Courtesy City of Prince George

By Cheryl Jahn

People Power recruitment full steam ahead

Jan 8, 2025 | 3:25 PM

PRINCE GEORGE – A recent ad campaign has the Business Council of BC on the offensive. It’s called “Alberta is calling,” put out by the Government of Alberta to lure folks to that province to work.

But the BC Business Council says it’s aware of why Alberta has undertaken this campaign: for the first time in over a decade, British Columbia is experiencing net population loss.

“And they’re leaving because they’re not seeing a future for themselves here,” says Laura Jones, President and CEO of the BC Business Council, “And that’s, you know, that’s something we need to pay attention to. And we need to have a conversation about it.”

And the Council countered Alberta with bus shelters in cities all around BC with cut slogans, like “Thinking of swiping right?”

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“I think everyone’s seen those Albertans calling or heard those Albertans calling ads. And so we wanted to inject a little bit of a little bit of humour, often a serious conversation is sparked with a humorous comment. And so that’s what we decided to do.”

It’s something the City has been doing for years. It’s called Move Up Prince George and The Manager of Economic Development Deklan Corstanja says it’s designed with one goal in mind.

“To come to the market with our own value proposition. So, it’s the job availability, the lifestyle, things like that. We have been making sure that those positives of Prince George are out there so that when people are considering moving, considering taking on jobs, those pluses are in their minds when considering a move.”

And some could say it’s meeting with some success, according to StatsCan, Prince George saw growth of 2.8 per cent between 2011 and 2016 and 3.7 per cent between 2016 and the present day.

“We’re seeing in-migration from Edmonton, in-migration from Calgary and from other major cities Kelowna, Kamloops and Vancouver,” says Corstanja. “Vancouver is probably the least affordable city in all of B.C., maybe Canada and so they’re seeing the brunt of the attack from Alberta.”

And the City is working with the likes of Northern Health which is always recruiting.

“With our promotional material, we’ve actually worked with a few groups as of late. Northern Health has been a great supporter and the College of New Caledonia. We’ve done work with local businesses as well. So it’s it’s a smattering.”

Corstanja says there is another campaign in the wings.

“You’ll see it when it comes out. I think we’ve got some good material coming out. I think it’s, you know, speaking more to things like what you can do in Prince George, where you can go, what you can see, you know, bring the family, bring the friends, those sorts of things.”

In other words, stay tuned.