market rate, if you try to defy the economic laws of gravity, you loose out.

As he said, if you balk at paying the going market rate, workers vote with their feet & and you end up with what he described as the "bar stools and high schools" approach to recruiting.

This approach sets off a vicious cycle. In a tight labour market, with lower pay you get a lower quality of worker or no worker at all; you get declining performance; you get increased workplace accidents; you get delays and missed deadlines; you get angry clients, maybe lawsuits and you get lost business opportunities.

There was a time, not that long ago, when the Alberta economy and the broader Canadian economy was sluggish. In that kind of economy, employers could more easily get away with doing the minimum. They could more easily get away with layoffs and "outsourcing" & and with treating employees like Post-it-Notes, to be used and discarded.

But those days are over. Bragging about being the "low cost" provider doesn't mean being the smartest guy in the room anymore, if it ever did.

Now it means being the guy who is going to have chronic labour relations problems. It means being the guy who provides a sub-standard product. It means being the guy who's going to miss targets, disappoint investors and clients and who's going to loose out on the next contract.

The bottom line is that you need to value you employees. Part of that means viewing paying the going market rate as an inescapable cost of doing business.

Of course, paying them well is not the only way to show your people that they're valued. It's necessary, but not sufficient. That leads me to the rest of my list of "dos" & and some of these may surprise you &

For example & DO make a point of having on-site HR people &

Delegating day-to-day hr responsibilities to you foreman may sound like a great way to save a few bucks & but it'll cost you & why? & because most of these guys couldn't tell the difference between the Employment Standards Code and the DaVinci Code & because you might get a foreman who wants to be everyone's buddy on the morning shift and a foreman who's Attilla the Hun on the afternoon shift.

Employees hate that kind of inconsistency and petty unfairness. And in a tight labour market where employees have options, you can't afford to loose people because one of your manager like to play job-site Rambo.

Also DO think of the other half of your employees life & the half that they spend away from work.

This is particularly important given that so much of the work that's being done in Alberta today is in remote locations & where people are forced to be away from their families for long stretches & and where they don't have access to amenities.

The good news is that Albertans are hard workers & they don't mind putting in a hard days work in exchange for their paycheques.

But given a choice & and in the current sellers market workers have choice & employees will choose those employers that do more to make it easier for them to live a real life.

Whenever I want to understand what trades workers in particular really want out of their jobs, I sit down with my brother in law.

He's a journeyman electrician & and for the better part of the last three years he worked in Fort McMurray on Syncrude's UE-1 expansion.

He made buckets of money & more than he every imagined. But it came at a price. He has a wife and three young kids at home. For three years, almost never saw them.

So a lot of people in our family used to rib him about his huge salary. But you know what he really wanted? To be closer to his family.

His dream job is not another stint in the camps. He may end up doing that & but his real dream job is to get on with Epcor, the Edmonton power utility. Because it would allow him to live his real life - instead of the half life that works live in isolated camps.

So those employers that are in the bigger centres & where people can actually settle and build lives & you have an advantage & which you should play up. For those who have no choice but do put people into remote locations & ever effort you make to that isolation more tolerable and the time away from family shorter will pay dividends.

Another important item on my DO list is training.

Your employees want to gain more skills, they want to get better at their jobs, they want to contribute and they want to advance. To put it in a nutshell they want the prospect of a better future & and training helps them get there.

Training & whether apprenticeship or some other kind of on-the-job instruction & makes sense for both the employee and the employer.

For workers it makes sense because with their improved skills comes confidence, self-worth and hope for the future.

And for employers training makes sense because you get a bigger pool of trained workers to draw from. Training also makes sense because you get that most of elusive things: loyalty. I've seen it time and again & employers who train, get employees who stay.

But there's a problem & and I think all of you know what it is. For years now, both governments and employers have been neglecting apprenticeships and training.

Only recently has the provincial government ramped up spending to fund new apprenticeship spots at technical schools like NAIT and SAIT. That's great, but those spots are only part of the solution. We all know that these young people can't get their journeyman's tickets without being indentured & they can't become an answer to your labour market shortages until they get on-the-job training from companies like yours.

And that's where the system is falling down. According to a study that was done recently by Skills Canada and the Canadian Apprenticeship Forum, only 18 per cent of Canadian employers take on and train young apprentices - although 41 per cent had the capacity to do so because they already had qualified tradespeople on staff who could supervise training &

The Construction Owners Assoc of Alberta came up with similar numbers. Of the 20,000 trades employers in Alberta, only 11,000 have apprentices.

This is what economists call the free rider problem. Most employers agree that it's desirable to train more apprentices. But too many of them don't want to bear the cost themselves.

