By Sonja Franklin
bloomberg.com
July 27th, 2007

A billboard reading "Go Further. Faster. Saskatchewan!" July 27 (Bloomberg) -- Saskatchewan wants its workers back.

For a decade, next-door Alberta hired people from Saskatchewan to man its fast-expanding energy industry. Now that Saskatchewan is experiencing an economic boom of its own, the Canadian province doesn't have enough labor to fill mining and energy jobs.

Premier Lorne Calvert is on a mission to reverse the flow. He's spending more than C$6 million ($5.7 million) on a campaign to lure workers from Alberta and from other provinces, touting Saskatchewan's cheaper housing and quality of life.

``If this were Saskatchewan, you'd be home now!'' is the pitch of radio ads broadcast after traffic reports in Calgary, Alberta's energy hub. He put billboards along busy thoroughfares telling drivers that Saskatchewan offers ``more life, less stress.''

It's paying off. In the fourth quarter of 2006, when the campaign began, more people moved to Saskatchewan from Alberta than vice versa for the first time in a decade. The trend continued in the first quarter of 2007.

Michael Gutek, 30, is one who came home. He moved his family to Cut Knife, a town of 530, from Red Deer, Alberta, a year ago.

``Alberta felt like spinning your wheels, working your butt off and not getting anywhere,'' said Gutek, a teacher who grew up in Saskatchewan. ``Out here you don't have to spin your wheels, you just live your life.''

Saving Time, Money

Brigette Jobin, 29, also answered the call. The reporter for the Prince Albert Daily Herald returned to her native province from Calgary three years ago. Jobin said her rent is half as much as she paid for a similar apartment in Calgary. She appreciates the tranquility of Prince Albert, population 34,000.

``I am still in a city and it doesn't take me forever to get somewhere,'' said Jobin, who drives to work in about 10 minutes. ``You don't have the road rage and the traffic jams that you see in bigger cities.''

Saskatchewan, whose 4.4 percent unemployment rate rivals Alberta's 3.8 percent, needs workers for an economy buoyed by mining, potash and energy.

It's home to Cameco Corp., the world's biggest uranium producer, and Potash Corp. of Saskatchewan, the biggest maker of fertilizer. Companies such as Calgary-based Canadian Natural Resources Ltd. are drilling for oil and gas in Saskatchewan, a province of 1 million people that borders Montana and North Dakota.

Waiters and Welders

A Web site advertising jobs in Saskatchewan lists almost 8,000 openings for positions such as clerks, welders, drivers, painters, engineers, technicians, geologists and waiters.

Half of Saskatchewan's manufacturers say they face production cuts because of a labor shortage, a June report by Royal Bank of Canada showed. That's a higher rate than in any other province. RBC expects Saskatchewan's economy to grow 4 percent this year and 3.6 percent in 2008.

Growth is being fueled by higher prices for potash, uranium and oil, said Derek Burleton, an economist at Toronto-Dominion Bank. That's a sea change for the province, long known as Canada's biggest wheat grower and for producing hockey players such as Gordie Howe, the No. 2 goal scorer in the history of the National Hockey League after Wayne Gretzky.

``There has been a long-term image that the core of Saskatchewan's economy is agriculture,'' said Calvert, 54. ``Saskatchewan's economy is much more diverse. We want people to understand that there is a very high quality of life and significant opportunities of investment.''

Soaring Home Prices

Real estate is one of those investments. The average price of a two-story house in Saskatoon surged 55 percent in the second quarter from a year earlier to C$305,000 ($292,000), the biggest increase for any Canadian city, according to Royal Lepage Real Estate Services. That's 24 percent less than Canada's average price and 35 percent less than in Calgary.

``I'm a million miles ahead financially,'' said Gutek, the teacher. He estimates that the home he bought for less than C$100,000 would cost three times as much in Red Deer, a city of 83,000. His mortgage payments are less than he spent for student housing in Red Deer.

Saskatchewan's recruiting drive isn't lost on Alberta, where a third of manufacturers also are worried about a lack of trained labor, according to the RBC survey.

``Competition is heating up,'' said Adam Legge, director of research and business information at Calgary Economic Development, a city agency. ``We can't win this competition for labor if we have a poor city to live in.''

Investment in Alberta's oil and gas industry tripled to C$35.3 billion in 2005 from C$11.9 billion in 1998, according to the Canadian Association of Petroleum Producers.

Quality of Life

So far, folks in Saskatchewan aren't worried that their boom is making life more stressful. In a June survey of residents in seven Canadian cities by the Canada West Foundation, Saskatoon was the only one where most respondents rated the quality of life as ``very good.''

Life in Prince Albert is more intimate, said Jobin, the reporter.

``It's a small enough community to feel the effect of what you do,'' she said. ``In Calgary, you are anonymous.''

To contact the reporter on this story: Sonja Franklin in Calgary at sfranklin6@bloomberg.net

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