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Canada looks to lure energy workers from the U.S.

hypocritexposer

Well-known member
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Canada looks to lure energy workers from the U.S.
In its quest to increase oil production, Canada is lobbying job fairs and air waves for laborers. California has become a prime target.

By Ricardo Lopez, Los Angeles Times

2:42 PM AKST, November 10, 2012
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EDMONTON, Canada — With a daughter to feed, no job and $200 in the bank, Detroit pipe fitter Scott Zarembski boarded a plane on a one-way ticket to this industrial capital city.

He'd heard there was work in western Canada. Turns out he'd heard right. Within days he was wearing a hard hat at a Shell oil refinery 15 miles away in Fort Saskatchewan. Within six months he had earned almost $50,000. That was 2009. And he's still there.

"If you want to work, you can work," said Zarembski, 45. "And it's just getting started."

U.S. workers, Canada wants you.

Here in the western province of Alberta, energy companies are racing to tap the region's vast deposits of oil sands. Canada is looking to double production by the end of the decade. To do so it will have to lure more workers — tens of thousands of them — to this cold and sparsely populated place. The weak U.S. recovery is giving them a big assist.

Canadian employers are swarming U.S. job fairs, advertising on radio and YouTube and using headhunters to lure out-of-work Americans north. California, with its 10.2% unemployment rate, has become a prime target. Canadian recruiters are headed to a job fair in the Coachella Valley next month to woo construction workers idled by the housing meltdown.

The Great White North might seem a tough sell with winter coming on. But the Canadians have honed their sales pitch: free universal healthcare, good pay, quality schools, retention bonuses and steady work.

"California has a lot of workers and we hope they come up," said Mike Wo, executive director of the Edmonton Economic Development Corp.

The U.S. isn't the only place Canada is looking for labor. In Alberta, which is expecting a shortage of 114,000 skilled workers by 2021, provincial officials have been courting English-speaking tradespeople from Ireland, Scotland and other European nations. Immigrants from the Philippines, India and Africa have found work in services. But some employers prefer Americans because they adapt quickly, come from a similar culture and can visit their homes more easily.

Since 2010, about 35,000 U.S. workers a year have been issued work permits, according to Canadian immigration statistics. That's up 13% from earlier in the decade. And that figure is expected to grow as provinces continue to loosen requirements for temporary foreign workers.

Rudolf Kischer, a Vancouver-based immigration attorney, said his firm can hardly keep up with the processing of work permits for employers hiring U.S. help.

"We're the busiest we've ever been," he said.

Many of those workers are heading to where the labor market is hottest: Edmonton.

One of the fastest growing cities in Canada, this capital city owes its prosperity to the oil sands. Lying a few hours to the north, the sands are a mixture of sand, clay, water and bitumen — a heavy, black, viscous petroleum — that must be mined and processed to extract the oil. Alberta's massive deposits, which rival the conventional crude oil reserves of Venezuela and Saudi Arabia, are being developed at breakneck speed to meet the growing global demand for energy.

Edmonton has become a staging ground for oil companies that include Canada's Suncor Energy Inc., Shell Canada Ltd. and Chevron Canada Ltd. The energy sector has in turn boosted industries such as manufacturing, home building and retailing.

With a population of about 812,000, Edmonton looks a lot like many American cities. There are large strip malls anchored by U.S. retailers such as Costco and Home Depot, and ubiquitous coffee shops — except here Tim Horton's doughnut shops outnumber Starbucks 3 to 1.

The biggest difference: The unemployment rate here is 4.5%, and "We're Hiring" signs are posted in almost every window.

Moving to a city where the economy is firing on all cylinders was a sharp turn from struggling Motor City, Zarembski said.

Fat paychecks allowed him to ditch his battered Pontiac Grand Am for a late-model Dodge pickup truck. He has vacationed in the Dominican Republic and taken his 14-year-old daughter to Universal Studios in Florida. He's planning to buy a house in Edmonton's western suburbs soon.

With so much work available, Zarembski said, trade workers can afford to pick and choose. Jobs near Fort McMurray, a remote town six hours north, are the best-paid; a welder can make up $37 an hour. (At present Canadian and U.S. dollars are almost equivalent in value.) But laborers must stay in barracks-style camps, which energy companies have upgraded to woo them. The best ones offer private rooms with flat-screen TVs, gyms, prime dining and wireless Internet access.

