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On this Labour Day, one of Alberta's largest union groups is adding its voice to calls to shorten wait times for employment insurance benefits in the province.

The Alberta Federation of Labor says Albertans are being short-changed because they have to work more hours to qualify for benefits when compared to workers in other provinces. AFL President Gil McGowan says laid off workers are getting hit hard by the recession, and it's up to government to make sure they can continue to pay the rent and feed their families.

Analysis by the union group finds Alberta with the lowest percentage of jobless workers receiving E-I benefits at 39 per cent, compared to 55 per cent of jobless people in Quebec collecting E-I cheques.

CHQR Newsroom, Mon Sept 7 2009

A new report suggests Canada's employment insurance program is failing jobless Albertans the most.

The Alberta Federation of Labour in partnership with the Calgary and Edmonton labour councils, say Alberta's unemployed are the worst off in Canada.

The number of jobless in our province has doubled since last year to almost 154,000 and only 39 percent of those have qualified for EI.

Experts blame the fact that Alberta has the longest qualifying hours requirement in the country. Those lucky enough to receive EI say the benefits just aren't enough.

Officials are calling for drastic changes to Alberta's employment insurance program.

Those changes include establishing a standard 360 hour eligibility period extending the benefit period to two years and increasing funding for training.

Radio 660, Sun Sept 6 2009
Byline: Mike Judson

EDMONTON - The Alberta Federation of Labour has released an analysis that supports its push to shorten waiting times for federal Employment Insurance benefits in Alberta.

The labour group says Albertans are being short-changed because they have to work more hours to qualify for benefits compared to workers in other provinces.

"The ranks of the unemployed in Alberta swell each month as layoffs continue," AFL President Gil McGowan said Sunday. "But the safety net we pay into is failing to stop their fall."

The labour group's analysis found that the number of unemployed in Alberta has doubled since October of last year to almost 154,000. The report also found that only 15 per cent of young Alberta workers are eligible of employment insurance when they lose their job.

The analysis calls for drastic changes to the employment insurance program, including a standard 360-hour eligibility period, elimination of the two-week waiting period and extending the benefit period to two years.

"Laid-off workers are getting hit hard by the recession," said McGowan. "It is the responsibility of the government to make sure they can continue to pay the rent and feed their families."

The report found most of the lost jobs have been full-time positions, while the number of people being forced to take part-time work in Alberta has increased significantly since last fall.

The analysis also found Alberta with the lowest percentage of jobless workers receiving unemployment benefits at 39 per cent, compared to 55 percentage of Quebec's jobless getting E-I benefits.

"But even workers who are lucky to get EI benefits find it simply isn't enough," said Tom Olenuk, President of the Edmonton and District Labour Council. "Rates are too low and for too many, their benefits get cut off too quickly."

The AFL said the federal government uses a complicated formula to set E-I criteria in each region.

In Alberta, the rules reflect the boom times that the province had been experiencing up to about a year ago - not the spike in employment that occurred after markets crashed last fall and energy prices began to plummet.

"The government's arbitrary rate setting did not take into account Alberta's resource-driven economy," says the nine-page report.

Alberta's labour federation is also calling for increased funding for training programs for the jobless.

Canadian Press, Sun Sept 6 2009
Byline: Jim Macdonald

New Analysis of EI Reveals Serious Shortcomings

The Alberta Federation of Labour, in partnership with the Calgary and Edmonton Labour Councils, has released a new analysis (EI: It Should Be There When You Need It!) that shows that Canada's Employment Insurance (EI) program is failing unemployed workers at the very time they need it the most.

"The ranks of the unemployed in Alberta swell each month as layoffs continue," says AFL President Gil McGowan. "But the safety net we pay into is failing to stop their fall."

"The EI program is not doing what it is supposed to do - offer income protection and training support for unemployed workers. And its failure is worst here in Alberta."

Only 39% of unemployed in Alberta receive EI benefits. Alberta workers are the least likely in the country to be eligible for EI when they lose their job. This is due, in large part, to the fact that Alberta has the longest qualifying-hours requirement in the country.

"But even workers who are lucky to get EI benefits find it simply isn't enough," says Tom Olenuk, President of the Edmonton and District Labour Council. "Rates are too low and for too many, their benefits get cut off too quickly."

