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CANADIAN INDUSTRY ONLINE - JUNE 2013
C
IO HAD THE
opportunity to
re-connect with Alberta Cham-
ber President Ken Kobly, who dis-
cussed current issues surrounding
Alberta business.
What are some of the current is-
sues that Alberta businesses are fac-
ing today?
Ken Kobly:
One of our issues
right now is that we have been disap-
pointed with government develop-
ments regarding our labour force.
Many of the government assistance
programs available to the province
have to do with unemployment. But
here in Alberta unemployment isn’t
the issue. Rather, we don’t have the
employable bodies here that we can
send back to school in order to fill the
jobs we have. There is not a dramatic
requirement for upgrading in Alberta,
rather more a shortage of employable
people. It’s not that companies don’t
have the money to train people.
In addition, there was the recent
announcement that employers are
now going to have to start paying for
labour market opinions, and we’re
disappointed about that. There were
several adjustments to the Temporary
Foreign Worker program that put com-
petitiveness in Alberta at risk.
How has the Chamber made
headway on the key issues you have
been working on the past few years?
KK:
Alberta recently released a
provincial budget, and we’re pleased
to see four or five of our major finan-
cial recommendations adopted, ones
that we’ve been advocating for 7-8
years. One was the Alberta Chambers
savings framework. We need to have
some sort of an enforced savings plan
in Alberta, and so the province’s com-
mitment to save a portion of its non-
renewable resource revenues will help
to ensure we don’t go through another
downturn again. We have been advo-
cating for this for a few years. Not to
mention, the government announced
that they would increase their operat-
ing expenditures, so having a savings
plan will be important going forward.
This is a real plus for us.
How has the relationship been
between the Chambers and govern-
ment the last year?
KK:
We have been able to encour-
age the province to work more closely
with the Chambers; there have been
more wholesome discussions. This
year has been a great one for moving
our advocacy forward. As the largest
business organization in the province
with 26,000 members, we have been
seeing a steady growth in membership
which I believe reflects that businesses
out there recognize the need for repre-
sentation. We are pleased that we have
raised our status with the provincial
government and have been able to
grow our membership.
Further to that, we have strength-
ened work with municipal govern-
ments which is important because our
ALBERTA CHAMBER OF COMMERCE