Workers spend as long as a couple of months at a stretch laboring before returning to Edmonton "moneyed up," as the expression goes around here. Workers then pump those dollars into the local economy.

Around the province, the wealth these blue-collar jobs bring is evident. The parking lot outside Zarembski's plumbers and pipe fitters union — UA Local 488 — was filled with large, late-model Chevrolet and Ford pickups. Boats and ATVs dot the driveways of suburban tract homes.

The province of Alberta boasts a median household income of $83,000 compared with $50,000 in the U.S. Still, transplants say it's tough leaving family behind.

"I can't sugarcoat that I miss my family," Zarembski said. "I miss my buddies."

In addition to bone-chilling winters, expats must adapt to another fact of life around here: slow service in restaurants, bars, auto repair shops and stores.

At a hair salon in Edmonton's Oliver Square, a neighborhood just west of downtown dotted with redeveloped condos and trendy restaurants, walk-in clients on a recent evening faced a 2 1/2-hour wait.

Stylist Emma Schwartz was the only worker in the shop. The 29-year-old fussed with a color job for a female client with aluminum foil in her hair as half a dozen other customers waited on couches, some checking their cellphones impatiently. The bustling Schwartz answered calls that came every few minutes and swept hair from the floor between clients.

"We're constantly short-staffed here," she said.

Across town, Andrew Hoggard, a 35-year-old auto mechanic who moved to Edmonton from Michigan in March, can hardly keep up with his workload. He puts in 12-hour days at a local Chrysler dealership, including some Saturday shifts.

Still, he's not complaining. In eight months, he's made $70,000. Back in Holland, Mich., where he worked on commission at Nissan dealership, he relied on his parents to help him pay rent when the work slowed.

He's now able to make child support payments for his 9-year-old twin boys, who live with his ex-wife. "When a bill comes now, I just pay," Hoggard said. "I don't have to worry about it."

The neighboring province of British Columbia is experiencing a similar resource boom and a shortage of skilled building trades workers. Recruiters for the British Columbia Construction Assn. are planning to be in Indio on Dec. 4 for a job fair aimed at luring some of the Inland Empire's 25,000 unemployed construction laborers.

The pilot event has been a yearlong collaboration between the Los Angeles-based Canada California Business Council, a Canadian trade group, and Riverside County officials who don't expect employment in the region's construction industry to rebound to pre-recession levels any time soon.

"This gives a chance to our workers to get back on their feet, pay their bills and get back in the workforce," said Tom Freeman, Riverside County's foreign trade commissioner.

Recruiters are looking to hire welders, engineers, carpenters and roofers, among other trades, said Abigail Fulton, vice president of the B.C. Construction Assn., which represents more than 2,000 construction companies. She said she hoped unemployed Golden State workers would warm to the opportunities up north.

"Coming from California, the climate might be shocking," she said. "But the jobs are there if people want them."


http://www.ktuu.com/news/la-fi-canada-recruit-20121111,0,4310208.story
 
A

Anonymous

Guest
You can have all the Mexicans and Central Americans they are bringing into the Bakken because they can't find enough folks to work...

Friend was commenting the other day they were in the checkout lines at the Williston Walmart-- and there was 30 people in the lines- and they were the only ones speaking English...

These non local folks driving experience on black ice and snowpacked roads is really coming to light...
If you are on Facebook and want a daily laugh- go to Bakken Oilfield, Fail of the Day - and you can see some hilarious and sad wrecks posted daily...
 

hopalong

Well-known member
Yes reader2 you always have a friend of a friend that gives you all this information :roll: :roll: :roll: :roll: just like she used to do
 

hypocritexposer

Well-known member
Oldtimer said:
You can have all the Mexicans and Central Americans they are bringing into the Bakken because they can't find enough folks to work...

Friend was commenting the other day they were in the checkout lines at the Williston Walmart-- and there was 30 people in the lines- and they were the only ones speaking English...

