[CaptainCrunch]

I have to put this in because I think its a huge problem.

Last year I was doing HR consulting for a very large placement firm, and we'd get 40 or 50 calls a day from people out east that were looking for work and wanted to come to Alberta. They for the most part had called a lot of different companies and talked to a lot of different HR managers and hiring contacts and the underlying message was "Get out here, there's a labor shortage and people are paying a lot of money"

I agreed with that but I always said this. "If your going to come out here, you really have to have $5000.00 in your pocket". People would get upset at me, but I was honest. Yes Alberta is supposed to be the land of milk and honey, there are lots of jobs, especially in the trades, and salaries are decent.

But the cost of living is extremely high. To get into an apartment your going to need at least $2000 for first months rent and damage deposit, your going to need all of the utilities. food here and gas here is expensive. I pointed to a survey that stated that last year the break even point to live in Calgary was about $34,000. If your not making that its tough to survive here.

I think in a lot of ways, our provinces hype is causing the homeless situation and I'm not saying its unethical, but its a dishonest practice by companies hiring that they don't prepare people for whats going to happen out here, especially the people who aren't on the mid to upper end of the salary scale.

There are lots of stories of people that come here with nothing in the hopes of landing a job and turning their lives around, and they end up in the shelters because they're not prepared for the expense of accepting that job.

If any of you are doing any hiring from out of province sources, its your responsibility to at least brief these people on the expenses because otherwise your probably adding to the problem.