Reality Check: Few permanent jobs with the Northern Gateway pipeline

Alberta will see only 24 permanent jobs from the pipeline should it be approved, despite billions of dollars of bitumen exported from our province, according to evidence submitted by Enbridge today at the Northern Gateway Pipeline hearings.

The evidence – which can be viewed here – was submitted by Enbridge after questioning by the Alberta Federation of Labour.

These are real, actual jobs associated with pipeline operations, not projected spinoffs from increased corporate revenues.

Enbridge forecasts that the pipeline will bring only 228 permanent jobs across the entire pipeline, with the vast majority of them – 183 jobs – in Kitimat, BC. Alberta will get a mere 24 permanent jobs from pipeline operations.

This is down from 26 permanent jobs for Alberta the company originally promised when they first submitted their regulatory filings for the proposed pipeline.

About the AFL Northern Gateway Reality Check Series

The Alberta Federation of Labour is a full intervener in the Northern Gateway pipeline.

The debate around the Northern Gateway pipeline is heated, and we hear governments and industry saying all kinds of things to justify locking Canada in to being a raw resource producer, but never move up the value chain with our natural resource wealth.

“The Northern Gateway pipeline hollows out our value-added industries, imposes higher oil prices on consumers, and rewrites the rules of Canada’s oil industry by reducing the amount of oil refined in Canada and shipping those jobs to China.”

– Gil McGowan, President, Alberta Federation of Labour