Province now accepting applications for 'Alberta is Calling' moving bonus
On Thursday, applications opened for a $5,000 moving bonus, available to those who arrived between May 1 and Dec. 31, 2024.
The first 2,000 applicants from a list of eligible occupations — including aircraft mechanics and construction labourers — will receive a one-time, refundable tax credit.
To qualify, applicants must be working full time and be either a Canadian citizen or a permanent resident.
The program falls short of what the United Conservative Party promised during the 2023 provincial election campaign.
At that time, party leader Danielle Smith pledged a $1,200 payment to health-care and child-care workers along with skilled tradespeople, under a $17-million program, as part of a broader job and economic growth strategy.
When announcing the program in March 2024, Alberta's Jobs, Economy and Trade Minister Matt Jones defended the changes, saying the province talked to industry and did other due diligence before settling on parameters.
Industry groups praise program, say more is needed
More than a year after the program was announced, the shortage of skilled trade workers in Alberta is still "quite significant," according to Business Council of Alberta president Adam Legge.
He added the problem could get worse over the coming years, with 700,000 skilled trades retirements expected across Canada by 2028.
"Every one of my members that employs skilled trades is facing a shortage, and that is everything from aviation needing aircraft mechanics, it's car dealerships … everything from carpenters, framers, plumbers, electricians," said Legge.
"I don't know of a single industry that is saying, 'Hey, we're OK right now.' They're all in an acute shortage, which is really increasing the competition to get some of these limited skill trades talent," said Legge.
Incentive programs designed to attract more workers are effective, he added, but more are needed.
"Thankfully the trend is improving, but it's such a big, big undersupply that it will take some time," he said. "We need a whole host of solutions to the problem."
Data from Statistics Canada suggests progress is occurring when it comes to the construction sector workforce.
Alberta's construction job vacancy rate was 4.1 per cent in the fourth quarter of 2024, down 1.4 percentage points from a year earlier.
But Calgary Construction Association president Bill Black says a lack of workers is still affecting decisions in the sector.
"It's going to limit the amount of work you can commit to, because if you run out of labour and you can't perform, then you have a real problem," he said. "It may also increase the cost of labour because you may start to see people poaching each other's workers."
Black said the relocation bonus is a "step in the right direction," but he's calling for more industry involvement in provincial decision-making and a comprehensive strategy created to address the workforce shortages.
In a statement, Jones said the province is expanding apprenticeship opportunities, fast-tracking foreign credential recognition, and investing in training grants for skilled trades workers.
Alberta does not track the occupations of new residents, but overall the province added 168,221 residents from the first quarter of 2024 to the first quarter of 2025, according to StatsCan data.
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