North is where Alberta’s future lies

Robin Campbell, the MLA for West Yellowhead, says the wealth and the future of the province are in northern Alberta.

Mac Olsen
South Peace News

The wealth and the future of the province are in northern Alberta and it is important to get this message out. Robin Campbell emphasized this as part of his presentation to High Prairie town council Jan. 14. Campbell is the MLA for West Yellowhead as well as the chairperson for the Northern Alberta Development Council, reporting to Finance and Enterprise Minister Iris Evans. “My mandate with the council is to promote economic development and growth in northern Alberta,” says Campbell. “I’m visiting towns in the north, getting a chance to look at the communities and see what’s going on as far as economic growth, what kind of industries you have and seeing what we can do as a council to help you with resources to make sure the communities are successful and vibrant.” Earlier in the day, Campbell toured the community with economic development officer Brian Holmberg to meet business people and see some of the facilities. Campbell says he is looking forward to working with the Lesser Slave Lake Economic Alliance and people like Holmberg to see what he can do to help foster the communities. He has also seen the LSLEA’s promotional video, ‘The Next Place: The Lesser Slave Lake Region of Alberta’, and says Premier Ed Stelmach and Evans have given it favourable reviews. Later in the week, Campbell was supposed to attend a conference of the Greater Alberta Economic Region in Jasper to show the video and encourage them to produce something similar. “It’s very important to showcase what goes on up in this area … the communities that you have and that it’s a good place to come and work and to raise a family. We have to promote that.” He also says transportation corridors are one of the government’s priorities, including one from Peace River across to Fort McMurray and into Saskatchewan. The government wants to foster economic development as well as tourism and recreation. Councillor Jeff Burgar brought up the issue of the trades shortage and the provincial government’s objective of creating thousands of such jobs over the next four years. “I don’t know what’s really happening in Edmonton. But I can’t get an electrician, I can’t get a plumber, I can’t get a gasfitter,” says Burgar. “They need 20,000 jobs created … down there. What do you think of that?” Campbell acknowledges there is a shortage of tradespeople. What he has done in his riding is invite industry and Alberta Employment and Immigration to set up a co-operative training process. Industry would give opportunities for students as young as 14 to get some work experience so they can explore the possibility of getting into the trades. “We’ll bring in local kids. The reason we’re doing that is that, one, we do have a shortage of tradespeople in the rural communities. We recognize that,” says Campbell. “The second thing is, we feel that if we can get local kids involved in jobs within the community, they’ll stay there and raise their families. Too often, our young kids leave rural communities and go to the cities because the bright lights call them. Then, after 10 or 15 years, they usually come back and raise their families in the rural communities. They find out the city is not where they want to be.” He also discussed CAREERS: The Next Generation, a program provided by Alberta Apprenticeship and Industry Training and industry to work with high school students in the development of employable skills in trades and technologies, primarily through work site learning. “We’re working through the Yellowhead Educational Consortium and financing this through industry. Hopefully, in the fall of this year, we’re going to open up a number of apprenticeships within the community and give our kids credits in high school for going and working during the day – and working towards getting their apprenticeships.” With the help of videoconferencing, the students would be able to take their training right in the community. This means they would not have to go to the Northern Alberta Institute of Technology or the Southern Alberta Institute of Technology for eight weeks per year to go through the apprenticeship program. “A lot of employers are saying it’s an economic hardship on them to lose somebody for eight weeks or 12 weeks a year while they’re in school, because they have to replace them. So with videoconferencing, we’re going to be able to train the kids right in the community,” says Campbell. Retired and semi-retired tradespeople would be trained as the instructors. “So, while the big cities continue to say that they need more money for infrastructure, they need more tradespeople, we understand that. But we are making headway and working on different projects in rural communities, to get our young people trained and make sure we have tradespeople.” If YEC is successful there, it could be introduced in other northern communities, Campbell adds. Councillor Wilfred Willier commented about the urgency of establishing a college in High Prairie so youth in First Nations and Métis settlements have opportunities. “It’s precisely the reason why High Prairie and the region would like to see a college here,” says Willier. “We have a lot of young people that dropped out of high school in Grade 10 to Grade 12 that are now doing nothing. By that time, some of our own people are into drugs, they’re on welfare (or) they could be in jail. These are some of the biggest reasons why we’d like to see a college here in High Prairie. As you know, we have about six reserves out here and three settlements. Those are the ones that are suffering the most right now.” Campbell acknowledged Willier’s concerns about drugs and dropouts. Being studied is whether the traditional way of schooling is successful for Aboriginal youth. “I think the old style of school just didn’t work and we have to wrap our heads around looking at some different issues,” says Campbell. He is talking to some First Nations groups to see how they can interact with Aboriginal youth and keep them involved. Campbell then reiterated the need to let students as young as 14 know there are opportunities out there and test their aptitude to find out which direction they can take to become successful. “The fight isn’t going to be so much with youth and the students in school. The fight is going to be with parents in saying, ‘Your child has the aptitude and will probably do a good job in the trades, whether it be a welder or a heavy duty mechanic.’ Then their parents say, ‘No, no, Johnny’s going to be a doctor or a lawyer.’ So there has to be a paradigm shift among adults and parents in thinking what’s the best opportunities for their kids.” He also encourages council to speak to the urban MLAs and impress upon them the importance of rural Alberta and the economic opportunities it has, especially in the north. His experience as a rural MLA has taught him that his duties are different from an urban MLA. He has 1,200 square miles to cover in his riding. “We travel a lot greater distances and I find that … sitting down and talking to some of the urban MLAs and explaining to them some of the challenges that you face up in rural areas.”

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