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Originally Posted by u crank
That's a good question. This will have an impact beyond the Alberta border. Thousands of people from this area, eastern Canada live or commute to jobs in the northern oil patch. Many young people from here head to Alberta for a better future and financial security. I know lots of them and if I was younger I would be one of them. There are tough times ahead and a very uncertain future for some. Sad.
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They did an interview with one guy who said he knew for a fact that a lot of his neighbors wouldn't be back. One guy on our crew worked up there for about 4 years and has never had any desire to go back despite the fact he could make quite a lot more money than here in Calgary. It was so hard to attract people to work in the stores and restaurants when he was there. He'd go to the Walmart and lots of times there would be hardly anything on the shelves due to a severe shortage of employees to stock them. Restaurant service was abysmal. Sounds like they brought in a lot of immigrant workers to help with that the last decade or so but he said unless your into hunting or fishing, there wasn't a whole lot to do with your spare time.
Having said that, those that don't go back will be replaced with others who know that in the right economy and prudence with their finances, a person can make enough money to retire relatively early, provided they can survive the inevitable downturns. Those oil sands projects are quite the juggernauts and it will take a lot more then this to permanently shut them down.