"We are in the midst of the worst economic crisis in 50 years, and Prime Minister Harper has done nothing to make EI more accessible to Canadians," says Collin Anderson of the Calgary and District Labour Council.

Highlights of the analysis include:

• The number of unemployed in Alberta has doubled since October 2008, to almost 154,000;
• Only 15% of young workers are eligible for EI when they lose their job;
• Albertans only receive $1,591 a month in EI benefits on average; and
• Albertans have to work the longest number of hours to be eligible for the shortest periods of coverage in Canada.

The analysis calls for drastic changes to the EI program to make it more responsive to unemployed Albertans. Changes recommended include: establishing a standard 360-hour eligibility period; elimination of the two-week waiting period; extending the benefit period to two years; and increasing funding for training.

"Laid-off workers are getting hit hard by the recession. It is the responsibility of the government to make sure they can continue to pay the rent and feed their families. And the failure to do so rests firmly at the feet of the Harper government," concludes McGowan.

Note: Gil McGowan (cell 780-218-9888) and Collin Anderson (403-819-6677) will be available for comment on the report on Monday, September 7th at the Calgary and District Labour Council Labour Day Barbeque (Calgary Olympic Plaza, 228 - 8 Avenue SE, 11:00 a.m. - 2:00 p.m.) Tom Olenuk (780-940-6797) will be available for comment on September 7th at the Edmonton and District Labour Council Barbeque (Giovanni Caboto Park, 95 Street and 109 Avenue, Edmonton, 11:30 a.m. - 3:30 p.m.).

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For more information call: Gil McGowan, AFL President @ (780) 218-9888

The decision by China's government-controlled PetroChina to spend $1.9 billion on two undeveloped oilsands projects owned by Athabasca Oil Sands Corp. is being lauded as a vote of confidence in a global resource.

"This is very positive, basically a green light for the oilsands. They are a very strategic company, and a lot of other companies around the world watch what they do," said Neil Shelly, executive director of Alberta's Industrial Heartland, an association of municipalities in the Fort Saskatchewan area.

PetroChina's decision, announced Monday, represents the first large Chinese investment in the oilsands.

"During the land rush out here, when it seemed everyone was getting into the bitumen upgrader game, the Chinese companies stayed on the sidelines. Obviously, they have taken a hard look at this resource and see this as a strategic play," he added.

While there is no hint of a bitumen upgrader in PetroChina's plans, Shelly thinks the first priority for the industry is to restart stalled extraction projects that will produce the raw material for new Alberta upgraders --which he believes are competitive with similar plants in the U.S.

Canada will apply existing foreign ownership laws to PetroChina's bid, but will not introduce further barriers to investing in the country, Prime Minister Stephen Harper said on Tuesday.

Harper said he recognized that PetroChina's plans were controversial, but committed to using existing Canadian laws to review the transaction and not introducing new legislation to block the deal.

"The government will apply the law that's in place," Harper said. "We've been very clear that in the middle of a global recession, we will not be introducing further barriers to foreign investment."

Current regulations call for an automatic review of any foreign purchase of Canadian assets worth more than $312 million.

However, the laws also allow the government to block any investment that would adversely affect national security. Harper's Conservative government has already blocked one deal, last year nixing the planned sale of a Canadian satellite company to a U.S. rocket maker.

Don Thompson, president of the Oilsands Developers Group in Fort McMurray, said the industry welcomes a new participant.

"It's a positive sign. The oilsands are a global resource, and this just makes that statement fairly clear."

Thompson's experience with Asian investors has taught him that the resource is their primary focus.

"This is a resource play for them," he said.

"What makes the oilsands so investable is you know the resource is there; it is not a resource risk. And increasingly, the technology is proven, so it is less of a technology risk. There is nowhere else in the world you can go to get this size and quality of resource, with so few risks."

For Alberta Energy, the interest is in encouraging a diversity of markets, said spokesman Tim Markle.

All of Alberta's international oil and gas exports now flow to the U.S.

"We don't want to be pigeonholed into one market. New markets invite new opportunity, and this diversity is in Alberta's best interests."

But the Alberta Federation of Labour expressed concern over the arrival PetroChina.

