Thank you, Chair.
Going back to chapter 8, specifically to 8.50, where you talk about data on job vacancies from surveys that you term as having limitations.
In the paragraph itself, you said, “For example, reported job vacancies in Alberta...”. I know my colleagues who live in Alberta always tell us about the great number of jobs that are out there and no doubt that is true. My son actually works there. So there's no question that there are jobs in Alberta.
The dilemma for folks in Welland, for instance, who might be thinking of going there.... According to what I read here, it says that if you look at this particular survey, you wouldn't know where the job vacancy was in Alberta. It could be in Medicine Hat, Fort McMurray, or Grande Prairie.
I used to live in Edmonton, which is at one end of the province compared to the other end of the province, with one in the middle.
You also go on to the end and talk about limited classification types of work and, etc. So really at the end of the day you could pick the right place, such as Grande Prairie, by accident because you thought, “Well, it doesn't really tell me where to go, but I'll go to Grande Prairie, get to the employer”, and then you find out that, 'Well, sorry, you're an electrician, Mr. Allen, and we wanted a pipe fitter.” So I would have travelled to Alberta for a job that doesn't exist because the survey couldn't help me get there; it simply told me there were jobs available. Am I reading that incorrectly?
I realize I've paraphrased some of this and that it's somewhat specific/non-specific, if you will, but is that really what the survey told me, that there are jobs in Alberta but it just can't tell you where the jobs are and what they actually are? Is that really what the survey tells me?