Date: Tue, 11 Jul 2006 Subject: second story From: "Nicole Watt" by Chris Rogers Bonnyville Nouvelle Bonnyville's economy has been booming lately, along with the rest of the province, but there's a shadow growing behind this cloud of success, raising questions about its sustainability. Rich oil reserves in the Bonnyville-Cold Lake area have attracted large corporations to the area, drawing billions of dollars in investment, but all of the development going on in the area has created a greater demand for labour than the market can supply. The ongoing demand for skilled workers such as welders, pipe fitters and other trades people has created a market where the demand is so high, it is an employee's market. "A guy I pay $12 an hour can find a job paying $16 an hour somewhere else," said George Moore of BMW Weatherford. "We have to blow our own horn (to recruit staff), rah rah rah, these are our benefits, guaranteed hours and we've got a safe work place. Safety is huge." The market has shifted so strongly in favour of employees, that companies are sometimes forced to deal with undesirable workers just to get a job done. "What would you do with a strong pool of qualified people to grab from?" Moore asked. "There would be changes and the guys not putting out you can get rid of. "Right now we can't, we need a body for the position." Ray Mills, part owner and CEO of Kudu Industries, recently opened a shop in Bonnyville and acknowledges that there is a labour demand. "I would definitely say overall in Saskatchewan and Alberta, most definitely," Mills said. "To replace a person in our field means more overtime. We've had to increase wages just to stay competitive." Wayne Shaw of Flint is feeling the effects of the labour shortage across the board, from labour to skilled work and a lack of ticketed employees. "To this point we‚re feeling the squeeze because of the labour shortage in the business," Shaw said. "There are a number of programs and a number of people with more than five years experience, but they're not ticketed." With so much work and so much competition in the area, the difficulty of finding skilled trades people is only going to get worse. "Devon, CNRL and others are all coming into the market," Shaw said. "The demand is outperforming the supply." Shaw is frustrated by Alberta's law that dictates for every one apprentice, there has to be three journeymen. The rule applies to ironworkers, boilermakers and pipe fitters. "It‚s not so much a problem finding apprentices, but finding journeymen," Shaw said. "We don‚t just get what we can get, but screen applicants, but we're definitely experiencing shortfalls in key industries." Many people are lobbying to have the three to one journeymen to apprentice ratio changed. "If it were one to one, you could bring in a bunch of new people and effectively triple the workforce," said Imperial Oil's Cold Lake operations manager Rick Gallant. "Many companies, chambers of commerce, the Construction Owners Association of Alberta are lobbying against it." In May, the Cold Lake Regional Chamber of Commerce started a local campaign to change the ratio. The Alberta Chambers of Commerce supported their efforts, passing a resolution to "recommend the Government of Alberta encourage the apprenticeship board to immediately change regulation in the three specific trades of boilermakers, pipe fitters and ironworkers to a journeyman/apprenticeship ratio of 1:1." The chamber has also asked local municipal governments, businesses and community organizations to write letters to the government expressing their support for the change. Larger companies in the Bonnyville area aren't as directly impacted by the labour shortage as the smaller companies, but some do admit to feeling the strain indirectly. "I look at it with two perspectives: from the employees‚ angle, there's not much of a challenge for us, we have a pretty low turnover," Gallant said. "Where the real challenge lies has been with our contractors." Imperial Oil built its most recent plant in 2002 and is steadily adding new wells, with an average increase of 200 wells per year. "We've managed to find the people, but our contractors are struggling," Gallant said. "We pay contractors enough to pay their staff and make a safe, enjoyable and fun place to work." Despite the staff shortages, some companies with big plans are still moving forward, including Husky's mammoth Tucker Lake project. "We're happy to report Tucker thermal has not been affected," said Husky Energy spokesperson Leif Sollid. "The project is on schedule and will be commissioned in late 2006." The Tucker Lake thermal project will employ over 500 staff three quarters of the way through 2005, levels that will continue into early 2006. "Our contractors are doing just fine and we're able to draw resources from beyond local areas," Sollid said. "We're doing just fine and are not being affected." Jason Malone from Alberta Human Resources acknowledges that Alberta is doing well. The province's current unemployment level is below four per cent, making it the least idle province in the country. Human Resources categorizes different jobs into 53 occupational groups. Twenty-seven of the 53 groups have less than three per cent unemployment. The province is broken into eight economic regions and Wood Buffalo-Cold Lake posted the second lowest unemployment rate of 3.2 per cent in April of 2005, falling only one tenth of a per cent behind Red Deer, which has the lowest rate. "This indicates our labour force is not keeping up with demand," Malonesaid. Schools such as NAIT and Portage College are adapting to the change and trying to stand up to the growing challenge of training people for oil-related industries. "We‚re expanding our welding program and increasing our pre-employment welding program," said Brian Flanagan, dean of community and industry training at Portage College. "We'll also be offering first and second year steam fitter training." Companies sometimes hold tests at their shop to train various employees, but this often leads to shutting down the shop for a day. Portage offers a solution, where companies can come train employees at the college rather than at the employer's site. Portage graduates are quickly employed and are in demand, according to Flanagan. "We're always being courted for our power engineering grads," he said. "We get calls from company service organizations looking at our campus attendants. There is a demand right across the industry." Flanagan eagerly embraces each challenge related to the current trend. "The demands are insatiable," he said. "We're well situated to meet that demand. Demand in the future will continue to grow...I see us as meeting the needs of the industry." James Graham from NAIT is enthusiastic about a project that will be seen in Bonnyville the first week of July. A portable lab will be rolling into town to help the hesitant and unsure figure out which trade they may enjoy. "There's a lot of people looking for skilled workers," Graham said. "The portable lab takes the various trades and gives them as a sample. It gives them a taste to see if they like it or not without being fully committed." Students who try the portable lab solution will not be able to become tradesmen here, however, the certificate that is achieved will go towards advanced placement in a trade of their choice. "The pre-trades training course can be up to 20 weeks," Graham said. "(The portable labs) were originally intended for First Nations as a way to help aboriginal people attend class. If they can't come to us, we'll come to them. We do house calls, we go into the community and do training." "The labs are open to the public and the only permanent part is parts of the welding area, due to ventilation. "Everything can be moved out," Graham said. "When the welding portion is concluded, it is rolled out and other parts moved in. Both sides expand and open up to an area greater than 1,000 square feet... two portable generators to keep it running." The labs were donated by industry and cost roughly $700,000. There are only two in Alberta and replacing a single unit or building a new one would cost over $1 million. The Alberta government plans to spend $288 million this year to get Albertans working and to keep the economy growing. "For example, we've announced 10 times the number of scholarships for RAP (Registered Apprenticeship Program)," said Minister of Advanced Education Dave Hancock. "$1,000 scholarships are available to move right into apprenticeships." To qualify, a student must be in high school, be a registered apprentice, be a Canadian citizen, have completed 250 hours in their trade of choice, and demonstrate they plan to continue in that trade after high school. "Often students need to be introduced into a trade," Hancock said. "Work experience will give them a chance to sample a trade and get a leg up." At younger ages, there is a youth apprenticeship program that is similar to RAP. It is held between Grade 7 and Grade 12 and, said Hancock, is more of a learning experience with the goal of helping students pick trades they may enjoy. The minister is optimistic about the future of Alberta and recognizes the need for a well-trained population. "Basically we-re making the training opportunities more available and we have many colleges offering trades," Hancock said. "We're putting a high priority on education across the board, particularly the trades. Opportunities are there and will continue to be so, especially in the trades."