“Labour factor”- the biggest concern for Alberta.

The pain due to the shortage of labors for the government is getting more and more intense and difficult to hide.

The province is estimated to have a shortage of 110,000 labors in the next decade unless the government starts thinking of new, attractive and innovative ways to retain and attract workers, said the employment minister Hector Goudreau.

Goudreau said that even if they do all the basics correctly, like attracting, retaining and developing workforce, they will still face the shortage, due to aging workers. He made these announcements prior to announcing a new provincial immigration initiative that would allow Albertans to fast track family members with post secondary education and work experience to come here. The estimated 110,000 shortage of workers in the next decade includes 10,000 workers shortage in the health care sector as well.

The current shortage is between 30,000to 40,000 in every field of employment, Goudreau said.

The province has a variety of immigration and employment program set up that would encourage more disabled people to join work and also move older workers to managerial posts, he said. Also there is a strategy to on the part of the province to recruit workers from other part of Canada who want to move to Alberta.

Under the new Alberta immigration nominee program, the sponsored family member must be between 21-45years old but does not need to have a job lined up before they apply. Goudreau believes that adding this family program would help them meet their workforce requirements while creating a more diverse and welcomed community for the families.

But, he said that the priority would still be given to Albertans first, followed by other Canadians and the overseas workers.

It seems that the government has finally started taking initiatives for increasing workforce, whereas in the past they relied too heavily on temporary foreign working program.