By Sheldon Spackman

Cause For Concern

Red Deer Chamber calls unemployment rate “scary and alarming”

Jan 13, 2020 | 5:13 PM

Scary, alarming, and great cause for concern is how the Red Deer and District Chamber of Commerce is describing the latest unemployment numbers in central Alberta.

With a jobless rate of 6.6 per cent for the Red Deer region in December, Reg Warkentin, policy and advocacy manager for the Chamber says it’s a frustrating situation.

“The really frustrating part of the whole matter is just to see the participation rate down so much,” laments Warkentin. “It kind of shows that people are giving up on the labour market right now and of course the overall employment being down close to 13,000 jobs, that’s huge.”

An Employment Outlook Survey released by Manpower last month showed only eight per cent of local employers plan to hire for the upcoming quarter, with five per cent anticipating cutbacks and the remaining 87 per cent planning to maintain current staffing levels this quarter.

Statistics Canada revealed the Red Deer region’s latest jobless rate is up more than two per cent from the 4.4 per cent it was in December 2018.

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Only Edmonton’s at 7.4 per cent and Calgary at 6.8 per cent had higher unemployment rates in Alberta last month.

Alberta’s jobless rate was 7.0 per cent in December – down from 7.2 per cent in November, but still up from 6.4 per cent in December of 2018.

Warkentin says many of their members have admitted they’re barely hanging on.

“Any cost increase to them could be absolutely devastating,” he exclaims. “These numbers should really be on the desks of every policy maker in Alberta, and so all three levels of government do realize just how tough things are here. So when it comes to our municipal tax increase for example, I hope this rate is very much a part of their discussion and their decisions about how much they’re going to increase taxes on employers.”

Warkentin is hopeful, however, that things will turn around.

“There does seem to be a few rays of hope ahead with increasing pipeline capacity and rail capacity for oil and lifting some of the production caps,” he explains. “We’re hoping that the conventional oil and gas sector does start to take-off again and provide a much-needed boost. I think through 2020 we should expect the trend (rising unemployment) to stop and at least plateau, if not hopefully turn around later this year.”

Tara Lodewyk, director of planning services with the City of Red Deer says the numbers show Red Deer is not immune to the economic challenges facing the province.

“We have seen a few positive signs of where hopefully the future is going,” she says. “Residential construction saw an increase in housing starts in 2019. We’ve also seen four new businesses open up in Queen’s Business Park.”

Lodewyk notes that economic development will remain a focus for the City of Red Deer moving forward.

“Council has invested in economic incentives for the downtown, façade and storefront improvements, grants for demolition of vacant properties, for utility connections, environmental site assessment grants, and then we’re working on our major events strategy,” says Lodewyk. “We’ve seen some success over the last number of years, and with the World Juniors coming here this year, we’re continuing trying to diversify and bring some of those larger events to the community.”

Lodewyk acknowledges a number of local business closures and relocations over the past couple of years, but says City-led efforts will continue in hopes of turning things around.

“We’re always concerned when we see businesses closing, and we are working to understand some of the reasons for why they’re closing or moving,” she explains. “We have seen some new businesses come to the community such as Tornado Hydrovacs which are locating in the old Sanjel building by Olymel, so that’s a positive for the community. I believe it was over 150 jobs that they’re bringing, so as much as we see the hard times in some of the closures, there are some changes that we’ve also seen in a positive way.”

Lodewyk admits times are tough economically, but says we have to continue to believe in Red Deer.

“We have a high quality of life here and we need to be proud of our community and share it with others who may be wishing to locate and enjoy the quality of life that we see here,” exclaims Lodewyk. “We have to keep going, we have to keep pushing.”