Government of Alberta tries to lure Maritime workers with new ad campaign

A new ad campaign by the province of Alberta is trying to recruit even more people from the Maritimes.

“When the west is paying $12-$15 more an hour per trade it’s very attractive for a young person with the cost of living and inflation. People are just getting by,” says Jeff Richardson, the regional manager of the Nova Scotia and PEI Carpenters and Millwrights.

Brian Jean, Alberta’s jobs and economy minister, says the province’s economy is “booming.”

It’s the reason behind the province’s “Alberta is Calling” campaign.

“It’s active in Ontario and all of the Atlantic Canada major cities,” says Jean.

The campaign is targeting skilled tradespeople, accountants, engineers and health-care workers.

They are people Nova Scotia can’t afford to lose, says the president of the Nova Scotia Government and General Employees Union.

“We used to talk about recruitment and retention, we have now turned that phrase to retention and then recruitment,” says Sandra Mullen.

She hopes this campaign opens the eyes of the Nova Scotia government to the seriousness of the labour shortage and responds with a competitive wage package for employees in next week’s budget.

“We cannot risk losing any further employees,” says Mullen.

According to Jean, there are 100,000 job vacancies in Alberta right now.

A similar ad campaign last year helped draw more than 50,000 people to the province during the third quarter of 2022. Thirty-two thousand of them were from other Canadian provinces.

Jean says he is hoping for a similar outcome this time around.