As part of the raft of new interprovincial deals ratified at the premiers’ meeting thus far, one that slid through somewhat unnoticed was an agreement between Nova Scotia and Alberta, which allows for the coordination of apprenticeship training in the skilled trades and promotes enhanced labour mobility between the two provinces. (The deal is very similar to an agreement between New Brunswick and British Columbia.)
The challenge posed by “enhanced labour mobility” for Nova Scotia, though, is that it’s already bleeding young workers to the west. Does this agreement institutionalize something in policy that has increasingly been a sad punchline of life in the province—that to make it in Nova Scotia, you have to get out of town?
We spoke to Marco Navarro-Genie, president and CEO of the Atlantic Institute for Market Studies, about what this agreement means.