The Land of Milk and Honey?

Seems our fellow Canadians are catching on that all is not well in the land of oil and money. They are re-thinking moving out to join the craziness that is Boom Alberta. In the 3rd quarter of 2006, 25,000 moved West. In the 4th quarter, that number halved. High housing prices are cited as a major cause, as are improving economic conditions in the rest of Canada. If this a sign of things to come, labour shortages will continue. I got a sense of how bad it is other day when the Harvey's restaurant I wanted to go to was closed due to lack of staff - in the middle of the afternoon!

And although still a youthful province, many Albertans are aging. By 2016, 14% of the population will be seniors, and that number rises to 20% by 2031 (and I'll be one of them - eek!).

Who will be here to do the work? Alberta's immigration policy parrots that the door is wide open. Unfortunately, many immigrants find employment barriers and racism alive and well when they arrive. And funding for diversity and anti-racism initiatives is abysmal. If we are going to entice newcomers here, we have an obligation to ensure they are integrated and accepted into our culture. And we have to take a long hard look at our own attitudes while we're at it.

The Alberta Advantage has come full circle - many now talk about the Alberta disadvantage. High cost of living, too much traffic, overcrowded, under-funded transit, too little parking and a building frenzy all over the place.

Stay tuned, Canada. This could get ugly.

Comments

Anonymous said…
I'm telling you, Saskatoon is the new Calgary. Come while there's still room!
Anonymous said…
Yowzers! Closed "for lack of staff" ... that's gotta be an all time first. I've never seen such a thing. Although I did read, a week ago or so, of a ma and pa convenience store / fast food outlet in High River that was considering going out of business because they couldn't get (and keep) "good help these days." In that case, they recruited a couple of young guys from Ethiopia or some such place and were thrilled. Especially so because the guys were basically pledged to stay for 2 years under the terms of their immigration deal. Indentured labour?

And now Premier Stelmach has announced he's opening immigration desks all around the world. What he didn't mention is anything about recognition of their homegrown, foreign (to us)credentials. That's too bad. There are a lot of over-qualified cab drivers out there. I guess they don't vote (at least not yet). Still, you'd think the SME business owners would be on the government's case to do something positive here.

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