ARE ALBERTA WORKERS BEING LEFT OUT OF THE BOOM? - By SHANNON PHILLIPS, VUE Weekly, Edmonton, Alberta
The labour shortage in the trades is a matter of some debate. Industry and the government say there is a shortage, but the Alberta Building Trades Council says the shortage is overstated -- releasing figures last year showing a 6.1-per-cent unemployment rate in the construction trades.
The province's own figures show marked shortages only for boilermakers.
A leaked communications strategy memo from Suncor in the spring of 2005 on the labour shortage indicated that there is no shortage of tradespeople -- just a shortage of workers who will work on non-union sites.
McGowan says the hype over the shortage creates a crisis mentality for which the only solution appears to be non-union and temporary foreign workers -- both pools of labour that cost employers less in wages and benefits.