Buy goods, not peopleBy AMY SMITH Provincial ReporterPublished: Thursday, January 25, 2007
Premier Rodney MacDonald is hoping to send Nova Scotia’s products instead of its people to Alberta.
He and the three other Atlantic Canadian premiers head to Edmonton today as part of a three-day trade mission with the Council of Atlantic Premiers to drum up more business between east and west.
Mr. MacDonald, MLA for Inverness, said he, like many other Nova Scotians, has friends who are working out West.
"There’s a lot of people right now that are travelling back and forth. They may be gone for three to four weeks and home for two weeks," the premier said in an interview this week. "They are doing it on an interim basis until more opportunity comes up at home. So we should have these people at home practising their skills and their trade. . . . That’s the goal."
About 30 business leaders will also make the trip, which includes a reception in Edmonton tonight, followed by a private dinner for the premiers with Alberta Premier Ed Stelmach.
After a breakfast meeting, hosted by the Leduc-Nisku Economic Development Authority Friday morning, the contingent will fly to Fort McMurray, where the premiers will get a helicopter tour of the oilsands. Another reception will be held Friday night, this time with Fort McMurray and Atlantic business leaders. The delegation flies home Saturday.
Mr. MacDonald said he’s not expecting major announcements as a result of the trip, but hopes the companies will follow up with the contacts they make.
Much of the allure of Alberta is the paycheques, but Mr. MacDonald says the cost of living is higher, too.
The Fort McMurray Landlord and Tenants Advisory Board pegs the average rent of a two-bedroom apartment at $2,700 a month.
According to the Canada Mortgage and Housing Corporation, the average sale price for a single detached home in Fort McMurray is $459,140, compared to $292,829 in Edmonton, $208,898 in metro Halifax and $82,065 in the Cape Breton Regional Municipality.
"Alberta is an exception in the country," Mr. MacDonald said. "Times are booming there and that’s not a bad thing for us. If we’re smart and strategic, we’ll do well."
But Howard Epstein, the NDP’s economic development critic, is skeptical.
"A lot of the . . . work that’s now being done in Alberta requires people to be on the site. We’re talking about big demand for construction workers and oil patch workers. You can’t do that over your computer from home," the Halifax Chebucto MLA said. "I think it’s going to be very difficult to find niches where we are going to be able to service clients from here."
Manning MacDonald, the Liberals’ economic development critic, said he hopes for good news from the mission. However, he said Nova Scotia isn’t doing enough to develop the energy sector in its own backyard. "In regards to the oil and gas industry, they are going there to get business that should be here in Nova Scotia," the Grit said.
Guy Boutilier, Alberta’s minister of international, intergovernmental and aboriginal affairs, estimates between 30 and 40 per cent of Fort McMurray’s 85,000 people are from Atlantic Canada. But he also believes some manufacturing work can be done by those who don’t want to leave the East Coast.
"We have a skill shortage right now and obviously no province would want that skills shortage exacerbated any further," he said in an interview. "But in my view no province can compete with home, no matter where they are from."
Mr. Boutilier speaks proudly of Fort McMurray, where he used to be mayor and the area he represents in the Alberta legislature, but he has roots and family still in Nova Scotia. He grew up in Port Caledonia, outside Glace Bay, and first came to the Alberta town in the summer 1997 while he was a student at St. Francis Xavier University.
The Atlantic Canada Economic Council recently reported 13,000 Atlantic Canadians moved to Alberta between July 2005 and July 2006. The council said the West is attracting both older workers and young people.
( asmith@herald.ca)