These non local folks driving experience on black ice and snowpacked roads is really coming to light...
If you are on Facebook and want a daily laugh- go to Bakken Oilfield, Fail of the Day - and you can see some hilarious and sad wrecks posted daily...


This isn't Alberta's first rodeo, OT.
 

Yanuck

Well-known member
Lets take a look at this....if you, an American want to go to Canada to work...you must first have a work visa. this process takes at minimum, if you have sponsorship, 1 month, so the idea that this guy got on a plane and was working a few days later is pure BS.
Pay in AB is $83,000...what is rent? what is the price of fuel? what is the price of food? what is the price of clothing? a whole whack higher than it is the US and the further north you go, the higher it is.
 

Faster horses

Well-known member
OT said, "If you are on Facebook and want a daily laugh- go to Bakken Oilfield, Fail of the Day - and you can see some hilarious and sad wrecks posted daily."


OT, I'm wondering why do you always seem to laugh at other peoples misfortune?

My brother-in-law almost got killed up there and I don't think it is one
bit funny.
 

Larrry

Well-known member
It's a liberal thing.
One time I posted a pic of a homeless family living in a car. What did we have, we had a liberal making fun of the pic. It is kind of hard to laugh at homeless people. Just like it is hard to laugh at people gettin killed or almost killed in a wreck. But libs find a way to laugh at it.
 

hypocritexposer

Well-known member
Yanuck said:
Lets take a look at this....if you, an American want to go to Canada to work...you must first have a work visa. this process takes at minimum, if you have sponsorship, 1 month, so the idea that this guy got on a plane and was working a few days later is pure BS.
Pay in AB is $83,000...what is rent? what is the price of fuel? what is the price of food? what is the price of clothing? a whole whack higher than it is the US and the further north you go, the higher it is.


for those that want to work, it's better than unemployment, I guess. :wink:
 

Yanuck

Well-known member
hypocritexposer said:
Yanuck said:
Lets take a look at this....if you, an American want to go to Canada to work...you must first have a work visa. this process takes at minimum, if you have sponsorship, 1 month, so the idea that this guy got on a plane and was working a few days later is pure BS.
Pay in AB is $83,000...what is rent? what is the price of fuel? what is the price of food? what is the price of clothing? a whole whack higher than it is the US and the further north you go, the higher it is.


for those that want to work, it's better than unemployment, I guess. :wink:

wanting to work and being able to in a foregn country without a valid work visa are two totally different things.The gov't of Canada will not allow it unless you go through all the proper channels...like I said before, many, many hoops and no guarantee... if you believe that article I have a bridge to sell you
 

hypocritexposer

Well-known member
Yanuck said:
hypocritexposer said:
Yanuck said:
Lets take a look at this....if you, an American want to go to Canada to work...you must first have a work visa. this process takes at minimum, if you have sponsorship, 1 month, so the idea that this guy got on a plane and was working a few days later is pure BS.
Pay in AB is $83,000...what is rent? what is the price of fuel? what is the price of food? what is the price of clothing? a whole whack higher than it is the US and the further north you go, the higher it is.


for those that want to work, it's better than unemployment, I guess. :wink:

wanting to work and being able to in a foregn country without a valid work visa are two totally different things.The gov't of Canada will not allow it unless you go through all the proper channels...like I said before, many, many hoops and no guarantee... if you believe that article I have a bridge to sell you


They do make special concessions for industries that are short of skilled workers. These types of companies get pre-approval to hire foreign workers and then they do the recruiting.

If you also have a job offer, it speeds things up.

The fastest way to get in is a "Temporary Foreign Skilled"

Can't say how long it takes, but it takes less time, when going through an employer than if you were to try to naviggate the process independently.

http://www.albertacanada.com/immigration/audience/employers-tfw-temporary-foreign-worker-program.aspx
 

Yanuck

Well-known member
hypocritexposer said:
Yanuck said:
hypocritexposer said:
for those that want to work, it's better than unemployment, I guess. :wink:

wanting to work and being able to in a foregn country without a valid work visa are two totally different things.The gov't of Canada will not allow it unless you go through all the proper channels...like I said before, many, many hoops and no guarantee... if you believe that article I have a bridge to sell you


They do make special concessions for industries that are short of skilled workers. These types of companies get pre-approval to hire foreign workers and then they do the recruiting.

