Thursday, April 16, 2020
VOLUME 2 I ISSUE 42
MERIDIANSOURCE.CA
Premier Kenney talks COVID-19, economic future TAYLOR WEAVER
EDITOR
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With many unknowns and questions that need answers, Alberta Premier Jason Kenney tried to ease a bit of the concern shared by Albertans. Kenney took the lead during a conference call with members of the Alberta Weekly Newspaper Association last week to talk about the current medical state of the province, while also highlighting economic concern in the oil and gas and Ag sector. “We think we’re well prepared on the public health side, but what keeps me most awake is the combined economic impact of the global Coronavirus recession and shut down of most of our economy, and on top of that, the total collapse in oil prices. On top of that, five years of economic fertility,” he said on Thursday morning. “This morning, we saw the March labour force surveyed from Statistics Canada, which indicates unemployment has shot up by about 30,000 people, from 1.5 per cent to 8.7
per cent, but to be honest, I think this (greatly) understates the reality, partly because it’s based on a rolling average in the month of March and the large-scale layoffs didn’t start until the last 10 days of March.”
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The government did a call for what they call a ‘land army,’ and tens of thousands of Brits are now, for the first time in generations, back on the farm helping the farmers operate.
Kenney also noted he wouldn’t be surprised if the province’s unemployment rate jumped north of 20 per cent by the spring. “Obviously, we don’t wish that on this province, but, with the triple whammy of the pandemic, the recession and the oil price collapse, we’re heading for some very challenging times,” he said. “We just ask that peo-
ple understand this is t he only responsible course of action. If we were to let up right now on our efforts to contain the virus, it would spread through Alberta, enforcing an even more constraining lockdown that would do even more damage to our economy.” Regarding unemployment numbers, Kenney explained COVID-19-related layoffs can get lost in the mix. “We can certainly track individual sectors. For example, Statistics Canada does report on a broad category called Forestry, Fishing, Mining, Coring, Oil and Gas, and in Alberta, obviously, the overwhelming majority of that segment is oil and gas,” he said. “They actually report an increase of 8,700 jobs, believe it or not, in oil and gas in March in a report that came out this morning. I think that reflects the fact in early March we were continuing to see growth and renewed confidence in oil and gas before everything started the crash.” The Ag sector was
Taylor Weaver Meridian Source
A handful of Border City residents took advantage of the nice weather on Tuesday with a social-distancing-savvy walk through Bud Miller All Seasons Park.
also a hot topic of conversation with such an active local industry. “The importance of our farmers and food producers is now I think more obvious to many urban Albertans than it’s been for a long time, so we don’t just want to allow farms and ag operations to continue to function, but to work with it to ensure they’re safe and functioning,” said Kenney. “We also see agriculture as a key part of our economic recovery strategy, which will involve further efforts of diversification, and we have added a representative of the Ag sector
to the economic recovery council to represent the industry. We are very hopeful, and Agriculture Minister Devin Dreeshen is already working on a number of initiatives.” With a lack of temporary foreign workers able to enter the country, Kenney explained the possibility of reimagining Canada’s Ag industry could mirror what some European counties are doing during these tough times. “The government did a call for what they call a ‘land army,’ and tens of thousands of Brits are now, for the first time in generations,
back on the farm helping the farmers operate,” he said. “I think this an opportunity for us to reimagine the labour market for many of our ag businesses.” In closing, Kenney noted his expectation is that the rest of the world will likely experience a very strong recovery this summer, post-pandemic, a V-shaped global recovery in demand and employment. “We will not experience that in Alberta because of the oil-price collapse, and I expect our counter to be deeper and longer than the rest of the world.”