Instead, they assume that "the other guy" will do it. Unfortunately, the "other guy" usually makes the same assumption and the number of apprenticeship positions available - even if Alberta's hot economy - fails to meet demand.

The energy sector is a particularly big culprit in this regard. A few years ago, the federal government - through the tripartide petroleum industry sector council - produced a report on training in the energy sector. As part of that consultation, the council's steering committee consulted with a number of big energy CEO from right here in Calgary. And do you know what they said? The petroleum big wigs said: "we don't have to train. We pay more, so we can just take the people we need from other sectors." That was only three years ago.

This helps explain why thousands of the young people who enroll in the trades never finish. The numbers on non completion are actually staggering. Less than half of those who enroll are completing their apprenticeship in the expected timeframe & and more than 40 per cent have still not earned their certificates after 10 years.

Given the current nature of Alberta's labour market, this is a travesty. And it's direct result of employers shirking their responsibilities when it comes to taking on apprenticeships.

And unfortunately, it's not just apprenticeships. Employers in Canada spend less on on-the-job training than almost any other OECD country & including the US.

So when it comes to my list of DOs training is a big one. In fact, I present it to you as a challenge. We're all suffering because, employers have shirked their obligations in training & it's time to start holding up your end.

That leads me to my list of don'ts.

DON'T be afraid of unions & and don't allow yourself to fall prey to the snake oil salesmen, often dress up as reputable sounding lawyers, who promises fool-proof "union avoidance" strategies. Those strategies, make the snake oil salesmen money. But they often leave you with a legacy of poisoned labour relations. And for what? So you have bragging rights?

The truth is that in tight labour markets, having a union in your workplace can be a big advantage. The record clearly shows that there is lower turn-over in unionized workplaces. Unions can also be useful partners in recruitment. Build trades unions have formal connections with hiring halls in other parts of the country where there are higher rates of unemployment. Industrial unions don't have hiring halls with guys sitting on lists & but we do have networks.

Unions can also be important partners in developing retention strategies that are tailored to your workplace. And a union contract can actually help you achieve that elusive goal of "cost certainty" & at least in the short term.

At the beginning I promised to do three things & I promised to talk about how rough the waters were; how you could avoid getting swamped and finally; I promised to look at the big picture. In particular, I talk about the importance of understanding what has been causing all the waves in our labour market. And I promised to make some suggestions about what, collectively, we can do to calm the waters.

As I've said, a big part of the problem is the failure on the part of government and employers to invest in trades training.

But I also think at least part of the problem is that the provincial government has deliberately been administering steroids to our economy & in the form of unreasonably low royalty rates.

The interesting thing about steroids is that they work - at least in the short term. They can greatly improve performance. But in the same way that steroids are ultimately bad for the human body, economic steroids can be bad for the economy.

What I'm talking about of course is the Alberta government's now famous one-per-cent royalty rate for the oil sands.

Like the steroids that athletes use, the one-per-cent royalty rates have worked. Coupled with record high oil prices, the one-per-cent royalty has set off a gold-rush of development. Oil companies are flocking to the oil sands - and why not. With the one-per-cent rate the provincial government is essentially giving away ours resources. None of the big oil companies want to miss out on the party.

Why you might ask is this of concern to a union leader. This is a labour issue because these low rates - all this development comes after years in which government failed to invest in trades training and employers failed to hold up their end by taking on adequate numbers of apprentices.

The result is as frustrating as it was predictable. Because of the steroids, demand goes up for trades people, but because of the inattention training the supply struggles to keep up.

The bottom line is that the Alberta government and the Alberta business community are authors of the tight labour market they are now complaining about. They are reaping what they have sown.

And what do they offer as a solution? More of the same on training and temporary foreign workers, that's what.

We think a better approach would be to get business and government to make commitments to ensure our apprenticeship system actually works. In particular, we need to squarely address the reality that employers are not holding their end up when it comes to providing jobs and placements for apprentices.

It's probably also time to revisit the one-per-cent royalty. These kind of fire-sale incentives were never prudent - even when oil was at $15 a barrel. And they are certainly not justifiable when it's at $70 a barrel.

It's also important to keep in mind that the oil sands is a resource that we, as Albertans, own collectively. It's fine for the Premier to say we'll get our pound of flesh eventually. But with all due respect, he's wrong. Once that oil is gone at one-per-cent, we'll never see it again - and we'll never get another chance to get money for it.

And we're not talking about pennies here. We're talking about tens of billions of dollars lost. That's money that could be spent on public prorities like health care, education and infrastructure.

We're short of like a junky. Not only are we taking a drug that ultimately hurts us & we're flushing our money down the drain to get it &

Thank you.

 

2013 Backgrounder_Study_Attacks on Public Sector Workers Target Women’s Wages

March 2013