President Gil McGowan said Chinese firms have an abysmal record on workplace health and safety, which became clear when a big Chinese contracting firm was involved in a tank collapse and the deaths of two workers at the CNRL Horizon site two years ago.

"Our concerns are not hypothetical. Chinese firms don't have the same workplace standards as those in North America," he said.

"When you import Chinese managers and workers, you are often importing their work practices."

The AFL also fears adding another pure extraction firm will not help the case for more bitumen upgraders in Alberta.

"The two new pipelines to the U.S. will have the capacity to carry all the expected increases in oilsands production. We will lose the upgrader construction jobs and the many maintenance jobs," said McGowan.

As well, Enbridge's proposed heavy oil pipe project to Kitimat, B.C., would allow exports to Asia.

Edmonton Journal, Tues Sept 2 2009
Byline: Dave Cooper

EI: It should be there when you need it! (An Analysis of Employment Insurance in Alberta)

As the current recession continues, Canadians across the country are discovering that their insurance system - Canada's Employment Insurance (EI) system - isn't delivering on its promise. Significant changes must be made to EI to make it into the insurance plan it should be - one that protects those workers who pay into it from suffering the temporary deprivations that come with layoffs.

So-called "green jobs" are growing at more than twice the rate of traditional jobs in Canada--9.1 per cent over the last decade compared with the average of 3.7 per cent--but it's the skilled trades that could stand to reap some of the biggest gains as new green initiatives in sustainable energy and construction get underway across North America.

When U.S. President Barack Obama earmarked $98 billion as part of the economic stimulus package for environmental and sustainable energy projects, it gave an important boost for the emerging field, a trend that has been slowly gaining steam in Canada in the past 10 years.

"I don't think there's any doubt that companies are certainly looking at green jobs as a mechanism to increase sales, increase share price . . . and we now need to get some good definition of what these green jobs are," says Grant Trump, president of the Environmental Careers Organization of Canada (ECO).

Careers in science and engineering will be one focus area of these green jobs as new technologies and processes are developed, but the skilled trades will also play an important role and provide new career opportunities for trades workers.

Green energy and construction projects will open up new careers in manufacturing, construction, operation and maintenance of projects such as wind turbine farms, building retrofits, solar panel installation and transit-line building, for example.

"It definitely increases the job prospects for people in the skilled trades because a lot of the skills they're acquiring in the current process of apprenticeship programs . . . are definitely transferable to some of the things that are on the horizon," says Shaun Thorson, executive director of Skills Canada.

Mechanical CAD designers, fabrication workers, sheet metal workers and construction trades are all among jobs that will be affected by the trend toward green and sustainable projects in a variety of sectors, he says.

"It's important for people to start to think about the skills they have and how those skills are applied to occupations they might not have considered before," says Thorson.

Many wind farm projects, according to Skills Canada, have been stymied because of a lack of qualified people to construct towers and service the turbines. Existing homes are being retrofitted to become more efficient and some are even installing solar panels or cogeneration systems to sell power back into the grid.

Skilled trade workers have a role to play in all of these examples, requiring Red Seal journeymen in about 50 trades to keep up to date with emerging technology.

There are about 8,000 parts that go into the production of a wind turbine tower, for example, and trades workers and manufacturers need to be on top of the latest processes used in various green initiatives, says Thorson.

How a job gets classified as a "green job" is still something that's very much up for debate, however.

On Sept. 1, the first day of the WorldSkills Calgary 2009 competition, ECO will be hosting international delegates from organizations similar to ECO from around the world to discuss how to define a green job and how they fit into the real job market.

The WorldSkills competition will also be a good opportunity for young people to think not only about a career in the skilled trades, but how the environment could play a greater role in where they end up working if they decide to pursue a career in the trades.

In 2008, there were 530,000 jobs in Canada related to the environment, a number that is predicted to grow by 8.8 per cent in the next five years, according to ECO data.

The Alberta Federation of Labour, Greenpeace and the Sierra Club of Canada issued a joint report this year called, Green Jobs: It's Time to Build Alberta's Future, which showed the trend toward developing more sustainable energy sources could provide jobs for electricians, computer and electrical engineers, iron and steel workers, welders, construction workers and sheet metal workers.

