the CanadaVisa Team - 18 July, 2015
"The West has wanted in, the West is in now." PM Harper told supporters at a victory speech after his party's meager minority defeat. Harper's sentiment underlines the hope Alberta has that the Conservative Government will help the province approve a draft strategy regarding labour shortage.
The Human Resources and Employment and Advanced Education departments has drafted a discussion paper on the labour shortage strategy for the province of Alberta. The Alberta government is also holding more than 60 meetings over the next several months with key business leaders; cultural groups and educators to help tackle the growing employment crunch.
Human resources minister, Mike Cardinal, and Dave Hancock, advanced education minister, unveiled the draft strategy Tuesday. Cardinal is strategically waiting for the change in government to present the province’s program for foreign workers. Alberta wants to increase its share of immigrant workers from 16,000 to 24,000 people per year.
Hancock said they will promote the plan to the Newly-elected Conservative Government. "We [...] have to encourage the federal government to deal with that [immigration] so we can increase the number of applicants who will come here," Hancock said.
"I look forward to working with the new federal government on a number of issues that are important to Albertans as we move toward a new climate of cooperation across Canada," explained Alberta's Minister of International and Intergovernmental Relations Ed Stelmach in a prepared statement.
The province says it wants to work closely with Ottawa to secure Alberta's economic growth. Ensuring there are enough workers to fill the province's growing demand for labour is key among a list of issues on the table.
