A clip from the entire article below:
"Mr. Stelmach said the province's decision to sign a special immigration deal with Ottawa earlier this year is part of that strategy. The agreement is expected to make it easier and faster for immigrants to settle in the province by cutting red tape. It will also give the province more control over selecting skilled immigrants."
The plans to expand this absoluely unreal pace of development in Alberta are running into a de-facto moratorium-- physics. As the energy sources of pipelines, coal-fired plants and possibly nukes are not yet in operation, the laws making certain the tarsands can import people are coming online as we speak. The SPP-- Security and Prosperity Partnership-- has been quietly opening the borders to people with zero rights and denying the border to anyone else. Chinese workers are expanding inside the Canadian Natural Resources Ltd massive plant operation known as "the Horizon Project"; two have been killed, four maimed and not a single union member or other labour rights arbiter has been allowed to see these people who are locked in behind fences in giant camps. The SPP will open the highway corridors from Mexico, and perhaps as far as Panama, along these rapid "goods" transport corridors being put into place. These plans coincide with the removal of legislation for things like human rights, workers free-movement, minimum wages, and the time one must post for the jobsite to get filled with local labour. There will soon be what amounts to a massive "labour-rights free zone" throughout Alberta while the Tilma-- Trade, Investment and labour mobility Agreement-- will make those rules apply to the entire territory that Tilma enforces-- currently BC and Alberta.
The article below is designed to make us "understand" why such needs are necessary-- really, the need comes from the gigantic failure of US energy concerns to subdue the Middle East, and the higher prices created by killing kids in Mesopotamia leads to the ability to make solid strides in destroying the earth across Turtle Island for those same energy concerns.
--M
Oil patch braces for big exodus
Loss of older skilled workers, early retirements weigh on sector planning to triple output
KATHERINE HARDING
July 18, 2007
EDMONTON -- Alberta's red-hot economy has been sucking workers from the rest of Canada for several years, and the province now boasts the youngest work force in the country.
This should be good news for Alberta's growing oil and gas industry, which is facing a critical and seemingly never-ending labour shortage, but data released by Statistics Canada yesterday aren't sparking celebration in the oil patch.
"Yes, Alberta has a lot of young workers. ... But most of them are in the service industry," said Brian Maynard, a vice-president with the Canadian Association of Petroleum Producers.
According to data from the 2006 census, only 14 per cent of the province's work force is in the 55-64 age group, the lowest proportion among provinces. Statscan found that during the past several years, Alberta's economic boom has attracted lots of workers to the province, especially Calgary and Edmonton. The result is an age structure with a high proportion of people aged between 20 and 44.
Mr. Maynard said many of Alberta's older workers in the energy sector (the median age is currently about 44) aren't even making it to what's considered a traditional retiring age in other parts of Canada because the economic boom has made it easier for them to leave the work force sooner. "What we are seeing is that people are retiring earlier and earlier," he said, adding that it's not unusual for a person to leave at age 50.
He said there is increasing concern about the trend of earlier retirements coupled with the impending mass exodus of the energy industry's older skilled workers, such as project managers and geologists.
The timing couldn't be worse: The oil patch has plans to build about $100-billion worth of oil sands projects in northern Alberta over the next 10 years in hopes of tripling production. A lack of workers could lead to cost overruns, a problem that has already plagued work being done in the oil patch.
Nearly one in every six workers in Alberta is employed directly or indirectly in the province's energy sector.
Last week, Alberta's energy associations and employers released a plan to deal with the acute labour shortages. It suggested 46 new ways to attract more people, including recruiting more women and aboriginals, to the industry.
Alberta Premier Ed Stelmach said yesterday that the new national census data are troubling and suggest that Canada's increasingly aging pool of workers will likely "put even more pressure on [Alberta's] work force."
He said his government is trying to head off problems that could stem from possibly even worse labour shortages by coming up now with long-term plans to begin addressing them.
Mr. Stelmach said the province's decision to sign a special immigration deal with Ottawa earlier this year is part of that strategy. The agreement is expected to make it easier and faster for immigrants to settle in the province by cutting red tape. It will also give the province more control over selecting skilled immigrants.
"It is going to go far in terms of bringing more workers into the province," Mr. Stelmach said.
