Don't forget home base, Williams to tell Fort McMurray expats

Last Updated: Tuesday, January 23, 2007 | 9:01 AM NT

CBC News

Premier Danny Williams will follow in the footsteps of many Newfoundlanders and Labradorians this week, with a visit to the Alberta oilsands that have drawn thousands of his former constituents.

Williams will visit Fort McMurray later this week and will host an open reception Saturday aimed — in part — at telling expatriates that they may be able to return home soon.

Premier Danny Williams will remind former Newfoundland and Labrador residents to keep an eye on job opportunities in their 'true home province.'
(CBC)

"I want to get up there and just press the flesh and touch base … just to let them know that they should never forget their home province," Williams told CBC News.

"There's a lot of things on the horizon here in Newfoundland and Labrador, and as we get these various projects moving in lockstep, then, I'm basically saying to them, there'll be certainly an opportunity to return home, if you want to."

Williams said projects on the horizon include the Lower Churchill hydroelectric megaproject, a nickel processing facility at Long Harbour and a possible new refinery in Placentia Bay.

Williams will also meet with companies in Fort McMurray to showcase his province's capabilities in manufacturing and fabrication.

Fort McMurray has for years been a job magnet for former residents of Newfoundland and Labrador and jokingly has been referred to as the province's third-largest city.

A recent Atlantic Provinces Economic Council report found about 5,000 people from Newfoundland and Labrador — about one per cent of the population — relocated to Alberta in a single 12-month period ending in 2006 alone.

Not all people from Newfoundland and Labrador, though, have settled in Alberta permanently. Many have opted to work in camps and fly home after stints lasting several weeks or months.

"I want to see how the commute is working. I think it's working fine for some families, [but] it obviously creates hardship," Williams said.

"I also want to get a feel for the whole social side of what life in Fort McMurray is all about, to get a real sense as to whether people are comfortable and whether people are happy," he said.

Williams added he wanted to determine whether there is anything the government can do "as their home province — their true home province — to make it a bit easier for them or to keep them in contact with back home."

Williams's tour of western provinces will include a meeting on Tuesday with Saskatchewan Premier Lorne Calvert, an ally on excluding natural resources revenue from the federal equalization formula.