Workers are suddenly leaving Alberta, heading to Atlantic Canada, but will it last?
By James Foster
Times & Transcript Staff // Saturday July 5th, 2008
A new report shows an exodus of people from Alberta and an influx into Atlantic Canada, the reverse of a long-standing trend that has troubled New Brunswick for a decade.
Many Maritimers are heading home from Alberta as they find that the quality of life in the Atlantic region and Metro Moncton is top notch. Here some Metro Moncton residents enjoy the water feature in front of Moncton City Hall.
"Net interprovincial migration to Alberta hit a record 58,200 people in 2006, with many leaving Atlantic Canada in search of high-paying jobs," notes the report.
"However, late 2007 saw a sharp reversal in this pattern, with Alberta recording its biggest quarterly outflow since 1988 and Atlantic Canada experiencing inmigration and accelerating population growth."
The analysis, written by economic analyst Robert Kavcic of BMO Capital Markets and published in the summer edition of their quarterly Provincial Monitor, is raising some eyebrows, particularly among observers who have strived to reverse a long-standing outflow from this province of young, skilled labour and find ways to mitigate the looming consequences of an ever-aging population.
The reversal can't happen soon enough, the report states, with several mega projects like a possible second nuclear reactor and a potential new oil refinery, to name but two, on the horizon, with a provincial labour force that is inadequate for many of the jobs that would ensue.
"With a number of construction projects on tap, Atlantic Canada could be at risk of facing its own skilled labour shortage, making for some interesting competition for workers between the west and the east."
Nobody will say the figures show New Brunswick has turned the corner on stopping the flood of our young, skilled trades people heading west, but it's yet another positive sign.
"Last year we had a population increase of 2,600 people," says Brendan Langille, spokesman for the province's Population Growth Secretariat.
"We've had six straight quarters of positive growth. Previous to that, we probably had a decade of declining population."
A declining population means a lower labour force as young people move away, and they are usually the most skilled workers. That leaves New Brunswick employers in the lurch when they are looking for workers.
In Alberta, the skills shortage is due primarily to their booming economy. That leaves companies there offering bonuses such as higher pay, signing premiums, free rent for the initial few months and free trips home to the East Coast.
New Brunswick isn't doing any of that to combat our skills shortage, mostly because ours is not as severe as theirs at this point. Rising wages and more jobs created by an improved economy, however, are being touted to retain our young workers, attract expatriates back home and sell the province to immigrants as a great place to live.
Citing the numbers above, Langille contends the tactic is working since those new New Brunswickers aren't from a baby boom, but from interprovincial migration as the province targets expats, and immigration as they aggressively tout the province to foreigners.
"Obviously, the economy is a huge factor."
Another factor might sound like a tired refrain to some, but it's true nonetheless, says City of Moncton business development specialist Ben Champoux: the quality of life offered in New Brunswick.
That's not a hard sell to workers who have emigrated west from New Brunswick only to find that a bungalow that sells for $90,000 here costs 10 times that much in the oil patch, that they are far from their wives or families and are lucky to be able to find a single bedroom to rent in a house where almost every individual room is leased to different migrant workers.
Those former New Brunswick workers can be enticed home when they see that a paycheque that's a bit fatter isn't nearly worth what they gave up here in order to go there, Champoux contends. Besides that, the migration of workers to Alberta was not sustainable in the first place, in his opinion.
"The quality of life in Fort McMurray is not as rosy as you might think. What we have here is priceless,"
Champoux says, citing independent reports that consistently tout Metro Moncton as at or near the top in studies that pinpoint the friendliest cities, the most polite cities, the best cities in which to do business, the best cities in which to buy a home, the safest cities and the cities with the best overall quality of life in Canada and, often, beyond.
"I like what the province is doing," Champoux says.
"We are going in the right direction."
