Shipping Jobs Down the Pipeline

Our Oil. Our Choice

Alberta is booming, in large part due to the rapid expansion of the oil sands. These should be good times for Alberta workers, but something is wrong. Alberta's long term economic prosperity is at risk due to some poor provincial government policies.

The problem is that more and more of the jobs related to oil sands development are being sent out of the country. Construction companies are relying more and more on temporary foreign workers and foreign contractors to do the job of building the projects. One company - Synenco Energy - plans to build an entire plant in Asia and send it in pieces to Alberta by ship.

And once the plants are built, the energy companies are planning to ship the raw bitumen south to the U.S. for upgrading and refining. No downstream jobs for Alberta.

It is not too late to prevent Alberta jobs being sent down the pipeline!

The Alberta Federation of Labour has launched an effort to pressure the Alberta government to take steps to protect Alberta jobs ("Down The Pipeline"). We are asking the Stelmach government to do five things:

1. Block construction of pipelines used to funnel unrefined bitumen to the U.S.
2. Guarantee a fair rate of return to Albertans through higher royalties on our oil resources
3. Introduce conditional leases on oil sands properties
4. Tighten up rules for temporary foreign workers regulate the pace of oil sands development

    

   See also:  AFL Presentation to Multi-Stakeholder Committee on Oil Sands

                  AFL Presentation to Oil Sands Development Hearings

                  AFL Written Evidence - NEBC Hearing Order OH-1-2007

   
   

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