With all these jobs, people will come
After a seemingly long drought, new industrial investment inside Medicine Hat’s city limits could total $250 million over the next 18 months.
Looking to the larger region and outward on the calendar, the total could be closer to $1 billion.
After the announcement of a $130-million cannabis production facility on Monday, Mayor Ted Clugston went as far as to say the local labour force might not be able to fulfil the requirement.
He even suggested an economic impact study might be required.
“People will need to move here, because I’m not confident that we can fill these jobs with our local workforce,” he said on Monday. “We could have net positive migration. That means more restaurants, land sales, hotels that will benefit the city as a whole.”
Clugston noted that the Aurora Sun marijuana production facility set to be built this year in Box Springs Business Park, combined with the more than $100 million data processing centre announced by Hut 8 last month, brings the local investment from two announcements to about $230 million.
Add that to windfarm construction in Whitla, near Bow Island, expected to cost $320 million, that needs to be in service by the end of 2019.
Much of the construction cost involves expensive, hightech machinery that will be imported, but assembly, site preparation and general construction should be notable.
Construction jobs alone between Aurora and the Capital Power wind farm, 45 kilometres southwest of the city, could number 1,000 by next fall.
Theresa Hardiker is the executive director of the Economic Development Alliance of Southeast Alberta, comprised of rural municipalities in the area.
Her group is developing and implementing a strategy to help local businesses and suppliers capture as much of that business as possible.
“This will benefit workers inside the region, but there will also be some coming in,” said Hardiker. “Where do they stay, where do they get their coffee, and what does it all look like?”
In February, the EDA hosted a buyers summit between Capital Power and local companies.
The Aurora facility project will be managed by that company’s inhouse design team, currently engaged in a project in Denmark.
A release states that a number of suppliers and firms used to complete the company’s Aurora Sky facility in Leduc will be employed here.
That said, company CEO Terry Booth told reporters this week, “At peak you could see 700 tradesman on the site. Some contractors will be from the Netherlands, but those contractors will hire Albertans.”
Beyond those two projects, the Hut 8 processing centre site was underway in late March.
Another 250-megawatt windfarm is set to be built near Oyen, and the province will hold another renewable energy supply auction this year.
Pembina Pipeline will also begin building a $120-million propane-stripping facility near Empress in 2019.