The green movement is certainly landing on the radar screen of more and more executives.

"We certainly know that on the health and safety side, and environmental considerations, that for industry in general this is at the top of their priority list," says Trump.

Calgary Herald, Mon Aug 31 2009
Byline: Derek Sankey

It's hailed as the Olympics of skills, trade and technology, a chance for competitors to showcase their talents as they embark on in-demand careers.

The WorldSkills Competition also highlights the opportunities available in everything from auto body repair and aircraft maintenance to landscape gardening and fashion technology.

"The traditional view of skilled trades is that the jobs are very manual and dirty and involve working with your hands," says Shaun Thorson, executive director of Skills/Competences Canada.

"Working with your hands remains a strong element, but technology has definitely made a significant impact on the trades."

Growing interest in the environment, for example, is pushing the creation of a new generation of work, Thorson notes. Turbine manufacturing, home retrofits, solar panel installation, wind farm construction and transit-line building will all create skilled trade jobs.

"Many skills are transferrable to these new industries," Thorson says.
According to the Alberta Federation of Labour, the move toward creating more environmentally sustainable energy sources could provide jobs for electricians, computer and electrical engineers, iron and steel workers, welders, construction workers and sheet metal workers.

It's common knowledge that a number of Canadian industries face a significant shortfall of skilled workers. From manufacturing to food service to the oil and gas/mining and technology support sectors, the rate of people retiring from the workforce is far exceeding the numbers entering it.

Events like the WorldSkills Competition, being held in Alberta for a week starting tomorrow, shine the spotlight on opportunities available in the skilled trades.

For automotive service technician apprentice Dan Van Holst of Waterloo, competing on the world stage is a welcome chance to put his skills to the test.

"The main focus of the competition is to promote skilled trades among youth," says the 21-year-old Conestoga College graduate, whose high school shop courses piqued his interest in pursuing a skilled trade.
"I'm following in my father and grandfather's footsteps," says the third-generation technician.

"I've been around it all my life . . . It really interests me the way cars are progressing every day with electric vehicles and more and more hybrid vehicles."

The average annual salary for skilled trades exceeds the national average by more than $10,000 and employment rates for apprenticeship programs stands at 88%, Skills/Competences Canada reports.

An apprenticeship typically takes two to five years to complete and combines 80% on-the-job training with 20% in-class technical training.
"People need to realize that it takes a number of years to become fully certified. We need to get people into training," Thorson says.
That's particularly important now as the economy begins to rebound.
"We will see shortages as the economy starts to pick up," he says.

London Free Press, Mon Aug 31 2009
Byline: Linda White

Inadequate retirement income is the focus of an upcoming December meeting of federal and provincial finance ministers. It comes on the heels of recommended overhauls of the pension system in Ontario, Nova Scotia, Alberta and British Columbia.

All proposals identified the need to provide Canadians broader access to large well-managed pension funds, especially for those without workplace-sponsored pensions. Between three and five million Canadians are not in employer pensions --or not saving enough.

The private sector is increasingly reluctant to give workers the gold-plated defined-benefit (DB) pension plans that are common in the public sector. But the 2008 crash highlighted the stock market risk defined-contribution (DC) plans place on the shoulders of employees.

The same applies to self-managed RRSPs for those with no pensions.
Robert Brown, actuarial science professor at the University of Waterloo, says employers are increasingly reluctant to give workers the guaranteed payouts of traditional DB plans. But he says workers need more than just the hoped for payouts they are getting from DC plans and RRSPs.

The future may be a middle ground: A hybrid DB-DC plan that gives workers an expectation, but not a promise, of future investment returns. One prototype may be the "ABC" plan, a DC target-benefit plan proposed jointly by Alberta and British Columbia.

With the target plan, contributions paid by the employer are based on projected, or targeted, retirement benefits. But the benefits provided to participants at retirement are based on the performance of the investments, so are not guaranteed. In a bad market, the pension that workers have already earned may go down or it may rebound after a good market.

Dean Connor, president of Sun Life Financial Canada, says smaller companies and the self-employed should band together to create a "commingled" pension plan that lowers costs through economies of scale.

However, the ABC proposal is getting flak from union members who prefer the guarantees of traditional DB plans.

