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What would it take for a Vancouver resident to move to Alberta?
Alberta Premier Jason Kenney hopes lower housing prices, shorter commutes, higher incomes and a front yard might be enough.
In a video for the recently launched talent recruitment campaign, titled Alberta is Calling, uplifting music plays as the camera pans over Edmonton and zooms in on Kenny below.
“I’m standing in front of something that a lot of people in Toronto or Vancouver don’t see very often, the front yard of a single-family house,” he says in the video.
Describing the cost of a single-family home in Canada’s two largest cities as “out of reach,” Kenny is asking Toronto and Vancouver residents to consider their options when it comes to taking their skills elsewhere.
According to Brian Yu, chief economist for Central 1 Credit Union, these features designed to attract workers to live in Alberta are nothing new.
“I think Alberta has always been relatively attractive, at least compared to some parts [of Canada] because of higher incomes,” Yu said. “And that’s still the case.”
So why is Kenny launching this campaign now?
It may have something to do with what appears to be interprovincial migration, with more Albertans leaving than coming.
From 2020 to 2021, the number of people who moved from Alberta to British Columbia more than doubled the number who moved to Alberta from British Columbia, according to Statistics Canada.
However, even with more Albertans choosing to call British Columbia home, the number of expected jobs in each province still hovers around the same number. From 2021 to 2031, BC estimates there will be 1,004,000 job openings. Alberta, meanwhile, estimates that between 2021 and 2030 the job openings will be only slightly larger, at an estimated 1,206,600, according to a government report.
With the number of jobs growing around the same number, Yu says he thinks most Vancouverites and Torontonians will recognize Alberta Calls for what it is: commercial advertising.
“It’s a marketing campaign,” he said. “I think we recognize that it’s unlikely to have a big impact on attracting people to Alberta.”
British Columbia workers are upset by the campaign
While Yu may not be too concerned about these efforts by the Alberta government, some workers in British Columbia have mixed emotions about the campaign.
According to the Alberta is Calling job board, some of the most in-demand jobs in Alberta are in health care.
British Columbia Nurses Union vice-president Adrian Gear is concerned about the campaign’s implications for health workers in her own province.
The situation is dire across Canada in terms of staff shortages and unsafe working conditions, Geer says. She said she worries Alberta’s higher wages and marginally better conditions may be enough to convince the few nurses left in British Columbia to make the move.
Historically, wages in Alberta have grown to outpace other provinces. In a UBC study analyzing interprovincial wages from 1997 to 2013, researchers found that by 2013, the average wage in Alberta was nearly three dollars more than other major provinces, such as Ontario and British Columbia
Using Ontario as a benchmark, the study found wages in Alberta grew 23 percentage points more than British Columbia and Ontario over the time period.
Specifically for health care workers, figures from the Canadian Federation of Nurses Unions note a higher maximum income for registered nurses in Alberta for working fewer hours per year than those in British Columbia
Registered nurses in Alberta earn at most approximately $123 more each year for working almost 30 hours less. While the difference may be small, it’s enough to make the Gear worry.
“A campaign like Alberta is Calling [makes] the hairs on the back of my neck are really standing up because, oh my God, we can’t afford to lose any more nurses,” Geer said.
Upon returning from a recent trip to Creston, Geer said she spoke with community leaders who told her about the small border community of Elkford, B.C., where nurses already commute to work in Alberta every day.
“I don’t think it’s a big scale of numbers,” Geer said.
“But in these really small communities that are losing their emergency services, like Elkford, it would really help them if the working conditions [in B.C.] have been better able to attract these nurses back to work in the community where they actually live.”
She hopes the British Columbia government can take the opportunity to improve working conditions for nurses in the province, retain those still working here and perhaps entice those overseas to help fill the gaps in the health system of the province.
Favorites mean more than paychecks
The problem, and possibly one of the reasons for Kenney’s campaign, is that Alberta also has no reserve nurses.
Kathy Howe has been working as a nurse in Alberta for about 27 years. The executive director of the Alberta Nurses Association says if 25 nurses from Vancouver or Toronto suddenly decided to uproot their lives and move to Alberta, “it would just be a jackpot.”
“I’m not particularly optimistic that that’s going to happen,” Howe said.
“But if there’s someone out there who says, “Hey, the grass looks greener, I’ve always wanted to go, here’s a good chance.” Bring them on. We would love to have them.”
Even before the COVID-19 pandemic, Howe says problems in Alberta’s health care system have been brewing for a long time.
“It’s been bad in rural areas for a long time and it’s harder to recruit people to go and live in rural areas, but it’s getting worse and worse,” she said.
“We struggle the most with registered nurses.”
But as health care has deteriorated in both provinces, both Howe and Geer are proof of how difficult it can be to get workers to leave their home provinces.
Geer grew up, was educated, and still lives on Vancouver Island to be close to family and friends. Similarly, Howe, who still lives outside her hometown of Calgary, was educated in Alberta and only moved to the province for work.
“I think that’s one of the things that probably kept me in Alberta more than anything else is that’s where my life was, and it worked well for me,” Howe said.
Gear expressed a similar opinion. Since there was always plenty to do at home, she never felt the need to leave.
“I live in a beautiful part of the world,” she said. “Once I settled down and met my husband and all that stuff, there was no need [leave].”
Having close friends and family is one factor Yu says may influence some people’s decisions to move more than economic factors.
“People still move for different reasons, not only [about] the economic consequences or the consequences of home ownership,” he said.
Other factors such as a province’s political leanings or how easy it is to access nature can also influence someone’s decision to move, Yu added.
Overall, Yu says the campaign is likely trying to attract young workers in Alberta who haven’t established roots.
“I think they’re trying to attract the younger demographic, those who are starting their careers and want to build a home or buy a home,” he said.
But even those new to the job market, Yu says, can have their pick of provinces.
“I think the campaign … probably highlights some benefits,” he said. “But at the same time, labor markets are very tight in Canada right now and people can really make choices about where they want to be.”
Can BC afford to lose workers?
What happens if the people of Vancouver decide to answer the call? That could spell trouble for BC, according to Yu.
“I don’t think any place can afford to lose that many people right now,” Yu said.
“When we think about these types of campaigns highlighting quality of life and affordability, a lot of that also speaks to the lack of that in some other markets like Vancouver.”
Geer may worry about the slightly higher salaries attracting nurses to Alberta, but Yu focuses on the housing supply component, which he says will only worsen over time.
“The key here is that if we want to attract labor and retain our existing workforce, we need to address these issues of providing more affordable housing across the spectrum,” he said.
Without cost of living improvements in British Columbia, Gear also remains concerned that targeting young people through this campaign can actually be successful.
“Especially young people who are not attached to the communities because their children are there; I’m really worried that we could lose many more nurses in our neighboring province,” she stressed.
Back home in Alberta, Howe acknowledges that Vancouver and Toronto are also in tough situations, but she’s glad to see the government at least trying to do something about the staffing shortage in her community.
“We just can’t keep doing things the way we’ve done them and think something different is going to come along,” she said.
“We have to do something different if we want different results.”
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