Fort St. John official says Rupert has right idea in dealing with anticipated boom times

With some words to the wise from the northeast, the City Manager of Fort St. John said that the labour force survey currently under way could be a key piece of easing the problems of an economic boom.

John Locher explained how the oil boom of the Peace country led to a perfect economic storm for his community, resulting in immense growth to the city in a short period of time and a serious shortage of skilled labour to keep the boom going.

His thoughts were featured in a front page story in Monday’s Daily news.

C ITY GETS TIPS ON DEALING WITH AN ECONOMIC BOOM
Fort St. John’s city manager says skills survey good place to start
By Leanne Ritchie
The Daily News
Monday, February 26, 2007
Pages one and three

The results of the labour force survey underway by Community Futures and Economic Development will be key to controlling any future growing pains in Prince Rupert, said the city manager of Fort St. John.

John Locher, who has watched Fort St. John’s growth go from positive to literally unmanageable since joining the city in 1993, said he wished his community had undertaken that planning process well before the oil boom helped create “the perfect economic storm.”

“We don’t hold ourselves out as experts. We are a neigbhour willing to share our story,” said Locher, who spoke at a conference in Prince Rupert earlier this week.

Locher was in town as part of a Community Futures/North Coast Community Assets conference aimed at helping industry, education, health and city leaders take the guess work out of future growth.

Facilitated by LIRN B. C. (Learning Initiatives for Rural and Northern B.C.) the day-long event included three speakers who provided advice on how to manage growth spurts.

Locher said the rise in oil and natural gas prices, coupled with the large agricultural, hydro electric production and forestry enterprises in the area helped create immense growth in his city.

“It created the perfect storm and took our economy from positive to insane,” he said.

The higher paying wages out in the oil patch siphoned off potential employees and “resulted in a trade shortage in all areas.” Including retail, health care, child care and municipal workers, he said.

In 2006, they were still short an estimated 6,000 workers. It’s resulted in immense pressure in the labour market, which now boasts $20 an hour jobs in the fast food sector.

Efforts by the city to attract workers form other areas of Canada to fill the void have not been particularly successful. Rather, it resulted in attracting unskilled labour to a town with no affordable housing.

So the city, province and local educational institutions have teamed up to train their own youth to fill those positions. When the labour force survey for Prince Rupert is released later this spring, Locher recommended Prince Rupert look at similar initiatives to fill future vacancies in the workforce.

“Every apprentice who comes out of the (high school apprenticeship) program gets gobbled up,” he said.

“We should have undertaken a survey of employees required at the early stages and what qualifications were required. We should have issued our own press releases about coming to the region without the necessary accommodation and skills.”

Community Futures began undertaking the largest workforce skills assessment ever done in this region last year. The idea is to discover the strengths and weakness of the current workforce and existing jobs, in order to be better prepared to tackle the future. Called the Pacific Northwest Gateway Skills Initiative, the project will assess what jobs may be in the community in the future, and the skill sets those jobs require.

The results should be available some time this spring.