The Alberta Federation of Labour commissioned a study by PBI Actuarial Consultants Ltd. of Vancouver, to review the ABC plan. PBI president Tony Williams says DB plans actually offer more efficient models than DC plans and better risk-sharing between employers and employees.
PBI disagrees with the concept of a DC platform that shifts all investment risk to employees. It's not realistic to believe employees who don't currently have pension plans would contribute 6% or 9% of pay to a plan like ABC's.

PBI produced various scenarios for so-called replacement ratios -- the ratio of income in retirement to employment income enjoyed just prior to retirement.

Financial planners suggest a 70% replacement ratio is a good rule of thumb, although actuary Malcolm Hamilton at Mercer has argued as little as 50% may be adequate. At the other extreme, Fidelity Investments Canada found 80% or more might be needed for the affluent.

PBI gave the Alberta Federation of Labour 30 scenarios, including, at the extreme end, a low-end replacement ratio of 14%. Public-sector unions in Alberta leapt at the opportunity and trumpeted the low 14% ratio.

It's a tactic that infuriates Robert Brown. He understands the union's reluctance to embrace ABC: they have "nice public-sector DB plans and don't want to lose them," he says.

The 14% is an "outlier" number using the example of a worker aged 35, earning $100,000 and making the absolute minimum contribution to the ABC plan.

"It upsets me that policy would be driven by one number: 14%, for a person making stupid decisions along the way, making no other contributions to retirement. The story doesn't hold water. The union wants to talk the public into believing this is a lousy plan," says Brown.
The ABC plan offers some solid solutions, Brown says, and is "worthy of intelligent debate."

Financial Post, Sat Aug 15 2009
Byline: Jonathan Chevreau

Liberal Leader Michael Ignatieff's finger was back on the trigger again last week, threatening Prime Minister Stephen Harper with toppling the Tory minority government.

In other words, same song, different day.

Ottawa has been all but paralyzed since the 2004 federal election, which marked the beginning of a streak of ineffectual minority governments.
The business of governing Canada has nearly stalled as political parties focus on Machiavellian backroom plots to tighten their grip on power.
This time, Ignatieff is threatening to topple Harper over changes to Employment Insurance benefits and force a fall election.

Last spring, he forced Harper to form a committee made up of Grits and Tories to examine what to do with EI to help the 250,000 Canadians who've lost their jobs.

But instead of coming up with quick solutions that both sides can agree on, the committee degenerated into partisan bickering and back stabbing.

The Liberals want to level the playing field by removing all regional differences to EI eligibility. Up to now, claimants in places like Quebec and the Maritimes haven't had to work as many weeks as westerners or Ontarians -- where jobs are more plentiful -- in order to qualify for benefits.

But the Tories argue a 360-hour (roughly nine-week) eligibility threshold -- replacing the patchwork of 58 thresholds across the country -- would cost a whopping $4 billion annually.

The Liberals counter the Tories have grossly inflated the numbers to make their rivals look spendthrift. And, the Grits add indignantly, the Tories' cost analysis was a private document, commissioned to embarrass the Liberals.

While all this skullduggery carries on in Ottawa's halls of power, another 45,000 people lost their jobs across Canada.

The national unemployment rate sits at 8.6%, the highest in 11 years. Since last October, 436,000 jobs were lost, almost two-thirds from Ontario manufacturing. Alberta is doing a little better than the nation, but our unemployment rate, at 7.2%, is still the highest since 1996.
Gil McGowan, head of the Alberta Federation of Labour, says there's no time to waste on fixing EI.

"Unemployed workers need help now, not six months or a year from now," he told The Canadian Press.

Economists warn that the very nature of the Canadian economy is changing and workers' skills must change with it.

"No one said it was going to be a smooth recovery and especially not for employment," warned BMP Capital Markets' Doug Porter.

That makes EI and retraining programs an even more critical part of getting the economy back on the rails.

Canadians don't need another federal election. We've already had four this decade. And we don't need politicians using the economic crisis to score cheap political points against their rivals.

Canadians do need leadership. We need politicians who will set aside their own ambitions and find a way to work together on getting us out of this recession.

The sooner, the better.

Calgary Sun, Mon Aug 9 2009
Byline: Andrew Hannon