Quote:
Originally Posted by burn_this_city
You're missing the point, you originally said we should be shipping refined products. My point is we don't have the dollars or man power to build the upgraders and refineries. Potash is simple, mine it and throw it in rail cars, I don't hear people saying we should be building fertilizer plants ect in Canada and shipping the finished products overseas.
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A defining point that gets glossed over by Albertans in the "Refine it Here" crowd is the lack of perspective on how out of whack Alberta incomes are compared to the rest of the world. Bottom line if you work in energy in Alberta you make double what you're worth in any other jurisdiction in North America for the work that you do, because our labor force is extremely small relative to the jobs we have.
Building a refinery in Edmonton is going to require a crapload of people making over $150,000 a year whereas the same refinery in Texas would cost half to build from a labor perspective. Our labor productivity is abismal here in Canada. Workers have been conditioned to constantly jump ship for more money due to the booms and busts of the past. In the patch we already have a bunch of skilled trades walking off the job because the guy across the street is willing to pay 20% more.