If you also have a job offer, it speeds things up.

The fastest way to get in is a "Temporary Foreign Skilled"

Can't say how long it takes, but it takes less time, when going through an employer than if you were to try to naviggate the process independently.

http://www.albertacanada.com/immigration/audience/employers-tfw-temporary-foreign-worker-program.aspx

Look Hypo I'm not going to argue with you, we lived this last yr. Yes if you have a job offer it will speed it up...BUT...the potential employer has to prove that no Canadians are being displaced by the American taking the job, this is accomplished by advertising for 2 weeks in a newspaper and on the job bank on the internet. Then, you have what is called a LMO, Labour Market Opinion, that is then sent to Immigration Canada where it can sit on someone's desk for what seems forever..I'll guesstimate at least 4-6 weeks at least. Immigration Canada has a set payscale for each job, skilled labout or not, but they don't tell you what it is, unless of course the pay you have been offered doesn't meet what they deem high enough. Now this job may have been empty for over a yr, because no one will work for the wage, but they will not approve a work visa for someone who will work for the pay offered because it would lower the wage scale for Canadians..the Canadians that don't want the job I might add. So you can go to the website and read all the useless info you want, I'm here to tell you it doesn't work like that, and being married to a Canadian and having 3 kids that are Canadian citizens doesn't help either...been there, done that... tossed the T-shirt in the trash as I crossed the 49th!
 
A

Anonymous

Guest
Possible oil boom along Rocky Mountain Front may lure ND workers

Posted: Nov 13, 2012 10:57 AM by Beth Beechie - MTN News
Updated: Nov 13, 2012 10:57 AM

GREAT FALLS - Michael Frawley made the move from his first job out of college to the oil fields in North Dakota. After natural gas prices plummeted, he's now making better money than ever, and he says the monthly drives from work to home are worth it.

Frawley says by the time it comes time to make the 750 mile trip home, he's already worked a 12-hour night shift. Weather pending, that could easily turn into a longer than 24-hour day by the time he makes it back to Missoula.

Frawley said, "I feel like you get used to it sometimes, but yeah. It makes you a little tired. Pull over, take a nap when you need to."

Patrick Montalban and Mountainview Energy of Cut Bank know their new projects mean more jobs in the oil fields, but that a college degree isn't always necessary to make money in the oil business.

Montalban said, "They can be rig operators, they can run trucks. And these people make very good money. They make 60 to 80 thousand dollars in the field or higher."

And while Montalban and other oil companies keep their eye on the South Alberta Bakken, Frawley says while the location of a job closer to home would be nice, he says it'd most likely be his employees that'd make the career move west.

Frawley said, "Jobs would be similar. Drilling over here is no different than drilling over there. I've got a lot of guys from the western side that work for me. You know if they could get something closer to home, I'm sure they'd do it.

Since much of the Alberta Bakken is still being researched, fiscally, Frawley says the jump from his company to another is too big of a risk: "The money's a lot better and there isn't the engineering work for me in Western Montana."

But as Montalban sees more information develop about the oil on this part of the states, he says the jobs for Montanans may not be immediate, but it won't be that way for long.

He noted, "We think it's extremely important to create jobs. We think it creates a great life for our citizens in the state of Montana. You know we just look forward to having the oil and gas business be a intricate part our state now and in the future."

It looks like some of those originally from the Rocky Mountain Front are looking at moving closer to home to work....Bring in more bucks for Montana.... :)
 

Big Muddy rancher

Well-known member
Oldtimer said:
Possible oil boom along Rocky Mountain Front may lure ND workers

Posted: Nov 13, 2012 10:57 AM by Beth Beechie - MTN News
Updated: Nov 13, 2012 10:57 AM

GREAT FALLS - Michael Frawley made the move from his first job out of college to the oil fields in North Dakota. After natural gas prices plummeted, he's now making better money than ever, and he says the monthly drives from work to home are worth it.

Frawley says by the time it comes time to make the 750 mile trip home, he's already worked a 12-hour night shift. Weather pending, that could easily turn into a longer than 24-hour day by the time he makes it back to Missoula.

