The spring sitting of the Alberta Legislature was originally scheduled to last until June, but the Tories pulled the plug in April, months early. There are still many questions left unanswered. If the Legislature were still in session this week, as it should have been, this is one of the questions we would have asked:

Alberta’s metal fabrication industry has been hammered hard by the recession. Sales of fabricated metals have dropped by 27 percent between 2008 and 2009 and exports are at their lowest level in five years.

Despite the excess manufacturing capacity in Alberta’s metal fabrication industry, last October Imperial Oil awarded a 250 million dollar (US) contract to a South Korean metal fabrication firm to produce 200 large modules to be used for the Kearl Oil Sands Project. These wide, large, and heavy modules will be shipped from South Korea to Oregon. Then they will be transported by river barge up to Lewiston, Idaho and from there they will be loaded on trucks for the long, slow journey through Montana to Fort McMurray.

Hugh MacDonald, Critic for Employment and Immigration, has questions for Premier Stelmach about his government’s failure to stand up for Alberta’s metal fabrication industry:

1. Why doesn’t the government require metal fabrication jobs to be created in Alberta when it awards tax breaks and royalty concessions to oil sands developers?
2. Imperial Oil is willing to contribute 40 million dollars for public infrastructure in Montana to facilitate moving these modules. Is Imperial Oil providing any funds to offset the stress placed on Alberta’s roads and bridges from transporting these enormous modules to Fort McMurray?
3. There are at least fifteen separate module manufacturing yards for various oil sands projects located in the Edmonton area. What is so special about the Kearl Lake modules that they could not be built in Alberta?
– 30 –
For more information contact:
albertaliberalcaucus
1-866-633-4214

[direct link to this article]