MHC’S job fair foreshadows coming boon

By Collin Gallant on February 7, 2019.

cgallant@medicinehatnews.com @CollinGallant

As the local job market is expected to boom over the next year, job seekers and employers flooded the atrium and B-Wing at Medicine Hat College on Wednesday for the institution’s annual job fair.

Along with traditional employers for the college’s policing and health-care programs, construction firms, greenhouses and even JBS meatpacking set up booths — a potential sign that a pinch for construction or food manufacturing employees could be coming.

“We definitely see a lot of jobs coming in the future,” said Peggy Gizen of employment services agency Being Human Services. “In the medium term the Hat’s going to be in a bit of a bubble, but there are lots of guys still looking.”

Her company provides career advice, job-seeking skills to workers and some placement services for employers.

With construction positions for a handful of major projects, the number of full-time permanent positions are adding up.

Aurora Cannabis expects to hire 400 or more workers for its new greenhouse here. Folium Biosciences plans to employ 250 once a hemp processing facility is completed over the next year. Beyond that, two hotels and a grocery store under construction could employ another 250.

Adding up other enterprises, the job market in Medicine Hat could add 1,000 full-time positions by early 2020. That’s in a workforce of about 30,000 that had a 4.5 per cent unemployment rate in December, but also where a downturn in oilpatch activity have several complaining about job prospects.

Among the employers at the college Tuesday was Borea Construction, which sought workers to build the $325-million Whitla Wind Farm, south of Bow Island, this summer.

“Our philosophy is that we try to give as much business to local economies as possible,” said Shane Cormier, who manned the company’s booth, talking about job requirement and qualifications with prospective employees.

“We’re seeing a lot of people with oil and gas experience,” he said. “We’d like to give them the opportunity for another career.”

Depending on response, the firm hopes to have 20 to 50 per cent local hires on its crew of about 150 workers. That’s just for Borea’s part of the project to erect 56 large turbines about 40 minutes southwest of Medicine Hat.

The Western Canadian division of the renewable energy construction company will handle foundation work and equipment installation on the Capital Power project, with other companies picking up other portions.

Borea came to this week’s job fair looking for general labourers, electricians, anyone with concrete or rigging experience, carpenters, equipment operators and even engineering students looking for internships.

The company will start mobilizing here next month ahead of an early May kickoff. Capital Power expects 250 to 300 workers will be onsite at the peak of construction.

In total, six major wind projects, comprising 1,200 megawatts of generating capacity, are scheduled to be built in the area from Oyen to Warner in southeastern Alberta over the next three years. Borea director Murray Westerberg said the region will see steady progress in the sector that will require a talent base of workers.

“It covers a lot of the trades; you need ironworkers, millwrights, electricians, equipment operators, on and on,” said Westerberg, who in 2017 oversaw Borea’s full completion of the 15-megawatt Brooks Solar farm.

“We were really happy with the (locally-hired) workers and their level of education. It looks to be the same sort of situation here.”

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