Frawley said, "I feel like you get used to it sometimes, but yeah. It makes you a little tired. Pull over, take a nap when you need to."

Patrick Montalban and Mountainview Energy of Cut Bank know their new projects mean more jobs in the oil fields, but that a college degree isn't always necessary to make money in the oil business.

Montalban said, "They can be rig operators, they can run trucks. And these people make very good money. They make 60 to 80 thousand dollars in the field or higher."

And while Montalban and other oil companies keep their eye on the South Alberta Bakken, Frawley says while the location of a job closer to home would be nice, he says it'd most likely be his employees that'd make the career move west.

Frawley said, "Jobs would be similar. Drilling over here is no different than drilling over there. I've got a lot of guys from the western side that work for me. You know if they could get something closer to home, I'm sure they'd do it.

Since much of the Alberta Bakken is still being researched, fiscally, Frawley says the jump from his company to another is too big of a risk: "The money's a lot better and there isn't the engineering work for me in Western Montana."

But as Montalban sees more information develop about the oil on this part of the states, he says the jobs for Montanans may not be immediate, but it won't be that way for long.

He noted, "We think it's extremely important to create jobs. We think it creates a great life for our citizens in the state of Montana. You know we just look forward to having the oil and gas business be a intricate part our state now and in the future."

It looks like some of those originally from the Rocky Mountain Front are looking at moving closer to home to work....Bring in more bucks for Montana.... :)

Did you think long and hard to come up with that conclusion? :? :roll:
 

sweetbasil

Well-known member
Yanuck said:
hypocritexposer said:
Yanuck said:
wanting to work and being able to in a foregn country without a valid work visa are two totally different things.The gov't of Canada will not allow it unless you go through all the proper channels...like I said before, many, many hoops and no guarantee... if you believe that article I have a bridge to sell you


They do make special concessions for industries that are short of skilled workers. These types of companies get pre-approval to hire foreign workers and then they do the recruiting.

If you also have a job offer, it speeds things up.

The fastest way to get in is a "Temporary Foreign Skilled"

Can't say how long it takes, but it takes less time, when going through an employer than if you were to try to naviggate the process independently.

http://www.albertacanada.com/immigration/audience/employers-tfw-temporary-foreign-worker-program.aspx

Look Hypo I'm not going to argue with you, we lived this last yr. Yes if you have a job offer it will speed it up...BUT...the potential employer has to prove that no Canadians are being displaced by the American taking the job, this is accomplished by advertising for 2 weeks in a newspaper and on the job bank on the internet. Then, you have what is called a LMO, Labour Market Opinion, that is then sent to Immigration Canada where it can sit on someone's desk for what seems forever..I'll guesstimate at least 4-6 weeks at least. Immigration Canada has a set payscale for each job, skilled labout or not, but they don't tell you what it is, unless of course the pay you have been offered doesn't meet what they deem high enough. Now this job may have been empty for over a yr, because no one will work for the wage, but they will not approve a work visa for someone who will work for the pay offered because it would lower the wage scale for Canadians..the Canadians that don't want the job I might add. So you can go to the website and read all the useless info you want, I'm here to tell you it doesn't work like that, and being married to a Canadian and having 3 kids that are Canadian citizens doesn't help either...been there, done that... tossed the T-shirt in the trash as I crossed the 49th!

You are right on target with this! I read on a major newspaper that Canada needs workers for their oil production, and the article made sound like it is an easy process to immigrate to Canada... just goes to tell you how ignorant our journalists are about other countries' immigration policies...
 

hypocritexposer

Well-known member
sweetbasil said:
You are right on target with this! I read on a major newspaper that Canada needs workers for their oil production, and the article made sound like it is an easy process to immigrate to Canada... just goes to tell you how ignorant our journalists are about other countries' immigration policies...


And it should not be too easy for foreigners to immigrate. My point in posting the article was to compare a Conservative Province, with a Liberal state.

I should have stated that, in the O/P
 

ranch hand

Well-known member
Lynn Helms, Director of North Dakota's Department of Mineral Resources said besides oil prices, the threat of federal regulations and taxation are also risks to the Bakken's bright future, "

He also says the fiscal cliff has many investors holding off
 
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